Alexcabbie wrote:
Keep in mind that this woman was/is a rookie. The police academies nation wide need to include a couple days on the Lawfully Armed Citizen. Yeah, I know the job is dangerous, but fer cryin' in the grog I drive a taxicab!! And most LEOs know that my job is several orders of magnitude more potentially lethal than theirs. I use experience and commom sense to stay out of danger. This rookie cop was barely trained and lacked one, the other, or both....
The more I look into this, the more I think I agree with you. I think this clueless bimbo with a badge is probably good-intentioned and just scared and dumb.
What then remains is, does she have what it takes to defeat that fear, and foster intellect above it? Or will it control her?
I'm more inclined to call this a really big screw-up. That doesn't make it all ok. But I think the victim of the incident is under no less of an obligation to NOT overreact as she is.
She is also part of a group. The PD. If that PD doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong with what she did... Then I think it is only prudent to push this as far and hard as possible. The PD in question has already shown a serious lack of interest in respecting the Bill of Rights. Consider
that totality of circumstances... It isn't just 'this chick.'
It always comes back to this line about "the Officer made a judgment call."
Well, what kind of calls do Officers with really bad judgment make? Being dumb, fearful, and lacking forethought to incidents that will clearly occur frequently in that line of work... It's just a paycheck attitude... I'm the cop and my buddies in the Thin Blue Line will cover for me... I can get away with pretty much anything because I can always say "I made the call based on the totality of circumstances" and make up the parts that seem to justify it after the fact... Look at me, I'm a girl with a badge, see, Feminists can do anything, wheeee giggle!!!! None of these attitudes are acceptable. Which ones, if any, are present here? What will be done to correct it?
Now, call me sexist if you want, but there is a scientific fact that estrogen creates a craving for perpetual 'safety' as part of the nesting instinct. This particular person put a man in danger for her own interests. In the face of evidence that said he was no threat, she did it anyway... Maybe there is a connection there, maybe not. But the shoe does fit. This isn't to say that women can't be police officers. Just that they have a little more to overcome (and it is a flat scientific fact) to do it right.
Regardless of what I might postulate. You can't have an Officer going around putting ever member of public at further risk just because s/he is afraid of anything and everything. "Officer Safety" becomes an excuse for failing to be an Officer? Sure, they have no duty to protect anyone, anywhere, ever. But don't they at the least have a duty
not to aid and abet the bad guys? Cuff him up and stand him out there, walk away, sit in the car, TAKE HIS GUN.... She did everything except put a big neon sign on him that says "Come kill this guy!" All because she was so damn afraid for herself?
I don't know her, but this doesn't sound like Police Officer material. She needs to step up, or step out.
