CONSOLIDATED - Police-related violence / shooting threads

[airboy]

Saw this one last night. 

Miami PD hasn't really come up with an explanation on this yet, but I'd wager that right now cops are pretty on edge.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/us/miami-officer-involved-shooting/index.html

The response by the Police Chief is similar to other situations where they think the cop made a bad mistake.

It is a big country.  There are a lot of stressful police situations.  If this is what it appears to be, it was a bonehead decision.  But in a nation of our size, from a pure probability situation, if every questionable shooting becomes national news it will seem to be an epidemic of badness.

I'm confident that the incident will be investigated and appropriate action taken.  Police shootings are carefully reviewed everywhere in the USA that I know of. 

Let me put this another way.  If it was national news every time someone in the USA was struck by lightning it would appear that Zeus or Thor was putting a hit out on every American walking outside.  The event would not be any more rare, or common without the publicity.  But if reported nationally every time it happened it would seem that there is a horrible lightning epidemic.

261 people were struck and killed by lightning in the USA between 2006 and 2013.  If reported breathlessly by the national press - it would seem horrible.

See: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/resources/RecentLightningDeaths.pdf

[JasonPratt]

At the risk of sounding horrible, my first thought on seeing this the other day was "OH THANK GOD NOW THEY HAVE AN ACTUAL EXAMPLE OF UNJUSTIFIED POLICE VIOLENCE!"  ::)

Not that they needed one. But actually having one must make the anti-police protestors (whether on the left or the right) feel a little better.

[Marty Ward]

I heard a report that the cop was actually aiming at the other guy but missed and hit the guy on the ground with his hands up. The call was reportedly a man with a gun so they would be a little edgy to begin with.

[bayonetbrant]

Of the protestors focused on shootings like this one, instead of Ferguson (which turned out to be totally necessary and possibly life-saving) people might have more empathy for their cause.

[Gusington]

Yup.

[Swatter]

Of the protestors focused on shootings like this one, instead of Ferguson (which turned out to be totally necessary and possibly life-saving) people might have more empathy for their cause.

Why are police using deadly force in what seem to be questionable situations? First, we need to distill the cases we talk about down to incidents that are truly concerning. The media unfortunately is narrative driven, jumps to conclusions, and inflames tensions. So, instead of making real progress in the public discussion of an important issue, we get distracted by protests, riots, and acts of violence against police.

I think the core problem is stress. The occupation brings with it unique stresses that can bear resemblance to stresses soldiers stationed in war zones experience. From what I have heard officers say, they enter each situation with the mindset that the other person might try to kill them. The implications of that mindset are profound. It is not hard to see how a really stressed out officer can enter a truly stressful situation and make poor decisions. How can society reduce the stress load on our police force and reduce this kill of be killed mindset? That is the question we need to address. This isn't about training or racist cops, its about human beings being pushed beyond their limits making poor decisions under stress.

Maybe my theory has holes, but I think there is low hanging fruit to be plucked along this line of reasoning. Lets try a pilot program that has officers working in pairs again. Lets have departmental policies that help identify stressed out officers and give them help.

[Gusington]

Cops should never have stopped working in pairs to begin with.

[mirth]

Mass killing in Japan. Utter insanity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/world/asia/knife-japan-stabbing-sagamihara.html

[Dammit Carl!]

Cops should never have stopped working in pairs to begin with.

This is the goddam truth.

[Sir Slash]

One-Adam-Twelve where are you? (Reference is probably too old for most of you to get)  C:-)

[Gusington]

I remember Adam 12 and Car 54 and the Keystone Cops. All preferable to today's insanity.

[mirth]

One-Adam-Twelve where are you? (Reference is probably too old for most of you to get)  C:-)

We're not all snot-nosed punks.

[bayonetbrant]

One-Adam-Twelve where are you? (Reference is probably too old for most of you to get)  C:-)

We're not all snot-nosed punks.

we're all different kinds of punks!

[bbmike]

One-Adam-Twelve where are you? (Reference is probably too old for most of you to get)  C:-)

Yeah, we also remember Squad 51 and Rampart Hospital.

[steve58]

Mass killing in Japan. Utter insanity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/world/asia/knife-japan-stabbing-sagamihara.html

Well obviously Japan needs "common sense" knife-law restrictions...