"This man was armed but not immediately dangerous except to himself and to the police"
Ok, so he was dangerous. Do police officers and neighbors not have family who love them? You're either dangerous or you're not. It sounds like he was dangerous.
Ok, so he was dangerous. Do police officers and neighbors not have family who love them? You're either dangerous or you're not. It sounds like he was dangerous.
Adding it all up it is a "no win" situation for the police. If they use too much force they will get blamed. If they let the situation linger on, they get blamed. As it was the man died by his own hand and people did blame the police for this.
Sometimes barricade situations end up OK. One of my dad's coworkers freaked out in the 1980s over a situation with his ex-wife and was barricaded against the SWAT team, eventually he surrendered. It is sometimes possible to talk somebody like that into giving up their weapons and surrender, it probably happens most of the time. Sometimes it doesn't.
Of course that's debatable, and there will regardless be people who are dangerous for reasons that are irrational. It also doesn't excuse his behavior, the world has all kinds of problems and we can't accept solving them by whipping out a gun. But the topic deserves contemporaneous consideration.
One wonders how many law enforcement have been hurt, citizens hurt, or performing desperate crimes, to avoid incarceration which in the US is so horrible that many people prefer death.
You show bias