lemaymiami
Member
Well said Gunny (post #69)... How anyone reacts when the deal goes down is hard to predict - the well trained macho type freezes or runs - the quiet librarian type that never was in a fight (and we're talking male or female here...) might just turn into a tiger and do things in the moment that they can't explain afterwards.... and so it goes.
I consider myself lucky to have survived my years in law enforcement - after five and half years on the job I was totally un-prepared for the day I actually needed to shoot.... One of the after-burn things for me? I made a point of learning everything I could about street survival and the finer points of using a shotgun when it's all on the line... for my remaining years as a cop. Fortunately the knowledge wasn't needed except for when I became a supervisor then a watch commander years later. As a result of me experience and all that I learned later on - I was very able to counsel and deal with young officers that ended up in shooting situations.... since I'd been there myself... that includes the Internal Affairs end of things after a shooting... (justified? not justified? within Department policy or not? were the surrounding circumstances such that the tactics employed were appropriate or not....) All of these internal matters only came after a state's attorney had decided whether any criminal actions were appropriate after investigation and only involved the officer's employment...
All of this is for police officers but a good deal of it does apply to anyone involved in a deadly force incident... First will come the preliminary investigation - then the decision as to whether the incident warrants criminal prosecution or not... but that's only the first part... The second part will wait until after that criminal side - then will come the civil side and more time in and out of court rooms than you ever want to think about... but that's something for another day...
I consider myself lucky to have survived my years in law enforcement - after five and half years on the job I was totally un-prepared for the day I actually needed to shoot.... One of the after-burn things for me? I made a point of learning everything I could about street survival and the finer points of using a shotgun when it's all on the line... for my remaining years as a cop. Fortunately the knowledge wasn't needed except for when I became a supervisor then a watch commander years later. As a result of me experience and all that I learned later on - I was very able to counsel and deal with young officers that ended up in shooting situations.... since I'd been there myself... that includes the Internal Affairs end of things after a shooting... (justified? not justified? within Department policy or not? were the surrounding circumstances such that the tactics employed were appropriate or not....) All of these internal matters only came after a state's attorney had decided whether any criminal actions were appropriate after investigation and only involved the officer's employment...
All of this is for police officers but a good deal of it does apply to anyone involved in a deadly force incident... First will come the preliminary investigation - then the decision as to whether the incident warrants criminal prosecution or not... but that's only the first part... The second part will wait until after that criminal side - then will come the civil side and more time in and out of court rooms than you ever want to think about... but that's something for another day...