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Comment by michaelt | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if some of the preference for violence in the American policing tradition goes back to Western films - where outlaws are wanted dead or alive, a quick draw is the main thing a lawman needs, and the climax of the film is the lawman meeting the bad man in the street, drawing first and shooting him dead.

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I think it's more likely that U.S. police are, on the whole, poorly trained for these kinds of situations. I don't have any hard evidence to support this but have heard interviews with people who study the problem of police violence say that improper training (or more likely zero training) contributes mightily to the problem.

American police officers training depends on the state. It's generally a months long process and quite rigorous physically and mentally. I have a friend who literally just went through this and I can say he definitely had a lot of training. At the end of the day what they are trained to do is come home at the end of the night. Keeping themselves safe is top priority in a job that can put them in a lot of dangerous situations. We've had many discussions about this line between police officer shootings and justification.

You see that also in American action movies where the "good" guy often with joy kills the "bad" guy. You don't see that that much in European movies where a killing situation is often portrayed with more internal conflict.

You can also see quite violent Hong Kong movies with police officers shooting fleeing criminals in crowded public places, but as far as I am aware they don't have the same issues.

One could also easily point to the much higher probability that a criminal has a gun in the United States, although I do not think that that alone is sufficient.

There are so many comments worth responding to in this thread, but this one in particular raises my ire. Are you really trying to reduce policing tradition in America to western films? How about the real west, where self defense was a way of life. I don't want to be too combative but I seriously don't understand peoples inability to understand the principles of self defense as a natural human right, and yes that includes killing when applicable. It just reeks of a naive liberal mindset when people try to say you shouldn't shoot someone who breaks into your house in the middle of the night. Police don't have a duty to protect you, and very often will not protect you, and most of the time will just draw chalk lines around the bodies.

Its your own responsibility to protect yourself and your loved ones or other people who can't protect themselves, that's a fact, and it's high time the anti-gun crowd pulled their heads out of their ass, because a gun equalizes an otherwise unequal situation.

God made humans, Sam colt made them equal. I'm an atheist but the principle still stand. This goes for one of the most vulnerable classes of humans as well, women.

As a combat vet I have some major issues with the militarization of police, and their poor training/methods, so I got a bit ot. If we were to have a real conversation, I think we would be better served to talk of the pinkertonian origins of policing, or the CIA/FBI influence on it (eg. OccupyWall Street snipers), and the general lack of punishment of oath breakers, or the thin blue line.

Instead far too many use it to pivot to a session of anti-gun circlejerking.

  western films? How about the real west, 
  where self defense was a way of life.

I restricted my comment to western films as I can talk about them truthfully, having seen several. I can't comment on the real west truthfully as I wasn't there and neither have I engaged in the serious scholarly study that would let me tell reality from legend.

I'm not sure how the rest of your comment relates to my comment.

As a trained member of the military I would sincerely hope that you realize there's a huge continuum in self defense that doesn't automatically begin any response to a perceived or real threat by shooting at someone.

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