While reading that article, it made me think of something. Many years ago I was discussing police shootings with someone, and I thought the general idea was that police USED to shoot to wound a man that was holding a knife at a distance. What threat is a man with a knife at 25 yards? If he charges, sure, shoot him, if he walks to you, and you tell him to get down and he doesn't, take out his legs.
For civilians, it's different because when we are in those situations, the person 99.9999999999% of the time wants to kill us. So, we use lethal force. A police officer, OTOH, intentionally puts himself in harms way. That said, I would love to see more non-lethal force being utilized. I know there are some numbers that indicate a tazer COULD kill you, but it's extremely rare and some freak thing happens that causes the death. They have all these great tools, are trained to use them, yet they resort to lethal force almost immediately when they feel threatened. Of course you feel threatened, you showed up and were SUPPOSED to arrest him.
lastly, I carry a knife and a concealed weapon. It seems like every few years I feel less and less safe around police while I am carrying. As a citizen with no record, a permit to carry etc, why are THEY threatened? And why do I suddenly feel threatened as well?
