Shows the need to modify police procedures

Posted on: December 10, 2017 at 16:46:25 CT

The whole bit of yelling commands at a suspect over and over when the suspect is clearly submissive, ordering them to crawl, shooting based on a hand motion is highly questionable. Several experts apparently testified at trial that the officers actions were consistent with accepted procedures. Well, maybe the experts are biased because they make their living working for police departments and identify far more with police officers than they identify with the general public.

As I saw that, I said to myself, ok maybe a normal person could get through that with out getting shot, but what about the mentally ill. Many mentally ill people have trouble understanding directions when they are not under extreme pressure. Put them under a barrage of shouted orders while pointing a gun at them, and the predictable result is going to be shooting about 1/3 of them if not more.


So it seems like the obvious question is why were those procedures implemented.



The guy had not committed any crime whatsoever and was unarmed. It seems like the procedures need to be modified to be dependent, to a degree, based on what the officer actually knows about the suspect. If the suspect is known to be a habitual violent criminal who is facing serious jail time then more aggressive defensive measures should be taken. If the officer doesn't know anything about the suspect, then he should at least consider the possibility that the suspect has no reason to shoot and just has trouble handling pressure, or is mentally ill or intoxicated and should be treated less aggressively.

Edited by Knucklehead at 16:52:11 on 12/10/17