Moron vs. NOLA P.D.

I've got a question.

When a person hears about a knife-wielding maniac lunging towards an officer of the law (and the maniac subsequently gets killed), what makes them blame the police officer for the incident?

I've been reading posts from people responding to the police shooting in New Orleans (see link above). It never ceases to amaze me at just how liberal people can be when dealing with criminals. Some would rather see a police officer killed before seeing a criminal get treated badly in any way.

In this shooting yesterday, the police responded to a disturbance call involving a man with a knife. When the police instructed the suspect to get on the ground and drop the knife, he refused. They pepper sprayed him and repeatedly told him to get on the ground. He refused, and lunged toward one of the officers with the knife. That is when he was shot.

Yet, when reading posts about the incident, some would have you believe that these cops were just trigger happy and wanted to kill someone for the fun of it. Here's one profound comment in one of the forums I was reading today:

"If there wasn't one among them marksman enough to hit that galoot in his kneecaps to end the standoff then none of them have a right to carry a badge." - Anonymous Moron

The guy is clearly a genius. I'd love to see this guy shoot someone in the knee as they're charging towards him with a knife in hand. This is obviously someone who has never shot a gun before. This is obviously someone who knows nothing about law enforcement. The area that the shooting occured in is a highly populated metropolitan environment (St. Charles Ave). There are people all around. For this officer to fire anywhere but at center mass would have been really risky. The chances are very slim for anybody to accurately shoot a small moving target (such as an attacker's knee) as they are (presumably) moving backward from the attacker, and without hitting innocent bystanders. Add to this the stress and adrenaline that comes along with a situation like this. Even an expert marksman would not take that shot. This isn't the movies. Cops don't shoot guns and knives out of a perpetrator's hand. Furthermore, law enforcement officers are trained to stop the threat. There wasn't much of a choice in this situation on how to effectively do that.

Seems pretty cut and dry to me. When a person attacks another person with the threat and ability to inflict death, the person being attacked is within the law to meet this threat with equal force, up to and including death. In fact, the American legal standard for using lethal force is when a person is " ...in immediate danger of death or grievous bodily harm". I'd certainly say this qualifies as exactly that.

People don't realize just how dangerous a knife can be when used to attack a human being. We're made up of soft tissue and blood vessels. I've seen videos of the damage a knife can do to a piece of flesh in a matter of seconds. It doesn't have to be a big knife either. It could be a 2 or 3 inch blade and still be incredibly lethal. Many major arteries are fairly close to the surface of the skin and can be easily severed with a razor blade or small knife.

Listening to these keyboard kommandos tell me how they would have taken the guy's knees out and ended the standoff makes me laugh. And listening to the peanut gallery of support they get in forums is pretty funny too. It reminds me of a quote from a defense instructor on a website I was reading a while back. It went something along the lines of "Listening to a self-proclaimed expert who's been through knife combat training is like a virgin telling me he knows everything there is about sex because he's studied porno movies. The only people who are going to be impressed are other virgins."

The guy that said that is a person who has been in real knife combat situations (and consequently would avoid them at all costs now). I thought the comment was very appropriate for this conversation as well. These internet forum nerds that second guess everything the police do, have no business criticizing their actions unless they've walked in the officer's shoes. If you don't know anything about law enforcement or lethal force, don't demonize the police like you do. They do a very difficult job and put their lives on the line every day. They deal with the worst segment of society day in and day out, and to hear people criticize them for doing their jobs is just irritating.

Let me just point out some things that should be common sense for most people.

1. Don't threaten police officers.
2. Don't ever wave a knife at police officers (if you do - be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions) The same can be said about waving guns.
   
3. If a police officer tells you to get on the ground...DO IT. Especially when he's pointing a loaded gun at you.
4. If police pepper spray you and you don't comply with their requests, the next action they take will NOT be a friendly one.
   
5. Be prepared to be accountable for your actions. If you're a criminal, and police are called to apprehend you, realize that YOU are responsible for what happens if you resist arrest - not the police.

I wish people would realize that they should not feel pity for criminals. Criminals choose to live afoul of the law. Anything that happens as a result, is their fault. If they get arrested, it's not because they're being "profiled". It's because they broke the law. If they get beat up during an arrest, it's probably because they resisted. If they get killed during an arrest, it's probably because they threatened the life of someone else. Accountability. Learn it. Live it.

I hope this doesn't become a race issue either. If I have to listen to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton talk about it, I'm going to be very annoyed. Those two are like the ANTI-accountability coalition. They could watch a thug throw an infant into a wood chipper and then cry racism when the police arrest and prosecute him because he happens to be black. To them, the offense is to be overlooked. And the offender should be portrayed as a victim. They're into role reversal apparently.

Anyway, that's all the ranting I have time for right now. Consider yourselves spared for the moment.