Posts by Russell Brown
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And I say this as someone who spent six years on the frontline. I have read some truly embarrassing writings on this event - mostly on the blogs admittedly and perhaps that’s the problem.
Thanks Nick. I am amazed at the way people become instant experts on policing when something like this happens.
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Shoot on first sight.
Simple. Problem over. Officer rescued.
Grant, did you even follow the news on this? They got a shot at him and took it on day one.
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As I'm no longer the military hardware nerd I was when I was 11, someone else can answer this hopefully. Do the LAVs have launchers for tear gas etc? Could that be what was visible?
Actually, that does make sense -- Hoyle told the press that tear gas had been shot into the house on Friday. It did seem unlikely to me that Hoyle would have lied about there only having been two rifle rounds fired.
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I would agree, but do not think that the LAV was used on civilians.
To be fair, there was a clip from Friday's Campbell Live that seemed to show firing from the vicinity of the LAV that approached the house, as the vehicle itself came under heavy fire. If so, then the commanding officer's statement that only two shots were fired by police, on the Thursday, would not seem to be correct.
I'd think this will come out in the wash.
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They knew he had a pot plant, aparently. I wonder how they knew that?
Because people had reported activity that seemed to indicate small-time marijuana dealing. Fairly common. Unfortunately, no one had thought to report the paranoid assembly of a military arsenal. Not at all common.
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The only thing the police could've done differently that would've absolutely resulted in a different outcome would be if they'd treated it as a high-risk warrant and gone in with the AOS. But they had no information to indicate that was necessary, and it's totally impractical to treat every search warrant as high-risk.
No to mention that it would also provoke justifiable public outrage if they did so.
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You don't think bringing something armed with a 25 mm. cannon capable of firing at 200 rounds per minute into action in a suburban area might be potentially life-threatening?
Or perhaps you could take the view that the police actually fired only two shots in the course of the whole, extremely dangerous situation in which a madman was firing dozens of rounds from military rifles.
And all to accomplish the merely symbolic task of retrieving a body?
After bravely attempting to retrieve it under fire. If an armoured vehicle allowed them to do so safely, I don't have a problem with it.
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This is not a criticism of the police, it's our poor laws.
Yes. Much as I might disagree with the current legal status of cannabis, these officers were sent out to do a job, and all appearances are that they were doing it in a reasonable fashion when they were shot.
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Craig, I've just deleted your last post. I won't disagree with you about O'Connor, but your way of expressing your point was unacceptable.
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This was a massive police overreaction sparked by a bungled drugs raid.
No, it was a massive police operation sparked by one man being shot in cold blood and three others critically wounded -- and guided by the knowledge that the shooter had a freaking arsenal.
And in what sense was the original search "bungled", Caleb? The officers went to the house unarmed, were let in and were talking to one of occupants in what appears to have been a low-key fashion when the shooting started. Would it have been "bungled" if the same thing had happened during a follow-up to a domestic violence complaint?
Do you want to have a wee think about who is actually to blame here?
Doesn't anyone else find the trend towards militarized policing in this country just a little scary?
In this case, no, not at all -- and I don't think this makes a "trend" either. This was a guy the police by then knew had high-powered rifles and explosives, and he'd been continuing to fire on police officers and into neighbours' houses.
It was an armoured vehicle that allowed them to retrieve Len Snee's body under fire. I can't see the point of risking anyone else's life on the basis that an armoured vehicle might unnerve some people.
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