Monday, July 07, 2008



Now it is a British cop being rewarded for delicate feelings

No sense of humor at all:
"Scotland Yard's most prolific sharpshooter has been secretly awarded 5,000 pounds in damages for "hurt feelings" because a female police chief jokingly called him a "serial killer". The firearms officer - who is nicknamed "Killer" because of his prowess in shooting dead suspects in armed sieges - received the payout after the Metropolitan police decided that to defend the action at an employment tribunal would be a waste of public money.

The expensive joke was made by Commander Sue Akers, a highly regarded Met officer who is in charge of Scotland Yard's fight against gun crime.... Akers's faux pas came at a social function when she introduced herself to the firearms officer with the words: "I've always wanted to meet the Met's very own serial killer." The officer is a member of the elite CO19 firearms unit and has shot dead a number of suspects in his career. Colleagues say he failed to see the funny side of her remarks.

Akers was said to have been distraught at his reaction and later made a formal apology. However, "Killer" insisted his feelings had been hurt and that he had been maligned. He filed a formal complaint about the joke and it was feared he might take legal action at a tribunal.

Source

I guess he knows how crazy Britain is about hurt feelings and decided to make a bundle of money out of it. I doubt that he will be very popular after this, though.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Military snipers never talk about their "kills" as it is a personal thing to them because they had to kill another human being. It was an increadibly insensitive comment made by his fellow officer.

Anonymous said...

Hello Good Gentles All!

Hello Wes!

I would suggest reading 'The Emma Gees' by McBride or 'Marine Sniper 93 Confirmed Kills' by Hathcock. Both excellent first hand accounts of the art and science of military sniping written by snipers.

Pax,

InFides

Anonymous said...

Hello InFides,
I should have prefaced my comments with "most". Thanks for the tip, sounds like interesting reading.

Wes

Anonymous said...

His nickname was "Killer"? And yet he's going to get sensitive about being called "Serial Killer"?

Someone is scamming, that's all I can figure.

Anonymous said...

I was under the impression that being "offended" was a big money-making business only here in the US. Obviously it's catching on in other places as well.

As for the marksman, perhaps he should be reassigned to some less stressful duty, such as helping school children cross the street. Someone that sensative should not be allowed anywhere near a loaded gun.

Anonymous said...

I'd say he'd have a good case for sexual harassment.

Maybe Commander Sue Akers fancied the length of his sniper rifle and just wanted to chat him up and offer him a soft target?

She didn't, however, ask him if his weapon was a bolt action. If it was that would mean he'd have to "crank" the bolt after every round went down range.

Anonymous said...

Why is he nicknamed "Killer"? According to the first sentence, the "suspects" he is shooting are already dead.

Anonymous said...

"Why is he nicknamed "Killer"? According to the first sentence, the "suspects" he is shooting are already dead."

OMG I swore that's what I read too but I never went back to confirm it.

Anonymous said...

Hello all,

First point, all the armchair warriors need to shut up. If YOU have about zero comfirmed kills (as most of you likely do), then clam up. The shooter and those like him make it possible for you to go through life not knowing what killing someone that is not a direct threat to yourself is like.
Second point, if some Remmington Raider came out and compared me doing my job (serve and protect) to a serial killer (rape, torture, and kill for fun) I'd be a bit pissed off too. I would have gone after her job instead of the cash myself, but I'm not in Jolly Olde and don't personally know how they do things. Perhaps this is the better way to draw attention to the fact she's a twit that needs a job change.

Anonymous said...

Come on folks! This guy wasn't offended. Been in US law enforcement my whole life and seen this sort of thing quite a few times. Now I am not up on the UK agency and their management but I would be willing to bet this Akers gal is not well liked by a lot of troops right? How about her beliefs? Is she pretty much a pacifist and a touchy feely leader? If that is the case, there are many employees just waiting for her to slip up so they can cause her some grief. It is chickenshit most of the time but that is the way it is. The officer that sued her didn't like "her" calling him a serial murderer.

Anonymous said...

Look, in the UK these days it's easy enough for the crims to milk the system for cash over some trivial thing that hurt their poor widdle feelings or some contrived notion of their human rights. If a copper sees a way of doing the same then screw it, let him have the cash. Yeah, I know it's coming from the taxpayers pocket, but I'm just about to work out how much money I have to send the UK taxman and I'd rather every penny went to that copper than wasted on some bullshit artist who claims the colour of the walls of his prison cell makes him depressed (that hasn't actually happened as far as I know, but in modern Britain you only have to give it time).