Thank youImpossible to tell what exactly went on in that cluster****
Stop challenging the narrative with alternative "facts"...the outrage shall continue.The sheriff statement last year, evidence suggests she was a willing participant shooting at officers.
The media got the video released under the freedom of information act.
The solution lies on a continuum. More and better training and careful officer selection are steps on the way to better. Perfect is the unreachable goal at the end of the continuum. Keeping criticism aimed squarely at the participants in episodes such as this is correct. Smearing all cops and departments with the same brush is counterproductive to your goal.You know stuff like this really ticks me off. Its stuff like this that makes me have an issue with people who completely idolize the police, no matter what. I don't know if it's lack of training, lack of mental preparation, or just this pervasive attitude of "Us vs. Them" where citizens are seen as expendable as long as "they get home safely at night". I'm not an expert, I can only speculate and give semi-educated guesses as to the problem.
Anecdote time. I've mentioned that my uncle is a county deputy before in other threads, and I always love hearing about his stories either in academy or in the field. This anecdote comes from when he was in academy where they were doing a stress induced drill where they need to decide when to shoot in a split second. They flash a target and yell a color to determine the target, and you would have to decide to shoot as fast as possible. Red = bad guy, Blue = fellow officer, (I forgot what civilian was, just use Green for argument sake) Green = civilian. There were several there that kept shooting on Blue and Green because they wanted to get the best time, and even though they got grief during the drill, it didn't get better as they redid the drill later on.
Another factor is how aggressively some take the "I'll do everything to get home at night safely" attitude. Don't get me wrong, officer safety should be a high priority for departments, and no officer should be forced to take an unnecessary risk, but I've seen officers come up with some pretty f***ed up logic when applying this concept. One comes to mind is one time at my high school, an officer was blocking one of the parking entrances after pulling over someone who ran a red light. The bus of football players was about to leave, but couldn't exit so the coach got out and asked from a distance on when they could leave. The officer then proceeds to point his taser at him and starts yelling him to get back. Listen, you are knowingly signing up to be an emergency responder who will have to deal with some dangerous situations in order to protect the innocent and keep the public safe. Firefighters run into burning buildings to save people, you may also have to put yourself at risk to fulfill your role. If you are so afraid that a preppy school football coach scares you, maybe find a different profession? If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
What ticks me off even more and is unforgivable in my opinion is that they lie when their officers completely f*** up and murder someone, and say she was tac'ed out like Garand Thumb and returning fire. If it wasn't for FOIA, this probably would have never been brought to light, and likely these officers would only have had a slap on the wrist. It makes you wonder how often this stuff happens, but no one follows up with FOIA and the incident fades into the ether. People get mad when we let criminals out with a slap on the wrist (and rightfully so), however at least we know they are dirtbags. Officers are seen and trusted with a certain authority that would make it more disastrous if they were lacking of scruples.
I present this rant as someone who genuinely has no qualm with honest police. I'm certain that many officers, as well as the officers present on this forum, are equally disgusted with this event as I am. I have no love for the ACAB BLM communist nutjobs. I am however growing more concerned as what I believe to be an honest and necessary profession starting to turn into a militarized goon squad treating public safety and the Bill of Rights as an afterthought. I understand as crime gets more extreme and dangerous, more desperate measures may need to be taken. That however doesn't excuse scenarios like this, or give you the ability to act like the military acting as police in some third world South American country.
I don't think you understood the point of my post. I was commenting on what I believe the philosophies and practices that lead to tragedies like this are, and backing them up with my own anecdotes. With that being said, I don't know how I was "smearing all cops and departments" as the only target was those extreme philosophies and those that hold them.The solution lies on a continuum. More and better training and careful officer selection are steps on the way to better. Perfect is the unreachable goal at the end of the continuum. Keeping criticism aimed squarely at the participants in episodes such as this is correct. Smearing all cops and departments with the same brush is counterproductive to your goal.
Then there’s this take. We (carriers) are bringing this on ourselves and everyone else…I guess.
I’m sure he’d come back and claim cops everywhere are on this ragged edge because of the other states. It’s difficult to beat emotions with logic and reason.Someone should tell him this was in California, not Texas or any other pro-2A state. According to his #'s, this shouldn't have happened.