[noobaccount]

Unarmed police in other countries seem to handle those situations just fine.

[iso947]

Americans are far more heavily armed, and there’s a belief that the only defence against a gun is someone with a bigger gun.

[gridlockd]

I can tell you what isn't a defense against a gun: A baton, a taser, teargas, or any of the other toys that ordinary police get to use in the UK.

[throwaway93132]

And yet, only 2 UK police officers were killed in the last year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_police_officer...

[gridlockd]

Yes, because guns in the UK are rare and police officers aren't going to engage someone with a gun when they're armed with just toys.

[ric2b]

So we agree that the UK system works much better. Both less police and less civilians killed.

[gridlockd]

No, we don't. For comparison, in Germany, a slightly larger country, where officers are armed, less than one officer per year died in the past decade:

https://www.dw.com/en/two-german-police-officers-killed-by-f...

If officers don't engage because they are insufficiently equipped, you effectively have less policing. Less policing causes more violence and more deaths.

"Stop and frisk" works:

https://www.npr.org/2012/05/15/152764402/stop-and-frisk-work...

Knife crime in the UK keeps going up...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42749089

...as a result of literally defunding the police:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/02/criminals-go...

[gridlockd]

I disagree. Almost every country on the planet arms its police force and all of those countries are rather low in crime, at least compared to the US.

When there's a situation that requires guns, they stay put until the police with the guns arrives. Or they become a hero and get stabbed in the process:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/22/police-briti...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-49273979

https://news.sky.com/story/police-officer-critical-after-bei...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/man-charged-stabbing-p...