tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post3248777424954675495..comments2024-03-19T00:06:09.224-05:00Comments on LifeItself: Of Guns and UsTadeusz (Tad) Patzekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17701598417132574218noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-13547010542768277382012-08-24T11:50:09.849-05:002012-08-24T11:50:09.849-05:00As if though to illustrate my last reply, the New ...As if though to illustrate my last reply, the New York police fired 14 shots to kill a shooter surrounded by a crowd of people near the Empire State Building. Nine people were wounded by the police bullets. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/several-people-shot-one-fatally-outside-empire-state-building.html?<br />Tadeusz (Tad) Patzekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17701598417132574218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-53667499685951792462012-08-17T19:02:14.338-05:002012-08-17T19:02:14.338-05:00OK, so the two policemen could have shot the man i...OK, so the two policemen could have shot the man in one or both legs. Instead, they went on a crazy shooting rampage. Tadeusz (Tad) Patzekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17701598417132574218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-16995128464807848992012-08-17T10:08:18.624-05:002012-08-17T10:08:18.624-05:00Yes but I knew that he didn't have a gun. It w...Yes but I knew that he didn't have a gun. It wasn't an assumption as much as an overreaction. Not that a knife is really any less lethal, especially in the hands of someone who has practiced using it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-58478587216944649282012-08-16T20:38:15.272-05:002012-08-16T20:38:15.272-05:00Please do not feel guilty. This the natural assum...Please do not feel guilty. This the natural assumption everyone in the U.S. would make, officer Wawra included.Tadeusz (Tad) Patzekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17701598417132574218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-91213524353320580322012-08-16T15:32:36.207-05:002012-08-16T15:32:36.207-05:00Also, the officers did attempt to use pepper spray...Also, the officers did attempt to use pepper spray to subdue him. But why didn't they have stun guns? You'd think it would be a requirement in that part of the city, being so congested.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-77282197123242876242012-08-16T15:30:32.280-05:002012-08-16T15:30:32.280-05:00Wow, I did call him the shooter. Amazing. I am hum...Wow, I did call him the shooter. Amazing. I am humbled.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-45523729878179731992012-08-16T15:27:37.255-05:002012-08-16T15:27:37.255-05:00I agree, the training should be different, and who...I agree, the training should be different, and who would consent to remain a police officer when that is the protocol? That's what I meant to convey. They whole system is set up to cause this sort of confrontation (marijuana laws, they way police are trained, the way cities tend to dehumanize people), it's not just individuals being malicious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-17694203719154085372012-08-15T20:28:50.185-05:002012-08-15T20:28:50.185-05:00Dear Anonymous,
I believe that we are referring t...Dear Anonymous,<br /><br />I believe that we are referring to the same accident that occurred on Saturday on the W 37th Street near Times Square. You were there, and I was not.<br /><br />However, according to the official transcript the "shooter" as you naturally call him, had no gun. He had a kitchen knife with a 6-inch blade. The two policemen you feel so sorry for separated the man from the crowd and pumped twelve bullets into him from a distance of 3 feet. Three feet is 36 inches or six lengths of the blade. One policeman fired 9 shots and the other 3 shots. Five shots missed, but the man was alone, so no one else got hurt. So much for precision shooting.<br /><br />In civilized countries, the police are trained not to kill everyone they can. They would wait, while engaging the man and trying to calm him down. Instead of heavy weapons, the policemen would have stun guns and would have used them on the man.<br /><br />These two policemen did not have stun guns and did not wait for help. <br /><br />I googled the New Your Times archive with "Police Shooting," and got 269,000 hits. The first several pages I checked had these two words in article titles.<br /><br />Getting shot by the police seems to be the standard procedure in the U.S., rather than exception. Tadeusz (Tad) Patzekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17701598417132574218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4793397038214118285.post-40933680092069725462012-08-15T15:15:23.383-05:002012-08-15T15:15:23.383-05:00I was in the Brooks Atkinson Theater at 256 W. 47t...I was in the Brooks Atkinson Theater at 256 W. 47th (just west of Times Square) when the shooter was running between Times Square and W. 37th street. An hour later me and my boyfriend were weaving through the typical crowds just trying to get to Penn Station in time for our train. Had we gotten out just an hour earlier we would have likely witnessed the whole thing.<br /><br />I can't fathom what it must be like to be a police officer in that situation, when you've been trained to respond in a specific manner, regardless of what is probably in intuitive aversion to shooting a person at close range. And who knows what might have happened had they not approached him in the first place. Was he planning to use the knife for anything other than what he was known for, dressing up as a ninja and doing tricks on the street for tips? Would he have lashed out in aggression had he not been approached? If he was actually using Marijuana, did his paranoid state affect his reaction? Could those police officers have done anything differently? Would anyone have died if marijuana were legal, thus taking away the basis for the original confrontation? I think you have to be blind not to see than many fewer people would die at the end of a gun in this country if the illegal drug trade wasn't so profitable, but that's another matter...<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com