"No, I'm not Marcus Brigstocke."
A row has broken out in London this week over the Metropolitan Police’s proposals to introduce armed foot patrols in gun-crime ‘hot spots’ in London.
Boris, as the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, was not consulted about the proposals and said armed police have an important role to play but that they should be “the exception, not the norm”.
The plan to deploy armed officers on the beat as a response to rising gun crime in the capital was announced last week when Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was out of the country. Apparently, sources said that Sir Paul reacted furiously on his return to Scotland Yard this week and the senior officers who made the decision were given “an almighty bollocking�.
Scotland Yard has now abandoned the plans for armed foot patrols and marksmen on motorbikes in gun crime hotspots in the face of this mounting political criticism.