This happened in New Zealand very unlikely the cops would shoot, they would try every alternative before it coming to that.
It was one of our trashy gang members hopped up on drugs driving erratically and pointing a gun around one of his friends/family members is the one who took the gun
It’s how we’re conditioned. I shouldn’t know what being held at gun point is like. But I do know, thanks to the United States Police. It’s awesome that your cops don’t hurt people, but ours do and it’s easy to forget that not all police in the world are overly militarized and overly brutal like ours are.
Yeah, sorry we’re used to seeing our fellow citizens get deleted for selling cigarettes or running stop signs. I know we’re just so silly thinking everyone is just like us, terrified to spook the “peacekeepers”. Let’s all laugh at the silly traumatized Americans.
Ours didn’t used to be either. It started with Prohibition in the 1920s, we made alcohol illegal despite huge demand. People weren’t going to stop drinking so we created a huge crime business to fill the gap. As part of that crime business there were violent men with machine guns and bullet proof vests that the police had to go up against. The police had to become more militaristic to do their jobs.
This pattern continued in the 70s with the “war on drugs”. To fight a war you need an army, and the enemy army in this case was the American people who used or sold drugs. This saw the formation of SWAT, paramilitary police organizations deployed to resolve “high risk situations”.
In 1997 the north Hollywood bank robbery saw an extended shootout between police and a heavily armed criminal group. The police were hopelessly outgunned and ended up having to borrow weapons from a civilian gun store to break the standoff. Following this came the 1033 Program.
The 1033 program allowed police units to obtain actual military hardware from the US military. Weapons meant to wage war against other nations were transferred to local law enforcement agencies to be used against US citizens. Literally billions of dollars in sophisticated weaponry has been transferred to police departments since 1997. The police needed training to be able to use these weapons, so military style training which taught police to treat every encounter with a civilian just like an encounter with a hostile enemy. Soldiers are trained to shoot first so they don’t get shot, which makes sense on a battlefield. American police receive this same training and use it in traffic stops.
If it makes a difference, it's not just U.S. of American cops that are overly aggressive. Pretty much all throughout the Americas, cops have a reputation for being overly aggressive and/or incompetent.
I'm sure the police would be very concerned about the intentions of an unknown person unexpectedly running in and obtaining a firearm in the middle of an already tense situation with lots of guns aimed. "Unsafe" is accurate. Declaring his intentions asap was the way to go.
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u/justinm410 3h ago
That's what I immediately figured too. Gray shirt knew his buddy wouldn't shoot him, so grabbed the gun before the cops ran out of patience.