Scary stuff….
This is the LAST thing police need right now….
A citizen movement to aid police in their efforts to control protesters by organizing armed patrols will be a hindrance, a Midwestern police force spokesman said Monday.
“We appreciate any support for law enforcement, but we want to be able to do our job, and we don’t want anybody to try to do our job,” Lt. Andy Becker told the Rapid City Journal Monday morning.
The police believe armed civilian patrols could encourage protesters who had no plans to show up, Becker said. Instead, he discouraged armed citizens from helping, especially if any violent protests occur.
“We need to be able to do our job, to contain the problem and issue, and having folks threatening to take matters into their own hand actually only makes it harder for us to do the job.”
Becker spoke to the newspaper as a crowd of protesters – some carrying weapons – began to gather around 11 a.m. local time at a local mall.
The group, now 5,500 members since being established Sunday, expressed concern about the protesters – such as whether the protesters’ group included people from out of state and had arrived in caravans of cars and buses, the report said….