In view of the hostage-taking incident which left at least four tourists dead, this announcement by the Hong Kong Security Bureau shouldn’t be surprising.
I guess the Philippines won’t be earning much from tourism in the coming months.
What we lose in tourism, we gain in global attention. Four top trending topics in Twitter, a live coverage by CNN and a front page article in the New York Times.
Ah, infamy. It was like watching Die Hard except this story was for real.
I have a few thoughts.
First, the hostage-taker, a former policeman, was dismissed from service last year. Everyone knows that a dismissed policeman must surrender his firearms and badge. Even those under suspension must do the same. So, where did he get the M-16 rifle he brought into the bus? Too many loose firearms in the black market?
Second, why did the bus driver who was able to escape earlier declare that everyone in the bus was already dead?
Third, why didn’t the police prevent media from broadcasting live when everyone knew that there was a television in the bus and the live broadcast made the hostage-taker aware of police movements?
In the first Die Hard film, remember Richard Thornburg, the reporter played by William Atherton? He was so obsessed with making a name for himself, and putting his network ahead in the ratings game, that he ordered his assistant to track down the home of hostage Holly Gennaro where he threatened the Mexican nanny with deportation unless he was allowed to interview the two children. When hostage-taker Hans Gruber saw the interview, he finally made the connection between Holly and the rogue cop John McLane who had been ruining his well laid out plan. At the end of the film, Thornburg pushed his microphone to Holly’s face and she socked him.
Well. Nothing. Thornburg’s character just came to mind as it always does in situations when media push so hard even when they shouldn’t. Like what happened today, a repeat of what they did during the 2007 Manila Peninsula takeover when soldiers on trial for coup d’etat skipped their court hearing and converged at the hotel. The police drove them away then; I don’t know why they couldn’t be told off today. Media should learn to leave the police to do its job. Who benefits from the blow-by-blow account anyway except the voyeurs, the usiseros and chismosos who are too bored with their lives that their only source of excitement is to stay glued to their TV sets and radios to watch and listen to things like this?
Instead of helping, the gung-ho attitude to do a minute-by-minute coverage just jeopardize the lives of the hostages. On Facebook, a fellow blogger said, “RATINGS! YAN LANG ANG INIISIP NG MGA MEDIA NETWORKS! KAYA KAHIT ALAM NILANG MAY MAPAPAHAMAK, SIGE LANG ANG PAG ROLL NG CAMERA!” Translation: “Ratings! That’s all that media networks care about. Even if they know they are putting people in danger, just go and let the camera roll.”
I’ll go even farther. The thousands who had been re-tweeting the posts of media outfits are just as guilty — the hostage-taker could have as easily kept himself abreast of police movements with a cell phone and internet connection.
I thought the same thing when I saw the coverage on tv. That bus most likely had a tv of some sort where the hostage taker could’ve easily gotten information from the ongoing media coverage and kept two steps ahead of the swarming police. It could’ve ended in a less gruesome manner if they were more discreet (the media).
What really pissed me off was the rubberneckers who swarmed in after they heard the assailant was taken down. All these bystanders who had no reason to be there, blocking rescue efforts and impeding the ongoing rescue/retrieval.. simply put, it made me cringe. I am now wholly embarrassed to be filipino. (shakes head)
Footnote, I grew up in Hong Kong. My family migrated while I was 7; I am now 23. That was where I received both my primary and secondary education. Back home (home is HK), I try to pretend I’m not filipino, because the filipino subculture in HK leaves nothing to be desired. We’re a disgrace to such a beautiful and respectable country. I bet you understand. Good thing that no one could guess I am not a native despite everyone’s mistaking me for a local.
Once again, we are infamous. Not famous.
I’ve watched the last two hours of the siege.
Sad…
But there are things that I can also surmise -
“Why did the bus driver who was able to escape earlier declare that everyone in the bus was already dead?”
Perhaps, he heard a lot of sounds from gun fires behind his back where he can’t confirm whatever happened (it’s dark?). Or, he was freed on the condition that he follow the hostage-taker’s instruction. (He was isolated right away, isn’t he).
“Why didn’t the police prevent media from broadcasting live when everyone knew that there was a television in the bus and the live broadcast made the hostage-taker aware of police movements? ”
Perhaps you’re correct there if we’re going to talk about what this stupid enforcers have done to the hostage-taker family. On the last two hours of the situation, it”s more on the police’s stupidity and nothing else.
