An angry mob was roaming the streets of New York yesterday. That, as a Leftist Mayor and his bureaucrats rush to appease and patronize this same police hating bunch at assemble every time there is the slightest controversy involving force used on an African-American criminal suspect. This group has a habit of turning everything into an issue of race alone. They also like to see themselves on television a lot. This is their latest response to the vehicular assault on an undercover police officer and an unmarked and occupied minivan outside a Queens strip club. The officers fired some 50 rounds to terminate the assault and threat. One suspect was killed and another is in critical condition. This happened at night when visibility prevented officers from clearly seeing just what threat they were or legitimately thought they were under. I don’t know if the officers thought the suspects were armed or not but no firearms were found. Guns do have a nasty habit of disappearing at crime scenes everywhere regardless of whether the police are involved in firing shots.
How quick some people are to forget or ignore that the suspect’s vehicle was and is a very deadly weapon. In any event this incident must be properly investigated and reconstructed and that can easily take weeks to learn the truth.
Another factor is that New York officials demand that their cops carry the underpowered and inadequate 9MM round. This poorly performing round that far too often won’t stop determined offenders. That’s the real reason that often officers have to fire extraordinary numbers of round in order to survive confrontations with criminals. The criminals are not saddled with department regulations as to how powerful their own weapons are. Criminals simply don't care about gun laws or any kind of regulations.
A methodical and fair investigation needs to take its course. Handing the streets over to a mob of thugs as they agitate and spread their unbridled hatred of police is not the answer.
There is a bigger danger here and that is cops may figure their intervention into stopping crime is just not worth the risk of being caught up in this kind of a mess. The result is they stop making arrests altogether and wander the streets like tourists instead. That mob of goons may just get their wish.
Comments
You must be talking about London!
Da Mick
Here in Chicago were going through the same crap with a shithead shot in the getto after he tried to take an officers gun away. Now the family is protesting, brought out the hood full of punks throwing up gang signs for the national media. The family said he was a "Good Boy". Witnesses said the plaincloths officer didn't id himself, like a white officer in a black hood is there for any other reason. Turns out he died the way he wanted, with a few crack rocks in his mouth.
Officers, be safe, go home to your family, collect a paycheck and slow down. There all out to get us. GOD BLESS.
Once there is a need to shoot, the officer must keep shooting until the threat is neutralized. But I think that cops often spray and pray because they know they lack the ability to place shots well and thus lack the confidence thir shots hit their mark.
This is partly the result of risk management's carefully weighing the cost of liability judgments and widows' pensions against the cost of training. Training is expensive.
But I think it is also the result of a change in police culture. I haven't been around long enough to know for sure, but I have the impression that once upon a time being handy with firearms and fists was a prerequisite to getting hired as a cop. It is certainly not a prerequisite now. There certainly exist officers who are competent marksmen, but they are exceptional. Those few that are "gun guys" will train on their own, for the sheer pleasure of it. The others will only do the (little) training they are paid to do.
If you are going to arm ill-trained cops, it just might be better to arm them with revolvers. Some of the "stopping power" statistics suggest that the .357 and .45 are much more effective than a ballistic comparison of various calibers would predict. The greater effectiveness of those rounds just might be the result of the officer's knowing he has fewer shots and therefor picking his shots more carefully.