Regent Street was evacuated earlier today and a suspicious Taxi left unattended and parked on a Taxi rank outside Hamleys became the second Taxi this year to be damaged by security officers in controlled action.
For years, we have been warning about the way the Met police turn a blind eye to minicabs parked all over the WestEnd and City.
Even in the wake of the minicab car bomb left outside Tiger Tiger in 2007. Although extremely serious, this incident had little to no affect on police and within hours the minicabs were back parked all over the Haymarket, left unabated by security services.
The Taxi trade has been warning of possible car bombs attacks as Wardens, Police and TfL constantly take no notice of cars parked on our Taxi ranks.
Now a Taxi, left unattended on a rank, had fallen victim to a security incident.
It's been reported that the Taxi affected had no TfL plates, no identifiers and had tinted windows.
The vehicle was left abandoned on the Taxi rank and was reported to police. The police deemed the vehicle suspicious and called in security services, who took out the windows with a burst from an automatic weapon.
While London is in danger of an imminent attack from terrorists, it's imperative that Taxis are not left unattended other than on rest ranks.
Please ladies and gents take heed....do not leave your Taxis on working Taxi ranks, use the rest ranks where provided
16 comments:
going by pics I've seen its not a licenced taxi has tints and no identifiers
I must say, the Met's SO15 Counter Terrorist Command Unit are not mugs or fickle or stupid. Something must have alerted their team to this cab.
The newspapers are saying it was merely a Licensed London Cabby getting his own Christmas presents and parked on the rank.
I suspect there is something more to it than that though.
I will await with interest.
Semtex.
S015. Not mugs , just pissed off they couldn't park on the rank as they wanted to go Christmas shopping ,
Hope they don't shoot the windows out on all the green badge drivers,
who use the rank in Harrow as a shopping rank,they might run out of bullets.
That belongs to a famous person who has a driver. I see it about town all the time. The interior has been changed inside too.
Semtex is right, the police are no mugs - the police are known to have used particular episodes of Z Cars at police training college as a training aid - these days they use episodes of Dads army for counter terrorism training - they hone their skills at running around like headless chickens shouting 'Don't Panic, Don't Panic'.
The average copper these days couldn't find his own are with both hands, even if you told them where it is !
This vehicle with tinted windows was reported on Twitter beforehand. Apparently the owner has parked on other ranks before and has got away with it. It's a private vehicle not a taxi
Anon 6:47 I didnt say "the police are no mugs"
I said "The Met's SO15 Counter Terrorist Command Unit,are not mugs or fickle or stupid" And rest assured,I can tell you, they're not !
That's a big difference between "the police are no mugs" isn't it ?
You're absolutely correct about the "average copper" but comparing a trained SO15 Counter Terrorism Officer with an average copper, is like when the BBC compare us licensed cabbies with Uber. And we know what that feels like, don't we?
Stupid boy Pike ! Pay attention !
Semtex.
Stephen Fry You should trade your cab in for a Toyota Prius , you can park anywhere 24/7 with out worrying your going to get blown up by the plod, or even get a ticket , your be what the people want
Keith Blakelock was butchered at Broadwater Farm Estate in a race riot.
Yvonne Fletcher was murdered outside the Libyan Embassy in Saint James's Sq by an individual who escaped the crime by using diplomatic immunity.
Jean Charles De Menezes was wrongly shot dead by Counter Terrorism Officers serving in the most elite unit of the police. A calamity of communication errors and basic surveillance failures led to him losing his life.
What does the murders of Yvonne Fletcher and Keith Blakelock have to do with the professionalism of elite Police Counter Intelligence Officers ?
The Metropolitan Police Farce under the command of quite possibly the worst Police Commissioner in history have in the present day nothing to be proud of:
Crime is escalating out of control in the capital while visible policing can only be found at the Palace of Westminster, and Buckingham Palace. The average Police Officer is an out of condition slob that's incapable of a foot pursuit - let alone a solo arrest.
Is it any wonder they choose to turn a blind eye to crime rather than step up to the plate.
There's a vast difference between a committed Police Officer, Hobby Bobby and those that wear the uniform with the committment to policing on par with The Village People.
Folks, I am amazed how the comments on this post have escalated to this.
The shooting of Jean Charles De Menzes was a tragic situation and one of poorly led Surveillance Officer Intelligence, lack of radio signal in the underground system,and a whole array of other dreadfully unlucky and unprofessional scenarios and errors.
It is of course tragic,and I will tell you from personal experience, that the Officers involved would have been deeply affected.They are not trigger happy and would not have wished that outcome for the world. Most of the officers have families and loved ones, and it would give them no pleasure to kill an innocent man. London was under attack the previous days leading up to the shootings. National Intelligence had received coded threats that an attack on our underground system was imminent.
It is exquisitely comfortable to sit in the luxury of our warm homes criticising this botched operation from our keyboards, but to get a more realistic grasp, you need to creep away from the journalistic view and try to put yourself in the position of the officers. Of course, without the Intel, that is impossible.
As today breaks, it does indeed appear that the cab on the rank in Regent Street should not have been there, in more ways than one ! I thought it would be something like that. Specialist Firearms Officers don't take the windows out for nothing.
Yes, of course the killing of the Brazillian was a total tragedy, yes of course the Met regret it, and you can bet your boots that the officer/s that pulled the trigger/s still have nightmares today.
The bottom line is this. London and the people who live and work in it NEED lethal force if we are to protect our families and kids going about their lives in our capital. These days more than any other that I can remember, there are groups of people living amongst us, who begrudge our way of living and want to take it off us.
Specialist armed Counter Officers are essential in our cohesive day to day living right now.
Mistakes have been made, of course and mistakes will be made in the future. There have been more cases of Operation failure than the De Menzes case, too. But how far do you want to go back ? How about slating Field Marshall Montgomery for Operation Market Garden ?
We should be proud of our Specialist Protection Teams in London today. They go out to work every day risking critical danger to their own lives as part of the job.
I had a neighbour a few years ago who was anti-police. As far as he was concerned they were the scum of the earth.................until somebody broke into his garden shed! You would have thought they had found Lord Lucan in his garden ! He must have dialled the Terrorist Hotline to report it let alone 999 !
My post isn't a post to attempt to convert Police haters or statisticians specialising in Police Operation failures for public support. It is a post to say that despite previous failure, despite huge criticism, despite the armchair keyboard firearms officers more or less saying that our Counter Officers are pricks, we have Specialist Police Firearms Officers on our streets, who risk their lives daily in a brave effort to protect us.
I can think of worse things that the British Taxpayers money is spent on.......can you ?
Have a good Christmas everyone. Stay safe and be lucky.
Semtex.
WhT does any of this have to do with the cab trade?
no one heard of CCTV then?
I am quite sure that, the driver &/or passenger, or passengers and even the newspaper they were carrying (so good is the CCTV these days), were ALL thoroughly checked-out, by our amazing Officers, as described above
Alan Wicker
Anon 8:48 Cab. Taxi Rank. Police Officers. Controlled Explosion. Unusual.
Hope this helps.
If we refuse the pay ray of 20 pence on the meter ,we can market the fact that Taxi
fares have been FROZEN for four years in LONDON compared to UBER with their CONSTANT
price surging .What a wonderful marketing campaign ..with posters ,tip seat adds,
receipt pads saying the same,plus the LTDA add van saying the same.
My spies tell me that woodfield road are considering a new state of art ,electronic.
van to join their current one with displays that can be altered from HQ .
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