patrick.net

"Auburn police said Melissa Boarts charged at them with an unidentified weapon Sunday, prompting an officer to open fire and kill her."

She wasn't exactly sitting there meditating when they shot her. Given her state of mind, the only thing that a person trained in handling mental illness would have provided would have been as a possible victim to the suicidal woman's knife-wielding rampage. What if the officer had been fatally stabbed? That would have been okay because she's "depressed?" Give me a break. She's has no more right to live than the officers present at the scene. She attacked them. They simply responded.

I guess if you want to end it, charging cops with a knife is one way to go.

That happened in HUntngton Beach a few years back. Moral of story: don't call the cops for every little thing. They have one tool (a gun) so every problem tends to look like it needs shooting...

Quigley says

They have one tool (a gun) so every problem tends to look like it needs shooting...

Exactly. Disarming and incapacitating a single person with a knife is a trivial problem when you have dozens of people with body armor, nightsticks, tasers, net guns, huge body shields, etc.

Quigley says

Moral of story: don't call the cops for every little thing. They have one tool (a gun) so every problem tends to look like it needs shooting...

A family member sitting in a vehicle about to end their life (and possibly that of other motorists) isn't "every little thing."

Dan8267 says

Parents called 911 to help suicidal daughter and police shoot her

Dan logic......Police always at fault. They intentionally murdered her for target practice.

So the real culprit was the training they give police. Shoot first, shoot to kill, ask questions about the corpse later.
It all reminds me of a scene I observed about a year ago. We are in a restaurant, two cops come in, one older and the other one younger. The older guy looks about typical for a middle aged dude, sports a sidearm and a stun gun on the other hip. Younger guy is taller and ripped, looks tough, only carries a sidearm, no stun gun. My take-away is that the newer cops don't consider subduing a suspect in any way other than killing them. The older cop wasn't nearly as physically imposing, but he was ready to take a suspect down with non-lethal force. The younger cop was packing heat only, no secondary restraint necessary.

Strategist says

Dan logic......Police always at fault.

The police did not handle this well. If you think they did their job well, you are an idiot.

It is not difficult for people with body armor, tasers, and nightsticks to take down a single person they vastly outnumber who is only wielding a knife. Nor is it that difficult for a person well-trained in firearms to shoot to disable rather than kill. The police fucked up, as usual, and a person needlessly died. If you are okay with this, then you are an asshole.