Wiser choices

/ hsoi

We always make choices. Some are more wise than others. Some are more foolish than others.

While police operate under different conditions than private citizens, this lapel-camera footage of an Albuquerque police interaction with a hammer-wielding suspect provides us with some information from which we should be able to make wiser choices.

That’s a KRQE report of the incident. More raw lapel-camera footage can be found at LiveLeak. More story here.

There’s much to take from this, but I want to focus on one thing: ammunition selection.

There’s a lot about the shotgun that’s great, because it can be so versatile. There’s all sorts of useful, and then all sorts of exotic ammunition one can buy for it. Because of that, some people feel a need to use that exotic ammunition for whatever reason. In such a case as this, using bean bag rounds because they are “less lethal” and because “they don’t want to hurt anyone”.

Here’s a tip.

While you not wanting to hurt anyone is commendable, look at dude in the video — he very much wanted to hurt people. He was quite happy to hurt people, which is what caused police to be initially called to the scene. Then when 2 police officers confront dude, he charges them armed with a hammer — and yes, a hammer is a deadly weapon. Dude was quite determined to hurt people!

First officer fired 4 bean bags — they didn’t stop the threat. In fact, the threat got WAY too close for comfort, before second officer stepped in with a more effective mechanism for stopping the threat.

We’re not out to kill. We want to stop the threat. We want to go home, we want to be with our spouse, our children, and see our great-grandchildren graduate from college. When your life is at stake, you want the most effective tools for preserving your life. Choose wisely.

7 thoughts on “Wiser choices”

  1. Not only did the bean bag rounds not stop the threat; the bad guy was still able to run away after being shot 3 times with a pistol.

    Made the criminal want to get away but was that only because he was shot or because he was outnumbered and the officers had more rounds?

    I point out videos like this to people who say we should use less lethal means or be limited to 5/7 rounds.

    • There are a lot of questions here, which is why I chose to focus on a singular aspect that was a little more clear-cut.

      As for limits, I guess I put it this way: you can’t predict the future. You can’t know what life’s going to bring your way and what your response may have to be. Should we restrict people to fire extinguishers the size of a roll of quarters? People would agree that’s absurd — you want as much as possible because you don’t know how much fire you may have to face. Same thing.

  2. Law enforcement is in a no-win deal regarding situations like this.

    With the eyes of the world on our police, commanders will put bean bag guns in patrol cars and insist they be used as a first line in some circumstances.

    If they just draw their duty pistol and fire on the perp they are scrutinized deeply as having ‘over reacted’ and often vilified even if no wrongdoing was done. Why did they have to shoot him? He only had a hammer….

    The other side of the coin is what if that officer with the bean bag gun was alone and that loony managed to clock him with that hammer? Another dead policeman?

    I’m glad I do not have some ‘superior’ over me telling me to carry LTL arms to defend myself.

    Alex, I’ll take 16 rounds of hollow points for $500! 😉

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