25 November 2014

Neutering of Police-The Cause of Ferguson.

Prior to the news conference last night it was unclear whether or not Officer Wilson knew that Brown had just committed a strong arm robbery which is a felony.  In his statement Wilson states that he was responding to the call and saw the proceeds of the robbery in the hand of Brown as he was walking down the street with another suspect.

As a retired urban police officer who served as a field training officer and now teaches officer survival here are my comments.  If confronted with that exact situation I would, and would have advised another officer to stop his vehicle, use it for cover and order both suspects to the ground at gun point and waited for additional units to arrive and approach and handcuff them.  The problem however is that police in many places would hesitate to do this.  In some jurisdictions they don't handle enough of these types of calls and may tend to be more lenient and lackadaisical in their approach.  More often though it is not done because the officer is concerned with getting in trouble from his supervisors or receiving a complaint for being aggressive and heavy handed.  Had Officer Wilson done this there would have likely been two reactions of the part of the suspects.  They would have either complied and got down or they would have taken off running.  In either case the officer would have had  a better idea of who he is was dealing with and waited for back up.  Two vs one is a disparity of force by itself even without the size of Brown vs Wilson.  It is important that the officer set the tone and take control from the start of the contact.  This allows the officer time to make better decisions and exercise more force options.  Once all hell breaks loose that is no longer an option.

Skip to the point where Officer Wilson and Brown are fighting in the vehicle.   With few exceptions most defensive tactics for law enforcement are a joke and pale in comparison to the reality of the job.  Officers need to understand that deadly force is deadly force and that if in your mind you are justified to use deadly force using their sidearm they are just as justified to jam a thumb into the suspects eye socket or punch them in the throat.  At contact distances officers who have not received combatives training or have no confidence in what they have received will fixate on using their hands to get their gun out while they are getting punched in the face until they loose consciousness.   As I have said over and over it is not about the gun it is about the fight.  Whether you are a police officer or armed citizen, if someone is trying to disarm you there you need be able to retain that sidearm and that may very well require force other than the firearm.

This is by no means an indictment of Officer Wilson.  We here at MCS are relieved at the decision.  However it is an indictment of a society that expects police to make an omelet without breaking any eggs.  Police officers need to know how to fight and society needs to understand that their job requires them to.  Once again we can see how well the hug a thug hands off approach works when dealing with thugs, criminals, and looters.  This politically correct bullshit led to Ferguson burning.

Drop all the sensetivty training bullshit and train officers to fight without OC, Tasers and guns. -  George

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