19 Children and two adult Teachers were murdered this week in Texas. The Police stood by for over an hour while the criminal was inside a school holding a class of children hostage. The parents of these children tried to do something to help their children but were held back by the police. Rumours have it that the criminal was shot by a police officer before going into the school.
Asked by the media why they did not directly respond to the hostage’s needs, multiple police management admitted they were unprepared, even afraid they’d take the wrong action to resolve this situation. Excuses by our so-called “protectors”, an organization armed to the teeth, but unable to stop a lone armed criminal. Many of these cops must be asking themselves why they became police officers. Whether they were ordered to hold off or were just scared to perform their professional duty, these officers have shown themselves to be unprofessional, and unworthy of being called true professionals.
Our police have no problem drawing their guns against unarmed individuals, or putting their knee’s onto an unarmed man’s neck to immobilize him, but knowing how, when and where to use their firearms they cannot rightly claim to know. These police strut about like their armed “supermen and superwomen”, believing themselves to be more than they truly are…”badass lawmen” like the lawmen of old.
Let’s look at such lawmen as Henry Andrew “Heck” Thomas who was a lawman on the American frontier, most notably in Oklahoma. Another member of the Three Guardsmen, along with two other deputy U.S. marshals, Chris Madsen and Bill Tilghman. The Three Guardsmen were credited with the apprehension of more than three hundred outlaws over the next decade, killing several. In August 1896, Thomas Heck led a posse that tracked down and wiped out outlaw Bill Doolin, who had already been captured by Tilghman, only to escape from prison, on July 5, 1896. By 1902, much of Oklahoma had been settled down. Thomas was dispatched to Lawton, where he was elected as the first police chief in the town. He served in that rank for seven years until his health began to fail.
Canada has its famous lawmen too. The RCMP have trained some remarkable law enforcement officers who became legendary for their ability “to get their man”. There were shootouts with criminals of the mad trapper Albert Johnson of the Yukon or Bill Miner “the gentleman Bandit”. Men like Sam Steele were famous members of The North Western Mounted Police, with a great many legendary deeds upon their belts.
Are our cops like these “badass lawmen”? These lawmen cleaned up the Wild West and Canada’s Great White North, limiting civilian casualties along the way. These lawmen were public servants whose motto truly was “to serve and protect”. Today’s cop seems to be there for the salary, pension and bragging rights. Their profession demands that police officers put themselves in harm’s way in order to protect those who cannot protect themselves…that’s you and me, folks.
Many police serve the community to the best of their abilities, but incidents like what happened in Texas make the police look terribly bad. Are police trained in real-time confrontation, and de-escalation practices and do they know how to use their massive arsenal of weaponry provided by us, the taxpayers? Are the heads of police departments afraid to make decisions that could backfire and cost them their jobs? Are political influences manipulating police decisions like what happened in Texas? The Texan Governor had overall control of the situation, directing a wait-and-see operation. If Henry Thomas or Bill Tilghman were there the criminals would possibly have been apprehended and the children-adults saved. Real law enforcement officers act on their personal initiative, using their most important law enforcement tool available, their mind, experience and courage to do what is right.
People with guns frighten us all. Even the people who are charged “to serve and protect” our community.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
[email protected]
