I went to the police to get the information since I have a friend there I can
trust. I asked, 'how does the officer see the situation?' and got the answer I
wrote. In the case of Mr. Saunders, the officeres did not have the information
that Mr. Saunders' family had tried to get HCMC to keep him under observation.
All they knew was that the man was driving erratically and in his underwear. The
training they receive is to the effect that people who are about to blow get very
hot from either adrenelin rush or drug rush and throw off their clothes,
regardless of the weather. They also know that adrenelin and drugs produce a
superhuman strength--that I've seen myself. It's very scarey. Unless I'm
mistaken about what I was told, the officers are trained to jump to the worst
case scenario. and make a self-preserving split-second decision about what to do.
Wizard Marks, Central
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> In a message dated 11/24/00 10:26:26 AM Central Standard Time,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> << squad car officers are
> trained to see something different than you who were also not there are
> seeing.
> That means that the city's population and the line officers--and hence all
> other
> police personnel (they come up through the ranks)--have two different (at
> minimum) logic bases from which we are trying to discuss the issue.
> If the line officer is trained thus: "it's winter, it's cold, this big guy
> has
> been driving erratically and he's in his underwear. When people go
> ballistic,
> the training says they are going to blow any second and they gain incredible
> adrenelin strength. Ergo, this guy is way dangerous." >>
>
> The scenario presented in Wizards post is alarming, even as police encounters
> evidence its truth. We are not discussing SOG's,SEAL's, or SFO's, we are
> discussing a civilian force (Peace officers?) licensed to protect the
> citizenry from the bad guys. The subject she describes may be partially
> dressed and driving erratically for any number of reasons, including physical
> assault which would produce the same characteristics in behaviour. According
> to her defense, this "victim" is then condemned to die, at the hands of those
> licensed to protect him/her. To wizards credit, this revelation seems
> appropriate to the police response in their latest killings.
>
> For the sake of all Minnesotans, I sincerely hope that Wizard over-spoke on
> this issue. However, a caveat: Ms. Marks statement shouyld not be written
> off as pure conjuncture-it may well be true. Assuming the latter, it is
> imperative that the mission of the police be re-defined in service to the
> public, and that training to respond to crisis be overhauled, upgraded, and
> honed to the extent that their logic base, whichever they react from,
> empowers them to properly judge when "extreme force" is necessary.
>
> Robert Anderson
> 8th Ward.
>
> p.s.: Holle, I regret your recent misfortune and hope that all is well with
> you.
