Police - always been a supporter BUT . . .

[tinkerjo]

People say "thank you for your service" to military and I think the same should apply to police. Please thank your family members for their service. No group of human beings as a whole will ever be perfect but still, thank goodness for those that enter policing. I wouldn't like to live in a society without them.

Thank you so much

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have to disagree with this. Just from a purely realistic point of view, until police stop being human and they start employing robots...there will be some who have bad days, make mistakes, learn they aren't cut out for the job, get mentally or physically ill, or just plain flame out. That is the reality of humans doing jobs. You can expect them to be superhuman all you want, but the reality is they are just our sons, brothers, sisters, parents....a badge is not a superpower.

I can’t push the like button enough!! As a wife and a mother of LEOs I just want to say they are very much human. They go to work every day and do the best they can. Nobody is perfect, heck as parents we make mistakes and lean by them, everyone makes mistakes at work to. Are there bad eggs, of course, but most are good men and woman doing a dangerous job for just OK pay and little thanks. Also call offs if you are “having a bad day” aren’t really excused and with the shortages it causes another officer to work overtime. DS is working a 15 hour shift today because of it.

Agree.

 

[NotUrsula]

In this case the man entered from the side (not from the bridge itself) and then swam under the bridge. He appeared to be around the halfway point of the body of water very quickly although that's really hard to tell from the perspective because I have no idea how wide it is and what the middle-ish point of the bridge represents and how tall the bridge is compared to the water.

I don't know if a ring would have gotten to him/how they would have been able to use it to hold him up until other help could arrive but I'd leave that up to the appropriate parties in terms of the usage of such floatation devices with their limits and proper rated usage however it's probably not a bad idea in the general sense.

Standard life-ring stations normally come with 200 feet of line; for high bridges, the line is often increased to 400 feet. The best option is to throw it in up-current of the person in the water, though there are times when that won't work because you can't get to a good point to throw from. Obviously, the line also needs to be securely tied off to a solid object ASAP. People very seldom actually get pulled in with one of these; the idea is to allow them to hold on, stay afloat, and resist the current long enough to wait for skilled rescuers to arrive.

The thing is, even if the person in the water still drowns, the ring has done some good, because it allows LEOs and bystanders to TRY to effect a rescue without delay and without major danger to themselves, and that matters, too, for less obvious reasons. If you have tied off and thrown a life ring, you can tell yourself that you at least tried, even if the try did not have the desired result. It reduces mental anguish for survivors, and yes, takes away the stigma of standing on the bank apparently doing nothing. Most of all, it makes it far less likely that a well-meaning second person will jump into the water to try to effect a rescue and end up also needing help.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Standard life-ring stations normally come with 200 feet of line; for high bridges, the line is often increased to 400 feet. The best option is to throw it in up-current of the person in the water, though there are times when that won't work because you can't get to a good point to throw from. Obviously, the line also needs to be securely tied off to a solid object ASAP. People very seldom actually get pulled in with one of these; the idea is to allow them to hold on, stay afloat, and resist the current long enough to wait for skilled rescuers to arrive.

The thing is, even if the person in the water still drowns, the ring has done some good, because it allows LEOs and bystanders to TRY to effect a rescue without delay and without major danger to themselves, and that matters, too, for less obvious reasons. If you have tied off and thrown a life ring, you can tell yourself that you at least tried, even if the try did not have the desired result. It reduces mental anguish for survivors, and yes, takes away the stigma of standing on the bank apparently doing nothing. Most of all, it makes it far less likely that a well-meaning second person will jump into the water to try to effect a rescue and end up also needing help.

200 ft? That would have been enough. The bridge according to google is significantly lower than that in height. There was a current with the water more so with a slight wind so it wasn't completely calm but wasn't churning either. One thing is the man in under a minute (when he was not in distress at least from the video) was on the other side of the bridge already (like starting on the right and being left) and 30 seconds later he's completely on the other side of the bridge swimming away still. He swam quite fast, I don't think the current helped him that much. A ring may have been handy there I just hope the man would have been able to swim to get it to hold onto it, it wasn't a case of just throwing it to someone stationary (or as much as you can be in distress in water), he had to have gone back towards the officers and not continued to swim away (as then you'd run the risk of the line not being long enough). They could have def. tied it to the railing of the bridge. Like I said I do believe he panicked out there after a time (not initially though), he was not rationally thinking when he jumped in.

