Trigger-happy police?
Might wanna check your stats on that.
EVERY town and city in the UK has violent drug dealing criminals walking around. All of them. No exceptions. If you don't realise that you're naive as hell.
Anyway, this was not an 'off-the-cuff' operation. It was well-planned and carried out in conjunction with others in the area. This type and scale of operation is not carried out without extensive surveillance and solid intelligence, and approval from above. They knew the targets would be armed, or they wouldn't have pulled an armed stop.
And while I have a degree of sympathy with the family, I have none for the deceased. The fewer of his type running around, the better. You gonna cry over a violent, armed, drug-dealing muppet? Or do you believe he was a good innocent boy like his daddy said? Gimme a break. Are you actually that naive?
A small insight into the Asian drug-dealing scene, I live very close to a large Pakistani area and we see it every day. There's an 'ice-cream' shop nearby. It's open all year round and is surprisingly popular with Pakistani lads of...oh...between 16 and 30 - rain, wind or shine. A fleet of powerful and expensive white Mercs/Audis sits outside and they all meet to enjoy, erm, perhaps a nice scoop of double choc with sprinkles. Every so often a taxi will pull up, the driver will pop in (those lads love their ice cream) before heading off with a 'delivery'.
I mention the cars because something common around Manchester is the Pakistani dealers are now driving white Mercedes and Audis. They're the 'in' cars for their scene, moving on from the Subarus and Evos they preferred a few years ago. Don't believe me? Have a drive around Cheetham Hill or Bury, and I imagine, Bradford or Huddersfield.
I also enjoyed a taxi ride a few years ago during which the Pakistani driver told me how he was being put under increasing pressure from said lads to deliver drugs. He was a father of 3 and wasn't interested, but gave me an insight into the sort of growing underworld in Northern cities. He was scared of where it might end. The drugs scene is simply enormous, and far more visible than it used to be.
Fun fact: he lives round the corner and was taking me home from the airport one night after a few very long and tiring days away with work. Ten minutes after he dropped me off he came round with a gorgeous home-cooked meal from his wife. "We thought you might enjoy this after your time away". Amazing. The food was bloody good too.
