The Christian Science Monitor has rather belated coverage of the armed citizen street patrols started in New Haven, Connecticut after a forced entry of the home of an adult son of a prominent rabbi. The rabbi's son was was beaten in what police describe as a random attack. The man behind the patrols, Rabbi Daniel Greer, is not someone I personally like. Here is one reason why. Still, I support the idea of street patrols. What I question is having members of those patrols carry guns. I also question whether Rabbi Greer would have formed street patrols if the victim of that attack had been black and unrelated to him.
The New Haven Register has earlier coverage of this. It also has extensive talkbacks posted from readers.
So? Untrained and unsupervised civilians in armed street patrols? Good idea? I'm torn between the need for protection and the very real possibility of disaster caused by untrained armed patrols. What do you think?