3 ms·

The police are average people too.

bell-cot 3y ago
Good training makes a huge difference. Ditto experience. Hard to quickly judge: How much applicable good training/experience does the law officer who is giving you directions (in an emergency) have? And ditto for the command structure behind him, which is most likely where the "direct people to go $This way, not $That way" decisions are coming from.
unshavedyak 3y ago
Doctors make mistakes too, they're average people too. Should we go with our gut on medical decisions? At what point does someone stop becoming "average people" for us to think that our gut doesn't outsmart them? Lets not forget that "average people" are commonly barely better than animals in emergency situations. Look at how much training it takes to ensure a building full of people don't trample each other to death in the event of a building emergency. There's a very wide gulf between being ultimately responsible for your own safety and assuming that your immediate, uneducated gut reactions are more informed than professionals with training.
rewmie 3y ago
> The police are average people too. Let's assume you are right, and just presume that a police officer is as useless in an emergency response scenario as your average Joe. Police officers are a part of a regional- and state-wide organization dedicated to respond to emergencies, collect and process information from multiple sources including direct presence in critical areas, and coordinate the efforts of all members. All members, including your hypothetical police officer. Do you really think that your personal ignorance and lack of insight and context and situational awareness is no better than that of the police officer who is integrated in that state-wide organization dedicated to act during these events? Industrial levels of arrogance and presumption are required to think the average Joe knows best on how to act during an emergency than emergency responders on the ground.

Good training makes a huge difference. Ditto experience. Hard to quickly judge: How much applicable good training/experience does the law officer who is giving you directions (in an emergency) have? And ditto for the command structure behind him, which is most likely where the "direct people to go $This way, not $That way" decisions are coming from.

unshavedyak 3y ago

Doctors make mistakes too, they're average people too. Should we go with our gut on medical decisions? At what point does someone stop becoming "average people" for us to think that our gut doesn't outsmart them? Lets not forget that "average people" are commonly barely better than animals in emergency situations. Look at how much training it takes to ensure a building full of people don't trample each other to death in the event of a building emergency. There's a very wide gulf between being ultimately responsible for your own safety and assuming that your immediate, uneducated gut reactions are more informed than professionals with training.

rewmie 3y ago

> The police are average people too. Let's assume you are right, and just presume that a police officer is as useless in an emergency response scenario as your average Joe. Police officers are a part of a regional- and state-wide organization dedicated to respond to emergencies, collect and process information from multiple sources including direct presence in critical areas, and coordinate the efforts of all members. All members, including your hypothetical police officer. Do you really think that your personal ignorance and lack of insight and context and situational awareness is no better than that of the police officer who is integrated in that state-wide organization dedicated to act during these events? Industrial levels of arrogance and presumption are required to think the average Joe knows best on how to act during an emergency than emergency responders on the ground.