I can't comment on the post so much Wrider, but I did laugh.
True Townie, I'm just sick of cops hurting poor, innocent, helpless people that are just victims of the system, doing nothing wrong. Well, except for the actively trying to kill people part.
I know I talk shit. I have my feelings where I'm kind of like dude what the fuck. I also feel there needs to be some massive training on conflict resolution.
But I honestly draw that line at pulling the trigger. This dude had every bit of what he had coming.
I don't care if the lead cop waived off the other officer. The guy was firing rounds. Period. You can clearly hear it. At that point civis are in danger. Leo is in danger. The time to take action is here.
The part I like the most is that some random officer that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn didn't unload into a neighborhood. Nope ended it quick and quietly. I'm okay with this.
Again I draw the line at the pull of the trigger.
Seems kind of a waste of an expensive car to me. A bullet or two would have taken the guy down without costing taxpayers thousands of dollars to replace a city vehicle and pay for the giant concrete thing the car ran into. Even if the cop had enough restraint to ram the guy at 50 mph instead of 80 mph, maybe he wouldn't have completely totaled the vehicle. Oh well. Too late now.
I just watched the video you posted instead of a LE edit one, so just heard the news guy. He's kind of dumb. The Officer did not ram the guy to save his life, he rammed him to neutralize the threat to citizens and Officers. By law and policy, he had the knowledge that his actions would probably result in the subject's death, and that makes it deadly force. He was ramming him knowing that he'd probably kill him. The fact that the guy lived is largely irrelevant, but lucky and a good thing nonetheless.
Well, kind of. Although it is not an expensive car, being at the very least 5 year old and probably more (Mine is , it is expensive to replace since it'll be replaced with a new car, so I'll give you that. But as we were told when we were hired, we are a revenue spending agency, not the other way around. We spend money, we do not make it. So the destruction of cars comes with the territory. It is merely a tool to us. My agency generally crashes about a car a week, some major, some minor, some our fault, some not. And although the administration doesn't like it, there's not much they can do. When we're at fault we get punished, but sometimes shit happens. And if a car gets damaged catching a criminal, that's the cost of doing business.
At the range the Officers were at, a pistol is useless and incredibly dangerous to the community, so that's out. The shotgun takes time to get out, and once out isn't effective at that range either. It can be, but the Officer would have to select-load slugs, which takes time. And even a slug at 50yds isn't extremely accurate, that is not a shot I would take with my issued shotgun, and mine is better sighted than most in my agency. So that leaves us with the rifle. Now that would be an easy rifle shot, but you still have the time to stop your car, get out, get the rifle, chamber a round, and then take care of business. That's a lot of time when that guy might turn at any point. And the rifle still runs a risk to the community, because although that's an easy shot, I think we've all missed easy shots before.
Lastly, and I know you were exagerrating, but the actual strike was done at a speed between 40-45mph. From the sound of the video, he just about redlined first but stopped accelerating just prior to the car hitting 2nd gear, and that occurs at 45mph in the Crown Victoria. Also, the speed is irrelevant, because he's already using deadly force, so the amount of deadly force does not matter. Now personally I probably wouldn't have hit him that hard, but that's more out of fear of hurting myself lol.