tattoodguy said:
I dont really understand ur argument - police have a right to protect themselves..but the rest of us dont????????????? thats not well thought out.
That's because they are police, I'm not. Their job draws a significant amount of negative attention, as you've no doubt noticed. It's more important that they be allowed to defend themselves, while on duty, because while doing their job, they are often met with adversity. Conversely, I don't need to defend myself, because people don't attack me, harass me, or direct negative attention towards me, on a daily basis. It's completely different, their circumstances necessitate their allowance to protect themselves, for me it's completely unrequired because I just don't get the attention. Seeing as I don't sell drugs and am not involved in gangs, and seeing as I'm not a police officer, the level of hostility to necessitate me defending myself is, thankfully, absent.
And yes, I realise that relying on the police for my protection would be perhaps naive, but I'm not about to go start hunting down people causing the problems. This is sort of going nowhere, because there's no way in hell I can realistically imagine anyone feeling like exterminating my family and myself. If it comes up (almost certainly won't of course), then sure, I'll deal with it then.
It seems wrong to grant everyone the right to defend themselves based upon this example, when I'd imagine the majority of Australians are not in the process of being hunted down and exterminated by rival gangs. Maybe instead people can take this as a lesson as to why you don't join gangs, why you don't sell drugs, why you don't do things which necessitate a bodyguard.
In response to the melbourne police assisting in killings, yes, I know there are corrupt police. But what on earth can be done to solve that? One would hope that they are in the minority, and are, or will be, being dealt with. If you can't trust the police, who can you trust? I'm certainly not about to wage war on the world and do it all my way because of a few scum bags taking advantage of the rights afforded to them by being police, while at the same time neglecting their responsibilities.