Six officers suffered minor injuries in the incident on Friday.
Officers were called to West Hampstead after the man was seen with the weapon. They ordered the man to drop the sword and a violent struggle ensued.
Passers-by erupted into spontaneous applause after police seized both the sword and a kitchen knife. A man, 37, has been bailed until April.
Pc John Dunwell, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "Having risk-assessed the situation, I felt it was necessary to confront the man before he hurt himself, or someone else.
"He proved to be very strong and I'm just thankful to my colleagues for coming to my assistance so quickly."
No shots fired, that's pretty impressive. I guess these cops are a different breed than these. Why do you think that is?
Please leave a comment.
I thought British police generally weren't issued firearms. Did this change?
ReplyDeleteI wonder why they would... I thought England had done away with dangerous weapons...
"No shots fired..."
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why there are six injured cops in this event, but in the baseball bat event, there were none.
You make it sound so heroic. The man wasn't attacking anyone with the sword, he was just strolling down the street with it and was set upon by the cops. He probably never even unsheathed it.
ReplyDeleteJade Gold answer: I attend hundreds of Samurai shows and there are always a presence of English cops there stirring them up.
Mikeb says:
ReplyDeleteNo shots fired, that's pretty impressive. I guess these cops are a different breed than these. Why do you think that is?
FWM makes a good point in speculating about whether or not the sword was even unsheathed. Kevin makes a good point of his own, about the rarity of British cops even carrying guns (although I believe I've read that there is a trend to properly equip more of them with lifesaving firepower).
It may be that British cops (even those who do carry firearms) are not trained to respond to deadly force with deadly force, as American cops tend to be, but I'm not sure why that should be considered a good thing.
Anyway, I'm pleased that the outcome here was nearly as good as the happy outcome in Arizona, when police were forced to defend themselves against an enraged man armed with a lethal blunt trauma weapon. I say "nearly as good," of course, since none of those officers were reported even slightly injured, in comparison to the six Bobbies who suffered slight injuries.
I just think it's funny that you call him a samurai warrior merely because he was carrying a samurai sword. Does that make me an artist because I have a paint brush? A hockey player, because I have a hockey stick? A chef, because I have kitchen knives?
ReplyDeleteHe was carrying both a kitchen knife and a samurai sword, so would he not be better described as John Belushi?
BTW, what AztecRed said. Again.