Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Continuing the derail, there is something called Hanlon’s razor that goes:
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Most states require less education for law enforcement than they require for barbers or to work in a beauty shop and many police academies have a syllabus that consists mainly of unsupported lore (google the 21 foot rule on edged weapons) and anecdote. Better law enforcement education - and less on-the-job passing of erroneous information and lore - would provide a better result. The US military has far less problems with their security police personnel doing really stupid stuff than do major city police departments.
Yup. I have plenty of LEO friends who are ex-mil. They consider the initial and recurrent training at most departments to be laughably inadequate. In the military, engagement with ranged weapons is easier and requires less training and lower operator standards. Anything involving intentional H2H engagement requires more training and higher standards... most especially snatch jobs and HR (LE uses green 19 year-olds to do that kind of thing, while the mil uses high-end SOF).
Net result, when things go off the rails, you get fear and panic which leads rapidly emptied magazines at anything that's moving (or not moving in some cases).
They need to have these guys in blue do a LOT more sets and reps so they have the right muscle-memory and confidence to execute an arrest. In the old days it was OK to just gun down uncooperative perps, but society is not OK with that any more. Of course better training (and maybe screening) will cost MORE money, not less.