Anti-knife hysteria

Sequimite · #1

A partially deaf man who was whittling a piece of wood with a 3" blade knife was shot and killed by a police officer when he didn't comply with three orders to drop the knife.

Insane. How can any rational human being think that a three inch blade ten feet away is a threat warranting death. Four shots fired, too.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ng01m.html

SmoothOne25 · #2

1000 internet points to whoever names that model :)

SmoothOne25 · #3

well i guess he could of "thrown it" at him any second...? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Fred Sanford · #4

That's an absolute shame. It's not a deadly weapon. Jeez, the guy is doing nothing but whittling on a corner in the city and cannot even do that. So he gets approached, probably cannot hear, gets up and is shot. Nice.

Maybe the cop should have backed up. Maybe these tards should realize that people do whittle wood and they usually don't whittle wood with spoons and forks.

Dang this makes me mad.

jzmtl · #5

Trigger happy cops, sadly nothing new, just like the other cop who tasered the driver who refuse to sign traffic ticket.

dsmegst · #6

This is sad story and one that angers me. No one deserves to die like that.

Zendemic · #7

Too bad the officer wasn't equipped with any less then lethal weapons. Goes to show that you can never bee too careful around who you take out your knife even for the most mundane of tasks...

RyanA · #8

A trigger happy cop. Lets try not to paint an entire profession with such broad strokes.

npueppke · #9

Wow....

PS Isn't that a Gerber A.R. 3.00 or 3.50?

ChrisR · #10

Blame the politicians and the bosses ... it's a classic case of making people scared, telling them all knives or guns are going to be used to kill them - then giving them the right to use deadly force. If you remove common sense and turn people into automatons then this is what happens ... it's crazy, really crazy

rosconey · #11

common sense no longer exists-

dewildeman · #12

Okay, this in no way justifies this particular case but there have been several studies showing that a person armed with a knife can cover 18 feet and strike before most people and draw a handgun and fire.

That said, it looks like the officer screwed the pooch on this one.

Jester · #13

I'm no cop. But as a citizen I feel that a police officer should only fire his weapon as an absolute last resort. I find it difficult to believe this officer was in such a position that his only option was use of deadly force.

This officer is solely responsible for the outcome of this situation and I hope he faces criminal charges.

There should not be any trigger happy cops.

As an aside, cops should treat tasers like deadly weapons and only use them in similar situations. Tasers have killed more people than talking.

{steps down from soapbox}

Jordan · #14

I gotta say... I read that article a bit differently than some of you I think. What I read was that a homeless man with a criminal record was walking around with a piece of wood and an open knife, not standing on a street corner whittling and minding his own business. I think that it is possible that instead of this being a case of an innocent civilian being shot by a trigger happy cop, it will turn out that a dangerous, mentally unstable, homeless felon will have made threatening advances towards a policeman and was shot as a result. If that is the case... I don't have a whole **** of a lot of sympathy for the hobo.

dewildeman... you are referring (I think) to the Tueller Drill. Basically, it shows that in the 1.5 seconds or so that it takes a proficient handgun user to draw and fire one accurate shot at a close range target, a close range target can cover about 21 feet. I've done that drill, or variations on it, in training before and I'll vouch for it. 6 meters disappears awful quick when someone is coming at you with a rubber knife.

SMI · #15

Well this case, just like every other case will come to light however they want to spin it.

Either way, I still trust my neighbor with a gun more than most cops.

The Deacon · #16

I think, as with most of these incidents, the truth lies somewhere between the extremes. Those who knew the man will portray him as totally innocent and harmless, those who think the police can do no wrong will portray him as a dangerous maniac.

Reports I read did seem to indicate he got up and began moving toward the officer, with an open knife in his hand. That may be understandable to someone who knew that he was deaf, fairly well known in the area, and someone who eked out a meager living carving and selling small wooden objects to buy food and booze. On the other hand, to a cop not necessarily in possession of that background information, he became simply and armed individual who, instead of complying with instructions, was coming toward him with a knife.

Always easier to second guess a situation like that from the comfort of your living room than to deal with it in the flesh. Easy for folks to say the cop over reacted but, unlike the movies, people don't fly ten feet backward, or spin around and fall down when hit by a bullet. Lots of times, they don't react at all, they just keep coming.

nuubee · #17

Deacon brings up an excellent point. We tend to become very habituated to drawing a conclusion based upon an account (it's our nature). The media quite frequently gets details wrong, or presents an incomplete or biased recounting of an event. It is difficult to know exactly what happened without being there (or even if one was there, for that matter).

TrojanDonkey · #18

I don't know what happened but would like to say that most cops aren't going to shoot anyone for no reason.A year or so ago some cops were shot(in the back) and killed by a thug in Washington state.The mainstream media tried to see the "reasons" of why the thug shot the cops.Certain parts of the community applauded the cops(hid the assailant) deaths.Washington is too liberal for me and tolerates TNB much more than my home state-no offense it is a beautiful state and most people I meet from there are super nice.ANY POLICE office that shoots an unarmed non threatening person should serve life minimum.Who was there-is there any video?I would shoot someone approaching me quickly with a small opened knife/neck knife.Sitting down whittling-maybe pepper spray him.Sad thing is dead men don't talk and we may never know how it REALLY went down.

fifthprofession47 · #19

Sequimite wrote:A partially deaf man who was whittling a piece of wood with a 3" blade knife was shot and killed by a police officer when he didn't comply with three orders to drop the knife.

Insane. How can any rational human being think that a three inch blade ten feet away is a threat warranting death. Four shots fired, too.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ng01m.html

A three inch blade at ten feet is capeable of being extremely dangerous! As others have indicated already, the Tueller Drill has demonstrated the dangers of an opponent armed with a knife within 21 feet.

There are probably many more variables present here that we are not privy to and considering the way the media likes to twist stories, I'm confident that the situation likely warranted the officers response.

Donut · #20

The nerve of that man... whittling wood?! =\