Why is it that cops so often kill people?

[Muse]

I get angry when I hear about cops shooting to kill. My feeling is that they do this way too often.

I just saw a news story about a 51 year old woman who was shot to death by a cop last night at 10 PM. This happened in my town on a street that's two blocks from mine. It could have been within a 1/4 mile of me. She was said to be breaking windows in an apartment building and wielding a knife. Is that good reason to shoot her to death? The officer said he shot her in self defense. How lame can he be to have to shoot her to death in order to protect himself from a drunk knife wielding 51 year old woman? Her family defends her saying she had been drinking and was not a threat to anyone. I find it impossible to believe that the police couldn't have acted in a way that didn't result in the woman's death. I hear these stories all the time and they make me want to stay away from police, period.

 

[Ronstang]

The overwhelming majority of cops end a 20+ year career without EVER firing their weapon on the job...except at the practice range. The media just hypes and sensationalizes the very small amount of incidents that happen each year.

 

[Farang]

If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

 

[gentobu]

They should have tased her.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

Well, I hope you're never a cop. And I'm sure the cops around here make around twice that much plus lots of benefits.

 

[ProfJohn]

What was the cop suppose to do? Give her a big hug and tell her it will be alright?

Taser would have been a better idea, but I bet a bunch of people in that town don't want the taser due to brutality issues right?

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: Ronstang
The overwhelming majority of cops end a 20+ year career without EVER firing their weapon on the job...except at the practice range. The media just hypes and sensationalizes the very small amount of incidents that happen each year.

And

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

Well, I hope you're never a cop. And I'm sure the cops around here make around twice that much plus lots of benefits.

Around where Hollywood or something, because $40,000 sounds about right for a patrolman type cop. I mean we are talking no college education and only a few weeks of training. Maybe you are thinking of a detective or a higher ranking officer, but the sort of dude who would be foreced to use their gun sure as hell ain't making $80,000

EDIT: Salaries

So, you might start around $40,000 and work up to $60,000 (varies by location of course), but $80,000 is several standard deviations out there.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
What was the cop suppose to do? Give her a big hug and tell her it will be alright?

Taser would have been a better idea, but I bet a bunch of people in that town don't want the taser due to brutality issues right?

If it's a choice between murder by handgun or stun by taser, I have to think that 90+++% would choose taser. I just find it unconscionable to shoot a person in that position. For one thing the cop could have backed off and sought help, any kind of help that would have spared the woman's life.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

Well, I hope you're never a cop. And I'm sure the cops around here make around twice that much plus lots of benefits.

Around where Hollywood or something, because $40,000 sounds about right for a patrolman type cop. I mean we are talking no college education and only a few weeks of training. Maybe you are thinking of a detective or a higher ranking officer, but the sort of dude who would be foreced to use their gun sure as hell ain't making $80,000

EDIT: Salaries

So, you might start around $40,000 and work up to $60,000 (varies by location of course), but $80,000 is several standard deviations out there.

I don't know where you live but around here you have to go to a police academy to become a cop. It's a lot more than a few weeks of training. I've seen the figures for what cops make around here and a graduating patrolman starts at far more than $40,000/year. More than 5 years ago a beat cop was making nearly twice that. It has to be more now.

I'm in Berkeley, CA. I saw figures for Oakland patrolmen, as soon as they hang a star on you. It was to entice people to apply, and it was recently and I think it was around $70,000 to start. You have to realize that the cost of living around here is very high. You could obviously live on way less in much of the USA.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Muse
I don't know where you live but around here you have to go to a police academy to become a cop. It's a lot more than a few weeks of training. I've seen the figures for what cops make around here and a graduating patrolman starts at far more than $40,000/year. More than 5 years ago a beat cop was making nearly twice that. It has to be more now.

We'll like I said, whever you live is FAR outside the norm, I can only expect that if what you say is true then the cost of living where you are is twice what it is here, because here in the southeast a new officer would make something like $30,000 a year and an engineer with a decade of experience would be the one making $80,000+ a year.

