This is for people who are not police officers.
I have a number of friends who have been sworn officers of the law. Our members know some of them, too.
Personally, I have little interest on fiction about police action. I am, however, interested in the detective angle.
Foyle's War, with Michael Kitchen starring as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, and Midsomer Murders, with John Nettles in the role of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, would always put me in front of the television. In books, I've liked almost every one of Georges Simenon's stories of Paris police inspector Jules Maigret.
I leave the T. J. Hooker stuff to others.
However, there are a few unalterable realities about actual police work on the street that people should understand before they form opinions on current events, and before they inadvertently and unexpectedly step into harms way.
_________________________
"He was shot in the back. It was murder."
"I saw it, marshal. The sod-buster drew first. It was self defense."
We've heard those statements, and others like them, on old television episodes of Bonanza, Cheyenne, Gunsmoke, Laramie, The Lawman, Maverick, The Virginian, and elsewhere, woven into plots of all kinds. Some people may have taken them to heart as legal reality.
But they are wrong--very wrong. They are as far off base as the ridiculous notion that two men would ever have walked out into the streets of Dodge or Tombstone at high noon, walked toward each other, stopped, held their hands above their guns, and......
Yet, many people have come to accept such ideas, and to expect such things in fiction.
It surely colors their reaction when they hear repeated news soundbites such as...
"The officers shot an unarmed..."
"The officers shot the suspect in the back."
Those incidents are certainly tragic, regardless of the character and record of the decedent. And to the uninformed, those comments sound just terrible...
....that is, until we understand something about the realities of the dynamics of a real police encounter.
Why? Speed. Reaction time. The fact that decisions have to be made before all the facts can be known.
Motion pictures are worth many words. See the video.
Remember it the next time you see some earnest looking reader of scripts mouthing an account of a tragic incident.
And at the same time, forget what you have seen on those entertaining old western shows.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSsCaUFexw&feature=emb_imp_woyt
For the civilian, there are, I think, at least three important things to learn from it:
First, what actually happened in a police-involved shooting cannot be reasonably evaluated by those who were not there, by those who do not know the subject, and/or using the "ways of the (TV) West".
Second. if you are involved in any kind of encounter with police officers (traffic stop, reporting a prowler, etc.), keep your hands visible, and it you have to reach for your reading glasses, your meds, your phone, or whatever, don't do it until and unless you have told the officer, and have received received permission and clear instruction.
Third, remember the lessons is in the video whenever you are involved in a discussion after a fender-bender, or anything else that may not feel right. The person who appears to be walking away may still have a joker up his sleeve.
I have a number of friends who have been sworn officers of the law. Our members know some of them, too.
Personally, I have little interest on fiction about police action. I am, however, interested in the detective angle.
Foyle's War, with Michael Kitchen starring as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, and Midsomer Murders, with John Nettles in the role of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, would always put me in front of the television. In books, I've liked almost every one of Georges Simenon's stories of Paris police inspector Jules Maigret.
I leave the T. J. Hooker stuff to others.
However, there are a few unalterable realities about actual police work on the street that people should understand before they form opinions on current events, and before they inadvertently and unexpectedly step into harms way.
_________________________
"He was shot in the back. It was murder."
"I saw it, marshal. The sod-buster drew first. It was self defense."
We've heard those statements, and others like them, on old television episodes of Bonanza, Cheyenne, Gunsmoke, Laramie, The Lawman, Maverick, The Virginian, and elsewhere, woven into plots of all kinds. Some people may have taken them to heart as legal reality.
But they are wrong--very wrong. They are as far off base as the ridiculous notion that two men would ever have walked out into the streets of Dodge or Tombstone at high noon, walked toward each other, stopped, held their hands above their guns, and......
Yet, many people have come to accept such ideas, and to expect such things in fiction.
It surely colors their reaction when they hear repeated news soundbites such as...
"The officers shot an unarmed..."
"The officers shot the suspect in the back."
Those incidents are certainly tragic, regardless of the character and record of the decedent. And to the uninformed, those comments sound just terrible...
....that is, until we understand something about the realities of the dynamics of a real police encounter.
Why? Speed. Reaction time. The fact that decisions have to be made before all the facts can be known.
Motion pictures are worth many words. See the video.
Remember it the next time you see some earnest looking reader of scripts mouthing an account of a tragic incident.
And at the same time, forget what you have seen on those entertaining old western shows.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSsCaUFexw&feature=emb_imp_woyt
For the civilian, there are, I think, at least three important things to learn from it:
First, what actually happened in a police-involved shooting cannot be reasonably evaluated by those who were not there, by those who do not know the subject, and/or using the "ways of the (TV) West".
Second. if you are involved in any kind of encounter with police officers (traffic stop, reporting a prowler, etc.), keep your hands visible, and it you have to reach for your reading glasses, your meds, your phone, or whatever, don't do it until and unless you have told the officer, and have received received permission and clear instruction.
Third, remember the lessons is in the video whenever you are involved in a discussion after a fender-bender, or anything else that may not feel right. The person who appears to be walking away may still have a joker up his sleeve.
