[TFMcGuire]

Stupidity is running rampant on this thread.

1. There is no excuse for the police hiding instead of engaging.
2. Their level of training cannot excuse their inaction. All they needed to do was aim and shoot.
3. for you Freepers and lurkers who feel one cannot know what to do until confronted by a situation-—get your heads out.
4. Gack. I am ashamed at some of your cluelesness, demonstrated by your remarks.

[Leisler]

People are the people they are, not the names or cloths we put on them.

Because you pull some illiterate mut off the street, march him around for a bit and hand him a gun and a badge, doesn't make him Clint Eastwood.

Who do you think the Mumbai police get their recruits from, MIT, West Point?

It is not unknown for third world military to be reluctant to advance on a numerically inferior, but determined enemy.

Their are many reports of the hotel staff saving guests. I suspect this is from long working and having a sense of responsibility to the guests. No doubt the private hotels demand more of their staff and have made a culture of service.

[Leisler]

The US did studies of front line infantry in WW II. Something like half never fired their weapons. Of those that did, half of them said they fired in the direction, but didn't aim. Another group aimed but didn't think they hit anyone. Very, very few admitted to aiming to kill.

So, even in a just war, it turns out it is difficult to get people to kill even people who are trying to kill them, even if they have been trained and more importantly conditioned to kill.