Thoughts On This Clip?

[jks9199]

So obviously drawing down is out - but if I'm carrying concealed and I jump on the guy, I've just doubled his chances for getting his hands on a gun. (It's not going to stay concealed for long while wresting.) From watching the video, I have a good example of keeping my gun hip away from the guy, but is it worth the extra risk? Especially since most civilian holsters are not exactly double - or triple - retention holsters.

And that's probably not something to include in the "casual" conversation while asking to help. (How can I help? By the way, I have a gun on my right hip, I have a black belt in, blah, blah, blah, president of the neighborhood watch, blah blah blah, memorized dragnet, blah blah blah.) I would rather the BG doesn't know I'm armed, if I could help it. But, I don't want any unwelcome surprises for you guys, either.

(Honestly, I'm not trying to chase the "what if" monkeys - I just want to actually be helpful in a situation like this, not the untrained do-gooder that inadvertently makes everything worse.)

If I'm in my own truck, while calling 911, that could be a chance to leave the gun behind, safely locked in the cab. Then it wouldn't be a worry.

I've not said that I never want a civilian to pull a gun out to help me -- but that the situations are few and far between. If you're carrying a concealed weapon (I'm not immediately aware of any concealable holsters that are high-level retention... the two kind of work at cross purposes.), the best thing that you might do is call it in, and then back off and take a position where you can act if the ogre gets my gun. There's really no hard rule -- but one of the scariest things professionally for me is covering a partner as he or she moves to cuff someone, because as they do so, I'm pointing my gun uncomfortably close to them if things get hairy.

There's no magic answer I can give, that if you do A then B, you'll be doing the right thing. You have to evaluate the situation, and do your best to make the best decision about what you can do. It's what I do just about every day I work, at least once... Sometimes, several times. And when everything is already FUBARed... it's even harder.

One thing that's pretty much never the right thing? Firing a warning shot. But... might the right thing be to run away? Yep... Imagine a well meaning civilian who decided to try to help during the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery shootout... Probably in the wrong place, huh? At the same time... maybe if just one person had grabbed the bad guy's arm in the video that started this thread, the fight would have been over in a few minutes. Hell... I've seen scary-big guys who were fighting like wild buffalo on 'roids get meek as a lamb when a female officer used "mommy voice!"

 

[ejaazi]

LOL!!! In Okinawa, you must be a 2nd degree black belt in a martial art in order to get into the police academy. Guess why?

 

[CuongNhuka]

LOL!!! In Okinawa, you must be a 2nd degree black belt in a martial art in order to get into the police academy. Guess why?

Don't you also have to be a third degree to open a school legally?

 

[Brad Dunne]

My first thought was to not offer anything on this thread, but there were/are aspects that perhaps folks are not aware of or just over looked. So lets offer the following for review.

The vast majority of police (via training curriculums) are not endowed with sufficient fighting skills. They are instead to focus on restraining / backup and use of mandated equipment. This is predicated on the policy procedures, that have been either written or reviewed or both, by lawyers. So a review board can release a finding of "followed procedures" when an officer discharges his/her weapon and clears the officer, but if the officer should inflict bodily harm via physical contact, then the infamous "Police Brutality" hits front page and all sorts of litigation becomes the norm.

Now to respond to "should you/anybody assist an officer" during such a confrontation, I offer the following.......................
1) Don't know if the bad guy has a weapon that he hasen't produced yet. It's unlikely that the officer was able to search, so you may get yourself into something very nasty.
2) Being a litigation prone society, it's not that far fetched to envision being sued by the bad guy. It's happened time and again and we've all seen/heard of such stupidity.
3) YELL out that you've called 911. This is a 50/50 proposition. It could have negitive repercussions. It mite distract the officer (for whatever reason), which could give the bad guy an edge or it just could force the bad guy to take it up a notch (instead of trying to escape, he now decides to inflict serious harm because help is on the way). It also could make the bad guy decide to just give up, so goes the 50/50.

It all boils down to an individuals response based upon their character. My personal dictates mandate I assist as fast and hard as possible. The officer will know I'm there to assist him when the bad guy is hit/knocked to the ground or whatever, for it will happen way to quick for the officer to envision anything else is going on.