Nit. This hasn't been true for more than ten years now. Almost every
police cruiser that the Met has, and most of those in the rest of the UK
have two MP5s and two revolvers in a gun safe in the rear seat. These are
issued and turned in at every shift change. I've heard (but have no
evidence) that the arming of plain clothes officers has also greatly
increased.
| Kenton A. Hoover Staff Technologist | shibumi@cisco.com |
| Engineering Computer Services | |
| cisco Systems, Inc. | +1 408 526 5249 |
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| In a real revolution, the best characters do not come to the front. A |
| violent revolution falls into the hands of narrow-minded fanatics and |
| of tyrannical hypocrites at first. Afterwards come the turn of all the |
| pretentious intellectual failures of the time. Such are the chiefs and |
| the leaders. You will notice that I have left out the mere rogues. |
| The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane and devoted natures, the |
| unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement, but it passes away |
| from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its |
| victims: the victims of disgust, disenchantment -- often of remorse. |
| Hopes grotesquely betrayed, ideals caricatured -- that is the definition |
| of revolutionary success. |
| "Under Western Eyes" (1911) |
| Joseph Conrad |