Two Marin County, California, sheriff's deputies watched from 50 feet away while a man killed two people with a shotgun on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge last week.
Not only did these armed and on-duty police officers not intervene with a murder happening right in front of them, they allowed the murderer to get in his car and drive away.
We always say that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. But even if they're already at the scene, there's no guarantee they will take action. Of course, in
Because "Nobody other than the intended targets were hurt."
See, they aren't actual people or anything, they're just "targets." If the police had, like, done their jobs, innocent bystanders could have been injured.
I would imagine the "intended targets" might disagree with that, as would their friends and families. Or even the comment-writer himself, should he ever end up looking down the barrel of a criminal's shotgun.
When violence strikes, make sure you have the tools, the skills, and the will to save yourself. Because waiting for the Only Ones to save you could take the rest of your life.
ETA: Looks like the Oakland Tribune pulled ol' Bud's comment. Did we just see a crumb of journalistic integrity?
ETA2: And now the crass comment is back! I knew that had to be just an illusion of journalistic integrity. It is, after all, the Bay Area.
H/T to David Hardy.
3 comments:
Holy. Crap.
At least the police officers ensured that everyone was ok after the shooting... you know, apart from the dead folks they watched get shot.
I cannot bring myself to fault them for not stopping the shooting itself - it appears as though that particular event took less time than it would have taken an average person to comprehend what is going on. But letting the murderer get away unscathed? *sigh* Yeah, that is something else.
It certainly does blow the whole "count on the police" arguemt right out of the water, though.
There was a scene in the old movie, "Run Silent, Run Deep" where a chief (Jack Warden) in the submarine being Captained by Clark Gable says to an officer who has been openly criticizing the Captain, "Sometimes, words just fail me..." where upon he slugs the officer (and is "Placed on Report" by the Submarine's Executive Officer (Burt Lancaster).
"Sometimes, words just fail me..."
Seriously. Why would the cops put themselves in harm's way? They probably figured that they would apprehend them at a later date, and perhaps they wouldn't be packing any firepower. Plus, it's likely that a SWAT team would be doing the arrest, keeping those two officers safe enough to visit the donut shop that afternoon.
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