I would not be surprised if all the fatalities death were inflicted by the police/SWAT when they finally decided to end the siege,.
“Like what happened today, a repeat of what they did during the 2007 Manila Peninsula takeover when soldiers on trial for coup d’etat skipped their court hearing and converged at the hotel.”
Totally different issues. This Peninsula thing is also personal but with political agenda and this later one is with psychotic thing.
Just the same, nakakahiya…
Nevertheless, one of the fewest time I’ve seen ABS-CBN is objective in covering a live news.
Pahabol -
My comment -
“Nevertheless, one of the fewest time I’ve seen ABS-CBN is objective in covering a live news.”
Ang inabutan ko nga pala ay wala si Tunying “the Chinese time interpreter” (what’s his last name) at si Pinky “galit kay GMA” Webb.
“Why didn’t the police prevent media from broadcasting live when everyone knew that there was a television in the bus and the live broadcast made the hostage-taker aware of police movements? ”
Perhaps you’re correct there if we’re going to talk about what this stupid enforcers have done to the hostage-taker family. On the last two hours of the situation, it”s more on the police’s stupidity and nothing else
Remember the Peninsula Seige? ABS kept showing footage of the military’s actions. Only when they stopped, when the gov forces were able to enter. It seems to many that ABS’s close-up of the hostage-taker’s brother agitated him, and made the situation worse.
BUT for me, the biggest questions is this: Animals are gunned down with tranqulizer darts when they rampage. The hostage-taker showed himself several times OUTSIDE the bus. Why couldn’t they tranquilize him?
@A
Tranquilizers don’t work the same way they do on people as they do with animals if I recall.
And besides, if you decided to tranq the perp, what do you think his first instinctive act will will be in a a bus full of hostages, and he’s the only one with a loaded gun?
I was talking to my dad earlier regarding this shooting as well. According to him, there are rumors circulating that one reason why the police have yet to release the bodies of the deceased hostages was because they’re afraid people will realize that the shots that hit them came from outside the bus.
[Totally different issues. This Peninsula thing is also personal but with political agenda and this later one is with psychotic thing. ]
Tama. The bus incident was instigated by a madman who has gone off the deep end of his sanity. Manila Peninsula was conducted by trained military professionals, several of whom had bloodied their noses in Mindanao.
There’s a huge difference there – the soldiers you can at least reason with. A crazed cop with a gun, not so much.
Peninsula incident mentioned in relation to media busy-bodies hampering police/military operations. No real difference between that and the Quirino grandstand incident insofar as media’s meddling goes.
If any of those reporters were in the same journ classes me and my mates had to go through in college, they’d be changing courses in about a week
The unprofessional behavior of reporters here in RP shame me, and that’s saying a lot given I’m just a “lowly” video game reporter XD
The deranged man was a well-awarded and highly regarded cop. He was sacked because he was implicated in a case regarding a chef.
WHAT IF… What if he really WAS innocent? What if he really was driven to insanity by the injustice he claims he suffered? Wouldn’t that put blood on this chef’s hand?
Speculation. If indeed the Chef he apprehended was a drug trafficker, but managed to pay his way off to freedom, accusing innocent police officers, then the blame would ultimately fall on him, and the people he bribed–he was the cataclyst to this man’s insanity.
It is only too convenient to blame a person’s actions on the actions of others. Unfortunate and tragic things happen to everyone, but we always have the choice to do what is within legal bounds (or not). Regardless of whether that police officer was sane or insane, regardless of his real motivations, taking 25 people (or even just one person) hostage is simply wrong, no matter which way you look at it. Can anyone honestly say that he had no other recourse????
Ultimately though, it all boils down to the choices we make. This deranged man may have had other options, but it is my inkling that he was too unstable to think clearly.
This tragedy is ultimately a product of several factors, all of which were caused by bad judgments. Ignorance on the part of law enforcement, hubris and nonchalance by the media, and plain stupidity/desperation by the hostage taker.
BTW, in case of criminal insanity, the hostage taker could not be held accountable for his actions. The blame would be on the people who provoked him.
