A planned ‘shoot to wound’ is unlikely, police officers are no gun artists and trick shooters. I think the main difference between Europe and the US is the training, the course for weapon usage at the police academy of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia is even called Non-shooting (Nichtschießen) and teaches considered and calm actions in situations with drawn weapons.
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The “don’t tase me bro” video gave me the same feels you describe.
Who pulled the trigger doesn’t matter when it’s civilians, everyone involved in a crime gets charged with murder when someone gets killed, even if it’s one of the perpetrators, even if it’s the unarmed getaway driver who didn’t know his buddy was going to get trigger-happy. So it shouldn’t matter here.
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They won’t be charged anyway.
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Let’s just take a specific case I happen to know about. Officers respond to a domestic violence situation, suspect swings a baseball bat. That’s dangerous and impractical to stop reliably by other means. So she shot him in the thigh at close distance. He abandoned his plans and shortly afterwards my father patched up a few of his blood vessels. I have seen the quite spectacular x-rays of his shattered femur.
Should she have killed him? Sure, probably she would have gotten away with it.
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This is sick and sad. I can’t believe they train cops to do this. But they do, and think it’s right.
Now you’re just being ridiculous. How would a dog even hold the gun?
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No, no, you use high explosives.
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Uh, yes? Everything about his behavior was consistent with PCP. His friends and relatives said in interviews that he had a history of “bad decisions” but made no mention of a history of mental illness. It’s not impossible that he had a sudden psychotic break with no previous warning signs, but it’s not the most likely explanation.
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Look, the guy is dangerous, strong and agile. He moves like a ninja, and clearly possesses spiritual skills far beyond our ken. He plainly influenced them with his mind - even though they were 10 feet away. The knife, if knife there was, would fly through the air, piercing jugulars in sequence - so quickly that no firearms expert could respond in time to prevent instant gushing blood death.
These policepeeplez, they’re totally right to murder him by swiss-chessing his physical manifestation.
It’s the only way to deal with this situation. They were so frightened. So scared.
But let’s actually prosecute them anyway. They need to come down off the crack they were on, and face the damn music.
(bizarrely, this looks like an actual case of group sympathetic response - they all do the same thing, again and again - which is a normal human reaction to stress - but should never - never ever - occur with trained experts. Says something about the training - Police Academy)
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PCP isn’t real common in the Bay Area. Meth, coke/crack, and various prescription drugs are all more likely suspects.
COP 2: Okay but it’s your turn to write the report.
Also known as the cop version of “my God, it’s coming right for us!”
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So you have a reason, beyond media in general, to think PCP is a common street drug?
Exactly or, you know, he’s just having a really shitty mental stability day. (Well, not anymore.)
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This has got to be sarcasm, right? Poe’s Law at work?
If not, WTF? Cops have no problem with arresting, much less shooting, anyone who intervenes in their “work,” even if it’s later determined that the police officer was committing a crime in the course of purporting to do their job.
Quite right. That doesn’t say “if you feel scared”.
Why are they all so scared? Always? I bet training features videos of narcotically crazed perps pulling Saturday Night Specials on unsuspecting keepers of the peace.
I get it - they have kids, family, duties - and it’s not like they live knowing that if they die, everything is happily taken care of.
I pray (ok, I can’t do that really - I’d be faking) that this wasn’t some kind of deliberated event.
If you read the article, it’s clear that the underlying issue is systemic because all the use of force advocates talk about how they were following their training and department policy. Basically, they’ve been trained not to back down, de-escalate, or take no for an answer.
They specifically stated that it’s considered justifiable to shoot someone if you suspect they are dangerous or if they are trying to escape. So all you have to do if you want to shoot someone is get in their way, then if they move, “they’re coming right for you” and “you feared for your life” even if you put yourself in the way of that danger and created the situation under which you were allowed to shoot the person.
When law enforcement officers and their advocates can say with a straight face that these officers were doing their job, following their policies and training, then you know the policing system is fucked up at it’s core.
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And the ridiculous part of the whole fear thing is that officer deaths (including non-firearm deaths) are down by around 50% since the heydays of the 1930s. They have less to fear and more body armor, high-powered weapons, backup, and funding than they previous have, and often better health and life insurance in the event they get injured or killed. And apparently they have decent job security even when they routinely break the law.
http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/year.html
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Here in DC it is. I admit to not knowing how common it is there. But at this point you’re splitting hairs.
The problem is, we don’t know if they are genuinely in fear for their lives, or if it is used as an excuse.
Certainly some cops are attacked and are in fear of their lives.
I have also said PRIMING and cognitive bias plays a roll in both what a cops sees and how they interpret what is going on.
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