Thread by @PeterMoskos

The world has gone slightly mad.

https://twitter.com/pourover16/status/1425604110204739584

I'm starting to think cops in some jurisdictions should simply stop responding to criminals with guns. I'm not joking or making a rhetorical point. The rules of use of force engagement need to be clarified.
Criminals with guns can shoot you.

Not stop responding. But do not go near or engaged. Find cover. Issue verbal commands. Do not pursue.

What are you supposed to do to a non compliant criminal with a gun? Nobody has an answer to this because there is no perfect answer.

Any time a non compliant criminal with a gun is taken into custody without serious injury is a victory. Period. We can quibble about tactics and details, improve. But don't miss the big picture. Two people with guns. One resisting. Nobody shot.

"Weren't you trained how to effectively disarm [irrational] people with loaded guns?" The short answer is no. Because there's way to do it, guaranteed. Everytime you're rolling the dice with your life.

I wonder how much of the problem is critics have no comprehension of guns. It's really easy to pull the trigger; it's hard to police. I'm not talking semi-automatic versus automatic and types of ammo. I just mean no clue. Never saw one. I never touched one till I was a cop.

We ask cops to deal with "man with a gun" calls. What should the cop do? Especially if the man (yeah, it's a man) has a gun? If you have no answer, that's cool, but stop having a strong opinion. There's no magic answer.

Maybe only people who haven't been punched think getting punched is really the worst thing in the world?
I'll get punched before I get tased any day.

2000: "Why did cops have to shoot that unarmed man?!"
2015: "Why did cops have to shoot that armed man?!"
2021: "Why did cops have to use force against that armed man?!"

I am not saying that everything cops do is okay. But when the gun is involved? You have to give a huge benefit of the doubt to those we ask to take that gun away. And when nobody is seriously hurt? It's a job well enough done.

https://twitter.com/PeterMoskos/status/1425638365563703302?s=19

Plan B is the NRA and now strangely "Progressive" approved plan of allowing more people to carry guns. It's an option. A horrible option, I believe. But it's an option. And now that the far-right and far-left agree on it, I don't know what to do.

What a lot of critics don't realize is this is as much a matter of gun control as police accountability. We either police illegal guns or we don't. If we choose gun control, and I do, we need a better job description on the "help wanted" sign.

Well, the shooting is justified. But at least cops didn't punch the man with a gun. baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-…