The police is not insane. As former police chief, he understood that the true police business is saving lives. He exacted revenge on his superiors by going the opposite way – killing lives. This is clearly shown when he posted, “BIG MISTAKE” sign.
Regardless, his service record does not justify what he did yesterday.
No one is justifying what he did. But responsibility and culpability is not his alone. All the people involved ultimately have something to do with it.
Agreed. The media should have been cordoned off and relegated to press reports, imho. In a hostage situation like this, the police have to assume that their target has either a radio or TV, and will be listening to the news as well.
They should have imposed a media blackout for opsec’s sake.
And secondly, why did they even have to arrest the perp’s relatives?
The responsibility rests entirely with the gunman. He alone took the hostages at risk. The media or the police cannot second guess what the gunman will or will not do.
But they have the responsibility of damage control.
The police are responsible for the safety of the hostages, which means they should have planned for any possible factors that could provoke the hostage-taker.
Getting into specifics, that means keeping bystanders and reporters at a distance from the bus; crowds have a nasty way of pissing of mentally deranged individuals. They failed to do that, as evidence by the scattered gaggle of newsmen who were getting within range of the bus.
That also means careful negotiations with the hostage taker. They also failed in this aspect. Whatever gave them the idea that it’d calm the perp down if he saw his loved ones getting arrested and dragged away on handcuffs?
For the newsmen, that means they must understand that whatever they broadcast can be viewed by the hostage taker in a tour bus (TV, radio, et.), and that whether they like it or not, they’ll have to be more discreet about what information they disclose, lest they compromise the police’s OpSec.
Both media and relatives can be useful during hostage negotiations but police has no absolute control how they played out in a very fluid situation once there is a breach in the police line, hence the gunman’s brother was arrested.
Granted that police put bystanders and reporters at a distance, that will not change that much if you consider that current technology allows powerful lenses to zoom in.
In life and death situation, there is only wishful happy conclusion or tragedy. There is no such thing as damage control.
Then set up metal dividers between the crowd and the bus.
I think Mendoza saw Episode 2 of of Season 8 of CSI: Miami (aired last week locally) and got this idea that taking hostages to clear one’s name is an effective strategy — Hostile Takeover.
Connie,
I don’t like adding to the collective confusion about how things went down, but I have to ask:
1. What person in their right mind would stop for a lone man in a police uniform waving a rifle? Do tour buses normally pick up hitchhikers? (based on current information anyway)
2. In the multiple times the gunman showed up at the doorway of the bus, alone and complacent, did any of the so-called snipers think of taking that crucial shot then?
3. Did any of the authorities remind the media that what they were doing was endangering public safety?
4. What was a ten-year old boy doing within firing range of the bus???
I have so many other questions, not because I don’t know the answer, but because I wish someone would tell me that that nagging voice in the back of my head is wrong.
This is only a symptom of a larger problem, one that is both systemic (poor enforcement of police regulations, crowd control, media) and cultural (the demand for sensational news to entertain the masses, the tendency to provide emotional justification for illegal acts– wait for the wailing relatives to proclaim his innocence in a few hours, and the tendency to FORGET).
The biggest question, I guess, is NOW WHAT???? Until the next hostage crisis? Until the next tragedy?
[1. What person in their right mind would stop for a lone man in a police uniform waving a rifle? Do tour buses normally pick up hitchhikers? (based on current information anyway)]
The point is that he’s a cop in uniform. The driver probably thought it was some sort of checkpoint or search.
[2. In the multiple times the gunman showed up at the doorway of the bus, alone and complacent, did any of the so-called snipers think of taking that crucial shot then?]
The police had minimal knowledge of the target then. How did they know he was the only hostage taker, and that there wasn’t a second gunman hiding among the hostages? Did he have a bomb on board that he may detonate if he’s alarmed?
I’m not justifying their incompetence, but from what I read, every SWAT op usually won’t move in unless they’re absolutely sure of certain details, like those listed above.
Two things are clear:
1. This cop stood to lose his pension and he won’t take that sitting down.
2. Philippine cops have only one rule: Shoot first at all times and stay alive.
S4it happens! This was simply overblown out of proportion and HK is simply over dramatic. Why didn’t they block their citizens from going to U.S. after 9/11 then?
And who says they didn’t?
