Bad cops, bad cops

There waa video on the news last week about a female cop on a traffic stop trying to deal with a guy way bigger than her. He took her stun gun away from her and (I believe) used it on her before someone came to her assistance. The tone of the news story was brave cop, survived attack, blah blah.

I'd have fired her if she was my officer. She let the situation get out of control. She never should have allowed the suspect to get close enough to take her stun gun -- if he could get it, he also could have gotten her weapon. He could have easily killed her and who knows how many others, all because she mishandled the stop.

I watch "Cops" a lot and see a lot of inappropriate behavior. It's really scary to see how incapable so many cops are of taking control of a situation, and that's one of the things they teach in every academy in this country. So many cops don't have a "command voice;" they yell. They get emotional. They lose control and don't know how to regain it.

We were sitting at a stop light in town a while back, watching as a cop pulled a car over. The driver of the car immediately jumped out of his vehicle and started toward the officer, who came out with his gun drawn and told him in a very distinct command voice to get back in his car. As a bystander, I had no doubt that the officer would do what was necessary to keep control of the situation. Apparently, neither did the driver. He threw his hands up in the air, shut his mouth and returned to his car.

One of the things that drives me -- and Robert -- nuts on "Cops" is how often the cops repeat themselves. "Put the gun down. Put the gun on the ground. I'm not telling you again. Put the gun down. This is your last warning. Put it down. Put it down now. Don't make me say it again. Blah blah." We once counted on an episode, and the officer told the suspect seventeen times to put his weapon down, and said "I'm not telling you again" three times. (Actually, I did the counting. Robert was too busy saying, "Shoot the sonofabitch.")

They either never take control, or they lose it and can't regain it. And bad things happen then. Like that California deputy who shot the unarmed passenger after a high-speed chase. The kid who was shot was unarmed; he was cooperative; he was obeying commands; he was, in fact, calmer and in more control than the deputies. The deputy was incompetent, poorly trained and/or poorly suited to the job, and his behavior was totally inappropriate.

Lucky for the kid, he was also a bad shot. Three shots at close range, and the kid lived. Hopefully, he'll make a full recovery, the deputy will spend the next twenty years in prison, and the sheriff's department will look at its training, capabilities and emotional stability of its officers.

Cops who can't shoot worth a damn . . . a pet peeve for another time. Rachel9:57 AM