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Originally Posted by MorganGrayson
I read a lot, and most of my favorite books have a cop or someone else carrying a gun in them. Those are fiction, even if they're written by ex-police, ex-forensic, etc.
"Real" cop stories give me the absolute heebie jeebies. 
"10 feet"????  Just a writer with a vivid imagination here, but I can write several off-the-cuff scenarios where that 10 feet rule ends up with a dead cop. I, personally, would much rather have a dead druggie than a dead cop.
Do you have the "you must shoot to kill, not to wound" rule? (One I've never understood, frankly.) I think pulling any kind of a weapon on a cop should make you kiss goodbye to one of your kneecaps. (I know that's easier said than done from a distance with a handgun.)
I wonder if you can answer a question for me. It's my husband's question. Last night's CSI involved an insane firefight that went wrong and a cop was killed...as it turned out, accidentally shot by another cop. The deceased officer stood up when he shouldn't have. The other officers pulled away from the two cops under suspicion, and most definitely pulled away from the one that was determined to have accidentally shot the officer at the funeral. (The widow most definitely did not; hugged him and said "I know it wasn't your fault.")
After the episode, my husband said "I wonder if real cops would have reacted that way?"
(If I have just wandered into that "civilians don't get to ask those kinds of questions" area, I apologize and withdraw the question.)  |
Hmmm, All I can say to your question is I hope I never have to find out.
I honestly don't know how I would react/act.
As for the shoot to kill question. Yeah, they train us to shoot if possible 2 to the chest and 1 to the head. It really just depends on the situation. Thats the problem with courts and attorneys. These fucking attornies have never had to make a life threatening decision in a moments time. Do cops over-react sometimes. SURE, Ill be the first to admit that, but Adrenaline is a VERY powerful drug and if you can't learn to control your emmotions while amped up on it then you are going to get you or someone else hurt or possible killed, but anyway, alot of the decisions we make are split second and not even experience can decrease room for error or bad judgement. Experience certainly helps though in what split second decisions are made by an officer.
Take this for instance. This is a true story which just happend last week and involves a narcotics agent in a town close to where I am. Wed night his wife and children were driving home from the store. The wife noticed that a car was following her and when she pulled into her driveway she noticed that the vehicle turned around and started to drive slowly by her residence. She hurried up and took her kids inside and told her husband, the Narc Agent that there was a strange vehicle outside. The agent went out to confront the driver and a confrontation ensued. The man suspicious man in the vehicle drove off and the agent pursued in his patrol vehicle. Keep in mind this agent has been a drug cop for 5 years. The agent activated his lights and pulled the vehicle over. When the agent walked up to the vehicle the guy opened the door and the agent tried to pull the guy from the vehicle. The guy was allegedly on meth and put his vehicle in drive and drug the agent for almost two blocks before running the agent over. In this time the agent was able to draw his weapon and fire one shot into the lungs of the driver. The agent had severe trauma to his head, broken pelvis, broken back and legs and died last night. The driver is still in ICU in Oklahoma City, unfortunatley still alive.
Its a fucking scary job sometimes.