ACLU: Don’t arm school police

The America Civil Liberties Union loves to defend some civil liberties.  Other civil liberties, like the Second Amendment's protections, tend to feel the ACLU's bus tires rolling over it.  Continuing that trend, radical ACLU "senior policy advocate" Harold Jordan wrote an op-ed for the Pittsburg Post-Gazette advocating disarmed cops work in the city's public schools.

The piece, since posted on the ACLU's national website, appeals to feelings and emotions, not science and logic.

Harold Jordan writes:

Don’t arm school police

…The most immediate impact of arming school police would be felt by students…  Having officers patrol the hallways with firearms sends a negative message to students. It makes many students feel that they are being treated like suspects. It can have an intimidating presence and can contribute to negative attitudes about police, in general.

Jordan carefully crafts strawmen to support his tenuous position:

There is no evidence that arming school officers increases overall safety or improves relationships within school communities. Having an armed officer stationed in schools has neither prevented nor stopped “active shooter” incidents. It did not at Columbine High School nor has it elsewhere.

Really now?  Dear Harold:  Your strawman is on fire.  Armed SRO’s did indeed stop a school shooter. And here. And here. And here.  Oops.  Damn truth!

Unarmed school staff does not mean that schools are defenseless in emergency situations.

You mean unarmed school staff like those in Sandy Hook, Harold?  The families of 26 dead students and staff might argue how well unarmed school staff works to stop a mentally deranged misfit intent on racking up a new spree killing high score.

He winds down to a close appealing to – you guessed it – feelings and emotions.  He also adds in a pinch of peer pressure.

Forward-thinking districts are reconsidering the kinds of support staff that work in schools, not whether they should be armed.

America has had enough "forward thinking" during the eight years of the Obama administration.  Under Obama's first seven years, the USA suffered through more spree killings with eight or more fatalities than the previous four administrations combined.

How radical is the ACLU's Harold Jordan's position?  Extremist enough that even the liberal-leaning (cough!) Pittsburg Post-Gazette wants no part of it.

Arm the officers: City school police should be able to carry guns

Police officers employed by the Pittsburgh Public Schools have the same arrest powers and receive the same training as their counterparts in municipal police departments. The big difference is, the school district’s police officers don’t carry guns. It’s time for that to change.

…The police officers are unarmed even though they work in environments where weapons sometimes are found and violence sometimes erupts. There also is the threat of schools being attacked from the outside or of street violence spilling onto school property. Municipal police officers wouldn’t be asked to face on-the-job risks without weapons; school police officers shouldn’t be asked to do so, either.  Aaron Vanatta, a Quaker Valley School District police officer and Region 3 director for the National Association of School Resource Officers, put it this way: Police officers without guns are like “firefighters without any hoses. What’s the sense?”

…Arming the school police wouldn’t be a rash act putting students, teachers and other employees at risk. With proper oversight, the measure would enhance safety rather than diminish it.

Even the teacher's union recognizes the risks to policing in schools, noting the absurdity of disarmed police officers.

In the end, the ACLU and its Harold Jordan continue their existence on an island of absurdity.  Their selective righteousness when it comes to civil liberties proves them partisan hypocrites, not noble advocates for the oppressed.