I worked in the tourism industry in San Francisco before/after 9/11. I do not know about Hong Kong, but Japan issued a travel advisory and as a result we lost ALL of our Japanese business for the first three months and it really didn’t rebound for another year. Took closer to two years to get to our pre 9/11 business levels. It was just part of the fallout and although Japan hit my particular company the hardest (they were our largest international market), but we were screwed for all international bookings for a long time and had to rely on domestic travel. They (Japan) had to do what they felt was best for their citizens.
It is also worth noting that HK moved us from Amber to Black, so it is not like we were new to their advisory list. Crazy part is, after a horrible event like this, it is actually the safest time in some regards to travel because everyone is on high alert and extra cautious.
They did? How about a link.
That reaction from HK is expected. We can’t really blame them, though that’s just a suggestion.
Probably the driver couldn’t see since he was in the front and just concluded because of the shots he heard. It was reckless to shout that, though can’t really blame him after what he went through..
Cops – special weapons and tactics…..what special weapons? what tactics? why couldn’t they control the crowd? was that best rope they could get to pull the door?
Hostage taker – innocent or not, that was not the way! Cops vs Cops! The civilians had nothing to do with it!
Media – they were all over the place, even the crime scene. It’s possible that showing the hostage taker’s brother being arrested caused further agitation. How can a reporter say that a hostage is dead even without checking for a pulse? Cameras in the emergency room? Everyone wants to get interviewed!
Some interesting reading.
Guidelines for Covering Hostage-Taking Crises, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=4640
A simple answer: The local media recognizes no authority other than their own especially when ratings are involved. It’s like candidates running for office putting up campaign materials *everywhere*.
Somebody needs to put a leash on our media.
Equal blame on the police as well for piss-poor crowd control.
I agree with you there. I think the media ruined a lot of things last night. And they are even covering things up. Hay… I was so disappointed by what happened. And I’m sorry I didn’t think the negotiators did everything. Because before the first gun shot was fired, the hostage taker was still trying to cooperate. I think he’s an intelligent man, because he knows the office of the ombudsman who sent him the letter are just trying to b****s*** him so he asked for media. I think he wants to talk, and he wants the chance to let the world know what happened to him. I don’t know, it all boils down to corruption I think.
Clarissa, the man took a bus full of tourists hostage to try to get his job as a police officer back. I think those details alone already imply the man in question was not in a proper state of mind.
I definitely agree on corruption. Here is a cop who thinks he is entitled to his lucrative job and pumped bullets on innocent tourists for not getting it back. As a man of law, he did not take the court to fight his dimissal and instead took the preferred option in the underworld -by the gun.
I totally agree on this. Ratings is what the media was after not realizing they’re putting people’s lives in danger. Tsk tsk tsk.
media should blame because they were just competing who will be the first to cover the scenes .. not knowing it will be the cause of mendozas anger ..
I will agree that the situation is very dangerous and things are easier said than done, and i will commed the police for reducing the casualties with the earlier release of a number of hostages, but a lot of ‘basic and practical’ things were missed and may have been controllable considering:
-the area was not secured (it looked like a local circus)
-the live media coverage compromised the safety of the hostages and policemen’s positions
-the SWAT team was ill-equipped
-no miniature night vision or infra red cameras they can insert into any hole in the bus for recon?
-no 2-way radio headsets, they were holding hammers,armalites and shields at the same time?
-no small explosives that can smash the windows in one-go?
-no portable ladders to mitigate the position disadvantage?
-some members of the assault team were not wearing bullet proof vests?
-their assault move was slow and uncoordinated, no element of surprise
-they could have jammed or eavesdropped the phone conversation which supposedly have agitated the hostage-taker
-the sniper team had ‘clear’ shots in the afternoon, they could have neutralized him with a shot on the leg (this is a judgement call of the ground commander)
Vision is always 20/20 in hindsight. Or the hi-tech equipment budget was already spent by the Euro-generals in their shopping spree.
You’re right. The SWAT team looked like a bunch of amateurs. I wonder where they got their training in handling hostage situations.
I’m tempted to say Counter-Strike, but probably not because none of them was bunny-hopping.
People are just overreacting. And it is easy to blame everybody else (like media, police, budget, training, etc) except the gunman.
