Quote:Police fear officers stopped from wearing guns in court are at higher risk of being "soft targets" for terrorists following the shooting death of a police employee.
NSW Police Association acting president Pat Gooley said magistrates who refused to uphold new protocol allowing police to wear their appointments in court should reconsider following the fatal shooting outside the state's police headquarters on Friday.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/unarmed-nsw-police-fear-they-are-soft-targets-for-terr...This is not accurate. If you look at the statistics of police deaths, and the statistics of terrorist attacks in Australia, and compare attacks on police to terrorist acts and then compute the number of police in to that, there is almost zero risk to police in Australia from terrorism.
Police, you may or may not be aware, deal with, mostly, things such as:
drink driving
domestic violence
kids smoking pot
shoplifting
They carry guns because they are at potential risk. It is to defend themselves and others.
However, this does not happen in the UK, and they face the IRA.
But in the UK, and everywhere else in the world, there are no guns in court.
Why would Australian police want guns in court? The risk is miniscule. It is disrespectful and does bad things to the mindset of the police.
They are basically there for minor crimes. A guy got drunk and punched another patron at the pub in the face. That kind of stuff.
They should not be allowed to have their mindset altered to the point where they can become at risk of suffering PTSD and become trigger happy and hyper vigilant.
Because it is not an accurate representation of what risks police face.
There is no terrorist risk to NSW police of a level requiring this type of public comment in the media.
No guns in US courts. And the USA has liberal gun laws. And is 'great Satan'.