We also talked about this post from Instapundit so I figured somebody might want the text / link (emphasis mine):
So, as tactical officers, 9 deep, hang off urban military assault vehicles, they feel great. I look at those things rumbling through empty streets and feel sick.
Bad guy #2 was bleeding for 20 hours outside the perimeter the cops and FBI had set. That was a miscalculation I wouldn’t dream of second guessing, but luckily for all of us, a regular guy noticed the torn and bloody tarp on the boat parked out back and called it in. They answered the 911 call and did what was required–excellent! But if Average Joe hadn’t noticed, how long would the officials have kept the city locked down? But I expect we’ll hear how important it is that they have more domestic P.D. paramilitary, oh yeah, and that CISPA that just passed under the radar was a must.
Law enforcement has been working very hard, but how about a little recognition that this was another instance when an alert citizen rose up, without official permission or sanction, to take reasonable, effective steps?
And my response this morning was “Gee, not to take anything away from the Boston PD (et lots of al), but once again, we see that it was NOT the apparatus of the Progressive State (and make no mistake, MA is a Progressive / Democrat dominated State) that “solved the problem”, but just a regular citizen”. Glen Reynolds links to his book, An Army of Davids, at the end of the post. The message he is trying to send by doing so is that ordinary technology has so empowered regular citizens, that crowd sourcing has outstripped the often outdated notions of how Business and Government should and can act. Indeed – just look how Twitter and Facebook are acting as the “first responders” of the news cycle simply due to the ubiquitous presence of ordinary citizens than specialized “professionals”. Often, there are domain specific experts “among the crowd” that can quickly relay highly detailed observations that are far beyond the pros – and then technology makes that knowledge widespread in just a few clicks. Ah, the disruptive force, that Internet!
After all, the last few attempts to jetliner bombings (e.g., Reid, the shoe bomber) was not stopped by those TSA pros tasked with finding explosives or weapons that could be used to take over the plane but regular folks seeing and then acting when behavior is out of the ordinary. Progressives actively diminish the capability of regular folks in general and puff up the actions of a “very esteemed and expert” Government – but in this case, one person made a difference. A huge difference – and that is not to ever be ignored.
As I get older, I tend to agree with the first observation. Two guys, relatively lightly armed, held an entire major city hostage for a week (and especially the last couple of days, lockdown). I do wonder about that “shelter-in-place” order where the police, MA Governor Patrick, Mayor Minneno “asked” people to stay in their locked houses and business were to stay closed. After just a brief google search, I could not find any remarks concerning “what if people didn’t stay in their homes?” – was it truly an “ask” or more of an Obama who says “We will ask those who are more fortunate to pay their fair share” – where ask really is NOT ask but translates as “we will raise your taxes – and unlike an “asking” where someone gets to say “no, thanks” – and we WILL take them from you”.
Is the militarization of our police departments a good thing, neutral, or a bad thing? Or is it a ‘depends’? I do think a lot of small departments have been playing “keeping up with the Jonses” (with grants from the Feds that have no money…..) and a lot may well be “hey, I got one too!”. Certainly, I am betting a lot of department have armored simply for this reason (even if the official one is far different). I am no law enforcement expert – just a lay observer of current events, but often these seem to be solutions for which there will never (fortunately) be a problem for them. In the urban cities, where drug cartels and gangbangers, I can see the opposite – and the tools necessary should be present. But I do wonder – have things tipped to far, and with the militarization, pushed the “us vs them” mentality?
