credit: dailymail.uk
The hostage situation in Sydney, Australia has come to a predictable end with two dead and others wounded. Oh yes, the terrorist animal responsible, who would like his name mentioned here, was also killed. Special operators around the world have an aphorism that comes down to this: it sucks to be a hostage. It sucks because hostages virtually always end up dead. The heroic, single-handed rescue of hostages without a single death is a staple of movies, but reality is virtually always all too different.
We don’t yet know enough for me to go into any depth on this situation, and a few of the points I’m going to make in this article might be mistaken, or at least made without the perspective available to the officers and commanders on the scene. If so, I’ll correct as necessary later. For today, a few observations, in no particular order:
* The officers responding had no lack of proper equipment, but apparently didn’t use it. They had repeated, clear shots at the hostage taker, but didn’t take them. I suspect that’s because their political masters wanted to be politically correct and were more concerned for the feelings of Australian Muslims than they were for the lives of the hostages. That’s harsh, but all too plausible.
* Tactical officers are often not allowed to do what they know they have to do and need to do.
* Where was the SAS? If I’m right, the political leadership didn’t want one of the world’s most effective units involved for the reason already stated.
* Not all Muslims are terrorists, but virtually all terrorists are Muslims. It will be interesting to see what kinds of political contortions are done to avoid placing any blame on Islam despite the obvious connections.
* Some pundits are suggesting this kind of attack will be the terrorist wave of the future. It will not. The wave has been washing over us for years already at Ft. Hood, the Oklahoma beheading and a variety of other less well-known attacks here and abroad.
* There will be more of these terror attacks. Terrorists know that America and other western societies are full of soft targets like businesses, theaters, public transportation, athletic stadiums and schools. They’ve been attacking those targets across the world for decades. They’ll get around to us, and in a big way, before long.
* Allowing large terrorist movements to grow and thrive unchallenged allows and encourages them to expand their operations into America and her allies. We either obliterate them when and wherever they crop up–on foreign soil–or we’ll be fighting them in the streets of America on a large scale.
* Whether an attack was carried out by a lone terrorist without obvious organizational terror ties, or by multiple terrorists taking instructions from an established terrorist organization makes no difference to the victims or their survivors.
* Australia is a gun banner’s dream, a virtually gun free state, a paradise of honest, law-abiding citizen disarmament. Australian and American gun banners will cry that the attack is evidence they haven’t gone far enough. They will want to ban shotguns.
* In virtually every mass shooting in memory, the police had no hand in preventing them, and seldom any hand in stopping them.
* From what is currently known, it appears it was the hostages that saved themselves and that took the initiative while the police stood about in their tacticool gear and watched.
* Gun banners often argue that armed citizens are dangerous and completely ineffective. In this situation, one armed, capable citizen in that coffee shop could have killed the terrorist without a single loss of life or injury.
* The police can’t protect anyone, and cannot be held accountable for failing to protect anyone.
* In any hostage situation, the police will always be constrained by political minders who do not have the best interests of the hostages as their primary concern. They will usually want to wait and will want to negotiate with terrorists who have no interest in negotiation. They will usually tacitly–or knowingly–accept some number of dead or maimed before authorizing deadly force.
* Government has no conscience.
* Anyone who has taken hostages and is using deadly force to keep them is, under the law and common sense, a free target from that moment. Their hostages are under continual, imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death. Shoot the bastard as soon as there is a clear shot.
* In any hostage situation, it will take the police a long time to arrive, and the police may not know who the bad guy is. The hostages know. Is there a better argument for concealed carry?
* To save lives, particularly if it is known they are Islamists, they must be killed at the earliest possible opportunity. By the time they start killing hostages, it will be too late.
* In any Islamist attack, it must be presumed they have explosives. They must not be given the time and opportunity to place and prepare them.
* The probability, for any individual American, of being caught up in a terrorist attack is low, but there is nothing preventing it.
* The Australian government and police knew that the attacker was a Muslim radical, a nut case, and a probable murderer. That didn’t matter.
* The American government knew that the Ft. Hood killer was a Muslim radical and an increasingly dangerous nut case. That didn’t matter.
* Political correctness, and the fear of hurting the exquisitely sensitive feelings of Islamists and their apologists, kills. It will keep killing until Americans and the citizens of all nations demand of Muslims what they demand of all other faiths: obey the law and don’t kill people not of their faith.
* Take responsibility for the safety and survival of yourself and those you love. No one else will. This is nothing new.
