Manchester Piccadilly Station Incident

[sunny-dave]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-piccadilly-station-reopens-after-14397052

Why the hell did it take THREE HOURS to clear this protest?

It could well have been a terrorist incident and yet seems to have been handled ineptly (to be polite) and without much urgency.

I have the feeling that if a bunch of 100 UK citizens had attempted to close a station in Istanbul (to promote interest in a purely UK issue) it would have taken about 5 minutes for them to have been removed and the next time they saw daylight they would have been minus a few days worth of sleep/food and plus a good few bruises (at least).

It doesn't give one a lot of confidence in the GMP's anti-terrorist capabilities ...

[ABerrant]

"Either the GMP were advised in advance that it was a peaceful protest - in which case they should have stopped it - or they knew nothing in advance and it should have triggered a full major terrorist incident response.

It actually seems they sent a couple of plods from the BTP and hoped for the best."

Despite your multiple references to the GMP and their apparent failures, they (like all GB territorial police forces) have no jurisdiction to intervene on railway land unless invited by the BTP to provide mutual aid in what is a BTP matter.

[gulliver1]

And it was Boris that wasted £320.000 of tax payer money buying the water cannons, that were illegal to use on the UK mainland. did not do his homework there did he, Ha Ha, .

[fender62]

how is disrupting rail travel a protest, are the trains turkish
a little tear gas and stun guns would focus their attention, or better still deported back to the country they claim to love so much.

[-Talbot-]

Many would probably like to, Fender.

[sunny-dave]

ABerrant - given that the BTP exist mainly to assist in catching fare-dodgers and manhandling the odd drunk off the premises, I'd hope that they aren't going to stand on ceremony about getting the GMP in to deal with Major Incidents.

I'd guess that the warning about the event went via the GMP (do you even know how to phone the BTP??) and would have expected them to be pro-active about dealing with it?

Fighting terrorism requires joined-up policing and trained teams - not turf wars and a bunch of keystone cops with shiny badges and an over-inflated idea of their own importance.

[douglas9401]

Ironically, trains in Afrin ran perfectly to timetable today.

[sunny-dave]

They presumably had that nice Mr Mussolini doing the rotas?

[anotheoldgit]

The Far-Right should have opposed them, then the whole lot of them would have been removed in minutes.

[ABerrant]

You guess the GMP were warned first. Case solved!



BTP is responsible for railway policing in England, Wales and Scotland. Unlike Home Office police forces, the majority of BTP activities take place on private property, albeit usually private property to which the public is allowed access.

S. 31 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (as amended) provides BTP constables with the powers and privileges of a Home Office constable within the railway jurisdiction (i.e. over all railway property and outside railway property when related to railway matters).

Upon said property BTP has responsibility for counter-terrorism (firearms officers were introduced in 2012), investigations of major crime such as rape and murder, and the many other duties undertaken by territorial police forces such as GMP which can render assistance upon request. The GMP has no power to police in BTP jurisdiction upon a whim.

http://careers.btp.police.uk/about_btp/specialist_teams.aspx

[sunny-dave]

OK - that's fine then - thanks for the correction - I still think that the GMP should have been involved - but that's Turf Wars between people with shiny badges for you.

I shall, however, continue to place as much confidence in the anti-terrorism capabilities of the BTP as I would in a chocolate fireguard, if yesterday is a demonstration of their capacity to manage a 'major disruptive incident'.

Interesting how they *did* manage to (just about) contain the Kings Cross incident - funny that.

If I was a Mancunian (or a traveller on the disrupted services) I'd be seething and wanting some answers.

[Peter Pedant]

thx Aberrant - a breath of fresh air there
BTP and not GMP.....

( and whilst you are raving Sunny D - the airports and nuclear stations have their own police - and they regularly armed )

// Interesting how they *did* manage to (just about) contain the Kings Cross incident - funny that. //

2005 - terrible
BTP locked themselves in to their HQ in Tavistock Sq when the bomb went off and refused to come out

They later successfully pleaded that that was what their manual said and so that was what they did !

The s.18 coroners report by Lady hallett ( coroner for the month ) makes terribly depressing reading ....

oh and Kurdistan is astride three borders - that is what they are whining about

[-Talbot-]

I shall, however, continue to place as much confidence in the anti-terrorism capabilities of the BTP as I would in a chocolate fireguard, if yesterday is a demonstration of their capacity to manage a 'major disruptive incident'.



Odd how they knew in advance yet ....

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/670599/20171222_Proscription.pdf

Partiya Karkeren Kurdistani (PKK) which translates as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party - Proscribed March 2001