Quote:
Originally Posted by Derek
Of course if I was a crazed jihadi with a machine gun and the choice of places to shoot up would I choose
- The UK. Mostly unarmed Police with the Guardian and Sky news on the sidelines to endlessly ask if the nutter with the gun really, really needed shot
- France with it's mostly armed Police who can return fire
- Spain with it's mostly armed Police who can return fire
- Italy with it's mostly armed Police who can return fire
Shamelessly stolen from Inspector Gadget but assuming any suicide attacker has an ounce of common sense they won't want to be taken out by a lucky shot from a nearby cop. |
Rather inconveniently for the inspector the
EU report on terrorist activity (specific to jihadists) for 2009 suggests that Italy was the jihadist favourite with one attack taking place in that year.
Jihadists aside it appears from the report that the separatists active in either France or Spain are none too concerned / dissuaded by the presence of armed police forces.
An armed police force that can return fire isn't always the answer when it comes to deterrents. In fact, historically, more often than not, they prove to be better "legitimate" targets in the eyes of some terrorist organisations trying to sell their ideals to an otherwise uninterested public.