A difficult job, very badly.
One in the eye for "If you're innocent, you have nothing to fear" crowd there. Any one who still believes this obviously hasn't had to deal with the police recently.
Incidents like this, and I personally am aware of many, simply make the police force look like a bungling gang of humourless facists, and from recent experience I am sorry to say that is certainly becoming the case in most metropolitam areas.
Not so long ago, I was very nearly arrested when I was attacked by some pikey little scumbag on the way to the supermarket, and last week, a friend of mine was arrested by an off duty (and drunk) police officer in Tesco for "shoplifting", because he had been unable to procure a basket, and had carried his goods to the til by hand instead.
Come one guys, we know you have a very difficult job, but for f**ks sake, stop acting like such a pack of t**ts, then perhaps people will stop throwing stones at you.
As for the officers involved in the arrest and charging of a man they were supposed to be helping, they should be subject to some very harsh re education (disciplinary action is obviously to much to ask for, since as has already pointed out, it's OK to execute innocent civillians in the streets without such action being taken).
This kind of response, and subsequent behaviour is utterly disproportionate to the situation, in much the same way as "crash squads" of riot-gear clad officers in vans breaking and entering at 4am to arrest some tuppeny fence with a few DVD players under his bed, now a frequent occurence, and an utter waste of resources.
Police state ? Already here.
Oh, and I for one *would* criticise the response of the officers on the scene, they evidently made a thoroughly shoddy job of assesing the situation and the inherent risks involved. (I grew up in Manchester, at the height of the last forearms spree, so cries of 'you don't understand because...' fall upon my deaf ears).
While the loss of an officer to a firearms incident is unfortunate, it is no excuse for shoddy police work, and nor should it be accepted as such, shame on those of you who buy this cr*p.