Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Otto
That's the nature of the incident. It's not ideal. The alternative is what? Put the guns away? Walk away?
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Or just stand there and wait for him to make the move.
If he was spinning and then decided to get up onto his two feet and charge the officer on his own accord it's a tragedy but the officers would have no choice. Just as the officers who did shoot him with the firearms here did.
But the problem was it was escalated by shooting him with the arwen while he was not a threat when they could have just waited.
I can tell you the harm in shooting him with a less-lethal weapon. It could kill him, it happens. It could provoke him into charging, like it did. Which becomes not just a clear risk to him as we saw but now anyone caught in the crossfires and anyone he could have reached.
But where is the harm in just waiting? I don't get it. Every single de-escalation course being taught right now emphasizes time and space. Especially for a psychotic break or mental health crisis.
Like if the exact same situation was happening but you saw an officer walk up to the guy until he was in stabbing range and then shoot him, the response would be "why the #### did the officer actively reduce his own distance to force the issue?!" Right? Give me that at least.
But when an officer shoots at the guy to force the issue, removing time well that's fine? No, it's as dumb as the other guy.
Time and space. Best de-escalation tools.