In Lyon, a couple of days ago, a troubled individual beheaded his boss, took and sent via a social media messaging service a selfie of himself with the head he had just separated from its owner and impaled the head on the railings of an Air Products factory before he, thankfully inexpertly, attempted to get the factory to explode.
That he sent the selfie to a number in Canada, from where, it is unclear as yet to where, it was forwarded, suggests he took the selfie as proof of his macabre act.
I am somewhat doubtful that if this scenario had played out in the US, the home country of Air Products, the individual would be in custody answering questions as he is now.
French police carry guns as a matter of course, I still find it a little distracting to see them carrying what I assume to be assault rifles when they pop in to the bakers, but they don't use them if there is a safe option not to.
May the US please observe and learn. With the proper training and discipline such that security service personnel enter dangerous situations with appropriate caution but not fear, it is quite possible to respond to those situations with a clear head and to respond only as is necessary.
I am not of the opinion that the majority of US policepeeps are in the job just to kill folk of any shade or hue, it isn't as if you need a badge to get hold of a gun so killing sprees are not exactly hard to organise, I believe the problem lies in a lack of education that results in officers being placed in circumstances they are ill prepared for and too often on their own.
Be it the response to a domestic dispute or a vehicle stop or a teenage party that gets out of hand, the news footage we see more and more of appears to show a lack of awareness of how to properly contain people or circumstances without being scared of them or angry with them, a lack of confidence, if you like.
Naturally, we never get to see or hear about the incidents during which nothing bad happens and no one does anything wrong and in which people do not get unnecessarily killed or otherwise damaged and these are the vast majority of police attendances, but those we do see do seem to share a common characteristic of the placement of poorly prepared people reacting as those of us who are untrained might and making very unfortunate mistakes.
It is no different from someone having spent their life becoming expert in any field but mine not spotting flaws in commercial contracts or proposals. With the correct training and the thirty years of my experience they could be just as able as I am.
I know I could never be a policeperson or a member of any armed service as I do not have the correct temperament for it but I can wrestle spreadsheets into submission and wade through reams of terms and conditions with relish and without breaking into a sweat.
We all have differing abilities. Just because someone wants to do a job and applies for it doesn't mean it is the right job for them. In my field it just means someone loses a few quid and it isn't terminal or likely to cause civil disturbance and while I often piss people off I am not going to be setting elements of any community violently against any other element of that community.
I don't live in the US and am increasingly unlikely to visit as I am extraordinarily happy to be where I am, but I have a friend or two there and would like them and their fellow countryfolk to be as safe as I feel here.
It might take something as simple as more effective weeding out of even the most enthusiastic of applicants for policing roles. It would certainly be worth a try. By the time they are sent to do something they get wrong it is too late.
Happy everyday.
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