Soccer Dad

Arming bobbies

In "To First U.S. Bobby, Unarmed Is Unsafe" former American policeman Ben Johnson is challenging the British notion that the public is safer if law enforcement officers are unarmed (typo corrected thanks to Daled Amos):

During his training to become a British police officer, Ben Johnson recalled, an instructor told him and other recruits, "If you ever see somebody carrying a gun, turn and run away as quickly as possible."

"It was a bizarre situation," said Johnson, 34, a former police officer in Garland, Tex., and U.S. Army soldier who moved here with his British wife three years ago and became this country's first non-British police officer. He said running from trouble was exactly the opposite of what he learned as an American cop.

Now Johnson is publicly challenging one of the great traditions of law enforcement in Britain, what he calls the "old-fashioned idea of the unarmed bobby on the beat." He has written to his chief asking for permission to carry a gun, arguing that Britain is no longer safe for unarmed and under-trained police officers. He says he will resign if the chief refuses.

Johnson's case has caused a media furor here, partly because an American -- a Texan no less -- is claiming he feels less safe as a police officer in Britain than he did on the beat in the United States, which is routinely portrayed here as a gun-drunk Wild West.

Let's see. Currently, policemen in Britain are urged to turn tail at the sight of a gun. Allowing them to respond in kind is a debatable notion? Maybe murders are less frequent in England than in NY because of gun control laws, but does disarming the police really help that?

Technorati Tags: gun control.