On your first point I would agree. I think I have been pretty clear in previous posts on my stance that things need to change. That being said I was young (around 16-17) when the whole 'tinted window' issue first happened in Missouri. I lived there and knew some of those cops involved. A cop approached a car and was looking right at the barrel of a gun but did not know it. They killed him and sent a message to the rest of the cops by riddling his car with over 10K rounds from what I remember. Regardless of how many, they tore both him and his car up. A lot of police procedures changed after that. Cops should feel, if not safe (it is a dangerous job), not hunted. Civilians should be able to feel the same way. We should ALWAYS be able to call the cops even if off our meds and running (while not a good choice) should not even start to be "increasing the odds of something bad happening". If the cop has to run to catch 'them'..... wear running shoes and call for backup. Getting shot in the back, as recently happened,is not acceptable, period.........EVER like that. People do stupid things. Cops have to deal with those actions.... Welcome to your CHOSEN profession. I have no sympathy for the girl trying to run the cop over and getting shot. Witnesses confirmed that is what happened and her actions IMHO warranted the result. I still think the arbitration should have been more independent (I think ALL cop shootings should be done from outside the jurisdiction) but I have no reason to disagree with the outcome. Cops need to go back to the old reasoning that if they actually shoot thier weapon, there had better be another gun or an iron clad, indisputable reason for doing so. I know I would be held to that standard and they are supposed to be the professionals. I don't know if that means cameras, training, revamp of all the procedures or something else but the current status quo is only going to lead to cops feeling more threatened with more funerals on both sides.

Quote Originally Posted by Irving View Post
If fatal police shootings are averaging 2 a day for the year, but police fatalities due to felonious acts in the line of duty are averaging 4 a year total, I'd like to see a paradigm shift away from every action being for "officer safety."
Approaching a vehicle with tinted windows makes an officer nervous? Tough.