• ebc@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    In Canada it happens too often: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/police-wellness-checks-deaths-indigenous-black-1.5622320

    The scenario is usually the following:

    • A person stops answering their loved one’s calls or makes suicide threats to the loved one
    • The loved one calls the cops to ask them to check in on them
    • Said person answers the door with the weapon they were planning to end their life with in their hands
    • Cops see a weapon, panic and shoot

    What I don’t understand is why cops don’t just disengage / retreat from these situations. In most cases it looks like they were proceeding as if the person had to be stopped / apprehended.

    • da_hooman_husky@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is suicide by cop, OP was asking about situations where the subject is not a threat to anyone. A suicidal person with a gun is a threat as they can turn the weapon around and any time (and they often do).

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Except somehow soldiers have more restraint in this situation than cops do. We trained relentlessly on not shooting unless they actually raise the gun up towards you. And talking them down through a language barrier until they could be safely detained or they tried to shoot us.

        Cops shooting the literal second they think someone has a gun is unacceptable when I can get 18 year old asvab waivers to understand restraint.