sek510i

Lots of newspapers reporting it as a ''van driver'' rather than ''terrorist'' attacking people. They're never going to get a grip on non-religious terrorism if they keep up this attitude :(

A van has hit pedestrians outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, in North London. Eleven people were injured and one killed, and the attacker was captured at the scene by a crowd of worshippers and a local imam. A passing police van was flagged down very quickly, and joined first aid attempts. The attacker has been arrested and publicly identified as a suspected far right extremist from Wales. The mayor, PM, leader of the opposition (who is also the area's local MP) and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner have all visited the scene. The Met's counter terrorism unit have taken over the investigation. London Mayor Sadiq Khan's response to the attack is online here https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/19/finsbury-park-imam-london-terrorist-attacks-grenfell-tower-fire-sadiq-khan http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2017/06/18/van-pedestrians-mosque-north-london-finsbury-park_n_17199142.html http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2017/06/19/london-mosque-attack-imam-reportedly-protected-suspect-from-angry-worshippers_n_17201322.html?utm_hp_ref=uk People posted the last few attacks in London here, so I thought I'd do likewise with this one. I was in the area at the time, and I can confirm that people appear to be coping very well in the local area. It's been very reassuring to see how well people have come together, regardless of religion. Police also arrived very quickly, which is reassuring (this is quite far from central London, and it's good to know that the police can respond across the whole city, rather than just around tourist centres). Following the Grenfell Tower fire, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge attacks, it's been a rough year for London. I hope things get better soon.

What do you think they are, human? Only two counselors working for the London Fire Brigade at the moment. There used to be fourteen, but when Boris Johnson was Mayor he cut twelve counseling positions (along with several fire stations and fire crews, but that's a separate issue). I think that there's currently a kickstarter somewhere trying to fund more help for those involved in this incident, but it's unclear how much money it would take. Firefighters shouldn't have to be reliant on donations to get proper post-incident care....

There's a very interesting speech from a London member of Parliament going around following this fire. The suggestion from many people seems to be that the local council, who own the building, failed to take adequate safety precautions despite residents' complaints. Incredibly impressed with the emergency services' response. Firefighters were on scene from the early hours of the morning all the way into the next afternoon trying to save people. Apparently they sent fire crews up twelve flights of stairs evacuating people, despite a gas pipe running along the side of the staircase. Tea and medals deserved all round, I reckon.

This won't stop people modding GTA V, especially with so many copies of OpenIV still available. It will stop some people buying GTA VI, if there ever is one, though. I never played the default stories for GTA games anyway, just downloaded completed saved games or ignored them completely. Would it be legal or feasible for the Open IV team to release their source code?

That was always the explanation I heard for the pointy helmets. I assumed that countryside cops use them because it became part of the uniform, and it's what people used to identify them as police officers, but that's just my theory :) I understand the argument for uniforms being uniforms and therefore, um, uniform across a force. I think that it's more important to encourage people to join, though, and if the uniform would make that incompatible with their religious views, I'd take the officer over the uniform requirements. As a side note to that, do you know how common religious minorities like Muslims are in the US police? I've had a look for UK police stats and found it hard to find anything.

I don't think that routine arming of the police would solve the problem. We may need more armed police in some areas, but not for all cops to have guns. The response times in both London attacks for armed officers were so fast already, that I don't think that more guns would make a significant difference once an attack has already started. MI5 and the police have caught a number of people and stopped 3 more planned terrorist attacks since Westminster (that the public are aware of). Given the scale of the problems they face, with a lack of community police officers in many areas and difficulties proving that somebody wants to carry out an attack, I think they're doing better than one might expect. The problem is that, as Ben and Constable Lego pointed out, it's very easy to launch an attack like the ones we've seen without leaving a particularly obvious trail of evidence; they needed a vehicle and some knives, both of which can be bought from my local high street in an afternoon. I think that what could help is the police coming down harder on hate crimes that can drive people towards radicalisation. It might also help if our government stopped arming Saudi Arabia and destabilising large areas of the world, although that may not have such a direct or immediate effect on UK domestic extremism.

