You've Got to be Kidding: The "Easy" Way Out

From an article in MSNBC's Weird News:

In a July ceremony, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan honored SWAT officers for their bravery and professionalism during a December middle-of-the-night raid of a house that supposedly contained a gang's guns. However, it was the wrong house, and the bewildered, frightened resident started shooting back. Said Dolan, "The easy decision would have been to retreat (but the) team did not take the easy way out." The house got riddled with bullets, but no one was hit, and the chief later apologized but still felt that it was "a perfect example of a situation that could have gone horribly wrong, but did not because of the (team's) professionalism." [WCCO-TV (Minneapolis), 7-29-08].

May we please play a little game of "What's Wrong with this Picture?"???!!! For starters, everything. No, really.

The guy says "The easy decision would have been to retreat (but the) team did not take the easy way out.". Now, let's see. If you went into the wrong house, and you were scaring the living daylights out of some poor sleeping innocent, it would not be the "easy decision" or the "easy way out" to retreat. It would have been the RIGHT one.

And, that he thinks this is "a perfect example of a situation that could have gone horribly wrong, but did not because of the (team's) professionalism" is just unnerving. Um, if you call going into the wrong house in a raid and opening fire on the resident who is terrified out of his mind an "example of a situation that could have gone horribly wrong, but did not", I'd hate to see your example of a situation that DID go horribly wrong.

But, that this guy honored these guys for their professionalism and bravery absolutely terrifies and baffles me. He rewarded these people for making a heinous (and potentially deadly) mistake. Let me say that again, in case you missed it: He REWARDED them for going into the wrong house and opening fire on an innocent resident. Granted, no one was injured, but this just teaches them to repeat such behaviors because, oh, you won't get in trouble--you'll get a medal! I sure as hell hope no one busts into my house. I'm not that bad of a shot.