In many European countries the police are held to much higher standards and receive a lot more training. A lot of the cop on citizen shootings in the US that are ruled justifiable would not be legal over there. US cops tend to have a "neutralize the threat" mentality. "But I thought he was reaching for a weapon..... " Both white and black Americans are far more likely to be killed by the police than people who live in Europe. I have been thinking about this problem lately. Maybe it would be best to disarm the police until there is some system in place that effectively polices the police. Right now if a cop kills someone there is far less than a 1% chance that that cop will ever be convicted of homicide.
A far more effective approach to the problem would be removal of the concept of qualified immunity, which was created by the united state supreme court to shield law enforcement officers from the consequences of their own wrongdoing, on the basis that if they have to actually abide by the law themselves, it will hamper their ability to do their jobs.
So what's the solution? How would European cops handle those places? "Historic rates of fatal police shootings in Europe suggest that American police in 2014 were 18 times more lethal than Danish police and 100 times more lethal than Finnish police, plus they killed significantly more frequently than police in France, Sweden and other European countries.... "Knife violence is a big problem in England, yet British police have fatally shot only one person wielding a knife since 2008 – a hostage-taker. By comparison, my calculations based on data compiled by fatalencounters.org and the Washington Post show that US police have fatally shot more than 575 people allegedly wielding blades and other such weapons just in the years since 2013.... "But racism alone can’t explain why non-Latino white Americans are 26 times more likely to die by police gunfire than Germans.... "The Netherlands, Norway and Finland, for example, require police to attend a national academy – a college for cops – for three years.... "By contrast, in 2006, US police academies provided an average of 19 weeks of classroom instruction." http://theconversation.com/why-do-american-cops-kill-so-many-compared-to-european-cops-49696
And on top of that have lawsuits paid for out of their pension funds instead of by insurance companies. You will see that blue wall of silence vanish.
All things being equal, they would more than likely run and hide if they were confronted by the criminal element in these specified locations. The criminal element in the united states is far more dangerous than that of most other nations being held up for comparison. It cannot even be attributed to firearms alone, as the criminal element in the united states regards murder as an acceptable course of action if someone in shown disrespect by another. Those in the united states literally have no regard for human life.
Yes, disarm them and armor up their cars, and they can sit there until the coroner shows up, then get out and draw the yellow lines around the bodies.
So it sounds like you are not thinking this through. Criminals have guns and your idea will lead to either dead cops or cops that are not willing to get anywhere near a crime in progress with a report of a gun used.
The original post makes zero sense. Example; " Right now if a cop kills someone there is far less than a 1% chance that that cop will ever be convicted of homicide." Not true. Pure B.S. Every shooting is investigated and analyzed by an independent review board and with cams, video and audio, prosecution will result in case of any improper conduct resulting in a shooting. Police do not just shoot anyone they pull over as if they are all psychopaths or psychotic killers. You would need to review miles of dash cam and body cam video and cases to even begin such an unfounded series of allegations based on opinion and not facts.. Also, Police departments have Internal affairs departments to investigate any wrongdoing. Even small rural departments of less than 5 deputies have oversight from a State Police department.
Further, many people that get shot in a routine traffic stop are belligerent, yelling, actinv up, and are told many times to keep still, stay in their car, and yet they keep rummaging in pockets and pulling out stuff, get out of the car, etc.. When you review video of people that have shot Police Officers in a routine traffic stop, you begin to get a better picture of events. The person being stopped sets tbe tone for the events that follow in a routine traffic stop, and if the person being stopped is confrontational and acts up, the situation will escalate. In a traffic stop, for lets say a Moving or traffic signal violation, keeping a professional tone and attitude and having ones documents together in the visor and handing them over when a asked. Keep calm, you will have your day in Court, a traffic stop is neither the time nor place to hash out any issues or injustices. Most times, a calm professional demeanor, results in a simple warning and an uneventful traffic stop.
granted , legal and justifiable doesn't mean necessary..and there should be a middle ground of after the grand jury and lawsuits , they are stripped of their POST license if appropriate, but disarming the police is ridiculous although I do understand that too is a long term goal of the gun control movement , their zeal and phobia are really no different than that of those 'cleansing' our culture , history and language
Look at the talking points. Comparing Europe to the U.S. Epic Fail. Educational standards, most Metropolitan Police Departments now require college and law courses. With the exception of some tiny Rural Sheriff's departments in some tiny towns. If you want to find fault, it would be a lack of uniform national training standards, foreign Police departments are Nationally based, U.S. Police are based locally or State based, and if you establish a National standard which would be superior to current local standards of some rural Police Departments.
What you are ignoring are all the police and civilian lives that are benefited and saved because of police. If an officer doesn't have a gun then he won't be able to stop a criminal with a gun and save civilians and have a lot more trouble taking down criminals without guns. A better solution is to make a taser or a non-lethal weapon the officer's first choice but to have a gun in extreme situations and to train them properly. Also, people need to stop running from cops and resisting arrest. Seriously.
Some added points, if a Police Officer needs to use a Taser or other methods, chances are the situation has escalated beyond what is normal and these extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary ability to respond appropriately as circumstances require. A Patrol supervisor is called for when things begin to escalate. Backup serves as witnesses as do body cams to document all events.
'There were British MPs and Belgium police who were also on duty in Antwerp, but we were the only ones who carried ammunition for our guns. If a really dangerous situation arose, they would call on us and then step back and let us do the dirty work. One such incident happened to me. One night while Dominic and I were driving in the red-light district, we came upon a mob of people. The British MPs were there. They told us they had received a report a British soldier had shot a gun at someone from the second story of the building where they were assembled. A British Lieutenant there suggested that, since we had loaded guns, we should go into the building first to see what was going on. Dominic and I went in the front door to the hall and up the dimly lit staircase. The walls were old and dirty; the uncarpeted stairs creaked badly. There was no chance we were going to sneak up on anybody. We had our .45's out, cocked with the safeties off. We were both very nervous and moving slowly. We hesitated at the landing and just outside of the apartment for about ten seconds each as if that was going to somehow help our situation. The door to the apartment where the shot had come from was ajar. We looked in, and, just past the entrance hall, in a bedroom, we saw what looked like a man in a uniform with a gun in his hand lying next to a bed. There was a considerable amount of blood on the bed and the floor. When we moved into the apartment, we found the man, who was a British officer, and his woman companion were both dead. It appeared he had killed her and then committed suicide. At least, that's what it looked like to us. We decided to let the British officer figure it out. We yelled out the window for the Brits to come up. As we passed the British MPs in the hallway on our way down, one of them looked at us and said sarcastically, "Good show, mate. You did a bloody good job of it and without going bang, bang with those big cannons of yours." Dominic responded, "Next time I'll give you my gun and we'll see how you do you Limey sonofabitch." http://www.gallagherstory.com/ww2/chapter28.html
Furthermore, with body cams and dash cams etc.. It is no longer a he said she said My word's against yours etc... Now it is hard Audio / Visual evidence so a proper investigation is made, and no LEO can get away with an illegal or unwarranted use of lethal force.
"Should cops be disarmed?" no, they should never use excessive force, but they should be armed they should all be required to wear CopCams though by federal law
If law enforcement officers are disarmed, such will necessitate more civilian involvement in various matters, as they will need to step up and assist more often than they are already.
Remember When Civil Rights Groups Wanted Police Bodycams? Look At What They're Saying Now. http://www.dailywire.com/news/23740...-groups-wanted-police-hank-berrien#exit-modal
