[MrLeftHand]

Yeah, but it is different wielding a knife then a gun. You have to be up close and personal with that. Whilst with a gun you can be far away. Apples and Oranges.

And don't look at one individual case, look at the cause why this keeps happening.

The police force is trained that there is a high possibility that there is a gun. So how are they going to go in there? With guns drawn of course.

That is the difference. The knowledge of you might getting shot is enough to be trigger happy about everything. Especially when your training says the same thing.

But then it's not enough changing the training of the police force, whilst civilians still wield guns. Disarmament needs to happen on multiple levels.

And another thing, yes there are cases where it is fairly simple to tell if you are in front of a disabled or mentally ill person then a nutcase high on crystal meth. And these are just cops, without any training in the medical field to tell the difference and they go in already on edge. No wonder bad things happen.

[elipsey]

The guy in this article wasn't wielding anything. He was naked and empty handed in his own shower.

>> there are cases where it is fairly simple to tell if you are in front of a disabled or mentally ill person then a nutcase high on crystal meth

What are you trying to say here? It's OK to kill unarmed drug users, but not unarmed crazy people?

I don't think it is OK in either case and I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I live in the tenderloin and walk everywhere, so I get approached by aggressive people who are acting weird and scary everyday. So far I have never even considered shooting them.

[MrLeftHand]

Sorry, that should have been "not fairly easy to tell apart". Anyway, what I wanted to say is, that it's not good to compare the UK and the US in this context.

In one country where gun crimes and mass shootings are rampant and are close to be every day part of life and there is the other where most of the crimes are knife, or acid attacks and are rarely fatal.

Anyway, I think there is a link between the US gun laws (or lack of them) and police brutality. Where every scenario has the possibility to go wrong, they just developed a habit to shoot first and ask questions later. Where police training revolves more around preparing to use your gun and defend yourself then actually solve the situation without violence. But whilst there is a high chance that every scene they go to will have guns involved, they're not going to change their behaviour, or training either. And this will bring more brutality from them as their not going to take chances.

[jimnotgym]

> Anyway, what I wanted to say is, that it's not good to compare the UK and the US in this context.

Actually many people in the UK argue against routine (fire) arming of the police because it creates an arms race with criminals. I am saying that the police having guns is part of the cause of why the US has more gun violence.

[elipsey]

Thank you. I misunderstood your comment entirely.