A: Except when they don't.
An armed, veteran police officer stood idle for several minutes last
October as the Las Vegas gunman slaughtered dozens of concertgoers from a
perch one floor up, and now that cop's actions -- and inaction -- are
being reviewed by the Metropolitan Police Department.
B: Suddenly, after all the 'civilians' stuff, the cops are civilians, too, when it helps excuse this crap.
And Eugene O'Donnell, a former New York City cop and now instructor
at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said “we have to be
realistic."
"Police officers are civilians with guns,” he told the
Associated Press. “The notion that they can spring into action and take
on a mass murderer who is running up the body count is probably
something you can't ask."
Think about that. And he's probably one of the "You don't need a gun, the cops will protect you" people.
So, if you can't ask a armed, veteran officer to act to stop a murderer, WHY THE HELL IS HE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Shannon Watts must hate this, after all her "Civilians aren't up to stopping criminals" noise.
4 comments:
The cop is there to catch the evil doer after the fact and (maybe) prevent it from happening again.
Their obligation is to protect society in general rather than the individuals that make up society.
Or it could be that they are there to feed people into the Justice Industry machine.
And mass murderers are also "civilians with guns" so who has the advantage?
5. The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to the law, in complete
independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws; by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
Sir Robert Peel's Principles of Law Enforcement, 1829
Al_in_Ottawa
Actually, it is not far from the truth, to say that police are civilians with guns. Many police officers are not really " gun people", in a strict sense of the term. Sure, they use guns in their job, and may carry one off duty, if their dept. requires it. Some do, and some do not. But while many police officers certainly take their gun prowess seriously, that doesn't always mean that they all do. There are a lot of them who only shoot enough to satisfy the requirements of the agency that they work for, including qualifying.
I know that here in my city, officers at one time shot once a month and qualified once a year. They used to have a league that they shot in with other area dept. years ago, but that has gone away, from what I heard.
I do know that there are many civilians who are better trained than many law enforcement officers. I think that is actually the responsible thing to do, as a person who chooses to protect myself and my family around me.
The last time a mass shooter was in a good sniper's post with a bag full of rifles was the Texas University clock tower shootings in the 1960's. That was a Marine rifleman in a perfect sniper's nest, with plenty of cover and a clear shot at anyone approaching before they even reached the building - if he dared stick his head out to look. The police responding to this borrowed rifles from bystanders, while other bystanders fetched rifles from their cars and were trying to pin down the shooter before the cops even arrived. The two cops that finally managed to work their way to the stairs of the clock tower had borrowed both a rifle and a shotgun - and the guy that lent them those long guns had a third long gun and went up the tower with the cops.
But this modern-day poor excuse for a cop had a safe approach to a position to the shooter's rear, at an easy pistol range once they broke down the door - and chickened out. Police chiefs that choose to train their cops in "getting home safely to their family" should be fired for encouraging cowardice.
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