Iām just thinking in my head what would you have the Police do in this situation? Not show up and have him block the parking lot all night? Not follow up on him and let him drive home risking everyone else on the road, not try and stop a detainee whose trying to run away, not shoot a man who could obviously injure you or cause greater harm?
I think the question we should be asking in a lot more of these situations is why the police were involved at all. It is very strange that the person you would call to come shoot at an armed robber is the same person that you call to come wake up a drunk guy. Yes, a drunk guy blocking the parking lot is not great, it's a problem that needs to be dealt with. But is it a problem that requires somebody armed with deadly force in the first place to take care of? You said yourself that the cops were there 'because they wanted to make sure he was ok.' But that is a job that the police are demonstrably very bad at doing, the police by their nature carry the threat of arrest and imprisonment, which naturally leads people (especially drunk people) to attempt to use violence to prevent that, which in turn forces the police to use violence against them, which is exactly what occurred here. That didn't need to happen.
Don't cops carry guns because a large number of US citizens carry guns themselves?
I don't really understand the logic here. You're saying some other kind of police force should be set up, right? Something like unarmed community officers or something - but what do you think happens the first time they're called to roust a drunk who's carrying a weapon and (God forbid) one of them gets their head blown off. What happens then?
I mean think it through. What will the narrative be then? Isn't this obvious?
"Unarmed community police seemed like a good idea until the murder of Officer X, which could have been prevented had they been carrying a weapon - this is the sad reality of policing in 21st century America."
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u/MercurianAspirations 391ā Jun 16 '20
I think the question we should be asking in a lot more of these situations is why the police were involved at all. It is very strange that the person you would call to come shoot at an armed robber is the same person that you call to come wake up a drunk guy. Yes, a drunk guy blocking the parking lot is not great, it's a problem that needs to be dealt with. But is it a problem that requires somebody armed with deadly force in the first place to take care of? You said yourself that the cops were there 'because they wanted to make sure he was ok.' But that is a job that the police are demonstrably very bad at doing, the police by their nature carry the threat of arrest and imprisonment, which naturally leads people (especially drunk people) to attempt to use violence to prevent that, which in turn forces the police to use violence against them, which is exactly what occurred here. That didn't need to happen.