I’ve seen a lot of dumb ideas put forth by politicians on both sides of the isle, but a bill introduced in the New York State legislature by Assemblymen Annette Robinson (D-Bedford Stuyvesant) and Darryl Towns (D-East New York) is probably the single stupidest law ever proposed… anywhere!
From the New York Post:
City cops are livid over a legislative proposal that could handcuff the brave officers involved in life-and-death confrontations every day — requiring them to shoot gun-wielding suspects in the arm or leg rather than shoot to kill, The Post has learned.
The “minimum force” bill, which surfaced in the Assembly last week, seeks to amend the state penal codes’ “justification” clause that allows an officer the right to kill a thug if he feels his life or someone else’s is in imminent danger.
The bill — drafted in the wake of Sean Bell’s controversial police shooting death — would force officers to use their weapons “with the intent to stop, rather than kill” a suspect. They would be mandated to “shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg.”
Under present NYPD training, cops are taught to shoot at the center of their target and fire their weapon until the threat has been stopped.
The bill would change the wording of the “justification” clause in New York’s penal code from:
Section of state Penal Law S 35.15(2)(a)(ii)
“A person may not use deadly physical force upon another person . . . unless: he or she is . . . a police officer or peace officer or a person assisting a police officer or a peace officer at the latter’s direction.”
to:
Section of Assembly Bill A02952
“A police officer or peace officer . . . uses such force with the intent to stop, rather than kill . . . and uses only the minimal amount of force necessary to effect such stop.”
This is the kind of stupidity only liberal politicians who have been watching to many movies could dream up… Police officers are not trained to “shoot to kill” they’re trained to shoot for the center of mass, basically the area from the shoulders to the hips, it’s the largest part of the body and the area you have greatest chance of hitting while under stress. The notion that you could somehow shoot the gun out of a suspects hand or shoot him in the arm or the leg is pure Hollywood bullshit.
Gunfights are fast, violent and over in the blink of and eye. Most happen at relatively close ranges (generally no more than 20 feet) and are over in a matter of seconds, if not a couple of heartbeats. The sad reality there simply isn’t time to aim for a suspects arm or leg, all you can do is point your gun at the center of mass and fire.
Riverside Police ReviewCommission, as a cilivan on this commission I was put through some training. I shot at his knew and missed, my next shot hit him in the thigh, my next shot because he was still running at me was in the groin, my next shot in the chest he still came yet one shot between the eyes only brought him to his knees where he brought down the machete on me they determined I did not survive. Because it was just a movie, I walked away but it would of been different if my last shot was my first shot. Drugs and man make them able to do things a normal person could do.