In a move that is certain to evoke cries of “Foul!” from the left, the police chief of Detroit is responding to the recent rash of brazen home invasions with an iconoclastic message to homeowners: “If you are confronted with an immediate threat to your safety, you’re not going to have time to dial 911.”
In an interview with station WDIV, the Motor City’s top cop, James Craig, said
A lot of good Detroiters are fed up. The message should be that, you know, people are going to protect themselves. They’re tired, they’ve been dealing with this epidemic of violence, they’re afraid and they have a right to protect themselves.
Detroit has had four cases recently in which armed homeowners defended themselves. In two of the instances, the intruders were killed.
Craig underwent an epiphany on the issue of an armed citizenry in 2009 after leaving the Los Angeles Police Department, where he had served for 28 years, to accept a job as police chief of Portland, Maine. In Maine, concealed carry permits are a commonplace. Craig soon learned that “suspects knew that good Americans were armed,” prompting him to declare that “Maine is one of the safest places in America.”
Craig is quick to point out that the “threat needs to be coming at a homeowner” — that armed citizens are not within their rights to chase a suspect down with a gun. In those cases, police need to be called in.
He also promised that the Detroit Police Department will continue its aggressive search for the suspects who survived recent run-ins with armed homeowners:
Suspects in Detroit got to worry about a couple of things. They’ve got to worry about a police department that’s going to aggressively find you when you commit acts of violence. And you got to also worry about the good Detroiters who are not going to put up with the violence.
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