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Pastimes : No to WTO! Seattle 1999 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PMS Witch who wrote (156)	12/6/1999 5:09:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 187

P.S. I have never been a police officer. BTW, I haven't ever met one either. Gee. You must be an incredibly good driver, if you drive at all. Most people who drive at some point or other meet up with police officers! I agree with you that the Seattle police were put into a tough situation. But they're supposed to be trained to deal with tough situations -- that's why we switched from a "posse" system to a full time law enforcement department system. Of course, we do undertrain our police, and pay is so low that it doesn't attract the brightest and best (nor do they want them -- witness the famous case of the police department which recently refused to hire a person because he was too smart). But when we hand to anybody the incredible power and authority which come with a badge and a gun, IMO we have an obligation to expect a high level of performance. Which does not include clubbing or gassing anybody who gets in your way without determining whether they are behaving perfectly lawfully or not. my duty was to stop a crowd from rioting, and perhaps killing me in the process. So far no police officers and no commentators have even suggested that police lives were endangered at any time. There was no attempt to rush police lines, as far as I know no demonstrators or protestors or even anarchist vandals were armed with deadly weapons. The most dangerous thing I saw was a small wheeled dumpster being pushed into the street where it slowly meandered down the street toward the police line a block away, but veered off before it got even moderate close to any police. I didn't see or hear a single "kill the pigs" or "off the fuzz" slogan chanted or poster waved, didn't even hear anybody oinking. OTOH, it's hard to put a flower in the barrel of a tear gas grenade. Police in the 60s put up with far, far more abuse and actual threats than these police did, in most cases without imposing excessive force (Chicago 68 and Kent State being two notable exceptions, though Kent State were guardsmen, not police.) Basically, though, if they can't do the job they shouldn't put on the uniform.