After the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, the Mayor of Brooklyn Center claims that he doesn’t believe that officers need to “necessarily” have weapons every time they’re making a traffic stop.
He claims this despite the danger of traffic stops. It’s undoubtable that police officers shouldn’t always use their weapons during stops, but they should certainly be on their belts.
With out this protection from possible danger police officers lives are exponentially more at risk then they were before, especially if suspects are aware that the officer is unarmed.
Police officers are killed during routine traffic stops.
Their job is not only to protect themselves, but also any by standers in the vicinity of the stop.
Relieving officers of their weapons is not the solution to this problem. The solution, lies with better training. Something that cannot be accomplished by defunding the police.