Protect brave bobbies

The shooting of a police officer in Wolverhampton is a chilling reminder of the dangers faced by the thin blue line.

The only reason that we can sleep safely in our beds at night is that officers like Geoff King are prepared to wage the endless fight against a vicious, criminal underclass.

On Saturday night, Pc King almost paid the ultimate price of such dedication.

While on plain-clothes work in Penn Road he saw something suspicious and gave chase. From that moment he and his colleague were in unknown territory.

Gone are the days when crooks automatically put up their hands and went along quietly. These days, criminals are as likely to produce a firearm as a knife.

Three shots were fired. Pc King was struck twice. By a miracle he was not killed. Our thoughts today are with him, his family and his colleagues.

Inevitably, this incident raises the question of whether British police should be routinely armed. Interestingly, the biggest lobby against such a move is police officers themselves. They know that carrying guns would probably lead to more deaths and seriously damage the traditional style of British policing.

In countries where police are armed there is a gulf between officers and the public they serve. In Britain the system is based on policing by consent and the notion that every citizen is a policeman, and every policeman is a citizen.

This is a precious principle. Inevitably, from time to time, it leads to the sort of confrontation that happened between Pc King and his attacker.

The way to deal with such incidents is not to turn the British bobby into Rambo. It is to ensure that criminals who carry guns face the sort of jail terms that deter others.

Today we give thanks that Pc King is alive. We salute him and all British bobbies who daily put their lives on the line that we may live in safety.

Little done to stop these terror thugs

It is every householder’s worst nightmare. A gang of masked thugs burst into your home, frogmarch you and your loved ones from room to room, seizing your most precious possessions.

Mere words cannot convey the terror, anguish and humiliation meted out by this gang, currently operating in upmarket areas of Wolverhampton.

Today we publish a common-sense little checklist of security measures to deter such attacks. What a pity the Government which pledged to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime,” has done so little to deter such outrages.

Here is the common sense little checklist we’d like the authorities to follow when dealing with such vile robbers:

1. Lock them up.

2. Throw away the key.