Okay, so Saturday, if you couldn’t tell, was one of the really big “hands on” days. Here’s basically what we did.
I got there late after breakfast with my dad, then getting locked out of the building. Having missed Tuesday night, I didn’t know where exactly we were meeting, so I had to call the switchboard at the sheriff’s office to get one of the sergeants to find me. Once I arrived, it was the middle of the use-of-force lecture. This was mostly refresher material for me, since a lot of it was covered by the CHL class I took at the Clackamas PSTC. After that, we took a break, then came back for more classroom time going over survival skills. That wound up being a lot of the same material as use of force, plus some more stuff I remember covering in the CHL class (The OODA loop, for example).
Well, we broke for lunch, then came back for the fun stuff: Hands on training.
First thing they had us doing was using training weapons to shoot at a martial arts dummy wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt. I capped Pooh and Tigger. When told to aim for Eeyore next time, I said, “I can’t, my mother would kill me.”
Then they split us into two groups. I went with the group that started in the Range 3000 Use of Force simulator.
You already got the story on this, but I’ll give you a few thoughts. For one thing, even though it’s a simulation, if you treat it seriously, it becomes real to you. You don’t want to screw it up because you’ll be explaining your actions later, for sure. You have to be attentive, noticing threat cues. It’s also true what they say about your senses being heightened when you’re in that kind of stress. The second sim, where he went for the gun, between the time I saw the gun and the time I started firing, I could tell you that he had a .38 special snub nosed revolver in his right hand, was wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, and a red baseball cap, and owned a ford pickup. These weren’t things I analyzed during the rest of the simulation, this is stuff I picked up in the fractions of a second before I dropped the hammer. And, I cannot emphasize this enough, thank a cop. I had the advantage of having my pistol in retracted ready position and Bob beat me to the first shot, had I been drawing from the holster, he probably would’ve done me in. A cop would’ve had to draw and shoot, because there wasn’t anything to tip him off to the fact that Bob was packing this time, save his quick dip to the truck bed. And, to this day, I’m second guessing everything I did in that situation, and I didn’t even shoot a real human being.
Well, after that two people were chosen as volunteers for the next class, where we went in the training room and they were used in three scenarios with them being “deputies” and the one deputy being the “thug”. Well, the first kid got shot twice (he blamed the deputy’s quick draw, I blamed his lack of movement whilst confronting the guy). Then, the girl goes up, seeing the same guy who failed to appear for his court date, and who shot her partner, and after the confrontation, he reaches into his jacket while shouting “talk to my lawyer!” and she unloads three training rounds at him. He was going for a cell phone, at which point, the instructor said, “Everyone take a look at this.” We looked at the scene, she’s standing over his dead body, gun drawn, he lies there with a cell phone next to his body. The trainer says, “Front page of the Oregonian tomorrow: ‘Talk to my lawyer!” with this picture underneath, with a scathing editorial on police violence.” Humorous, but sadly true. The office gave him several opportunities to comply before she shot him reaching for something in his coat (which prior experience would’ve dictated was a gun), but would the media have noticed? No, the dead body with the cell phone makes a better story. :-p
Well, finally, for the last training room exercise, we did what’s called the “box drill”. Basically, they take one student outside, put a box over their head, then set up a scenario. The student is walked into the scenario, has the box removed, and from the second the box comes off, they are to react to the surrounding situation.
First woman goes up. The instructor in the “hit man” suit (that you can punch at) waits with a shock knife in front of her. Box comes off, he flips it on (making a frightening zapping noise) and starts bellowing “I’m going to kill you!”, woman runs off screaming.
Second woman goes up, the trainer’s wife, and is positioned with her back to him. Box comes off, she looks around, and just as the realization comes that he’s behind her, he grabs her. She shrieks, then goes into “stomp & elbow” tactics.
Third woman comes up, trainer stands in corner, she’s placed facing him across the room. Box comes off, he charges at her, she sidesteps, he runs past. I volunteered to go last. Now, putting a box on your head may not sound like a good psychological tool to mess with you, but until you’re there, you don’t even realize…
So I’m in the hall, box on my head, nervous, but I start focusing.
Okay, they’re going to lead me in, the second that box comes off, I’m going to orient myself towards him and come out swinging before he even knows what hit him. He’s twice my size, but I’ll have the element of surprise, he won’t know it’s coming. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Quick right, quick left, knee to the crotch. He’s going down like the Kingdome. I’m going to drop him like a hot rock…
This thought process continued as the lead me in. I counted my steps, trying to remain oriented within the space. The box comes off. “React!”
He is no more than a foot away to the left.
My right arm started back.
I begin to pivot so I get a good line on him.
Before I can cold-cock him, he speaks.
“Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the Max station from here? I’m a little lost…”
I burst into laughter and walked away. The one person ready to meet violence with violence, and I get the guy wanting directions. This earned me many compliments for my restraint, as most everyone agreed it was apparent I was about to nail him.
What followed is my lessons in tasers.
First things first, I’d like to explain a myspace bulletin I made. It said simply this:
Tasers don’t kill people…
…doing stupid things before getting yourself tasered does.
I say this for two reasons.
First of all, if you look at any “taser induced death”, there’s one common denominator to virtually all cases of taser death: the deceased was hopped up on something. In some cases, he was already for all intents and purposes dead. In one recorded incident, the person’s core body temp before being tased was 109. I’m no physiology major, but that’s bad. VERY bad. As in “about to die anyway” bad. It’s not the officer’s fault he kicked the bucket shortly after the tasing, the fact is, the person was about to die. Now he’s just dead and not causing any destruction while dying.
Secondly, I watched 20 people get tasered. All ages, shapes, and sizes. I saw someone old enough to be my grandfather get tased for longer than most of the class, and he walked away from it smiling. I saw a guy ride the lightning for a full five seconds, and he’s still living.
You learn quite a bit in these classes, I again highly recommend taking them in your home area if there’s a department that offers them. It’s well worth it just for the experience you’ll take away (and I’m only three weeks into things!)
Tags: Personal, Writing by Andrew Laine
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