Ryan Bridge: I trust police to make the call around regular arming

Almost 70% of cops want to be armed, and I say who the hell are we to get in their way? 

The new Commissioner has come in, and he's been more gung ho on this idea of regular arming of our police force than any of his predecessors. 

The fact is they're on the front line, aren't they? 

Last year, there was a 9% increase in tactical operations interactions – that means basically the bad ones. That's up to more than 7000. The number of cops physically attacked doubled from 2022 to 2023. 

It's dangerous. 

We're not the ones going out on the streets, are we? 

We're tucked up in bed with moral superiority saying, no, we don't like the idea of you guys being armed. I prefer you pull the gang member over, please. Take your chances. 

It's a little bit sanctimonious from us, don't you think? 

If they feel it would make their situation safer, then I trust them to make that call. 

Of course, you'll always have mistakes, and chaos prior to the shooting clearly shouldn't have happened, and they say they're working further at training etcetera to make that all better.  

But we can't sit here tucked up on our beds at night, all judgey, when we're not the ones out there in the dead of the night facing more violence, guns, and crime. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Almost seventy percent of cops want to be armed, and
I say, who the hell are we to get in
their way. The new commission has come in and he's
been more gung ho on this idea of regular arming
of our police force than any of his predecessors. The
fact is they're on the front line, aren't they. Last
year there was a nine percent increase in tactical operations
interactions that means basically the bad ones. That's up more

(00:21):
than seven two more than seven thousand. Now. The number
of cops physically attack doubled from twenty twenty two to
twenty twenty three. It's dangerous. We're not the ones going
out on the streets, aren't we. We're tucked up in
bed with moral superiorities saying no, we don't like the
idea of you guys being armed. I prefer you pulled
the gang member over. Please take your chances. It's a

(00:42):
little bit sanctimonious from us, don't you think if they
feel it would make their situations safer, then I trust
them to make that call. Of course, you'll always have
mistakes and chaos. Price The shooting clearly shouldn't have happened,
And they say they're working further training, etc. To make
that all better. But we can't sit here tacked up

(01:04):
in our beds at night or judge when we're not
the ones out there and the dead of the night,
facing more violence, guns and crime. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk Set
B from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.