APD carry gun; whose call is it?

APD Chief Gordon Eden clearly believes the call is his.

Journal Editors applaud his decision, link, going so far as to call it "serious reform".  Are you kidding?

Serious reform begins with respect for stakeholders.

Neither one of them cares what the people who will carry the guns think about what gun they will carry.  Eden and the Journal don't disagree with the cops, they just don't give a rat's ass about their opinion.  On an issue as important as this, they never went looking for input of the people with the most to lose or gain.  It was a politically expedient choice made in utter disregard for the people who will be affected by it.

How is that reform at all, much less "serious" reform?

Eden didn't ask them for their input.  The Journal editors didn't ask for their input.  And they both are comfortable with the decision and by logical extension, the decision making process which failed to include stakeholders.

It is similar to the situation in the APS.  APS teachers have between them, nearly a hundred thousand years of current and ongoing teaching experience.  Teachers, like beat cops, are never asked what they think is wrong or how to fix it.

A privileged class cares so little about the opinions of the great unwashed, it never even occurs to them to ask for it, even though they fully intend to ignore it.

The process failed stakeholders.  The argument will center around caliber and other issues as a smokescreen for Eden's failure to allow cops to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their interests.

To whom will Eden answer for his disregard for the opinions of his subordinates?

He will answer to the same people to whom APS Supt Winston Brooks answers over his disregard for the input of teachers; the media.  To be more specific; the "credentialed" press.

For all the good that has done.