Croker Sack

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." — Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Should police stay safe or go in?

Compare these two cases of police response to "911" calls asking for protection from murderers.

Justin Garner, a young police officer in North Carolina, arrived at the scene and within 5 minutes ended the killing spree by going in and shooting the murderer.

Officer Justin Garner got the call about a shooting at the Pinelake Health and Rehabilitation Center at 10:01 a.m. Sunday. According to investigators, 45-year-old Robert Stewart was in the building shooting at patients and a nurse. Eight people died.

By 10:05, Garner radioed a dispatcher that he'd shot Stewart. "I've been shot in the foot," he told the dispatcher.

Cops in New York waited outside, talking on cell phones to people inside the building until they were sure it was safe to go in--more than an hour after they arrived on the scene.

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. They then spent two hours searching the building.


Who did what you would expect, the cops or the police officer?