Should the police be armed and capital punishment re-introduced for certain crimes?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....d-officers-armed.html

In the wake of the recent shootings of the two policewomen is it now time that our police were armed?

And then why stop at that, should capital punishment also be re-introduced for the killing of police officers, children and terrorism?

[FredPuli43]

http://en.wikipedia.o...d_in_the_line_of_duty

Interesting list, right up to date. The last man hanged for killing a police officer was Podola in 1959, who shot one. I make it 68 shot since 1900, of which 34 were up to Podola's crime and 34 after it. The killings which appear to be homicides seem, at first impression, pretty evenly divided pre and post death penalty, but see for yourselves how it breaks down.

Homicide is not frequent in the UK, certainly compared to other countries, and homicide by shooting quite rare. There were 619 offences recorded as homicide (murder, manslaughter, child destruction) in 2009/10, of which 41 were shootings.Interestingly, a child of under 1 year old is 3 times as likely to be a victim as anyone else. The overall chances of being a victim of homicide are 11 in one million, for the child it is 33 in one million. [Home Office] Battered children and children killed by a vengeful or suicidal parent are victims of some form of homicide and have less chance of recovery from the attack.

Given that, what difference would the death penalty, or arming all officers, make to the numbers ?

[sir.prize]

Well they won't need DNA evidence in this one, will they?

[thenry]

If the police were armed why would you need capital punishment ? How many corpses appear in court ?

[sir.prize]

I sure hope they have a tough judge lined up for this one.

[Ellipsis]

Welcome to AnswerBank db199.