re: #191 Ghost of Tom Joad

Desk duty.

I get that cops can shoot civilians. Happens all too frequently. Just last year, a bunch of people were hit by stray bullets fired by NYPD during an incident outside the Empire State Building after a gunman killed someone near the building. It happens, and that’s with a level of training (and some would suggest that training is inadequate and even the NYPD is moving to increase training when its new police academy and firing range are completed soon).

It goes against the meme by the gun rights folks that good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns - ignoring that even the good guys with training can shoot bystanders and that we can’t expect folks who have no training to do any better (and could do a whole lot worse).

The LAPD has a whole bunch of problems, and the Dorner mess is highlighting them for all to see in bright crimson. Institutional reform is needed, and what they’ve done to date isn’t sufficient. I get that the cops were shooting first and asking questions later (because they’re concerned that Dorner might get the drop on them first). It’s in human nature, but they need to evaluate their procedures and if the cop on the beat thinks that they’ve seen Dorner, they need to evaluate the situation and see if it is really him - and call for backup.