Use of Force & Fried Chicken

Hey everybody now that you've had a chance to review the use of force,

video from the Oklahoma City officer involved shooting.

We're going to break it down.

Not quite frame by frame,

but we'll break down the individual segments of the shooting.

Take a quick look at the officer's mindset and then see how does

this situation play out with the attorney general guidelines that on use of force

that go into effect in New Jersey? On December 31, 2021.

The first thing we want to look at is the scene and the view on

the left is the view that you never want to see as a police officer.

So what happened in Oklahoma City,

the officer responded to a suspicious person call.

He encountered somebody and even if the officer wanted to read the body language,

it seemed like he was doing everything in his power to

not respond the way that he should have to the signals.

If you looked at the suspect's body language,

if you looked at the way he was noncompliant with commands,

If you looked at his positioning, all of these were

reasonable, articulable suspicion

that the person was armed

up to the point when yes, he saw a heavy bulge in his pocket,

the way that he bladed his body, the way he kept everything away from him.

And if you notice you always saw the suspects left hand,

he never showed you his right hand and it seems like that was done pretty purposely.

So they say the hands killed the officer was so focused on that one hand

that he could see,

but he also knew that there was something concerning in the other hand,

but didn't really take the necessary steps to address it.

So once the gun was produced, the suspect produced a gun, he kept it down on his side.

At that point,

my opinion as a police officer, as a firearms instructor,

as somebody who considers himself to be pretty well versed in use of force.

I would say at this time he's got a gun out and you need to get a gun out at the very least,

even if you've decided, you know what, I'm not quite ready to shoot.

This is a good time to pull your gun out since, I mean the bad guys got his gun out.

So it just kind of seems like it would be the logical thing to do.

So let's take a look at core principle two of the New Jersey Attorney General.

Use of force policy

force as a last resort and duty to deescalate.

So what this means is, yes,

You should absolutely use force as a last resort and you have a duty to deescalate

when appropriate.

I think the first few seconds of the video shows an attempt at de escalation.

Even when the suspect produced a handgun,

the officer still made an attempt to deescalate. But

the way I'm thinking we're beyond the escalation.

Again,

not saying that you've got to leave your gun

holstered or that you rather not saying that you have

to shoot the person as soon as he pulls the gun out and he's holding it down on his side

threatening manner. Absolutely. He's got a handgun in his hand,

eminent threat. Not quite.

I don't think we've crossed the threshold of an imminent threat yet,

but that threshold is razor thin

and can happen in the blink of an eye.

Next we'll take a look at core principle three of the Attorney General.

Use of force guidelines

what forces objectively reasonable,

necessary and proportional.

So if you look at and and I'm trying to

make light of the situation to improve the learning here.

If somebody's got an armful of pool noodles,

you're not going to respond with the rocket propelled grenade

because that's not objectively reasonable and it's not proportional.

However,

if somebody's armed with a handgun and they are using it

in a threatening manner and you're armed with a handgun.

The

objectively reasonable and proportional response.

And I would say at some point necessary is to respond with your handgun.

So that's what

that's what we need to focus on.

And lastly core principle four

duty to use deadly force as an absolute last resort and a duty to avoid actions,

which creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.

two parts going on here.

Duty to use deadly force

only as an absolute last resort,

I would say, uh, when the bad guy is pointing a gun in your face,

how many of us disagree

that this isn't, this isn't the last resort.

The only thing,

the only reason this cop was alive was because the bad guy didn't want to kill him

at the point when bad guy pulls a gun out.

Alright, cops should at the very least have his gun out.

He gave up ground.

So it's in in my mind it seems like he was reducing

the substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury by retreating.

Maybe a misinterpretation of the use of force policy.

Yes,

if we rather than charging into a room with a person who's in there alone with a knife

that if we if we charge into that room, we are creating the substantial risk.

However, if somebody's armed with a gun,

uh we don't have to retreat the officer for whatever reason he did.

So we're not going to fault him for that.

However, there was a point when this absolutely

leaped over the threshold of becoming a deadly

force incident and unfortunately the officer didn't respond appropriately

fortunately for him. He wasn't killed in the process.

So what are the takeaways from this

one?

Knowledge is power,

read your case law, watch your videos,

take classes,

know your criminal code.

No,

your department policies know your attorney general guidelines

because that's what it's going to guide you,

especially in a stressful situation and you should never be so overwhelmed

that

that you freeze remember as human beings, we have three responses distress

since caveman days, fight flight freeze.

Either going to fight

and and confront the force head on,

you're gonna flee and flee doesn't necessarily mean run

as far and fast away as you can.

But maybe give up ground a tactical retreat

or you're going to freeze

freeze is what gets us killed,

freeze is what we don't have the luxury of doing

freeze

is

what training prevents By training, especially scenario based training,

we try to immerse you in scenarios

that

will allow you to function effectively

and formulate quick, decisive decisions

under stress.

So it's a it's a deadly job, potentially. Not all the time.

Every time you turn the corner,

there's not going to be somebody waiting to stick a gun in your face.

However, that day might come for you and when that day comes, you need to know one

how you're going to react. And to what the law says

nothing.

In the new use of use of force guidelines says that you have to wait

for somebody to point a gun at you before you can employ deadly force.

Remember imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury to you or somebody else,

if somebody is holding a gun in a threatening manner,

especially if they're holding a gun and pointing it at you.

That is a deadly force situation to steal a line from pulp fiction.

If somebody's pointing a gun at you, that person should be dead as fried chicken.

And I know people like, oh that's not politically correct.

No,

we're beyond the political correctness line when a suspect

is pointing a gun at a police officer,

you have the training, you need to have the mindset and you really,

you pretty much have a duty

to to react and react accordingly appropriately. You owe it to yourself.

You owe it to your department, you owe it to the community, you owe it to your family

to go home safely.

So we always say everybody goes home at the end of the shift

remember to make sure that you have a job to come back to.

I hope

so. I hope I was able to shed light on this situation and this was a bit of an extreme.

There's a lot of rhetoric about,

oh it's the policies are crippling officers and they're not able to make decisions.

The policies are in place for a reason.

I may not necessarily agree with every facet of every policy,

but for the most part they make sense.

We didn't get any duty to render aid. It just kind of makes sense.

If you shoot somebody once the situation is safe,

you should probably help them out until E.

M. S. Gets there.

So I hope you learned something I hope this encourages

you to seek training to seek knowledge because again,

knowledge is power

Use of Force & Fried Chicken

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