Huntin' season?

Khiel Owens, was shot dead by police officers in Brooklyn on Monday after his mother called police because her son was off his medication and needed help. The community is outraged at another death at the hands of police officers. To make sure our anger isn't misguided I'd like to pose a question to the people:

With Policemen what other force is there but deadly force?

The average beat cop isn't a sniper. We'd love to think they are trained arms men so they should be able to "take out" the bad guy by shooting their leg, have you seen their shooting range targets? They don't practice shooting legs and arms at the range.


The real issue should be the use of automatic handguns by NYPD. Back in the 90's Ray Kelly made the case to keep the 6 shooter Smith&Wesson by pointing out the amount of cop's stray bullets hitting bystanders and the possible increase if 9mm were used. Governor Cuomo bought them anyway. Transit police chief Bratton, issued them for transit cops so it was inevitable NYPD would use them too. At that time Kelly restricted the 9mm to 10 shots and a stiffer trigger. When Bratton took over in '94 he switched to 15 shots and 1 in the chamber.


So here's my plea to Ray Kelly, let's take away the risk of "accidental" killings by officers by restricting the bullets and force needed to pull the trigger. This isn't the wild, wild west, police aren't in full on street shoot outs, there is no need for their handgun to release 3 bullets with a squeeze of the trigger.