Four killed in attack at UK Parliament

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/22/shots-fired-outside-uk-parliam.html

1 Like

Oye. I was on that bridge less than a week ago. Lots of people taking photos.

I remember rolling my eyes when my sister said she felt nervous going on the tour of the Parliament building. We didn’t end up doing that, but for time reasons.

FWIW: There are vehicle barriers on the west side walkway on the Parliament side of the bridge

12 Likes

The obvious assumption taking hold on social media is that attacker in Parliament Square was either the driver of the vehicle…

You cannot crowdsource criminal justice. The technical term for that is lynching.

15 Likes

Let the unnecessary and potentially harmful speculation flow!

30 Likes

Some people forget that the UK started having regular terrorist attacks fifty years ago. Most of our cops don’t have guns, but when they do they don’t fuck around. They carry MP5s and will only give you one warning before shooting you in the torso.

24 Likes

For anyone taking this seriously, there are a lot of people angry with the British government so lets not assume it is any one group.

13 Likes

A police officer stabbed, the culprit shot, several people run over in a senseless, violent incident.

…Or as we like to call it in South London, “a quiet weekday evening.”

16 Likes

From what I have heard, they aren’t very good at aiming. Even the unarmed UK cops have regular firearms training, to make that one shot count.

2 Likes

Ah, British armed police will do that too:

Which, frankly speaking, is why we don’t arm the rest of them.

23 Likes

What does the President think of all this? I’m dying to see how this confirms something something about Others

8 Likes

Evidence suggests that US police aren’t that good at aiming, but most of them qualify on the range pretty regularly. But there is a HUGE difference between calmly putting holes in paper and shooting a person while every milligram of adrenaline in your body is pumping through your system.

8 Likes

Probably the fault of Brussels, the Jerries or some polish plumber …

4 Likes

As any tourist can tell you.

4 Likes

My daughter’s office overlooks Westminster Bridge and they have had a good view of the whole thing. Helicopters, endless police cars, organised chaos. In a sense the terrorists have won, because the cost of handling this incident and the diversion of policing will be enormous. Had it been a simple case of driver losing control of vehicle, which could have done just as much damage, the reaction would have been much less.

I guess the object is to fuel more anti-Islam feeling in the UK, in the hope of creating more activists from communities who are generally, if anything, more peaceful than the UK average. The right wing frothing has started already.

12 Likes

I am extremely angry with the British government and I have a car. I guess I’m now a suspect.

15 Likes

I was thinking about Iain Duncan Smith and his armed bodyguards during his time as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when I typed that.

I remember when I had to reapply for Disability Living Allowance in 2011 during a period of severe depression, worse than what I normally have. One day I very nearly tried to go to his constituency offices to kill myself outside them. I had no desire to kill him, just myself. Thankfully a friend came round to my house to check on me before I left.

12 Likes

I’ve read that the Orange Dipshit has already called May to offer her an invasion of ‘wherever she’d like to start’, and I’m not looking forward to hearing how he will use this news.

8 Likes

I’m glad you’re still here.

Smith’s crocodile tears over the mess he himself created didn’t fool anyone, though possibly justified it to himself.

10 Likes

Cue many MPs talking about the sanctity of our democracy, they’ll never win, we believe in freedom etc. Tomorrow or the next day there’ll be the promise of a raft of new security measures and increased surveillance because they’ll never defeat us… What more do they fucking want? It’ll never be enough.

Currently reading the handmaid’s tale and i recently passed a relevant passage.

Look out, said Moira to me, over the phone. Here it comes.
Here what comes? I said.
You wait, she said. They’ve been building up to this.

16 Likes

What do you mean by activists?

1 Like