I think there are plenty of other options that exist before drawing weapons. And I think the comparative successes of police in other countries justify this belief. So yes, I do strongly believe that on the whole there would be less dead total, citizen and cop combined, if police were restricted from drawing their firearm until danger has been actualized and were thus instead forced to focus time and resources on necessary de-escalation training.
I wonder how well the police killing rates correlate with civilian homicide rates. Is our police shooting problem in the US just a reflection of our angry adversarial culture?
Glancing at the stats by country on Wikipedia, no surprises. The US is better than many rough places in the world, but the rest of the developed world just humiliates us.
Police in other countries don’t face an epidemic of guns, crime, homelessness, drugs and mental health issues. If the US wasn’t so dysfunctional and actually attempted to tackle these issues in a holistic way then I assume the role of cops would also change. But right now it is not that way. They are trained so if someone comes at them with a knife, or draws a weapon to threaten the cop or somebody else, they WILL shoot. Watch the body cam footage on https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceActivity/videos or the state cop channel of your choice and you’ll see exactly why.
And to repeat what I said somewhere else, I’m not on the cop’s side, but I am on the side of full disclosure and body cam footage to show context. I support defunding the police - although, not the name which is a fantastically stupid way to describe it - but supporting mental health services, tackling drugs & recidivism and other assistance would mean less people in these confrontations.
I think there are plenty of other options that exist before drawing weapons. And I think the comparative successes of police in other countries justify this belief. So yes, I do strongly believe that on the whole there would be less dead total, citizen and cop combined, if police were restricted from drawing their firearm until danger has been actualized and were thus instead forced to focus time and resources on necessary de-escalation training.
I wonder how well the police killing rates correlate with civilian homicide rates. Is our police shooting problem in the US just a reflection of our angry adversarial culture?
Glancing at the stats by country on Wikipedia, no surprises. The US is better than many rough places in the world, but the rest of the developed world just humiliates us.
Police in other countries don’t face an epidemic of guns, crime, homelessness, drugs and mental health issues. If the US wasn’t so dysfunctional and actually attempted to tackle these issues in a holistic way then I assume the role of cops would also change. But right now it is not that way. They are trained so if someone comes at them with a knife, or draws a weapon to threaten the cop or somebody else, they WILL shoot. Watch the body cam footage on https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceActivity/videos or the state cop channel of your choice and you’ll see exactly why.
And to repeat what I said somewhere else, I’m not on the cop’s side, but I am on the side of full disclosure and body cam footage to show context. I support defunding the police - although, not the name which is a fantastically stupid way to describe it - but supporting mental health services, tackling drugs & recidivism and other assistance would mean less people in these confrontations.