Originally Posted by
HotGuns
I'd like to make a few comments and observations here.
What you have to understand here is that the LEO is in the reactionary mode. He is already behind the curve if someone acts in a hostile manner, and the extra second or two that it takes to evaluate,comprehend and act is often all that it takes to get killed.
Sure it was a minor traffic infraction, but thats when lots of things start to go south. You cant begin to imagine how many shootings have started because they were pulled over for something minor, like an expired tag, or a taillight out or a headlight.
Although it may seem extreme to us, the officer saw a gun. On the surface it may seem that he overreacted. If someone wanted to grab it and shoot, who would have the upper hand? The shooter would because the officers action would be in reaction to the shot. Now we all sit here and read this and we know that the original poster and his wife are good law abiding people. The Officer doesn't know that, he just sees a gun in plain sight so he takes it as a serious threat and treats it as such until he can prove otherwise.
Yes she should have had it secured better. Perhaps it was not illegal to keep it in plain sight, since I don't know the laws of that state I wont say either way. Dangerous? The officer saw it that way.He saw a gun that was easily accessible. Again, he was assuming that it dangerous until he knew better.
I will admit that he could use some coaching when it comes to weapons handling. As for cutting him some slack, I don't think so. As for acting in a criminal fashion, that didn't happen either. He basically enacted what is know as a "felony stop" where you don't take anything for granted and you command the situation. While its true that he probably could have handled the situation much better than he did, I doubt that a Dept.review of his actions would get him anything other than a few pointers on his communication techniques.
Thats the thing about being an LEO, often times you are danged if you do and danged if you don't. We sit and and armchair commando and think that he was out of line. So he gets a complain filed against him and he gets called up on the carpet and told to throttle it back a little.And he does.
Sometime later, same situation. A man and a woman with a gun laying in the console or on the floor or stuck in the door handle. He sees it and figures that it'll be OKAY because its not pointed at him, so he doesn't give it the attention that he should. Only this time, its two crackheads and his girlfriend and he both have warrants on them, meaning that when the officers finds out, they will go to jail. They are already desperate because they got pulled over and they want to be anywhere but right there. All they are waiting for is the right moment to draw and fire. And they do. The shoot the cop.
Now,the arm chair commandos are reading about it in the paper and shaking their heads. It comes up on some of the discussion boards about how and why the rookie cop got capped. It gets cussed and discussed and now one can figure out why in the heck the cop didn't react like they thought he should have.
Like I said, danged if you do and danged if you don't...and every Cop that has ever worked a shift knows this. What they dont do is take the few minutes to type and explain like I just did to you, because most of them figure its a waste of time and effort. Sometimes it is, sometimes in isn't. I tend to think that if just one person reads this and understands maybe later on down the line somewhere, somehow, it'll help both parties involved be a little safer.
Sergeant Macs post is right on the money. Sometimes we don't like to read stuff like that, but that is the way that it is.
