vonhosen wrote:He is to blame for her death, nobody else.
I don't want to work beside gun ho officers.
My feelings aren't hurt by your comments, strength doesn't lay in having no healthy fear or value for your own life.
Whilst doing my job my life is mine to give where I am willing to, you are not entitled to expect me to lay it on the line at any time. That's not what I am paid or expected to do. There is nothing cowardly about that. It's rational choices being made.
The husband pulled the trigger, that much is true. The police and ambulance staff had over an hour to go in and stop her bleeding to death. The police not only stopped the ambulance crew going in, but chose not to themselves because they thought it to dangerous.
I chose this example because it illustrates my point.
A police officer in the UK is not routinely armed. This is something they elect to do, a speciality that has it's own perks in terms of pay and duties, but also has it's own risks. The police carry guns for only one reason, to allow them to deal with armed criminals. They don't carry a gun to deal with someone armed with a snooker cue, or even a baseball bat, they carry one to deal with a criminal who also has a gun. The officer therefore knows that the only reason he is being trained to carry a gun is so that he can confront a criminal with a gun. There is no other reason for it. For them to then arrive at the scene of an incident where someone is telling them they have been shot, is telling them that they are bleeding to death, and is telling them that the gunman is lying dead next to them, to then decide not to go in just in case there is a criminal in there with a gun beggars belief. Just who did they think was going to save the woman's life? Yes there is a risk she was lying, yes there was a risk there might be a criminal with a gun, and yes there was a risk to the police officers life if that was the case, but why on earth did they elect to become a firearms officer if they were not prepared to accept that risk?
"I don't want to work beside gun ho officers." Where exactly did that come from Von? I don't think anybody has suggested you should, and I'm not particularly bothered about your feelings either. If the hat fits wear it.