MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: If armed officers can't do their job properly, why have them at all?

Why do we have armed police in this country at all? In pre-1914 Britain, when guns were readily available in high street shops but police did not carry them, constables faced with rare armed criminals even asked passers-by to lend them their weapons. The moment PC Nicky Vernon was knocked from her horse after it was spooked by Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020 A police officer lies on the road after being unseated from their horse, during the demonstration on Whitehall, near the entrance to Downing Street in 2020 Armed police have become an increasingly frequent sight on the streets of England's capital There is evidence that the death penalty deterred armed crime – which rose during two suspensions of capital punishment in 1948 and 1956, falling again afterwards – and went up permanently after the final abolition of hanging in the 1960s. But now The Mail on Sunday can disclose that, in the summer of 2020, during a Black Lives Matter demonstration, armed police were ordered to abandon the gates to No 10 amid fears protesters could seize their guns and storm Downing Street. Armed officers stand by the gates of Downing Street, which has 'gradually become a sort of fortress, largely in response to terror threats' In the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017, then Prime Minister Theresa May drafted in armed British Army soldiers in full battle dress to support police patrols on the streets of London If the police really cannot do the job, perhaps soldiers in battle-dress could be deployed in Downing Street and Whitehall, as they were by Theresa May in 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing attack.