When shooting people indiscriminately results in a little bad press it's time to do a little swatting up:
A police force is issuing its frontline officers with a guide to Islam in a bid to improve relations with the Muslim community. City of London Police is the first force in the country to issue its officers with a guide to the religion. The 86-page "Guide to Islam for non-Muslims" aims to give officers a better understanding of Islamic culture, its beliefs and traditions. The City of London force said it recognised that relations with the Muslim community were being damaged by a perception that police officers were "hostile" to Muslims and "fundamentally Islamophobic".
Some would say that perhaps the police force should be working to educate its officers on all the communities that they serve and not simply the ones they have shot up. Maybe get them reading before handing out the side arms... Not us of course, we prefer to keep our heads down and be good little citizens. If we've done nothing wrong there's nothing to worry about. Right?
The new guide, together with the purpose-built prayer facilities in our main police stations are just two examples of the ways in which we are continuing to improve the service we provide to the Muslim community.
So the purpose-built prayer facilities are for any passing Muslims who fancy dropping in? Or are they perhaps expecting to arrest so many Muslims in the future that it's prudent to plan ahead? Or are there also purpose-built prayer facilities for Buddhists? Jews? Satanists?
On the flipside any 'frontline' Londoners who'd like a guide to the police should read the 'Democracy' story lines in Judge Dredd and rent as many Sweeney DVDs as possible.
