As for your remarks about “shoot to wound, not to kill”, that is simply a Hollywood style answer that doesn’t generally work well in real life.
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My issue is that one innocent person killed by a mistake in an address or “thinking” a person was going for a gun is too many. When a man doing nothing wrong gets shot 18 times by too many cops it does not make sense.
Over and over on this forum we hear of how a gun owner shot an intruder and the perp is in the hospital recovering facing several charges. You NEVER hear of a cop shoot out ending with the perp in the hospital because they do all they can to KILL the threat, it is just too much. I’m all for bad guys going to hell but if you aren’t absolutely sure with good reason it is wrong.
Cops are a necessary evil of society, but cops don’t have to be evil. Until the latest generation cops in England didn’t even carry guns. When you lose someone close to you because of a mistake you will understand.
The majority of time put in by cops is giving traffic citations and making reports of crimes committed. My son says their number one concern is that they go home after the shift. Going home is good but not killing innocents it important and should be AT LEAST as important but isn’t. Too often the officer has to say I’m sorry I killed your son, father or whatever, I thought he had a gun. It should NEVER happen.
“When you lose someone close to you because of a mistake you will understand.”
I have lost someone close to me because of someone else’s mistake! However, the person who caused the death is the one who is responsible for their actions - not every member of their profession, many of whom act heroically to save lives.
I certainly have heard of many incidents where a suspect was shot by a cop and they lived to face charges or be vindicated. Have innocent people been killed by over-zealous cops? Yep - and the officers should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. However, there are also many cases where a cop has hesitated to act or underestimated a threat and paid for it with their lives.
In a perfect world, mistakes wouldn’t happen...but in a perfect world, we wouldn’t need cops!
My original post was in regard to Zippo44 referring to all cops as having “Neanderthal” brains, which I felt was an unnecessary attack. As the father of a cop, I would assume that you agree!