Posted on 12/08/2003 5:53:56 PM PST by CHICAGOFARMER
Cops accidentally kill 300 citizens annually
Editorial: Nonlethal weapons a better approach
http://www.ccchronicle.com/back/2003-12-08/opinions2.html
Here lie the casualties of an epidemic that has been increasingly gripping American cities since the early part of 1990:
·Steven Curry, 21, shot and killed by an off-duty Chicago police officer, Nov. 25, 2003.
·Michael L. Jacobs, 37, shot and killed by a Shreveport, La. police officer, claiming self-defense, Dec. 2, 2003.
·Courtney Mathis, 12, shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer, Sept. 1, 2001.
·Timothy Thomas, 19, shot and killed by off-duty Cincinnati police officers, April 7, 2001.
·Ahmed Diallo, 22, shot 41 times and killed by New York City police officers, Feb. 4, 1999.
·Robert Russ Sr., 22, was one of two unarmed civilians shot and killed by Chicago police in a single week, June 1999.
·Gonzalo Martinez, 26, shot and killed by Downey, Calif. police, Feb. 15, 2002.
·Nathanial Jones, 41, died after being beaten by Cincinnati police, Nov. 30, 2003.
These cases are only a small percentage of the more than 300 unarmed citizens killed each year by police officers who claim they had no other option than to use a service firearm or other means of lethal force.
“Other options,” however, to bring people under submission have been made available to various police departments across the country. In the western United States, there is a sweeping trend by police districts to adopt nonlethal weapons.
According to the San Diego Tribune, more than 1,200 policing agencies have begun using PepperBall guns.
The PepperBall Gun is a semi-automatic, high pressured-air launcher that fires balls containing the strongest, hottest pharmaceutical-grade irritant available.
In October, San Carlos, Calif., police began carrying taser guns, opposite their firearms. The taser sends 50,000 volts of electric shock into the nervous system, completely incapacitating a subject. Officials from the Phoenix Police Department began using taser guns in 2002.
Since its implementation, there has been a 50 percent decrease in the number of shootings by police officers. And in San Diego, where officer-involved shootings are among the highest in the country, police districts are retraining their officers in sensitivity and deployment of nonlethal weaponry.
Nationally, only 1,000 of the 18,000 police agencies currently supply nonlethal devices to officers based on a variety of poor reasons. Major cities of the Midwest and Atlantic regions argue they are sticking to their guns, no pun intended, due to tight city budgets, the lack of training and most importantly, doubt.
Its troubling when the use of nonlethal weapons becomes an oxymoron for police in cities such as: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where police-involved deaths continue to rise. It seems those sworn to protect and serve are ignoring a proven remedy.
According to a 2002 Associated Press report, a majority of U.S. law enforcement agencies do carry Mace or pepper spray. But officers believe the chemical aerosols don’t pack enough punch to subdue suspected criminals. So, are police trained to believe that the only alternative is to shoot or pound the culprit to death?
Part of the problem lies in the lack of training in defensive tactics and nonlethal artillery. Officers often reach for their holsters because training goes out the door during challenging confrontations. Police must be properly educated in understanding how to best handle all situations. But perhaps the ultimate cure is in the eradication of police officers who sidestep proper training practices. In any other profession, the incompetent are let go. Unfortunately, in law enforcement, someone has to die before incompetence is realized.
Today's police policy is to draw first, it used to be called a traffic stop, today it is called a felony stop. A felony stop allows the officers to draw weapons point the firearm at the victim with his finger on the trigger. Cops with their light specially build firearms with very light trigger pulls is a death just waiting to happen.
In the old days, peace officers kept the peace. Today's uniformed officer has a loaded gun, with a bullet in the pipe, and a finger on the trigger. In the old days peace officers would shoot to wound. This is not allowed today by today’s police policy.
I am fully aware of wound ballistics, perps on acid, reaction time, etc. But to kill 300 citizens annual who are innocent is not acceptable. This is 3000 citizens every ten years.
I am always taking self-defense classes just for experience and training. It is not uncommon to find a young lady waiting for a basic training handgun class. I strike up a conversation only to find she has just been accepted by the Chicago police department and has never fired a gun. I would not want to be on the wrong end of the firearm during her rookie training. If she does not continue to practice, she would be even more dangerous on the street later in her career. This is not a sexist issue.
This policy by police departments to always have a bullet in the pipe if you are in law enforcement is WRONG. Why? I have served on various city boards of directors and have made friends with police officers. As we chew the fat our conversation gets around to loaded firearms. I have had more than one officer tell of a scary moment in his career where he has looked down at his holstered firearm while sitting at his desk and see it cocked. We continue to see police officers shot themselves unloading their firearm, or cleaning their firearm.
If a police officer draws his service revolver 1000 times in his career, perhaps once in his entire career he will have to fire. In the old days a revolver was carried with the hammer on a blank chamber. Today's semi automatic can be racked in milli seconds if the scene goes wrong, perhaps once in his lifetime. John Lott says that if a firearm is drawn 2000 times only once will it need to be fired for a citizen. What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.
I am of the opinion that the policy should be changed from carrying a firearm with a bullet in the pipe to an empty pipe, or a hammer resting on an empty chamber.
Remember 300 innocent citizens are killed every year in firearm accidents when only the police officer has the gun.
What is your opinion?
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