Who You Gonna Call?

Well certainly not those guys (see linked article). For two years running, the Philadelphia police department has responded to calls of celebratory gun fire and ended up firing at unarmed innocent bystanders. This year, the officers managed to leave one innocent man in a coma and injure a 9 year old boy!

Now let me say that I do not think that the police officers intentionally fired on these people. What I also think is that police officers are supposed to be highly trained individuals. As such, they should react in stressful situations in a far more measured and careful manner than untrained individuals.

Now I ask you this, what's the worst an untrained armed individual could have done in this situation? Well the could have killed or maimed innocent people. Now I ask you this, what is the difference between that and what the highly trained officer of the Philadelphia police department did... not just once, but for two years in a row.

Gun control proponents will insist that you should remove guns from everyone but the police. They will tell you that this should be done because introducing untrained individuals into a volatile situation will in some way make matters worse.

Again in this case, how could matters have been any worse? Police officers responded to a call of celebratory gunfire... The word "celebratory" certainly places the second word "gunfire" in a different context. These weren't desperate bank robbers or blood thirsty murderers the police were responding to deal with, they were people celebrating... That doesn't exactly churn up mental images of a situation where someone should end up in a coma as a part of the resolution! At the very worst, the police should have pulled the miscreants aside and told them that if there is any more gunfire, then someone will be locked up... maybe issue a citation. That's it. There was no call to go shooting up the neighborhood.

I'm sorry even being untrained, I know that I could have reacted far more appropriately than these officers did.

Training is not required to possess common sense. Training is not required to intervene in volatile situations. How would life be if we all thought that our only recourse in any situation was to call 911 and not personally intervene. Imagine the scene, a man is choking on a bite of his steak. Rather than rushing over and using the Heimlich maneuver, you just dial 911 and wait for trained professionals to arrive. How about if you saw a car accident that resulted in an unconscious driver and a burning car? Should you just call 911 and stand by to watch the driver sizzle?

Over time I will continue to highlight these missteps by law enforcement professionals, not to indicate that I disapprove of cops... I certainly don't! I only wish to highlight the fact that they, like us are mere human beings and further to point out the fallacy of believing that they are in some way infallible paragons of virtue that will protect us from all harm thus rendering the need for acts of self-defense irrelevant.

Always remember, by and large, policemen do not prevent crime, they only investigate it ...and... a gun in the hand is worth a thousand cops on the phone!