EDITORIAL – Shoot first, ask questions later

In a war zone, combatants tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Three members of the Navotas police force must think they are in a war zone. The three, all members of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team, opened fire on a van that had made a stopover at a gas station in Caloocan City for a refill of brake fluid. The SWAT members were chasing men who had robbed a bakery in Navotas early yesterday. Bakery personnel had reportedly told the cops that the robbers had fled in a gray FX van, similar to the one that had made a brief stop at the gas station. With no questions asked, the cops opened fire. Several bullets found their mark, with at least one shattering the window on the driver’s side.

When the smoke cleared, the cops approached the FX. Let’s hope they at least registered some shock after seeing that the robbers were not in the vehicle. Instead there were 11 people there, including a six-year-old girl, all cowering in fear, not knowing what had hit their vehicle. How the cops could have made such a major slip is mystifying, since the van was not tinted and its hood was open for the brake fluid refill. The cops had given chase on foot. The van driver said he had seen armed men in a tricycle, ahead of their vehicle, before the shooting started. Those armed men must have been the robbers, and they managed to get away.

This is hardly the first time that cops have shown colossal incompetence in responding to a crime alert. The incident would even be hilarious if it had not endangered 11 lives. How many times have cops been reminded about rules of engagement? Are there such rules at all in the Philippine National Police? Some cops probably don’t even know what "engagement" means or how to spell the word. Shooting first and asking questions later can be particularly dangerous because many PNP members can’t even shoot straight. And the PNP wonders why civilians flee when they see uniformed cops.