Re: A cops actions you should have been talking about
One thing I keep reading here and in the news. Everyone says the officer ordered him to get up before he shot, and there was not enough time to grab a weapon. How long does it take? One can not judge this by what was said. In our training it is drilled into us to yell out "drop the weapon" or something so it is caught on tape that there is believed to be a weapon. I of course have stories to illustrate my point. One night I entered a trailer house after a break in. I found 2 teenagers that had broke into the house. I ordered them on the floor at gunpoint. It looked like they were a couple of kids unarmed, so I ordered one to get up. When he did one had a knife on the floor under his body. As he got up his hand swept toward the knife. He was lucky my seargent was behind him in the doorway and disarmed him before he got off of the floor, but in the span of less than 2 seconds he could have had the knife and been on me. I think in a grainy video the knife would have been un-seen. Of course the press tells the popular story which is always wrong doing on the cops part. Cops acting correctly does not sell as well. That and the fact that the victim was in the military is designed to work against the cop. If it were some hood rat would they describe him as a wellfare recipient, unemployed and high on dope? <br /><br />2 years ago my old room mate in the acedemy shot a man after a domestic assault case. The man was running away when he was shot and injured. The officer was first accused of illegally shooting the man. The video tape did not show much to help him. He claimed that he thought the suspect had a gun so he fired. The video looked like he was running away with his arms swinging out to his sides. The video was kept as evidence and not released to anyone but the investigating authority. When the video was sent to the lab for enhancement the truth came out. The enhances video showed something in his hand that looked like a gun. Turned out it wasn't a gun, but looked like one even to the grand jury watching the video. The suspect who first was living high off of the idea that he was empty handed running away admitted he was carrying something. As he was running he turned toward the officer for a second. Looked like he was turning to point the gun at the officer. <br /><br />The point being that one can't go by the officer saying get up then firing. Just because he ordered the victim up then opened fire, this doesn't mean the victim did not appear to be armed. The press is showing one side of the story, the popular side. The public feeds off of corruption and the idea that teh cop was wrong. If this were clearly justified it would appear on page 2 as cops slays armed military officer after high speed chase or something. <br /><br />I still maintain that when all of the facts are in, if it shows the officer was acting in the wrong then should be dealt with severly. If it shows the officer was acting in what he believed to be self defense then he should recieve a public appology from the press. If it shows an accident then the department should have their training reviewed and the officer should be reprimanded and dealt with according to law. <br /><br />As a parting thought during my training both in firearms and in supervision training we studied officer involved shootings from past cases. Studies show that of all of the officer involved shootings where officers are wounded or killed, most are due to officers hesitating. Another friend I worked with was shot 2 times before he drew and killed the suspect. He lived through it. The reason he did not fire sooner was becuase his first thought was to question himself. He was shot and hit once, drew his weapon, hesitated until he was shot a second time. Then he fired twice killing the suspect. He was afraid to shoot knowing that his actions could ruin his life after the shooting was picked apart by lawyers, citizens, and the grand jury. <br /><br />Has anyone ever thought to ask why they ran from the police in the first place?
