Three U.S. Marshals Reportedly Shot in St. Louis

reply to post by stirling


Thinking over what I said yesterday and the comments here and I see a dilemma. I criticize the police for using the paramilitary or SWAT strike too often and using it when it isn't necessary. Then, we have a situation like this where we criticize them for only taking 3 officers and being unprepared. We say they should have expected this level of resistance. Perhaps the perp was expecting a full on raid, so he was over prepared. It creates quite a dilemma. Either choice the police makes will be criticized. If they are overly successful they used too much force. If they are less than successful or they get hurt, then they didn't use enough force. Maybe we are expecting too much.

MY prayers are with the girlfriend and kids of the deceased perp, and with the family and friends of the deceased officer.

Originally posted by stirling
The whole thing sounds like a bit of a fiasco....Not sayin they screwed up big time, but if they were aware of the perps attitude, they could have taken a few other cops along......
The three to one ratio doesnt apply to gunfighting as well as it does to physical confrontations.
I agree with the poster who said we could have starved him out...the kids were already safely away......
A frontal assault may have been just plain too overconfident on their part.
But then again, if so, it shows a certain weakness in their attitude and that is a fatal flaw.....
Perhaps they were just not expecting this level of resistance.....

I hate to seem so critical, but when you said "but if they were aware of the perps attitude, they could have taken a few other cops along...... did you mean to suggest there is now a legitimate reason to seek out and keep track of peoples "everyday" behavior, such as on blog sites and such? Im mean, this way you could form an opinion based on there comments or web browsing habits, as to what there "attitude" is? Yeah, they can form a new agency to monitor "attitude". Maybe we can call it "The Attitude Police"... T.A.P. for short.
Really, I do understand what your trying to convey, but its comments like this, on these kind of websites, that they will use when they "take" MORE money from the taxpayers, because they need personell to staff the T.A.P.

Greetings,

These were long time officers who have made hundreds if not thousands of arrests.
Considering the possible problems each arrest presents I'm sure they evaluate the manpower required.
Many times criminals say that they will not be taken alive and then meekly give up.
A person close to the family said she was surprised at his actions.