AdamX wrote:oh boy where to start...
knock the knife out of his hand with a baton, are you crazy? depending on the brand name of baton the max size when extended is about 26 inches. thats just over 2 feet. would you really want to be that close to someone threatening to cut you? absolutely not.
not only is that waay too close for comfort with an edged weapon, but consider the small target that someones hand actually makes, and how fast a person can move their hands. The better target would of course be on the legs or body somewhere, which means getting in even closer to that knife to try and reach past it. For an officer to even attempt something as ridiculous as that would be just asking to be seriously cut or killed.
on pepper spray: it doesnt say in this article whether it was used or not, so we can only speculate that either the situation escalated too fast for them to try pepper spray first or they did try it first and it simply didnt work.
interesting fact for you all, pepper spray (actually OC spray) as a rule does not affect anyone who is drunk, high, or has a mental disorder. Aside from those large groups, it also simply does not affect about 15% of regular people. so its not as simple as just "blinding the guy with pepper spray"
"This was a 58 year old man, holding a box-cutter. He would have to get very close to pose a threat no?"
if someone is advancing on you with an edged weapon, your "safe" zone is about 30 feet away from them. From 30 feet, a person standing still can break into a charge and be on top of an officer cutting them before the officer has time to draw their gun and aim. so depending on whether you consider 30 feet to be 'very close' .....
"Did they not have feet? Move out of reach?"
training would dictate that they attempt to gain some distance. Distance is the first thing any officer wants when dealing with a weapon. But without knowing the details and the area they were in its hard to say... maybe they had nowhere to back up, or nothing to take cover behind, maybe if they moved any farther away the man would have been a threat to other members of the public. Who knows.
pretty much anywhere you go its pretty clear cut, pull a knife and advance on police officers, get shot. justifiably so.
So. Does not your training include how to disarm a person then, other than shooting them?
Seems lacking if that's the case, or has it been dumbed-down to accomodate little people being admitted to the service?
