Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

  • Baketime@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I thought the main difference was police generally don’t have guns in the UK. Has this changed?

    • 520@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      No. There are of course some armed units, but they don’t do regular patrol work with their guns.

      Armed units were involved here because the car Kaba was in was linked to a shooting the day before. Any involvement of firearms will invoke an armed response from police, however that does not mean they can simply shoot on sight and say they felt their life was threatened.

    • Skua@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      It hasn’t changed. The proportion of police carrying firearms in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separately, so E&W is the biggest UK data source) has held steady at about 5%. There are typically fewer than 10 total incidents in which the police actually fire a gun each year. Of course, it only takes one to result in a story like this one.

    • livus@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      @Baketime

      No it hasn’t, but there are some police there with guns that are only supposed to be used as a last resort. Sounds like the shooter was one of those, but went a bit crazy:

      by a Metropolitan Police firearms officer