Cops Need To Protect Us Better?
I'm reading the comments to a story just posted on the Lost Coast Outpost. Apparently a couple people got shot this morning in a suburb of Fortuna. One commentator writes, "If the cops don't start protecting the citizenry MUCH better, then its time to form a tough-assed neighborhood watch and stop the BS group!".
I've read similar comments there and elsewhere before, usually after a murder or serious assault. I have to ask: How do you expect the police to protect you better?
We're not sure what happened in this particular incident, but when someone gets into a fight, the cops generally aren't around. They can't be everywhere at once and, in the case of gun play or fisticuffs. it often starts and ends with no cops nearby.
The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat reports this morning on a killing that occurred on Monday. Police were called to the scene after the first shot was fired and supposedly witnessed the fatal shot, but they couldn't stop it. They couldn't get there in time.
How are the police supposed to prevent such things from happening and thus "...protect the citizenry much better"? And how could a "tough- assed neighborhood watch" do any better? I have no idea, but I'm open to suggestions.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:48 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Complex issue. I don't think it is exactly that they didn't prevent this particular incident from happening. You are correct that could not have happened, unless there are allegations that 911 was called and there was some sort of long delay and the crime happened during that period. Doubtful it was that. However most crime is committed by a criminal underclass. It is the learned opinion of many in the community, that these folks are not being properly dealt with. Whether that is the fault of the police is an entirely other question. There are systemic failures within the criminal justice system on many levels. Those failures lead to these type of incidents happening. Shootings in homes just don't happen on a regular basis. Usually drugs are involved. However if no suspect and a man and a woman victim, then this could be a Murder-Suicide. In general not a whole lot cops could have done here.
They can start by enforcing the laws they are charged with enforcing. That starts when people like you start stopping at stop signs and stop lights.
What we don't need is the kind of law enforcement protection and resultant impunity Tommy McClain got.
I think most of the folks who are yelling for that level of policing would be the same who would then accuse the government of trying to impose a fascist state.
The truth of the matter is we as a society are expected to behave ourselves and when we don't, resolve our problems ourselves. Police interference should be reserved for extreme situations... not routine hand holding.
As for today's incident in Fortuna... it was a domestic dispute and how the police was supposed to prevent that sort of thing I can't fathom. I guess we are supposed to develop psychics as in the "Minority Report."
As in most things, we are our own solution.
Have to agree with MOLA and add that people today have no regards for their fellow human beings or the law. Or a sense of personal responsibility. The cops are not responsible for social disorder.
See what I mean Fred?
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