Double Naught Spy
New member
I cannot say that I agree with your assessment. While anyone armed with a knife certainly poses a threat, the man was not advancing quickly nor,aggressively on the officer in my opinion.
Ah, but he was advancing on the officer and forcing the officer to retreat. That is aggression.
...and bringing a knife to a gunfight is strong evidence of hostile intent without any particular concern about winning that fight.
No, that is completely wrong. First of all, you fight with what you have. Secondly, a lot of officers have been defeated or seriously wounded by people with knives. To put it in your vernacular, bringing a gun to a knife fight can be a losing proposition. Third, you are assuming that the person is in the correct frame of mind or has the correct understanding that the odds may not be in his favor. That is a naïve assumption.
No, he clearly gave him a choice but, far from "every opportunity"
You are right. He gave the suspect 8 opportunities, ONLY 5 of which while the suspect was advancing on the officer. From the looks of the video, that is two more than I thought was prudent.
Just like you shouldn't take a knife to a gun fight, you don't take a Taser to a knife fight.
Sure some cops absolutely do.
http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/crim...-knife-in-west-seneca-planet-fitness/4565793/
http://www.policeone.com/less-letha...lice-TASER-knife-wielding-man-at-Whole-Foods/
But the key here is that they are usually backed up by other officers with firearms.
If Tasers are so un-reliable, why do departments continue to issue and train with them ? Does OC spray fail equally as often ?
Have you seen how many times firearms have failed? They are but a tool of a series of tools for officers to use. Not all tools work in all situations equally well on all people by all officers.