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<blockquote data-quote="soberups" data-source="post: 1197965" data-attributes="member: 14668">So we have a 911 call for a possible intruder in the middle of the night.The police show up, and are charged at by a man who appears disoriented/intoxicated and who is apparently able to shrug off the effects of a Taser.It would not be unreasonable to make the split-second assumption that this individual was on PCP or bath salts. People under the influence of these substances frequently display superhuman strength as well as a complete disregard for pain or the effects of Tasers and pepper spray. They have even been known to shrug off the effects of multiple gunshot wounds for several minutes until they finally bleed out. Combine all this with the violent, psychotic rage that these drugs produce and you have an individual who for all practical purposes becomes a wild animal that poses a huge danger to anyone in their path.Its pretty easy to sit in an armchair after the fact and make lofty moral judgements about what the cop &quot;should&quot; have done. Its a little harder when its your life at stake and you are forced to make a split-second life or death decision. We know after the fact that the man was unarmed and had been in a traffic accident, but the cops who showed up on the scene did not know these facts and were merely responding to a 911 burglary call in the middle of the night. This event was a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family of the man who was shot, but I dont think its fair to charge the cop with manslaughter simply because he made a split-second error in judgement.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="soberups, post: 1197965, member: 14668"] So we have a 911 call for a possible intruder in the middle of the night. The police show up, and are charged at by a man who appears disoriented/intoxicated and who is apparently able to shrug off the effects of a Taser. It would not be unreasonable to make the split-second assumption that this individual was on PCP or bath salts. People under the influence of these substances frequently display superhuman strength as well as a complete disregard for pain or the effects of Tasers and pepper spray. They have even been known to shrug off the effects of multiple gunshot wounds for several minutes until they finally bleed out. Combine all this with the violent, psychotic rage that these drugs produce and you have an individual who for all practical purposes becomes a wild animal that poses a huge danger to anyone in their path. Its pretty easy to sit in an armchair after the fact and make lofty moral judgements about what the cop "should" have done. Its a little harder when its [I]your[/I] life at stake and you are forced to make a split-second life or death decision. We know after the fact that the man was unarmed and had been in a traffic accident, but the cops who showed up on the scene did not know these facts and were merely responding to a 911 burglary call in the middle of the night. This event was a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family of the man who was shot, but I dont think its fair to charge the cop with manslaughter simply because he made a split-second error in judgement. [/QUOTE]

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