A video has surfaced of a fatal shooting in Tennessee. Cops were called to the scene of a domestic disturbance; a woman threatening people with a replica medieval battle ax. The video shows what happens next:
What do you think about this?
I think it’s an example of the scary eagerness of today’s cops to blow people away.
I’m not defending the conduct of the battle ax-wielding woman. I merely question the necessity of shooting her.
Aren’t cops supposed to be Heroes?
Aren’t Heroes brave?
Is it brave for a young man wearing body armor and holding a gun to shoot a distraught middle-aged woman wielding a replica battle ax that probably had no edge and even if it did, could only do injury if the woman managed to get close to the Hero?
Wasn’t there an alternative to deadly force as the first resort?
She was not, after all, a 23-year-old SEAL trained in the use of edged weapons and hand-to-hand combat.
Aren’t Heroes supposed to be the ones with the training?
Couldn’t he have subdued the woman rather than shot her to death in the street?
How hard could it be, really, for a young man to snatch away a battle axe from a middle-aged dumpy woman? Or Taze her?
I think a Hero would have tried that first.
What do you think?
This is what happens when “officer safety” is priority number one, conditioning to be paranoid, a lack of physical fitness or in the case of female cops upper body strength coupled with a universal policy, and all too often cops looking for a reason to shoot someone. Thing is if any mundane did this they would be facing criminal charges.
In earlier ages cops were men who could calmly solve this sort of issue without drawing any sort of weapon.
Hi Brent,
Yup. I think you’ve summarized nicely. The military-style training is a particular problem. This attitude that citizens are “threats” to be neutralized … lethally, using maximum force.
The country you and I grew up in was very different. It took a lot to escalate an interaction to the level of lethal force and even then, it was expected that cops fired back – not first.
It’s interesting to me that in the country we grew up in, cops were much more actually heroic than today’s Hero Cops… yet no one thought of them as such and we certainly weren’t constantly hectored by politicians and media to worship them as such.
Reading the comments on that vid, there are some seriously fucked up people in this world.
This is further proof that these buzz-cut fatboys are not heroes, and are, instead chickenshit little queers who belong in pencil pushing jobs. Fuck cops; all cops, everywhere.
I couldn’t agree more. Well said, Ed.
I do not know what type of training this hero had prior to this incident.
If he was trained
(as I often hear when a mundane dares questions why the hero does not follow the rules {speeding, using sail fawn while driving, etc.} we must follow upon threat of force)
then one could reasonably think that the hero could have used a baton, taser, or other means besides resorting to lethal force as the first option.
In is possible that he had no training at all. The blame could go to those that put the hero in harms way without proper training.
It also is possible that this hero is a phero scared of his own shadow. In that case dealing with the public is not a good idea.
Hi Mith,
I think many of them are looking for an excuse; want to shoot someone.
I’m pretty sure I could disarm a flabby 40-year-old lady wielding a Dungeons & Dragons-style battle ax without shooting her. Heck, I’d just back away… the lady doesn’t look like she could run very fast….
And I’m not “trained.”
i guess tazers are just for shits and giggles these days. I recall when they were first used the company advertised them as a non-lethal way of subduing people. Of course that’s not as exciting as bloody target practice.
And they are not always non-lethal anyway.