re: Released body camera footage shows cops stood outside Vegas gunman's door in fear

As a firefighter, yes those guys and us are paid to do the job. As others have said, sometimes when real bullets or fire are flying people freeze up. But, sometimes it's just lack of experience being in those situations. I've seen firemen who were new freeze up at good working fires only to turn out to be exceptional firefighters after that experience. Hell I've seen guys on the ambulance freeze up on simple chest pain calls only to be some damn good medics once they get experience. I'm sure it's the same for police officers, maybe this guy even though a veteran just hasn't been in a "oh shite" situation before and didn't know how to handle it.

I never have panicked in a fire but I did panic my first time to do a rescue in a tight, dark environment, had a little claustrophobia that I never had in fire academy. I remember my mask and airpack making it worse, but protocol was to keep it on. Once I got out of sight of everyone I yanked my mask off and was fine And yes person did survive.

Tbh, if a house is fully involved we aren't going in and no department will, many will lie and say they will. If its 75% involved and someone is trapped we will. If it's 75% involved and we know nobody is in there we will stay out. When you get down to 50% involved we will go in regardless if someone is in there or not. It varies, and is just the first arriving captain's call. We've looked bad on some fires though, and we've looked really good on the majority of them. Pulled up on a fully involved house once where a lady was inside and died, her sister got on news and said there was barely any fire when we got there but we refused to go in and save her, it was on a video interview and gave us bad publicity for a long time, even though she was full of shite, I'm still pissed about that.

ETA: ON the 75% stay out, again it's captain's call, if nobody is in. Most captains don't wanna be telling a wife their husband died to save a structure with nobody inside that would have been leveled and rebuilt regardless.

Everyone's a hero behind a keyboard

I'm not entirely understanding why many here are defending this veteran policeman. He stated in his own words he froze. He was not instructed to stand down and wait in stairs while hiding by a floor 31 doorway. He wrote in his account he simply went blank basically.

What am I missing? That he simply didn't "know" every single detail going on a floor above him? Well no shite he didn't. He never made it up there period.

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Cops aren’t here to protect you. They’re here to give the impression of law and order. The only person who can protect you is yourself.

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You and I know that, but that's not what the government and media portray. That's my point.

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No. Most men freeze. Those who are able to overcome their natural instincts are the exception. They are the few.

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We can agree to disagree here. Most men don't choose to go into the police department, fire department, or military. The Motto "protect and serve" is there for a reason. If you don't go in planning and training for a moment like this, then you shouldn't be a cop.

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you don't go in planning and training for a moment like this, then you shouldn't be a cop.

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You can plan and train all you want man. All. You. Want. No training will prepare you to overcome your natural instincts.

When you run sims and situations and this and that during training, no matter how much effort and time you put in to make it as realistic as possible, your brain knows it’s not real. Your brain knows you’re training and aren’t in real danger.

The only way you could train for that is to not know it’s a training situation. To go in thinking it’s real and you very well may die.

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beerJeep

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I get your point...your natural instincts are cowardly or you at least lack the fortitude to overcome your instincts. Im not, nor are the vast majority or non-soyboy men with any sense of duty.

Its not good to teach kids that its ok to not do the right thing as long as you are scared. This officer should face public shame(unless he was told to stand down). Maybe then men with cowardly instincts will quit pretending to protect the public and will go find work they are better suited for

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Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure I know what he was trained to do. And it wasn't to let this guy slaughter people while he hid in the stairs.

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Thats exactly what he was trained to do.

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your natural instincts are cowardly or you at least lack the fortitude to overcome your instincts. Im not, nor are the vast majority or non-soyboy men with any sense of duty.

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Lol whatever you say, Rambo.

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Its not good to teach kids that its ok to not do the right thing as long as you are scared. This officer should face public shame(unless he was told to stand down). Maybe then men with cowardly instincts will quit pretending to protect the public and will go find work they are better suited for

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Man you’d fit right in with the rest of the dead wwi generals.

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You can plan and train all you want man. All. You. Want. No training will prepare you to overcome your natural instincts.

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You act like you are the only person on the board with any sort of military or police training.

I'm well aware of all of this.

That's not an excuse. Again he was a training officer, he trained other people. He had 9 years with the department and by the looks of it is old enough for some prior service also.

I'm not going to apologize for expecting better from someone with that much time in. Because what he did, was unacceptable to me.