Funny because MPS Hackney found potential weapons? Because they have such fast cars? Also, the last two photos there suggest discrimination to me. There's no need to pick on that poor PCSO, just because she isn't a full police officer ;) Seriously though, wearing a headscarf is probably a representation of that woman's religion, and is nothing to be ashamed of (as well as having no bearing on her ability as a police officer). Police officers can come from all religions, and a diverse range of views and understandings of the world makes a police force better, not worse. There are Muslims in the UK police, just like there are Jews, Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Sikhs and all sorts of other beliefs and subcategories of those religions. There are even a few cops in Scotland who listed their official religion as ''Jedi''. If anything, the fact that people from religious minorities are able to become police officers here is something that the UK does better than the US (if your post is suggesting that there aren't many Muslim women in the US police, which I would be disappointed by but seems possible). And is showing lots of videos of US cops shooting people meant to suggest that they're better, somehow? Because UK police manage to do their jobs without killing that many people. I know it's a different environment and they have problems with firearms in the US, but that doesn't make US cops better. Pointy helmets are also(contrary to common belief) practical :D The dome shape and metal top are designed to deflect projectiles thrown from rooftops away from the officer. Back when they had to patrol in densely built up areas in Victorian times (where they were almost as unpopular as they are in parts of London today) they had to be protected from random bricks thrown from upper stories of buildings.

They're actually very skilled at general policing, and even in extreme cases like this, managed an effective response within eight minutes of the attack happening. What exactly do you consider funny about them? If it's the pointy helmets, I'd be willing to agree, but otherwise....

As a Londoner, I was very impressed by the emergency services' responses. All suspects killed within 8 minutes, and many casualties treated by LAS under difficult circumstances. The UK's police are really struggling to cope with budget cuts at the moment, so their ability to deal with major incidents has been very impressive. I also think that it's worth singling out the first officer who arrived on scene for particular praise. The first responder was a British Transport Police officer who took on all three attackers using only his baton, which potentially prevented more people being injured. I just hope that people realise that these attacks aren't just random acts of violence; they're part of a cycle whereby islamophobia increases, people are divided and discriminated against and more people are driven towards extremism. Don't give them what they want by taking it out on innocent people. In the end, these attacks aren't going to do much good if they're trying to scare Londoners. This city survived the Luftwaffe, the London riots and the IRA. A couple of misguided fools with knives isn't worth spilling your pint over (literally, in one bloke's case).

Mid-application. Fingers crossed ;)

I've always been dubious of that sort of survey. As officers I've heard from are always keen to emphasise, the founding principles for police in the UK included a line about (roughly) how public opinion was never as important as the absence of crime. In short, it doesn't matter how good people *think* that their police are. What matters is how much crime the police can effectively deal with.

Similar sentiment here. I would love to make vehicle models, and already do stuff for many other games. However, that cost is just too high (all those £3 fees add up). I doubt I'd make anything to Double Doppler's standards, but it is disappointing to think about how many people must be getting put off by these costs. Any ideas for how Oleg can get funding without charging a subscription fee? Please let me know. Or better, let him know....

If there was a way to magically collect all of the guns up from all private owners in the US, then I think that that would be great. However, there are so many in circulation at the moment that just banning them overnight probably wouldn't be that effective. Perhaps a steady increase in controls or limitations is the answer? Certainly proper background checks and stuff like that would help with gun violence, but I very much hope that that's something that's in place already....

I think that the news from London today answers that question pretty conclusively.

Lots of talk of the US here, and I think that that questions has effectively been answered. However, you mentioned the UK (briefly) and I thought I should explain why it's separated here too. Historically, the UK has had many local police forces (or constabularies) nationally, and they have been consolidating them into larger forces over time. What you're suggesting is actually happening, just very slowly. When they tried to rush the process before, in Scotland, they ended up with a national police force that struggled to cope with being unified so quickly. I think that the UK's police forces are slowly becoming more closely linked, especially with some forces now having to effectively share units due to budget cuts. The Metropolitan Police are now responsible for a lot of the entire country's counter terrorism operations, the City of London Police seem to be dealing more and more with national fraud and financial crime, and the BTP are (and have always) dealt with the railways. Here, forces are doing what you suggest where they find it beneficial. They may have different names, but where one force is better equipped to deal with an incident, that force often takes over (and not just for investigative roles; Met police snipers were used in a manhunt up North a few years ago, during the riots there were Welsh riot police on duty in London, for example)

Anything that involves file hosting or sharing creative stuff I'll read to make sure I can keep some control over the stuff I make, but I'm friends with a copyright advisor so I'm probably not representative of most people! Also, with games I like to see what they have to say about modding (and naturally, I wouldn't dream of modding a game if the EULA told me not to 0:^) )

My brother had a problem that sounds very similar, and it turned out to be a problem with his power supply. No idea why, but his laptop worked fine when he switched to a different one. It's a bit of a long shot, but it might be worth a try!