Pages

Why the police should be armed?

Yesterday I linked to piece from Inspector Gadget about rapes. I'm not a fan of the Inspector but I found that article to be very good and well written / well told.

The Boiling Frog points out that that post has now been removed, for reasons unknown.

When I went back to the link in order to verify this claim I noticed this article.

I've now gone from having a slight admiration for the Inspector, back to having none.

Most of his posts seem to complain about the sorry state of modern policing caused by the PC brigade and the political elite, then apologise for the rank and file just 'doing their jobs' while not speaking up or attempting to change anything.

Anyway, use the link and watch the video. He reckons this vid is good reason for coppers to be armed. He doesn't say with what though. All the coppers in that video are carrying weapons - pepper sprays and batons, but these were not enough according to the Inspector.

So what does he want? I hope he doesn't mean every officer should carry a gun. Unless we allow citizens to carry guns I can think of no justification for giving coppers such a right that is denied to the rest of us and make us trust them with guns when they clearly do not trust us.

As far as I can see, a tazer in the boot of one of those cars could have put a stop to that situation early on. If they need to be armed then that should be the extent of it.

You know what else would have helped? Better training for those situations. Police training for restraint is very poor and typically involves a lot of officers on one person.

The takedown in that video was a complete disorganised mess.  I've actually watched pub doormen do a much better job.

For every example you post showing police dealing with a machete wielding madman, I can show you one of armed police shooting an innocent person.

People in England have been totally disarmed by the state. Yet some want coppers carrying lethal arms?

I hope that never happens.

6 Comments:

English Viking said...

It would be a very bad idea to allow the average plod a gun. Most would struggle to understand which end the bullets come out of; note the nob-end in the link CS gassing himself.

microdave said...

Gadget can go swivel, as far as I'm concerned... I used to be a regular reader until I was (foolish?, misguided?) enough to post a criticism. The reaction of his faithful "mates" made me realise that it's all just a big PR exercise.

Bucko said...

EV - Yep, most would blow bits off themselves while trying to draw the thing. The others would shoot folk for dropping fag ends.

MD - Never commented there myself although some of the comments do look like a mutual wanking society.
Some of his ideas are sound, like the rape post I linked to earlier, but he defends officers who act like dicks, Sgt Mark Andrews for one, and blames it all on the political masters without ever suggesting that coppers should use a bit of nouse and try to change the system. He's all about it's not our fault, we're only doing our jobs.

Angry Exile said...

Have to say I really don't lose too much sleep over the Vic police being armed with .38 S&W revolvers and it's not worrying me either that they're starting to be issued with .40 S&W semi-autos instead. Like the Sikhs being allowed knives for religious reasons, the objection shouldn't be that they have 'em so much as that the rest of us aren't allowed. Let the UK cops tool up, if only so the American cops can't keep making jokes about the British ones making an arrest with the phrase "Stop, or I'll say 'Stop' again". But demand the same for any other responsible and law-abiding citizen.

Bucko said...

AE - Yep, I would accept armed police if it went hand in hand with armed citizens.
All I expect in this matter, is that the state gives me the same trust they expect from me.

TheBoilingFrog said...

Cheers for the link Bucko. No idea where IG's post went and no explanation either. I thought, like you, that it was a good piece.