I am going to make an attempt to stimulate some thought on this matter without taking sides and pointing any fingers. We have roughly 1 million LEO in the US I believe. Whatever the number, it is a huge number. Most of them interact with the public many times on a daily basis. Many of these interactions are what one could call intense, high stress, dicey situations. No matter what kind of training we give law enforcement, sooner or later, one of them is going to make a bad decision based on the situation unfolding in front of them. It is inevitable. You cannot name one profession where 1 in a million doesn't make a mistake on a daily basis. Doctors? I would guess their mistakes kill many more than police in any given year. No matter which side of the political isle you are on, I think it is important to realize that police are people and people make mistakes. Every white cop killing a black civilian is not racially motivated, rather it can just be a matter of the cop reading a situation in a stressful situation and reacting. One good saying to keep in mind while thinking about this topic is this: Action beats reaction every time. John Wayne passed away long ago...if the other guy draws first, he is going to get the shot off and the only question is whether he misses or not.
I recently went through a police training simulator with a group of other civilians. What an eye opener. They put you in these situations with a gun and you need to decide whether to shoot or not. I went through 4. I was perfect on the first 3. On the 4th, the bad guy got off the first shot - WOW does it happen quickly!!! I cannot stress that enough...it happens so FAST! My wife would be a widow. It would do some people a lot of good to go through one of these simulators to understand what the police go through on a daily basis. After going through that, I am surprised we don't have more shootings than we do. Again, I went through 4 with very little stress and could be dead.
I will give one example of the simulation. A father comes into a daycare demanding his child. He is not authorized to take the child and becomes irate. The police (you) are called and arrive at the site. You try and de-escalate but he is having none of that. He is a big, fit, strong guy (bigger than me). all of a sudden he rushes you from about 8 feet swinging. One of the guys I was with shot him. He would have went to jail cuz the guy was unarmed. But the way the simulation played out, if you didn't shoot him, at the very LEAST you were going to take one heck of a beating and if he had a knife, you would be dead. One can talk about de-escalation all you want, but it doesn't work all the time and when it doesn't, bad things happen very quickly.
