The Australian Government has seriously let us down.
Once it was clear that this was a hostage situation, the police should have cleared the streets, (inc news cameras etc) and then taken out the gunman while they distracted him with "negotiations". I suspect political motivations played a part here as those that were trained to deal with this situation were not permitted to do what it is their job to do. We have procedure to deal with this sort of this and it was not followed.
The snipers had clear sight from the north and east. The high windows also made it easy for them to get a clear shot. Being a single gunman, a number of shooters could clear the situation with little fuss. The window glass would have posed little trouble for a number of high powered rifle shots.
Had they wanted to enter the café to secure it, they had a number of entrances and could have gassed the occupants to slow them down or put them to sleep.
The question must also be asked, why did the police not act the moment that movement occurred inside. They would have been monitoring voices, movement etc in building (well you would hope they were in accordance with protocol) and should have acted the moment a struggle broke out.
The next question is why did they have to wait until someone was shot before they acted.
This sends a message out to many other gunman to go out and make a public spectacle and know you will not be killed by police. The police should have taken him out the moment he held hostages at gunpoint, no more justification was necessary. This would have also sent a clear message to like gunman that if you take unarmed hostages, you gave just signed your life away.
The big question that now remains is were any hostages shot by the police?
I feel seriously let down, I expected a lot more from the police. We got a political spectacle. The number of police that were there was outrageous for a lone gunman. The news reporters also indicated "there is also an RBT unit which has just arrived", what did they need the RBT unit for??? They needed deadly force to deal with a life and death situation.
Has the government failed to meet its duty of care to its citizens here? If the government is not going to look after its citizens, let the citizens arm themselves so they can deal with situations like this on an equal basis.
