When I took my Law Enforcement classes in High School one of the things my instructor did was put us through exercises where he was in the back room and armed with an airsoft rifle, and we would have to enter the room and either shoot him or arrest him. Even knowing it was only airsoft rifles and I was wearing a bullet proof vest it was still extremely stressful. I can't tell you how many times I shot or how many times I was shot (a lot), I made poor decisions and choices, and in the end my partner and I were both "killed". Now of course I was only 16 and I had nowhere near the training that the officers did but the moral of this story is "extreme tension" makes you do stupid things.

Yeah, but seeing a truck that doesn't even resemble what Dorner is driving and just opening fire on it doesn't count as "extreme tension."

It counts as making a mistake. The stress led to a mistake is all I'm saying. So many seem to think that police are terrible people (#pigs) who want to exercise their authority over civilians and that they just did this because they could. When police are people who are willing to put their lives on the line everyday to protect and serve a society that treats them like crap and only wants them around when someone has wronged them. They wouldn't just shoot them for shits and giggles, they made a mistake. I know it's certainly a "wut?" moment when you compare the two trucks and I'm sure the officers have asked themselves how they could have made that mistake a hundred times. And it's not like they're going to just get off scot-free I'm certain that there are punishments being dealt out behind the scenes. I'm just saying that mistakes happen. That doesn't make all police or even these officers bad people.

You're just as bad for idolizing police as if they are gods who all deserve respect no matter how dumb they are. They ALL enforce unjust laws like drug prohibition, some of them are good, a lot are bad. They are normal people like you and I, and their actions define them. They are just as susceptible to corruption and just as capable as being as good as any normal citizen is capable of doing good and preventing crime. We should ALL be the police. It's time I go to work. I am an armed security guard just to put that out there.

I don't idolize police I respect what they do in serving a community that hates them. I have never said they are "Incorruptible champions of justice who can do no wrong". Yes any citizen is capable of doing good but how many actually do something about it? How many sacrifice so much to do what they can to help a community that thinks they're all bad guys. I think that you're just as bad for thinking all police are pigs and deserve to be shot for trying to do their job and can't base each one on an individual basis. You're taking out your teenage angst and edginess that should be directed at the government because you can't buy and smoke weed freely out on the officers that likely didn't join up so that they could arrest potheads and annoy people who don't do anything morally wrong but something legally wrong. They joined because they knew that they had the capacity to do good like all human beings but unlike so many decided to do something about it rather than just passing it off on another. Yes there are bad cops and to me a bad cop is just as bad as a bad soldier and defaces all the good that the good ones do in the world. You don't care about the good though because Big Brother says you can't light up a joint whenever you damn well please and sends his cronies to keep you from doing so. An officer has my respect until he does something to prove that he or she doesn't deserve it. Does one mistake, even though it is horrific, make these two men terrible human beings? No it means that like anyone they can make mistakes and unfortunately they made a huge mistake and it's on display for everyone to see. It's very likely they'll lose their jobs over this and that they'll spend their lives as social outcasts because of a mistake. Is this mistake justifiable? No. But it is understandable when you put yourself in their shoes. It is an odd mistake but until you are approaching what you believe is a man fully willing and capable of taking your life then you don't know how easy it is to make mistakes.

And my main point... These cops may have made a mistake but they need to be accountable and have charges of attempted murder and spend a very long time in prison, which would happen to a citizen who tried this.

Circumstances are different. These cops were doing their job and made a misidentified and jumped to a conclusion about an armed and dangerous suspect. They should have done better in identifying the suspect and this whole thing could have been avoided but they didn't. This was not attempted murder if they had died it would be more along the lines of manslaughter because it was not done with malice.

Except you are not supposed to fire until your life is in direct threat. This did not happen here. They fired on completely innocent people who did nothing wrong. I see you quickly shut up with the irrelevant babble when you realized how idiotic you sounded. Smart move.

No I stopped responding because I'm tired of the "All cops are bad" was getting old and I have other things I'm doing at the moment. Also I thought you had work mr. "I'm a n armed guard" (Because on the internet you can be whatever the hell you want) I am very familiar with the rules of escalation and deescalation with the police. Let's go through what happened here: The officers saw a truck similar to that of an armed and dangerous suspect. They have been participating a giant manhunt for some time in fear of their lives as well as those around them. They made the mistake of engaging a suspect at the wrong time, and it was not who they thought it was. Clearly the actions of 2 people demonstrate the actions of not just all cops but all humans (because all humans are capable of great good and great evil) and therefore all humans are evil and we should have no officers and no laws so camanator can smoke a bowl whenever he feels like it because The Man is trying to put him down. They made a lot of mistakes here and clearly there mistakes show that all police are corrupt. They're most likely going to lose their jobs and have to find something new to do (but who wants to hire two cops who -blam!-ed up this royally?) and they got a break in not being charge with anything at the moment. Which doesn't mean that they're out of the woods because by this time tomorrow one of those women could die from wounds and they could be charged with manslaughter.

The thing is, your instructor was armed and "dangerous". And you knew that he was, as well. Police officers' training is meant to teach them how to manage the tension that they feel. It doesn't matter that there was tension. That's not a legal defense against attempted murder.

This suspect was armed and dangerous he'd already killed 3 people. And we didn't know he was armed per se. We had been told there was a suspect in this house and it was likely he was armed and we had to arrest him or had to wait until he shot at us to shoot back. Unfortunately they jumped to the conclusion that this was the man who had already killed 3 people and it's very likely they had shoot on sight orders, and they turned out to be horribly wrong.

Cops don't get "shoot on sight" orders for trucks. I don't know if "shoot on sight" orders are something that any cop would get at all. Given that the cops couldn't clearly tell that their suspect was in the car, they should be treated like anyone else who fired a gun into an occupied car without provocation.

I agree and like I said it's unfortunate that they jumped to the conclusion that it was his. All I'm trying to say is that they're only human and made a terrible mistake and they're not getting off scot-free. They're human beings and can make a mistake. I get so sick of seeing people bash cops and say they're horrible people and etc etc. They're mistakes are just more on display for the public. I'm not trying to say they should hold no blame for this but just that people shouldn't judge them and all officers by a single mistake. This one mistake does not make them bad people. Also the shoot on sight thing was me being overly dramatic.

You're right. They're human and made a terrible mistake. But so is everyone in prison right now. They paid for their mistakes, why are these cops being let off? I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't judge all officers by the mistakes of a few. But I do judge the system that claims that no one is above the law, and then doesn't prosecute certain people for committing crimes that other people would be locked up for.

The reason it's not going to persecute them is because the circumstances are different. Most people in prison didn't shoot the wrong people by accident when there was a crazed killer on the lose they were trying to stop. I agree that it does seem hypocritical of the system but as I've said the circumstances are different. It's likely that they'll lose their jobs and all but it doesn't seem right. And just look around in here and you'll see people that judge all cops for the mistakes of a few.

Tension and stress don't justify murder or excuse a person of accountability.

I'm not saying they do. You seem to think they just shot them because they felt like it and knew they would get away with it. I'm saying that they made a mistake and you can bet that they're paying for it behind the scenes. All I'm saying is that tension can make a person make mistakes and that they wouldn't have done that on a whim like people seem to think they did.