I think it must be damaging to most officers to multiple times a day put themselves in the situation of being vulnerable at traffic stops, where it takes one to get them shot.
When they do that thousands of times, each time risking the person could shoot them, I think that must have an effect on people.
It's why I've always felt it can be argued police are underpaid. Add to that the hostility they get from a lot of citizens for protecting them. An 'us versus them' is understandable.
In 2012, 47 LEOs were killed out of a potential 800,000. Meaning 5.9 per 100,000 died in the line of duty.
If this LEO were an electrician, this traffic stop was akin to forgetting to turn off the main before touching a live wire with wetted fingers. His actions are totally indefensible as well as incomprehensible.
Of course they are. But that training involves split second choices, and shows them how they can be killed very quickly. Bottom line, traffic stops are dangerous for police.
Honestly, you really need to quote the correct figures. The 47 killed in 2012 were accidental deaths. Deaths from stuff like getting hit by a car, auto/motorcycle accidents, falls, shot by other police (friendly fire), etc.
The figure you were trying to use was that 48 officers were feloniously killed in 2012, such as being shot by civilians, stabbed, etc.
Yup, agree 100% but it "comes with the territory" so to speak, a LEO cannot use that grim fact to shoot before any evidence of a weapon is present though.
You've posted multiple times referring to this as a"traffic stop". It wasn't. Jones was already out of his car when the officer confronted him. At that point, it was the officer's responsibility to contain the situation, which he glaringly failed to do.
I think that's an irrelevant semantic issue, and this was for all intents and purposes a 'traffic stop'. A report said his '10 38' call in on the video means 'traffic stop'.
No, it's not an irrelevant semantic issue. A traffic stop is seeing flashing lights in your rear view mirror, pulling over, watching a cop get of his car to approach you, and knowing you'll be asked for your license and registration. Jones, OTOH, stopped at a store on his way home from work, got out of his car, and was confronted by a cop asking for his license, which was in his car.
The distinction is that, while the cop may have known it was a"traffic stop", Jones didn't see it coming and had no time to prepare to react. So Jones reacted instinctively, and the cop overreacted.