[Solace]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

... I really don't think the Brown case is the right one to preach de-escalation. Try the 12 years old kid who got shot for having a toy gun - that'd be a much easier sale than "muscular thug who tried to get the cop's gun". I really don't understand why he isn't the story. Why focus on the thugs who resisted arrest?

It's just the news of the moment that I replied to, and it's turned into this. There's also the man shot in Wal-Mart even though he was innocent. Both that and the Garner case are very clear cut, since both were caught on tape.

You're being somewhat inconsistent. First you say that cops should gamble on the other guy being a terrible fighter (the assumption being that they can take down a terrible fighter without doing anything permanent to him), and then you complain the cops themselves aren't examplars of physical perfection (and thus presumably not great fighter either).

That's not what I said at all. I was making the point that threat of force through a lethal weapon like a gun is not the only way to resolve a situation. I'm trying not to be too literal here, by explaining that yes there are always exceptions and that police often have to make split second decisions. That said, a gun is the easiest decision you can make when attempting to stop any aggression (real or perceived). That doesn't mean guns are always the best decision, just the simplest, and it makes it easy to justify resolving every situation with one. When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

My other statement was meant to establish that currently, many police are not physically fit and are not trained to handle situations that could potentially escalate out of control or in unexpected ways. That's why I brought up the example of the gun being removed from the officers choice of options. There are a myriad of reasons why this is the case, but it is an issue. It's why people fear the militarization of police. They've clearly shown they aren't capable of using military equipment responsibly.