POLITICIAN DEMANDS IMPOSSIBLE OF POLICE
You don’t have to be stupid to be a politician, but it helps.
Like David Paterson.
Being stupid has really boosted his political career. A state senator from Harlem, David Paterson is the odds-on favorite to be New York’s next lieutenant governor.
Which is pretty impressive, even in a state known for its vacuous lieutenant governors.
Let me explain.
David Paterson is trying to ram legislation through the Senate that would require New York cops to shoot to wound. He would make it the law that when a police officer fires at someone, he has to aim for an arm or a leg.
An officer who failed to do so, and fatally wounded someone, would be hit with a new cops-only charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Did I mention that David Paterson is the Democratic leader in the New York state Senate? Did I mention that he’s been in office for 20 years and that he is the darling of the New York City elites?
Did I mention that he’s an idiot?
He must be to back something like this.
Specifically, he must be a cop-hating idiot. Which is surprising for somebody from Harlem.
This legislation – which David Paterson has pushed since 2001 – reveals an anti-police bias and an incredible amount of ignorance. What makes it dangerous now is that his announcement as Eliot Spitzer’s choice as a running mate gives his already-significant clout even more oomph.
And it gives this proposal a real prospect of becoming law.
And if that happened, cops and citizens would be endangered and the already-difficult profession of law enforcement would become almost impossible. It would make the good guys the bad guys and it would send good cops to prison for doing their jobs.
Because it demands the impossible.
Specifically, it would require every officer who fires his gun to be able to match the fantasy shooting of Hollywood movies. In the real world, it is not possible to specifically shoot someone in an arm or a leg. Handguns are just not that accurate and the conditions under which officers fire their guns simply do not allow for carefully aimed shots.
When a cop has to fire his weapon, there is a life on the line. The life of either a cop or an innocent civilian. When a cop has to fire his weapon, he has to do it right now. Because if he doesn’t, the great likelihood is that the bad guy is going to fire his gun and somebody is going to die.
Because while David Paterson would require the police to shoot people in the arm or the leg, the thugs would still be aiming for vital organs. And when the other guy is trying to shoot you in the head, winging him might not be enough.
Literally.
The reason police shoot people is to try to immediately stop a threat to the life of the officer or a third party. You don’t shoot people to catch them, you shoot people to keep them from killing someone.
And to do that, you have to incapacitate them immediately. You must deliver a wound that turns them off. A shot to the arm or leg is not likely to do that. It is merely apt to make the bad guy angrier and more resolved to continue his dangerous behavior. When the cops shoot somebody, that somebody has to go down, hard, or the threat to innocent life continues.
If you wing the bad guy, and he kills your partner or a lady walking down the street, wasn’t the policy that required you to wing him contributory to that subsequent homicide?
The most fundamental weakness of David Paterson’s legislation continues to be its practical impossibility. It is simply not possible to reliably hit an arm or leg with a pistol. In close-quarters handgun fights, 80 percent of the shots fired don’t even hit the person they’re aimed at. Just 20 percent of shots fired hit their target.
And by “target” we mean person, not body part.
That’s why police officers and members of the military are taught to aim at “center mass.” That means aim at the biggest part of the target that presents itself. Typically that is the torso.
Even then accuracy is very low.
David Paterson’s legislation makes another erroneous assumption – and that is that police officers have time to aim. A massive survey of shooting incidents involving the department that protects David Paterson’s district – the New York Police Department – showed that in 70 percent of police shootings, officers didn’t have time to actually line up their sights and aim. The incident occurs so rapidly and at such close quarters that taking up a sight picture was not possible.
And the senator wants cops to shoot people in the arm or leg.
And if they don’t, and the person dies, he has specially crafted a new count of second-degree manslaughter just for cops. If they do their job, and stop someone from taking a life, they lose their careers, they are dragged into court and they spend most of the rest of their lives behind bars.
For being cops.
This is nuts.
This man is stupid.
And he’s likely to not only get this passed into law, but become the state’s next lieutenant governor.
And the mindless witch hunt against the police will continue.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2006
