Another Police Booboo

I got this e-mail accounting the personal observations of a friend regarding the botched rescue attempt of the hostages in Manila on August 23, 2010.

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Personal observations on Mendoza’s hostage taking


It is very disturbing to see how inept our police forces have remained in handling hostage situations.

To wit:

· Failure to control the crowd and media. Media was unwittingly telegraphing the PNP plans and positions over TV and radio. Rolando Mendoza apparently was able to listen to radio broadcasts.

· The police was ill-equipped with gas masks and comfortable assault uniforms and not office attires. Can you imagine executing assault moves in office uniforms?

· It is very important that the hostage taker be kept calm so he will decide on drastic steps not out of panic but clear thinking. The hostage takers must have panicked hearing over the radio the rough handling of his brother by the police who decided to arrest him for obstruction of justice.

· The police should have asked the help of his past superiors (as part of the negotiating team) who may have residual respect of the suspect having worked together in the past. They also may have an idea of the strength and weaknesses of his person and character which can be exploited for negotiation.

They should have been able to penetrate the Plexiglas windows of the bus fast knowing the character of Plexiglas and having the right equipment to break past them.

· The tentative behaviour of the assault team revealed their lack of courage and lack of training. We have been witness to live field demonstration of bus assaults during PNP anniversaries and see how penetration of the bus is done with team members being lifted to an assault teammember’s shoulders to get a clear view and shot of the inside of the bus. This was not employed.

· The assault teams cowered in fear as if at a loss on what to do next.

The assault members apparently were not individually equipped with communication radios.

· Even bystanders were seen assisting in bringing victims to the emergency rooms. Apparently the emergency recovery team were not adequately organized.

What aggravated the situation was the fact the world was witness how we bungled the hostage situation.

When can we have an adequately trained and equipped police force? Gas masks lang, wala pa!

Just an opinion.