Police fired a shotgun taser at Raoul Moat during the tense stand-off with Britain's most wanted man, say Sky News sources.

The controversial XREP pump-action weapon is more powerful than the standard hand-held taser, and does not have full Home Office approval.

It has a range of 100ft rather than 30ft, and has an anti-tamper device so if the victim tries to remove the high-voltage missile it delivers an electric shock to their hands.

Then it is feasible that the taser shots did indeed cause Moat to pull the trigger. Let's hope and pray the Northumberland police never have to deal with a siege on the scale of Beslan. I've always feared that something similar to the Beslan siege could happen here in the UK. I hope I'm wrong and hope to christ it doesn't happen in Northumberland.

So we have UNAPPROVED WEAPONS on the streets of our towns !!!

When are the Government going to CLAMP DOWN on our out of control CRIMINAL POLICE - who now seem to choose WEAPONS from a "Pick n Mix".

Mr Moat may be dead but the impact of what he has stirred up could last for many years. He has shown the POLICE up for what they are - bullies who roam around like Para Military outfits handing out instant assassinations with non approved weapons to anyone who dares to take them in in any way.

We THE PEOPLE ARE AT WAR with THE POLICE NOW.

BR wrote:
So we have UNAPPROVED WEAPONS on the streets of our towns !!!

According to the BBC (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10615302.stm)
"The XREP Tasers used are still undergoing tests however the government has said forces have discretion to use any equipment they deem necessary".

This poses some interesting questions -

1. What is the point in testing (and approving) weapons if police can use them anyway ?

2. Re "forces have discretion to use any equipment they deem necessary"
.. what ? Rocket launchers? Tanks? Nuclear weapons?

I think this is a case of the government issuing blanket guidelines (after the event) to "assist" their people oppressors.

btw The officers who used the Tasers were from the West Yorkshire force (watch out people of Huddersfield !)

BR wrote:

...Mr Moat may be dead but the impact of what he has stirred up could last for many years. He has shown the POLICE up for what they are - bullies who roam around like Para Military outfits handing out instant assassinations with non approved weapons to anyone who dares to take them in in any way.

We THE PEOPLE ARE AT WAR with THE POLICE NOW.

Once again BR gets it wrong.
The repeated attempts by a small minority whose views - while huge - are driven and informed by minuscule intellects to mythologise Roaul Moat are ignorant and misguided. Their current evangelistic calls paint a picture of a righteous man betrayed and cast adrift by the justice system. This "martyr" took one life with him, left another shattered by the prospect of a sightless future and yet another seriously injured. If Moat was attempting to make a point he went about it in such a way as to alienate anyone opposed to the use of violence. Had he been a member of Real IRA the same people currently posting their sick messages of support on Facebook would have had rather less sympathy.

BR - our own home-grown voice of permanent - if usually irrational - dissent has been unwavering in his holding up of the man he calls "Mr" Moat, praising him as a hero who was willing to lay down his life for the good of the people. And once again he is wrong.

The role of the police in this incident has been, as is all too often the case lately, regrettable. Faced with a dangerous ball they proceeded to drop it at every available opportunity. And I have little doubt that they could indeed have brought Moat in alive had they been more sensible and professional in their dealings with him. That his story ended in the way it did owes much to police incompetence.

Yet had he indeed been the victim of bullying police tactics in a world where the public at large are terrorised by the body designated to protect them his end, surely, should have been met in a hail of bullets fired by a hand other than his own.

Moat died as violently as he lived. But he died by his own hand, an option he denied to Chris Brown - and attempted to deny Samantha Stoddard and David Rathband . Such actions are not the handiwork of the heroic figure of BR's strange representations, in exactly the same way as his murderous intentions are not in accord with BR's oft-stated {though rarely demonstrated} religious beliefs.

If BR wishes to demonstrate what a good Christian he his {and I'm sure I'm not the only one who would question the purity of his devotion to Christ's teachings} he chooses an odd way to go about it. My guess would be that poor old BR has been too gullible and too impressionable for far too long.

Raoul Moat hasn't "stirred" anything up that could "last for many years". He'll be forgotten very quickly.
And BR should be very careful in his statements about being "at war with the police". They are the only thing between us and the next "hero" who wishes to take his personal problems with the police and society out on an innocent third party.

The next Roaul Moat might come after you, BR.
You'd better hope to the Christ you invoke yet fail to follow that he doesn't.

PM calls for end to sympathy for Moat

He is wasting his time !
Whilever there are hugely unanswered questions the public will continue to be suspicious.

From BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/10615302

It is not clear whether the Tasers were fired before or after Moat apparently shot himself, Independent Police Complaints Commission investigator Steve Reynolds told the hearing at Newcastle Civic Centre.

He said: "At 1.12am Mr Moat's shotgun discharged, resulting in him receiving fatal injuries.

"At some point around the time of the fatal shot two West Yorkshire firearms officers armed with Tasers discharged their weapons at Mr Moat.

"This was understood to have been in an effort to prevent Mr Moat taking his own life."

==

The interesting phrase is "At some point around the time of the fatal shot" ... which does not indicate that the tasers were used AFTER Moat had fired, but could have been used PRIOR to him firing.

In that case the use of Tasers could quite concievable have triggered a knee-jerk reaction and made Moat pull the trigger.

In other words ... Moat DID NOT kill himself, he was executed (without trial) by the police.

Just like Jean Charles Menenzies (and others).

A further interesting point (from the quotes above - direct from BBC website) is the statement

"This [the firing of Tasers shotguns] was understood to have been in an effort to prevent Mr Moat taking his own life."

This is a clear admission that Moat was executed.
The police would not have fired AFTER Moat had shot himself, would they?

And how can shooting AFTER he had shot himself, help prevent him taking his own life?

These taser shotguns would certainly have triggered a reaction from Moat.

17,000 people have now joined a Facebook group in support of Moat.

The fact that the government are now harrassing Facebook (because they won't tow the "party line") should worry everyone.

The BBC has already been "got at" (the page describing the police taser shotguns originally had info about them having a "sting" which would give an electric shock when the recipient tried to remove it from their skin - but this has now been "edited" out of the page. I wonder who persuaded them to do that??).

Publishing facts that the government don't like .... tut, tut, tut !

The Moat case will run and run ... because it stinks !

I see the Facebook page (with 30,000 followers) has now been "taken down" by the person who put it up originally.

Had the authorities "had a word"?

Was she about to face the same harassment as Moat?