An LAPD Officer-Involved-Shooting and the Case for Less-the-Lethal Weapons – UPDATED

THE LAPD OIS AND A VERY UPSET COMMUNITY

On Sunday about midday, some LAPD officers responded to a complaint near MacArthur Park and said they saw a man threatening people with a knife. LAPD spokespersons said that one of the officers told the man to drop the knife, when he did not and appeared to lunge toward officers, one officer shot the guy twice. The alleged knife-wielding man, a 37-year-old Guatemalan construction worker named Manuel Jamines, who is a father of three, died at the scene.

Some witnesses are now saying that Jamines, tdid not have a knife, or if he did. he did not pose a threat. Still others said Jamines was a habitual drunk and a nuisance, but not someone whom anyone considered dangerous. Residents also told reporters that Jamines didn’t speak English so, even if he had the knife (police say they recovered one at the scene), he would not have understood the command to drop it.

UPDATE: Police say that Jamines was given the command to drop the knife in English and Spanish.

Knife or no knife, a great many community members are deeply upset and say that the shooting was simply not necessary.

Robert Lopez, who has been covering the story for the LA Times, spent much of Labor Day reporting on the demonstration at 6th Street and Union Avenue, near the site of the shooting, where angry residents protested the shooting while LAPD cops in riot gear arrived to keep things calm.

Which brings us to the second story…..

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AN LAPD LIEUTENANT MAKES THE CASE FOR A NEW LESS-THAN-LETHAL WEAPON

Also on Sunday, the Daily News ran an op ed by LAPD lieutenant Sunil Dutta of the LAPD, in which Dutta talks about a new technology that, had it been available, might have conceivably saved the life of Manuel Jamines, whether he had a knife or not.

Sunil Dutta is an officer whom I know to have exceptionally thoughtful and informed opinions when it comes to police matters. In his essay he tells about a contraption that he says the LA Sheriff’s Department is testing. It’s called an “assault intervention device”, that the LASD claims will “prevent inmate violence without incapacitating or injuring combatants.”

Dutta says that, although the ACLU has some legitimate concerns about the use—and possible misuse—of the device, which uses a “tight, focused beam of microwave energy” to cause “an unbearable sensation,” but if used properly, will not cause lasting physical harm.

It is nicknamed the “pain ray,” made by Raytheon, and reportedly the military declined to use it. (A slightly alarming sign.)

Dutta, however, calls the new LASD version “promising” and says that the focus should be on training that will prevent its misuse. In essence, he says, the good outweighs the potential bad,

Dutta writes:

Consider, for example, a suspect who is holding a gun to a hostage’s head. Currently, the only option available to resolve the situation is to use deadly force. However, the technology that uses a focused beam of sound could disable the suspect without firing a shot.

Which brings us back to Manuel Jamines:

Right now the device is way too big to fit in, say, a holster. But it’s still in the development phase. (And about to be tested on LA County jail inmates.)

So, if officers involved had possessed a kind of mini “pain ray” (which Raytheon says it is working on) would Jamines still be alive now?

One would like to think so.

This, in turn, brings up just one more point….

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ARE BETTER EDUCATED COPS LESS LIKELY TO USE FORCE?

Zach Behrens from LAist reports about a new study on the issue:

A police officer with just a high school degree is more likely to use force — verbal threats, grabbing, handcuffing, throwing to the ground, shooting, etc. — on a suspect than an officer with some college education, a study in Police Quarterly has found. But results also concluded there’s no difference when it came to arrests or searches.

The same study noted that years on the job also tended to make officers less trigger-happy.

Here’s a link to the study itself.

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UPDATE: CHIEF CHARLIE BECK GIVES A RUNDOWN ON WHAT HE KNOWS RE: THE JAMINES SHOOTING

The LA Times’ Joel Rubin attended the press conference given by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck regarding the shooting death of Manuel Jamines. The rest of the details are here and Beck promises a very thorough investigation. But on first bounce, this sounds like a tragic but technically righteous shooting.

Here’s a clip from Rubin’s article:

The officers rode to the corner of Sixth Street and Union Avenue, observing the man as he continued to threaten people with a knife, Beck said. They confronted him with their weapons drawn, ordering him repeatedly in English and Spanish to drop the knife, according to Beck. The man instead raised the knife over his head and advanced toward the officers, at which point one of the officers fired two rounds.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. In response to a reporter’s question about whether the officers could have used nonlethal weapons to subdue the man, Beck said bicycle officers frequently do not carry with them the selection of beanbag rifles and other weapons found in a traditional patrol car. It was not immediately known whether the officers were equipped with Taser stun guns.

As with all officer-involved shootings and other serious uses of force, investigators from the department’s Force Investigation Division will spend the next several months investigating and re-creating the shooting, and compiling their findings into a report.