* Buy and carry an effective firearm. Get professional training. Practice. Develop situational awareness.
* God grant the victims and their surviving friends and relatives the peace that passes all understanding.
Update: Thanks to my favorite Bookworm for the link, and welcome to all Bookworm Room readers!
Stately McDaniel Manor 
Combat handgun training is a perishable skill. Living in an environment of gun banners is just one more impediment to keeping your skills up. When you are surrounded by people who feel like what your are doing is somehow bad, rather than responsible, it takes that much more effort to force yourself to go and train.
The PC crowd, who whispers that my son, Erik, would be alive today, if he hadn’t been legally carrying a LEGAL concealed firearm on 7/10/10, should pay close attention to the lessons you just articulated, Mike. Time and time again, armed, well-trained citizens, such as my son, have prevented bloodbaths by taking out would-be killers. Of course, the media never reports those life-saving incidents. If they did, maybe thousands of Americans would wise up, take your advice, arm themselves, and insist that mindless gun-banning nanny states, like Conn., NY and Calif., get real and start issuing millions of CCW permits.
Mike, there is an issue of jurisdiction. The SAS comes under Federal authority, and not the State of NSW.
The tactic that was employed was to wait it out and to wear the hostage taker down. The NSW police have a lot of experience at ending sieges without loss of life…but not always!!
Yesterday I was given a bit of a lesson on how the various forces handle this form of terrorist attack. I cannot give you some of the detail that I was told but I can share some of the insights.
There were sharpshooters who were present and we actually saw them with their equipment on the TV. However, they are still under the control of the commander in charge of the operation.
The police who were closest to the action were members of the Tactical Response Group or Riot Squad. Most of the police officers that were seen during the hours of the siege were TRG. On the outside perimeter were the regular police officers. There were other detectives and sundry terror specialists who were also present.
The NSW police most likely knew the identity of the person almost immediately due to the use of special equipment that is available to them. Initially they had no contact with him but eventually a negotiator spoke with him (the negotiator was at the 2GB studio).
The perpetrator was desparate to get out a message that he was from ISIS and that ISIS had come to sydney, Australia. He failed to convey that message because the media refused to talk with him.
Whilst it might look like a sniper had a clear shot, the fact that the location of hostages was unknown would have been uppermost in the minds of the police who were present. He was using a female hostage as a human shield as he moved in front of the window.
Regarding the two who died, both of them were very brave individuals, and in particular the male Tori who was a hero. He had helped hostages to escape from the cafe. What he did at the end was try to wrest the gun away from the perpetrator and that is when he was shot and killed.. God rest his soul for his bravery. The woman who died, Katrina Dawson apparently dived to protect her pregnant colleague. It is not clear whether this happened before the police came through the cafe entrance.
Something else that was not clear during the day was the number of hostages in the shop, and there was a lot of speculation about the number of customers present, ranging from 8 through to 50 according to the Lindt CEO (his guesstimate was very wrong). Also, it was not known if there was anyone else with the perpetrator because one witness outside had claimed he had seen more than one person after he was bumped by the perpetrator (an unreliable witness). The other unknown was whether or not the perpetrator had booby trapped the cafe with an IED. For these reasons the police decided to go the path of trying to wear the perpetrator down, hoping that he would give up without the loss of life. The perpetrator had made threats of starting to kill hostages after the first few had managed to escape.
Since there is a protocol in place, the SAS could not have been brought into the situation until the NSW Premier had made the request. As far as I am aware this did not happen, yet there were sharpshooters who were present.
Something else that I forgot to mention: in this situation the police were on the scene almost immediately because a woman outside the cafe saw what was happening and called the emergency line.
At the time that I witnessed a siege the police and emergency services were also on the scene almost immediately because a policeman had followed that perpetrator from the scene of a shooting to where the siege then took place. In that case the siege was in fact over in a very short time frame when the perpetrator killed himself.
However, I note each situation is different.
Just one more thing about Australia… we are not a virtually gun free state. Australians have never been big on owning guns and most of us have never seen the need to own guns.
Most are confused about the situation in Australia because of what took place after Martin Bryant killed more than 30 people during the Port Arthur massacre. There was most definitely a reaction and people voluntarily gave up their guns during a period of gun amnesty but those were the guns that were auto-matic and semi-automatic rifles. We did not have to give up hand guns!!
At the same time, most seem unaware that it is legal to own a gun so long as you have a gun licence. I have seen statistics that have shown that gun ownership is now higher than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, which means that there is no real restraint on the ownership of guns as some have claimed.
