Quote:
Originally Posted by speede5
Have you ever shot a handgun? It is very hard to shoot someone in the leg, nevermind adding in the stress and adrenalini in the situation.
Lethal force is a tool police are taught strict rules for use and when the decision to use it is made it is to be done as taught or there are consequences.
Once the decision is made it is shoot centre mass til the threat is over. 5 shots takes a couple seconds. When you look down the sights of a handgun you can not see your target, they are a blur, hence shooting centre mass.
I wish everyone who said shoot a leg would go to a range and play with a gun for a day. I've done shooting with the police during a famil at their range and on my farm with friends. It's not what you think it is.
I will concede some of these situations can be handled much better, but the resources aren't there yet. When 911 gets the call for someone with a knife there's no time to call in counsellers and others who can talk someone down. People can't stand the taxes and police budgets we already have imagine adding in all the support staff to have critical incident responders on shift as well.
I'd like to see better training for officers, I know a lot of good ones, but the more education the better.
Sorry for rambling, lots of good comments on this thread but also lots of people making judgement of a situation we know very little about.
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What are you talking about?
You find it hard to aim a gun at the range, so cops shouldn’t be expected to be better? That’s your response to Finnish police actually being better?
You’re missing the point on lethal force. If police are taught strict rules for use, those rules are too relaxed in Canada and (especially) the US, that’s the point people are making.
As far as the 911 call, it was for a welfare check, not someone running around with a knife. If that’s not the situation to bring in people actually trained to help, what is?
I agree that people are making some pretty strong assumptions about a situation we don’t know everything about (and never will). But some people are also relying on the false narrative that cops did what’s right, or what they had to do, or the only thing they could do, while many of us are trying to point out that North America’s version of “right, necessary, the only option” isn’t any of those things. If you want to gloss over how Finnish police do it, or U.K. police, or one of the many other police forces that do it better, that’s fine. But it CAN be done better, and the resources are there, they’re just used to make the police tougher and stronger, not better at protecting life.