Let’s establish in advance that I’m not a mindless cop fanboy; I think it’s long past time for individual cops to carry liability insurance, rather than be covered by hamfisted qualified immunity. \u00a0 That would weed out bad cops and reward good ones, presto.<\/p>\n
But if I read another ill-informed activist or reporter nodding askance at a cop killing an “unarmed” person, without any further context, there’s gonna be trouble.<\/p>\n
Every year, the homicide and manslaughter toll in MInnesota includes a number of “one punch kills”; episodes where an “unarmed” person’s initial physical contact causes a direct injury (a cerebral hemorrhage) or indirect (knocking a head on a curb or sidewalk) injury that ends up killing the victim.<\/p>\n
And that doesn’t even count the “unarmed” subjects who suddenly\u00a0become\u00a0<\/em>armed.<\/p>\n It’s all very easy, in an abstract sense, for people who’ve never seen how fast an “unarmed” assailant can become a lethal threat, to ignore what they don’t know – as Josh Gelernter at National Review points out<\/a>:<\/p>\n Last year, a self-described \u201cradical political activist\u201d and Black Lives Matter protester named Jarrett Maupin agreed to go through a FATS-style police exercise \u2014 not using a FATS machine, but using paintball guns in a parking lot. Maupin was told to question a man behaving suspiciously. The man\u2019s hands disappeared momentarily behind a car, reappeared holding a gun, and Maupin was \u201ckilled.\u201d In the next exercise, two unarmed men were having a loud argument. Maupin approached them, one of the men starting walking aggressively toward Maupin \u2014 and Maupin shot him dead. A local Fox affiliate in Phoenix filmed Maupin\u2019s experience (you can watch it on YouTube).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You can indeed! \u00a0And it’s fascinating.<\/p>\n