Quote:There are ways of not sustaining an unarmed assault that don't involve killing the assailant. Just sayin'. I know you're extremely protective of cops, and I'm extremely critical of them. If Joe Blow Citizen were to respond to fisticuffs with a Glock, he'd spend a decade or more in prison on a manslaughter charge. I fail to see why cops should be given any additional leeway. If anything, the defensive training and ability to call for backup that Joe Blow Cop has should raise the standards of justifiable homicide far above what Joe Blow Citizen would face in court.


No one should have to sustain an assault, but that does not entitle the victim to pull out a gun and kill the unarmed assailant. Surely you would agree that if you responded to the scene of a bar fight only to find that someone was dead from a gunshot wound, you'd begin an investigation that would end in an arrest for murder, right? Why should the presence of a badge preclude the possibility that an officer shooting an unarmed man is, in fact, murder?

Picture yourself as an officer.


Say you call for backup and they are 10+ minutes away, that's not uncommon. Particularly in smaller agencies.


My other thought is, how do you know the suspect is unarmed? As he's rushing you, after you've told him to stand down, stay in his vehicle, stop approaching you etc. In the heat of that moment, how would you determine he is unarmed before he decides to beat your head in?


I don't know why the officer couldn't defend himself and stop the assault before it got that far without using his gun. How big was the suspect? How big was the cop? Regardless of training that makes a difference.


It's easy for us and the general public to critique the situation after the fact. I think you and I both agree on that.


The guy didn't throw one punch. He beat the cop and easily could have killed him.


People act as if a fist fight can't end in a death...it can and has. One punch is all it could take depending on the situation.

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