With so many witnesses I'm not sure what the other two could offer up
With so many witnesses I'm not sure what the other two could offer up
Gotcha...Makes sense
New video showing the start of this altercation.
http://www.koco.com/news/30404441/detail.html
No excuse for what happened to officer Peery, but this video does show some discrepancies to the originally reported story (as I remember it). I didn't see anyone holding the door keeping people from coming to Peery's aid. The fight also appears to start like most bar fights - guys mouthing off to each other and both equally engage into fisticuffs (though we can't hear what is actually being said).
Another example of when emotions take control lives can forever be changed in an instant - regardless if you're an off-duty cop, a thug in a bar with a chip on your shoulder or even a pharmacist just going about your day when you get robbed. Too bad we don't have ways to train ourselves with regard to high stress situations so we know how we react and through that being better able to maintain calm and the ability to make good decisions.
Such ways do exist, and some 65 years ago were implemented nation-wide: "universal military training" was the program, and the intent was to follow the Swiss example and have every able-bodied male in the country undergo a minimum of 18 months active duty and total of six years in the reserves (I remember it as six but it might have been eight total). It became law shortly after the end of WW2 and remained in effect for quite some time afterward. It was still so when Korea broke out, but by the start of Vietnam had become far less universal. As the mood of the nation turned anti-militaristic, UMT quietly went into the trash bin of history.
There's no question, though, that the basic military training did prepare one for high stress situations. The live fire course, for example, where the trainee must crawl under real machine-gun fire, produces significant stress in which physical survival depends on remaining calm and making good decisions. Without taking any position pro or con regarding the long-term aspects of such training, there's little doubt that it produced an outcome of emotional stability under extreme stress...
There is a broad downward trend in civility in the United States, and the worst cases result in deaths. I recall a recent study in New Orleans that investigated the causes of their high homicide rate. It turns out that the victim and perpetrator didn't know one another in most cases. Two people simply got in an argument, and rather than seek ways to diffuse the situation, both parties escallated immediately to lethal force.
"You lookin' at my wife?"
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it?"
Out come the guns/knives/bats/chains...
In Officer Peery's case, perhaps things weren't so different.
"You guys need to take it outside."
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it?"
"I'm a police officer - I'm telling you to take it outside or you're going to jail."
And the fight begins.
Violent crime has been trending down for quite some time.
It could be better but I always like to point this out because to listen to the incredible about of news that flows 24 hours from all directions you would think we are in much more danger than when we all were children, while the opposite is in fact true.
Also, about 75% of murder and sexual assaults are by non-strangers. Considering that studies show that crimes by non-strangers are much less likely to be reported, you can bet the huge majority of violent crimes take place between people who know each other.
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