Polanski

[baggieal]

Apart from the obvious who would vote for this deranged moron? Even his own family have disowned him!

That lunatic stabbed two innocent Jews and was grappling with the same knife and Polanski calls the Police out. It could only happen in this country! In the US that nutter most likely would have been shot with the Police at risk. Many law abiding citizens in this country would have run the nutter over in their car given a chance!

Those two police officers were brave and deserve credit for a restrained response with their safety at risk. Polanski needs sectioning!

[Albionic68]

Nonce........ and most of his films were overrated .

[Leicesterbaggie]

Another politician who is a head case. With the likes of Trump, Putin, the little rocket man etc., it is becoming a trend!

[Omegstrat6]

Another politician who is a head case. With the likes of Trump, Putin, the little rocket man etc., it is becoming a trend!

Totally with you on Trump, Putin and so many more but while I think Polanski is detached from reality, even those who espouse apparent nonsense can raise genuine concerns sometimes.

We know that the US/Israeli attack on Iran has further inflamed already concerning levels of anti-Semitism in this country and that Jewish communities are living in increasing fear. We know that this attacker quite deliberately set out to target innocent Jewish members of the public, to injure or kill them and we (subsequently) found out that he has some mental health issues beyond any blind religious hatred. But we need to forget all the noise and rhetoric around all this for a moment to see what Polanski is questioning.

The actions of this man were heinous and he deserves punishment but the job of the Police, however difficult or tempting, is not to meet out retribution but to apprehend so that the suspect can go through the due process of law. Stray away from that, and it's a very slippery slope.

This is all about the use of "appropriate" force and lots of factors come into this, including the experience and training of those involved.

The attacker had been tasered and was being restrained on the ground by two officers. He still had a hold of the knife however, was not fully subdued, and refused to let go of the knife despite repeated demands to do so.

The question is surely then how the officers could disarm him without putting themselves (or anyone else) at further risk. We all know that kicking someone in the head might be effective but is also likely to lead to serious injury, brain damage or even death. So the pertinent question -which to me is a quite valid one-is whether this was the right option for the officers to use? Could they have got the knife off him by other means, however much force that may have taken-a dislocated or broken arm would be less life threatening than repeated kicks to the head for example.

For the vast majority of people, untrained in restraint techniques and in fear of their lives, kicking him in the head to both get the knife off him and protect themselves would be seen as being quite a reasonable response. For those supposedly trained, however, it might be reasonable to expect them to have other options available to them. Isn't that the point Polanski is making? There might not have been other viable options available to them of course and the officers would both be vindicated but armed Police have to (rightly) go through an investigation to ensure that any decision to discharge their weapons is justifiable so surely this isn't so different given that kicking someone in the head could be lethal?

Don't get me wrong, I disagree with a lot of the things Polanski says and his idealism is too often divorced from reality but I think the question he asks is a valid one and that does not in anyway detract from the bravery of the officers involved.