Police training...

A good place to start might be the selection process. Not every high school dropout with anger management issues and a sadistic streak and an ability for using the citizens as targets makes a good cop. There ought to be some kind of psychological exam to strain out the nutcases, the white supremacists, and the out-and-out racists.

After I was pushed into early retirement along with about 960 others in 1988 by B.C. Hydro, I joined a security firm, The B.C. Corps of Commissionaires, which is made up of former members of our military. We had proper training, and extra courses in First Aid and CPR, and we knew how to do our jobs, unlike some security outfits which take almost anyone willing to sign on. Some of those others are really in need of better selection processes, and I suspect that applies also to some police forces.

We didn't carry firearms nor night-sticks nor flashlights the size of baseball bats. But we knew about hand-to-hand combat, and how to use our heads instead of our trigger fingers. And we never had a problem we couldn't handle. But you have to have a few smarts and know how to use them. And it's like kissing a duck's ass without getting a mouthful of feathers - you have to be quick!