Why Do So Many Police Shoot-to-Kill?
Acknowledging that police are too quick to shoot, why are so few presumed criminals shot in the legs as they flee? Taking that question a step further, when multiple officers are present, why do they all feel the need to get into the action? Seventeen shots into the body of an unarmed man is unforgivably aggressive.
Are we happy with that picture in the mind of the public?
I understand that the police are frightened, it's a dangerous game. But so are those on the other side of a traffic-stop or knock on the door and fear is neither an excuse nor a reasonable cause for excessive force. We are not a military dictatorship and dare not present that image.
According to a CNN report, Forty-eight officers were shot and killed on the job in 2020, compared to fifty-one in 2019. Thirty of those officers were killed by a handgun, thirteen by a rifle and one killed with his own weapon. The type of weapon used in the four other deaths is not yet known.
That’s the total in fifty states, across police…