CANADA
#1 — CNews | Harper aims to fill Canada’s schools with China’s youth
For 17-year-old Janet Yin, Canada is a beautiful land of opportunity.
And she believes if she works hard at her studies at the Huamei Bond International School here, she will get that opportunity.
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#2 — Globe | RCMP make arrest in 2005 murder of Manitoba girl
Manitoba RCMP have made an arrest in a cold case involving the murder of a 16-year old girl seven years ago.
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#3 — LFP | Union wants crash inquest
With many questions remaining, the head of Canada’s largest private-sector union wants a formal inquest into one of the most deadly crashes in Ontario history.
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#4 — NP | Unstable tactics: Recent deaths throw into question how police confront mental health
Witnesses would later say the man looked dazed, even fearful, in the moments before Toronto police fatally shot him.
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#5 — OC | Kill full-day kindergarten, Drummond report says
In a highly anticipated report due next week, economist Don Drummond will suggest Ontario scrap its full-day kindergarten program to save hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a media report Friday.
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WORLD
#6 — BBC | Syrian military hospital chief ‘killed in Damascus’
The head of a Syrian military hospital has been killed by members of an “armed terrorist group” in the capital Damascus, the state news agency says.
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#7 — CNN | Ahmadinejad: Major nuclear announcement expected within days
(CNN) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Saturday that the nation will reveal “several major achievements in the nuclear domain” within days, state media reported.
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#8 — Fox | Romney looks to end losing streak in Maine, faces competition from Paul
The clamor of the Republican presidential primary race gave way Saturday to an off-the-beaten-path contest in Maine which appears to be a two-man race between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul — rivals who don’t have much to say about one another but would nevertheless cherish a victory.
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Five senior journalists from The Sun newspaper were arrested today over allegations of inappropriate payments to police in another devastating blow for News International.
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#10 — Telegraph | Government tells councils to carry on praying despite High Court ban
Ministers last night encouraged councils to openly defy a High Court ruling banning public prayers during meetings.
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Unstable tactics: Recent deaths throw into question how police confront mental health: Nothing new in this….. take a drive through Renfrew, Ontario and you’ll see a very large and very colourful “OPP out of Renfrew” sign as you drive through.
They gut shot a mentally handicapped guy there while residents were trying to tell them about him.
Stageleft:
Your comments may be justified but perhaps they are not. As I understand it the case you are referring to involved a man with at least one knife, and he was threatening the officers with same. If I am referring to a different case, I am sure you will correct me.
Having been in such situations, I learned a very painful lesson on one occasion. The “killing zone”, involving an officer with a holstered weapon, faced with someone with a knife, is about 18-20 feet. Anything inside that zone, the officer will not have enough time to unholster the weapon and fire, if the subject is lunging at him with a bladed weapon. It just cannot be done.
So the choice is, in Canada, to confront a suspect with a firearm in hand (which has not been a traditional approach) or to keep one’s distance.
In my case, he got to me unbelieveably quickly, slashed me severely on my thigh (68 stitches) but fortunately missed my femoral artery by about an inch; had he hit it, I would not be typing right now.
Ater that, in similar situations, I had my weapon in my hand…call me abusive, but I had a wife and two small children who wanted me to come home…
Maybe the issue isn’t so much whether you shoot, but why deliver the death blow? Two in the kneecaps will stop a man with a knife easily, non?
Hitting their knee caps under stress is near impossible and would be just dumb luck, even aiming for centre chest is far from a certain hit.
I’ve watched a police training film showing what Bruce was saying that at 21 feet ( the distance quoted in the video ) there is just not enough reaction time to draw, aim and hit someone running at you with a knife. And no guaranty that it will stop him cold even if hit in the heart ! There are documented cases of someone running more than 100 yards after taking a bullet to the heart.
Sure the guy will probably die, but can still live long enough to plunge a blade into your body at those distances.
Tactically, if one can use an obstacle between the knife holding person that would get in his/her way, or slow him down one can maybe hold off on shooting or have time to draw the gun and aim, not shooting then becomes a question of the person not moving closer and/or obeying instructions to drop the knife.
