It is not often that I watch a documentary all the way through with my mouth open in amazement, but watching Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis on Netflix did that to me.
I don’t know how many times I burst out with “WTF?” and “I can’t believe this!” and similar; and you will too.
I know we’ve come a long way since the late 1980s, but this documentary needs to be shown to police forces worldwide as a “How NOT To Handle A Hostage Situation” guideline.
The Jackals Of The Press don’t come off covered with glory either — although I know that any other country’s Press, under the same circumstances, would have behaved the same or worse. (“And now, over to our reporter on the scene, Geraldo Rivera…” OMG, the mind boggles.)
And it ends terribly.
Read up about our very own Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney in 2016, where staggering police incompetence led to completely avoidable hostage deaths. The SAS planned and rehearsed an assault on the building, then volunteered to carry out the attack. Their assistance was refused! They warned the police not to use their 5.56mm rifles because of the dangers of ricochets and overpenetration. They were ignored. A sniper with a clear shot was forbidden to fire because the police commanders believed that police did not have lawful authority to shoot Monis because they conceded he did not pose an imminent or immediate danger to the hostages! (This was a man with a pump action shotgun and an IED. But no danger!) Police waited 17 hours before storming the cafe only AFTER a hostage was killed. Even then, they managed to also shoot three hostages and one of their own men! (None fatal, fortunately.)
A total cock-up from go to whoa!
Refused! If I were ever held as a hostage, I would want them involved. In fact I might suggest they want David Stirling’s or Paddy Mayne’s organization to do the negotiation.