zlacker

Especially compared to other countries, the US police seem to show quite the restrained considering most countries do not allow to carry weapons. It is a significant risk for safety of course. But if you look at the data, the often believed stereotype of US police being glorified cowboys seems to be quite untrue.

Frankly I am a bit cynical about politicians declaring the need for police reform. In my country protests are regularly "subdued" with excessive violence but the decision to handle it this way comes from the top, not from police officers.

I think clearer legal rules would help. Also maybe teaching people how to behave in case law enforcement conducts a search. The ability for surveillance and raiding homes should certainly be under intense scrutiny. Because I think the fear of decision makers is the main driver we might see some problems.

> I've been in a few protests and I can easily say that I have never seen more hatred in someone's eyes other than the cops that were beating up people.

That can be true for protesters and criminals too. I am aware of the irony of mentioning them in the same sentence. But the "psychology" study should show, that police is just often required to just do the dirty work and some might adjust to the crime they see in their daily routines. The systematic problems are programs like war on drugs or excessive militarization.

>>raxxor+(OP)
> considering most countries do not allow to carry weapons

Imagine being legally allowed to own and carry a gun and getting killed because you legally own and carry your gun. How is that logic?

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/06/22/philando-castil...

>>raxxor+(OP)
> Especially compared to other countries, the US police seem to show quite the restrained considering most countries do not allow to carry weapons.

Not most. Ireland, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Maldives have police officers work unarmed. Are there others?

>>vegai_+34
That wasn't expressed clearly, I meant civilians not generally being allowed to carry weapons. If you can expect people to be unarmed, you have a lot less tension in police interactions.

>>raxxor+(OP)
> Especially compared to other countries, the US police seem to show quite the restrained

There have been multiple instances where the us police shot someone and fired more bullets in this situation than the while german police in a whole year. And i don't mean big standoffs but shooting a single person.

/edit: in 2018 the german police fired a total of 54 bullets on persona killing 11.

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffengebrauch_der_Polizei_i...

>>lm2846+o2
Also Breonna Taylor: Kentucky is a "castle doctrine" state, where it's legal to shoot intruders. So the police arrived at her home to serve a no-knock warrant, her boyfriend shot at the intruders, and the police returned fire and killed her.

>>chefko+x9
I agree that police violence and brutality is at unacceptable levels. However, number of bullets fired may not be a good statistic. My understanding is US police officers are trained to fire the whole magazine of rounds.

>>setham+Oy
> My understanding is US police officers are trained to fire the whole magazine of rounds.

No, this is incorrect. Police are trained to stop a threat. Handguns despite what you see in movies are actually quite poor at doing this, so the accepted and common doctrine is “at least 5-6 rounds center mass”.

This is in life or desth situations where that person must be stopped or someone else will die.

If police were trained for one and reassess, they would shoot one. Trained for two; and they’ll a lot two regardless if they have a good sight picture after the first shot or not.

So the training is “stop the threat”, be prepared to shoot 5 rounds center mass as quickly as possible, move, maintain a sight picture, do all the things you need to do but focus on the target first and gun and number of bullets second.