What is expected of cops?

If you search on Google (or whatever your preferred search engine is) about police brutality you’ll see new cases everyday all over our country, not any state is immune.

We mainly see police brutality on innocent blacks because of the organization Black Lives Matter has made it their mission to make it known about the prejudice against their race. This issue is not new by any means, its been all over social media. For example #SayHerName, in reference to the Sandra Bland case. Our politicians like Bernie Sanders or President Barack Obama has been up front about police brutality and the measures that need to be taken in order to improve everyone’s safety.

One case in particular caught my attention that was made public earlier this month. The case occurred on June 6^th, in West Virginia.  A cop, Stephan Mader, was fired from the Weirton Police for not shooting an armed man.

I am, like most people, see articles and videos on police killing innocent people all the time and have become almost numb to situation because it doesn’t seem to improve and appears almost hopeless to me. However, when I came across this one my eyes widen with disapproval because a case like this is just so rare.

Police officers get away with killing people all the time with out reason but when a cop actually does what he’s supposed to do he gets fired?

Outrageous.

Now that begs the question, what are cops expected to do while on duty? Are they supposed to kill everyone in hostile situations or are they supposed to keep the peace or a combination of both?

I’m under the impression that they are supposed protect and control the situation as best as they can without using deadly force.

Mader was fired for “[failure] to eliminate a threat” and putting his fellow officers in danger.  He didn’t shoot Williams (the black male victim) because he yelled “just shoot me” and Mader read the situation as suicide by cop and saw Williams trying to make himself a martar of some sort for the black community. Therefore he didn’t shoot Williams upon request. When the other two cops arrived they shot Williams instantly.

In my opinion Mader should’ve been given a medal and the two officers who arrived on scene with him should’ve been put on at minimum administrative leave for “jumping the gun” for lack of a better phrase for killing someone who was only a threat to himself.

When the situation went under investigation it was discovered that Williams gun was in fact not loaded. Now there is no way that any of the three police men on scene could’ve known that William’s gun wasn’t loaded, however, with or without this information is either side justified?

Now this begs another key question, when are cops supposed to use deadly force?

Mader was fired for basically not being hasty with his weapon. Police officers are trained to shoot at center mass of the suspect for greater chance of hitting their target but never shoot-to-kill as most people think. They shoot at center mass not only for greater chance of hitting the suspect but also to prevent danger to either fellow officers or civilian on scene. They don’t (despite televised cops) shoot-to-disarm for multiple reasons. The first being that it is incredibly hard to aim for the limbs on a moving target and actually hit it, second being that say they do miss the limbs a bullet can harm an innocent bystander in which case every cop is responsible for every bullet they let loose.

In any situation cops think on their feet and pass through every scenario for action they could perform. With that being said what are your expectation of your local cops? Do you want cops like Stephen Mader or like Jeronimo Yanez who shot Philando Castile.

The choice is yours.