Yellow Tape Installers

Mark Steyn has noted police response to some incidents lately and wonders if it's really worth calling 911:

A few days ago in The Corner, I mentioned the South Yorkshire Police, who sat outside watching as a young couple and their children burned to death, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who sat outside a Greyhound bus for four hours watching a cannibal slice body parts off his victim and eat them. Now from Binghamton:

One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said.

Police said they arrived within two minutes...

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers.

What's the point of calling 911 if they arrive within two minutes and then sit outside for the rest of the day to "make sure it's safe"?

At the Dawson College shooting in Montreal a couple of years ago, a couple of officers happened on the scene to investigate an unrelated drugs incident, called for back-up, entered the building with guns drawn, and shot the shooter - all in three minutes.

If you ever have to call 911, it may be worth requesting that kind of service rather than the world's most heavily armed and lavished equipped yellow-tape installers.

He does have a point. And to be fair not every police department has had a sudden attack of the "safties". After Oakland lost two motor officers to a shooter they sent their SWAT team in to confront the bad guy and lost two more. They could have sat outside and waited until it was safe for them too.

I have no doubt as to the bravery of individual officers. That's not the problem. The problem is their leadership has become timid out of fear of lawsuits, accusations of racism, or other public condemnation. They fearful of losing their commands if they act too quickly - more so than of losing officers in a tough situation.

When LAPD was run by Daryl Gates it was a tough bunch of guys who were feared by all the right people. Today we regularly see LAPD cruisers playing follow-the-leader on slow speed pursuits because the department won't allow them to use a simple P.I.T. maneuver to end the chase. Sometimes these things go on for hours. It makes the department a laughingstock.

However, they do have a tough job and it's one that I don't want.

UPDATE: Three more cops dead in Pittsburgh.