Posted on 08/03/2005 11:19:36 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An international organization representing police chiefs has broadened its policy for the use of deadly force by telling officers to shoot suspected suicide bombers in the head, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued new guidelines to its 20,000 members about two weeks before British police shot dead a Brazilian electrician because they mistook him for a suicide bomber, the newspaper said.
U.S. law enforcement officers typically had been authorized previously to use deadly force if lives were in imminent danger, the newspaper said.
Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot repeatedly in the head by plainclothes officers on July 22 at a London underground station as police hunted suspects in a failed bombing attack on the city transit system a day earlier.
The Washington Post said the international police chiefs group produced a new training guide for confronting suicide bomber suspects after the July 7 attacks on three London underground trains and a bus that killed at least 56 people, including four bombers.
According to the newspaper, the guide recommends that if lethal force is needed to stop someone who fits a certain behavioral profile, the officer should "aim for the head." The intent is to kill the suspect instantly so the person could not set off a bomb if one is strapped to the person's chest, the newspaper said.
Among signs to look for listed in the police organization's behavioral profile are wearing a heavy coat in warm weather, carrying a backpack with protrusions or visible wires, nervousness, excessive sweating or an unwillingness to make eye contact, the Post said.
According to the newspaper, the new guidelines also say the threat does not have to be "imminent" -- as in traditional police training -- an officer just needs to have a "reasonable basis" for believing a suspect can detonate a bomb.
Yep - the terrorists.
Shoot them in the head, then in the butt so you put a bullet through their brains.
I see nothing wrong with this policy. Rather than let them splatter themselves while scattering death to others, the only splatter and scatter would be the suicide bomber's brains...sounds like a fair trade.
I think three shots to the head is better.
Cor Ban when you wnat to send the best.
I'm sure that Shamnesty International will pitch a fit about this...not to mention the American Criminal Liberties Union.
What makes those cops think they can HIT anybody in the head?
Roger Hedgecock was on Limbaugh a week or so ago and really lit into that one... he noticed the London cops had shot the guy 5 times, all in the head, and he was relating a recent incident where the San Diego police had fired 900 rounds at somebody and missed entirely. "Spray and Pray"...
His point was that American cops typically are incapable of any such marksmanship. (A cop called him up and started making excuses, saying that the British cops involved were all "Special Forces" and "Trained Commandos" and etc., thereby unwittingly establishing Hedgecock's point about cop insufficiency only more firmly by his protesting...)
Reminds me of a classic Jeff Cooper line from one of his descriptions of a similar incident (he has a compendium of them): "The cops produced their crunchentickers" (his priceless name for the high-cap 9mms they all carry now).
The last accumulated statistic that I read in a report indicated a 25% hit-probability by police officers. That is an indication as to why police officers often require high-capacity magazines. The average officer does not train enough or properly to consistently hit his target when under stress (a.k.a. real life). (Meanwhile, certain groups believe that only law-enforcement should have high-capacity magazines.)
Yabba Dabba Doo!!!!
That this would need to be "okayed" is an indication of how well the WOT is going.
This policy has been in effect on my property (i.e. the interior of my house) to include would-be burglars and other vermin for a long period of time.
As I understand it from a friend of my former Marine brother - who is now an instructor in the Marine sniper school, you have to hit such a target in a very specific place to really stop them cold. If the shot goes through the mouth into the back of the throat it will cut the spinal cord at the base of the skull and thus prevent a reflex action from pulling a trigger (on a gun held to a hostage's head) or pressing a finger laid upon a detonation button.
Even a head shot through the eye (nearly 100 percent fatal) will not shut things down fast enough to pevent such reflex action. How may rank and file police have this level of marksmanship with a 9mm pistol? Frankly, this statement sounds more like political posturing than anything else. The lethal radius of a suicide bomber packed up with C4 and nails is likely greater than the distance needed for even an expert pistol shooter to make the required shot. A high powered rifle from 100 yrds. might change the equation.
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Most cops can't make a body shot with less than a box of ammo and now they will try head shots?????
Yeo.
maybe i have just had bad luck with police here in Fort Worth, but if such a policy were adopted here, it would be a disaster.
Fort Worth can't be trusted any further than a five year old can pick them up and throw them.
Such a policy here would only result in a large body count (mostly trigger happy rookie cops looking to make a name for themselves)
I don't think it took that much skill to stand over a fallen man, put the muzzle of a gun to his head and then pull the trigger five times. That report also put the end to the poster's idea that the SAS came up with this tactic. It's always nice to find out more facts even weeks after an incident. Thanks to FR for the updates.
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