Rss@dailykos.com (lizbirge) · Saturday, December 10, 2016, 10:23 pm
For years the country has heard stories of black men being shot by white police officers who never face charges, or who are acquitted at trial. In May, a white police officer in Weirton, West Virginia, confronted with a man holding a gun by his side, relied on his military training and tried to talk a man intent on committing suicide by cop into putting down his gun.
And for that he may have been fired.
"... I say, 'Drop your gun. Drop your gun,' "(Officer Stephen) Mader told NPR. "And he said, 'I can't do that. Just shoot me.' And I told him, I said, 'I'm not gonna shoot you, brother — just put down the gun.' "
So even though Mader didn't know what (Ronald D.) Williams' girlfriend told 911 — that the gun was empty and the man was trying to commit "suicide by cop" — Mader didn't shoot.
Police get trained on de-escalation, but in that moment Mader was leaning more on training from the Marine Corps and experience in Afghanistan. That knowledge can be a key difference between police officers with military backgrounds and those without.
The rules for engagement—for using force—are different in the military than in most police forces.
In Afghanistan, the rules of engagement sometimes were stricter than use-of-force rules for civilian police in America. Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer who studied the military's rules of engagement in Afghanistan, said that especially was true in the later years of the war.
"There was an emphasis on winning hearts and minds, and focusing more on stabilizing communities and protecting the civilian population," Gaston said.
In Weirton, Mader still had those wartime rules in mind. The Marines had taught him to wait for clear hostile intent before opening fire, something he didn't see from Williams.
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