[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Before you respond with a "knee jerk" retort, please remember that she did not have >mace, tasers, leaded batons (ever been exposed to hand to hand combat? do you know >how easy it is to dis-arm a person with a simple lead filled baton?). > > A number of officers armed with the means to dis-arm felons, especially in concerted >effort, or, with overwhelming physical presence, can not take down an individual >armed with non projectile, minimal threat weaponry?? How much protection does this >kind of combatant offer you in confrontation with anything? Seems to me that they are >decidedly un-skilled at policing. Either that, or they are impervious to the wanton >destruction of human life in the name of protecting, or serving, any interest but >their own.
And... Robert Schmid wrote: > Thank you for saying this. I am familiar with some of the techniques that > could have prevented this debacle, even though I am unable to use them. I > happen know that the police department has in the past received training > from at least one instructor who teaches forms which specifically involve > machetes and other weapons of varying lengths. I once read an article in the NYT theorizing that the reason that people are so polite in the South is because there are consequences for being rude. It has always struck me (no pun intended) as interesting that people in Minnesota sometimes act in ways that would put them at risk of bodily harm or death on the streets in L.A. It might be that people act so inappropriately here because there are no consequences for such behavior; that people here are not as well aquatinted with street violence or violence in general. I mean how else can someone believe that you can take away a machete from someone without suffering an injury? A number of years ago, when I was still into such things, I had a martial arts teacher who had been in the special forces during Vietnam. He had also been a self-defense instructor in the military, had been an consultant for movies, written books on the subject, and so on. We were having a conversation about knife fighting once and he mentioned that he had never been in a knife fight in which he hadn't been cut. I believe that people who have never been in life threatening situations just don't understand the chaos, unpredictability, and surrealness that is inherent in such situations. I don't think that they can understand that, depending on the length of the machete, a person could strike within a range of six feet within a 1/2 second or in a couple more seconds within 12 to 14 feet. Secondly, how good are you with a handgun? I know that in controlled conditions I can usually hit a target the size of a person, but not always. I also know that in emergencies I sometimes shake a little. So, I'm a little incredulous when people suggest that police can easily shoot someone in the leg. Why not suggest shooting the machete out of his hand? They do it in the movies. I'm not sure if the police did everything that they could to prevent this shooting, I don't have enough information to judge; I still have a few questions that need to be answered. But, I will tell you for sure that if I was within 20 feet of a crazy person with a machete and they started running at me, I shoot, multiple times, end of story. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