However, that does not mean that we do not have a continuing gun problem because we do have a problem with illegally obtained guns. In recent years there has been an increase in gun crime, but the weapons tend to be mostly illegally obtained weapons. That crime is usually amongst gang members such as the Brothers4Life gang or the bikie gangs such as the Hells Angels, Comancheros and the Bandidos as well as the offshoots of these gangs. These gangs are involved in the drug trade. Over the past few weeks there have been several shootings with at least one person dying from gunshot wounds (the “victims” are usually of ME origin). One of the people who was shot in the past week was the mother of a notorious member of Brothers4Life by the name of Hamzy. She was shot in the stomach when she opened her door.
We also have a lot of crime involving knives. I could easily argue that we should also restrict the ownership of knives because of the amount of crime involving stabbings but really that is simply silly to promote such an idea.
For most of us, owning a gun has not been a priority. If we wanted to own a gun we need to apply for a license and we choose not to do so.
Dear Aussie:
Thanks for the great information. One question? How difficult is it for average citizens to obtain a concealed carry permit? Is it a shall issue situation, or do the police or other officials have complete discretion in matters?
Mike I am not up with concealed carry permits. I would assume that it is a matter of discretion by the police.
I have personally never owned a gun and it is more than 30 years since I had to use a gun in a very limited sense (and my accuracy was terrible!!).
Also, in the past I had a university friend who was a member of the university rifle club. I think in those days that gun ownership was never raised as an issue.
I do think that this incident raises the question of concealed carry and who can get a permit. I have seen nothing in the press about the issue and that is a shame.
Dear Aussie:
Thanks! I’ll do a bit of research and see what I can find. Take care.
Mike I have since found out that it is concealed carry that is forbidden. However, it appears to be a matter of discretion for police because they must have their gun holsters on show.
After I have picked myself up from the floor through paroxysms of laughter at the spectacle of a Septic* providing advice to Australians about gun control and siege management, let me make a few salient points –
1. Concealed carry would have made absolutely no difference in this situation. Apart from the fact that in the environment of a chocolate shop in Sydney CBD, the likelihood of that demographic carrying (even if it was legal) is almost zero, a pistol is largely ineffective against a pump action shotgun – which is what the offender was carrying. I have trained on both.
2. This has very little to do with Muslims and ISIS. The offender was a lunatic – an outcast in his own community. He was operating ad hoc.
3. Armchair critics lack restraint, common sense and any form of common decency. To be critical, from across the Pacific, of a police operation in this country is arrogant and ignorant.
It’s interesting to observe that the last recorded time that Septics tried to enforce their idea of policing using firearms in this country was in WW2 when hundreds of thousands of US service personnel were in Brisbane.
Have you heard of the Battle of Brisbane?
http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/bob.htm
Australians back then had contempt for law enforcement that shot first and asked questions later. Not much has changed.
*Septic Tank – rhyming slang for “Yank”.
N.B. – The spectacle of a Septic, residing as he does in a country with 21 times the rate of firearm fatalities than Australia’s, giving advice on policing, is absolutely breathtaking.
Yes, 1375099a
(1) a pistol certainly won’t kill or incapacitate a pump action shotgun. Brilliant.
(2) ISIS beheads people in mass and individually for public spectacle, rapes in
mass, crucifies to teach “lessons,” certainly does attract more than a few
lunatics, and yet you would not call it a mass psychopathic lunacy? Brilliant.
(3) Tu quoque I believe is what is taught in the first grade, or kindergarten
here in Oz. Brilliant, sport.
What an embarrassment you are for my dear old land down under!
Dear Matilda of Oz:
Thanks! You’ve said it quite well indeed. The prayers and hopes of all Americans are with our Australian allies.
It has just been revealed that the perpetrator was legally licensed for the weapon he used. Obviously, our laws aren’t restrictive enough.
Mike, as usual a well reasoned analysis. Ignore Australians who don’t mind commenting negatively about America, but hate it when the shoe’s on the other foot.
My problem is with the maudlin emotionalism that always follows these events; and sure enough the flowers weren’t slow in coming. And the message this sends to muslims is that we don’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done. You can bet that fucker will be hailed as a martyr at Friday afternoon prayers.
Find his extended family and kill them all.
