New Orleans police: Shooting unavoidable

Normally I don't comment on such incidents here, but this is too often the case in such incidents in the U.S., and of which the world is well aware.

I live in a city not too unlike New Orleans, save the poverty, (Amsterdam), but the number of times police must shoot someone can easily be counted on the fingers of one hand in a year's time. And....there will be one or two shots fired, aimed at disabling the person and only as a last resort. Not the 10 shots reported here, which are not meant at disabling, but "taking him out". If this report is accurate, the police behavior would not at all be acceptable here.

This highlights one of the differences between police methods in the U.S. and western Europe, and also contrasts the traditional cultures and the methods allowed by these cultures and governments. While the governments here also often wield too much power, it is more subtle and much less violent and intimidating.


The New Orleans Police Department was quick to distinguish Monday's fatal shooting of a knife-wielding man by police officers from the string of incidents that has battered the department's reputation since Hurricane Katrina.

"This officer's life was in imminent danger, and they did what they had to do," spokesman David Adams said in an interview Tuesday. The officers involved have been reassigned, and the incident is under investigation, he said.

"They ordered him to drop the knife, and he just kept backpedaling," Adams said. "Then he lunged at an officer, who had to step back to avoid being stabbed in the chest." That's when police fired. The man suffered multiple wounds, and 10 shell casings were recovered at the scene, Adams said.

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