 

[teclis1023]

She came at a cop with a knife and you're wondering why she got shot?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Muse
I get angry when I hear about cops shooting to kill. My feeling is that they do this way too often.

The concept of shooting to wound is a hollywood fantasy. If a weapon is drawn the point is to kill the target, period. Shooting the knives out of persons hand, etc simply does not happen.

I just saw a news story about a 51 year old woman who was shot to death by a cop last night at 10 PM. This happened in my town on a street that's two blocks from mine. It could have been within a 1/4 mile of me. She was said to be breaking windows in an apartment building and wielding a knife. Is that good reason to shoot her to death?

Swing by here sometime, I'll grab a knive (and a few drinks to make the comparison fair) and Ill give you a hallmark card. Let me know how you fair

Bill

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: teclis1023
She came at a cop with a knife and you're wondering why she got shot?

you do know some people have mental diseases and such which cause them on rare occasions to act in ways they would otherwise not right?, I reall doubt an old woman was all that great of a threat to the cop, a taser would have taking here down quick and then they could handcuff her and its off to jail or hte looney bin.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: Muse
I don't know where you live but around here you have to go to a police academy to become a cop. It's a lot more than a few weeks of training. I've seen the figures for what cops make around here and a graduating patrolman starts at far more than $40,000/year. More than 5 years ago a beat cop was making nearly twice that. It has to be more now.

We'll like I said, whever you live is FAR outside the norm, I can only expect that if what you say is true then the cost of living where you are is twice what it is here, because here in the southeast a new officer would make something like $30,000 a year and an engineer with a decade of experience would be the one making $80,000+ a year.

I just did a search and it appears that police make between 80 and 100 grand here:

$80,020 - $100,584 annual salary.

Now, that may make you grouchy enough to blast away any drunk middle aged bitch that gives you crap but it's a lot more money than I've ever pulled in. Frankly, I'm pissed off.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: Muse
I don't know where you live but around here you have to go to a police academy to become a cop. It's a lot more than a few weeks of training. I've seen the figures for what cops make around here and a graduating patrolman starts at far more than $40,000/year. More than 5 years ago a beat cop was making nearly twice that. It has to be more now.

We'll like I said, whever you live is FAR outside the norm, I can only expect that if what you say is true then the cost of living where you are is twice what it is here, because here in the southeast a new officer would make something like $30,000 a year and an engineer with a decade of experience would be the one making $80,000+ a year.

I just did a search and it appears that police make between 80 and 100 grand here:

$80,020 - $100,584 annual salary.

Yes, nobody was disputing that point, what id being disputed is that California has like one of the highest cost of living in the entire freaking world. Perhaps I should put it another way, a cop makes half what an engineer makes, how about that, now we can understand it in terms that negate location. So ya'll living out in California can compare a cops salary to your silicon valley people and over here we can compare it to our people out here.

As I am sure you well no not only do you live in California where the cost of living is rediculously high, but you also live in freaking Berkeley where the people are pretty much socialists and all. Now sure in that ONE city the cops might be making tons of money and all, but like I showed 99.9% of other locations in this country that is not true. Its like If I over here in Tennessee lived in Oak Ridge and were like "oh WOW 50% of people here have PH.Ds", maybe thats true for that one city, but Oak Ridge also had the highest percentage of PH.Ds in the entire country for along time (I think its somewhere else now).

 

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: Muse
I'm in Berkeley, CA. I saw figures for Oakland patrolmen, as soon as they hang a star on you. It was to entice people to apply, and it was recently and I think it was around $70,000 to start. You have to realize that the cost of living around here is very high. You could obviously live on way less in much of the USA.

That explains the whole thread and your lack of objectivity on the issue. Blame the cop first.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

"so often kill" - you have some stats on use of lethal force?

