A story came up that struck me in a unique way this morning.
The story is about a police officer who encountered a person with a knife, told the person to put the knife down three times; but the guy didn’t. You know, it wasn’t like the knife guy was trying to attack or something; but the officer shot him, and he is dead.
I’ve heard the comments before from people about “Well, it’s only a knife. How could somebody with a gun do that? That’s an unfair advantage.”
Well, the bottom line is I have been taking a few martial arts classes, and one of the things that I am getting to learn is how to defend yourself against a knife attack — and not that I am any expert; I am just a neophyte beginner — but one thing that strikes me is how dangerous a knife can be. I mean, you and I can intellectualize it till the cows come home; but there is nothing like facing someone with an actual blade that will slice you into ribbons.
Police officers are out there putting their life on the line for us all the time. And
it’s easy for you and I to sit here and pontificate about what they should have done. Unless you’ve lived it, don’t even talk, because the second that police officer says “Stop”, you better stop; and if they say “Put down that knife”, you better put it down, or you get what you ask for. There is no way they should take chances with their safety because somebody won’t obey their command.
I hope things turn out well for this police officer, and it just makes me grateful again to anybody who serves us in law enforcement who walks up to that car they’ve pulled over, never knowing what’s going to happen.
My heart goes out to the families who have suffered losses of police officers doing their duty to protect us, who are many times way too ungrateful.
The bottom line is and what I teach my kids, if the officer says to do something, do it, and do it quick.
