What are y'alls opinions on escalation of force for Police Departments?

I saw in RT news today the Governor of Florida is pushing a bill to estend "stand your ground" to using lethal force in riots.
I like it.

Don't fall into the racism trap on these cases being spread by liberal news outlets and your college professors. None of these shooting had anything to do with race. Call them out on their bullshit. Look at each case individually, and use numerous sources. There is NO racism in any of them.

Police were correct

I have noticed that everyone making a comment about the topic has no clue. For your information profiling is real. You speak on Respect, should not it flow both ways. Does being a Police Officer mean you should not have too respect me? At the time of the shooting the officers had no ideal of his past so was he prejudged. Did they have any awareness of the kids in the car, and if so did they care? And the thing about Race their is only one and it's called the HUMAN RACE. Believe me when I say if he was going to use a knife he would have had it on his person when he was involved in the situation before the Officers arrived. The issue is that Officers aren't being held accountable for their actions. We as former Service members understand being accountable for our actions and the consequences. The Law applies to all.

If you have never walked in my shoes, then you don’t know what we as people of color go through everyday. There is something called the use of force continuum. I see a lot of LEO’s draw their weapon when making contact with people. As a former LEO myself, I would say that sometimes there is overreaction and someone dies. The one statement that saves LEO’s from being prosecuted for any wrongdoing is “I feared for my life”. That’s all they have to say and they will walk, it is a very injustice system. I know we will all have our own perspectives on this issue but we also have to look at everything from the lens of the law.

This may not be everything you are looking for but from what I have seen and read, this is a muddy case at some levels. I cannot find the reason for the original stop and contact, but from visuals and narratives I have seen photos of Blake with the knife in his left hand as he is walking toward the car door, it appeared to be what is known as a Karambit style knife, a very nasty cutting tool for sure. The statement of they found it on the floor would lead me to believe that Blake threw it there as he attempt to enter the car. Tasers were deployed more than once, which history shows that these things do not always work as expected. The escalation of force would have been in play from initial contact given what ever the circumstances were and the attitude of the suspect at the time and how he responded to the officers initial instructions / questions. The first "show of force is the mere presence of the officers, it moves along from there if needed. It is obvious that the escalation moves quite quickly by the use of the tasers, and then the drawn firearms. Now not being there of course is only me second guessing the situation and I am only speaking from experience as a former officer. Scenes like this are highly dynamic in nature and can and do have many players injecting sounds (speech) and action into the mix, so given all of this, it makes for an extremely tense environment. Why did the officer shoot him in the back, I don't honestly know and we may never know the real reason. It would seem to me that hind sight would have dictated that they make other attempts to stop him before he got to the car, because to me shooting him in the back in that moment seems a bit extreme, but you also have to factor in that although he had a knife in hand, they would not have known if he had a firearm in the vehicle within easy reach, so that must come into the decision making process as well, and as others have and will say, officers only have a split second to make life changing decisions and they don't all come nice and rosy. Add to this the woman shouting "He has my baby" into that, and it sends another message to the officers that this may be a kidnapping as well as what ever the original reason for the stop was, that in itself will add many levels of danger and anxiety to the already highly charged situation. To the issue of "systemic" racism, I don't have any information on to whether this officer was in fact a racist or what his outlook on different races was or is, so I cannot speak to that. Is it possible, yes, is it likely, yes, is it true in this case, I hope not, as with any case, but it is the specter that hangs over the heads of all officers. I can sit here and make calls like everyone else on this matter but not having been there does not give me the perspective that I need to make these calls. Would I have handled it differently, I'd like to think so, but cannot say for sure. The job has inherent dangers as does all jobs, but this one generally deals with human nature, and that is not always at its best behavior.

Looking at the number of shootings because they are nervous or undertrained, it's easy to jump to conclusions. There is some systemic racism in the way cases are not prosecuted. Until law enforcement certificates are taken away from officers that go from department to department, these issues will always be raised. There have been some instances of withholding video evidence and lying or misrepresentation of facts for no knock warrants. I don't believe that every officer has issues, but some do. I drove truck for over 30 years, because of the bad press from some, we all had to get a federal driving license, called a CDL. I had my Class One with all endorsements for over 5 years. 3.5 million miles on road with 2 minor incidents that were ruled not my fault by insurance companies. My point is simple, until this those that are guilty are held accountable, all will be condemned everytime a citizen is killed. I read other comments, giving someone with a gun endless shit isn't a reason for shooting that person. My father was a Fire Fighter for 23 years and a Sheriff's Deputy for 7 years before he died. I have experienced cops that were a little aggressive, unlatching their holsters for no reason. I wasn't armed, two of them, and I am 100% Disabled. I have witnessed overzealous enforcement and everyone has seen videos with 10 cops on one guy. How did shooter in Wisconsin walk by all cops and not get arrested? Things like that and lying on warrant for Breanna Taylor don't help. Going to wrong addresses is inexcusable for so called professional law enforcement officers.

Why does the news only tell us half of the story. How many of the police shootings had criminal backgrounds? At least these criminals are off the streets for good. Justice was served. Reality is we have to fight evel head to head. If it takes a bullet to stop them, so be it.

1234

Tough call, but as a veteran we are often put in "At Risk" positions with rules of engagement. Personally, they had numbers and should have been able to subdue without deadly force or called for support earlier but again I don't want to Monday morning QB the situation. Not a big fan of shots in the back and if I were in the situation wait to see the weapon before deploying deadly force. No gun no shoot, if he gets back into the car, let him, clear the area a bit and call back up, then follow. I think we do need improvement on standards for service as well and better training. We have seen some of weaker standards lower force quality in the military as well. That being said officers face violence every day and need to be able to make real-time decisions, the what if scenarios are easy to discuss the day after and experts will always say that they could have done something different. Experts/Pundits rarely have been put in the stressful situations and have the luxury of time and no fear to make their assessment.

Clearly we do have some systemic issues, both in the community that supports and fosters violence and disregard for law and order and the liberty of others as well as the Policing force whose duty is to protect and serve. This can only be handled at the community/neighborhood level. Funny we don't teach civics anymore, we don't expect our neighbors to call out our kids when they are misbehaving. Ad to that Hollywood/Youtube and other areas promote bad behavior as if it is something to be respected. Make a million as drug dealer and your are a pillar of the community...