Robert Schmid said in response to Clark Griffith: "That's easy. Run. My martial arts instructor makes it very clear.
OPTION 1: Avoid the conflict. I already have a 20 foot head start." I respond: Wow! At the risk of stating the obvious, perhaps there is some duty of a police officer that would preclude him or her from running from a dangerous person? I believe the force escalation rule most police use (and I invite further comment) involves a deadly force/no deadly force decision. This is a simple formula that can be applied in a stressful, uncertain situation, and protects the public. If there is a better rule that serves these purposes, then please let's talk about it. Once an officer determines that deadly force is authorized, they use that force. No shots to the leg (a person can die from that, anyway) or other half-measures that are likely to result in stray bullets without resolving the situation. No surrounding the person, because then if he charges someone the officers shoot each other. This is not Hollywood, and it is an insult to our police officers to suggest that they must disarm a person swinging a machete who does not respond to commands, does not respond to six or more officers on the scene, and is undeterred by tazer. It's no stretch to decide that deadly force was authorized in this case. Once deadly force is authorized, all the officers on the scene may use it. There's no time for a game of eeny-meanie-miney-moe to determine who gets to fire and who gets to stand there and wait to see if it works. Would it have been any better if only one officer had fired and killed the man? If anybody has any better police procedure that's used by effective urban police officers, let's hear about it. Otherwise, let's wait for the facts, see if these police applied MPD procedures correctly, and discuss whether or not we need to change those procedures. The investigative report will probably do these things (although it will disappoint those of you who have already written your own conclusion that police are bad and Chief Olson should be fired.)Let's not discuss some fantasy world where police run from danger and the city magically remains a safe place, or where police have to try to disarm machete-wielding non-responsive individuals by all possible means before using their firearms. Neal Blanchett Lynnhurst _______________________________________ 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
