Under a Gibbous Moon

Detective Rod Tauson of the East Palo Palo Alto (California) Police Department doesn’t like it when other people carry firearms. On his Facebook page, he made threats to shoot those he saw do it, despite the fact that it is legal in his jurisdiction.

I have run into this attitude (not quite this extreme) semi-regularly for the police. That is that they are the only ones who should be given the right to carry a weapon. I have found this odd that, as I have discussed in an earlier post, the police are merely a reactive agency who are not required nor are capable of defending any given individual.

What makes this most repugnant is, in essence, it means that police officers like this consider themselves to be a special class of citizens who are therefore entitled to rights and privileges greater than those given to the rest of us.

This is a dangerous attitude when carried out as part of a larger policing strategy. It leads to a situation where the police stop being protectors and move into the position of keepers, where they define what is and is not allowed and deal with those who disagree with them in any way they feel (look up pretty much anything with the words “Police” and “Brutality”).

Related (maybe) posts:

1. Police road rage
2. Dangers of a double standard
3. Woman kills intruder during 911 call
4. How to spot a hidden handgun