This

false. only sergeants carry tasers, regular cops aren't armed with bean bag rounds initially, and the situation was iminant. Police cant just "call in a sniper"... it takes a lot of time, and when you get a 911 call saying someone is waving a gun around, you dispatch the person, simple as that. No matter the age race or creed.

Police officers in America are too gung-ho and need to admit their mistakes when they kill innocent people, simple as that. The guy is dodging the blame.

When a clear and present danger is there, officers are trained to put the potential danger down. Waving around a fake gun will obviously make an officer think that he and the people are around in danger. Sometimes they just don't really have time to think and have to make a decision based on what they perceive. Is it always the right one? Hell no, but it's how they're trained around these parts.

I'm not a police officer but I work closely with them via mental health enforcement, I'm from Canada so I am unsure on the differences in policing between countries. From an enforcement standpoint in Ontario if you are presented with the potential for serious bodily harm or death to you or someone else then lethal force is justified in being used.

A taser would never be an option here, if someone has a firearm you would never approach with a taser. Not all police carry these either, atleast in Canada only our tactical units do.

If a person is waving a firearm around you cant simply leave him there, you need to act sooner than later as he is a risk to himself and everyone around him. An officer is NEVER going to take the risk because the person who called it in said they think its a fake gun because if you keep taking that chance one of these times it won't be and you'll be dead.

Edit: Also, from my understanding police get paid peanuts in the US. I live on a border city (bridge to usa 5 minute drive) so we talk about how different the pay scale is frequently especially because its more dangerous.

This is the Toronto Police Pay Scale-

Cadet in Training $57,777
4th Class Constable $63,436
3rd Class Constable $72,498
2nd Class Constable $81,560
1st Class Constable $90,623

If you perform properly usually you will be First Class in 4-5 years (1 class per year)

This is Ohio-

Officers who had completed at least 60 credit hours of college and had at least a 2.0 grade point average started out earning $48,462 in Los Angeles. Those who had a bachelor's degree or more advanced degree earned $50,342. Starting salaries for police officers in Columbus, Ohio, was $43,430.

This post was edited by Miniflight on Nov 27 2014 02:04am

qft

In England our police officers would handle it better without getting them killed, just sayin.

Like I said, I did a ride along. All state troopers carry "long rifles" in their vehicles. This means they can be a few hundreds yard away. Probably not what most would consider a sniper rifle, but more or less the same effect.

Age should matter when assessing a situation, that is why we have so many problems, our police think they're fighting a war in afghanistan rather than protecting the citizens of this country.

I'm not sure about tasers, but i know with how easy it was for the officer i was with to get some very extreme technology, some non-lethal way of incapacitating a 12 year old would not be very difficult. The point is, our police don't care so much about protecting us.

that was also apparent with the ride along I did, that cop was so trigger happy it really scared me. When i finished the ride along I told my parents that cop was going to shoot someone soon. I don't live in a dangerous area at all, it's rural maine...and sure enough within a few months the cop had shot someone, and sure enough, it was a rather questionable judgment call..


I think that's wrong, just because it's the way we currently do it, doesn't mean it's the right way.

Many other countries would handle it much better.

to be fair, many other countries have much stricter gun laws where its extremely unlikely that somebody runs around with a weapon.

I don't justify the killing of a 12 year old and maybe the officer could have handled it differently, but in reality if that was a real gun and he had shot/killed 2 or 3 people while the officer is trying to setup a sniper or whatever it may be I guarantee you'd have people asking "omg why didn't you just shoot him, now 3 other people are dead. omg these cops are so inept and it's his fault, etc" cops are just trying to do their job to protect you, human error will always be there. Lastly, that "Kid" could have easily used the fake gun to rob a store or people on the street as well as use it as a means to rape a woman regardless if it was fake...so that's another thing to think about...