Angry New Yorker

Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man

"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly." - Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783

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Monday, April 06, 2009
 
From "protect and serve" to "wait and report"

The recent upstate Binghamton shootings revealed a disturbing trend in police operations (which isn't just limited to the U.S. as Mark Steyn has noted) where police in responding to 911 "emergency" calls arrive and then... wait. But it highlights that in a real emergency you're on your own - and should plan and react accordingly. Jack Baeur isn't coming to come bursting through the window at the 11th hour to save the day.

As "Jack Dunphy" notes in The Corner:
Even if the gunfire had ceased, the people already wounded deserved an all-out effort to provide them with medical care as quickly as possible. I expect we’ll be learning that some of the victims bled to death while waiting for the help that came too late. Knowing how police departments function as I do, I have no doubt that there were officers ready and willing to enter the building within minutes but were prevented from doing so by superiors who, in ordinary circumstances, make no decisions weightier than selecting which desk tray to place a piece of paper in. These people had to be prodded from their desks when the trouble started, and their presence at the scene merely clogged up the decision-making process.


posted by anonymous at 8:57 AM

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