Child Porn, Botched Raids, and...Shaq? > I didn't know

said by owenhome:

I agree with you and, respectfully, disagree.

I would think that the first time an officer, or pair of officers, went to arrest a possibly violent suspect, and were both killed, was the last time any officer they know went anywhere without the rest of the group "in force".

The reality of the world tells us every day that countless police officers fall to evil men. Who are we to say that they, charged with our protection, should do no more than simply lay down and die? That is not our place. That is no man's place. This world is real and so is the death that awaits us all. The only way we can even attempt to control that is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. When 50 officers show up to bust a single home with only one suspect, they are prepared for the worst. If 5 men in the house pull out machine guns and let loose, at least they are prepared to deal with such a situation. And that, I guarantee, somewhere, HAS happened.

99.9999% of the time, however, it doesn't. So the rest of us see this insane military like _invasion_ against one man who's in bed, asleep, butt naked. But that .0001% of the time, that man's not asleep and he's armed and ready to play. If I were an officer I would not expect to ever be in such a situation, nor would any sane person. I would expect that my peers would be there with me ready for what may come. If he's asleep, great, we all go home and live another day. If he's not, at least we would be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Personally, I have a great dislike for officers that seem to make up the majority of officers today. They all seem to have god complexes and would just as soon beat you to death as look at you. They are never there when you need them and always there when you don't. However, I have had the opportunity to know a couple officers who were, in my opinion, some of the finest men ever to exist on this piss poor backwater planet. And those men, those men no less than DESERVE whatever support they can get and they DESERVE to be prepared. Come what may.

Ultimately, it all comes down to securing the situation. Getting the upper hand in the situation as fast as possible. That's something we ALL try to do every day of our lives. The only difference is that the vast majority of situations we are faced with don't involve men with guns trying to kill us. If we did face such things, as you can well imagine, we would all do the same thing. I would pity anyone who didn't.

I will agree that it seems that many of these gestapo tactics are not even slightly warranted. But the one time it is justifies almost every time it isn't. Certainly, those who give up their rights for security deserve neither. But if you paid attention to what I have written, that's not my argument. What happened to the family in this incident was a CRIME, no less. Those responsible for it should be punished to the full extent the law allows. My argument is simply that the men who face the worst this world has to offer, day after day, deserve to be prepared for any eventuality, regardless of what it may be. Those officers who abuse that right, thereby abusing the citizens they are charged to protect, should not only loose it, but suffer a fate far worse than that which befell their "suspect".