From the Duh Files

I don't understand why people seem so puzzled about the purpose of the fake suicide vests worn by the London terrorists who used a van to run down people and then dismounted to stab people.

Was it to deter police from shooting them? Hardly. The vests would encourage police to shoot them before they could detonate in a crowd.

Was it to take hostages? Maybe. But the terrorists didn't act like they were out to grab people and retreat to some covered area to hold them. What evidence is there for this scenario other than the assumption that this is what the vests were for?

Was it to create maximum fear? Running people down and stabbing them seemed to be enough for that. That's a lot of effort that will get you shot by the police even at the risk of killing a single hostage to avoid an explosion that kills many, isn't it?

Please, the sole purpose was to prevent large numbers of unarmed people from overwhelming the knife-wielding attackers because of a justifiable fear that getting close to the attackers to hit them with table legs or chairs or fists would get the terrorists to set off the bomb. This fake bomb was purely to buy the terrorists time before armed police arrive to stab as many people as they could.

I honestly couldn't believe this explanation didn't lead the speculations.

And if you keep reading that article, you find one man who experienced the attack quoted as saying exactly that. That charging the knife-armed jihadis would just get him killed in an explosion. Duh. But experts couldn't grasp that.

Stop trying so hard. Sometimes the obvious explanation is just fine.