Dear Keith Sandford:
You’re very kind. Thanks for your point in the inherent hypocrisy, but I’m not at all down on the Australian police, any more than I’m generally down on American police officers. They have very real limitations and restrictions that make it impossible for them to protect citizens, and a great many of them really do consider that the essence of their jobs. The primary point I was making is that we really are on our own when our lives are on the line. That should move the reasonable man or woman to take steps to see that they are well armed, trained and psychologically prepared.
Thanks again!
“Find his extended family and kill them all”.
This is exactly the mindset exhibited by the lunatic who killed two innocents in Sydney – in other words it’s OK to slaughter in the name of “what needs to be done”.
Time to take a good long look at your blog, Mike, when it attracts this example of an A grade loon.
Oh for heaven’s sake, 17350999a.
Oh crikey, it’s 173456999a the National ‘serviceman’ ! And I seem to have upset you again! I would apologise but it was intentional.
You’re the archetypical saloon bar bore who’s got nothing to say but says it anyway. You’ve made it abundantly clear that you have a phobia about guns, so why don’t you see a psychiatrist? After all, a fear and loathing of firearms is a sign of sexual and emotional immaturity. As evidenced by your gratuitous reference to ‘septic tanks’. But hey I love Aussies, it’s you white bastards I can’t get on with.
Having carried a firearm on operational service, I can assure you that I lack any phobia about guns. What I do fear is raving lunatics such as yours truly, influencing halfwit opinion in this country.
After today’s bipartisan reaction to a halfwit elected to the senate who supports concealed carry, I am feeling reassured.
Aussies are grounded in reality.
“Oh for heaven’s sake, 17350999a.”
So you also believe an exhortation to kill innocents is OK?
17335099a
Shall we depopulate Australia because of your presence? I think not. Too big a price to pay to be rid of one one ass.
Dear Matilda of Oz:
Double Crikey!
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/bookwormroom/the_bookworm_beat_121414_sunday_round_up_and_open_thread/#comment-1742859093
No need for a repetition there.
So you don’t trust your fellow countrymen? And do you also believe that the state should have a monopoly on violence? It’s has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that concealed carry saves lives. I’m sure Mr. McDaniel could supply you with the relevant information, but I really don’t think you’re interested.
So what is your problem with guns Oz?
I don’t usually engage with psychopaths who advocate killing the family members of criminals (a technique used by ISIS) but I’ll make an exception in this case.
Concealed carry is the sign that a community has lost control of itself, and is resorting to unbridled violence to maintain order.
I don’t have a problem with guns – I do have a problem when paranoia reaches such heights that people acquire them until past saturation point. Guns are designed to kill. The more guns available in a community, the more members of that community will die by gunshot. That is simple irrefutable logic. Like most civilized countries, we have not reached that point in this country, and God willing, we never will.
The best argument for maintaining our existing laws is the pathetic example provided by your country.
The US crossed the threshold of insanity years ago when the NRA began to bully your elected representatives. It is probably too late for you, unless your elected representatives show a level of courage so far absent, but in Australia we have laws that contribute to a firearm fatality rate one tenth of yours per head of population. No amount of cherry picking or manipulating homicide statistics alters that fact.
Violence is as American as apple pie, and the daily toll of 30 deaths from guns per day is not something we need in this country.
As we say in Australia – Sit down, the dog is pissing on your swag…………..
Gee digger, you sure know how to hurt a guy! Psychopath?? I see myself more as an epidemiologist, islam is, after all, a disease and we need to stop it spreading.
I’m also a connoiseur of human folly. So I’m guessing that you vote ALP/green, your beer gut is hanging over your belt, you have a ponytail but it’s gone forever on top, and we shouldn’t forget the regulation faux diamond earstud. And of course you’re a fanatic about open borders, ‘landrights’, the ‘stolen generation’, blah, blah, blah. Am I close? Never mind, I don’t care and you don’t matter. Guns are here to stay in America! So why don’t you piss off to Salon.com, I’m sure they’ll welcome you with open arms. You are beneath contempt and beyond redemption.
Yes I’ve heard of the ‘battle of Brisbane’, more a riot than a ‘battle’, but Australians have a penchant for bullshit. A bit like overstating their contribution in Vietnam, making skirmishes like Long Tan and Fire Base Coral sound like the battle of Stalingrad. Get over yourself chump.
Dear Keith Sandford:
Crikey!
“I’m also a connoiseur (sic) of human folly. So I’m guessing that you vote ALP/green, your beer gut is hanging over your belt, you have a ponytail but it’s gone forever on top, and we shouldn’t forget the regulation faux diamond earstud. And of course you’re a fanatic about open borders, ‘landrights’, the ‘stolen generation’, blah, blah, blah. Am I close? Never mind, I don’t care and you don’t matter.”
