[Nifster]

And the police officers involved in the shooting of the pick up with the newspaper deliverers have been suspended and I believe at least one has resigned.

Your post suggests that you think that ALL police do this SALLthe time. My experience is indeed different than that.

My question to you would be....with a murderous psychopath on the loose how long should you wait before you shot?

[nomorelurker]

I would wait awhile before I shot at least a full magazine at a pickup with 2 totally unconnected women. Should you view that any other way I hope you fail the “background check” should it come to pass.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “....with a murderous psychopath on the loose how long should you wait before you shot?” <<

.
Long enough to know for sure, so that there wouldn’t be another murderous psychopath on the loose.

[coloradan]

You miss my point. If there were seven officers there and seven shot, then 100% of officers "would shoot under those circumstances," which statistically implies that, at least, a vast majority of every single officer in the LAPD would do the same, unless for some reason you wish to argue that those seven were highly unrepresentative of the LAPD rank-and-file at large. But, if anything, those were more experienced ones, sent to protect the higher-up. Now, once again I don't know how many were on scene at the shooting, but I highly doubt there were many more officers who didn't shoot, and possibly, there were none others. Which, if true, would mean that the entire force is likely to have shot under the circumstances. The suspensions and resignations are nice ... but when will we see the prosecution for attempted murder, etc., that any citizen would face if they riddled a pickup truck with innocent people with 40 shots - using, I might add, "assault weapons" that might very well be illegal under CA law, if not federal law, in the process. (But, oh, that's right, those laws don't apply to cops.)

As an aside, please notice that although police are not bodyguards, and owe no protection to individuals at all (as decided in multiple court cases), they nevertheless do provide bodyguard services to their own, a further indication of the us-vs.-them mentality, or to put it another way, the caste system. I don't think caste systems work especially well even in India, but I certainly don't want one here, and don't think one is even possible under a system that champions individual liberty and sovereignty. Do you? But yet, that's what we have now - a class of people who are immune from various laws, and immune from prosecution under other laws. Anyone else wouldn't be "suspended" for shooting up a pickup truck - we'd probably be in solitary, and looking at decades behind bars.

[coloradan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVmGWLsn0iM