From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Need Better NRA Ads NOW !
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 08:25:53 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.232430.23022@hawkmoon.mn.org> gray@hawkmoon.mn.org (Bill Gray) writes:
}hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
}>In article <1992Nov5.193203.1664@igor.tamri.com> donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin) writes:
}
}>}In other words, if the police burst into your house with machine guns,
}>}wearing masks, without identifying themselves, you shouldn't even think
}>}about defending yourself?
}>}
}>}Innocent people are killed in that kind of raid.
}
}>Innocent people get killed trying to defend themselves in those
}>situations.  Criminals know the score and surrender.  They survive.
}
}>I don't approve of that sort of behavior on the part of the police,
}>either.  However, once the situation is going down, it's no time to argue
}>morality and the rights and wrongs of it.  You will be facing a squad of
}>heavily armed and armored professionals who think you're a dangerous
}>criminal.  If they see anything in your hand that _might_ be a gun they
}>will likely blow you away.  If you manage to shoot first, let alone hit
}>one of them, your chances of survival effectively go to zero.

}Jerry, I'm sure there's still room in your kill file for me :-) even
}though I'mnot especially eager to occupy it.

I generally reserve kill files for obnoxious children.  I think you're
pretty safe.

}But I think you may be tactically right and strategically wrong.

Strategically, I think we need to look at a bigger picture.  If our police
are thugs, or behave like thugs, that's WRONG.  It's not supposed to be
that way.  In theory, at least, we still live in a democracy of sorts.
That means it's up to us to do something about it.

Protest.  Vote.  Run for office if there's no one worth voting for.  Turn
the rascals out.

The bozos who gave us the "War on Drugs" were duly elected by voters who
pretty much approved of the idea until they had to live with the
implementation.  The people who set police policy are elected officials in
most cities.  We _can_ do something about it.  Not quickly or easily or
cheaply, but it's doable.

Note that this has very little to do with how one should respond to a gang
of unidentified thugs breaking down one's door.  That's a matter for
personal decision -- probably one that's going to be made under extreme
stress, too.  I honestly don't know what I'd do if I thought they _might_
be cops.  If it ever happens, and I survive, I'll let you know.

(Thought:  It might help if their raid jackets and/or masks said "POLICE"
on the _front_ as well as the back.  Maybe I'll write and suggest that to
our new Chief of Police).

What I definitely _won't_ do is engage in childish, macho posturing or
call the police derogatory names.  That helps no one and convinces many we
really are the homicidal psychopaths HCI paints us to be.  As strategies
go, I can't think of much worse.

Sadly, if you blow away a gang of generic bad guys who broke into your
home the media will ignore you, BUT, if you blow away a cop or two before
they get you, the media and HCI will have a field day.  The cops will
chalk it up to an oops and maybe a few more of them will switch to the HCI
side.  I submit this would be a Bad Thing all around.  Far better to act
now to keep it from happening at all.

[ ... ]

}And that's why there's Amendment II--not to make it easy or safe, just
}possible to defend yourself.

And if it comes to it, we do what we must to survive.  The thing to
remember is the gun is our _last_ line of defense.  In this case I think
the ballot box is the first.

The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@polymath.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (310) 450-9111, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns