I read somewhere that at some point the prevailing culture in American Police forces changed from putting public safety first to putting police safety first.
Not just in America, in the UK the Health and Safety culture has resulted in drownings where rescue personnel refused to enter ponds to assist victims.
And currently an enquiry into the London Bridge attack has heard of how paramedics, thinking of their own safety, refused to help patients for up to 90 minutes after the attackers had been killed.
The US police increasingly resemble a paramilitary type operation with swat teams and armoured vehicles, all predicated on the protection of officers.
It was probably inevitable in a country where even automatic assault weapons are freely available.
this is a mistruth, 3 men didn't receive care instantly as the area they were in was deemed "Hot"
"The inquest has heard that the scene of the attack was deemed a "hot zone" under London Ambulance Service (LAS) protocol, which prevents paramedics from entering for their own safety."
""For our own safety we couldn't go forward," he told the Old Bailey, which is hearing the inquests into the deaths of the eight people killed in the attack at London Bridge and Borough Market."
Sorry if I reported it incorrectly. The point remains however that the ambulance services protocols put the safety of their staff over those of injured members of the public. I think I heard of heated exchanges between police officers demanding paramedics to attend to people and they refusing to do so. Is that not correct?
i cannot comment on that, as a first aid guy, i can refuse treatment to anyone. i'm not sure if it's the same with paramedics.
but, of course "ambulance services protocols put the safety of their staff over those of injured members of the public." doing the maths, if those paramedics were shot while doing work, now you just have even more people injured and require more medics.
police can be armed, with direct contact to support, medics aren't.
the ethics, and legal standing around paramedics refusing to treat wounded civi or other are buried deep within code.
I do have a bit of a problem with this.
If I were ever trapped in a building on fire I would hope it happened in somewhere like New York where the fire department would put themselves in harm's way to rescue me.
In London, and I could be wrong, I believe that they would wait until it was safe to enter and by then I'd probably be dead.
"A firefighter at Grenfell Tower prepared to die when his oxygen almost ran out during the attempted rescue of a 12-year old girl because the fire lift failed, the public inquiry has heard."
many people died in this event, not because of firefighters on the ground, but because of leadership/command/govt.
I never understood why the murder of a police officer was viewed by some as significantly worse than other murders. In my mind, both are equally horrible.
@barking, your comment made something click. For police, the protection of police officers is by far their highest duty, and then much lower is the protection of the public. From this first principle, I can now see why it follows that the murder of a police officer is viewed as much more important, and why so many more police resources are used to solve that crime.
Automatic assault weapons are not freely available. You need a class 3 FFL license to possess fully automatic weapons and private ownership of any fully automatic firearm made after 1986 is banned.
Fair enough, everything is relative.
Where I live I'd have difficulty getting a shotgun licence (pretty much the only allowed firearm) as I'd have a hard time making a case for needing one (not being a farmer).
Not just in America, in the UK the Health and Safety culture has resulted in drownings where rescue personnel refused to enter ponds to assist victims. And currently an enquiry into the London Bridge attack has heard of how paramedics, thinking of their own safety, refused to help patients for up to 90 minutes after the attackers had been killed.
The US police increasingly resemble a paramilitary type operation with swat teams and armoured vehicles, all predicated on the protection of officers.
It was probably inevitable in a country where even automatic assault weapons are freely available.