I remember back in 2004 I had a debate, involving at least one cop, about why Melbourne police should be issued with tasers to avoid this kind of senseless death. Four years later and they STILL aren’t being issued with them. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?
Obviously this kid needed help, not a death sentence. I’m all for cops protecting themselves, but in any team, at least one of them should be carrying a taser. Capsicum spray isn’t good enough. Christine Dixon – what the hell are you doing down there? John Brumby – she reports to you. This death is on you, buddy.
Shocking terrible event but the police are trained to negotiate only so far then to protect themselves.
Reading between the lines this poor kid was seriously screwed up and depressed from the death of his father. Maybe it was suicide by police.
A very difficult situation and I can’t pass judgement on either the police or on the lad. Just a terrible waste and I hope something that is learnt from.
Bugger!
This kid would have been given plenty of opportunity to give himself up. He was going at them with a knife and the police were backed in a corner. He would have known they had no option but to shoot him. Anyway it’s up to the coroner to decide who was right or wrong.
As for tasers – they are not non-lethal. Many people in the States have been killed accidently and many of the devices are not calibrated properly.
As I said in my post, I’m all for cops protecting themselves. It’s not the cops’ fault they don’t have tasers (which, Anon, may not be perfect but they don’t kill you as easily as a bullet will), it’s the Department’s and Victorian Government’s fault.
I didn’t hear the full interview but I heard someone from the police talking about it saying that there had been 200 deaths in the US (missed the time frame) and from what I could extrapolate he seemed to say, yes in this case it would have been “safer” but there could be other uses that wouldn’t have got to the shooting stage that could accidentally kill someone and they are still more worried about that and are doing due testing.
http://3aw.com.au has the interview if your interested.
HTH
By the way its Nixon not Dixon but you might know that already.