\n\n\n\n\n\nA novel proposal for police reform: police forces should raise physical requirements and in particular have size\u00a0requirements for field officers in order to get field officers who are more capable of manhandling encounters. This will encourage and enable police officers to go for more nonlethal restraints and tackles rather than shooting.
Brought to you by my reading reports that Ma\u2019K the Knife weighed 230lb and the police officer who shot her weighed 190lb.\u00a0\u2018he should have tackled her\u2019 yeah why don\u2019t you go do some martial arts practice with people who have 40lb on you and no restraint.
(That is not the only objection, to be clear. Gun, being a ranged weapon, is frequently the superior thing to use regardless of weight when trying to stop a stabbing outside of arm\u2019s reach.)
I feel like 3 hours of mandatory martial arts training per week and an hour of range time would do a heck of a lot more vs functionally ending women in policing and cutting a lot of perfectly functional short officers.
When I was at my dojo in LA the sensei mentioned this cop would come in for private lessons, stuff with grappling and disarms, and we were in the once-infamous Rampart District, and “a cop who gets physical with guys in his free time as a hobby” sounded sus but later I’m realizing that guy is spending his own time and money learning countermoves and joint locks and other stuff to make him confident enough to deal with people up close without holding a gun on them
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