Amid Bataclan Hostage Crisis, Did Paris Police Wait Too Long To Rescue Victims?
More than 115 people were killed during a hostage crisis before police SWAT teams stormed the Bataclan theater in central Paris at around 1 a.m. Saturday local time, freeing an unknown number of victims and killing three terror suspects, according to a live TV broadcast by CNN. The Paris SWAT team waited around two hours before entering the building, despite tweets from hostages suggesting that the terrorists were killing people indiscriminately.
It was not immediately clear how many hostages died before the rescue operation took place, but it’s likely the length of time the police waited will be the subject of scrutiny in the aftermath of the attacks, according to an expert in hostage situations and counterterrorism. “In this case, the police tactical teams should have just gone in straight away, using the quickest preliminary plan they had,” said former Army Special Forces Col. Steve Bucci, now director of the Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “With their high level of training they could have gone in and used their instincts to resolve this situation quickly.”
Bucci said police would have encountered a rare scenario where possible suicide bombers had taken hostages, making the job of the SWAT team increasingly difficult as they would be essentially putting more lives at risk by storming the theater. “They would normally try to get into a difficult area like that using unpredictable methods like going through walls, through the ceiling, while also trying to confuse the bad guys by using flash bangs, giving them the split-second advantage they need to shoot the hostage takers,” Bucci said.
The hostage situation unfolded during a night of reported coordinated terror attacks at several different locations across France’s capital. Suicide bombers hit a bar near the Stade de France, a soccer stadium in northern Paris where the French and German international teams were playing. Footage from the game shows players looking around nervously as the noise of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside reverberated around the stadium. Additional attacks took place at other locations in central Paris.
chulai1968
Truth Prevailing
Publius Huldah
kathleen
radioroger2015
revaustinmiles
Steve
Yikes, 2 hrs. I don’t know, but sounds way to long for me. I’m sure they knew about the vests which weighed heavily on their minds. Tough shoes to walk in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Steve, these wusses stood around outside the building hearing screams and gunshots while people died inside…. For TWO HOURS! .They signed on and trained for just such a contingency. I blame the COs who should have sent them in like the Texas Rangers. Suicide vests be damned.
The sad thing is that here in this country many, (Not All But Many), of the strutting SWAT teams that kick in doors of sleeping families and blaze away at anything moving, …(I Was In Fear For My Life)… and toss flash-bang grenades into baby cribs would likely wet their panties and do the same thing if the real thing came their way, And it WILL one day.
We are truly in deep doo-doo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, they waited too long, but mainly in the fact they knew that one of these terrorists (born in France) was suspected of radicalizing since 2010. They are scared shitless by the populations of Arabs living in the Paris banlieux where crimes are so rampant that the police generally leave them alone like some scene out of Escape from New York. Read the book To Hell and Back by Samira Bellil, who exposes the whole gang and criminal subculture of these violent suburbs where she was gang raped. These are areas where young men are then recruited for terrorism.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good analysis… But as George C. Wallace, (love him or hate him), once said: If they, (the Gendarmerie in this instance), can’t take the heat they should stay out of the kitchen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They may not only be fearful but believe their interference will either have no effect or actually make the situation worse. But this book I mentioned (although not entirely well-written since written by an amateur without much editing) describes suburbs which to live in are sheer terror.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And already in Amerika we see the beginnings of the takeover of schools, communities and even city councils being taken over and controlled by the Religion of Peace. And Sharia law must inevitably follow. There are terrible and very dark and evil forces at work here with only one goal. Total World Domination.
LikeLiked by 1 person