Sure we'll just engage in ethnic and socioeconomic segregation. If you're in an affluent class you'll get police service, if you're from an undesirable caste the world will pretend you never existed, just like people do when they want to compare the greatness of Europe to the USA. Unlike Sacramento, the police in the Europe and New Zealand would have never responded to a call about about property being damage in a poor black neighborhood, because over there they're not the kind of people that get police service.
If the police in the US only responded to calls upper class areas, they really wouldn't need to carry guns either, but that's not our model of policing. Unlike Europe, the police in the US provide service to decent people that happen to live in bad areas, and spend most of their time where the crime and the criminals are at. I'm not claiming that the police in the US always do a great job, but lets not be disingenuous about why there are fewer police shootings in Europe, police can't shoot criminals if they don't come in contact with them.
Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right.
I had a guy I pulled over on Key Biscayne, FL, an affluent area outside Miami, tell me that if I didn't (and couldn't afford to) live in the area I had no business stopping people who lived there. I asked where he was from and he told me Argentina. I told him that we were near the marina and he could probably hire a boat to take him back if he so chose. (And did my utmost to give him a reason to, after the fact.)
Last edited by blues; 04-05-2018 at 12:11 PM.
There's nothing civil about this war
While I don't have any first hand knowledge about how policing is done in Europe, I do regularly hear about whole neighborhoods in European cities that the local constabulary won't risk entering. We don't have that in the states. Even if the neighborhoods are dangerous and the residents are aggressive towards local LE, our officers still go into those places. Then again, there are a whole lot of neighborhoods I've seen that I wouldn't want to go into to police if I wasn't armed either.
My posts only represent my personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official policies of any employer, past or present. Obvious spelling errors are likely the result of an iPhone keyboard.
In Northern Ireland cops are armed and they can carry off duty.
I would like to get the opinion of at @Luger on this.
The fact that this thread exists makes me incredibly happy to be retiring in about 2 years +/- a couple of months. It also reinforces my happiness that I've convinced all of my children, cousins' kids, nieces and nephews to not consider a career in LE.
I can't wait to retire and move somewhere with a low density population and a high density of 2A friendly folks.
Last edited by psalms144.1; 04-05-2018 at 02:44 PM.
In regards to problematic LE shootings, we need to clarify what we're talking about. There are mistake of fact shootings which are still held to be objectively reasonable under the Graham standard. There are clearly unreasonable and criminal actions which are usually dealt with pretty quickly, and finally there are the bad outcomes resulting from poor/non existent training (bystander hit, negligent discharge, etc). Then there are the flat out lawful, righteous shootings of armed bad guys that only become "problems" due to political concerns.
Most of what has been attempted in this area by politicians (including LE leadership), is in the area of policy or legal changes. None of that is likely to improve public safety (the opposite is likely), or to even improve outcomes in the way they hope. As everyone here with knowledge and experience has been saying for years, you can't fix training with policy. It doesn't work, and will result in de-policing...which I actually believe is the real goal anyway. No, Cody, we're not going to police like "those guys in England or Norway or wherever they're nice and don't shoot bad guys. Here ain't there. A significant minority of Americans (a very loud one) is uncomfortable with police use of force under any circumstances. Many well meaning but clueless people are listening to the loudmouths. Good luck. As DB has said, folks are gonna get exactly the policing they deserve. Spoiler alert.....it's NONE.