Because I sure do.
Because I sure do.
Most South Korean cops are conscripts, rarely if ever armed. They qualify, just rarely carry. Frankly, they don't need to be armed for most of their duties. Not uncommon to see them walking around with empty holsters. The ones with guns have stayed with the job after the 2.5 years are up.
They also conscript big, burly farm boys for the security, AKA combat police, AKA the riot squad. Used to see them standing around outside Yongsan Garrison (then 8th Army HQ) waiting for some college boys to get froggy so they could bust some skulls.
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“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
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Different cultures, different customs. The Brits likely find our custom of armed patrol cops to be just as strange.Originally Posted by johnnyyukon
The Minority Marksman.
"When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet."
-a Ch'an Buddhist axiom.
I see that as the difference between cultures that have a multi-mellenia history of being subjects vs a relatively new culture that prides itself on being free.
Men freely believe that which they desire.
Julius Caesar
My English friend and his wife were visiting and she told me she thought it was scary that our police carried guns. I told her I thought it was scary that hers didn't.
I think the average cop needs his gun barely more than the average citizen. Which is to say, they should have them, but if the don't the large majority of them will get by. The vast, vast majority of cops barely qualify with it and never discharge it.
There are definitely areas and squads where this "average" in *no way* applies.
I do think it's a somewhat laudable level of philosophical consistency in a country that bans guns, though. Cops and citizens should be equally armed.
If Schumer ,Hillary , and Co. had their way, citizens would be banned from owning and carrying guns and so would the patrol officers. Got a violent suspect with a gun? Phone HQ for armed backup and hide.
The Minority Marksman.
"When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet."
-a Ch'an Buddhist axiom.
She's a front-runner for the 2016 elections. We may soon be able to test this theory.
They do… although, the line is getting blurry over there as they face ever-increasing violence… the nanny state is finally coming home to roost. Just like, come to think of it, it is here as well...
My brother-in-law's brother-in-law (don't want to guess what THAT would be called) is a cop in Glasgow; dunno, he may be retired by now. When he and I first met, it was apparent he didn't think much of American cops; in fact, he made several references to "yank cowboys" in our conversations regarding police work. Since I was in his country, on his turf, I refrained from telling him to go kitten himself.
The few UK cops I had to work with, who were here via U.S. DOS, had basically the same attitude. We were barely civil with each other.
OTOH, I have met several UK cops over here, while working uniform details at Mardi Gras and other such tourist magnets. They had a much different take on it, although I'm not sure if it was their true feeling or more of a "stranger in a strange land" facade.
As for The Land of the Morning Calm… I was there in '76-'77, and one learned very quickly that one did NOT trifle with the KNPs- who, BTW, were mostly armed that I saw… with revolvers, no less.
I guess their philosophy has changed?
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Nope, not at all. Heck, you might be surprised at the number of U.S. officers that don't carry regularly. For the first half-century of U.S. law enforcement few municipal officers carried firearms, and up through the 1950's and 60s lots of small town and rural officers did not carry handguns on a regular basis. And truth be told even today most officers can and will go through their entire career and never need to carry a pistol. Of course, the problem with that is that today at any given time any officer might need his firearm and need it big time. FWIW according to one of my friends in Brit LE a number of officers that can carry choose not to do so.
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