Hacker News Reader

Comment by serge2k | Hacker News Reader

I actually heard somewhere (TV probably) that army members are actually trained to try to avoid escalating conflicts like this.

View on HN

It's true. In both advanced individual training (the job specific one that follows the famous "basic training") and before deploying to Afghanistan, I underwent a good amount of tactical and combat training. In both situations we were not only taught proper protocols for "escalation of force" and "rules of engagement" but also threatened with doom if we didn't follow them.

It varies on many factors, but generally before pulling the trigger you have to visually identify a threat, yell a verbal warning, show your weapon as a warning, fire a warning shot, aim at the threat and repeat the verbal warning, then fire if necessary.

Obviously this doesn't apply to full-combat situations, but for instances of the type that our domestic police force encounter, it most certainly would. It's so ingrained that I always wonder how we have so many occurrences of police shootings.

Sad situation, especially because (imho) the vast majority of police are amazing, selfless, community minded heroes, whose profession is besmirched by these brutal thugs who share their uniform.

If the percentage of "good ones" is so high, why do they protect the "bad ones"?

I agree, that's definitely part of the problem. "Closing ranks" to protect each other is, I think, an inherently loyal and noble response, but it has to be tempered by humanity and reason, and that does not seem to be happening.

There is probably also a strong element of fear- as mentioned in the article, many of these police really are trained in aggressive response, and that becomes both muscle memory and instinct, it genuinely does.

I think many great officers imagine the "what would I have done" and in their doubt and worry over that hypothetical, provide a unified front against the repercussions of justice for their fellow officers, in case the same should ever happen to them.

"Never rat on your own" comes ingrained with the Y chromosome. Nobody likes a snitch. And being branded as one is for a lifetime and it shuts you outside of all social networks. For obvious reasons spies get a pass here. Throw some "Real man deal with their own problems and not call authority" and you have potent silencing mix. It is hard to verbalize, but it is real.

The statements I read defending police violence suggest that it's necessary and appropriate to protect the lives of police. I feel like the military accepts that if you carry a gun for a living, there's inherent risk in that, and it doesn't justify leading always with overwhelming force.

One of the names for these folks used to be "peace officers"....

I'm pretty sure that police are in most first world countries too.

The US confuses me a lot. Is it the presence of guns that makes them train like that, or just bad policy?

Both, and the mixture is especially toxic.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com