Get your Keister in and shoot who? What if the shooter has tucked his gun away? Who do you shoot? The 16 year old who looks like he might be a suspect? I got suspended for knowingly walking into a hostage situation and after a lengthy conversation peacefully disarming the dad holding his twin infants hostage due to a domestic problem. I was young and trusted my instincts, there was no back up for miles and the radio was extremely quirky in the hill country I was patrolling. I still got suspended and reprimanded and was demoted. I'm not saying I wouldn't go in to a school shooting, I was a loose cannon, but most normal cops followed procedure and procedure clearly states that an officer must wait for back up.
Blame the politicians, parents and Schools for not coming up with anything better than duck and hide, it has never worked but that doesn't stop our educators from parroting this solution.
Do you realize what would happen if a cop shot your child by accident? I doubt you would be so adamant. Just as I would never think to tell a Submariner their job why would a Submariner who admittedly has no LE experience think it's OK to tell others theirs?
As for me personally, I no longer wear a badge but knowing what I know, would never even think about wearing one again.
I know I'm calloused but I really have no sympathy left for victims mainly because they choose to be victims but if a warrior dares to push a kid out of the way to face an attacker you can bet your white dress uniform that kid's parents are going straight to Twitter and Facebook after they've contacted a lawyer.
BTW, the few sailors that I once knew were tough as nails and took no BS but you can't just barge in to every situation. Cops don't know what's going on, who's the bad guy, how many there are, etc. etc. Many times cops shoot the wrong person (Officer Mohamed Noor, Charles Kinsey) for example.
It ain't like TV, it's chaotic, noisy, fast, nerve wracking, foggy and disjointed. The responders senses are bombarded and many times a hasty action is the wrong one.
What I said was
"When the Killer Clown is killing, get your keister in there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT."
Nowhere in there did I say
"Get your Keister in and shoot..."
All those "what ifs" you posted fall under the category of "evaluate and take action as required". It's part and parcel for the job. If a LEO cannot handle that, then why are they in the job?
Does anybody here honestly think I could have used "what if" excuses to not do my job as a Reactor Operator on a submarine, the most advanced mobile weapons platform ever designed in human history? What if I didn't follow my procedures and training during a flooding casualty and inadvertently lost propulsion in the middle of a flooding casualty at test depth? What if, during a flooding casualty, something else unexpected happened which further threatened the ship? Those dolphins on my chest told every other shipmate on that submarine that I had what it took to figure it out and take the appropriate actions as required. My oral board with the Commanding Officer himself certified me by law as a qualified, fully capable Reactor Operator. If I couldn't cut it, then I would not have deserved those dolphins, or my nuclear qualifications, and I would have been disqualified and removed from submarine duty. The SAME philosophy applies to law enforcemen officers, in my opinion. If you can't hack it, then move on to something you CAN hack and let someone else move up instead.
Life is FULL of uncertainties. Some of them are dangerous. And some jobs are supposed to be able to deal with those dangerous uncertainties.
And you know what? Sometimes we get hammered (justly or not) for doing what was right for the time. That comes with the territory. When I made Chief, that was a defining characteristic driven home to me and my fellow selectees at the time by all the other Chiefs charged with our training and initiation. We do the right thing, regardless. And sometimes that means we fall on the sword in the process for the greater good. Sucks...but that's what it takes to REALLY live up to the ideal.
Granted...there are probably procedures to be followed, and training to be had, in the LEO field for just such situations. Maybe it's specialized, I don't know...I've never been a LEO. I'll leave those details to you and others and trust that your word on such matters is far more credible than mine.
"Just as I would never think to tell a Submariner their job why would a Submariner who admittedly has no LE experience think it's OK to tell others theirs?"
You have every right to demand that a Submariner be able to do their job, regardless of your own experience. You may not be able to rightfully tell a Submariner HOW to do their job, but that's not what we're talking about.
Likewise, I won't tell a LEO how to do their job. I will say, however, that if a LEO CANNOT do their job, they should move on. And that's at all levels...from the most junior at the lowest levels, all the way up the ranks and across the board. Local law enforcement, county, state, federal...and for the red headed stepchildren of the military, the Coast Guard. (They're a whole 'nuther level of law enforcement!)
"It ain't like TV, it's chaotic, noisy, fast, nerve wracking, foggy and disjointed. The responders senses are bombarded and many times a hasty action is the wrong one."
Absolutely, you're right. And like I told an instructor giving us that stupid "Total Quality Leadership" training many, many years ago (it was a civilian corporate "Total Quality Management" training retitled with no changes and branded as the latest and greatest method of leadership, superceding all others which came before it in totality), "This isn't Star Trek. When 'Torpedo Evasion' is announced, we don't gather up all the department heads and adjurn to the Captain's Study to figure out what to do. There's a time and a place to conduct business like this, but when push comes to shove, sometimes the REAL answer is '**** and do your job!'"
If LEO training is done properly, I imagine it's much like mine was while in the Navy. You're given the building blocks, you put those into practice to positively reinforce them, and you learn how the basic principles behind them are applied to give you the correct results. Then your training gets ramped up...different scenarios with "anomolies" thrown in to get you to figure out how to prioritize, how to work together as a team to handle complications, etc. Then it's all critiqued and trained upon so you can learn what worked, what didn't, and how to improve.
A flooding casualty drill is simple and straight forward, depending on whether it's forward or aft. But flooding drills are quickly ramped up in a variety of ways to make them as realistically chaotic as real life. Flooding means the possibility of loss of propulsion. It means the possibility of the Emergency Blow System not working. It means possible loss of electrical equipment. It means the possibility of electrical fires. It means possible loss or garbled communications. It means injuries or deaths. It means loss of lighting. It means damage control equipment not working properly. All these, and more. Pretty darned chaotic, indeed!
I fully expect a LEOs life to sometimes be every bit as chaotic as Submarine casualties in his/her own experiences, sometimes. But they STILL have a job to do.
And that, my friend, is what I mean.
