OH: Police officers criticized for not shooting

[seamusTX]

A Newark, Ohio, man reportedly stated his intent to commit suicide by cop, and then drove around like a nut while armed with a BB rifle.

The man's 15-year-old daughter indirectly alerted police to the facts.

When the man threatened officers, they declined to fulfill his suicidal wish. He was eventually arrested after a high-speed chase with no one being injured.

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/2 ... ooting-man" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Police chief is apparently an advocate of "kill them all and let God sort them out."

Newark, Ohio, not on my vacation list.

- Jim
[Edited to correct location]

[joe817]

Ugghhhh. Watch that one get into the national headlines.

[seamusTX]

Why, exactly?

- Jim

[joe817]

The chief's remarks, and the fact the liberal media go into a feeding frenzy on things like that.

[seamusTX]

We'll see.

You will have noticed that I am often an apologist for newspaper reporters (TV, not so much); but I cannot comprehend their sympathy for sociopathic criminals and lunatics, combined with their antipathy to the police.

- Jim

[dcphoto]

For the record this was Newark Ohio, not Newark NJ. Newark NJ is in Essex county, not Licking County. Furthermore, if this had happened in Newark NJ I'm sure the thread title would read officers criticized for shooting.

[seamusTX]

Thanks for the correction. I screwed up.

It is difficult to tell where these sites are physically located. They seem to try to hide it. Usually I can tell from the weather or "contact us" page.

- Jim

[ELB]

Police chief is apparently an advocate of "kill them all and let God sort them out."

New Jersey, not on my vacation list.

- Jim

Jim, you are free to (not) vacation anywhere you like (and I can't really imagine going to NJ myself -- Ohio, OK, but not NJ), but your comment about the police chief is not called for.

The police dealing with this guy did not KNOW it was a BB gun. At most they knew that a 15 year old girl they did not know, talking about her possibly suicidal dad, was giving them info from yet another person they did not know, about a man who was confronting them. Info that may or may not have been reliable. Was the girl lying so the cops would not shoot her dad? Was the girlfriend lying or misinformed, and passing bad info to the daughter? How did the girlfriend know what she knew? Did the dad tell her? Was the dad lying? Was he setting them up? If he started out with a BB gun, did anyone know he did not have a second gun? This was a man, according to another article in the same paper, that had a verbal altercation, was possibly intoxicated, and spent the day driving around after leaving the house with the BB gun. They had been looking for him all day. Did he change his mind, pick up a real gun? When he phoned to say he was coming to the church to get his daughter, did he mean to pick her up, or to harm her? Did the officers have time to sort out all this? Clearly not.

The police chief is correct -- his guys took a risk, and it paid off -- this time. They would have been morally justified to shoot immediately, without warning, when dad pointed a gun-looking object at them, especially given his reckless behavior previously. He should be thankful they did not, and instead gave him another chance -- to kill himself, the cops, and bystanders with his second flight across the city.

[seamusTX]

I think we'll just have to agree that we disagree.

Everyone poses a risk to officers. Anyone might have a hidden weapon and unknown murderous intent.

That mentality results in deaths like Amadou Diallo's.

We as a society need to decide whether the police are custodians of public safety whose goal is to do the most good and the least harm, or "terminators" that can destroy everything that gets in their way.

I realize that I am describing an extreme scenario, but the trail of deceased Dachshunds and Labrador retrievers tells a troubling tale.

The officers in this case acted with remarkable restraint while dealing with a man whose actions were inexcusable.

- Jim

[Keith B]

The police dealing with this guy did not KNOW it was a BB gun.

You don't know that. It is pretty easy to tell if the stock says Red Ryder on it.

[casingpoint]

Isn't Newark the little town on the Ohio/West VA border where the cop tasered that gal leaving a bar like thirteen times about three or four years ago?