NCClaret wrote:Paul,
I'm not in the US - I'm in the UK. I think this thread has developed a 'crossover' between UK and US Police as it's developed. My original comment on this was in response to Sydney's comment on the Police being 'pre-programmed' to think in a certain way prior to joining the Police. I disagreed with this and made comment that part of Policing involves a 'healthy' scepticism and that this is being eroded.
My further comments were to highlight the issue around how difficult it is to make decisions in a split second that can have severe repercussions. An ideal example of this is the tasering of a man in Bristol. The whole facts aren't in the public domain yet. Often, when they are, the situation isn't as was first thought or seen.
Sometimes the Police Officers involved are exonerated, or indeed and rightly so if they have done wrong, held to account. In the UK particularly, and I believe to the greatest extent in the US too, the cases where Police Officers have willfully done wrong are rare in respect of the huge amounts of incidents of this type they deal with daily. For those of us who have been in situations where life and death are literally at stake my view is we have a duty to support them in what are often unenviable situations - after all they may be making those decisions one day that will have a direct impact on you or I. These are unique situations that thankfully most people won't have to make. That doesn't mean they should not be held to account - just supported.
I appreciate your measured response to my comments. It's a pity others can't do the same and have always to be pejorative.
NCC
Hi NCC, no problems. I guess I was thinking there are more occasions when police in USA are faced with "life or death" situations - more guns and all that. Yes, there are situations in UK where the police have made split second decisions and someone has died. You are right to say we should wait until full facts are known. Whatever facts we don't yet know, I do think it is disproportionate for a police officer to taser (yes, you spelt it with an "s" - proof that you are in the uk) a man in his 60s, especially when there were two police officers present and only one 60 year old guy. Perhaps we will later learn that there were other people there also. Perhaps we will learn that there were threats made to police officers. I guess that's why we hope for (a) good journalists - who report as accurately as they can and (b) follow-up/investigations/inquiries that pursue the truth, where these things matter.
Re responses, thanks for your appreciation. I've posted before - and guess I will do it again - I see no reason why I need to be "anti-social" when I'm on social media. I know one or two (no reason for me to keep count) sometimes want to take a different approach. Whichever side we are on for the election of Trump (because that's the subject of this thread) the world will always be a better place if we can find the good in all of us. Who knows, maybe PDT will come to a similar conclusion in his desire to make America Great, again.
