But that human rights lawyer must know perfectly well that the huge difference between the IRA and the current stuff is that the IRA (to my knowledge anyway) never went in for suicide bombings. Until July 7th, I don't believe there had ever been any suicide bombings at all on UK territory.
The new threat of suicide bombs removes any possible margin of error the police have. IRA suspects might run away, they might even let you arrest them, or they might try to shoot a policeman or two in the process of being arrested or running away, but they weren't that keen to detonate explosives attached to their person.
The army, as chickenfeet2003 points out, may well be a different story, but it's governed by different rules and (so far, fortunately) hasn't been too prominent on the morning commute.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-26 01:49 pm (UTC)The new threat of suicide bombs removes any possible margin of error the police have. IRA suspects might run away, they might even let you arrest them, or they might try to shoot a policeman or two in the process of being arrested or running away, but they weren't that keen to detonate explosives attached to their person.
The army, as chickenfeet2003 points out, may well be a different story, but it's governed by different rules and (so far, fortunately) hasn't been too prominent on the morning commute.