Quote:
Originally Posted by wwkayaker
It appears that the officer shooting rubber bullets created a greater threat as it resulted in the man running towards the officers. If the guy had a gun, I’d agree with the tactic because the gun can be lethal from a distance. The knife wasn’t a huge threat from 30 feet away especially with a dozen officers having weapons trained on the man. This situation provided opportunities for other techniques to be employed.
The police chief said the officers responded to an assault and not a mental health situation which is why other options weren’t used. I don’t know how long the situation lasted but I don’t think it would take long to assess the man’s mental state especially if a mental health professional was involved.
I don’t know what info the police had on the man but if they knew he had PTSD, they should have handled it differently. If he was in a fight or flight situation, getting hit with rubber bullets looks like it escalated his fight reaction in which he reacted to his perceived threat and ran towards them. I don’t think he would have been in a state of mind to make a rational choice.
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Lots to unpack here:
The bolded part. In my opinion, less lethal is not for lethal force encounters. Period.
At what point should the Arwen be used? Wait until he's charging? Not at all?
You are pretty vague about the mental health professional. Get them involved? What does that mean? Put a vest on them and send them out? Do you really think that's wise? Putting someone at risk like that? I can't imagine any professional mental health organization would agree with that strategy.
I think the chief really laid this out pretty well. Over 9000 mental health type calls to the CPS last year and VERY few ended in any sort of use of force. If you look at that stat, I would think that not only are they doing a good job, but they seem to be well trained and committed to helping those in mental crisis.