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News Brief - The “Split-Second Decision” Trope: Why Every Media Outlet Does the Exact Same Police Puff Piece on Shooter Simulators

In this Patron News Brief we discuss one of the most played out local news tropes: dopey local reporters trying out shooting simulators that allegedly “train” officers for “split-second” “life or death” decisions. But, as internal police PR admits, they are far more about good P.R. than preventing violence.

News Brief - The “Split-Second Decision” Trope: Why Every Media Outlet Does the Exact Same Police Puff Piece on Shooter Simulators

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In case you were worried these pieces would die with local news channels, rest assured the YouTubers are all aboard this trend. The almighty algorithm served me this video a few months ago, "I Tried FBI Academy" complete with shooting simulator segment. The video has 12 million views and counting. https://youtu.be/zfbU-1hpnP8

Cree Merr

The other thing these shooting simulators also do is reinforces the well established USA legal precedent in Graham v Connor (I think I have the name right) and probably poison a jury pool as well. And that is: cops can't be held accountable for thinking in these "split second decisions" that the victim had a gun. It doesn't matter if any of the actions leading up to that clearly stated that they didn't have a gun - if the cop believed in that "split second" they did, they're completely immune from the law if they used their guns to kill people. It's a few years old now but for anyone who wants to dive down this rabbit hole, should listen to this WNYC podcast: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolabmoreperfect/episodes/mr-graham-and-reasonable-man

Alex Hogg

This really reminds me of prep-ers. They all have these end of world outcomes in there head that line up with there skills and passions. They assume an outcome then model a narrative around that outcome. These stories assume the outcome that if you’re a cop it is likely you will have a need on duty to pull your gun and discharge it. When survies done of cops show only 27% actually fire their guns on duty. It would take these reporters a quick google search to realize most cops never actually get into a split second situation much less have a need to fire their weapon. These people are just reporting press releases which I guess is the shows point.

Ben Gialenios


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