About American police officers...

[peacetraveler22]

Over the weekend, my local community experienced horror and shock after three police officers were gunned down when they responded to a domestic violence call. An active Army Sergeant named Ronald Hamilton decided to slap his wife around yet again, with their young son in the home. The boy fled when the violence started, and escaped the bloody scene that followed. As soon as the three police officers arrived at the scene, Sergeant Hamilton began spraying bullets at them. Two remain in the hospital and one was fatally wounded. It's a tragic tale, and every officers worst nightmare. The victim was one of several female officers who had just graduated from the Prince William County Police Academy on Friday. She was killed on her very first night on the job. Only 28 years old. No, this was not a response call to some ghetto area, but to a nice, suburban neighborhood, where the average house costs around $500,000. The wife was already dead on the floor when police officers arrived.

The young police officer had a bright future, and previously worked in forensics. She's pictured here with the killer beside her. The local prosecutor promises to seek the death penalty in this case.



The other officers remain hospitalized.



My community rallied together last night  to hold a vigil for the fallen police officer, but I couldn't attend. The photos were pulled from various news sources.





I see a lot of idiotic comments about U.S. police officers here on LiveJournal, with the assumption that they are all running around shooting ordinary citizens. Yet people fail to remember that America is the most heavily armed civilian population on the planet, so of course the response by American officers is different and more reactive. Statistics vary depending on the site you visit, but in 2015 American police fatally shot around 1,000 people. About 564 of the people shot were armed with a gun, 281 had some other type of weapon, and 90 were unarmed. This Chart attempts to summarize the police killings based on gender, race and other factors.



I'm very liberal on most social issues, but I don't like the anti-cop agenda that is now prevalent in some cross-sections of America, and I especially hate the slogan that accompanies this movement - "Black Lives Matter." Please tell me your impressions of the American police, based on what you know and have read. Perhaps it's time to write a report on this topic, as I have friends who serve on the local police force in Arlington, Virginia. Have you had any positive or negative experiences with police officers in Russia or the USA?

Meanwhile, I hope the scum who murdered his wife and this female police officer is executed, and quickly...

Comments

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

So complicated topic. I read recently about opinion of some Trumps voters there is invert racism in the US.
I remember what happened last year on Brighton Beach here in Brooklyn police officer shot down the Ukrainian immigrant.
The guy attacked the officer with the knife, but missed him and run down the street trying to escape. Obviously he wasn't dangerous while running. The crook was 57 and officer was 25 and it was probably the matter of couple minutes to subdue him. However the officer chose to shoot in the crowded street for running man. Fortunately nobody was killed except the crook.
Nobody questioned the officer decision. I think this would be big scandal and may be the riot if the killed person was the African-American but not the Ukrainian American as he was.

[seadevil001.livejournal.com]

Few years before one guy killed two police officers on Brighton Beach. One of the officers was originally from Ukraine (another Chinese). That may explain lack of demonstrations.

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

You confused a lot. It happended in another neighborhood. The killer was real criminal. But this man was just idiot and he wasn't dangerous while running. Under the rule the police can shoot the people who threatened the life of other people.

[seadevil001.livejournal.com]

Insane man running with the knife are not dangerous for people? You are kidding, right?

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

Dangerous if he is in the crowd. This guy was just running from the cop. My opinion the cop could trip him or teased him instead of shoot him.
BTW, police commissioner announced the crook didn't run. Ostensibly stubbed the cop and he shot back. Comm called the cop a hero. Amazingly I checked his Twitter and he even didn't posted about he was a biggest hero in 2015 in NYC. Just missed that event as if nothing happened.
May be was a little ashamed by his "heroism"

[peterkaymd.livejournal.com]

We are all good at judging things after they had transpired. What if the suspect had instead attacked the people around him. He already showed a great deal of determination and disregard for life by attacking a policeman with a knife. Why should an officer risk his life and the lives of people around him while trying to subdue an armed assailant with his bare arms.

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

People trying to escape the police with no weapon can't be dangerous. No low to permit the police to shoot in the people just because they running from them. Especially on the crowded street.

[peterkaymd.livejournal.com]

How would the policeman know that he was unarmed? The facts as we know is as following - a man has attacked a policeman with a knife and run away when he did not succeed. The police trains their personnel to protect their lives and these around them. The policeman fresh from the shock of being almost stabbed to death acted accordingly.

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

Of course if the crook would kept aftacking police he would be right to shoot him. But he run away. Are you sure it was more safe for the public for the officer to shoot him in the back than just followed him and shut out drop the knife otherwise I will kill you?

[peterkaymd.livejournal.com]

Well, lets look at the fact. A criminal attempted to murder a police office and did not surrender himself when failed in the attempt. The police officer responded to a deadly thread by shooting and killing the attacker, no one else was injured. I think the case is closed. We can speculate all we want but I think this case went by the book.

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

You described nothing to close to what happened.
Let's compare to what happened in Florida and Ferguson. In there and there the black guys fight the police officer to the end. Obviously the lives of the both officers were jeopardized. But anyway black community was quick to put on the protest.

The Brighton's situation was completely different. Was the guy running down the street dangerous for the officers? No way. Were the bullets from police gun dangerous for the bystanders? Of course yes.
But nobody was protesting. Because there are invert racism and different mentality.

[alga.livejournal.com]

Was the guy running down the street dangerous for the officers?

Why are you talking only about danger to officers, not all other people in the vicinity? Let violent guy run down the street and take innocent bystander as hostage - is it an impossible scenario, or do you see it as a safer for a public?

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

The running man from police can't be more dangerous than any idiot. You can't shoot them all.
I remember I walked down of my block and the old-looking policeman chased the running youngster. He could also start shooting in him and possible hit me or other folks But he just chased on his legs And succeed by the way. The guy was apprehended at the end.

[alga.livejournal.com]

The running man from police can't be more dangerous than any idiot.

As American lawyers sometimes answer even the questions that look most trivial, “It depends”, mostly on what has happened before that. Some underage idiot running from police on suspected petty shoplifting is one thing; the guy who just attempted to murder police officer (or anyone else, for that matter) with a deadly weapon is a completely different story.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

How would the officer know if he only had a knife? He could have had a gun as well, and clearly the man was deranged if he tried to stab the officer with a knife. It's horrible he lost his life, but don't run. Obey orders, and you will most often live in such situations.

[kremlin-curant.livejournal.com]

Is there some law allowing the cops to shoot people on the ground of the guessing?
I think they can shoot the people only if they are sure the pervert can hurt somebody.
Man running from cops doesn't look like he wants to hurt someone.

Btw. I refreshed this story reading the old papers and was pretty much surprised. Most newspapers just cited the NYC police commissioner who said the crook stabbed the cop and was shot twice for this.
One paper described as the man ran, but cop chased him, confronted him, but just after the crook slashed him again he was forced to shoot.

And only NYTIMES related the story the same way as I did. First the crook slashed the officer with no harm to him, then he ran and then the cop started shoot in the populated street.
I'm pretty much sure if the deseased was a black we'd had one more riot. Fortunately for some people nobody cared and the cops covered up the whole case.