Quote Originally Posted by driveace View Post
SO Taz ,what's your views on the Police being armed ?
IF your Police did not carry guns ,would people still apply for the job of Police Officer ?
And your the cop confronted by Mr Brown coming out of the store he has just robbed ,and he comes over to you ,put his hand on the top of your gun ,which you have drawn What's your next move ?
The USA isn't the UK. A police officer doing his/her job in the US is likely to encounter armed criminals fairly regularly. In the UK its highly unlikely although its getting more common in some areas for the same reasons it is in the US, gang culture and inter-gang warfare.

IMO it would be negligent sending police officers unarmed into situations where they may encounter armed criminals, and a shop robbery would be exactly that kind of situation.

I'm not particularly familiar with the Ferguson case nor the more recent one of a 12 year old boy shot dead for pulling out a BB gun on police officers but I would be very hesitant to condemn a police officer for making an on-the-spot decision to shoot someone in self defence in the belief that the criminal is about to use a weapon on them. It is too easy to condemn looking at the situation through a retrospectoscope in the comfort of your own home with plenty of time to peruse what happened in a matter of seconds, quite another to make that decision to draw your weapon and pull the trigger when under a lot of duress where your own life is at stake.

That is not to say that the situation should be forgotten about, an inquiry is/was necessary if only to ensure police officers do not feel entitled to use lethal force with the belief there will not be consequences for them if it is misused.