cloudboy
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Joined: 12/14/2005
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This might sound unrelated, but I went on a rafting trip in Costa Rica. The river featured class 5 rapids. On the bus ride there, the guide said, "if you go into the water, remember to breath and stay calm." I almost did not pay attention to this advice, because it struck me as common sense.
During the trip, the raft flipped. I went into an undertoe area in the river. Had I not had a life jacket, I would have been sucked under water. With the life jacket, I was pinned, swallowed some water, had a hard time breathing, and panicked. I coped poorly and was really shaken. In contrast, I can swim in an ocean with rough surf. I know how to hold my breath, I know how to breathe, know how to manage rip currents, etc. I don't panic.
The trick for training these officers must lie in giving them practice for a high stress confrontations, so that they are veteran ocean swimmers as opposed to flipping into class five rapids a first time.
My wife just finished reading a book on D-Day. It was noted that most draftees who were not really professionally trained soldiers got mowed down in combat and were not effective soldiers. Without training and experience, they could not cope with combat.
Lastly, your point, about training the police better, also applies to my hometown as BALTO has similar problems to NYC:
Baltimore Police have shot 10 people this year — eight of them fatally — leading some to question whether police are properly equipped to handle calls involving the mentally ill.
Only one of those shot was carrying a firearm, and several shooting incidents arose from calls to police about a disturbance involving someone with a mental illness. Relatives of some of those killed criticized police tactics, saying they shouldn't have lost loved ones after calling police to defuse situations that had ended peacefully in the past.
"They need better training with mental cases," said Candace Church, 29, whose brother David Yim was shot in April. "They're treating mental patients like criminals, and they're not criminals."
The most recent shooting occurred Saturday, when a 63-year-old man was killed by officers who had been called to the 1600 block of W. Lexington St. to investigate a 911 call for a burglary.
Neighbors and friends said the victim, Rudolph Bell, was a homeless veteran who had recently emerged from a Veterans Affairs program and was affectionately known around the neighborhood as "Mr. Rudy." But police said he attacked an officer with a knife or bottle, cutting the officer on the face and narrowly missing his eye.
< Message edited by cloudboy -- 8/26/2012 3:50:55 PM >
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RE: New York Shootings - 
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