Police Refuse To Use Their Guns

Or so says Insight Magazine in a recent article at their site, covering a SWAT officers Conference. Reading this today made me sick and I encourage everyone to read the whole (it's short) article, found here. A few of the more remarkable pieces

"Some officers today are more afraid of being sued than being murdered," Olympia Fields, Ill. Police Chief Jeff Chudwin said.

Really? How about we ask the families of killed citizens like Cheryl Lynn Nobel if they feel like they dodged the real bullet....a lawsuit. I think they would rather have their mom or dad or grandma with them this Thanksgiving instead.

"If you're putting an offender at the top of the list for safety, then you have your priorities screwed up," Mr. Chudwin told the Association of SWAT Personnel-Wisconsin. "Why are we catering to the person who created the problem?"

Mr. Chudwin, a former prosecutor, probably wouldn't admit it, but he views us all as "offenders." Isn't that the point of a civilian police force, to protect the citizens of the community, both their rights and property? Of course that isn't how they view the system. To them it's a Us vs. Them game, with 95% of the populace making up the "Them."

"He gets praised by the media for showing restraint, but what he did makes my skin crawl," Mr. Chudwin said. "Why didn't he shove the muzzle in the suspect's eye and pull the trigger?"

Full disclosure, the paragraph before tells how the officer was in a struggle with the suspect and was slashed. But still, wow. This is the response from a former prosecutor, not some down in the trenches police officer.

"If you're more concerned about getting sued than getting murdered, you can't do the job like it needs to be done," he added. "You're a threat to yourself and to others."

Let's suppose this is the case. That people are not being shot and killed routinely, in their own homes even, by police officers. Big, huge assumption, but let's make it. Isn't the fear of civil action a good thing? Police do not have much in the way of checks on their power, someone usually has to fuck up real bad before some civil rights/liberties group gets involved and brings in media attention.

I don't agree with a shoot first, investigate later policy. If the police have to stop and think about their actions (like normal people do everyday at work) before shooting, I'm all for it. Remember that officers choose their profession, and are paid for it handsomely, if not in salary, then through generous taxpayer subsidized pensions that are worth enough money to cause them to pause before mowing down the next old person.