If the girl in Ohio was attacking me with that knife I would want the cop to shoot her.
On FB I just saw the predictable post by Common who does good work in the community, but am terribly disappointed that he is contributing to the problem. Like clockwork, the picture of the "girl" in pigtails taken 5-10 years ago was posted with the usual rhetoric of this has to stop, this poor little girl, blah, blah, blah. They can disband the police if they want, but at some point the black community is going to have to face their issues.....or not. White people in general are absolutely powerless at this juncture in history other than to prostate themselves for self glory at the cult of victimhood exacerbating the situation, it is ultimately up to the black community.
OK. Just had a really dumb question pop into my head. Here it is:
Is it not possible to train police officers to shoot to immobilize without killing the suspect?
Sure, but you have to be prepared for the tactic to fail spectacularly.
In a defensive situationâwhere you're shooting someone who is trying to kill you or othersâThe goal is not to kill or wound but to stop. You usually have milliseconds to make the call. You shoot for the biggest, easiest target: the center of mass. If you try and aim for a smaller target it will take longer and fail more often. Your shots will head off into the background rather than the target and you're more likely to fail at the goal of stopping the fight.
If you think that's easy enough to do under life-and-death pressure I invite you to try it. Not for real, but against the clock. You're up in Canadia so that will require jumping thru an awful lot of hoops and may not be possible at all; it's straightforward enough here in the states.
There are popular forms of competitive shooting that attempt to duplicate the pressure, confusion, and pace of an actual gun fight. Obviously the stakes are a lot lower, but you'd be surprised how effective it can be at disrupting the shooter's composure and forcing errors.
And that's in a situation where you know what's about to happen and where you know a mistake isn't going to kill anyone. It can be pretty eye-opening.
Once you have that perspective think about a real-world situation, where your first mistake could be your last, or an innocent bystander's last, or your partner's, or a crime victim's. Where you never know if the guy you just pulled over is desperate/high/angry enough to kill people to avoid being arrested. Where most civilians will be offended by your not knowing that, and taking steps to protect yourself. Armchair SWAT officers can second-guess at their leisure and pontificate that you should just train more, but the decisions that get made usually happen with a huge amount of ambiguity, in poor light, in a big hurry, with lots of distractions. And those decisions get made by humans.
So the doctrine is kept as simple as possible: aim for the center of mass, shoot until the threat is gone. And I'm fine with that. And understanding thatâand the inevitable connection between that threat of violence and the notion that there ought to be a lawâmakes me want to put people in that situation as seldom as possible, and only for very good reasons.
OK. Just had a really dumb question pop into my head. Here it is:
Is it not possible to train police officers to shoot to immobilize without killing the suspect?
That is a very old question much older than the existence of such things like tasers. The answer is the same now as it was then, No.
It is why we now have things like tasers. An alternative to guns. Sometimes even guns are not enough to stop someone in time.
Simply put, the use of a gun is the use of a deadly force. To be used only in certain circumstances, such as here in Columbus, Ohio the other day, when it was used to save the victim from immediate and real harm. Hesitate and two people might be dead instead of one.
Ok, I haven't watched this because time, but I have done quite a few role-playing training exercises for various things and there is tremendous potential for abuse in setting up situations to have predetermined outcomes that just reinforce the biases of the trainers rather than actually training people for reasonably realistic situations. It is hard to balance low-probability/high risk events with high-probability/low risk events, but the result is often to elevate the significance of the low probability events, particularly in the case of police where there is very low probability of consequences for blowing citizens away because you thought there was a slight possibility of them trying to harm you.
you should watch it
and is there a legit argument for guided policing/law enforcement? something that may have better outcomes?
absolutely, especially when there is a chance for the initiation of a strategy (serving a warrant for example)
Ok, I haven't watched this because time, but I have done quite a few role-playing training exercises for various things and there is tremendous potential for abuse in setting up situations to have predetermined outcomes that just reinforce the biases of the trainers rather than actually training people for reasonably realistic situations. It is hard to balance low-probability/high risk events with high-probability/low risk events, but the result is often to elevate the significance of the low probability events, particularly in the case of police where there is very low probability of consequences for blowing citizens away because you thought there was a slight possibility of them trying to harm you.
unfortunately a couple of fbi agents were killed here yesterday
just thinking about the process of capturing a human being
safety, resistance, leverage, difficulty, strategy, etc.
could it be safer and easier to arrest someone once outside their nest/burrow/home turf?
is there a way to minimize risk for all involved?
might produce a better outcome or the odds of a better outcome
Sure, but it's not as much FUN. Where else are they gonna use all those fancy military-grade toys?
Local (former) Sheriff escalated situations for ratings. Which led to at least one death. See: 'Live PD Williamson County'.
FYI, Wil-co recently elected the first Dem Sheriff in something like 20 years. Whats-his-name is still costing them a fortune, in $$$ and reputation. c.