New York police have defended their actions after a bystander was shot in the head as two officers tackled a fare-evader armed with a knife in a busy subway station.
The man was in critical condition after the shooting at Sutter Avenue L station in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. Three others, including the suspect, were wounded.
They also shot each other. Previously I would have been like maybe they should be better at conflict de-escalation and equipped with more efficient non lethal weapons (apparently multiple shots from their tasers did not work). Now I am down to more basic training, like maybe they should get better gun range training accounting for close quarters situations with bystanders?
Shooting bystanders is particularly an NYPD issue. To stop so many negligent discharges they mandated an 11lb trigger pull weight, this is about double the pull weight of normal pistols. This makes if significantly harder to shoot accurately without intense training that cops also don’t get.
More training won’t help. US cops are trained to aggressively protect their own, individual safety above all else, and are trained specifically that everyone and everything is a threat to them. The result is they’re terrified of everything and everyone, and are encouraged to shoot first.
I watch a lot of high speed police chase videos, kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s fascinating stuff. One thing I’ve noticed is that while the State Troopers seem to have a higher level of training, when approaching a vehicle local PD will often just run up on all sides with guns out. So, you hear a lot of “watch the crossfire!” from the troopers. On the side of the road bystanders are rarely a hazard, but the same lack of positioning would surely be a hazard to bystanders in different circumstances. So yes i definitely I agree that police officers need more situational awareness training before they can use lethal force- especially in somewhere as packed as a subway station.