How Can People Kill Another Human So Easily?

I knew that was coming

 

So, in your previous lives, you never had sexual intercourse with a female???

Edit: I need to qualify that with a

 

Depending on certain sets of circumstances, I can understand someone's desire to kill, as an act of revenge.

Like this one for example, where a father shoots his son's abductor and abuser in the head.
Gary Plauche - Wikipedia

But it would have to be a very extreme situation to convince me when a murder can be justified

 

Back in circa 624 they didn't call me Irminsul the Brutal Rapist for nothing.

 

You were a legend in your own mind.

 

I was too young to remember much of 624, but I remember people speaking of you. I thought you were a myth!

 

....also...

Rock beats scissors

 

Yeah but, nothing beats jesus.
If rules aren't announced then nothing beats jesus.

 

Just beat it

 

I'm not sure if you're being serious, or facetious. I'm going to respond as if it's the former. If it was the latter...please feel free to disregard this!

The police officer could not really discharge his firearm, while aiming at her leg(s). In order for anyone (police officer or civilian) to justify discharging their firearm, there must be a valid threat/fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury. Since discharging a firearm represents the use of deadly force, one has to show justification for the use of that force. To shoot at a subject's legs, would be to suggest that he did not perceive an immediate deadly threat, which would indicate that his use of deadly force was unwarranted. If an officer (or civilian, by rights) discharges his firearm, he *will* be aiming for COM (Center Of Mass). (There are of course circumstances where an officer *may* be justified in applying deadly force when his life, or anybody's life, is *not* being immediately threatened...such as if a very dangerous violent offender is fleeing a scene, officers might use deadly force to stop that.) This is also why the use of "warning shots" has been deemed illegal. (In most, if not all locales, I believe.)

And, there's more. To begin with, hitting a moving target, as small and quick moving as someone's leg...is a bit problematic. Not impossible, of course. But...what happens if he misses? A pair of scissors stabbed into him. Maybe once...maybe multiple times. And...even if his bullet strikes the leg...will it stop the assailant? If it doesn't break the bone...they may still close the distance and stab the officer.

It's extremely simple to sit in our comfortable living rooms, and dissect the actions of an officer. (I'm not saying that's what you're doing, mysticblu21. I understand that you're frustrated and dismayed at the outcome, and you'd have liked to have seen a happier solution. Me too! Also...while I understand the gun is more likely to be lethal...a pair of scissors can *absolutely* cause a lethal wound! And, as far as it being "fair"...well, she's the one who chose a pair of scissors as her weapon. She's also the one who made the decision to attack an officer, who was armed with a handgun, using her scissors. Anyway...) But when you're faced with an angry person, who *refuses* multiple requests/orders to drop their weapon, and who then, beyond all reason and logic...charges at you, even while they are aware that you're pointing a gun at them...your main concern becomes survival. And you have an entire one or perhaps two seconds to make decisions that will impact you (as well as the subject, obviously) for the rest of your, and their, life.

In hindsight...I wonder if the officer was carrying a Taser? If he had used it...might that have defused the situation? I don't mean after she came around the counter and charged him...it might have been too late then, even if he'd had it in his hand. But, if he had used a Taser while she was still on the other side of the counter, but was refusing to drop her weapon...might that have worked? Or...might he have been dragged over the coals for using force, *prior* to her actually moving aggressively? You can see he was trying to disorient/blind/distract her by shining his flashlight in her face.

Definitely an unfortunate situation. I wonder if she was "on" something, or was suffering from some sort of mental condition? This is the sort of situation for which they're constantly trying to develop a new and more effective "less-than-lethal" type of device. Now that officer has to relive and remember that night, for the rest of his life. And, he may be facing a civil action, as well.

 

So these individuals are evil from birth?

 