If you consider a better equipped and trained US SWAT team assaulted a wrong house and killed a child, the Philippine SWAT team looks more intelligent than its US counterpart.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/17/detroit-girl-7-killed-in-swat
According to 2006 Cato Institute report,”These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. “
A better trained SWAT team wouldn’t have let 10 hostages get killed if they could help it. Period.
“A better trained SWAT team wouldn’t have let 10 hostages get killed if they could help it. Period.” – Twin-Skies
I hope the MPD SWAT learns a valuable lesson from all these. Maybe next time something like this happens, they shoot the hostage taker immediately the moment they get the chance. No ifs, no buts.
Better to take the perp’s life than risk the death of many hostages.
It also sends the message to other would-be hostage takers later that it’s not the healthy way to air their grievances.
Are you telling us that that SWAP screw-up happened only in the Philippines? No SWAP screw-up in other countries? I’m not ending it with a period, take note.
I could agree that something went wrong.
Slip-ups like that do happen to everybody Tr0sp, you have a point there. Even a good police force has its off days.
But that does not absolve our team of their gross incompetence, which I think is the crux of this matter.
Are you trying to justify our police’s clusterf*ck by saying that it’s okay because it has happened to everybody else?
And I believe the spelling is SWAT, not SWAP
“Are you trying to justify our police’s clusterf*ck by saying that it’s okay because it has happened to everybody else?”
As I’ve commented – “I could agree that something went wrong.”
Did it in any form or substance have meant that it justified our police’s clusterf*ck?
As for my calling them SWAP instead or SWAT, all I can say is I could also screw-up things. I would say – petty things like my English grammar which I can say as not one of my strong points.
Heh, I could always compete with anybody else in comprehension but not in grammar and spelling.
The point of comparison, this is the 1st Philippine SWAT case compared to repeat operations by US SWAT teams and the US SWAT teams who are better equipped and better trained yet made terrible blunders.
It is easy to criticize for letting that much hostages killed, right? If only police knew that the gunman would have wasted so many hostages, the police sniper would have taken the gunman before the rampage.
Regardless the situtation outside the bus, the critical error was that police sniper has no authority to shoot until the gunman fired first which is way too late when he has the M16. That should change if there are too many lives at risk.
Hopefully, the lessons and realizations we, the police, media and even us netizens, learned from this tragedy, would be put into action. This is the only that’s been missing for so long.
I meant to say: This is the only thing that’s been missing for so long.
“Debacle” does not even begin to describe this miserable chain of events.
One of the things that nags me is: if the sniper had wounded the hostage-taker, it would have to have been done in such a way as to prevent him from reaching for his guns (and by the info, he had an assortment) to shoot at the hostages, even while wounded. Well, it could’ve gone down that way.
If they’d killed him outright, thus freeing all/most of the hostages alive – which is theoretically the main objective of hostage negotiations/assault – I am almost sure someone out there would have been bewailing the “trigger-happy” nature of the police snipers, amidst all the jubilation about rescuing the people.
As it was, I actually managed to sleep through an hour of the coverage, thanks to the droning of the news commentators. It wasn’t until the commotion with Mendoza’s brother that the manure hit the fan. If he was there as next of kin and not in any official capacity, he should have been asked to surrender his gun right from the start, and slammed into the precinct lockup if he didn’t cooperate.
It’s a chain of events that only serves to highlight how far we have to go to fix up things in this country. But we’ve got to try – Pinoys don’t need to roll over and take crap from anyone, especially not their own.
Debacle isn’t the word you’re looking for. The Navy SEALs have a more appropriate term for what happened: FUBAR, or Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.
There’s also Clusterfuck, but FUBAR is more popular.
I just saw the sledgehammer footage. You know, the one where the police used a sledgehammer to break the glass windows and the sledgehammer slipped from the cop’s hand and fell inside the bus giving Mendoza yet another weapon. Totally out of this world. Can’t say anymore that this was Die Hard stuff. This was Austin Powers and Naked Gun 2-1/2 combined.
It’s like a Mr. Bean movie.
Once again The Philippines is held up to ridicule before The World .
Ridicule? For having killed a kidnapper who killed his hostages? It is the appropriate response. The better response next time is to shoot the gunman first when there are too many lives at stake.
This is what the police commanders have learned when they said, they understimated the gunman (a police officer).
