Can Our Society Implement a De-Escalation of Force? Part One [View all]

Last edited Sun Apr 10, 2016, 11:15 AM - Edit history (3)

Can Our Society Implement a De-Escalation of Force? Part One of Four

By CompanyFirstSergeant

Part One - The Escalation of Force - 1970s and 1980s

INTRODUCTION

EXT. ENTRANCE TO THE 62ND STREET STATION - DAY

NICOLI staggers down the stairs to the street, unarmed.
DOYLE is waiting at the foot of the stairs.
NICOLI sees him, turns in desperation to run back up.
DOYLE has his .38 drawn. He fires three shots into NICOLI's back.
NICOLI stiffens and falls backward coming to rest at DOYLE's feet.
DOYLE collapses next to him.

EXT. SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF BANK - DAY

I know what you’re thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?

The 1970s

The Godfather. All The President's Men. Dog Day Afternoon. Serpico. Jaws. Arguably some of the best films ever made were made in the 1970s.

Directors and cinematographers used new small, light, hand-held cameras, and had as much disdain for rules of on-location film-making as their on-screen characters had for the rights of the accused.

Does anyone old enough to have seen The French Connection when it first came out not remember having an ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’ reaction to the chase scene? Did you also know that there were no permits for that scene? And that many of the vehicles in the background were part of normal traffic? (Don’t worry, the baby carriage was empty and pushed by a stunt person.)

Does anyone old enough to have seen Dirty Harry when it first came out remember thinking: 'there should be at least some cops around like Inspector Callahan?'

From the streets of New York City to the hills of San Francisco...

and everywhere in between this beleaguered nation of the 1970s...

it was cops…

…gritty, street-smart, rule-bending cops...

that created that thin line between the bad guys and the rest of us.

Or at least that’s what Hollywood wanted us to believe.

And there is the crux of the question at hand…

Does: 1) Popular imagery in media, and 2) the weapons commonly carried by law enforcement…
…have a ‘normalizing’ effect on our perception of which firearms do and do not ‘belong’ in society?

THE 1970S AND 1980S

Murderers, robbers, rapists, pimps, pushers. High quality heroin from south-east Asia flooding the market. Targeted assassinations of police officers. Double-digit unemployment and inflation devastating the economy for the nation’s poor.

Crime was rampant, and the cop’s job was a tough, thankless task.

During that time, the revolver was king.

Police officers throughout the eastern United States were issued, by and large, six-shot fixed-sight .38 Special revolvers. Police officers on the west coast of the United States preferred the option of adjustable sights on their .38s. In the mountains, where four-legged critters outnumbered the two-legged variety, the .357 Magnum was the cartridge of choice.

Sure, military guys had an affection for the Colt 1911 semi-auto handgun - ‘the .45’ - and some old timers still even carried single action revolvers in some western outposts.

But for the most part, the .38 Special revolver was the go-to sidearm for our nation’s law enforcement, and that set the tone for our nation’s firearms enthusiasts, and the media, as well.

Civilians purchased so many revolvers back then, that both Smith & Wesson and Colt were chronically backordered. Snub-nose five-shot .38’s were carried by detectives, Model 10’s were carried by beat cops, and six-inch barrel .44 Magnum revolvers were carried by… well… nobody.

And also, incidentally, the biggest ‘bragging right’ of police officers back then was that ‘I never fired my service revolver outside of the range in 20 years on the job.’

1986 CHANGED ALL THAT

The 1986 FBI Miami shootout was a gun battle that occurred on April 11, 1986 in an unincorporated region of Dade County in South Florida between eight FBI agents and two serial bank robbers. During the firefight, FBI Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan were killed, while five other agents were wounded. The two robbery suspects, William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt, were also killed.

The incident is infamous in FBI history and is well-studied in law enforcement circles. Despite outnumbering the suspects 4 to 1, the agents found themselves pinned down by suppressive rifle fire and unable to respond effectively. Although both Matix and Platt were hit multiple times during the shootout, Platt fought on and continued to wound and kill agents. This incident led to the introduction of more powerful handguns in the FBI and many police departments around the United States. (Wikipedia)

Actually no…. more powerful handguns were not the ultimate result of the Miami shootout.

Originally blamed was the supposed inadequacy of .38 Special ammunition, and later, the inability of the six-shot revolver of any caliber to keep up with the increased firepower of the criminal element. As a result, the FBI led the nation on a ‘one size fits all’ quest to upgrade the firepower for their agents, and ultimately, the nation’s allegedly ‘outgunned’ police officers.

At first, the FBI explored the possibility of more powerful handguns, but ran into similar problems as to why the ‘.45 Colt’ was never adopted by law enforcement.

Large caliber semi-automatic handguns are tough to shoot. At first, the ‘ten millimeter’ was seen as an upgrade in power, but officer trainees developed ‘flinches’ that would interfere with accuracy, and more importantly, simply hated shooting guns that big.

From there, the FBI went to the .40 S&W (for Short and Wimpy) and many departments took a cynical view of this untried specialty cartridge and settled for…

The 9mm (nine millimeter) semi-automatic handgun.

ENTER GASTON GLOCK

The 9mm cartridge – originally known as the Parabellum – was invented in 1902 by George Luger, a German inventor. It has marginally more power than the .38 Special, so over the next few years of the mid-to-late 1980s, it will take a panel of experts to distinguish this new technology from the old school hardware.

That’s why the world called upon an Austrian curtain rod manufacturer with an expertise in polymer technology to solve its most pressing problem in the war on crime.

Gaston Glock’s handgun was supposed to appeal to law enforcement agencies as being a dead-nuts basic firearm – or in the vernacular of the time ‘revolver simple.’

Ugly as a bar of steel, and made half of ‘plastic,’ Glock’s new development appealed to no one, and satisfied pretty much everyone. It had no external safety to flick on-and-off, field-stripped to a few basic parts, and was cheap. Police departments love cheap.

It also – in its most popular law enforcement model (the Glock 19) held sixteen rounds without reloading. Nearly the same amount of ammo was onboard a Glock that used to be carried in the gun and on the belt of a police officer with a revolver. And the typical officer carried two extra 9mm magazine of ammo, each carrying 15 rounds apiece.

EFFECTS OF INCREASED FIREPOWER ON POLICE OFFICERS

In training, officers (and armed civilians) who carry revolvers are taught that ammo conservation is paramount. After six shots, your gun is ‘dry’ and will require a reload. Even with the advent of speedloaders, reloading a revolver – especially under pressure – is a stressful event. For those precious seconds, the gun is useless, the reload procedure is filled with audible clicks of the gun opening and closing, and worst of all - six 'bangs' is not a very big number to count to, even for bad guys.

With the Glock (or any other semi-auto, for that matter) the reload process is only required after fifteen or so rounds are expended, and a reload can be accomplished with a loaded gun.

Training- and culture – changed.

No longer was ammunition conservation of paramount importance. Getting lead downrange was.
Nor was marksmanship stressed much either. The old style of training was to start off close-up to a target, and only after proficiency was developed at short ranges, would the officer trainee move to greater distances.

Following the Miami Shootout, training, or so it seemed, was designed to re-fight that very battle.

Trainees would begin in a vehicle. Shots (in the form of banging on the car’s roof) would be fired. Suppressive fire over the fenders would come next. Then the trainee would move ever closer, for more and more accurate shooting, until the final shots – two to the body and one to the head – would be administered for a definitive kill.

To be continued...

EDIT: Please note I have re-formatted this essay to be spread over 4 installments, not 3.

Link to Part Two: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172189973