Don't Mess With Texas

[CharlesHarris]

[Pete Grey]

This memo by Sheriff Murphree looks a little like PA.

Having never been in a life or death situation i am not qualified to comment on the behaviour of any law enforcement personnel.

Ordinary officers would not have the training or equipment to deal with such a dangerous situation, perhaps if all police vehicles carried body armour just in case it would be a good idea.

I write this as my thoughts on the terrible shooting, not to criticise or cause offence to anyone in the US.

[Mortblanc]

Pete, over here all police officers go through a 6 month training course, conducted by their state and not the local entity, and much like military boot camp. Many of them also have prior military service. Many departments will only hire former military personnel since they are greatly pre-trained and usually in better physical condition than the average guy off the street.

Our police are thoroughly trained in active shooter situations, and they are all armed.

There is almost no such thing as an "ordinary Police officer" in the U.S., meaning one that is not armed. Every patrol officer is issued a handgun and most officers carry long guns in their patrol cars. Unlike over there, we would be insulted if a police officer arrived at our call to handle any and every possible situation and he had no firearm. A gun in a policeman's belt is not considered a threat. It is a difference in culture.

The presence or absence of body armor is not relevant to the situation at hand because only the very top rated body armor with ceramic plates will stop high powered rife bullets. And most departments do furnish body armor for each officer, most require that it be worn while on duty.

And when the county police arrived on scene at the Florida shooting, and they were not SWAT officers, they did not hesitate to enter the building while the local police cowered outside.

Perhaps if our FBI were not so busy acting as a private secret police force advocating a one party political system they could have prevented this without any bloodshed at all. They had reports on this shooter, had his name and address along with his problematic record, and were simply to busy trying to railroad our president to check this shooter out and take him off the street. It is sort of like they wanted it to happen.

[LAC]

Sort of like they wanted it to happen...

Not sure if any of our US members have read about this. I was totally struck by the seeming 'coincidence' of talk about training and arming teachers post the tragic events in Florida, and then a teacher armed with a gun starts freaking out. Sort of like they don't want (teachers to be armed) it to happen.

[LAC]

[Skean Dhude]

Much to be discovered on this but I now doubt many things I read in the media especially when it comes to things like guns and schools.

[CharlesHarris]

[Mortblanc]

Lately I have been remembering my school experiences more and more and wondering about the present methods of teacher selection.

My Second grade teacher was a very efficient woman that had been in the Army WW2.

The 7th grade teacher was a retired Navy CPO that had gone into education on retirement.

In secondary school I remember sitting in Ed Lowe's English class. Mr Lowe had been with Patton's 3rd Army as armored cavalry platoon leader.

Across the hall was a guy named Mr. Modrel, he had been a Marine in Korea.

Our headmaster had been a battalion commander in the 1st Division at Normandy.

It was like that all up and down the school hallway.

Even when I began teaching every teacher in my wing of the school was prior service in some branch of combat arms.

We did not have shootings in our school. We did not even have back talk in our school.

All this started when the entire educational system fell under control of the draft dodging hippies of the Viet Namn era, and schools became the most wuzzy places on earth.

Today our teacher selection process is not based on prior experience, veterans status, and it is not based on performance in college. Selection is based on having the proper letters of recommendation from the proper politicians before one can even obtain an interview for a position. Most of the veterans belong to the "wrong political party" to make what the system considers competent teachers. They are too conservative due to their life experiences.

[Pete Grey]

After the war most male teachers had been in the military, here as well as in the US. So to us kids discipline was the norm, with this discipline came respect for all teachers.

With this discipline we knew what was expected of our behaviour and the academic work required. We respected our teachers, they were fair rewarding good work and punishing bad behaviour without favour.

As new young teachers came along with more “liberal” ideas, discipline crumbled and then respect was lost.

With the current state of intolerance by university students who seem to be hard line socialists from Corbins loony left, what kind of teachers will they make?, and what will happen to the kids then?.

[Straight Shooter]

When i went in to have my Angiogram ...next bed down was Norman....got chatting "where about's you from " i told him ....my brother used to teach there ....what's his name i ask.....Ivor ..... his said ....bloody hell ....the most inspirational teacher i had...i say ....how is he ? ....well he's just won best onion at ... show.....i am not at all surprised Norman, back in the day he took maths , gardening and sports....he is 85 years old now ....he still does not drink tea or coffee ....only water ..... i remember Ivor well 6' 6" and as lean as a gypsies dog upright and shoulders back ....no one fucked with Ivor in fact no one tried ..... he commanded respect and respect was freely given by all......my grandfather shared some gardening secrets with Ivor....."how is that grandson of mine doing Ivor "......well Will lets just say he's a work in progress...." you straighten him up Ivor!".........give me a 1000 Ivors and i will sort out the whole of the UK in one year.....without fear of contradiction.....Teachers are the most important rock of the civilised world all they need is to be released from the shackles that hold them back.....Governments .