We’ve already noted how it took 40 minutes for Norwegian police to reach Utoya island after being dispatched, giving the psychopath plenty of time to murder his victims.
The police had to drive from Oslo, find a boat, and then get to the island. But why didn’t they just use a helicopter? Surely Norwegian police have helicopters, right?
Yep. They do. And that works just so long as the entire helicopter crew isn’t on vacation.
You read that right. Via the Associated Press, it turns out the entire police helicopter crew was allowed to go on vacation at the same time. So they weren’t available to be used to dispatch police officers to Utoya.
26. July 2011 at 8:23 pm
What a sad situation on the island where all the teenagers were murdered by a mad-man when the police could not even get on the island until some 90-minutes later.
In America, we Americans have a concealed carry law in 49 states. Everywhere you look some Tom, Dick or Harry is carrying a weapon under their shirt or jacket. These are law-abiding citizens that have reduced crime in all the big cities and everywhere.
It is sick that the police in Norway can’t even have loaded weapons in their police cars. Thank God that America is not that liberal yet where we cannot defend ourselves. God bless our Founding Fathers for giving us the 2nd Amendment – the right to bear arms.
29. July 2011 at 4:19 pm
I’m calling BS on this. Norwegian police has one helicopter. This is for surveillance only and is not big enough to carry a fully loaded SWAT team. Military helicopters could have been used, but this would have taken more time then the time it took driving to the island.
Imagine an island in some Alaskan lake full of boy scouts. Suddenly one of the leaders had brought out a semi-automated rifle and a glock and started shooting. Do you really think the outcome would have been different? While the police were busy with a terrorist bombing? I don’t think the 2nd amendment is gonna save you on that one.
Every single Norwegian I have met is praising the efforts of the police because they know they did everything they could. And by the way, Norwegian police can have loaded guns in the trunk of their car, but they cant wear them unless the situation calls for it.
29. July 2011 at 4:32 pm
You don’t need a full SWAT team to climb into a helicopter to take out one nut on an island. You need a sharpshooter — something SWAT teams almost always have.
29. July 2011 at 10:40 pm
First, I’m sorry these articles are in Norwegian, but for verification you can try google translate or something.
http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/07/29/nyheter/terror/innenriks/17492166/
Here the Oslo police chief Øystein Mæland says that it would not have been faster to get a military helicopter and fly to the island. And for your information, the police helicopter is a surveillance helicopter with no room for a sniper. It’s a two man helicopter equipped with different cameras and tracking devices.
http://www.fvn.no/nyheter/innenriks/article887992.ece
In this article the Oslo police chief of staff and Johan Fredriksen and the former head of defense Sverre Diesen say that a military helicopter could not be deployed at the island faster than the SWAT team could drive there. They also mention the anti terror group that is a part of the Norwegian army. In this case, the SWAT team was closer and was already ready after the attack in downtown Oslo. Sverre Diesen also says that a sniper would have been out of the question. The Norwegian SWAT team (or DELTA team as it is actually called), have several snipers, but they would not have been helpful in this situation. The suspect were very close to his bystanders (he dressed as a police officer and told them to come closer), and as you probably have seen on pictures (I certainly hope you have some knowledge about this case), you can see that this Island mostly consists of a dense forest.
This is not Manhattan or downtown Dallas, this is rural, peaceful Norway.