Too bad the shooter wasn't black. The cops weren't trained for this.
This is a cop problem, not a gun problem. All the guns were working, including the shooter's. The cops saw fit to take their lunch hour instead of working.
This is a cop problem, not a gun problem. All the guns were working, including the shooter’s. The cops saw fit to take their lunch hour instead of working.
This. Specifically it's a "police do not have a duty to protect" problem, that stems from a series of court cases going back to at least the 80s.
I mean, if it were up to me they would be paid better, required to insure both individually and at a department level against damages to civilian persons and property, and subject to much stricter civilian scrutiny.
They would keep qualified immunity, but with much tighter reigns on the "qualified" part. Immunity only when necessary, with civilian oversight as to when that is. We would toss out the thing where police are not liable for damages done by them, they would be responsible for and expected to insure against it.
The insurance thing is two tiered for a.similar reason - if the damage is deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by civilian oversight then it would be on the city and the city's insurance to pay for it, if not then on the officer and the officer's insurance. This eventually prices bad (but not quite criminally bad) officers out of the job.
I get what you're alluding to, but actually the cops yelled out that they were there and for any children hiding to come out (obviously well before they'd neutralized the shooter) and the kids who responded and came out of their hiding places were shot dead because the cops were too cowardly (or busy checking their Facebook feed based on video evidence) to actually protect these innocent 5-10 year olds. I have a child in that age range and my blood starts boiling even discussing this topic.
Let us not forget that these wannabe police even arrested parents who were willing to rush into danger to protect their children. That's all they were good for on this day.