News Brief - The “Split-Second Decision” Trope: Why Every Media Outlet Does the Exact Same Police Puff Piece on Shooter Simulators
Added 2022-08-17 16:03:46 +0000 UTCIn 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.
Comments
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
2022-08-18 13:21:54 +0000 UTCThe 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
2022-08-18 06:37:35 +0000 UTCThis 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
2022-08-17 17:58:52 +0000 UTC
