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This could save your life
Apr. 23rd, 2004 06:27 pmNo, I'm not kidding. I'm *quite* serious. Please read this. All of it.
The local news has been full of stuff (on and off) for a month or two about a police shooting during a traffic stop.
I have *no* idea whether the shooting was justified or not. But I've finally had enough of the sheer *idiocy* behind many of the folks protesting.
Said idiocy boils down to to things:
1. The driver wasn't armed, so therefore there's no way the shooting can be justified.
2. Routine traffic stops should never result in shootings.
And in both, they are blaming the police.
Well, I'm sorry, but they are *nuts*. When the police stop you they have *no* way of knowing that you *won't* shoot them. It happens every year and the cops *know* it. Which means that if you are stopped you *must* keep telling yourself that they cops are in a potential life and death situation. And that you are going to have to demonstrate that you are harmless.
The guy who got shot did everything wrong. He reached for something inside the console of the car. When ordered to stop and put his hands on his head he reached into his pocket. The one *away* from the officer. When the order was repeated he *jerked* his hand *into* the pocket to try to get something. At which point he was shot.
Try and put yourself in the shoes of the cop. Someone is going for *something* inside a compartment in the car. For all you know it could be a gun. So you order them to put their hands on their head. Instead, they go for a pocket you can't see. You repeat the order. And they keep going.
I know someone who came *close* to getting shot because she didn't think. We had to *explain* to her that given that the cops were checking out a report of a possible kidnapping (she'd been involved in something where a blindfolded person had been put in a car and the car drove off) they had every reason to expect her to be armed and dangerous. She tried reaching into her glove box or a pocket (I forget which). Luckily one of the officers recognized her.
Fact: Cops get shot even when doing routine traffic stops, because they stopped someone who was either a nutcase or thought they were being stopped for a crime that the cops didn't know about.
Fact: sudden moves, moving your hands out of sight, etc are going to trigger *justified* alarms in the cop.
If stopped, wait with your hands in plain view. Preferably on the steering wheel. When asked for your license of registration, reach for it slowly. Tell the officer where it is and use one hand to get it.
If a passenger in a car that's stopped, don't screw around. Keep your hands in sight too.
90% of the time it won't be necessary. But for all you know, a car that looks like yours was just involved in a crime.
Mind you, I'm not saying that it's right that innocent people get shot in such situations. But it's not anything that demands "justice". It may not even be anything that involves fault on the part of the officer.
The only way to eliminate the possibility of this is eliminate the possibility of officers getting shot during traffic stops. Until that happens, officers *are* going to be justifiably tense during such stops. And the public will have to realize this and not make them *more* nervous.
I'm sure someone will flame me for this. But if *one* person avoids getting shot, I don't care.
The local news has been full of stuff (on and off) for a month or two about a police shooting during a traffic stop.
I have *no* idea whether the shooting was justified or not. But I've finally had enough of the sheer *idiocy* behind many of the folks protesting.
Said idiocy boils down to to things:
1. The driver wasn't armed, so therefore there's no way the shooting can be justified.
2. Routine traffic stops should never result in shootings.
And in both, they are blaming the police.
Well, I'm sorry, but they are *nuts*. When the police stop you they have *no* way of knowing that you *won't* shoot them. It happens every year and the cops *know* it. Which means that if you are stopped you *must* keep telling yourself that they cops are in a potential life and death situation. And that you are going to have to demonstrate that you are harmless.
The guy who got shot did everything wrong. He reached for something inside the console of the car. When ordered to stop and put his hands on his head he reached into his pocket. The one *away* from the officer. When the order was repeated he *jerked* his hand *into* the pocket to try to get something. At which point he was shot.
Try and put yourself in the shoes of the cop. Someone is going for *something* inside a compartment in the car. For all you know it could be a gun. So you order them to put their hands on their head. Instead, they go for a pocket you can't see. You repeat the order. And they keep going.
I know someone who came *close* to getting shot because she didn't think. We had to *explain* to her that given that the cops were checking out a report of a possible kidnapping (she'd been involved in something where a blindfolded person had been put in a car and the car drove off) they had every reason to expect her to be armed and dangerous. She tried reaching into her glove box or a pocket (I forget which). Luckily one of the officers recognized her.
Fact: Cops get shot even when doing routine traffic stops, because they stopped someone who was either a nutcase or thought they were being stopped for a crime that the cops didn't know about.
Fact: sudden moves, moving your hands out of sight, etc are going to trigger *justified* alarms in the cop.
If stopped, wait with your hands in plain view. Preferably on the steering wheel. When asked for your license of registration, reach for it slowly. Tell the officer where it is and use one hand to get it.
If a passenger in a car that's stopped, don't screw around. Keep your hands in sight too.
90% of the time it won't be necessary. But for all you know, a car that looks like yours was just involved in a crime.
Mind you, I'm not saying that it's right that innocent people get shot in such situations. But it's not anything that demands "justice". It may not even be anything that involves fault on the part of the officer.
The only way to eliminate the possibility of this is eliminate the possibility of officers getting shot during traffic stops. Until that happens, officers *are* going to be justifiably tense during such stops. And the public will have to realize this and not make them *more* nervous.
I'm sure someone will flame me for this. But if *one* person avoids getting shot, I don't care.