It's widely accepted that it's much easier to kill someone with a gun than a knife, the gun is usually fired from a distance, even a short one, therefore making it less personal, whereas to use a knife requires the perpetrator to be up close. When I was younger I was involved with some people who well lets just say were not very nice.Long before it became almost fashionable to carry weapons I new people that did, I was quite aggressive myself at one point, but some of the people I knew would shoot you just for looking at them the wrong way.
One day I was at a relatives house helping him to carry out some building work, there was me, my father and my uncle, things were going great until late afternoon when one of the neighbours began to swear at me over the fence, "come round here, I'll fucking sort you" he yelled waving a large wine bottle, I could tell he was pissed and wasn't having any of it, he continued shouting and swearing, finally I'd had enough, "if you want a go, you come round here" I replied, I may have been bloody annoyed but I was still thinking clearly enough to remember a piece of advice I was given years earlier, 'never go onto someone else's property, because you're instantly seen as the agressor'. It was this advice that was to keep me out of prison when events took a very nasty turn later that day!
About 10 minutes later I heard a yell, the neighbour was coming down my uncles drive, and it wasn't the bottle he had in his hand, it was a bloody great knife! He attacked my uncle, stabbing him in the arm, my father went to tackle him and got stabbed in the hand, then as they struggled he stumbled and fell backwards onto the car bonnet. The bloke lunged at his chest with the knife, I had to do something, but he was a lot bigger than me and almost twice my weight.
I jumped on him from behind as he thrashed about wildly with the knife, repeatedly stabbing the bonnet of the car, I managed to get an arm around his neck and applied pressure, within seconds he dropped the knife, not only that but he sank to his knees and then fell over. I jumped up and kicked the knife out of the way, someone had rung the police when it all kicked off, then they'd rang an ambulance just to be on the safe side.
My uncle was bleeding and so was my father, we rolled the bloke over as he wasn't moving, he was blue and not breathing, we began mouth to mouth and CPR, it seemed like ages before help arrived but the medics confirmed what we already knew, the man was dead! The police arrived and made us stay where we where while they investigated, it was all looking rather nasty, and since it was me who'd got hold of him, well it wasn't looking too good for me. I remember I was about 16 at the time and really didn't fancy spending the next 20 odd years in jail.
The guys family stayed next door but his wife rang his brother who arrived soon after, oddly enough though he didn't blame me, he just wanted to know if I was ok, and if my dad and uncle were ok.they were treated by the medics and fortunately didn't need to go to hospital. The brother then spoke to one of the coppers and asked him to check his brothers criminal record, he'd got loads of convictions, mostly for domestic violence and throwing glasses at barmaids in pubs! Apparently his favourite passtime was to get drunk in the pub then either attack the bar staff or go home and beat up his wife and kids, he really was a nasty piece of work.
Apparently his brother had told him on numerous occasions that one day he'd pick a fight with someone either bigger or fitter than he was, and this was that day, the whole family were more concerned about us than him, it was all very odd.
They took the body away and performed a post mortem immediately, it turned out he'd had a heart attack, the pathologist said he was so drunk that he'd been having the attack before he started the fight, but was so drunk he hadn't felt any pain. None of us were charged with anything although we were told we could have pressed charges against the neighbour for attacking us, this seemed a bit pointless under the circumstances though.
As everyone was leaving I remember one of the coppers coming up to me, "you were lucky there son, if you'd have gone round to his house you'd have been coming with us" he told me. Thank god I'd remembered that piece of advice earlier, I took no pleasure in what happened, it still botheres me to this day, many years later I was doing a job for someone, it turned out it was the man's daughter, she didn't recognise me and we got talking about the events that day, she bore me no animosity over what had happened even then.
What happened that day changed my life for ever, it made me think a lot more before I act, yes there are times when I'd love to smack someone, but I generally walk away, I don't ever want a repeat of that day.

 

Hmm I don't think people are born evil, but I believe those traits and characteristics can and do unlock in people throughout their lives and different experiences in life that trigger those traits, characteristics and emotions. Whether abuse trauma, emotional abuse/trauma and so on.

Kinda like a dog who's abused and you raise your arm and it cowers. It's conditioned itself to fear and cower, thinking it's going to be hit. Absolutely terrible, but that trauma has unlocked the characteristic trait to cower. The trait is so far developed it is now instinctual.

And that's where the saying comes from, you don't know how much fight somebody has in them until they're at rock bottom. Same as evil. You don't know what somebody can do, no matter how terrible, until you're presented in the same dire situations they've been through. And still you might not even understand it because we're all wired differently and this is why the majority of you aren't axe welding lunatics, unlike me in my past lives.

 

Seeing them as evil monsters, inevitable ones even is very counterproductive in understanding and dealing with them (probably why executing such criminals was such a popular 'remedy' over the cause of history). I agree with GB most so far. It's circumstances and situations that cause people to do stuff like this. The psychopathic ones are mentally disturbed one way or another. Others indeed traumatized or so badly wronged they have a sickening urge for revenge, etc. etc.
It's often put that seeing them as evil or monsters is merely an attempt to distance them from ourselves. But if we were so unlucky to have gone through the same circumstances and situations i think we will see we have the same potential.

 

Is evil a... skill someone can learn?

 

A grown man couldn't subdue a woman with a pair of scissors? Fuckin' hell. Pitiful excuse for a cop.

 

Not being evil is a skill!
I was a little **** when I was a kid.

(conditioned through violence at home)

Didn’t think twice about it at the time.

I grew up. I hate it now.

But when you’ve had the fight knocked out of you........
When you piss yourself with fear.
You learn to use whatever you can, whatever is near. What you don’t learn is when it is appropriate to use such force and method.
Then my age hit double figures!

wasn’t all bad though!
But, there is one death I would like to see.

There is one human.

 

Civilisation can go without evil. We're too young.

 

Evil is a human concept of, it seems, a certain state of mind. Or perhaps more so for the thoughts and actions. I think if one lacks conscience it gets far easier to do stuff that others call evil. It's like being harmful for no reason. And if there's seemingly no reason people (used to) get the supernatural into it sooner or later (as you know often connected to evil), hence the slightly different meaning of the word as opposed to a 'bad' or harmful person. So no, wouldn't call it a skill.

 

That doesn't quite add up with our taught human history.