If someone refuses to comply with verbal commands - nothing a police officer says is a suggestion - at what point is violence permitted to enter the picture?
"The perception that too many people, black men, especially, were being shot by police led to the belief that this standard was far too lax."
By rates, black men are about 4 times LESS likely to be killed by cops than by non-cops compared to whites. (Black men are vastly overrepresented both murder perps and victims.)
Rates of death per 100K people (of each race)
Black ~0.61 killed by cop ~22.0 by others
White ~0.24 killed by cop ~2.60 by others
(thanks Claude.)
By any objective standard, a young black, non-criminal man should be far more comfortable with 3 white cops walking toward him on the street than 3 other young, black men. (The 3 cops on the other hand, face a very different statistical calculation.)
"officer who fatally shot man experiencing mental health crisis while holding knife"
The problem is the framing: he was just sick and in crisis and holding a knife. Equally accurate: officer shoots knife wielding lunatic.
We've so internalized the idea that crazy people are just "ill" or "in crisis" that we fail to comprehend how dangerous they are. Typhoid Mary was also "just sick" but she killed quite a few people. Gaëtan Dugas (gay flight attendant from the 80's -- Google him) was also "just sick".
A "mentally ill" person is not perceiving the world accurately. Compared to someone who's rational but just angry, a crazy person waving a lethal weapon around is MORE dangerous not less. He should be given an even LARGER berth because his behavior is vastly less predictable. That applies to cops and everyone else.
Everyone has experience with knives in the kitchen. Yet most grossly underestimate the danger and range of one in combat. Sensei says 5-7 feet (1 step + extended arm). You can mitigate the damage with armor (heavy clothing) and training, but get within that range of a knife wielding attacker and you WILL get cut.
Unless he's wearing a full face shield and a stab vest, telling a police officer to just take one for the team just for the safety of the mentally ill is way too big an ask.
"By any objective standard, a young black, non-criminal man should be far more comfortable with 3 white cops walking toward him on the street than 3 other young, black men. (The 3 cops on the other hand, face a very different statistical calculation.)"
You don't need to think too hard about it to realize this is actually kind of good news in that blacks don't have to be afraid of police all that much. Yet both blacks and liberals of all races would be immensely offended by hearing that. You can't even say something like that without risking cancellation, even though there's nothing racist about it, even if you disagree with it. It's not even about racism. It's about violating the narrative that gets a person canceled.
People used to say that cops should accept more risk because they signed up for it. Well, exposure to bloodborne pathogens is considered a risk in the medical profession, yet doctors and nurses are trained to always protect themselves from exposure, to not unnecessarily risk their lives to save the life of a patient. Just showing up and confronting the threat is the risk. The idea that cops need to get hurt and killed more often is actually counter-intuitive.
I've worked in law enforcement over 10 years before leaving and it is spot on. Officers on scene at the time WILL NEVER have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and that seems to be entirely forgotten.
2nd, on the knife point - most police training programs have a portion with stun knives to teach you edged weapon defense.
"The perception that too many people, black men, especially, were being shot by police led to the belief that this standard was far too lax."
By rates, black men are about 4 times LESS likely to be killed by cops than by non-cops compared to whites. (Black men are vastly overrepresented both murder perps and victims.)
Rates of death per 100K people (of each race)
Black ~0.61 killed by cop ~22.0 by others
White ~0.24 killed by cop ~2.60 by others
(thanks Claude.)
By any objective standard, a young black, non-criminal man should be far more comfortable with 3 white cops walking toward him on the street than 3 other young, black men. (The 3 cops on the other hand, face a very different statistical calculation.)
"officer who fatally shot man experiencing mental health crisis while holding knife"
The problem is the framing: he was just sick and in crisis and holding a knife. Equally accurate: officer shoots knife wielding lunatic.
We've so internalized the idea that crazy people are just "ill" or "in crisis" that we fail to comprehend how dangerous they are. Typhoid Mary was also "just sick" but she killed quite a few people. Gaëtan Dugas (gay flight attendant from the 80's -- Google him) was also "just sick".
A "mentally ill" person is not perceiving the world accurately. Compared to someone who's rational but just angry, a crazy person waving a lethal weapon around is MORE dangerous not less. He should be given an even LARGER berth because his behavior is vastly less predictable. That applies to cops and everyone else.
Everyone has experience with knives in the kitchen. Yet most grossly underestimate the danger and range of one in combat. Sensei says 5-7 feet (1 step + extended arm). You can mitigate the damage with armor (heavy clothing) and training, but get within that range of a knife wielding attacker and you WILL get cut.
Unless he's wearing a full face shield and a stab vest, telling a police officer to just take one for the team just for the safety of the mentally ill is way too big an ask.
"By any objective standard, a young black, non-criminal man should be far more comfortable with 3 white cops walking toward him on the street than 3 other young, black men. (The 3 cops on the other hand, face a very different statistical calculation.)"
You don't need to think too hard about it to realize this is actually kind of good news in that blacks don't have to be afraid of police all that much. Yet both blacks and liberals of all races would be immensely offended by hearing that. You can't even say something like that without risking cancellation, even though there's nothing racist about it, even if you disagree with it. It's not even about racism. It's about violating the narrative that gets a person canceled.
People used to say that cops should accept more risk because they signed up for it. Well, exposure to bloodborne pathogens is considered a risk in the medical profession, yet doctors and nurses are trained to always protect themselves from exposure, to not unnecessarily risk their lives to save the life of a patient. Just showing up and confronting the threat is the risk. The idea that cops need to get hurt and killed more often is actually counter-intuitive.
Police aren't shooting nearly enough suspects.
First off, excellent article.
I've worked in law enforcement over 10 years before leaving and it is spot on. Officers on scene at the time WILL NEVER have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and that seems to be entirely forgotten.
2nd, on the knife point - most police training programs have a portion with stun knives to teach you edged weapon defense.
"Monday morning quarterbacking". Bad idea in football or law enforcement.
BTW: Thanks for a decade of being one of those "hard men with guns" that keep the rest of us safe.