Before Monday's terror attack in Sydney came to its violent and tragic end in a pre-dawn raid, Catherine Burn, the deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Police gave a press conference. The BBC reported that in the presser Burn said, "Our approach is to resolve this peacefully. It might take a bit of time but that is our priority."
With respect, this is deeply misguided, as subsequent events cruelly illustrated. Two hostages--Katrina Dawson, 38 and a mother of 3, and Tori Johnson, 34--were killed, and three other hostages, all women, were also shot. The police raid that ended the crisis was not planned, and reportedly happened after Mr. Johnson, the cafe manager, made a brave play for his captor's gun and got shot. To make an obvious observation, unpredictable circumstances like this are likelier and likelier to come about the longer such a situation continues.
A peaceful resolution may be preferable, and worth pursuing, but it should not be the priority in the midst of a terror attack. Protecting the lives of the hostages should be the priority of the authorities.
There is a difference. Operating on the premise that a peaceful resolution is your first priority implies that you are willing to pass up early opportunities to save the hostages through force. There can be huge opportunity costs for not acting when given the chance.
On the evidence available in the press, there appears to be a decent chance that this is exactly what happened in Sydney. Consider this photograph:
One does not need to be a military or law enforcement professional to draw the conclusion that if a news crew can film an image like this, a trained marksman could have opportunities to shoot the hostage taker. To put it plainly, opportunities like this are as good as it gets. The terrorist, Man Haron Monis, was a lunatic with a history of violence and radical rhetoric, and he was obviously not a pro. In addition to displaying himself through the window, he was unable to control his hostages, several of whom escaped during the course of the incident. Through speaking with the hostages, the police would have known that there was only one terrorist, a crucial piece of information required before acting. They had the information. They had the marksmen.
But they had set as their priority a peaceful resolution. It is of course possible that the moment filmed above was a one-off, and the only such opportunity that presented itself. But considering how incompetent Monis was, this seems hard to believe, and in any event the logic of Deputy Commissioner Burn's statement would have precluded action.
It is unclear who shot whom in the final raid, and I have tremendous sympathy for the officers who ran into that charnel house and traded shots with Monis. There can be no blame for them--in America, our finest servicemen in the Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 train for just such moments, and hostages still end up dying in raids. Raids are a bloody and unpredictable means of settling such crises, especially when they are rushed into in an unplanned fashion brought about by circumstances beyond the control of the authorities.
Which is why it would be nice if the senior leadership of those tasked with fighting terrorism throughout the western world would show a little less kumbaya and a little more seriousness. Hostages' lives are the top priority. To say or act differently is shocking--and can lead to tragic results.