LATimes in 2224-word front page article: “Officers, critics split on ‘edged weapons threat. LAPD is scrutinized over fatal shootings of people who showed signs of distress and weren’t holding a gun.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-13/lapd-shootings-edged-weapons

This “news” paper has become frankly anti-police. But even so, this article goes a bit far.

• The article assumes that people are split on whether edged weapons – knives, swords, machetes, etc. – constitute threats. The Penal Code defines them as deadly or dangerous weapons. And as anyone except a dedicated progressive knows, they are capable of killing or inflicting serious injury.

• The article assumes that people “who show signs of distress” are somehow less dangerous than people who are calm. In fact, psychotics and people under the influence of drugs are probably more dangerous – less logical, less moved by appeals to reason, less afraid of injuring themselves.

• The article assumes that health professionals could do better than cops. I know of two instances that occurred in my hospital. In one, the physician was approached by a violent patient wielding a broken bottle. The physician saved himself and others from injury by kicking out the man’s knee. In the second instance, a female physician was examining an agitated patient. He bit down on her hand and would not release it. A strong woman, she socked him in the jaw and saved her right hand from being gnawed off. She did sprain her left wrist in the process, however.

Here are two cases where the problems occurred in a hospital. The problems were solved by health professionals, but not by medical means. Fortunately, both were prepared physically and mentally to defend themselves. Fortunately, the LATimes did not get hold of the stories. Otherwise, the physicians would have been pilloried for harming their patients.

• The article assumes that edged weapons and impact weapons – hammers, baseball bats, etc. – are dangerous only if the offender is standing right in front of the intended victim. This is false. As the Tueller Drill shows repeatedly, a person with a rubber knife can cross at least 21 feet and “stab” a trained officer who is expecting the attack, but who cannot draw his gun in time.

Everything seems easy sitting at a desk in an office, where the worst injury is hurt feelings, and the deepest wound is a paper cut. In the real world, injuries can be disabling or fatal, and decisions must be made in split seconds, not with the benefit of reflection and hindsight.

Watch this video. Then watch it again, imagining that a man “showing signs of distress” is running at you with a knife in his hand. Your right to self-defense is inherent in your God-given right to life, whether you wear a blue uniform, hospital scrubs, or casual clothes.

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