Some questions for the knowledgable
1. Why didn't the police clear the scene? It seems like many people got hurt because they were wandering around and nobody told them any better, even though the two cops spotted the guys entering the bank at least 5-10 minutes before the guys came out and started shooting things up.
2. Why did the police keep running around and shooting as if they could actually hurt the guys? It's clear that the guys were heavily armoured, leaving only their heads, feets and hands exposed, and that this would have been a very difficult target to hit at that range with their weapons. Why didn't the police hold back, keeping civilians out of the way and let the guys get in their car, then tail the guys (preferably with a helicopter) until better equipment arrived?
(You might argue that in the heat of the moment they didn't think about this, yet this crazy shootout lasted for 30 minutes, and the SILLIEST part was right at the end where cops were flying across the screen and getting shot down like tennis balls at Wimbledon! What am I missing here, folks?)
3. Where were the T (tactics) in SWAT? Right at the end of the movie they show what seems like real footage of real policemen working their way stealthly through the residential area. Now refer to the movie version described above, where 10 officers randomly jump in to fight the bad guys like it's some kind of 1980s kung fu movie. (Yes, I know, those guys weren't SWAT. But the "real" SWAT guys were just as useless with their drive-by shooting and under-the-car techniques... That could have gone wrong in so many ways, and could have been done better in three times as many ways.) Or am I missing something here?
4. Have you ever been involved in a bank robbery before? Do people really move around even though the robbers explicitly tell them not to do so, and even though every movie with a bank robbery in it has exactly the same scene (sometimes with the moving person getting killed for their action)? I understand that it's quite a terrifying situation to be in, so maybe this happens because people are internally fighting over whether to stay (and keep still) and run (by looking around for a chance to escape), and to keep safe (by making sure they aren't being approached. Does anybody know - statistically - whether it's better to just not move, or if you should keep an eye out?
5. This movie is clearly not an accurate portrayal of events. What were the major differences between the real events and this movie? The movie goes to great lengths to worship the LAPD (who certainly do deserve respect for what they put up with each and every day), but the first three issues above strike me more as a consequence of a "lack of training" than "brave". Any 5 year old can run into the middle of a gunfight and shoot back. At 35, however, with special training, you ought to know better.
In this respect, the movie comes across more as a unintentional insult to the LAPD's skills.