Sorry to disappoint, but you fail at stereotyping. Take a look at the pics –
https://imageshack.com/i/exTktnQ4j
https://imageshack.com/i/eyjmd1W5j
In the picture of the Anzac Day march, I’m closest to the camera.
I’ve changed a bit in the ensuing 44 years, but no ponytail, plenty of hair (albeit grey), no beer gut and no ear stud.
You’re consistently deluded, so I should not be surprised. As to open borders – no! What we should have done since 2001 is what we did with the 1300000 Vietnamese that we successfully settled in the 70s and 80s. Instead, in an act of bipartisan brutality, we lock refugees up in offshore gulags.
Landrights is a fait accompli since the June 1992 decision, and it has scarcely raised a ripple except with the RWNJs*. The stolen generation is documented historical fact.
How I vote is my business.
At least I vote.
In your country, in the last congressional election more of your countrymen did not vote than did, and the USA has the arrogance to call itself a democracy.
As for performance in Vietnam, my recollection is that your soldiers lacked fire discipline, had no idea of jungle warfare, were noisy and poorly led. Not their fault – they were lambs to the slaughter. Our commanders went to great lengths to secure an AO (Phuoc Tuy province) of our own, after bad experiences early in our commitment. We avoided Yanks, because they were a greater danger to themselves and us than they were to the VC. The saying was “They draw the crabs”.
And, by the way, when we left Phouc Tuy it was one of the most secure provinces in the country, with all roads safe in daylight. When the task force set up at Nui Dat in 1966, Phouc Tuy was a hotbed of VC activity. That all changed in August 1966, when a company from 6RAR (about 100 diggers), with the help of artillery, defeated a force conservatively estimated at 2000. These were VC reinforced by at least one North Vietnamese battalion. After that, they avoided Australians, and constant patient patrolling kept it that way. Your president at the time awarded D Company, 6 RAR a US Presidential Unit Citation on 28 May 1968.
I guess he must have swallowed the “bullshit”.
*Right Wing Nut Jobs
Whoops – one too many Zeros. It was 130000 Vietnamese. They’ve contributed a great deal to our country.
Gee cobber, what’s an ‘s’ or a ‘0’ between allies? I didn’t check the picture, there’s no point. I don’t care! I thought I mentioned that! I despise and loathe lefties like you. Moral self-righteousness is the most repellant human characteristic. Do you actually think I give a shit what you look like? Really?
‘Oh look at me! Here I am’!
“Egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity”. You’re a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect; you’re stupid but too stupid to realise it. Well I’m sorry chump but I don’t find this shit amusing anymore. Fuck off and die!
“Fuck off and die!”
Great company you keep here, Mike.
And these are the lunatcs you want armed?
“Please sir, the boys are being beastly to me because I like playing with the girls”.
You pathetic piece of shit. You insult America, it’s people and it’s constitution. And when you get it back you go running to the teacher! You gutless little snot. Hey mummy’s boy……fuck off and die.
.
Whilst I am sympathetic to your irritation with 1730599a’s sanctimonious silliness, you really should mind your manners a bit. This is Mike’s “home” and you should behave yourself a bit better. It is so easy to puncture 17399088a’s attempts to argue, to demonstrate that he is only a churlish bag of wind, that it is not necessary to lose your cool. Avoid the crude language and enjoy making sport of him. It’s easy.
If you don’t behave, I would think that perhaps you are something of a ruse de guerre–perhaps even 1759099a itself–intended to embarrass Mike. Is that what you want to happen?
Dear Matilda of Oz:
Bless your heart. Most appropriate. I was beginning, for a moment, to worry that I’d have to start sending “does not work and play well with others” notes to mothers, but I had faith my Aussie friends would police themselves.
Within limits, I generally allow people to embarrass themselves without the necessity for me to castigate them. I’ve found those that read this scruffy little blog to be more than capable of picking up that particular nuance.
Thanks again!
I apologise Mattie, unreservedly. Ruse de guerre? I’m not that subtle. If you are a Matilda, I’m impressed and not patronisingly either. I’ll leave dickhead to you, he needs the attention. Take care and have a great Christmas wherever you are.
Were/are you a teacher? No need to answer that of course! But you do sound like one and I am chastened.
Some relevant history – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUSq7pxux4