The land of Hope and Glory, so averse to its subjects protecting themselves with firearms of their own, is getting things in order for all the attention, honor and financial windfall that comes with hosting the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. Part of all that preparation: stationing surface to air missile batteries around the capital. Londoners who don’t appreciate having high explosives and potential terrorist targets on their roofs are free to pound sand. And now ITN News has aired an example of the meticulous care and planning that’s gone into securing the Olympic environs . . .
The video shows stacks of shoulder-fired SAMs and other fixins piled in a residential area and left unattended while the squaddies take a break and pop off to their local for a pint or two.
When asked about the abandoned ordnance, all the Ministry of Defense could muster was a harrumph, a couple of snorts and the pathetically transparent story that what the reporter filmed were really dummies. Uh huh.
So let’s recap: individual Brits are far too irresponsible to be allowed to pack a heater so as to protect themselves and their families, but leaving weaponry capable of bringing down an airliner laying about on the lawn is acceptable SOP. Londoners will surely sleep better knowing Her Majesty’s finest are on the job. [h/t Bryan]