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How can one possibly think cops are trigger happy???? They would if they simply form their opinions on scary headlines and not actually researched reality. Here it is:
And some points from the article. Remember we are talking about a force that is 36,000 strong (and higher in prior years)
Police officers opened fire 60 times at people in 2006, down from 147 in 1996.
The police fatally shot 13 people in 2006, compared with 30 people a decade before
“The data shows that the New York City Police Department is the most restrained in the country,” said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman. “What these reports don’t show are the thousands of incidents where police were confronted with armed criminals, and they did not return fire."
“Everything is down, the number of shots fired by officers is down, the number of subjects that we shot is way down,” said Inspector Cerar. “The number of total times when a police officer fires his weapon is down. Statistically, anecdotally, in any way you put it, the New York City Police Department is not a cowboy department.
Yet another completely uninformed post by All American.
Of course you disagree...facts don't matter. You read a headline or "think" cops shoot all the time....and that's all that matters...to you. Which is why your posts are always lousy and uninformed.
The NYPD did pretty good at keeping the shootings down even since that NYT article in 2008 that SobroGuy cited. Last year was a record low with only eight deaths from police fire.
You may feel the way you do because probably some of those eight got a lot of media attention. But in terms of actual numbers, NYPD does NOT do a lot of shooting. I don't necessarily like everything the cops do--that courtesy, professionalism, respect motto is a hit or miss thing I'll grant you. But its pretty clear that fatal shootings, thank God, have become increasingly rare.
"NEW YORK — Police officers in the city last year shot and killed the fewest people since their department started keeping such data decades ago, according to figures released Wednesday.
In 2010, eight people were killed by officers in the nation's largest police department and 16 were wounded in police gunfire – another record low.
The New York Police Department started keeping comparable data on firearms discharges in 1971, when officers killed 93 people, chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. There were 12 police shooting deaths in 2009, and the previous low was nine in 2005."
No, it isn't. It's about your preconceived notions, which you apparently hope will be justified by everyone posting here. You may wind up being a little disappointed.
its all about snap decisions when you feel your life may be at risk. reaction time is way slower than action time so by the time the bad guy acts its to late for you to do anything.
stupid moves and actions by civilians can bring a whole lot of grief or death to themselves if they act in a manor that even looks like they are about to do something.
i had posted a little story in city data forum when it happened a few months ago.
my wife and i as most here know are photographers.
we were shooting photos of fall in ally pond park, there was a fellow who looked stoned walking directly in my path . as we got closer i stepped around him and he blocked my path.
he started saying something about wanting to see the camera.. i told him he is seeing nothing. he became more beligerant although he hadn't grabbed for the camera yet..
my wife started screaming help and although people were around no one responded.
as she screamed he turned from me and started walking towards her.
i grabbed a log as a club and went towards him now as he was getting closer to my wife who was still screaming for help.. he turned and came back to me . things looked like any second they would get real ugly. he started saying something about im going to see whats in his pack.
heres the point of this. my minds racing a thousand times a second as im debating do i club him now, do i wait, do i see if he goes in the pack.. having had quite a bit of combat training i knew if i hesitated i would loose my chance of coming out of this okay.
i held back and didnt swing the club at that point although i was ready . he started mumbling and cursing but he started to back away.. he turned and sprinted away and we never learned his true intention.
in retrospect it turned out okay but that 10 seconds of hesitation could have cost both of us our lives if he had a weapon and wanted to use it.
its real easy to quarterback a situation after its over when its not your life on the line .
like war sometimes innocent people do get killed and its unfourtunate but when people make hostile aggressive like moves they only invite disaster on themselves.
Last edited by mathjak107; 06-01-2011 at 03:46 PM..
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