[Jinto]

Originally Posted by LynnieS

I'm not entire sure that I understand this; no offense. Do you mean that in certain countries, the police, if forced to defend themselves with lethal force, would likely end up in prison or dead themselves once the investigation is over?

Okay, not necessarily but more likely end up in prison/suspended or dead/wounded. It is a matter of jurisdiction. The question such police officers often face is whether the means of force were appropriate to stop the potential attacker.

Originally Posted by LynnieS

Not necessarily that the 1st is just to protect yourself.

If you only think about yourself in that situation it is basically about protecting yourself at the heart of the matter. One cannot expect fair judgement of the situation in such an incident.

Originally Posted by LynnieS

If you are faced with a guy with the kind of attitude/mindset/fear that would cause him to pull out a weapon and attack a law enforcement officer, the possibility exists that he would also attack someone who does not have the full backing of society. The only things stopping him, IMHO, are:

- His attitude/mood/etc. at the time.
- The relationship between him and his target, and even that is no guarantee these days.
- Any fear of retaliation, but that means society's rules have broken down in this space.

Or in a matter of a misinterpreted situation you end up with a dead attacker that did not even own a gun.

Originally Posted by LynnieS

Unfortunately, "hero cop" stories do not tend to stay long on the front page, and people don't agitate for them - not unless it becomes a human interest story; even that does not stay for too long. Whereas a police officer who shoots someone in self-defense (thinking it was needed at the time, but really was not) ends up being... crucified in news and etc.

This is not about heroism, there is a certain professionality that you must have in this profession. The "first shoot then ask" method is not likely to be accepted by the people you are meant to protect.
Admittedly there are situations where you cannot really know, for example being at gun point of a realisticly looking toy-gun. Who would blame the police officer if he mistook it for a real thread? But shooting down a driver just because he rammed a police car... unacceptable - the means of force are way beyond necessity of that situation.