… are the black citizens of “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
“Certainly a Taser is an option that’s available to the officers, but Tasers aren’t 100 percent,” Dotson said. “So you’ve got an individual with a knife who’s moving towards you, not listening to any verbal commands, continues, says, ‘shoot me now, kill me now.’ Tasers aren’t 100 percent. if that Taser misses, that [individual] continues on and hurts an officer.”
“In a lethal situation, they used lethal force,” he added.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson (Source)
What the heck does he mean by Tasers aren’t 100 percent? Yep, that’s true if he meant not 100% lethal. That’s the fucking point of “less-than-lethal” weapons as they have been euphemistically named after it has been proven numerous deaths were indeed directly connected to tasing and “non-lethal” just didn’t work as a marketing buzz anymore. The guy didn’t have a gun. Yep, he allegedly had a knife – let’s assume that’s true. There were two police officers. Isn’t one of them trained in melee combat? How can it be that self-defense trainers have this exact scenario – an attacker with a knife approaching you – on their courses and police officers are not capable of using these techniques to tackle him? One could still have pointed the gun at him while the other tackles him.
Also, since when is it part of the job description of a police officer to have no risk at getting hurt? And the lethal situation became only lethal by the shooting. I mean nine shots, honestly? Most hunted animals have been given more dignity.
It seems the ongoing militarization of the US police has indeed led to a shift in their paradigms, and not just in the heads of police officers wearing camouflage.
// Oliver