The American Police

[IronWarrior]

The full video is unedited and you do see people get shot, you have been warned, the shooting happens after 1:29 if you want to skip ahead.

Spoiler: Graphic content - viewer discretion advised

Maybe some of you saw the news, but if not, then this video which happened recently is being talked about a lot.

I personally think it sums up the problems with the American Police Force in that they always escalate a problem instead of deescalating.

The woman was shot in the crossfire, got hit by two bullets fired by the 3-4 officers. It honestly makes you think, where their training is and why would they all fire at the same time when likely the only officer who had a decent line of fire was the POV of the video.

On top of that, the fact that they have to fire so many bullets and couldn't get a clear shot at someone at that range raises so many questions of their training.

Pistol accuracy is indeed not very easy, movies and TV shows makes it looks so easy, but honestly it's not, it's very hard to be that accurate, but these Police Officers, you would expect with years and years of training and at the gun range, you just expect them to be better then this.

I honestly feel bad for the poor lady, she was homeless, disabled (needed an oxygen tank) and had her life taken away in a blaze of gunfire.

I should include, this guy was running away after stabbing someone else.

 

[vanandjuanunited]

I don't get why they open fire as he goes behind the woman.
If they aren't reprimanded or charged then I give in. Shouldn't be in charge of weapons going on the evidence in the video.

I guess the problem in a country full of weapons they have no idea if he has a gun or not.

 

[Freakbro]

At least they fired bean bags first I guess.....but then to open fire like that when he goes behind the woman makes no sense whatsoever

 

[robfosters]

Absolute brainless idiots. I wouldn’t leave them in charge of a bbq, let alone an arsenal of guns.

 

[Minstadave]

He starts cutting her throat iirc.

 

[Dan103]

no brain cells

 

[cheesyboy]

Protect the hostage by going full spray and pray

Got no problem with them shooting him, but 18 rounds fired..... Hardly a controlled take-down

 

[jsmoke]

Different country, different culture, different demographics. Lot of ex military twitchy fingered paranoid people in their police.

To us it's unnecessary but to them that's how you have to do things.

 

[glenimp617]

Didn't the guy with the knife slit her throat?

To be honest, the police should have shot him much, much sooner

He had plenty of chances to drop the knife. How many times do the police ask him to? 10?

If you are in America, and the police ask you to do something YOU DO IT! How many times have we seen idiots carry on walking towards the police with a weapon and then wonder why they get shot

The police were in the wrong though. Too late to shoot, and then shoot when it was wrong to do so

 

[200sols]

Should have shot him after he didn’t drop the knife when they asked.

 

[dowie]

bunch of complete numpties tbh...

they don't have the same level of training as UK police and threshold to use lethal force, or force in general, is far lower over there/life not valued as much etc..

 

[d_brennen]

In the old days I'd have headshotted 5 bandits between the hostages no problems

/CSS4life

Is anything in America shocking anymore? They've got police shooting people left right and centre, students demanding racial segregation at university (and not the white supremacists either!) and a man who uses orange fake tan and hair spray in charge.

The only thing America has going for it is some interesting geology as far as I am concerned

 

[ttaskmaster]

"All right, pop quiz, hot shot. Van Nuys suburban street, knifeman with one hostage and a chair. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a local church. You're a few feet away... What do you do..... What do you DO?"

"Shoot the hostage. Take her out of the equation. Go for the good wound and he can't get to the church with her. Clear shot."

 

[Yadda]

What a calamity.

 

[jsmoke]

On the other hand though it's one incident oyt of millions of things going on. A classic case of, a snippet of info becomes a damned nation.

Variables, variables, variables. The cops could have had a colleague shot or encountered something similar earlier on etc etc etc.

Basically while they have a gun culture there's really no choice. Imagine the cops started getting shot all over the place because they took their time in a situation, eventually things could get very messy, a complete breakdown, anarchy.

It's a zero tolerance policy to maintain the high ground unfortunately that comes with one side effect, collateral damage.

 

[J.T]

I don't even...

 

[Yadda]

It's very easy sitting here and passing judgement but IMO their mistake was delaying too long after firing the bean bags. He should never have got that close to the disabled lady (who eventually became his hostage).

I don't envy their job, though.

 

[Thekwango]

He starts cutting her throat iirc.

which puts them in a lose/lose situation. if they don't open fire they will be castigated for not shooting him, if they do they run the risk of hitting her too (as is happened). sadly this is one of the rare cases where american cops should have been less 'lenient' and shot sooner.

 

[deuse]

It has been 13 years since gunfire has killed an innocent bystander or hostage in that department.


Not a bad record.

 

[Werewolf]

Unfortunately it's not uncommon for American police to hit the wrong target, or shoot at a suspect/animal without giving any thought to were the rounds that miss will go.
I think it was only a week or thee back that they did their common thing of shooting at a dog, and the round as often happens missed, but unfortunately went through a wall or something and killed a toddler (they rarely seem to understand a round will go through a wooden/plasterboard wall with ease*).

The training of a lot of American police, in a lot of areas is...lacking.

I would hope that unless there is extremely good mitigation for why they shot when they did, the officers will at the very least not be on active duty for a long time.



*One of the reasons any idiot talking about an AR15 or similar for home defence in a town should probably be banned from owning a gun, the round can pass through multiple wood/plaster walls often into the next property, and a shot gun is far more use and safer for your family (a shotgun doesn't need the same level of aim, and the shot won't normally pass through wood/plaster with the same level of force meaning any that misses is less likely to kill your own kid in the next room).