30 Jan 21
“Appreciate what you have, while you still have it, or you’ll learn what it meant to you- after you lose it.”
Frank Sonnenberg
“Perfect Outcomes,” “Perfect Predictability,” and Unrealistic Expectations!
Exactly one week ago, LAPD responded to multiple emergency calls, all emanating from a shopping mall in North Hollywood, CA
A man was verbally and physically assaulting and battering several shoppers (all women) at a Burlington Clothing Store (and surrounding area) and was wildly wielding some kind of weapon.
Some callers said the suspect had a gun. Others said his weapon was a bicycle lock of some kind. Others reported that shots had been fired!
In any event, responding officers entered the store, confronted, and immediately shot to death the suspect as, with some kind of impact weapon in hand, he was in the process of striking a woman. Distance between police and suspect was 6-8 meters.
The woman suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries from the suspect’s attack, but was not injured by subsequent police gunfire.
The only shots fried were by officers. The suspect had no gun and fired no shots.
Rounds fired from an officer’s M4 (223) proved fatal to the suspect, but one round (of three) unintentionally struck and killed an innocent bystander, a young girl who was in a dressing booth behind the suspect. She was not visible to officers when the shooting took place.
It is not clear if the single round that fatally struck the girl had already penetrated and exited the suspect, or had missed the suspect altogether, or was a ricochet.
As one might expect, in the aftermath there has been no shortage of self-proclaimed “expert” critics and other assorted self-righteous commentators, ad nauseam
My comment:
I believe there are some “bad outcomes” that are neither foreseeable, nor preventable!
Any time shots are fired (outside the range) bad outcomes are always a distinct possibility, no matter how careful and well-trained we are.
As a society (particularly plaintiff’s attorneys) we always want to “find fault” in the wake of any “bad outcome.”
We always want to piously declare someone guilty of “wanton negligence,” and heap all the blame on him, or spread it out to the ends of the Earth!
But, the truth is that often bad outcomes are no one’s “fault!”
No matter how hard and competently we train, no matter how well-equipped we are, “perfect outcomes” will continue to be hard to come by. Yet, “unerringly predicting the future,” and “tactical perfection” (a contradiction of terms!) have become the naive, cynical, expectation of some in the media, and in legal/political circles, who should know better!
These are the same adolescents who think we can wage “casualty-free wars!” They want us to “win the war,” but they don’t think anyone should ever get hurt in the process!
We do the best we can, but this life is still “dangerous,” every second of it, as we see!
“What you take for granted, others are praying for”
Marlan Lee
/John
