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.