“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
JMA and Dayuhan,
No issue with either response. The right wing, Islamist, left wing terrorist threat in Norway may be real or imagined, but there is still the issue of the criminal threat (the madman who killed 10s of Norweigans) and the terribly slow response to one gun man that in my opinion should compel the gov to relook their policing procedures.
I have the unpopular opinion that although we generally respond quicker in the U.S. our so called SWAT teams (in many of our smaller cities they're largely composed of overweight, under trained police who obviously don't this responsibility seriously) will wait outside a building (name your school shooting) "assessing" the situation while innocents are being murdered.
It won't get any better with the current financial challenges in the U.S..
That’s just resources, though, isn’t it? Small town law enforcement agencies just can’t afford full-time SWAT types, and even if they could I don’t know that there would be enough individuals with the right mix of talents and motivations to fill the posts, not to mention the time and expense of training up those who do. Now, by ‘small town’ I mean those communities of 500–10,000 people like most in the area where I grew up. But if by ‘smaller cities’ you mean communities of 250,000 or more the reasonable expectations may well be different (and if you have a unit you feel fit to call a SWAT team I would think you could at the very least require the members to be physically fit).
Last edited by ganulv; 07-31-2011 at 12:49 AM. Reason: wording
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
Howsomeever, there is a fair amount of shooting at dubious messages and even more at good messages poorly delivered in an antagonistic or condescending tone...
Seems fair.
When I worked with Local, County, State and Federal LEAs in my home state I was always curious why so many small towns created SWAT. Even with great training, one has to have a large gene pool to draw from first. Michaelangelo spent much longer looking for the perfect block of marble than he did actually carving the David once he'd made his selection.
Most communiites would be better served by having 1-2 guys who train with a larger city SWAT, who can act in a pinch as shooters, or more likely as liaisons to facilitate bringing in the main team once needed. The lure of black velcro is strong, though, and everyone wants to be a cool guy...
Robert C. Jones
Intellectus Supra Scientia
(Understanding is more important than Knowledge)
"The modern COIN mindset is when one arrogantly goes to some foreign land and attempts to make those who live there a lesser version of one's self. The FID mindset is when one humbly goes to some foreign land and seeks first to understand, and then to help in some small way for those who live there to be the best version of their own self." Colonel Robert C. Jones, US Army Special Forces (Retired)
The bottom line is:Most communiites would be better served by having 1-2 guys who train with a larger city SWAT, who can act in a pinch as shooters, or more likely as liaisons to facilitate bringing in the main team once needed. The lure of black velcro is strong, though, and everyone wants to be a cool guy...
If you're an obese cop that can't sprint, lift and carry a person, run up stairs and climb a ladder quickly with kit on, shoot well under pressure (to include after rapidly deploying by running to a position where you can engage) you're a phony pretending to be a SWAT officer. You don't take your job seriously.
If your organization is too risk adverse to allow your team to take a risk and enter a school/hospital etc. while a shooter is active and you have less than perfect intelligence, then the citizens have a right to question why they're funding a SWAT team.
Black velcro would be more appropriate than trying to look like a tree inside a building
That is my politically incorrect rant for July.
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