Posted on 04/23/2015 3:59:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
That must have been some screwdriver.
Heartbreaking story. Mother walking ahead of son out the door thinking it was just another of the million times she called police, but it did look like he made a move with the screwdriver.
Moral: don’t call police unless you really really mean it.
I’m not trained to deal with these things, but when I drove e cab, and the guy pulled a tiny blade, it looked as dangerous to me as a bazooka In that moment
To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
He advanced on the officers, who had guns drawn, while armed with a deadly weapon.
He may not have been of full mind but, the officers have to make a split second decision to defend themselves.
Sad but, they did nothing wrong.
Why didn’t they just shoot it out of his hand, like the Lone Ranger or Doc Holliday on TV? [rolls eyes]
Why didn’t they stand far enough away that he couldn’t hurt them with a screwdriver?
A screwdriver can be just fine as a weapon. The issue is in part threatening motions ...reasonably interpreted in a split second...and how far away they were.
I didn’t see the video, but the lawyer seems to be explaining the quality of the lunge rather than the existence of it.
Reminds me of the passage in the book Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway:
'...Carlson's Raiders [Marines] busily armed themselves with a new weapon - the 14-inch screwdriver that was part of a PT boat's standard equipment.As one of the Raiders explained, it was "good for the ribs, if you know what I mean."'
Of course, those were battle-hardened young Marines, and they were toting 14-inch screwdrivers.
This business - not so much...
CONFRONTATION Uber Alles
Ossifers cannot be seen to retreat in the face of peasantry.
Is there another video that I didn't see?
“This business - not so much... “
So, how “short” a screwdriver are you okay being stabbed with?
I trained as a police officer long ago. They do an exercise where you hold your empty revolver out at arms-length and an individual with a rubber knife comes at you from 30 feet away. You don’t get many shots before they’re right up on you, stabbing you.
You can easily kill someone with a screwdriver, and nutcases are often very strong or high on adrenaline. The kook should have stayed on his meds.
Aren’t police trained to stay out of lunging distance?
I saw the video posted here. The shooting was unnecessary, over-reactive, and tragic. Like the Cleveland shooting of the 12 year old boy, the police were way too quick to go to shoot-to-kill mode.
That kid got all of 2 seconds.
Why didn’t they stand far enough away that he couldn’t hurt them with a screwdriver?
************
So, when officers want to arrest a psycho holding a knife or screwdriver, all he has to do is make menacing motions, and the officers acquire a duty to back-off to avoid having to kill him in self defense?
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