Not seeing (c) and I am not reading all the comments to find what I assume is ONE comment.

Plus, the dude was smoking weed. Kinda hard to compete with that for trying to calm someone down.

There needs to be a d) all of the above for both questions....

I'm not usually a fan of the police & their increasingly militaristic tactics however in this case they showed commendable restraint. You have a maniac who's been pepper sprayed six times & is still running through the crowds swinging the knife at people & ignoring repeated demands to drop the knife & stop. Shooting him was really the only option by that point. They shot him center of mass to stop the threat, that the threat was stopped on a permanent basis was just an unfortunate/fortunate end result.

/although I do question/wonder why no (or little) mention of a taser was made. You'd think that in TS at the very least the cops would have them. Shooting drunk & obnoxious tourists would make for bad press

Where was Spider-Man when we needed him?! :-(

Third time this headline meme has been greenlit today. Mods need to a) stop it.

PC LOAD LETTER: Not seeing (c) and I am not reading all the comments to find what I assume is ONE comment.

Plus, the dude was smoking weed. Kinda hard to compete with that for trying to calm someone down.

While I am no anti-pot advocate, there are plenty of people for whom smoking marijuana is dysphoric. It can cause agitation, paranoia and others along that spectrum.

To summarize: Pot should be legal. But there are plenty of people who shouldn't smoke it.

legendary: Don't know why it takes an uncountable number of shots to take down one guy but otherwise I'd say the NYPD did a great job here to avoid any fatalities.

According to one of the comments, one video shows/counted 9 shot between two policemen. 4-5 shots each isn't all that unreasonable when their pistols hold 15+.

The police (& anyone who knows what they're doing) never shoot to wound, shoot to kill, or any other 'shoot to __' that you hear. The most common standard is that you shoot to stop the threat & once the threat is stopped then you stop shooting. Pretty much everyone is taught to shoot for the largest target possible which in a human is the chest area. The chest area also has most of the body's vital organs so the chances that getting shot there will stop you permanently is certainly there. Most training that I've seen/heard of advocates two quick shots to center of mass, reevaluate the threat & if he hasn't stopped/gone down do it again. This can all happen within a matter of 2-3 seconds. Two policemen shooting 9 shots makes me think that this is exactly how it went down. With all the cameras recording these days, if it's dramatically different we'll hear about it over the next few days.

Without seeing the video & assuming that the 9 shot count is accurate, it sounds like everything went according to training & at the time of the shooting all other options had been expended (taser question notwithstanding). Some police are trigger happy morons but these two seem to be well trained/under restraint.

Lor M. Ipsum: Third time this headline meme has been greenlit today. Mods need to a) stop it.

Maybe limit it to once a day or so, because a) it's old, b) and busted, or c) damn.

*This* is what they're supposed to user tasers for. They had the guy cornered. Instead they save their tasers for people who just need to be talked down.

D_Evans45: Mangoose: While I am no anti-pot advocate, there are plenty of people for whom smoking marijuana is dysphoric. It can cause agitation, paranoia and others along that spectrum.

To summarize: Pot should be legal. But there are plenty of people who shouldn't smoke it.


True. Just like booze.

Just like anything. There are people that shouldn't eat chocolate because it ends up on a discount flight to Pennsylvania and a back alley chocolate syrup bathhouse.

Recoil Therapy: There needs to be a d) all of the above for both questions....

I'm not usually a fan of the police & their increasingly militaristic tactics however in this case they showed commendable restraint. You have a maniac who's been pepper sprayed six times & is still running through the crowds swinging the knife at people & ignoring repeated demands to drop the knife & stop. Shooting him was really the only option by that point. They shot him center of mass to stop the threat, that the threat was stopped on a permanent basis was just an unfortunate/fortunate end result.

/although I do question/wonder why no (or little) mention of a taser was made. You'd think that in TS at the very least the cops would have them. Shooting drunk & obnoxious tourists would make for bad press

Some years ago in Des Moines, police responded to a call of a guy in the street with a huge butcher knife, threatening people. Repeated demands that he put the knife down were ignored and then the guy charged one officer, knocked him down and proceeded to stab him multiple times in the chest. The officer drew his gun and shot him dead right there, while the guy was stabbing him.

It later turned out that the guy was schizo and off his meds. The day or so after, the guy's mother was on the news wailing about how they didn't have to shoot him, he was a good boy, all the usual crap. I'm sorry, but the cop did the right thing. His vest saved him from serious injury but wasn't going to save him much longer. Blowing the crazy guy away did.

Recoil Therapy: There needs to be a d) all of the above for both questions....

I'm not usually a fan of the police & their increasingly militaristic tactics however in this case they showed commendable restraint. You have a maniac who's been pepper sprayed six times & is still running through the crowds swinging the knife at people & ignoring repeated demands to drop the knife & stop. Shooting him was really the only option by that point. They shot him center of mass to stop the threat, that the threat was stopped on a permanent basis was just an unfortunate/fortunate end result.

/although I do question/wonder why no (or little) mention of a taser was made. You'd think that in TS at the very least the cops would have them. Shooting drunk & obnoxious tourists would make for bad press

If they have pepper spray on their belt, they are prohibited from carrying a taser. Too much of a risk of explosion.

Kurmudgeon: if enough TFers comment on it, it goes green.

No. That is not a factual statement.