Police protection

One of the big stories today has to be the police officer in the diplomatic protection squad that requested not guard the Israeli embassy during Hezbollah's conflict with Israel. The Guardian claim that this was because of moral concerns. Police officers deciding that they should not have to protect people the protection that the law demands because of their personal moral judgements would be a truely terrible situation and mark the end of the rule of law.

Luckily the Guardian is wrong. This officer requested not to guard the Israeli embassy because he felt that the lives of himself and his family, which includes family members in Lebonon where they could easily end up victims of Hezbollah. However the fact that the police cannot even protect their own officers from Islamist violence is hardly a ringing endorsement of their ability to protect us the public from the Islamists.

UPDATE

The Telegraph carries exactly who this Officers family in Lebonon are

Pc Alexander Omar-Basha's father-in-law is related to Bakri [Omar Bakri Mohammed]