17 Dec 03

Comments to his own friends on my last quip, from a friend and colleagues in SA:

"Have a look at this! Does your wife's kit measure up? If your lady does not carry all the time, shame on you. She needs a good pistol, good accessories, and good training.

Women are extremely exposed here in South Africa. Those who do not carry regularly are all raped and/or murdered, sooner or later. It happens hundre ds of times every day here. Don't be so foolishly naive as to think this doesn't apply to you. In my trade I see people daily with 'sad stories.'

She needs true freedom. Only armed and trained women can be genuinely free. "

/John

17 Dec 03

Our naive new mayor in Denver has allowed himself to be pressured by local newspapers on the subject of officer-involved shootings. He is particularly upset when people with knives threaten officers and then get themselves shot. He has decided that nearly all deadly force is unnecessary, and that it can be eliminated with enough application of trendy new equipment and negotiation acumen.

He wants to inundate the department with pepper-ball guns, Tasers, beanbag guns, green strobe lights, OC, sticky stuff, slippery stuff, smelly stuff, stringy stuff, foggy stuff, projectile nets, ad nauseam, all in an effort to eliminate the police use firearms. I wonder how close the mayor wants cops to allow a knife-wielding felon to get before applying an emergency treatment.

Of course, I'm in favor of providing cops with options, but too many options are as bad as too few. Trying even to recall, much less fumble with, a bewildering assortment of possible options to which he may have access slows an officer's response and makes him vulnerable is a violent circumstance. It also makes him vulnerable to predictable accusations that he failed to select the best possible alternative. And, politicians will be unhappy with anyone who tells them that their pet, new gadget didn't work!

Unfortunately, the public is being told, by naive politicians and journalists alike, that non-lethal/less-lethal alternatives can be used successfully in any confrontation, no matter how violent. Anyone with half a brain knows this is an absurd exaggeration, and bandying it about is a disservice to the community.

/John