[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

So the police are smart enough to deploy a knackered old decoy van (filled with riot control equipment) to entrap the students/activists/rioters/protesters/anarchists/innocent passerbys (please select subset of your choice), but stupid enough to leave a "Police Aware" sticker on the van which shows it was previously an abandoned vehicle.......

Imagine the scene at the pre-deployment meeting, if you will......

Sergeant - "OK, we've found an old police van, which was left abandoned at the side of the road by Sutton police, we've filled it full of expensive riot control gear, and we've agreed where we going to leave it to make sure chummy wrecks it, ensuring a positive propaganda message for the Met"

PC with more than one GCSE - "Erm, Sarge - there's a big yellow sticker above the front window saying "Police Aware" - won't that give the game away that it's a set-up, and foil our cunning plan?".

Sergeant -"Absolutely right, Brains* - remind me to remove it before we abandon the vehicle".

PC "Brains" - "Erm, Sarge - wouldn't it be better to remove it now, when we have time, rather than in the middle of a huge crowd where people might notice/photograph/film us doing it, or even worse, where we might forget?"

Sergeant - "Well, La-de-da-deh PC Brains with more than one GCSE - what sort of moron would be stupid enough to set up an entrapment scenario that will be filmed by multiple TV crews (as well as anyone with a mobile phone) and leave a big sticker on the van?"

Amazing how the police are cunning/stupid, dependent on which scenario one wants supported at the time, isn't it?

*Brains - apparently, the de-facto nickname given to any constable who has more than one GCSE (or so we are led to believe......).

But the sticker has clearly been on that van for a very long time. I can't see senior officers allowing it to appear on a serviceable vehicle, can you?