Whitechapel

[Bob Hinton]

Police Marksmen

Based on recent performance...they'd have hit each other.........
Steve

You’re not too far off there. When we were allowed to own handguns in the UK, some of the regular attendees at our shooting club were police officers who unashamedly came there to be taught how to shoot properly!

When they were debating whether to outlaw all shooting clubs I predicted a fall off in the expertise of police marksmen if they did. They did and the results are there to see.

One of my oppos from days gone by was an ex SAS trooper who joined South Wales Police. He applied to join the firearms team and had a difficult time getting in as it was explained to him the police didn’t really like ex forces people because they knew how to handle firearms.

Anyway when shooting clubs were allowed and police got extra training there, the required standard for police marksmen was hitting a man size target at fifty metres with a 9mm handgun 45 times out of 50. Now that is pretty rubbish shooting by all accounts, at that range a pretty standard shot should be able to place them all inside a dinner plate, a good shot within a saucer and a very good shot within a lens cap.

After the shooting clubs were shut down and the police were no longer getting extra training there, the standard went down to 35 hits out of 50 rounds, which is ridiculous. That means if you fire 50 rounds you have no idea where 15 of them have gone. At that stage my mate quit the firearms team. As he explained to me he literally felt he had more to fear from his colleagues than the criminals.

To give you an idea police marksmen usually shoot 25 rounds a week in practice if the budget allows. When I used to go to the range once a week on a Saturday I used to shoot about 300 – 500 rounds, and I was only keeping my hand in – not preparing myself for combat. When you are training seriously for real use you should be firing some 2 to 3 thousand rounds a week.

I’m afraid British firearms teams have been brought up on too many scare stories about guns, and generally speaking they are just not comfortable with them.

[Mike Covell]

The writers had obviously been following a few threads here.

Including the Stephenson one's. Did you all see the invisible guy???

[Ben]

The writers had obviously been following a few threads here.

Quite possibly.

Which is nice, considering the absence of any indication that the writers considered Hutchinson an implausible suspect. Doubly so, as it appears to have generated new interest in him, as witness earlier comments in the thread.

[caz]

Wussy British Cops

No but I was sort of expecting cops to behave with a modicum of sense and going and charging after a slice and dice killer you know is in the process of trying to kill a woman without any means of protecting yourself or the victim is severely on the dim side. Especially if you are a wussy British cop who is only allowed to carry a whistle to defend yourself.

"Naughty Jack, bad man, put the knife down, DOWN! Behave!"

Hi Ally,

Now that's odd, because I was sort of expecting the cops to find an address in the book close to Stockwell Tube, shout "Bingo!" and shoot down the first foreigner they saw, minding his own business but just happening to follow some flame-haired female commuter into the station.

I liked the idea of making Hutchinson the ripper suspect of choice for a barking mad 2008 copycat killer. Inspired. The writers had obviously been following a few threads here.

Love,

Caz
X

[GordonH]

Two of Jacks victims are buried at Bunhill fields. Can't remember which ones...

I am not at all sure about that, as I thought the graveyard was disused after about 1860 and the wikipedia article seems tp back that up. Of course myself and wikipedia may have got duff info from the same place.

However, a quick walk through it will show graves which are much older than the 1880's and nothing from that period (that I have ever seen)

The cemetery is much smaller than it used to be because it got bombed during the war.

Bunhill Fields is in City Road opposite the Wesleyan chapel and next to the Honourable Artillery Company. Easily accessible from old street underground or you can walk up from Moorgate.
Its partly used as a park now and its somewhere to go and eat sandwiches. The footpath through it is a main footpath and there are always people there.
Most of the graves are fenced off because the headstones are very old and not in a good state.

[JSchmidt]

"Naughty Jack, bad man, put the knife down, DOWN! Behave!"

That just got me the image of a bobby with a chair and a whip in the pose of a liontamer.

[jmenges]

The dodgy bit about the televisual entertainment about which we speak was that the handsome hero cracked the case, sussed out the killer, and saved the life of the modern Mary Kelly and then got demoted for being a useless wanker.

I'd call that bad scriptwriting

But it made him one of the "boys", and wasn't that the plot point that needed the most resolution?



JM

[Stephen Thomas]

if you are a wussy British cop who is only allowed to carry a whistle to defend yourself.

Well like it or not that's how it is over here where NOBODY apart from police marksmen can legally carry a gun of any description. Potential Olympian gun contestants have got to get the old ferry or the Eurotunnel to get to France or Belgium to try and get a bullseye. The dodgy bit about the televisual entertainment about which we speak was that the handsome hero cracked the case, sussed out the killer, and saved the life of the modern Mary Kelly and then got demoted for being a useless wanker.

I'd call that bad scriptwriting

[George Hutchinson]

quite right, its Francis Tumblety 6ft under.

Which country would this Bunhill Fields be in, then?

PHILIP

[Rob Clack]

What should have happened is a Police Trojan Unit (the heavy mob) should have gone in first, but they were nowhere to be seen. I suppose all the producers wanted was the drama of the Ripper going up against the leading Detectives ion the case.

Rob

[Ally]

No but I was sort of expecting cops to behave with a modicum of sense and going and charging after a slice and dice killer you know is in the process of trying to kill a woman without any means of protecting yourself or the victim is severely on the dim side. Especially if you are a wussy British cop who is only allowed to carry a whistle to defend yourself.

"Naughty Jack, bad man, put the knife down, DOWN! Behave!"

[Rob Clack]

You know that ending was freaking hysterical. Two cops, one old and out of shape go charging to the rescue against a slaughtering knife-wielding maniac--COMPLETELY UNARMED! What were they going to do--win the day by being proper and stiff upper lipped British at the bad guy?! What the hell! That was just too stupid of an ending. Not to mention I kept shouting "SHOOT HIM! WHY AREN'T YOU JUST SHOOTING HIM!!". Oh right...

What were you expecting? Dirty Harry versus Jack the Ripper?

"Go ahead Punk, make my day"

Rob

[Pablito]

quite right, its Francis Tumblety 6ft under.

[Steve S]

'Er are they?

Not when I used to work round the corner...Lots of nice Cromwellians 'tho....
Steve

[Steve S]

You know that ending was freaking hysterical. Two cops, one old and out of shape go charging to the rescue against a slaughtering knife-wielding maniac--COMPLETELY UNARMED! What were they going to do--win the day by being proper and stiff upper lipped British at the bad guy?! What the hell! That was just too stupid of an ending. Not to mention I kept shouting "SHOOT HIM! WHY AREN'T YOU JUST SHOOTING HIM!!". Oh right...

Based on recent performance...they'd have hit each other.........
Steve