Coriolis Force (Was: New member)

People,

I don't often answer posts from work but given the question is about
Australian police, I'll make an exception.

Yes, the Australian police do carry guns, all six state forces, the
Northern Territory Police and the Federal Police (who also police the
Australian Capital Territory, where I live) carry side arms, however it
is a rare thing for them to need to use them, front page of the national
papers and headline news items. For the most part we are an unarmed
society, I've even known police to make arrests without being armed,
though not in the last few years.

Darren Brown
Australian Federal Police
Canberra Australia

--- In spacesettlers, "Dave Logsdon" wrote:

> From: Andrew Goddard:

>> "Ok - just one moment. Why would the police need guns?"

> Only somebody from the U.K. would even *ask* this!

It's well known that American police carry guns, and that British police
(generally) do not. What about other countries? Japan?
Brazil? Sweden? Do Aussie cops carry guns?

Of course, here in the US firearms are available to pretty much
everybody, law-abiding and criminal alike, so the police pretty much
*have to* have guns. To have unarmed cops in America is simply to
provide tax-supported target practice for criminals. At least until
somebody invents the "phaser set on stun," American cops *must* carry
firearms. They simply must.

In a habitat? If nobody else has them, then the cops don't need them,
either. Oh, sure, there'd probably be a "special locker" back at
Habitat PD, "just in case." I see this locker containing several
handguns, rifles, and even shotguns. It might well never be opened.

If I were making an action movie centered around Habitat PD, then of
course I'd make the plot about that rare, perhaps even unique case where
"I hoped it'd never come to this, folks, but it's time to open the
Locker." It would not too much to show an unusual and unlikely
situation as the plot of a movie. But a "cop show" format, where the
cops have to open the Locker *every week* I would consider unrealistic
in the extream.

Xenophile ("I'm sorry we can't come to the phone, but my wife's
programming the burgler alarm, the kids are feeding the pit bull, and
I'm cleaning the shotgun. Please leave a message, and I'll get back to
you after I finish reloading.")

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