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lWishItWastheWeekend t1_ja7n0eb wrote

Reply to comment by ShuinoZiryu in Woman dead after officer-involved shooting in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair neighborhood by byzvntine

To be fair, I was reading about this story on social media and it appears that she did shoot at people. None of her family members or friends (including one who was with her) are blaming the police for her death. Unfortunately it looks like she had a lot of mental health issues throughout her life. One would like to see the police be able to incapacitate someone in this situation without killing them, especially someone who is having a breakdown, but I guess they aren’t trained to do that.

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jnissa t1_ja7ofna wrote

I think there are a lot of situations (most) in which we could/should expect cops to incapacitate somebody, but taking active fire isn't one of them. They're trained to *not* shoot to incapacitate for their own safety.

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Lil_Phantoms_Lawyer t1_ja7yuf7 wrote

The people who think police can reasonably just aim for the legs or hands need to have exposure to firearms that isn’t just from cinema.

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apitbullnamedzeus t1_jaa11ut wrote

Yeah the cops should run through a hail of gunfire and restrain the shooter.

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Willow-girl t1_ja8f6y9 wrote

If only tranquilizer darts weren't just for wild animals ...

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Excelius t1_jaa69pd wrote

Tranq darts don't work like they do in the movies. The target doesn't drop instantly. Even nature documentaries tend to make them seem quicker than they actually are due to editing for time.

Here's a Youtube video involving tranquilizing an African Wild Dog in real time:

https://youtu.be/k4D2pDk4Yvw?t=35

The shot is taken at the 35s mark. The wild dog runs away and even ends up coming back to continue eating it's prey. By about the four minute mark it's starts stumbling around drunkenly, and then only goes down after about five minutes.

How much damage could a human with a gun cause in that amount of time? Plus unlike animals, humans have hands and are likely to rip out a dart before it's had a chance to inject it's full payload.

Ultimately they're just darts of medical sedatives. A bigger dose could theoretically produce a faster effect, but an overdose can easily kill someone. Unlike in surgery you're not going to be able to have an anesthesiologist to carefully administer the proper dose in real-time and monitor the subjects vitals.

It's already a controversial practice for police to have agitated and uncooperative individuals sedated with ketamine by responding EMTs, and even that can lead to severe complications and death despite the administration being done by medical professionals. Giving police pre-loaded darts to shoot at people without medical supervision would be disastrous.

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Willow-girl t1_jaba7tx wrote

I was kinda joking there! But thanks, I learned something from your post.

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Excelius t1_jacy84d wrote

Unfortunately you see a lot of misinformed stuff when it comes to self-defense and use of force, so it's hard to tell sometimes. I've seen tons of people make the "tranq dart" suggestion completely seriously.

At any rate, hope someone found the info helpful.

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JAK3CAL t1_ja8mb5s wrote

Seriously? This woman came out shooting, allegedly. An errant bullet could kill a child, or a pregnant mother, or anyone else honestly.

It’s unfortunate, but ending this situation seems imperative to the greater public’s safety and doing it by lethal force is justifiable to me.

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CARLEtheCamry t1_ja9ecwn wrote

OK then use a bolo like Batman, problem solved.

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JAK3CAL t1_jaaagfg wrote

I’m good I’d like her to be shot for the safety of those around her

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CARLEtheCamry t1_jaai9yt wrote

What about some elaborate Scooby Doo vilan-esque plan where we get her to surrender with a harmonica and tissue paper

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JAK3CAL t1_jaajpul wrote

“I woulda gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids” - Ravenstahl, maybe

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