Feral bogans, police chases and .50 cal
Every time someone gets hurt in a police chase there are renewed calls for legislation to ban copps from engaging in pursuit. Of course, it also always brings the worst in trash media who are trying to give you a “balanced” view of the story.
Check out this SMH report:
“Mr Oppelaar’s cousin, Jason Kelly, said: ‘‘I purely blame police for it. He’s getting chased and that’s what young people do. They get scared and they take off,’’ he told reporters.”
It goes on:
Mr Oppelaar’s brother, Chris Mills, said: ‘‘You have to ask who’s responsible … in some part it’s the driver for doing the speeds he was doing, but mostly it comes down to the coppers … what good’s a stolen car?’’
And from Skye Webbe’s mother:
“I can see he’s done wrong but it’s a petty little crime,” she told Radio 3AW. “
A Current Affair, of course, takes the trash reporting award with this gem. I mean, asking a mum of a person who was in the car getting chased is quite balanced indeed. Here is what she said:
“…maybe they [police] should face charges…I do blame him [Justin Williams] a little bit but I just think that if Police stopped their pursuit, they would all be alive today.”
However I have little interest in dissecting A Current Affair’s reporting. We all know their target audience’s IQ is below 20 and that’s fine. What strikes me as outrageous is the common theme from both the innocent victim’s family and Justin and Skye’s families - that it’s kind of OK to steal cars. Seriously? “petty little crime”, “He’s getting chased and that’s what young people do”.
Here is a clue for all you brainless bogans:
IT IS NOT OK TO STEAL CARS
Now, there are reasonable proposals to handle pursuits differently and they have some merit. Stopping pursuit and notifying police up ahead like they do is South Australia might work in some cases. However, it relies on police knowing that the car is “just taken for a joyride” (which apparently is a legit form of entertainment in Queenbeyan). I am not a fan of this approach and instead propose my own:
.50 cal M2 Browning.
Image courtesy of Dummidumbwit’s Weblog
This is the kind of gun that is fitted to Army humvees and fires big ass rounds that could be used against infantry, light armoured vehicles and low flying planes.
It will only take a couple of rounds to maim a normal car and the gun will serve as a powerful deterrent. Imagine seeing a cop aiming a .50 cal at you in your rear view mirror. You will most likely have a bowel movement and stop the car immidiately. Police should also be give powers to use the gun liberally. Once they pick a good spot to disable the vehice, they should fire away and shred the prick who thought it might be fun to steal a car to pieces.
This way the pursuit can be terminated pretty much straight away, thus minimizing the risk to other road users. Surely, this increases the risk of the offending driver being injured, but I think that’s OK. I would call this “an accelerated evolutionary process”.
The only reason why there are so many joyriders around is because they know, that on the balance of probabilities, they can get away with it. With every police cruiser being equipped with a .50 cal I am sure that perception will change.
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