During daily briefings

[packman]

you're a cop, you get this picture or are shown it:

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It's a fully functional shotgun disgused as a super-soaker. What is your frame of mind as you're on patrol and you see a kid-be he/she white or black- with a super-soaker?

I have no sympathy for cops killing someone carrying a pellet gun or BB gun or even a bag of Skittles. But, Christ- as a cop this would put me on edge.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Cops fear guns, thank God not too many around in America in public hands, right?

Whoever came up with this idea deserves a long lonely stint in jail. Or would that be a violation a of some gun "right"?

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. But then I would realize,"Hey, I took this job knowing my odds of dying on the job would go up"

and I realize that 99.9% of the time a toy gun is just a toy gun, and I go about my business. If I can't think like this? I turn in my badge and gun.

I really have no time for "it's tough on cops." They KNOW what they are getting into when they sign on. I want them to have the mental and emotional capacity to deal or get lost

[matt819]

3. Judgement

Disclaimer. I'm not a cop. Not even close. Wouldn't want to be a cop (except for being a British detective from the novels I read). You get the idea.

Sure, shit like that exists (though until I saw this post I didn't know that). And, sure, it's got to be stressful to be a cop. But, ffs, this is where judgement comes in, and this is where we have failed as a nation. In police departments large and small, we have failed. We are hiring barely intelligent people and we do not expect them to exercise judgement. In fact, we seem to urge them not to exercise judgement. We cultivate in them the fear that they already bring to the job. Fear of "the other." Contempt for those not like them. And we give them carte blanche to respond and react without exercising that judgement.

[packman]

4. Commenting on my own post

I blame the NRA and it creed of everyone has the right to bear, carry, and display a gun for our cops being on the edge-as I put it. In other countries with strict gun laws cops have an expectation of safety and of not confronting a criminal with a gun. In other words, a cop in England or Japan seeing a person with a supersoaker is seeing a person with a supersoaker while a cop in America is seeing someone who can possibly take his life.

Fuck the NRA - the real reason for gun violence in America.