Police officer fears using gun while beaten.

[Old Bill Dibble]

The idea that every thing a person does can be twisted where you can die from it is absurd. there are millions of fist fights a year where no one dies. you got more of a chance of being hit by lightning while on your way to cash a 10 million dollar winning lottery ticket then dying from a punch.

I am not sure where you get your numbers from but they are nowhere near correct. Hundreds of people are killed every year from fist fights or being attacked by people with fists. A couple of dozen are killed by lightning and even fewer win $10M in the lottery.

 

[JERRYS.]

you don't have to be killed by a punch to the head/face. if you're merely knocked out the criminal will kill you with your own gun.

 

[FireForged]

The number of people who have died as a result of empty hand force is minuscule in comparison to the number of people who have survived a "fist fight" without serious injury. Just speaking for myself, I am not going to consider a fist fight to be life threatening unless dire circumstances develop. That criteria is not set in stone and I will base the existence of "dire" circumstances on my life experience. I have had the occasion to participate in a dozen or so fist fights in my lifetime and although I did not always win, I have never needed anything other than butterfly closures and ice to manage the aftermath. I hope to never be involved in another physical confrontation but if it should happen, it will have to be substantially more violent than anything I have ever experienced for me to consider it dire or perilous. Physical combat is risky business and anything can happen but I am not likely to consider a gun to be the answer to mitigating a confrontation with 1 unarmed person.

All that being said, Police work is a different Universe and a person who has a duty and obligation to pursue and overcome violent predatory criminals in many hazardous circumstances has a much wider latitude in my estimation. I make no judgment on this Officer and if she said that she felt like her life was in danger, I would take her word for it.

 

[manta49]

The difference here is a fist fight would never develop into a gun fight, is that a bad thing i doint think so. If they did their would be shootings every night at bar throwing out time.

you don't have to be killed by a punch to the head/face. if you're merely knocked out the criminal will kill you with your own gun

Not if you doint have a gun.

 

[K_Mac]

The difference here is a fist fight would never develop into a gun fight, is that a bad thing i doint think so. If they did their would be shootings every night at bar throwing out time.

Here we go again Mantra. This thread is not about how much safer you are in the UK with your enlightened gun laws. It is about a sworn officer using a gun when physically attacked. Your superior attitude is consistent though...

 

[manta49]

Here we go again Mantra. This thread is not about how much safer you are in the UK with your enlightened gun laws. It is about a sworn officer using a gun when physically attacked. Your superior attitude is consistent though...

Put it in context i was replying to the post bellow, i have already posted on the original post on the the police officer, i read my post again i caint see where i said the UK was safer than America just pointing out a difference. Maybe you should read it again. PS But now that you have brought it up you are certainly less likely to get shot, fact not my opinion. That effects how the police deal with incidents like the one in the original post, i caint rembember an incident of a police officer shooting someone they were trying to restrain here, other options would be used first gas or taser.

The number of people who have died as a result of empty hand force is minuscule in comparison to the number of people who have survived a "fist fight" without serious injury. Just speaking for myself, I am not going to consider a fist fight to be life threatening unless dire circumstances develop. That criteria is not set in stone and I will base the existence of "dire" circumstances on my life experience.

 

[Pond James Pond]

If they did their would be shootings every night at bar throwing out time.

If you mix carrying guns with drinking alcohol I can well imagine there would be. My personal view is don't drink and drive and don't drink and carry.

 

[pnac]

Why do I get the impression that some of you guys never read the article? This was not a simple fist fight! How about some support for the officers that are trying to do their jobs and are catching flack from both sides?

The article is about being afraid to do what you're trained to do because of negative media coverage and crap from PC suck-up brass. She got herself badly beaten and two other officers hurt and it could have been much worse.

From the article, emphasis mine:

On Wednesday morning, police responded to a car crash at Roosevelt and Cicero on the city's West Side where officers encountered a man that police allege was violent and under the influence of drugs.

Three officers were hospitalized in the incident. One officer who was severely beaten told Supt. Johnson she was afraid for her life and afraid to use lethal force with all of the attention on the police department's previous actions and fatal incidents.

"She thought she was going to die. She knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to, because she didn't want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news," Supt. Johnson said.

 

[Old Bill Dibble]

i caint rembember an incident of a police officer shooting someone they were trying to restrain here, other options would be used first gas or taser.

I guess you are not familiar with PCP. Typically Tasers and chemical sprays are of little use.

But now that you have brought it up you are certainly less likely to get shot, fact not my opinion.

This is completely true. Much less chance of being shot or anything unusual happening to you at all. Consider that drug usage rates in the US are 1/3 to 1/100th of the UK this is not surprising in the least.

 

[pax]

Not seeing any Tactics or Training in this thread anymore, though it did look hopeful for a bit there. Closed as off topic.

pax