No, for waiting for the hostages to be killed before killing the hostage taker, as you mentioned.
Yes ! RIDICULE !!!….This isn’t the first bus ever to be hijacked or hostages held . In this day and age all police and security forces co-operate , exchange information and make their experiences available for other organizations to learn from . Why hasn’t the PNP made use of this ? After all you have home grown terrorist organizations as well as criminal gangs etc .
You NEVER underestimate your opponent . The first warning sign in this was the simple fact of what this guy did….kidnap innocent people , A very big WARNING sign that you were dealing with a dangerous man in a very volatile situation . Its commonsense !
So yes , sadly , RIDICULE .
Ridicule is for tsismosos and usyuseros. In tragedy, there is only sympathy and grief for the victims and their families.
Oh, this is just great, now our countrymen are treating the bus site as another photo op:
http://ravenrepublic.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=2345&pid=7848139#pid7848139
Where the is forensics? Why the fuck are they letting these idiots get this close to a crime scene? Honestly, these retards should be ashamed at what they’re doing. People died needlessly there – IT IS NOT A FREAKING TOURIST ATTRACTION!
Oh my goodness. We live in a truly desensitized society. When the hostage drama was taking place, people treated it as entertainment — an object of curiosity and gossip. Now that it’s over, crime scene’s a tourist attraction. Cops posing and smiling for photos… Unbelievable.
You can tell that something is really wrong with our culture. This is so wrong.
I found a link instructing reporters on what they should do during a hostage situation. I think we can all benefit from reading this:
http://cmfr-phil.org/2007/04/07/what-to-do-in-a-hostage-situation/
According to BBC, a respected media institution, our media was one of the factors for the failure. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11069616
Hmmmm should be “media” in general because CNN was broadcasting live feeds too.
True, but did the Bus’ TV or radio have CNN?
Mendoza had a cell phone. I don’t know of any cell phone today that can’t connect to the internet.
I stand corrected.
Take my advice – if you want credible news, I suggest either Al Jazeera or BBC. CNN fell out of favor with me around the time they started posting so many ridiculous human interest stories on their site.
Mine can’t , lol …. Or is it me ? lol.
Oh my goodness. Is that digital or analog?
I keep asking it , but it wont answer , lol .
HAHAHAHA
and where was pnoy in all of this… or even fred lim… i’m so disappointed in pnoy’s lack of involvement or proactiveness in all this. there was not even clear communication or coordination with the chief executive of hk during the time this was happening. the latter was trying to reach malacanang the whole time but pnoy was reportedly in a meeting and never got around to returning his call. needless to say, the chief exec was totally livid — angry would not even be sufficient to describe how he looked like on tv.
this will be a big, big blow not only to the philippines’ image and reputation all over the world but also to the economy. we are now officially the subject of international ridicule and disgust.
he said in the news na sinadya niya talaga na hindi makialam. I wonder why. And he was even ridiculed by some HK newsmen that he was smiling while he was being interviewed by media after the siege. Siyempre nga naman insensitive ang labas niya, kasi he didn’t even look like he was saddened at all. And sorry, OT, I get piss by Pnoy’s stance everytime he is being interviewed or even walking. Nakahalukipkip palagi. Kasi in psychology when you do that, it’s like either you’re not interested with what the topic is or you’re not approachable. Sa akin he looks mayabang. Hay…sorry, I am not ranting about Pnoy ha…hehehe
He says he smiles when he’s happy but he also smiles when he’s nervous or tense. To each his own.
This is a wake-up call for PNoy. As a leader, his body language is readable to a wider audience and can easily be misunderstood.
Magpabotox na lang kaya, para walang smiles.
Someone was “fired” for a wrong storm track forecast. Will the Palace “fire” someone over something like this?
Four got fired already. All from the SWAT team.
Ah, yes, just heard it over the radio.
I am still hoping that someone will step up and say that he was sorry and that it was his group’s fault (or his fault).
Again, the government is overreacting. There is really no need to relieve the 4 members of SWAT team as their function is limited by specific instruction. The police director who gave the assault order (which was too late) has already offered to go on leave for impartial investigation.
In hindsight, the police director gave too much chances for rogue police officer than think of the dreadful consequences of the hostages.
what do you expect from people who eat human fetuses?