That headline alone is worth its weight in gold. Yet it gets better. New Carlisle Ohio is a small town. The population was 5,700 or so in 2010. Here is a picture of Main Street.
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So not really a crime Mecca. But our intrepid reporter was setting up to take some photographs of lightning at about ten at night. Yeah, that was apparently the big news until. Andy Grimm saw a traffic stop and decided that was big news. So Andy got his camera and tripod and set it up when
Deputy shoots news photographer - who pleads to protect deputy's job - Hot Air
"I know Jake, I like Jake, I don't want him to lose his job over this." Andy Grimm said.
Um. What? Thankfully Jake Shaw like most cops is a lousy shot and Andy was only wounded. Unfortunately like most cops Jake Shaw is quick to shoot so Andy was wounded.
I'm sure that Jake thought this guy in the Studebaker parking lot was setting up a Rocket Launcher or some sort of guided missile launcher. Or Something.
Yet another example of the piss poor training that cops get these days. This cop has zero reason to be on the street.
The problem isn't with the training exactly. In th 1970's it was Hoogan's Alley. The cop walked down the line and shot the baddies, defined as targets, which were pictures of people with guns. The cop did not shoot the innocents, people holding shopping bags, or other cops, people holding guns and badges.
Today, it's just a silhouette and the cop is given so many seconds to fire two rounds, change magazines, and fire four more rounds.
It's all about how many shots you can get on target how fast. Not if you should shoot, not target identification. Now you say piss poor training, like they are going cheap. They aren't. This cost a lot of money to fire and train up for. The targets are a little cheaper, but going through the steps over and over again until it is muscle memory, is expensive anyway.
It's all about the quick draw, and how many rounds you can get more or less on target how fast. The problem is that we learn the wrong lessons, and then apply those incorrect lessons to everything.
The famous Miami shootout where the cops armed with snub nosed .38 revolvers were in a shootout with two guys who had military grade weapons. The FBI agents were "outgunned" and were unable to put maximum firepower onto the baddies is the lesson. Yet, in several other shootouts, the .38 revolver was more than sufficient, but it failed once, and that was more than enough to look for a new gun, and a new standard.
The .40 Smith and Wesson was a development of that search. The FBI wanted a round with almost as much power as a 10MM, actually using the home loaded rounds of an FBI Hostage Rescue Team guy as the model. He had lightly loaded 10MM rounds. The .40 Smith and Wesson was the result. A cut down less powerful version of the 10MM.
The problem isn't with ammunition, or with guns, it's with shot placement. With revolvers you knew you had only six shots, and you had to aim to make them count. The .38 Special had to be aimed carefully, it did not have any room for error. If the baddies were wearing bullet proof vests, then you didn't even bruise them too bad.
But the .40 was a compromise, which is always an iffy choice. The shootouts with the .40 showed it might stop a baddie with one shot, if you placed the shot in the head or heart, exactly the same problem you had with the .38 Special. You had a little more penetration, but no real advantage in Kinetic Energy. So the successful shootouts were the people who kept shooting. They ignored the "Shoot, Shoot, Assess technique of the .38 days. They "shoot to stop" which is to say they kept shooting until the baddie was motionless on the ground.
Training was adapted to this observed reality. Keep shooting until the baddie is down and NOT MOVING. What that tells me is that the people carrying the weapons have no faith in their sidearms. They don't believe that one or two shots will do it. They believe that it will take five, ten, or an entire magazine. Keep shooting until you are sure he is dead, dead, and just be sure he's dead.
The technique that is developed with this belief is accurately called spray and pray. You fire just as fast as you can, and you keep firing. You have no idea how many times you hit the baddie, just keep firing. That's why the later autopsies show bullet hits all over, the cop is firing just as soon as the barrel is pointed in the general direction of the baddie.
This is a far cry from the old days when the .357 Magnum was the standard issue weapon of the FBI. Then they aimed carefully, and concentrated in squeezing the trigger to get the bullet where it would do some good, in the center of mass of the baddie. The .357 was so effective it got the reputation as a "man stopper" but was tossed aside by the new nines, 45 ACP's, .40's, and on and on.
Now, a revolver is actually prohibited in many departments, it is old fashioned, and not a serious combat handgun. Yet, none of the rounds being fired are anywhere near the power and astonishing effectiveness of the old fashioned magnum revolvers.
The training reflects the beliefs. The idea that the gun is good, but the round won't stop the baddie. You have to keep shooting. You have to shoot first, the person who shoots second is dead. You have to shoot a lot because one round won't do it. Empty the magazine, reload, and keep shooting. In California, the cops fired thousands of rounds at bank robbers, many cops were not able to see the target, but fired rapidly anyway. Because the training was to fire, fast as you can, get bullets headed down range.
People talk bad about the 9MM, or the .40, and claim that a .45 is what is needed. But they fire the .45 exactly the same as they do the .40's or 9 Millie's. Fast as they can, putting rounds theoretically at least near the target.
The cops argue that they can't wait to see a gun before they shoot, because the baddie will kill them if they wait. They have to draw first, and fire, because hesitation kills. Well, the problem as we see with this story is that the idea of drawing and firing fast and first is bad for any innocents mistaken for baddies. The people we used to train them not to shoot.
In Georgia, nearly half of the people shot and killed by police were unarmed, or shot in the back. All were perfectly justifiable, and within the standards of training and the law.
That isn't a result of piss poor training. That is a result of piss poor standards. The training reflects the "reality" that the cops believe they are facing. They don't have time to aim, they have time to point. They don't have time to wait, they have to start shooting now, or they will die. That is how they are trained, and it is very expensive training.
