I Really am a Sicko
Yesterday morning I woke up feeling a little congested and sneezy. The symptoms increased in severity gradually throughout the day until I was feeling like one big ol’ piece of Texas sized shit.
I did get a few things done before succumbing. I returned some stuff to Lowe’s, stopped by the grocery store, and set up appointments for pest control and stove repair dudes.
As the afternoon wore on, I felt worse. I started sipping Myers’s rum (straight) around 5:00pm. It made me feel marginally better. So I sat in the game room with The Boy and played Gran Turismo 4 while sipping my rum for a couple of hours last night. I was asleep by 8:00pm.
Today I’m feeling a little better. I don’t feel as achy...just sneezy and congested. Tried to make a Dr. appointment for today, but they’re booked today and tomorrow. I’ll see how I feel later, and make an appointment for Friday if I need to.
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Today the New Orleans Police Department is under close scrutinization again. This time, for shooting a guy waving a knife around. “Did they follow their own procedures?” “Should they have used non-lethal force?”
Now for the opinion you’ve been waiting for – Mine.
The guy had a deadly weapon and was waving it in a threatening manner. He was given ample opportunity to drop his knife. He didn’t. After a while he lunged at a cop with the knife. He was shot dead. Seems pretty cut and dried to me. Did they follow NOPD procedures? I don’t know. I don’t know their procedures. Should they have used non-lethal force? The issue of “should they” will be answered after review of NOPD procedures.
During my time in the CG, I had plenty of use of force & firearms training, which is generally standard across agencies. I don’t’ remember the specific doctrine, but I do remember there had to be three things present in a situation before the use deadly force was authorized:
Ability – That is, the person has the ability to kill you, whether that is with their fists (i.e. a big guy fighting a small female cop) or a weapon such as a firearm, a brick, an ax, etc.
Opportunity – If the assailant is close enough to you to kill you.
Jeopardy – The assailant must be behaving in such a way that you believe he or she is placing your life or the life of another in jeopardy.
All three prerequisites were met with this guy in New Orleans:
Ability -- He had a hunting knife.
Opportunity -- He was close enough to the cops to inflict serious bodily injury on them.
Jeopardy -- He lunged at a cop with the knife.
Could the cops have used non-lethal force? Sure they could have, if they had the right equipment. Should they have? That depends on their internal policy. If someone had non-lethal weapons handy, it might’ve been prudent to blast him with a Taser or a beanbag fired out of a twelve-gauge shotgun before things got out of hand but...Hindsight is 20-20.
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I’m leaving now...to spend the rest of my day being sick. I feel a little better, but still pretty crappy overall.
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Quote of the day:
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean ? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind. – Jack Handey
8 comments:
Bloodlust and public executions! I'm down for that!
It's great, as long as they've done something wrong.
Example: rapists, molesters and murderers. My view of the event's that happened the other day...
The man definitely had ISSUES, but the use of lethal force in my opinion was not warranted! several cops with guns on a guy and they feared for their lives? Couldn't those expert marksman have given the guy a 20 foot radius? Maybe shot him in the leg? He did at many times try to walk away. I know that the laws for me to warrant the use of deadly force is that the assailant must have a weapon, be threatening me, and be within 8 feet (him coming at me) of me. Not to mention, I have to FEAR FOR MY LIFE. If I had several other trained ,so called "marksman" armed standing next to me, I don't think the courts would have found in my favor If I had killed that man, especially if I had been the one closing in on him. Just my thoughts. Great post btw.
A naked man in Lake County, Fla., claiming to be Satan was arrested after he threatened to kill a sheriff's deputy and then injured the man in a neighborhood street, according to a police report. The sheriff's deputy suffered minor injuries when he was kicked during the struggle with Henson, according to the report. Henson has been booked into the Lake County Jail on $10,000 bond.
This guy didn't even get shot.
I'm sorry you're a sicko, Carlos. At first I just thought you meant like a pervert, and I thought, hey, I knew that. But then I read on and see that you're really feeling bad. Sorry, and I hope you feel better very soon.
Get well soon buddy!!!
Knock, knock, just stopping by to check and see if you are feeling better today? I hope you are on the mend.
My first take on the situation was that it never should have been allowed to get that far. It’s hard for me to believe that, out of all the cops there, none of them had non-lethal weapons. If a doinking comes out of this, someone will get doinked for letting the situation deteriorate before non-lethal means could be used to stop him. Now my rant :)
In my opinion the use of deadly force was warranted . Why? As soon as the guy decided to lunge and take a stab at a cop he was attacking that cop with a deadly weapon. While several cops with guns shouldn’t be in fear for their lives (and would not have been justified in shooting) while a guy is just standing around waving the knife, the line was crossed when the guy attacked the cop. Any reasonable person would be in fear for his life if a guy with a knife took a stab at him. It should be within that same person’s rights, cop or not, to protect himself or another person with deadly force.
The standard, or so I recall, is that the “jeopardy distance” is 21 feet between you and the bad guy, because an average person can close that distance in around 2 seconds.
Regarding shooting in the leg… You may already know this, but in firearms training, they teach to aim for center mass (i.e. square in the middle of the chest). Why? That’s the biggest area of the human body and easiest to hit. Besides, a deadly weapon is just that, a deadly weapon. Woundings and warning shots are Hollywood stuff. Really. Think about it. Imagine being in a situation like that. Your adrenaline is pumping and you’re trying to think of all the different things that could happen, and how you would react. Then a guy lunges at you with a knife or levels a firearm at you. Then what? A thousand things rush through your mind. You have only a split second to make a decision whether or not to fire. Then you decide to fire. Are you going to aim for an arm or a leg, hoping you hit some bone and drop him? Not me. He’d get two or three in the middle of the chest. The chances of hitting someone in the arm or leg in such a highly charged situation are way, way slim.
I was in one fucked up situation a long time ago on a Colombian ship. Fortunately, all I had to do was jack a round of .00 buckshot into the chamber of the ol’ riot shotgun and the Colombian freaks who were walking toward me stopped in their tracks. I didn’t have to make a life or death decision, but imagine how much shit was going through my twenty-one-year-old mind in such a short period of time.
Anyway Early….there’s my rant for the month. Sorry it’s so long! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know how you feel. I’m all about communicating man.
All:
I’m Feeling a little better today. Still kinda crappy, but okay. I’m gonna go lie down in front of the ol’ tee-vee and sip some Meyers’s rum. Anyone up for a drink?
The distance for a cop or service person may be 21 feet, but for any other male it's 8. If it's 10 average males with guns against 1 guy with a knife, I still think it's life in prison if you shot him from any distance. You actually made our point today. It never should have gone that far. The cops should have kept their distance.
Glad U feel a little better.
So was the "rant" from the rum talking? Next time try tequila to kill being sick. Have a great year, Carlos.
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