Friends and family members said that the victim was merely upset over not collecting some money he was owed and had no real mental disorder. Still, putting a knife to your own throat when police attempt to arrest you isn't the act of a normal person so let's assume the guy was temporarily insane or just confused or desperate to avoid arrest.
But first let's look at how a good cop handles a man with a knife.
Not sure why this man was being questioned other than he was walking down a road and might or might not have been walking in the road. Fact is that cops are trained to find reasons or make up reasons to get involved but one wonders if left alone would this homeless guy have caused anyone any trouble that day? Still the officer used restraint and it was obvious he was both retreating and trying to de escalate the situation so he ought to get some credit for that.
And how do other countries handle a crazy person with a knife? The UK has shot and killed 55 people under color of police immunity in the last 24 hears. The Bobbies are generally unarmed unless on terrorist watch duty or under special circumstances. They are trained to use pepper spray and batons to take down knife wielding suspects like in this video.
Here is a video of a female Chinese cop disarming a knife wielding suspect. And handful of Ukranian cops and a bystander attempt to de escalate and disarm a crazy man with a knife.
And finally back to the U.S. story of the man distraught over not collecting his money and holding a knife to his own throat. A TV station recorded the summary execution of the man but has so far refused to publish the video but a bystander captured the moment of execution and the aftermath. Basically the man was gunned down while running away from police officers. The video showed 15 officers surrounding the man and how they managed to shoot the guy without killing some of their own is amazing. If you count the shots you will hear 5 shots fired into the man after he hits the ground.
Yes cops have to deal with this stuff daily and yes they ought to have a little leeway in a situation where things are close but this is not one of those cases. No one needed to die that day. That many cops, that many Tazers on hand and not used. One would think that something as simple as a few ropes carried in the trunk of every other squad car or a throw net would suffice in the majority of these confrontations.
At the very least a shotgun round filled with rock salt or birdshot aimed at the guy's legs… Pepper spray, hell a bucket of the stuff that could be thrown on the guy from a safe distance with the thrower protected by a couple of other cops with batons, maybe a gallon jar of jalapenos for God's sake. A damned 8' long pipe or bamboo pole could be used to whack the snot out of the guy or trip him up.
But no, we here in the U.S. have trained cops to shoot to kill at the merest whiff of potential danger while the rest of the world generally expects some humanity and bravery from those who volunteer to serve and protect. The problem isn't the cops, it is the governments that control the cops and the people that train the cops.
