Welcome back warriors. I picked today’s video because it is the start of a new year, and what better time to talk about safety than now. Spoiler alert it doesn’t go well for the cops. So let’s dive into this and see what they could have done differently so instead of a hospital, or morgue they could of went home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9wf-Jejedw
As you can see, we start the video after what appears to be a failed sobriety test. Rember that a FAILED sobriety test. This is important for later. Ok, moving on. We see the suspect go from 0-100 really quickly as soon as those cuffs come out. The suspect has one thing on his mind and that is getting away. So at this point, the suspect begins fighting and resisting both officers. So as any good policeman would do they used the ladder of force and decided to taze the suspect. I have no problem with that. It was definitely the right thing to do. And they continue to do the right thing even when the suspect falls on to a busy highway they think of his safety and pull him back to the shoulder where they can continue to apprehend the suspect. It is important to understand that if the suspect was hit by a car after the officers tased the suspect, then the officers could be held accountable to some degree. In my professional opinion this is where it starts to go bad. You can see the smaller officer break contact with the suspect. I’m not sure exactly why he did this but it looks like he is trying to fix some sort of equipment malfunction or something like that. This is not the time for that. If you have a piece of gear that malfunctions i.e. taser, move on to something else like your baton for instance. The reason behind this is simpile, while your off messing with your gear whos there to help your partner deal with a resisting suspect.
So it has already started going bad but it just continues to get worse even though at this point the second officer has re-engaged to help his partner they are failing to control the suspect. You can hear one officer say “he is going for my gun!” At this point is deadly force authorized? Maybe. I know that if it comes between me going home or you getting shot I know what I’m doing. But even though this suspect is going for one officer’s gun the other officer thinks its better to through some weak punches. Unfortunately for the officers they allow the suspect to break free and make a run for his car where he is able to retrieve a firearm. What we see next is textbook. He identified the threat found good cover behind a car and proceeded to open fire and hit his targets. Unfortunately, this was the suspect, not the officers.
So lets recap. Two officers engaged a suspect that was originally being arrested for what appears to be driving while intoxicated. They got into a wrestling match with the drunk suspect, and even though there were two officers they still couldn’t establish control. Quick side note as an officer it is very dangerous to go the ground with a suspect because if he does get your gun it is going to be a bad day. Ok, back to my recap. These officers basically got shot because they didn’t have the tools to fight effectively on the ground. I am sure they were trained in what to do in a situation like that but, maybe not well enough to assert it into the real world when your adrenaline is pumping. I will say this again it was two officers and one guy deemed too drunk to drive. The officers should have came out of that situation on top. As an officer, you have to have a lot of tools in your tool belt. And one of those tools needs to be hand to hand combat and pain compliance techniques. And like with anything else that is a skill, you have to practice at it for it to be effective.
That wraps up today’s Blog. As always your comments and questions are always welcome. And stay safe out there.
