“So it’s easy to criticize—I’ve done my share of criticizing ATF. But how do you avoid this? Do you send officers into unknown situations without scary looking flak jackets and helmets? Do you give bad guys 30 seconds warning to pick up their guns? Do you politely request permission to enter? The problem is the ongoing decline and fall of Western Civilization. My brother in law is a cop. In today’s world, every encounter with a citizen is scary. It’s hard to stay alive and not be uber-cautious because the country is full of psychopaths with RPG’s. If you’re a cop, you err on the side of overwhelming force and pray you don’t make mistakes.
I’m sorry. But that type of sentiment scares the hell out of me. What in the world have we become?
Oh...and howabout this....Next time Mr. Jackboot. Besides all your macho friends in the cool looking black masks and tacticool outfits, why not take along one of those guys with the blue uniform and the USPS patch on his shirt. Maybe he’ll be smart enough to find the right address for you. “
Imagine the headlines if the innocent home owner had shot a ATF agent or so! That poor fool, if he survived, would be the one in jail, not the thugs who crashed into his home and gassed his family.
We've become a nation full of bad guys armed to the teeth, who shoot at cops. These cops made a mistake, a big one and should pay consequences. But you don't pussyfoot on raids. The idea is to get in with lots of bodies and guns and to have the suspects controlled before any of them even touches a gun. It usually works. When it does, noone gets hurt and bad guys usually get caught. When it doesn't, cops get killed.
The problem with the sanctimonious moralizing going on in this thread is that the cops don't know, in advance, to know whether they are encountering a house full of sleeping people or a bunch of freaks on meth who playing with their guns. Everyone makes mistakes and this was a bad one. But I would never ask our police to enforce our laws in a manner that puts them at unnecessary risk. Pussyfooting on a raid does just that.
When the cops mess up like on this one, innocent folks can be hurt. Thank God they didn't this time. I regard that as the joint fault of the cops who made the mistake and the bad guys, who have made cops lives so dangerous. Police raids didn't used to be like this. There's a reason they have changed.