[yummyfajitas]

It's also completely useless for the police to carry weapons. After all, the best we can possibly hope for is that they might shoot someone's bullet in mid air.

Therefore, I propose we stop giving weapons to the police as a cost saving measure.

[abstractbill]

British police don't usually have guns, and I always felt safer for it when I lived there, fwiw.

[yummyfajitas]

Maybe you felt safer, but the numbers suggest your feelings were incorrect.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/798708/posts

Note: I realize the US has high murder rates. Murder rates are not indicative of general safety, since most murders consist of one crook killing another. To put a face on it, think Tony Soprano or Stringer Bell taking out the competition. Most robberies (at least those reported in crime statistics) consist of a criminal robbing a civilian.

[kqr2]

Yes, but they have surveillance cameras everywhere. It's a bit Orwellian.

[abstractbill]

Most of those cameras are privately owned, and on private property. I'm ok with that.

[jimbokun]

Does the state have the right to demand and view the tapes?

[NonEUCitizen]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4713753.stm