Westminster terror attack - shame on him?

Exactly so Iam

The most negative comments I've seen about this senior officers lack of action have come from serving or retired officers. Like other posters on this site, I'm from a family with police officers in our midst.
I agree with those who say he failed to live up to the oath he took. Police officers run towards, not away from danger. I don't see any point in him losing either his Honour, or his pension. He's earned those over many years of service. He has to live with what he failed to do, with the criticism of him that won't go away. He also has to live with what he witnessed, the murder of a brave officer who didn't run away but ran towards those in need of protection.

My husband is a retired front line police officer and he like many is of the opinion Mackey didn't do what is expected of a police officer . He appears to have let himself and the reputation of the force down. He get's really upset when he hears or reads scenarios where police officers have put themselves first and do not do ' the job'. Our view is a decent police officer acts on instinct to protect and arrest and his/her training is to simply ' get stuck in'. Yes he has found this to cause personal harm on many occassions but he wouldn't have done anything different as that is what being a police officer meant and why he did the job.

For heavens sake it is also surely a human instinct too. Like those such as Tobias Elwood MP and Ignacio Echeverría, who had a ' skateboard' to use as a weapon they showed the human instinct to help and Mackey most definitely failed on that day.

I know nothing of Mackey nor his history in the force which may or may not show an opposite side to the perceived cowardice he displayed on that day. Therefore I am only commentating on this particular terrible murder and I am acutely aware it lasted in a flash of time but in this case I think he misjudged the situation badly , to put it politely.

Isn't he meant to be an example to his officers though?

I am being judgemental, feel cross with myself now, this man is not the young man who took that oath as I am not the young woman who climbed Snowdon.

It’s hard to believe that in world war 1, our young soldiers were shot for what was called cowerdice.

Ahh yes Annie I know where you are coming from, as a song goes, we’re only human after all.
I guess it comes down to if an action is deliberate or a reaction. What is decided or done about any given situation seems to be extremely difficult when trying to apportion blame.

Perhaps I am being too judgemental . I climbed Snowdon several times, now I am too afraid to leave the house.

I really don’t know Annie, I wasn’t intending on commenting (but obviously I have) it would have been more prudent to have waited until more details are known.

Bridgeit , ‘ failure of duty is serious, a cadet would not get off lightly

Who knows Annibach, it’s hypothetical, so we can’t comment unless God forbid that situation should ever arise.

Yes failure of duty, would a young P.C. get off with ‘failure of duty’, ? The man had years of service, he wasn’t cadet

Cowerdice & Bravery are not fixed conditions, they cannot be taught or learnt , they can & do take us by surprise in either direction. No one but no one knows for sure how they will react in any given situation .
Failure of duty would surly be the accurate accusation in this very very sad case.

Anniebach 14.51.35 post.
Yes, I think that is exactly right.He will probably be his own punishment.

and a paramedic

Eloethan I think it was brought home even more to me this evening when watching the news. The Queen was awarding the George Cross to those who showed bravery in helping others at the London Bridge attack. One was awarded posthumously to a young Spanish man for his bravery in fighting off attackers and trying to help a woman. Two other civilians were honoured too.

Three are police officers (one off-duty) - two were badly injured - who did not turn tail and run.

He was to retire in December

Good new, he's going.
Bad news, he'll doubtless have a fat pension.

Eleothan, if someone in your family was being attacked and a police officer sat and watched would you say ‘ it doesn’t matter , he didn’t feel able to help ‘ ?

Meant rank cowardice.

Eloethan, if you go into the police force, as with the Armed Forces, you know you have to go to a colleagues aid if necessary , as you would expect them to come to yours, so I have absolutely no qualms in accusing him of Rd k cowardice.

As an ex met officer myself I am outraged and disgusted at his attitude. We all took an oath and he has broken that. Yes he was scared but aren’t we all when faced with danger, no excuse whatsoever. I think he should resign and give up his knighthood.

I don't think any of us know how we would react in this sort of situation, even if we had the training to deal with it, and so I'm not prepared to accuse this man of cowardice.

The man who is to blame for the killings is the man who did the killings. Thankfully, there were people to hand who were able to help and I think the focus should be on them rather than trying to blame anyone else who didn't feel able to help.

Yes I have signed for him to have his honour removed on Change.org. His lack of action is disgusting. As my ex military DH says they are trained to go straight in so he isnt fit to be in charge. He said he isnt fit to even issue parking tickets. Strange that it was only announced today that he is retiring in December

He could and should have got out the car and at least coordinated a response. Shame on him. He should resign now