Yeah, that’s why I was careful when writing my own. The article only gives a vague description of what happened. Even then, most of those descriptions come from people who need their actions to look justified, so they don’t lose their jobs or face charges.
He said officers tried to calm Mora down before twice using a Taser on him. They then fired beanbag rounds before ultimately killing him, the man said.
He said officers tried to calm Mora down before twice using a Taser on him. They then fired beanbag rounds before ultimately killing him, the man said.
But it's the right answer. If it's not your job you don't have to be willing to risk your life to save another. You're asking an irrelevant question and you know it.
What right do you have to expect someone else to do it, if you wouldn't do so yourself?
I wouldn't fly a plane so am I not allowed to travel via air? I wouldn't drive a bus so I can't send my kid off to school on the bus? I wouldn't teach children math so I shouldn't let my kid go to math class? Make your question make sense please. I didn't force anyone to be a cop and as far as I know, no point in the history of the United States of America has an individual been forced to be a police officer. If you choose a dangerous job you have to be willing to face those dangers. You wouldn't trust a surgeon who's afraid of blood to perform open heart surgery, why should I trust a cop who is afraid of a knife to protect me from thieves?
Yeah. Can and have, plenty of times, armed with nothing and fully expected not to damage the people living in the facility.
I can't say I've never gotten bumps or bruises and it isn't a job for everybody, but I'd argue that statement then goes double for someone who's expected to respond to this sort of thing in a less controlled environment.
With proper materials and construction. Duct taped to a dry stick and it likely would be less lethal than a knife alone, as it'd likely break from swinging force without even hitting something.
Here's an idea: Maybe we shouldn't be trying to SUBDUE people who are having mental health crises. Maybe we should try some de-escalation. Maybe we should try to get them to accept sedating meds. Shit, maybe we should hit them with sedating meds from a fucking tranq gun. I can think of several steps along the path long before we arrive at "shucks, guess we had no other option but to murder them" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am NOT an expert on the topic, so if someone with more knowledge has something to add, please do. Anyway:
Tranquilizers do not work like they do in movies. It’s not uncommon for tranquilizers to require several minutes to take full effect, and a dangerous person can do a lot of damage before losing consciousness. (I’m not trying to suggest that the person in this case qualifies as “dangerous”.)
Also, the tranquilizer dosage needs to be adjusted according to the body mass of the target. There’s no “universal” tranquilizer dart that’s safe to use on both a skinny teen and large adult. Too little tranquilizer, and it will be only partially effective or not effective at all. Too much, and it can be deadly, which negates the point of using a tranquilizer in the first place.
Lastly, there’s the problem of drug interactions. Even if the dosage was correct, one or more tranquilizer ingredients could have an adverse reaction with any medications or other drugs that may be in someone’s system. Actually, even without any drugs playing a role, tranquilizers can still be dangerous. A person’s system can react badly to tranquilizers for any number of reasons. An ambulance and team of paramedics would need to be on site.
I do see your point, and I agree that there should be a much greater emphasis on de-escalation techniques. Unfortunately, tranquilizers aren’t the easy answer that they appear to be.
I'm a nurse. We tranq people in healthcare regularly when they become a danger to others. "Danger to self and others" is not the moment where we worry too much about dosage calculations, allergies, or drug interactions. If you're about to hurt someone, you're getting intramuscular haldol. They will need immediate medical attention, but it's much better than murdering them.
Haha, no worries. I realized it wasn't clear that I wasn't just speculating lol. Like I get that someone with a bladed weapon is a threat, but if they're isolated from immediately harming another person, then trying to talk then down should always be the first option. It IS possible to talk a psychotic person into taking medications voluntarily, if you can calm them down a little. Or talk them into putting down a weapon so you can get them with an IM dose. (I'm kidding about the tranq gun lol, but seriously deploying something like that would be a better option than using an actual gun ffs.)
It's a little amazing to me how many members of the general public are chomping at the bit to dehumanize people with mental illnesses who get agitated. Y'all, I guarantee I've dosed your dementia grandma when she got wigged out and started kicking people and trying to yank out her IV line. Agitation is a temporary psychological state, not a character trait. People don't deserve to be murdered because they got flipped out.
He said officers tried to calm Mora down before twice using a Taser on him. They then fired beanbag rounds before ultimately killing him, the man said.
He said officers tried to calm Mora down before twice using a Taser on him. They then fired beanbag rounds before ultimately killing him, the man said.
Sounds like they exhausted every other option to me.
Tranquilizers do work on humans though. So do tasers or several other non-lethal options, which is really the point people are making while you're choosing to be pedantic.
It's pretty common for a tazer to not work, for various reasons, and if it doesn't, your chances of getting your firearm out before they get to you are slim to none. Similar story with this hypothetical tranquiliser gun.
Police are trained and supposed to take that non-lethal force chance, yes absolutely. I am personally not a cop, because I don't want to be in those situations. But people that DO sign up to serve and protect the public should be held to a higher standard than the general public, especially considering the tools, training, and resources (money) police forces have at their disposal.
You're not going to convince me the only way to safely end this altercation was by shooting the mentally ill man to death. We have to ask ourselves how we can do better so we can learn from these situations and less people die violent deaths.
To use your your logic: why do tranquilizers even get produced at all then? Why don't we just shoot every unruly animal? Wild and sick animals are just as or more dangerous than a man with a knife on a stick.
He said officers tried to calm Mora down before twice using a Taser on him. They then fired beanbag rounds before ultimately killing him, the man said.
They did try other options before shooting him though. It unfortunately sounds like they ran out of options.