LATimes front page: “LAPD errors led to deaths, analysis shows.” Front page of local section: “LAPD could face reforms after summer of protests.” And so it goes.

In one case, man walked down busy street with knife in hand, looking around as if drugged. When cops arrived, he rushed them. They shot him from 12 feet away. Police Commission – civilians with no police experience – decided that cops should have waited for reinforcements and made a better plan. Wait while crazed man waved knife near bystanders? Really? Better plan? Plan to do what? And if they had waited, and the man stabbed a bystander, what would the learned commissioners have said then?

Tueller Drill: Man with rubber knife rushes trained cop from 7 yards – cop can’t draw gun before man “stabs” him. Cops in incident above shot knife-wielding man at 4 yards, much closer. No reinforcements or plan could alter the fact that they were in immediate danger of death or serious injury. I’ll bet that the learned commissioners never heard of the Tueller Drill.

When police officers are sworn in, they undertake heavy responsibilities and agree to follow strict rules. However, they are NOT removed from the basic protections of the Constitution and laws, which descend from English Common Law. When someone – even a cop – is attacked with a deadly weapon, he or she is allowed to meet the attacker with deadly force.

Cops are required to risk their lives in the line of duty. They are NOT required to give up their lives in order to please chair-warming paper-shufflers whose only experience with knives is carving a turkey.