The Met are carrying out what we used to call 'damage limitation'. We live in a democracy (thank God) and the Police need to be accountable, here's the senario I found myself in in 1979 in West Belfast (I don't normally recount active service stories so you lot are privalidged indeed).
A car comes down the Falls Road heading towards Andersontown roundabout, the driver thad already driven into one soldier and was heading towards my patrol and hit another soldier, my comerades do not open fire, however, the car crashes into the roundabout spins out of control and hits a lamp post, the driver staggers out clearly disorientated and has a pistol in his hand, I shouted a warning, he points the pistol at a person standing near by. Do I shoot? I have a split second to react and I dont know whether the pistol is loaded or not.