Quote:
Originally Posted by Resurrection
Being a cop is tough. That's why we give them guns and handcuffs and let them shoot and detain people when necessary. Was it necessary for that guy to be shot to death? I'm not a cop, nor am I trained in any way to deal with scenarios like this. But I suspect that simply having a knife and not responding to commands isn't worthy of death. Why not taze the guy? Why are you shooting at centre of mass to kill? I don't think its reasonable to ask cops to go hand to hand with a guy wielding a knife but isn't there a middle ground between hand to knife combat and 5+rounds to centre of mass?
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Being a cop is extremely tough, especially in some of the rougher population centers.
Acting in a threatening manner towards a police officer or towards a civilian with a police officer presence is probably going to end up with a dead person, if the police officer doesn't make the wrong decision its either the cop or the civilian that's dead.
Why not taze the guy? excellent question. because Tazers aren't considered to be a hundred percent reliable, and because of that when you see a gun or a knife and the person approaching or acting in a threatening manner the first thing that comes out is a lethal instrument like a gun. If the cop pulls out a tazer against a armed person within that lets say 15 foot radius or 20 foot radius and the weapon fails, or he misses or whatever (a tazer is a one shot weapon iirc) he can't reload in that time and in the time that it takes him to dump the tazer and draw his secondary weapon (gun) the situation is now out of control. This isn't the fricken old west where the law man is a quick draw expert marksman like in the movie.
Why are they shooting at center mass to kill? Whenever I see that question, my first question is have you shot a pistol? Have you shot a pistol where your heart is racing and a quart of adrenaline has been pumped into your system?
This isn't lethal weapon where Mel Gibson is hitting people from 50 yards away. Pistols are probably the least accurate of the fire arms out there. Anything further then lets say 10 yards and your odds of a hit go down exponentially, also remember that the person is moving so hitting an arm or a let is improbably at best. On top of that unlike the movies if you miss that bullet travels a good long distance and it can't be recalled. So your job as a cop is to hit the target, and to bring that target down, so you shoot center mass, you don't shoot at a arm or a let of a gun.
The whole thinking that its not unreasonable for a cop to go hand to hand with a knife welding person is just obnoxiously silly. A knife in close quarters is a incredibly lethal weapon. A knife is still one of the most dangerous weapons out there because at close quarters even an inexperienced person with a knife has a large in range target for a plunging and slashing weapon, and if the cop misses a block or missteps he runs the risk of pretty lethal weapons. Again this is reality not the movies. Even in the military the whole hand to hand combat stuff isn't infallible ninja stuff, We preferred not to do it, unless it was something that just happened but we didn't welcome it or encourage people to look for it.
I think you have a very odd conception of gun's tazers, accuracy and shooting skills and what's involved in hand to hand combat.