lansbury

Being a police officer comes with many risks, not just in the USA. At least here you get a gun to defended yourself with.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...000-times-day/

BenK91

Thank you for clarifying, I wasn't aware law enforcement was dangerous in any other countries.

What I am angling at: I'd feel infinitely more safe policing streets in the U.K. than I would here in the US.

Twinkle0927

Because you're more likely to face someone with a gun here. I don't believe arming police gives them any more protection. It just becomes a competition about who will shoot first.

lansbury

I knew what you were angling at. I was just pointing out you clearly have no idea what the job entails in any country.

lansbury

Clearly someone else who has no first hand knowledge of what they speak. You say more likely to face a gun here, but being armed doesn't give them more protection.

Well having faced a gun twice and knives on quite a few occasions. The last being an idiot who run amok brandishing two knives in an immigration hall at Heathrow I can assure you a Glock, if I had one, would have given me considerable protection.

Jack8602

So if you were in the police you'd happily go about your daily job patrolling unarmed?

Pulaski

The risk of being shot on duty might be quite small, but it is still a very real risk as this story evidences - two dead and one critically injured in Florida, two seriously injured one in florida, one in Pennsylvania, and one shot in the hand in Pennsylvania. This was just in one day - Friday night into Saturday!

tom169

Also shooting aside... It's bloody dangerous being stopped on the side of the interstate.

There are laws to protect it (move over or slow the heck down), but still, it's like the wild west out there.

Pulaski

I had a left side puncture on the interstate once. I pulled onto the shoulder, stopped, and then considered the trucks and traffic thundering past just a couple of feet away.

I then restarted the car and drove about mile to the next exit before stopping far up the ramp to get out and change the wheel for the donut.

I destroyed about $100's worth of tyre (a Michelin with 40,000 miles on it) by driving on it flat, but my life was worth more than that. .... So I really don't think I could ever work as a highway patrol officer.

Twinkle0927

Nope. Because I wouldn't even consider joining the police. I'm grateful to those that do it (including family members) but not a danger I'd want to put myself in. I don't think they'd have me anyway so the question is moot. We are not allowed to keep a gun in our home or car as my husband has a felony. So I lived unarmed. If someone broke into the house with a gun... it'd be all over for us I guess.

DaveLovesDee

Have a read of this thread....

Twinkle0927

I think you misunderstood me. I was referring to the comment that being armed gives you more protection. I'm not saying it gives you any less. I'm saying that more police are killed in this country than in the U.K. but here they are armed. So being armed doesn't make the job safer here. They are armed because they are dealing with an armed population. Despite their guns, they still get killed. More so than unarmed police in Europe. But police in Europe don't get shot because fewer members of the public have guns in the first place. The problem is not arming the police, its armed citizens that are the problem. The police are trained how to deal with idiots, the general public aren't.