[Flipside]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17544154

And in todays edition of 'We need to invent some words for how stupid this is...'

Mohamed Merah's father has hired a lawyer to sue France for shooting his son after he walked around killing soldiers and children.

I so want to see the victms families counter-sue him for siring a child-killing asshole.

[MP-Ryan]

I wonder if the French-Algerian reciprocal justice agreement allows French judges to order Algerian citizens be put in jail for filing frivolous lawsuits...

[Dilmah G]

"If I were the father of such a monster, I would shut my mouth in shame," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday.

Never were truer words spoken.

[Aardwolf]

Mass-murderer is an overstatement.

And the suit is "for not having followed procedure during the attempt to arrest Mohamed Merah"... if they really weren't following procedure, it's not frivolous.

His half-brother alleges conspiracy? Seems like the only mention of al-Qaeda was in the statement that this had nothing to do with al-Qaeda... so why even mention it? Odd.

[Flipside]

I'd say that 7 people counts as mass murder, especially when 4 of those murders involved walking round a school with a camera filming yourself killing the kids (and one teacher). I suppose you could define it as 'serial killer' if you really want to go the full grammatical broadside, but I must admit, considering what happened, arguing terminology is a strange route to take.

The guy jumped out of a window firing guns at the Police, I'm not really sure there is a procedure for that as such, you simply take action to defend your own life as best you can, until that point they were trying to negotiate his surrender.

Edit: Also, people have to remember that Al Quaida is kind of like Anonymous in makeup, there aren't forms to fill out or tests to take, and those higher up the chain are most likely completely unaware of your existence, in some ways, it's a mindset as much as an organisation.

[NGTM-1R]

And the suit is "for not having followed procedure during the attempt to arrest Mohamed Merah"... if they really weren't following procedure, it's not frivolous.

Considering they established communication with the guy, brought in a negotiator who attempted to induce him to surrender, and then he jumped out a window and started shooting at the cops so the cops shot back, I'd say they did pretty much exactly what one would expect from a European or North American police force.

I suppose the technical definition law enforcement would use is that he's a spree killer, but depending on your jurisdiction the charge of mass homicide can be anywhere from five up.

[Aardwolf]

See, this is why someone should have linked to an article about the original incident. You're lucky people are even reading the article you linked to, instead of jumping to conclusions based on the thread title and the first couple of comments.

[Bobboau]

The guy jumped out of a window firing guns at the Police, I'm not really sure there is a procedure for that

I do believe the correct protocol for this scenario is, you shoot him, several times, enough that you are sure he is dead, then you walk up to him and put one in his head for good measure. if this is no currently codified as such then it should be.

[Dragon]

IIRC, it goes like that: You shoot him till he goes down, then approach him with all due caution. If he's no longer a threat, you call the doctor to officially declare him dead. If he's still a threat (unlikely) then you shoot him some more until he stops to be. Then you call a doctor.

[Lorric]

Like father, like son...

[Mefustae]

Like father, like son...

The father sounds like something of a prat, but acting like moron =/= mass murder. Let's just get that straight.

[Lorric]

Like father, like son...

The father sounds like something of a prat, but acting like moron =/= mass murder. Let's just get that straight.

I just filed them both under scum.

[NGTM-1R]

I just filed them both under scum.

A convenient but stupid distinction.

There's scum that's ignorable, scum that requires cleaning off your bathtub, and "holy **** shoot that!" scum. Distinguishing which is which is kinda important to your life.

[Lorric]

I just filed them both under scum.

A convenient but stupid distinction.

There's scum that's ignorable, scum that requires cleaning off your bathtub, and "holy **** shoot that!" scum. Distinguishing which is which is kinda important to your life.

I'm not sure what you want from me. Obviously one is worse than the other, but why is it such a big deal?

[Klaustrophobia]

because demonstrating one's intellectual superiority on the internet is important. 

[NGTM-1R]

I'm not sure what you want from me. Obviously one is worse than the other, but why is it such a big deal?

Perhaps because one of them is a prat and one of them is spree killer? That's pretty big ****ing difference, y'know.

I mean, one of them doesn't even have a weapon!

[IceFire]

The guy jumped out of a window firing guns at the Police, I'm not really sure there is a procedure for that

I do believe the correct protocol for this scenario is, you shoot him, several times, enough that you are sure he is dead, then you walk up to him and put one in his head for good measure. if this is no currently codified as such then it should be.

Agree completely. I'm very much in favour of negotiating and getting folks like this to surrender so that due process is allowed to occur. When the guy goes completely bat**** insane and jumps out a window firing... the proportionate response is to eliminate the threat.

[Herra Tohtori]

Video that is morbidly and totally inappropriately related...

[Aardwolf]

I lol'd.

[headdie]

The guy jumped out of a window firing guns at the Police, I'm not really sure there is a procedure for that

I do believe the correct protocol for this scenario is, you shoot him, several times, enough that you are sure he is dead, then you walk up to him and put one in his head for good measure. if this is no currently codified as such then it should be.

Even in the UK shoot him dead would be the procedure in that situation, we would prefer to taze and throw him in front of a judge but given the distances I suspect would be involved a few MP5s or G36s would be needed so the instance he made a "sudden" move there would be bullet holes in vital areas of the body.