Aswad
Posts: 6620
Joined: 4/4/2007
Status: online
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Hi, Babs.
That's the way it goes, sometimes. Disagreements can be good, though.
I have four police officers in my immediate family, and they are good men and women. However, they will also be the first to admit that they can't be everywhere at once. Each of them has gone above and beyond the call of duty. But if someone is being attacked ten miles away from the nearest patrol car, it doesn't matter what they do: they will arrive too late to prevent the attack from occuring, even if it's phoned in at the first sign of trouble. And most of the time, a violent attack will leave little time to actually call the police.
Citing a man who is very good at explaining digital security to laypersons, there are three components to any reasonable effort at securing a facility: prevention, detection and response. The role of police in the physical analogy of the model is to discourage crime by random patrols and a palpable presence at hotspots and near salient targets, as well as by being effective in assuring accountability in the response phase by securing evidence, prosecuting criminals and punishing them upon conviction. Rehabiliation can be argued to be another important task.
Yes, sometimes, you're lucky and the police happen to be around when the shit hits the fan. Or you're lucky enough to be around someone else that's willing to intervene. Or you choose to be responsible for your own security by making a best effort attempt at stopping the crime in progress.
Urban areas will have better coverage than rural ones, for that matter. And by US standards, the capital of Norway is borderline rural. The country has an area the size of Texas, with fewer people than Houston, lots of it woodlands and mountains, lots of it covered in snow for large parts of the year, some of it covered in ice, including a glacier or two. I guess the immediacy of this reality is a factor in why our police aren't as big on pasting slogans over their patrol cars. (It's a reality anywhere, but it's harder to ignore in a rural area).
If I walk up to you on the street and pull the trigger, chances are the police will figure out what happened, and even get a conviction. But unless a police officer is close enough to spot it and respond faster than I can pull the trigger, you are still just as dead. Assuming an average spacing of 3 feet between people on a crowded street, that means close to 10% of the population would need to be police officers on duty in order for there to be a real chance of protecting you. The odds of a random stranger intervening aren't much worse, really.
However, if you twist your body (remember, you don't have to dodge a bullet, you just have to dodge the aim before the trigger is pulled, which is worthwhile to try if someone's trying to shoot you anyway, and has a reasonable success rate at that range), chances are I will miss. If you kick my feet out from under me while slapping the gun wielding arm away from yourself and then dodge into the crowd, you've most likely succeeded in protecting yourself (although the crowd might be at risk, depending on the specifics of the hypothetical scenario). No police officers involved, though reporting the incident and requesting protection while they find and apprehend me would be a good use for them.
No slogan can change the facts.
Unfortunately, a slogan can give a false sense of security.
Don't get me wrong, the police do an important job, and generally take more flak than they should have to, but they aren't protection in the sense of actually stopping anyone from committing a crime they have decided to commit, as a general rule. Certainly, they cannot be relied on to do so, unless the crime takes a lot of time (e.g. hostage situation, bank robbery, etc.). There is no substitute for being willing and able to protect yourself.
That the police officers in my family are aware of- and honest about- this fact, is to their credit.
Health,
al-Aswad.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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RE: Sadism in Gor - 
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