Here's a rant from a poster at another forum. This rant is from a LEO. Hope it clears things up a bit.
Okay... Here's my rant. Who here would like to be the first volunteer to tackle a mentally ill, assaultive psychopath who's waving around a knife? I'm guessing the knife wasn't part of plastic spork set from KFC. Folks, that is a deadly force situation no matter how you look at it. Cops aren't trained to tackle armed subjects, they are trained to stop the threat in accordance with a carefully constructed use of force model that is approved by the DOJ. Albeit, 6 cops and 30 plus rounds sounds excessive, but you and I both weren't there so the only judging we can commit to is from a reflection of our inherited standards and values of human life that our parents and life experiences instilled in our emotional and psychological programming. Most of you wouldn't dare murder anyone or even think of it. Most of you wouldn't even start a fight, especially with six cops. Don't ever assume that someone else has the same standards and morals that you do, that could be a fatal mistake as the cold steel blade slashes through your windpipe and the warm, salty blood begins to fill your lungs because you got too close. Tazing or pepper spraying an armed-assaultive person does not guarantee that they will drop their weapon and depending on what kind of drugs they have coursing through their veins, the taze or spray might not even have any effect anyway. So what is it you cry babies want to have happen, the pyscho stab seven children at a day care after he gets away? How about slit the throat of a innocent bystander who is pregnant with twins? In those situations all of you would be screaming that the cops never did anything to protect those people. Cops have families and want to go home to them at the end of their shift just as much as any of you would. I wouldn't dream of stepping towards anyone who has any intentions of stabbing me with any type of edged or disintegrating my cranium with a blunt weapon... not gonna happen. There also is no training to support the idea of warning shots or "winging" the subject like shooting them in the leg to disable them. Leg shots have a high probability of missing and sometimes even a direct hit won't disable a person who might not be responsive to the wounds in the first place. By then, the subject could get within that "kill zone" and stab each one of your internal organs in alphabetical order before you can squeeze off another round to defend yourself.
I will agree it is tragic that this situation happened like it did, but there are too many factors that would have to be weighed in on before I could have the opinion that these officers did anything wrong. Oh and in case you're wonder I've been in law enforcement for almost 20 years. And it never gets easier. Everyday there is a chance that I might have to make that decision to stop an assailant dead in his tracks. It's actually a very scary thought.
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My point is, most LEO's aren't trained to handle the kind of situations that we all will face in the coming months and years. They are not the army. At some point in time, this will present a problem for everyone of us.
NOTE: This particular video may be a case of overkill.....however, that's just my opinion. Other than that, the LEO's rant seems perfectly reasonable to me.