You have it -very- wrong. A cop works as safely as he can. He uses the best tactics and tools he has. But yes, he is expected to endure very high risk to do his job. You called it suicide and it was FAR from certain that going in would result in his death. Was it a serious risk? Yes.
There are three categories of people a cop should see. Innocents on top. Cops in the middle. And bad guys at the bottom. A cop is fully expected to risk his life sometimes to protect someone in an equal or higher category. Other cops and innocents, check. Bandits, no. Conversely, though it is deeply appreciated, no innocent can be expected to risk his life to save a cop.
If the safety of the cop was more important than anything else, even children being murdered, he would never go to work at all.
And again, it wasn’t suicide, it was extremely risky but that’s all and he had a very good chance of prevailing. That’s what men sometimes have to do.
Some dive bombers at the battle of Midway lost their bombs enroute to the fight due to defective arming switches. They made their bomb run just like all the bombers. They knew that the more planes in the air, the more fire they could draw away from the planes that still had a bomb.
Or the Wildcats at the battle of Samar, making strafing runs on a battleship.
Suicidal?
Kids in a school, being shot one by one. Several men outside with guns. That’s far from suicide.
Suicide would have been an untrained janitor running in with a broom for a weapon, as the cops stood around outside and watched.
Very well put.
Four TRAINED cops, each with vests and each armed with a long gun should be a pretty safe operation.
So what bugs me is: Every sheriff’s deputy car I have seen has a long gun of some sort either in the gun rack in the front seat or in the trunk.
Further it will either be a .12 Ga riot gun or an AR 15 type.
So why did all four deputies leave long guns in the patrol cars and have only their side arms?
If in fact long guns were in their cars, it would indicate that they had no intention of going in.
Even so, four men with vests and modern high capacity pistols, properly trained, would be very formidable.
Whether not trained, not equipped or not real men, that department needs a new sheriff and a complete reorganization from top to bottom.