Remember, as a civilian, you are not allowed to carry a gun in San Francisco. The whole whole of San Francisco County has 2 people with active CCW permits residing in it. You can’t be trusted to be responsible with your firearm. You might accidentally discharge your gun into a buddy or something like that. A real professional wouldn’t just leave his gun on the roof of his car and drive off, losing it. Only law enforcement is professional enough to be trusted with guns in public.
Being from the SF Bay Area, I am really interested in these realities. The piece you link to from the Center for Investigative Reporting is quite good actually in describing the different realities from county to county in California. I’ve also written a bit about my experience going to the San Francisco Sheriff’s office to inquire into getting a concealed carry permit there – https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/the-calguns-foundation-and-licenses-to-carry-concealed-weapons-in-san-francisco-and-other-counties-in-california/
It was an instructive dead-end.
RE: The “Buddy” story.
Why were BART cops looking for stolen property in someone’s apartment? (Conversely, why wasn’t this search being conducted by “real” police?) Why does every armed government authority seem to have jurisdiction that is obviously well beyond what it needs to conduct what should be its limited business?
Why did the buddy cop 1.) have his sidearm drawn, and 2.) why was it raised as if there was a threat? BART cops are conducting searches of private property with drawn guns when no threat is apparent?
BART cops shouldn’t be conducting searches of private residences, and they certainly shouldn’t be conducting such searches anywhere there may be the chance of a violent encounter. Real cops are trained for that, and they almost certainly have more experience. Stop with the proliferation of armed government agents, already! As in professional sports, an available talent pool is only so deep. When that pool is stretched thin by league expansion, the quality of the game suffers. The government is realizing a similar reduction in the quality of law-enforcement personnel because of the same phenomenon.