marbles dad

get this one!

last year lax-yvr-lhr -cdg - yes, an award- the canadian customs lady asked me: " Why are you going to paris"?
i am not a canadian citizen, not travelling on a canadian airline, just transitting, what would she care? that really took the biscuit!!!!
She was real orneryabout seeing my full itinerary etc.

the worst customs experiences i have had have been with our friend to the north. leads me to travel there a whole lot less. i get enough abuse in my daily life without even asking for it,,, !!!

Deeg

Yup. FSRC does some great studies and has some awesome publications. They've brought more science and scrutiny to the subject than anyone else has been able to before.

I've had only one such situation myself. It would have been a good shoot, I have no doubt. I was pulling the slack out of the trigger. And I chose to wait a moment longer and it resolved without needing to fire. Worked out well for both of us. Don't think that guy knew how close it was, either.

bocastephen

An increasing number of police are using Tasers as an easy way to overpower someone where all they had to do was talk to them - such as Tasering children, elderly, etc.

YVR Cockroach

I wouldn't disagree that there are a lot of LEOs who just love to misuse anything available to them.

Deeg

You can say the same of businessmen, students, professionals, service workers or any other occupation.

Teacher49

It is pretty clear that positions that provide the opportunity to abuse authority are more likely to attract those who might like to do that.

That said, most such organizations screen as best they can to eliminate such people. Key words: as best they can.

Still, to tar all who wear a uniform and a gun as bad apples is unjust. I have known many cops. Most by far are decent folk. The us vs. them mentality does creep in, but given what they see and where they have to go day after day, it would be very extraordinary if it did not.

law dawg

If an officer is in a situation where lethal force is justified then the officer should be using it. Less than lethal is just that - for less than lethal situations. Non-lethal force is most often used by police to overcome resistance and effect arrest, not to counteract the use of deadly force against them or a third party.

"In fact, the street combat veterans survived by developing a shoot-first mentality."

An FBI study on the phenomenon of LEOs having the reluctance to shoot:

http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/1999/oct99leb.pdf

law dawg

Glad it all worked out brother. I've had two shootings myself. And one I should have shot and didn't. I got lucky.

law dawg

Stats on this please?

law dawg

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/TOConnor/205/205lect03.htm

"There is considerable research on whether police personality characteristics are related in any way to police use of force, and it is safe to say that the psychological research in this regard has produced mixed findings. Many studies (e.g. Hochstedler 1981) have found no correlation between any hypothesized police "types" and a predilection toward use of force. A number of other studies have been inconclusive regarding whether any MMPI subscales or peer ratings predict who is most likely to become a violent-prone officer. It may very well be that police departments do a fairly good job of screening out applicants who are violent-prone. However, individual variables of a socio-demographic nature do tend to make good predictors of which officers use force more frequently, especially if such force is measured by the number of citizen complaints. For example, Terrill and Mastrofski (2002) found that young, White, male officers are more likely to receive citizen abuse of force complaints (and youthful age and/or inexperience is sometimes a factor in deadly force incidents as well). "

Deeg

Call it luck, fate, karma, kismet, or the acts of a loving God...I shudder to think where I would be without it.

Stay safe.

PaulKarl

The Rampart Division of the LAPD did a great job of screening: At least 58 officers implicated in perjury, brutality and framing. Five officers fired, 7 resigned, 12 suspended, more than 100 convictions overturned, more than $100 million in civil settlements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_Scandal

That's more than a couple of bad apples. That's what I meant when I referred to the corrupting influence of the station house. Do you really think it was an accident that these brownshirts chose to be police officers instead of athletes, salesmen, contractors or other jobs where they wouldn't be able to use the power of the state to push people around?

Left unchecked, law enforcement will tend toward these types of abuses. That's why law enforcement needs to be zealously monitored by the citizenry in the form of civilian review boards, well-paid public defenders and everyday citizens standing up for their rights and refusing to allow peace officers to overstep their bounds.

JakiChan

Yeah, but when a student misuses algebra no-one gets hurt. Cops are going way too taser happy these days. And then they wonder why citizens won't co-operate.

JakiChan

Also the surveillance needs to be evened out. Cops love having those cameras on their cars but if you try and tape a cop doing their job (or abusing their job) they tend to freak out. Think how much hassle we would save if the surveillance of police officers was standardize and held in the hands of said review board. Then we could be fairly sure that such evidence wouldn't disappear when going against the cop, for example.

Deeg

People certainly get hurt when students misuse alcohol. Or when businesspeople misuse employee pension funds. Or when clergy molest children. No occupation is immune from the bad acts of some members.

"Taser happy"?!? You do realize that tasers are used to prevent suspect injuries, right? The taser is significantly less likely to cause injury than a baton, which would be its alternative. Not to mention the huge decrease in officer injuries.