The police never were mean't to protect everyone. We are all in this community together. I agree that if say the police have a man cornered in his busted car or house, it would make little sense for me to walk up with my gun and try to help. They have the situation under control, they have all but apprehended the bad guy, that's their job.
Sometimes things just don't work out that way. I'm not saying we should get CHL licences and go out and play G.I. Joe, you do want to be discerning, but A policeman, like everyone else, can need help sometimes. He is part of this community too, and if the badguy kills him and or gets away then the next target might be someone else.
Yes, the police might mistake and ununiformed person to be another bad guy. But heck, friendly fire happens in battle all the time. It's part of the risk of combat. That is not sufficient argument to say that we should stay out of the problem. In fact, to that argument, I would say what if a plain clothes detective was present during the incident of the traffic cop being shot at, he could be mistaken for a bad guy if he pulled his gun and started shooting couldn't he? Does that mean he should stay out of it? Of course not.
I will just turn this posting over to a former Austin Policeman and Texas Ranger. Ramiero "Ray" Martinez. He was the policeman who killed the sniper at the UT Tower in Austin Texas back in 1966. This is taken from his book "The Call Me Ranger Ray" on page 84
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I was and am still upset that more recognition has not been given to the citizens who pulled out their hunting rifles and returned the sniper's fire. The City of Austin and the State of Texas should be forever thankful and grateful to them because of the many lives they saved that day. The sniper did a lot of damage when he could fire freely, but when the armed citizens began to return fire the sniper had to take cover. He had to shoot out the rainspouts and that limited his targets. I am grateful to the citizens because they made my job easier.
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I think that pretty much says it all. That's quite different from what the stupid movie "Deadly Tower" portrayed. (In the movie these civilians were portrayed as a bunch of trigger happy Texans shooting anything that moved) However as Martinez put it, you gotta take that movie with a [I]ton[I] of salt. (He reeeeally didn't like that movie as he expressed both in his book and in person)