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A comment on Pistol sights. Parent comment

Re:Pistol sights by duncan_bayne on Thursday June 15, 2017 @07:21PM (#14565312)
"but if a police officer completes all his training correctly and tries his hardest to make the right decision in that pivotal moment, but makes a mistake and shoots when he shouldn't, then he's sentenced to life in prison if he is held to the same standard as a civilian"

But that's the problem! The civilian shouldn't be going to jail, either, should they?

That is, I don't think the standard for prosecution for killing someone should be different for civilians and police.

Some would fix the problem by giving the police special immunity; I'd fix it by changing self defence laws for everyone.

Or perhaps, to put it another way, under what situation could you imagine yourself as a juror convicting a civilian of murder, but acquitting a police officer who acted identically?

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Re:Pistol sights by ethanhunt_ on Sunday June 18, 2017 @03:24AM (#14579446)
> Some would fix the problem by giving the police special immunity; I'd fix it by changing self defence laws for everyone.

Thinking about that for a bit and it sounds reasonable. A cop should only be shooting someone if he believes his or someone else's life is in danger and that's the same standard as civs in most states.

Perhaps cops in the US have more protection with their unions and such. I assumed that there must be a difference between US and UK because UK officers are refusing to carry whereas US aren't, but that difference might be that US officers get fired if they refuse to carry.

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