Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Lesson from the Manila Hostage taking

It was frustrating too see how the hostage taking ended leaving some hostages dead..It shown us how weak our official and police methods in handling such crisis.
It fails for some obvious reason

1. Negotiating skills of hostage crisis- Thay should issue positive statement to the hostage taker-Says ok we wil reinstate you in the police force again-grab him -and says later we lied-just like Sen. Mirriam said once-I lied-Lying is not bad when you were saving innocent lives, isnt it?
2. Lack of training of police in assault operation- No coordination- They just standing there waiting the suspect to peek hoping to take some shot.- they should watch in you tube-how the police commando storm the japanese embassy in Peru years back..
3. No elements of surprise - They finding hard time opening the door..and urong sulong ang assult..If its terorrist-all hostages would be dead by then..
4. Too early violent response for hostage crisis--remember peru hostage crisis-it took months to end but still in the end they were praised..Its good to end a crisis early if we were sure what we were doing..
5. Live media coverage - Suspects watch every police move in bus television-watch how his relative were treated by police-It agitate him to the point negotiating is not an option..
3. Lack of equiptments- A must for any assault opeartion
No night vision google- they should take advantage of the darkness-
a. kill all lights (hard eventhough because of media people lights and spotlights)
No ladder - Imagine police swat climbing in the back of the bus - grrrr they could use ladder making them more mobile at the same time easy peeking..
No flex camera - They should have used it-ive seen it the movie swat to determine location of hostage taker..Pathetic our local swat police just merely peeking the windows hoping in luck to see the location of the hostage taker..
No Gas Mask- Its funny the police enter the bus without gas mask and keep snooping out the have refresh air even after the siege was over..Rescuing the victims will be lot easier if they used gas mask and google entering the bus..wheeew..it cost only 50 dollars in ebay..
Media airing the whole scenario- Emotional attachment of the hostage taker is critical-ive seen his family in someway being manhandled by police making the suspect agitated.
No infrared camera- The hostage taker was easier to be spotted using body heat registering infrared camera..
Despite all these our police force displays gallantry..imagine assault without body armor?thats amazing-ive only seen it in movies..
But we salute our police forces, they did well specially waiting sniper on stand by waiting for a shot- limited resources and lack of training was to blame-still it was resolved- its the system and method needs improvement..
Godwilling hope this kind of incident will not be repeated..