Like
the vast majority of police officers in the UK,
I am unarmed.
On the one hand, I like being
unarmed because it's one less thing to worry
about - and now that police officers have become
nothing more than risk-assessors in uniform,
what do we need guns for anyway?
On the other hand, on the rare
occasions that I am asked to subdue a violent
suspect or enter a premises to check for burglars,
I would like to have something more effective
than a stick and a small tin of CS spray, the
latter not to be used in enclosed spaces and
even then only when the wind is blowing in the
right direction.
At some point in the future
we may have to be routinely armed and I suspect
that the decision will be made shortly after
most bank robbers have also decided the same
thing. I don't imagine for a moment that it will
change the relationship |
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between the
public and the police: it won't turn police officers
into gun-crazed lunatics and the public will still
ask police officers for the time on the rare times
we get out on the streets.
I have on occasion joined American
police on patrol in some of the most violent cities
in the US and once attended a personal attack alarm.
On arrival, a helicopter was already overhead, one
officer pointed his shotgun at the door of the premises
while his partner entered, pistol drawn. It was a false
alarm, as it usually is, but I remarked that they didn't
seem to take any chances. The officer replied, "What,
don't you guys have shotguns?"
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER
29
 Listen
to this: "We're here to save your butts, not
kiss them..." How my friends in America police
the community.
Last
week: Hate crime taxi
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