Tuesday, May 10, 2005

120 shots

From the Acidman we get a link to this story where a bunch of deputies fired at a suspects car. They fired 120 shots. They hit him four times. In the toe, finger and shoulder . No doubt the deputies are gonna get the living hell sued out of them, but lets look at the situation.

"When deputies arrived, they tried to talk to Hayes. But he sped off,
leading deputies on a chase that circled the block several times at speeds up to 35 mph."
Running from the cops is bad juju. It almost guarantees a trip to the slammer.


"He'd stop and when it looked like the police were going to get out, he'd take off. He was playing a little cat-and-mouse game with them," added Terry Moore, 48, Smith's sister.

Oh, yeah, lets play games when the police come to a disturbance call. Sounds like Terry Moore was enjoying the show, too.

"Deputies used their patrol cars to block Hayes not far from where the chase began."

Okay, the police have him blocked in. Now what? He tries to escape. Lets remember, there are policemen around his car, and he tries to escape. If any one of them believes their life is in danger, he has a right to use deadly force.

At that point, Hayes stopped and backed into the street, toward three officers, authorities said. The officers begin firing, hitting the vehicle repeatedly. In the videotape, a deputy can be heard shouting: "Watch your crossfire! Watch your crossfire!"

Aaah, I was right. He was using his vehicle to try to escape, putting the lives of three officers at risk. No wonder they tried to shoot him. If someone tries to run you over with a car, and you have a gun on your belt, what would you do?

Yeah, I agree that 120 rounds was a bit excessive. One should have done it. Two shots, max. Okay, six if you get really excited.

Remember this. The cops don't dream up situations like this. They just show up when someone calls them, then they have to make the best of a fucked-up situation. Now those good police officers are going to get sued, will have lots of sleepless nights, and will have their careers affected because Hayes wanted to play grab-ass with the police.

I can hear people now screaming for better police training. What kind of training will will help the police with this type situation? I got a better idea; how about a little responsibility training for Hayes? Playing grab-ass with the police is never a good idea. Trying to run over a police officer is a terrible idea.

But, yeah, lets get those officers out to the range. I'd be embarrassed.

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