This shit breaks my heart. All three parties were being courteous and the officers professional. I know Swanee specificly wanted to avoid the suspects decisions, but I have to say, whether cops made a mistake or not, it is clear that if the suspect allowed handcuffing, he would not have a bruise on him.
On to more genral thoughts about police use of force, inspired by this discussion, but not meant to critique these two guys.
First, redit and most everything coming out of the recent marches is wrong. YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO SHOOT A SUSPECT! I am so tired of hearing this blatant lie. The police right to use deadly force is the same as the one that governs you and me. So, according to Tenn v Garner, to use deadly force police must have probable cause to believe a suspect poses a DEADLY threat to the officers, or others. Under that law, you could shoot someone running from you, evening in the back, if you truly thought the guy was going to be a deadly threat to others. I have seen those scenarios in judgmental shoot simulators such as FATS. BUT it is just not true that you can shoot a suspect simply to effect the arrest. When my father was a cop back in the 50s and 60s, the law DID allow for shooting a fleeing suspect. Interesting history behind that common law permission. But it was changed by Tenn v Garner. Every cop knows it by heart. If you carry a person firearm you better know the law yourself.
Is a dude running from you with a taser a deadly threat? Probably not, I think. It was mentioned that a taser could incapacitate an officer and his weapon be taken. True. That is a consideration. Same consideration if you were hit by pepper spray. In the video it looks like their distance was at the very edge of effective taser range. I know of only one model taser with two shots.
Tasers firing sound like a gun shot, you can hear it in the video. It is why in most agencies you are trained to yell "Taser, taser. taser", time permitting, so the taser discharge does not initiate sympathetic gun fire from other officers. If someone is running from you in the dark and turns, points a gun like object at you and it makes a gun shot noise when fired, you might mistake it for a gun shot. If your suspect has run from you at cuffing, before search, that he ran from you with a stolen taser does not guarantee he did not grab a gun from concealment while he ran. Having a concealed gun would be a good reason for running from a simple DWI arrest.
Officers are taught some two man defensive/cuffing tactics. It must be said, like anybody, a cops actual competency will decrease after training unless they work at maintaining their sills. We see this in aviation. How often you sit with NATOPS and study, or talk to the maintainers about advanced systems? Cops no different. Some take private martial arts lessons and some pay their own money to go to advanced firearms courses. Most don't. Thing went south on cuffing. It is the most dangerous time. Up until then most folks thing they are going to get a warning or ticket. Once you go hands on to cuff, that is when they will resist. Not many suspects just take a swing at you while you are talking, working your way through the interview/investigation. Once a guy resists, generally the tactic is to take them to the ground and control the hands. No one was ever stabbed or shot by a person holding a knife or gun in their feet. Most fighting skills learned by police are grappling skills designed to get someone in custody, not beat anyone up. Using a closed fist on a suspect is rather rare.
SOF guys that are amazed that cops don't spend more time on things like paintballs should not be. Soldiers/Seals have NOTHING else to do but train. They have almost unlimited budgets. Cops have to patrol the streets, investigate crimes, and endless other duties, all on a limited budget. Every hour they spend training is an hour off the street. Should they do more/? Sure, in some case, and most guys want the training. IT isn't going to happen under "defund the police" initiatives. But that is for the city council and state legislatures. Except for the smaller agencies, everyone has seen force on force via paint ball or simunitions at lest once. Shoot houses are very common. If you are on a high speed no drag kind of tactical unit, you get a lot more training for obvious reasons.
Why not arrest a guy coming out of Subway? Well, sometimes they do. Often they don't because of the innocent citizens that they would put in danger. There are also more variable which you have no control over. Sometimes, they need to get a guy in his home or other location to get him "with the goods" to make the case for prosecutors. Wait for the suspect to come out of the drug house to arrest him in the driveway, sure, and his buds then shoot at you from the house. Cops, especially the SWAT type guys, are very safety conscious. They would not bust down a door if they didn't have to.
