Re:Why the US military usually punishes misconduct but polic...
by sukilot on Friday June 26, 2020 @10:29AM
(#23652344)
Right, so police need body armor, not handguns.
Re:Why the US military usually punishes misconduct but polic...
by gridlockd on Saturday June 27, 2020 @04:15AM
(#23660296)
Body armor might save your life, but it doesn't make you invincible to bullets. If you take a bullet with body armor, you're going down.
You're no threat whatsoever. You have no power in the situation, you can't get it under control, mitigate the threat, and so on.
If I know you don't have a gun because you're one of these unarmed cops, I can completely dominate the situation. I can make you stand on one leg and do a recital.
> By analogy, people are allowed to own rocket launchers as well (it's true!) but that doesn't mean every beat cop should carry one.
Rocket launchers are not anti-personnel weapons and no ordinary criminal carries them or would be expected to carry them. The best weapon to neutralize a threat wielding a rocket launcher is not another rocket launcher, it's a rifle.
Should we arrive at the situation where criminals routinely arrive in armored personnel carriers or tanks, then we can talk about arming the police with rocket launchers.