The New York paradox

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Street Survival Insights with Dave Smith

By Dave Smith
Lead Street Survival Seminar Instructor

The events of last week and this in New York City are a reminder of the curious politics that officers face everyday across this nation. The deaths of two unarmed volunteers and the indictment of three officers present the sharp contrasts of liabilities the law enforcement profession faces in both the US and Canada.

The volunteers, unable to defend themselves with deadly force as they rushed forward to help the victim of a shooting, were not only gunned down but were actually executed by the malicious perpetrator of the shootings. The fact this is portrayed to the Nation on security camera photos adds to the trauma all should feel when watching two brave young men murdered by a perp who is eventually stopped by full fledged crime fighters with their firearms being deployed in defense of themselves and the community.

The national media rightfully portrayed these young men as heroes, but left unanswered is why they are rushing to a shooting unarmed? New York is a city of gun laws, all designed to make the streets safer. Such laws are always well intended but also deprive the innocent a force option to defend themselves, their businesses, and their families. These laws have not disarmed the criminal, the insane, the gang banger, or even the citizens willing to take a risk and carry a gun to protect their own lives. The Mayor is suing gun manufacturers to further the attempt to control guns under the theory that such things actually work.

It is not Newsline’s goal to debate the merits or failures of gun control here, but to show the odd liability created for those who carry guns specifically on behalf of their community to protect themselves and the lives of the innocent…when there is an underlying hostility by the elite of a populace to the weapons carried by those tasked to protect them. What has been missing from the reporting of the tragic loss of the two young volunteers is a lamentation that they were not carrying deadly force. No comment that had these young heroes been armed they might have not only saved their own lives but stopped the threat to the public immediately upon their arrival!

The next bombshell to hit the airwaves was the indictment of three NYPD officers for the killing of a “groom” on November 27th last year. It would seem the officers must have walked into a wedding and shot “the groom” but the facts are dramatically more complex and the media as well as the Mayor have focused on a very narrow set of those facts to make it very difficult for the public to decide anything other than the officers must have had bad intent.

In fact, the investigators were not at a wedding but at a high profile problem bar and were facing men who they believed were armed. The media doesn’t mention most actions that night other than the number of shots fired by the officers which only shows they were not gaining control as quickly as they perceived they needed it! Something was making them fear for their lives but little is said of that. One of them had been struck by the “groom’s” car and a police car had also been rammed by the same car.

You will hear a great deal more of this in the coming weeks since riots have been implied by certain leaders if the indictment and trial don’t go the way they wish and it is our hope the facts are finally weighed in a balanced and fair manner, but our fear is the law enforcement officers following this odyssey will have one more reason to hesitate, ponder, to worry, as they are drawing their weapons to save their lives or the lives of others, “am I within policy, will I be okay legally?”

You must be ready to use deadly force without hesitation to defend your life and lives of others and to do that you must ignore the odd aversion the media has to your using a firearm to do so and odd scrutiny they may apply when it fulfills their needs to sensationalize any story. As a warrior the only things you truly control are yourself and your actions; do that, stay alert, always WIN!

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