They did call for a boat within 25 second-ish of him in the water but no the officers who had been engaging with him did not themselves go in.

Benefits I suppose of having a video to review in hindsight, pause and time it and analyze it.

 

[momz]

I don't fault the officers for not entering the water.

There is a lot scrutiny on law enforcement these days. It's a result of high profile cases of police malpractice (if that's a word). The Uvalde incident is appalling. Those officers were wearing gear, the children were not. The officers had weapons at their disposal that went unused. I've seen the excuse given that they couldn't open the classroom door. But, why couldn't they use their axe and go through the wall? Or through the window? I've also never seen an acceptable explanation as to why the door was unlocked allowing the shooter access, I've seen explanations but none that are acceptable in my mind. Where was the resource officer and why didn't he have his radio on him? Why was there nobody making rounds in that school checking that the doors were secure? Isn't that basic security 101?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I don't fault the officers for not entering the water.

There is a lot scrutiny on law enforcement these days. It's a result of high profile cases of police malpractice (if that's a word). The Uvalde incident is appalling. Those officers were wearing gear, the children were not. The officers had weapons at their disposal that went unused. I've seen the excuse given that they couldn't open the classroom door. But, why couldn't they use their axe and go through the wall? Or through the window? I've also never seen an acceptable explanation as to why the door was unlocked allowing the shooter access, I've seen explanations but none that are acceptable in my mind. Where was the resource officer and why didn't he have his radio on him? Why was there nobody making rounds in that school checking that the doors were secure? Isn't that basic security 101?

From what I’ve read, and I don’t remember exactly where I read it, sorry, there was a teacher unloading end of year party items from her car, and the door was propped open for that. At some point she realized it needed to shut quickly, so she shut it, but it didn’t lock. They are looking into why it didn’t lock. But it should’ve locked. It wasn’t left open like originally reported, and I believe she is either upset or suing that she was blamed for that. ETA This was all on camera.

 

[yensid's offspring]

Regarding the incident where the man drowned, the Officers were only following their training. Officers are trained to not jump into water of unknown depth. If they had a rope or a life preserver they would have attempted to save the man but jumping in after him is against all of their training. Additionally Officers are trained to intervene in suicides verbally, try to talk the subject down, de-escalate, etc; but they are not trained to take physical action to stop someone from harming only themselves. If an officer physically tries to stop someone from killing themselves, they can shoot the officer, stab the officer, assault the officer, drag the officer under water with them. Officers are not obligated to put themselves in harms way to only prevent a person from harming themselves, only to prevent them from harming others.

 

[kymom99]

I don't fault the officers for not entering the water.

There is a lot scrutiny on law enforcement these days. It's a result of high profile cases of police malpractice (if that's a word). The Uvalde incident is appalling. Those officers were wearing gear, the children were not. The officers had weapons at their disposal that went unused. I've seen the excuse given that they couldn't open the classroom door. But, why couldn't they use their axe and go through the wall? Or through the window? I've also never seen an acceptable explanation as to why the door was unlocked allowing the shooter access, I've seen explanations but none that are acceptable in my mind. Where was the resource officer and why didn't he have his radio on him? Why was there nobody making rounds in that school checking that the doors were secure? Isn't that basic security 101?

The resource officer covered multiple buildings, as I understand it. So he was not in the building when the shooter breeched it.

 

[Stratman50th]

People say "thank you for your service" to military and I think the same should apply to police. Please thank your family members for their service. No group of human beings as a whole will ever be perfect but still, thank goodness for those that enter policing. I wouldn't like to live in a society without them.

I've had people thank me for my service and it always makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Don't misunderstand, I am very appreciative but I always felt it was reserved for the military and not police. I thank them but can't seem to wipe the embarrassed aww shucks look off my face.