Tuesday : February 9 : 2010

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Editor's Notebook: "Experts"

by Rich Grassi

While sitting in a café recently, I noticed a group of people who came in. They were seated next to me. While I engrossed myself in looking over documents - periodically looking around to try to keep some situational awareness - I found that I could hear their conversation. This is hardly normal for me as my hearing has deteriorated over the years. Their voices carried well.

As I made it a point to ignore them, I don't recall much of their chatter. In fact, the only thing I remember hearing is one worthy who said he had examined law enforcement as a career but withdrew because "the police rely far too much on guns."

This was something of a shock to me. My experience in the matter is quite different. The perpetrator of this fairy tale was a young man, unlikely to have yet reached 30 years of age. I finished a full time law enforcement career, started in 1977 and extending into the early part of this century. For a significant part of this period, I was certified and worked as a firearms trainer.

The police rely far too much on luck. For the most part, the restraint practiced by peace officers goes beyond admirable and into the absurd. At the risk of sounding "Monday morning quarterback-"ish, I have anecdotes.

In my first police job, there were times I had to "sit the desk" acting as relief dispatcher. While doing so one evening, I sent a supervisor and two cars to a disturbance involving a knife-wielding juvenile male. They arrived and, a short time later, the sergeant called for an ambulance. It seems that no one drew a gun, preferring to talk the "child" (a rather large, adult-sized individual) down. The sergeant came up behind the youth with his hickory nightstick deployed. He used a "distractionary strike" - though we'd never heard of such a thing back then - and the two officers in front of him rushed in. One of them got cut.

Knives are instrumentalities of deadly force. They are not "less lethal." Yes, I've heard of the lawyer arguing to the jury, "he only had a knife!" The reasoning goes, the deceased only had a knife and the cop says it's the same as a gun - a blade is the same as a 9mm. "Really?" the attorney shrieks, "Any of you ever cut yourself with a knife?"

To the nodding jurors, he says, "Me too. Ever shoot yourself with a 9mm? I didn't think so!"

The difference isn't in lethality, it's in the delivery system.

I had occasion to respond to a disturbance involving an emotionally disturbed person (EDP), armed with a shotgun, in the mental ward of a hospital. My cover was a supervisor. We arrived, got eyes on and saw this character, armed with a long fowling piece, in the psychiatric ward. The sergeant told me he was going in and told me to shoot the guy if he got shot.

Bad move. My counseling failed, the sergeant went in, the fool who rushed in where angels fear to tread. It worked out fine, but he clearly didn't "rely too much on guns."

Force is judged based on the objective reasonableness standard. Is it reasonable to close with someone who's obviously in distress and who is armed with a deadly weapon?

 

Skill Set: Time Management

by Tiger McKee

It's Monday, and I start the day off with a plan to write this column and submit it early. Once I actually get to my office a variety of distractions begin to pop up, each one requiring immediate attention, and bumping my writing down further on my "to-do list." Finally, after working my way through the unexpected chores and emergencies I sit down at the computer to write. At the same time I'm thinking how nice it would be if I were at home already, laying on the couch, reading and listening to the crackle of a nice warm fire.

This brief description of my day is just like a fight, except in your typical fight everything is compressed into a few seconds. "Fighting," as Scott Reitz says, "is problem solving at high speeds." You're presented a problem, and you have to come up with a solution for that problem and apply it immediately.

At the start of your day you have a plan to accomplish what you need to do. But then things don't go the way you thought they would. Just like in a fight. As you go through your day, or the fight, you have to multitask, correcting and dealing with things that pop up unexpected. The list of actions needed to win the fight change as the fight progresses, and priorities will shift accordingly. For example whenever possible you want to use cover. So at the start of the conflict you present your weapon and begin to move for cover. Looking good so far. Now you have to decide whether to move smoothly, shooting while moving, move quickly, get to cover and then fire, or do you need to get in an accurate shot, attempting to buy some time, and then move for cover? Each situation is different, your actions are determined by the specifics of that conflict, and priorities will change in the middle of your response.

You start out the fight with one plan, then you have to be flexible, modifying your actions as necessary. From behind cover you prepare to fall back to better cover when you notice threat number two, and the fact that you're completely exposed to him. With the introduction of another threat the dynamics of the fight have completely shifted. Now is not the time to vacate cover. You have to hold your location, repositioning your body so you have protection from both threats, and create a new plan of action.

During the fight you'll likely be wishing you were somewhere else, doing something other than fighting a dangerous threat. But you can't afford to be distracted from defeating your opponent(s). At the rate things will occur you must be totally focused, working your way to victory. Afterwards you can figure out how you could have done this better, or what you should have done different. During the fight, no matter what type unexpected things may occur, you are striving for victory.

After a long, hectic day I sit down to write. "Now that there's time," I'm thinking, "what should I write about?"

Tiger McKee is director of Shootrite Firearms Academy, located in northern Alabama, author of The Book of Two Guns, a staff member of several firearms/tactical publications, and an adjunct instructor for the F.B.I. (256) 582-4777 www.shootrite.org