Parkland Rent a Cop Charged.

[Amarok]

Cowardice is not shameful. It's just a reaction that some people have. It's unfortunately, but it's not fair to shame him.

Indeed it's not shameful it's normal were all cowards to a degree and in the right situation, And not all courage is fighting. What is a nurse or a doctor who stays in a plague ravaged lands  to treat the sick knowing full well they will likely die? How can I call them anything but a hero

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Cowardice is not shameful. It's just a reaction that some people have. It's unfortunately, but it's not fair to shame him.

But he was a cop, being paid to protect those kids.  It isn't simply run-of-the-mill cowardice, like declining a bar fight, or running from a mean dog.  This was an abrogation of his duties, as a trained, paid and sworn law enforcement officer.  When he was issued his badge and gun, did he think they were just for show?

As near as I can find out, the overwhelming majority of US cops take an oath very much like this one:

'On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the Constitution, my community, and the agency I serve.'

This guy has no honour, he betrayed his badge, his integrity, his oath, and the public trust (I would say that he betrayed his character as well, but I don't think he has enough of that to matter).

He deserves all the shame that can be heaped on him.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Hey, whoa now! The rent-a-cop was the "good guy with a gun", and probably acted like any other GGWAG would act.

I'm beginning to have my doubts about the whole 'good guy with a gun' thing.  As often as not, it seems as though good guys with guns are stopped by bad guys with guns.

Boru

That's because most of the guys with guns are not good guys, just guys with guns.   This is what the NRA, which consist mostly of no good guys with guns, wants you to overlook.   They want you to think having guns somehow in itself makes you good, irrespective of whether there are any supposedly redeeming qualities in you beside a gun.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm beginning to have my doubts about the whole 'good guy with a gun' thing.  As often as not, it seems as though good guys with guns are stopped by bad guys with guns.

Boru

That's because most of the guys with guns are not good guys, just guys with guns.   This is what the NRA, which consist mostly of no good guys with guns, wants you to overlook.   They want you to think having guns somehow in itself makes you good, irrespective of whether there are any supposedly redeeming qualities in you beside a gun.

Well, duh.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

That's because most of the guys with guns are not good guys, just guys with guns.   This is what the NRA, which consist mostly of no good guys with guns, wants you to overlook.   They want you to think having guns somehow in itself makes you good, irrespective of whether there are any supposedly redeeming qualities in you beside a gun.

Well, duh.

Boru

I am undeterred by your banal contempt for my platitude.

[Shell B]

Cowardice is not shameful. It's just a reaction that some people have. It's unfortunately, but it's not fair to shame him.

But he was a cop, being paid to protect those kids.  It isn't simply run-of-the-mill cowardice, like declining a bar fight, or running from a mean dog.  This was an abrogation of his duties, as a trained, paid and sworn law enforcement officer.  When he was issued his badge and gun, did he think they were just for show?

As near as I can find out, the overwhelming majority of US cops take an oath very much like this one:

'On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the Constitution, my community, and the agency I serve.'

This guy has no honour, he betrayed his badge, his integrity, his oath, and the public trust (I would say that he betrayed his character as well, but I don't think he has enough of that to matter).

He deserves all the shame that can be heaped on him.

Boru

I didn’t say he was honorable or should keep his badge. He should definitely lose it, but legally, it seems fucked to force someone to get into a shootout. As for shame, maybe within his circle, but we civilians have no reason to shame him. None of us are putting ourselves out there to be shot at.

[Anomalocaris]

When people who consent to receive pay and exercise authority in return for readiness to discharge a clear set of responsibilities specifically pertaining to life and safety signalingly fail to discharge this responsibility, everyone who is effected by his failure to discharge his responsibilities has a right to shame him.  Furthermore everyone who care those social contracts that are already paid for and are aimed at ensuring such critical responsibilities are discharged can normally be expected to be fulfilled has an vested interest to shame, and support the appropriate punishment of, those who enter into and then breach the contract.

The appropriate punishment must exhibit deterrence effect sufficient to contribute towards reducing the likelihood of further breaches of such contracts in the future by others.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

When people who consent to receive pay and exercise authority in return for readiness to discharge a clear set of responsibilities specifically pertaining to life and safety signalingly fail to discharge this responsibility, everyone who is effected by his failure to discharge his responsibilities has a right to shame him.  Furthermore everyone who care those social contracts that are already paid for and are aimed at ensuring such critical responsibilities are discharged can normally be expected to be fulfilled has an vested interest to shame, and support the appropriate punishment of, those who enter into and then breach the contract.

The appropriate punishment must exhibit deterrence effect sufficient to contribute towards reducing the likelihood of further breaches of such contracts in the future by others.

Translation:  Cops are paid to help protect innocent people.  His failure to do so makes this cop deserving of shame.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Why must you make things so simple?

To go further, freedom is a facade.  The difference between a free society and an repressive one is not the absence of coercion, but the sophistication of the mechanisms to take the mind of the coerced off the coerced. The real oil that lubricate the functioning of society is subtle but effective coercion to ensure what needs to be done for the society is done.  Police must be coerced to do their duty if they otherwise would not.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Why must you make things so simple?

To go further, freedom is a facade.  The difference between a free society and an repressive one is not the absence of coercion, but the sophistication of the mechanisms to take the mind of the coerced off the coerced. The real oil that lubricate the functioning of society is subtle but effective coercion to ensure what needs to be done for the society is done.  Police must be coerced to do their duty if they otherwise would not.

Apologies for the simplicity, but in this (and in this only), I'm a Churchillian at heart, in that the polysyllabic superfluity of extraneous bombastic circumlocution serves merely to give vent to the loquacious propensities of the interlocutor involved, and provides miniscule assistance in the dissemination of pedagogic enlightenment of the assemblage of listeners or readers, such methodology being non-percipient.

Boru