Officer faces-discipline for failing to de-escalate

[WillBrink]

This is apparently the new thing in LE by in some areas, and no doubt will expand as time goes on, which will cost lives to LEOs and non. A friend of mine is in a PD that's close to this one, and they follow the SOP of Seattle and he's pissed as could be as you might guess. I can't a imagine a better conclusion to a robbery by a mentally deranged an with an ax than this, yet this LEO is in trouble for how he handled it:

SEATTLE - Newly released video shows a dramatic police takedown, and raises new questions about whether one officer acted courageously or went too far in his attempt to protect the public.

Officer Nick Guzley now faces discipline for how he subdued a man armed with an ice ax. A complaint was filed about his failure to de-escalate the situation. However, other officers have said he made the best of a bad situation, and no one ended up getting hurt.

http://komonews.com/news/local/video...ces-discipline

The goal is to have us end up like this some day:

[Vandal]

That has become the standard for Seattle PD. You can do everything right, follow the policy manual and still get bent over for "failure to de-escalate". A Seattle PD buddy of mine caught paper, they wanted to suspend him for a couple days, when he and his partner put a handcuffed female on her belly after she kicked him in the groin. It was all on the dashcam but the LT still wanted him roasted for excessive force.

Seattle PD supervisors are incredibly out of touch with the guys on the street and they will try to give the patrol officers the Blue Weenie every time they can. All in the name of looking good for the brass and vocal super libs in Seattle. At least Seattle PD is paid well to deal with that level of BS. The rest of us working in King County feel for their struggle. They have also been working without a contract for several years.

The dude with the ice axe would have been shot anywhere else.

[RetroRevolver77]

They should de-escalate the situation when able to do so.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

In today's anti-police culture, you'd expect a situation that very well could have ended in deadly-force, that does not, would be praised. I suppose that officer could have given that man 1 million dollars and he'd be in trouble for it not being more.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

They should de-escalate the situation when able to do so.

Yeah, I think every cop agrees. I think every attempt was made to deescalate an armed individual refusing commands here. What do you think?

[WillBrink]

That has become the standard for Seattle PD. You can do everything right, follow the policy manual and still get bent over for "failure to de-escalate". A Seattle PD buddy of mine caught paper, they wanted to suspend him for a couple days, when he and his partner put a handcuffed female on her belly after she kicked him in the groin. It was all on the dashcam but the LT still wanted him roasted for excessive force.

Seattle PD supervisors are incredibly out of touch with the guys on the street and they will try to give the patrol officers the Blue Weenie every time they can. All in the name of looking good for the brass and vocal super libs in Seattle. At least Seattle PD is paid well to deal with that level of BS. The rest of us working in King County feel for their struggle. They have also been working without a contract for several years.

The dude with the ice axe would have been shot anywhere else.

It's now spreading to others PDs in the region. To quote my buddy "We are now modeling our program after Seattle police and they have literally told us in training that we want to let the suspect drive the course of our actions which is ridiculous..."

Per usual, that type of stupid rarely remains contained.

[Vandal]

They should de-escalate the situation when able to do so.

De-escalation is a two-way street. If one party doesn't want to, it can't be done without force.

[WillBrink]

They should de-escalate the situation when able to do so.

No one says otherwise, but LEO took a personal risk to body slam that idiot, and should be viewed a big success for it vs what happened.

[Averageman]

Security workers for the store called police to report that a man had just stolen an ice ax, then threatened one worker with it when she tried to stop him from leaving.
Police tracked the man outside the store and called for back-up when they too were threatened.
"He's been looking back at me, and he's holding it up like this like he's going to swing it at me," said one officer during the body camera recording.
In response, the man can be seen on the video turning to face the officers while holding the ice ax over his head.
Moments later, once the man turned back around, Officer Guzley rushed up from behind and made the tackle.

I'm not sure at what point you can menace Store Workers and LEO's with a deadly weapon and assume it's all going to turn out for the best?
Honestly, having used an ice ax a time or two, I might prefer not to be hit with one, it's going to penetrate deeply and if you take it in the torso, its likely as not to kill you dead as a door nail.
I wouldn't have blamed the officer had he drawn his service weapon and shot the assailant. He truly had that one coming.

[RetroRevolver77]

Why is the officers or store worker allowing themselves to be within arms reach of some idiot holding an ax? Have some common sense.