If one can keep control of engagement distance safely then all options are open including reasoning with the person or getting back-up with shields to move in. or use a tazer etc …
I have heard the story many times from many people and have never heard “at least one knife” (interesting choice of words that) mentioned.
The individual, as I have been told, would, now and again, become verbally aggressive and it was always handled by locals telling him that they were “going to get his brother” (at which point he would stop) – which they would, and he would be taken home.
I have never heard that he ever actually hurt anyone.
In the opinion of the community the police action was overly aggressive given the individuals mental condition, as well as completely unwarranted….. and, of course, the police refused to listen to the community, hence the “OPP out of Renfrew” signs.
On the day they shot a known mentally handicapped guy in the gut they also shot their own credibility/reputation – and both died.
My previous comment is the theory of the thing as in when tactically one has the time to draw a gun and stop an aggressive attacker with a knife.
” The individual, as I have been told, would, now and again, become verbally aggressive and it was always handled by locals telling him that they were “going to get his brother” (at which point he would stop) – which they would, and he would be taken home. ”
Did the police officers know any of this information ? Beat cops who know their area well might have in the past, but police officers today often don’t know the people in their area.
If the guy was not really dangerous is easy to say after the fact using information the cops may not have had.
Now, police officers can at times be too quick and want instant compliance from a suspect and can escalate the situation by themselves getting too close to a “knife holding person” that they perceive no other option than to shoot and as I mentioned time, intelligent use of an obstacle and keeping a safe distance gives the police officers the time to better evaluate a situation and de-escalate it and not be forced to use their firearms.
Just as a theoretical example of a technically good shooting that was actually a show of bad judgement and tactics: A cop sees someone with a dark object in his hand and yells ” drop the gun scumbag “. Half a second later that person being startled and thinking who is that cop talking to ? Suddenly turns around not dropping his black flashlight …. after all the cop was talking to someone else ? Said something about a gun, so the person doesn’t drop the flashlight.
The cop thinking himself in danger empties his pistol into the suspect. Justified killing or not ?
The suspect ended up being the store owner checking his store after he heard the alarm ring and didn’t respond or comply to the police officer’s orders because he didn’t perceive them to be aimed at him: After all, he isn’t a ” scumbag ” and he isn’t holding a gun !
So theoretically good shoot caused by impatience with slow compliance to an order, fear cause by being too close to the suspect and not using cover.
Anyway, every case is different and the problem is that under stress what is 1/2 second between the order to drop a gun and shooting is perceived as being a much longer time by the officer, but actually not enough for an innocent person to react to before understanding that the order is addressed at him.
Tunnel vision plus auditory exclusion plus distorted time sense on one or both sides under stress.
Lots and lots of training plus maturity needed to avoid the kind of example above.
Stories about police misconduct. Oh and how some people love to tell stories about police. My friend told me this happened or a friend of a friend told my cousin who told my uncle who told me that happened so it must be true. Facts? Who needs facts? Well, sometimes the story tellers get caught red handled.
C:Users1AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE53GPYGGVODear Osoyoos Times Editor.mht
I don’t know what I did wrong with the above link, but here is another story laying it all out nicely.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Osoyoos+Times+editor+apologizes+editorial+about+local+RCMP+officer/6141499/story.html
Yes beentheredonethat, sometimes the police get lied about – and sometimes they are the ones found to be telling the lies, and trying to cover-up their misconduct and criminal behaviour, sometimes in, I might add, collusion with other members of their fraternal order (cough .. Dziekanski .. cough).
I’m sure you are equally aware of those instances, but on the off chance that you are not I can take a few minutes, ask Comrade Google for a little assistance, and post a tidy list of news articles helping you out with that.
“I’m sure you are equally aware of those instances”
Correct you are, sl. But any positive story about the police always reminds me of the opening lines to that old tv series ‘The Naked City’…there are 8 million stories, this is one of them. You won’t find many of those positive stories on google or anywhere else for that matter. I wonder why that is? (sarc off)
I am always amazed at the media’s spin on the stories, i.e. that the person being shot/mishandled has never done anything to provoke or lie to the police. I saw the provocation at the beginning of the G20 but the media was very carefull not to show the outright ridicule by the people at the G20.