re: Police in Wash. Shoot Man Running From them with a rock in his hands.

Defend yourself. But we can always come up with unique scenarios.

If someone cuts you off in traffic... Do you then get out of your car and with a crow bar and destroy the car and beat the driver to death?

Nope. That would be an inappropriate use of force...you can't just say, "he shouldn't have cut me off"

In that situation...Cussing someone out is not an inappropriate response.

Shooting to kill is inappropriate

Okay, let's say they catch him and tackle him. Then the headline would read "police assault good boy who wasn't doing anything wrong and about to turn his life around." frick that guy.

quote:

---

My question as an LEO supervisor, were there Extended Range Impact Weapons (40mm, beanbag, etc) available? Pepperball? Taser is really ineffective from far enough to be out of a rock's effective range? Basically, had they officer's exhausted all less-lethal options prior to deadly force? OTOH, judging an officer's actions from a videophone recording that may well have been edited to cut out the preceding events is unfair.

---

Thanks for the reasonable response that doesn't just jump to the conclusion that the guy threw a rock and got shot without anything inbetween.

And they may not. Their population is only about 67k per Wiki and I honestly don't know how much that would play into that.

All that said, the "OMG COPS ARE AWFUL" crowd certainly doesn't seem to be able to come up with any reasonable solutions to combating things like this that happens other than the cops should just take any abuse that comes their way and not allow them to enforce the law. I look at a current situation in our district where a kid had to be restrained because he knocked the SRO to the ground (he claims he was "playing") and when the SRO restrained him for it, it turned into an assault charge against the officer and a lawsuit because the parents are claiming brain damage. And those are teenagers who don't think twice about physically assaulting a cop.

My guess is when they see that shite day in and day out then you're going to end up with incidents like this. Now is that a cop problem or a symptom of a society that fosters a complete disregard for authority?

Then by all means, draw it out for us what you would've done in this situation when he was even resisting a taser situation?

Seeing what little there is on the video.. it appeared he could have been subdued.

However.. we have the luxury of armchair qb'ing. The officers had split seconds to make decisions against an individual that couldn't be subdued with a tazer, who used objects to cause serious bodily harm and acted in irrational behavior. Their duty was to protect themselves and the public. It's terrible any time an individual is harmed or even killed if it can be prevented. Perhaps an incident such as this cannot only be used as a teaching tool for law enforcement.. BUT FOR THE PUBLIC AS WELL. In this me, me, me society, it's time folks learned that there are consequences to their actions, sometimes lethal ones and they should act in a more civilized manner towards everyone and a less selfish and egocentric one.

Well, don't throw rocks at cops like an idiot. Seems pretty simple.

quote:

---

He had a rock, not a gun. If the three of them can't chase him down and tackle him, they shouldn't be cops.

---

Much less lethal objects have killed people than rocks. It's a weapon whether you want to believe it was or not. Don't be a dumbass and throw shite at cops and you won't get shot.