Tuesday, August 09, 2011

"You don't need a gun, the police will protect you"

Bleeding a little, I thought I might as well call 999. It was a recorded message. After four and a half minutes, a tired man answered. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “You know what’s going on. We have to give priority to saving people’s lives. I suggest you just go home.”

He was right, of course. I was in Hackney - which, that evening at least, was a law-free zone. That’s the worst thing about riots. Across much of London on Monday night, if someone had decided to break down your door and rape your daughter, there would have been nothing to stop them. There would have been no one to call.

When I was mugged, I was on my way home from a day in Tottenham, listening to the stories of the people who had lost far more and been at far greater risk than me, burned out of their homes at 30 seconds’ notice.

They called 999 too, frantically, desperately, as the riot moved closer. There were 100 police just up the road. The emergency operator could do nothing but listen to their terror
.
This is Sarah Brady Paradise; this is the disarmed 'don't you dare try to protect yourself' nation she and her little friends want here.

Screw you, Sarah; we refuse.

2 comments:

Bob said...

They gave up their essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security. How's that working out for them?

Windy Wilson said...

They do things better in the UK! the police aren't armed and are polite to the people they arrest.

Maybe this, too, can be blamed on a peaceful small-government-and-responsible-spending dissenter in Dallas.