Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
If the taser didn't work and the guy had a knife, it didn't look like they had a lot of choice. Looks like they were kind of trapped on a balcony with no place to safely retreat.
We've all seen a lot of videos of police acting inappropriately. This video doesn't look like a clear case of that since we can't even see the guy they killed, but we can see the police had nowhere to go if he was indeed coming toward them with a knife.
What would you have them do in this case?
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First of all, they could be not stupid enough to get into a situation where they're left with the option of killing the person. If you are doing a wellness check, what is the urgency to get inside the apartment where the only threat is that the man may take his own life? No one else is around.
I am not an expert to deal with this but there could be more waiting and patience by the police since the guy was inside the house and not a threat to anyone. Waiting for an entire day to calm the situation is still better than killing the person.
They could also ask for assistance from the people who are actually capable and trained to handle and deescalate situations involving mental patients. A schizophrenic guy isn't exactly going to calm down once he sees a bunch of cops outside his door and balcony. Again, lack of proper training and strategy for specific scenarios.
And secondly, we have to expect the police to be able to use their guns in a manner than don't kill someone. Have better protective equipment, be prepared to physically control a 62 year old weak man with a knife; If you've to use a gun, use it on the legs instead of having no brain and shot directly at the body multiple times.
We
have to expect more from police. If you were in that situation, I would understand if you took same actions. Police needs to be able to do a lot more, and even put themselves in danger to save the
other life. Its the hard and risky route to take for a cop, but it is still better than killing someone.