Brat, I think you are misunderstanding my position on this and a critical factor. First I am attempting to debunk the cop hunter. The idea that 17 shots means that this officer was intentionally gunning down the suspect without rational. I am also dealing with a critical issue. Not every peace officer is created equally and not every officer is as capable of taking the situation in a perfect manor. I am playing devils advocate, as I am sick of seeing every case brought up ending in crucifixion based on perceptions and perceived what ifs that fail to match the gritty bloody reality.
That's fine TerraN, but the Barney Fife comment is descriptive, snarky, and disrespectful of the many officers who are killed or seriously wounded each year in the line of duty... I have yet to take a job where my initial training was actually completed, prior to "getting with it". My last job as a hospice chaplain, volunteer/bereavement coordinator, was actually 3 jobs, and I had to roll with the punches and improvise, I did have additional training, and I will say that my 21.5 years as a Counselor/Rehabilitation trainer, with developmentally disabled adults was full of training, in a great many disciplines, and eyeballs all over looking to find fault in something you said or did as you handled an often violent situation, and of course there was the "documentation", if it was not documented, it DID NOT HAPPEN.
So all police officers are human, each have their strengths and weaknesses, some thrive on physical danger, and go out of their way to take the difficult situations, sometimes to protect a fellow officer who is much less comfortable going in harms way. The gritty bloody reality in Ferguson was that officer Darren Wilson happened upon Mr. Brown as he and a buddy were walking down the middle of the street, when officer Wilson asked them to step out of the street, all hell broke loose, and officer Wilson was violently assaulted by Mr. Brown who grabbed his duty weapon, in the process Mr. Brown attempted to "beat" officer Wilson sensless, fracturing his eyesocket in the process, as he continued to try to take Officer Wilsons duty weapon, officer Wilson regained control of his duty weapon, and when Mr. Brown turned to re-engage, Officer Wilson employed his weapon to defend himself against his very large, very aggressive violent assailant, when 4 peripheral hits on his assailant resulted in a "failure to stop, Officer Wilson followed his training, and stopped his assailant with two very effective hits to the "ocular cranial" region, and immediately disengaged and attempted to help his assailant...
What is not apparent, is that St. Louis, Mo. is as dangerous as Chicago, Il., there is a very violent culture in both cities, fueled by gangs and just thuggish behavior in general..... I was in the windy city today however, delivering 3 brand new luxury SUVs to the Chicago Public School... I left them in traffic, with the keys in the ignition, engines running, and flasher's engaged, at NO time did I feel endangered, or that my vehicles where in any jeopardy, in a few minutes several of the school system employees arrived and drove the vehicles to the local police station???? I was surrounded, literally, by people of every shape color, gender, and nationality, something I had dreaded turned out to be a very pleasant surprise at high noon,,,,,, several blocks away, I am rather certain things are much uglier, and when I was a Chaplin in East St. Louis, IL., I had a patients middle aged son in law, walk me to my vehicle, and stand at the ready until I drove off, they stand out as one of my favorite families in five years of hospice, a beautiful family, trying to make a difference in a violent suburb of St. Louis???
