Tuesday night was another devastating one for the City of Brotherly Love. The moniker seems a cruel irony these days as “protesters” tore through several business districts in the city like a storm of locusts through a field. The looters use the sincere outrage of solid citizens as cover for their evil acts, but if they knew the facts, perhaps the outrage would fade – and with it, the fuel for this lawlessness. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”24″]…they’re supposed to shoot the guy who is going to stab them to death![/perfectpullquote]
Mr. Walter Wallace Jr. was killed because he was coming at police while armed with a knife. No amount of training or de-escalation roleplay can change that from an existential threat to the lives of the officers to something else. Perhaps if the police responding to Mr. Wallace’s home for the third time that day were equipped with Tasers, they might have been able to use them before shooting Wallace. Philadelphia’s mayor and city council have budgeted Tasers for only about a third of the roughly 6,500-member force, and none of the officers who responded to calls about Mr. Wallace were in that third.
No Need to Wait for More Facts
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that it was unclear what officers who responded to the most recent call knew about Wallace. “There are several questions that need to be answered,” she explained, “including what the officers knew when they responded, what was put out by radio and how any previous contact with Mr. Wallace factored into yesterday.” Why? It’s worse than heartbreaking to see this killing and hear his mother’s plaintive wail as she, too, witnesses it. But look at Mr. Wallace and what he did – what room is there for confusion?
Mr. Wallace stalked the police on the scene and went after them while armed with a knife. He was close enough to kill them and advanced on them with seemingly criminal intent. Absent the use of some non-lethal implement – which we know these officers didn’t have – the indicated response for all police in that situation is to apply deadly force in return. Put colloquially, they’re supposed to shoot the guy who is going to stab them to death!
Tueller Drill
In 1983, SWAT magazine published an article that would become famous in police training circles and is still used today. Dennis Tueller laid out the prospect that an average man armed with a knife can cover 21 feet and attack a police officer armed with a firearm before they can draw and shoot the aggressor. You can see for yourself with a trip to the dollar store and a measuring tape. Mark one spot on the ground and then another 21 feet away from the first. You will need a water pistol and a red magic marker. The marker is the knife. Can you make a mark on the person with the water-pistol before they can draw and squirt you? Yes, and that’s why police shoot people coming at them with knives well before they are close enough to touch them.
If you try the exercise, keep this in mind as well. When shot, attackers are rarely stopped in their tracks. A person with a knife or club may still deliver a fatal blow even after being shot.
The video of his demise displays the police officers trying to put distance between themselves and Mr. Wallace. Without ambiguity or fog, we see that police are not chasing him but running from him. Why? The only reason is they didn’t want to get stabbed or, alternatively, to have to use deadly force.
Clear instances of police abuse, like striking those in custody, need not be investigated before they are denounced by police and political leadership. Complicated cases, on the other hand, should be investigated, and vigorously so. There are, however, easy cases to clear, too. Not easy on the hearts of those who loved the dead – it will never be easy on them – or the police officers who took his life. But those feelings can never change the fact that it was the deceased who chose his fate here – not the police, who merely acted in self-defense.
It is easy to see that this shooting was legally justified. Police and political leaders should say just that, explaining why. They are welcome to copy and paste, provided they follow Liberty Nation’s republishing guidelines.
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Read more from Scott D. Cosenza.
