They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
One would think I’d have developed a viable defense against the retch impulse by now, but…no, apparently not.
If I may:
“It’s been proven to be the best training and the most effective training if we can keep it realistic. So the more realistic, the better they will respond in an actual situation.”
Well, since he put it that way, someone should maybe call up the department and make them aware of how out-of-date and unrealistic their training is.
Note the obvious limitation of the simulation video, with its mere image of a suspect: they let him live. Not a single shot was fired.
See, we all noted the recent codification of what official procedure should be if a living suspect is involved, and what’s on that tape is clearly not real enough.
Just wondering: does anyone else here sometimes wonder if the reason the Eumenides haven’t shown up yet is simply because they’re so disgusted with all of us that they figure it’s not even worth the effort?
___________________
CAPTCHA phrase: “cofinked”
Dear Pima Co. SWAT,
It doesn’t matter what you show us on the training field, we’ve seen the video of you in action.
That was fat and unsat and you know it. You panicked and shot a probably innocent dude and got away with it and everybody knows it.
And a special note to the guy who dithered on the lawn a bit before skipping up to the door and gangsta-ing your Glock over the top of your buddy’s head: Save the taxpayers some money and suck-start that pistol now, rather than after a couple of years of crawling into a bottle, okay?