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Muse
I get angry when I hear about cops shooting to kill. My feeling is that they do this way too often.

I just saw a news story about a 51 year old woman who was shot to death by a cop last night at 10 PM. This happened in my town on a street that's two blocks from mine. It could have been within a 1/4 mile of me. She was said to be breaking windows in an apartment building and wielding a knife. Is that good reason to shoot her to death? The officer said he shot her in self defense. How lame can he be to have to shoot her to death in order to protect himself from a drunk knife wielding 51 year old woman? Her family defends her saying she had been drinking and was not a threat to anyone. I find it impossible to believe that the police couldn't have acted in a way that didn't result in the woman's death. I hear these stories all the time and they make me want to stay away from police, period.

Yup, that's a great reason. Attack anyone with a weapon and you should be killed...every time. Period.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

Well, I hope you're never a cop. And I'm sure the cops around here make around twice that much plus lots of benefits.

Not most places, at least to start. Beginning salary here is between 30-40k.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Farang
If I'm working a job making $40k a year and you wield a fucking knife at me I will shoot you dead rather than be stabbed. Simple enough.

Well, I hope you're never a cop. And I'm sure the cops around here make around twice that much plus lots of benefits.

Around where Hollywood or something, because $40,000 sounds about right for a patrolman type cop. I mean we are talking no college education and only a few weeks of training. Maybe you are thinking of a detective or a higher ranking officer, but the sort of dude who would be foreced to use their gun sure as hell ain't making $80,000

EDIT: Salaries

So, you might start around $40,000 and work up to $60,000 (varies by location of course), but $80,000 is several standard deviations out there.

I don't know where you live but around here you have to go to a police academy to become a cop. It's a lot more than a few weeks of training. I've seen the figures for what cops make around here and a graduating patrolman starts at far more than $40,000/year. More than 5 years ago a beat cop was making nearly twice that. It has to be more now.

I'm in Berkeley, CA. I saw figures for Oakland patrolmen, as soon as they hang a star on you. It was to entice people to apply, and it was recently and I think it was around $70,000 to start. You have to realize that the cost of living around here is very high. You could obviously live on way less in much of the USA.

Nationally, the average annual pay for a full-time police officer with the power of arrest was $55,613

according to this. Remember that to be an average there are about as many below as above. I think the real issue is that YOUR idea of what a cop makes is skewed, not that everyone elses is.

 

[BrownTown]

Also, since you live in Berkeley its probably that your views on EVERYTHING are pretty skewed too

OK, enough making fun of Berkeley

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: Muse
I get angry when I hear about cops shooting to kill. My feeling is that they do this way too often.

The concept of shooting to wound is a hollywood fantasy. If a weapon is drawn the point is to kill the target, period. Shooting the knives out of persons hand, etc simply does not happen.

I just saw a news story about a 51 year old woman who was shot to death by a cop last night at 10 PM. This happened in my town on a street that's two blocks from mine. It could have been within a 1/4 mile of me. She was said to be breaking windows in an apartment building and wielding a knife. Is that good reason to shoot her to death?

Swing by here sometime, I'll grab a knive (and a few drinks to make the comparison fair) and Ill give you a hallmark card. Let me know how you fair

Bill

I agree.

I'm not a cop but i don't think it's much different from my line of work in this situation, if you shoot your weapon, things have escalated to a point where your life or the lifes of innocents are in danger and in that case you don't fire to warn or wound, once you pull the trigger it's to terminate the threat and that's usually a shot to the upper body.

No one has the time to try to aim and shoot him in the leg or arm and chances are you'll hit someone innocent if you do.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I might be wrong because i've never used a taser myself but isn't that more to calm down a person who is trying to escape rather than to use it on a person who has a deadly weapon in his/her hands?

 

[schdaddy]

So often threads like this come up, and so often they go nowhere but around and around.

Intoxicated + wielding a weapon in public can = death <-- big surprise.:roll: