A few days ago, a friend posted a video on a social media account asking for input. I’d seen the video a few weeks before but, like a train wreck landing in my lap, I stopped and partook of my share of gawkers block. In the video, an officer responds to a disturbance at a McDonalds and when the cell phone video starts, she (the officer) already has her taser drawn on the subject meaning that the suspect has already shown physical resistance prior to the beginning of the bystanders video. That said, she is far too close to keep a reactionary gap with the suspect who by this point is ignoring her verbal commands. I will not pretend to know what possessed her to holster her intermediate force weapon (the taser), but the moment she does so, he strikes her. Fortunately for the officer, she is able to redeploy her taser and utilize it to subdue the subject and call for backup. This brings up a point about officers on their own that I will touch on later. The following night while waiting for one of the schools my dojo shares space with to finish their class, I got to watch an advanced student from that school perform a kata. I use the word perform because that’s exactly what the student was doing; going through the motions with a jo with no knowledge of just what the movements are intended to do to an opponent, all the while counting the steps in their head. It reminded me of the police officer video from the night before. In both instances, each person fell into a sort of myopic tunnel like vision due to stress. Each one facing a confronter if you will; one physical and one mental. At least that’s what I thought in the beginning until it dawned on me they they were each facing the same opponent for the same reason; themselves and lack of training. When you go into any situation of stress, be it the spotlight of demonstration or physicality, the natural fight or flight instinct kicks in and you are forced to act or react. Therein lies the problem.
This next statement will annoy many of my brothers and sisters in blue but it is the honest fact that I see across the country which is that your respective department/ agency CARES MORE ABOUT THE LAWSUIT THAN THE OFFICER. All across the United States I hear usually one or two things. Either that going to training is a “pain” and a waste of time or that it’s a “vacation” day. Both answers are wrong. Just to give an example of what I’m talking about, a few years ago I was diagnosed with a medical condition that put me on light duty for a few months. When it came time to qualify to get my gun back, it took me three attempts until I achieved a passing score. At that time I was ashamed and embarrassed. The only thing going through my head was “who the hell would want me as backup with my pitiful skills?” The answer was obvious, I bit the bullet, applied for and got a card which the state I live in requires you to have in order to purchase a firearm or ammunition, and started going to the range on my own. Before long, I was shooting better and more accurately and the firearms staff have been great in helping me out. I still have the aforementioned medical
condition but, if I have the opportunity, I go to class at my dojo even if only to watch to learn by osmosis until I can take the floor (9 times out of 10 even when I say I’m only going to observe I usually train even if only for a few minutes).
This brings me to another point. To those of you in law enforcement, do you honestly think that a couple days a year of firearms and defensive tactics are sufficient to make you effective? Do you think you are being trained to do the job you swore to do or are you being trained for legal liability? Over the last few years, the news media is replete with stories of officers who have engaged in conflict, been legally cleared, only to be sued in civil court with their respective department. Training, and more of it, even if it’s outside of work, is the only thing I can see as an answer because we are called on not only to protect our own lives, but the lives of others, including those we are in conflict with if possible which is why the choice of training is paramount to success. Sometimes we have to lay hands on a suspect to protect and preserve the peace. We have to be able to ready, respond, and answer why in an ethical way as to our actions. I am aware that in many instances the lawsuit will still come but until we are able to articulate what we did and did it in the most humane way we could until deadly force is necessary, we will continue to be victims of both sides of the coin because we walk the edge of that coin even day. Go back to the video I mentioned in the beginning, what if the suspect had had a knife or other type of weapon? The outcome could have been very, very different and I don’t know about you, but I’ve already been to too many funerals with folded flags.
