The big problem here is that these cops weren’t militarized. No swat team, no special weapons, no special tactics, no assault vehicles to stop the UPS vehicle. No military tactical training. The idea that the police in our country shouldn’t be trained and equipped to deal with a situation like this because they failed to deal with it well when the weren’t properly trained and equipped is a confused one. It was a shit show, no question there. But the idea that we shouldn’t equip and train our cops to deal with military-like situations makes no sense.

Okay. Here’s a thought experiment. You have money. You use your money to open a business. You have a van that travels around delivering people’s goods. You have to compete with others who do the same thing, so your profit margin is incredibly low in order to keep up with the competition. You work 60+ hours a week and have three people in your staff. You earn $48,700 per year, before taxes. Your employees earn $24,000 to $36,000. All other earnings are put into the business for truck repairs, fuel, etc. at the end of the year the company profits around $8,000 by spending below budget. These earnings are divided up into end of the year bonuses, and a new sign for the company. One day your van is hijacked, with all the people’s goods. Police surround the van, but the hijackers get away. They take the van to a shed, remove all the goods and divide them up amongst themselves. They chop the van, and sell the parts. You collect your insurance money, and take out a loan to start your business over again. Your van is again hijacked and stolen within weeks of making deliveries again. Word has now spread, and other delivery trucks are now being stolen by essentially modern day bandits. Police cannot get control of the situation, and thieves continually have more success with experience. The cost of delivering goods has now quadrupled, and armed convoys are issued for deliveries. The modern day bandits, who now have a livelihood and support families with children, match with an equal show of force. They now infiltrate the warehouses storing goods and begin carrying out the deliveries themselves at ten times the original price, because businesses still have to operate, and they can make more money on the deliveries than by hawking the goods. Police have no means of fighting back, as they are ordered to stand down in any potential firefight in public space, and the warehouses are too well fortified and defended. Now imagine if this caught fire, and happened in towns and cities all around the country, since there are so few good jobs for young men to build careers from in order to support their families. Where does it go from here? You tell me. I for one consider the thin blue line to be better had than not.

Yes 2 innocent lives were lost, but many more saved. Most people don't look at it that way however

And I'm sure you would have done everything right in that situation. I seem to remember some Jesus character saying something about throwing the first stone if you're perfect, I dunno though

I don't feel like you've given an accurate/honest breakdown here. It's terrible that the driver and an innocent bystander were killed, but it's not like the cops showed up and decided to light the van up. They surrounded the van and only started shooting after the hijackers started shooting at them. Maybe they could've handled it better, but there's also the chance that had they not acted more innocents would've died because the hijackers had already shot at the owner of the store they robbed so likely wouldn't have worried about killing anyone that was in their way.

That's pretty -blam!-ed up.