re: #175 HappyWarrior

It’s a very real problem. Honestly, if there weren’t so many armed Americans, I’d be serious in considering an unarmed police force like Britain. Maybe that’s too far but something has to be done about this. And it doesn’t help that you have prosecutors like McCulloch who think the police can do no wrong.

You could have a mix - the UK has gone the other way from an almost totally unarmed force to a blend of unarmed beat officers and armed backup/response units.

It’s also worth pointing out that “unarmed” is being used in a US-specific way. UK police officers carry batons and pepper spray - you can do some serious damage with those batons.

It’s part of the US gun culture problem, though, isn’t it? Even though 99% of beat officer interactions have no need of a gun, and the 1% that do will in any case involve backup, people would freak out if you suggested taking their guns away.