The Police Are Not an Army
..even though they dress and equip like one.
Another mass shooting in the USA, and again, reports surfacing about police being unwilling to enter the premises and confront the shooter. It really does appear pointless to highlight yet again how the cult of gun ownership in the USA has created an untenable situation. But the reluctance of the police to engage active shooters is a result of this cult.
This reluctance has deep roots, as deep as the gun culture in the USA. Twenty years ago, a Canadian police officer friend of mine travelled with a fellow police officer to a policing conference in New York state. What startled him was that he and his colleague were the only unarmed cops at the conference. Every single US cop carried their sidearm with them. The Canadian cops? Left them at home. They weren’t “on the job,” they were at a conference with other cops, why would they need their guns?
Police officers in the USA are scared shitless. So scared they do not go anywhere unarmed. To do so is unthinkable. And going everywhere armed isn’t to protect the public, it’s to defend themselves if a crazed maniac starts firing at them.
Fiction would have us believe cops always go armed so that they are ready to act if witnessing a crime while off duty. Reality tells us otherwise. They won’t even act when on duty. (Unless it’s an unarmed individual.) When the threat is real, confirmed and active, police back off.
The rapid militarization of police forces isn’t an offensive mindset. It’s a defensive one. The defense of the officer and his fellow officers. Not the defense of the public. It’s a response to the proliferation of weaponry amongst the public. Part of the never-ending spiral to be the one with the biggest gun in a confrontation.
No one wants to be shot. Cops included. But as guns proliferate, as powerful guns proliferate, the frequency of situations where police are faced with an active shooter increase. It is true that this is what police officers are paid to do. But it is also true that it is human nature to avoid danger if at all possible.
This is where the contradictions mount up. Police should be at the front of the line demanding changes to gun regulation. Demanding the de-arming of the public to make their jobs easier. To save their own lives. So that they don’t have to regularly face active shooter situations.
Instead we have citizens arming themselves, police departments arming themselves. Everybody calls themself a soldier. But no one wants to fight in a war.
This isn’t to imply that cops are cowards. No more than the rest of us. This is just popping their GI Joe posturing bullshit. They lie about the motivations to arm and equip themselves to soothe their conscience and to appease the public. When they do choose to engage an armed individual, they will do it when it is the best tactical advantage for themselves. When they are least likely to get shot.
Cops with guns? In the end they aren’t armed with them to protect the public.
Cops carry guns to protect themselves. Members of the public can die first before a cop will step in harms way on purpose.
So maybe, we just need fewer guns. Instead of trying to arm more people to shoot each other.
