Cops For Doughnuts And Catford Hasn’t A Prayer

THE Guardian brings news of a new collection of prayers by the Church of England.

These are designed to help in “banishing the Monday blues”, and include “the thoughts of a curate from Catford, east London, on the trials and tribulations of commuting by train”. (Trials and tribulations that will be made even more complicated if you think Catford is in east London – other papers prefer to situate it in its normal berth several miles south of the river.)

One group not catered for, however, is police firearms teams. Yet judging from the recent news, it would seem that they – and their potential victims – are in need of some help from on high.

Last week we reported how officers at Gatwick Airport were in the habit of leaving their weapons lying around.

We told how the problem was so routine that a series of penalties had been established. An officer leaving a handgun unattended would have to buy doughnuts for everyone, while the punishment for a sub-machine gun was a cake.

Now the Guardian tells how an officer managed to avoid leaving his gun unattended.

The bad news is that he then shot himself in the leg as he was getting into a police car in London on Saturday night.

No one else was hurt, but it probably means a lot of paperwork and general inconvenience.

Using the Gatwick yardstick, we reckon the officer in question has got to be looking at a couple of boxes of Krispy Kremes at the very least.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, September 2007 | In: Broadsheets Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink