You've probably heard, by now, that some cops sat outside the Parkland high school in Florida and did nothing. One of them was the "school resource officer", the guy who's supposed to be Johnnie-On-the-Spot in the event of a school shooting.
The tactic for dealing with school shootings has been known since Columbine: Go in, find the shooter, and kill him. March toward the sound of the guns. School shootings start and end in a handful of minutes. Each minute the cops dither means that more kids and more teachers die. There's no time to gather intel or wait for SWAT. It's an emergency pickup game: Whoever is there has to cowboy up and go in immediately. The one who should be the first in is the cop who is already there, the "school resource officer".
When it comes to dealing with an active school shooter, to paraphrase the old Coast Guard saying: You have to go in. You don't have to come back.
The cops may like to talk about how officer safety is all, that their goal is to go home at the end of their shift. But there are times when being a cop isn't only running speed traps, hassling kids, shooting Black folk and scarfing down coffee and donuts. There are times when they have to take their guns and go into harm's way.
If they can't do that, they need to find another line of work.
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9 comments:
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We either need the police to cowboy up and go right in, or we need to trust and empower the people there to defend themselves. Part of that defense could be active (fighting back) or passive (wall, gates, locks, access
control).
What we have now is defenseless people in poorly secured facilities with minimal access controls, patrolled by officers with no actual obligation to protect and a priority to go home safe at the end of the day.
the police that did not act should be treated as accomplices.
If their goal is to "go home at the end of their shift", then why are they paid more than soldiers?
This guy is a cop (and a damned good man). He has a cops take on it. Other cops I know and respect have a similar view:
http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2018/02/sickened.html
I like the airplanes at the top of the page. What are they?
Jamo
Stinson Reliants, the "gull-wing" versions, SR-7 and up. They're also known as Vultee V-77s. Most that are now around are the V-77s, as a lot of those were built during the war.
You don't know how many attackers there are, or where they are. You are hearing a storm of rifle fire - basically a shot per second. Any human being would load their pants. How can anyone be expected to run into that with a little pop gun pistol and no body armor?
Unknown, I'd expect them to at least act as bravely as Peter Wong, a 15 year old boy whom, instead of fleeing, helped other kids escape and died for it.
How can I expect that? That's their freaking job.
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