sorry for the delay, was walking the dogs.
I am not talking about the rare replica gun instances, or when someone is pointing a gun at an LEO. I am talking about mistaking a cell phone for a gun, a subway sandwich for a gun, feck, just pretending they thought there was a gun. NONE of those justify someone being shot at, much less being killed.
I don’t care what the law says. The law protected the cops that beat Rodney King. The law protected the cops the beat and killed civil rights protesters in Alabama. The law has protected hundreds of good and bad cops who made bad decisions. Until keeping citizens alive at all costs becomes the main goal of all LE, LE will never have the trust of all of us. That trust was squandered by your predecessors and peers, and it will be squandered by you future colleagues if nothing changes.
the bond between society and LE is broken because most of us believe LE, in general, care more about “making it home” than making sure the person on the other side of their gun is intent on the opposite.