No, this is not a joke.
First, read the story from the LAPD.com/blog:
Police Commission tells officers to run away, or else
By LAPPL Board of Directors on 09/21/2016 @ 04:44 PM
Run away. If a police officer is confronted by a suspect with a weapon, those entrusted to set policies for the Police Department believe officers should run away. That’s the recent finding from the Los Angeles Police Commission which has turned Monday morning quarterbacking into a weekly agenda item at the three-ring circus they preside over every Tuesday morning.
In the Commission’s most recent decision on an officer-involved shooting, in which a suspect charged at two officers swinging an 8 to 9-inch knife, they faulted the officer for not “redeploying” to “create distance.” In plain English: the officer didn’t run away.
Stop right there. This is not unlike the “duty to retreat theory” some states utilize to adjudge whether or not to charge you, a person inside your own home, with a crime should you use deadly force against an intruder.
That is to say, one of the critical questions asked will be: “did you retreat to the furthest place away from the intruder and there were no other options or areas of escape, before using any amount of force as a last resort?”
If the answer is “no,” in some states with no “stand your ground” laws you may be prosecuted for using force against an intruder. In your own home.
Here is a vitally important paragraph in the article:
Chief Beck, who has absolutely no problem finding fault with officers, agreed with these officers’ actions. The Commission, with a grand total of zero years of experience in law enforcement, overruled the Chief’s decision. The Commissioners created an alternative set of facts that acknowledged that the officer was right to believe his life was in jeopardy but found fault with the officer shooting the knife-wielding suspect because the officer should have run away. Pathetic.
“But found fault with the officer shooting the knife-wielding suspect because the officer should have run away.”
The last paragraph is the most critical:
The message the Los Angeles Police Commission is sending to officers confronted with a violent and dangerous suspect is clear: You can save your life or save your job, but you cannot do both. You choose.
This decision will be one of a rapidly-growing number of decisions emanating from civilian police boards around the nation when dealing with the application of police use of force issues.
Citizens of the United States, prepare yourselves for the ramifications.
BZ
