Quote:
Originally Posted by PIMking
We also have a huge drug problem, gang problem, open boarder to the south, and a very deep racial divide here that Finland doesn't have. I know LEOS but I don't trust them.
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Absolutely.
Yet tons of countries have racism and big minorities. Hardened criminals and dangerous gangs work in other countries too. Slums exist in other countries. There's drugs in other places. Pretty much all of Southern Europe struggles with illegal immigration.
Yet somehow they manage.
I don't want to insult anyone, but this whole thread is such an "only in America" discussion that it just boggles the mind.
Even if we 100% accept the police officers version of events, there's no way that was a legalized shooting in pretty much any other industrialized country. Only in America is this even a serious discussion.
What ever was going on before, at the moment of the shooting we had an unarmed person standing a good distance away from the officer, and there's no way a cop should be is authorized to shoot that person.
(Okay maybe if this guy was War Machine who had just killed someone with his bare hands it might be justified. But this was just some teenager off the street.)
By the standards of pretty much any other industrialized country, a police officer should be able to physically handle a single unarmed person by himself without killing that person. It's really as simple as that. If you can't do that, you can't be a cop.
I also keep wondering why is it that nobody questions the "shoot to kill" policy of the US police. It's just amazing that this can in any shape or form be considered normal police procedure.
For comparison, in most western countries "shoot to kill" policies have been
considered when dealing with people suspected of being imminently about to perform a terrorist attack. Most countries don't allow normal police officers on the field to make "shoot to kill" calls under any circumstances. Some countries give that right to special units (such as those fighting organized crime), but in most countries a police officer is never expected to shoot at a person with the intent of killing.
It came as a huge shock the Brits when the UK police first made this policy change. (Of course the first victim was just some random innocent person on a subway station.)
It's also btw really amusing how the people in the US, even in the media, keep citing these examples of drug crazed people who did not stop after the police pepper sprayed etc them numerous times, so you know, "what can you do". Aim at center mass and shoot a lot.
Funny thing is, those same drugs are sold everywhere else too, yet somehow miraculously cops in other countries manage without being allowed to pepper those guys with bullets.
For the record, I think it's extremely unfair to call the US police force "murderous", "racist" or anything of the sort. (Which should really be obvious, after all they are pretty much just average people.)
They are however poorly trained and given instructions that are almost unheard of in industrialized countries.
Plus of course you have the whole problem of the US legal system and the prison system. It's sickens me that prison rape is considered such a normal part of how things are over there that there again doesn't even seem to be a discussion whether or not something should be done about that.
Is it really any wonder that US criminals would do anything to not go to jail? And is it any wonder that they shoot back at the police (which criminals in most countries just don't do, because it's so incredibly stupid), when they know that in several states it's okay police to execute them if they
think you're dangerous.
(Also, the whole idea that shooting a high number of rounds at center mass is just incredibly stooopid, as simply the high number of rounds shot pretty much guarantees that some shots will either pass through the target or miss. A very typical police shooting case in the US can report for example 12 shots fired and 5 misses in a normal residential area, broad daylight, middle of the street. Amount of shots like that is considered spectacular in most other countries even if there has been a shootout, but in the US it gets barely a mention. It makes no sense from the point of view of "this is the safest way".
Again, only in America.)
