HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT!!!
It is very troubling
when people when confronted with the facts refuse to believe them like in Ferguson,
MO. The situation was tragic, as is
whenever anyone loses their life; but, there are personal situations where you
can almost determine, early on, who will not make it through life. I think this was one of those situations.
When looking
at police training you must look at the force continuum which has 8-9 steps
officers are trained in on the different levels of force, it goes all the way
from officer presence up the ladder or around the circle depending on which
model you are trained in, to lethal force.
I don’t have the time to do a police course on the issue; but, the
Officer in Fergusson went by the book.
He saw two men walking in the road and told them to get on the side walk,
what was the response, “I don’t give a F--- what you say”. The Officer is notified of a robbery at a
store with a description of the two subjects matching who he was already in
contact with. The Officer was over 6’
but the main subject was 6’6” and around 300 pounds, which under most normal
circumstances would have allowed for an escalation of force based on the subject’s
aggressiveness. What I don’t know is did
the Officer call for backup knowing he would have a hard time making an arrest,
did he have pepper spray or a taser and could he get to them?
We know the
rest; but was interesting was there was no credible testimony that the subject
had his hands up and trying to surrender; but, was attacking the police officer
and trying to steal his gun, that is lethal force justification. The old statistics were that 25% of police
officers that are killed are killed with their own gun, you put yourself in the
Officers position and you make the call.
People are
saying the officer should have been indicted and you can indict a ham
sandwich. You probably can indict a ham
sandwich; but, you better have substantial evidence that will lead to a
conviction or as a prosecutor you’re in trouble.
In short the
facts do not support the angry black rhetoric that is being put out by Al
Sharpton and some of the others, the old saying of “don’t confuse me with the
facts, I know the truth”, has come into play.
NY I CAN’T
BREATHE!!!
We have
another individual who was around 300 pounds and well over 6’ selling
individual cigarettes on a street corner that is not the issue to die
over. Supposedly was arrested numerous
times for similar problems. A passive
handcuffing technique might have worked, that is “ sir I am placing you under
arrest, please turn around and put your hands behind your back, if you think
the cuffs are too tight tell me and I will adjust them”, that type of
technique. If the officers had prior
knowledge that he was aggressive and a fighter then that technique is out the
window. Police are trained in the
technique that the safest position to handcuff that is non cooperative is by
placing the subject in the prone position (on their belly). The problem with this is when you fighting a
guy this big, with a big belly, you have to be concerned with positional asphyxia,
that is when you have a big belly and when you’re forced down on your stomach
all that weight pushes up against your diaphragm and you can’t breathe; couple
that with a number of Officers trying to control him and hold him down and he suffocated.
Another sad
case and loss of life, yes, criminal no, civil suit big time and it is a
training issue, did any officer do anything criminal, not that I could testify
to.
This is a
very short rendition of what I saw in the news; but what is scary is race relations
in the US have been set back about 50 yrs.
What I am afraid will happen is the KKK and white groups will grow in strength
and all hell can break lose. Race
relations under Obama have gone bad and we still have two more years to survive
his presidency and who knows about his legacy.
