Originally Posted by
David A. Rowe
For what it's worth, I agree with you. The other side to the coin is the officer who won't go in is also the officer who will be my backup if I get into the shit on a call or arrive on scene to an active shooter before them. I don't want them to drag ass, hesitate or refuse to go in either. I decided early on that I will be happy having my fellow officers judge me on one metric: if they are in the shit and call for backup on the radio, I hope they feel both relieved and get a second wind to fight through knowing I'm en route.
Also, again, what I posted was before all of this came out. I'm not faulting parents, officers or anyone else besides the shooter until I KNOW what happened. In this case, I certainly want to know because I'm in the business, and I would drastically prefer learning from others instead of making mistakes I can't afford.
It's the department's responsibility to fire officers who are unqualified for whatever reason if they won't resign. Policing will be better off for it.
There's no way I'm letting random people enter a scene until they're cleared to do so, though. There's no way I can verify their identity and qualifications. There are enough first responders who freeze up when there's chunks and pieces everywhere, and so long as society has made such my job then I'll do it. I know the officers I serve with will do the same, and I know they're going in before me, with me, or behind me.
So, again... allow me to interject my point of view and hopefully add something meaningful. Don't consider it conspiracy. Consider, instead, that it's merely a confluence of interests and power. Conspiracies are complex and difficult to bring to fruition. Confluences of interests and power can arise suddenly, and those with aligned interests in power can capitalize on them. If those in power are possessed by the spirit of good intent with no guiding morals, then they are capable of doing anything. Not all of them are psycho- or sociopathic. Some must be True Believers -- justifying their means by the ends. It's the same sort of chaos and tyranny inherent with what I previously stated regarding incompetence and intent.
Incompetence, Power and Intent.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” -- C. S. Lewis
Regardless of a person's beliefs, proverbially, it seems to me this is the newest Tower of Babel. A unified governance of the world by the Elite coupled with the transhumanism of rapidly advancing technology. They attempt to ascend to godhood, but do not take the reality of human nature (or reality at all) into account because of their hubris. What follows behind men who try to make themselves into gods is Hell. The only solution left is for free men to hold to their morals, make themselves dangerous enough to defend what they love, and build what is true and good to replace what is collapsing into failure and death. There are no guarantees of success.