Thread: More gun trouble in the Land of the Free

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

From the linked article:


So, the police couldn't find a bigger gun (that they could use), they escalated the war.
If I were a copper in America, I'd be walking. in armour.
I think police cars in America will now be bomb targets

"Police cars",.."Bomb Targets",...In America?,....you could be right,.....what about in Aussie?
Pickles.

Any chance of a rational discussion?

Originally Posted by Pickles2

"Police cars",.."Bomb Targets",...In America?,....you could be right,.....what about in Aussie?
Pickles.

We don't get a lot of rogue police emptying their clip into people reaching for their license.
As we have seen in Australia, if a member of the constabulary goes off the rails, they soon get sorted out within the organisation. I think our coppers are pretty good. I've chatted with quite a few on the side of the road and I've only had trouble with one threatening to shoot me.
America has many problems with interactions between the public and the police. One of them is the prevalence of guns in their society. Another is the need for the politicisation of the police in America. A lot of the local police are on the payroll of the local governments. To guarantee the continuance of their jobs, they are under pressure to make the local elected officials look as if they have crime under control. They are under pressure to achieve a quick result. A correct result or wrong result, it doesn't matter as long as there is a quick result.
This often results in innocent people being fitted up and locked up which creates a lot of resentment.
We don't get a lot of that here in Australia.

So you don't think any of this stuff is likely to happen in Aussie?
Pickles.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

So you don't think any of this stuff is likely to happen in Aussie?
Pickles.

Don't forget, the equivalent of America's African slaves in Australia were the convicts.The convicts seem to have integrated themselves into Australian society. In fact, the people I have met who have a convict in their lineage, appear to be quite proud about it. They are not as persecuted as those who are descended from African slaves. They are not persecuted at all. They have no reason to rise up against the police. Add to that our police have no cause to empty a clip into any one individual. I don't think they would even want to.
Sure, in the past in Melbourne we had some colourful criminal identities. The Morans and Chopper spring to mind. There have been times in the past that lead has flown but I think that was an entirely different set of circumstances.
No, I don't think we will be seeing Americas problems here in Australia.

No worries, I get that, and I agree that our Police are doing a top job, paricularly with respect to the weak sentancing we are seeing, which I know from speaking to members, is particularly frustrating to them.
I suppose I was referring to your comment re "Bombs" with respect to people in Aussie with other issues/agendas, that we read about just about every day in the press, whose efforts to create mayhem, have largely & thankfully, been thwarted to date.
Pickles.

The "bombs" comment came from the article.
The way I read it, I got the impression the police in America detonated a bomb to take out the sniper. Is that right?

The way I see it:
- American policemen empty clips into compliant members of the public
(remember when Mike Moore in "The Awful Truth" reported on that incident where the police got the address wrong, knocked on the wrong door, and when the American female resident of African descent of that home answered the door holding a vegetable strainer, the policeman emptied his clip into her)
- American member of the public gets bigger gun and shoot police
- American police use bomb to kill sniper

It's a progression of escalation. Where will it stop?

Land of the free indeed. Glad I don't live there.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

So you don't think any of this stuff is likely to happen in Aussie?
Pickles.

NO.