awrote: . Excess force (should he have let him run?). I guess not, someone who is racing away from the police should be red flagged and shot if needed.
I have not heard that the police have claimed a warning shot was fired. First I've heard of it. Nor do I automatically accept as gospel the word of any policeman, and I'm afraid especially not in Taiwan. Sorry Taiwan, but that's the way it is.
It's my view that shooting someone should not be regarded as a method of simplifying the arrest procedure. Other than life-in-danger scenarios, I can see where it would be in the public interest to shoot an armed absconder who might use his weapon to cause death or injury, for example by taking a hostage. Guidance on the use of firearms issued to police on Planet Earth make it clear as a general rule that opening fire on a suspect is a very serious matter, and not part of the routine arrest of an unarmed suspect, even one offering resistance. However, the police here do not appear to employ alternative "soft" ammunition, tasers, dogs, or helicopters in the general course of things, and it does seem that if a good battering with the nightstick doesn't result in submission, then the next step is opening fire with the pistol. I didn't think that was the case but now I know. It's a matter of "do as I say or I'll shoot you". I'm guessing 99% of Taiwanese cops would not have opened fire, and the matter would have concluded with a visit that night or next morning to the suspect's residence by the FAP. The whole shooting match doesn't appear to me to have added very much to the administration of justice in Taiwan.
From the cop's point of view, it would have been perhaps an unacceptable loss of face to have bent the baton, and then had the suspect get back on his scoot and make off home. Rather than traipse round to the registered address of the bike, or have referred to the ID documents in the dropped wallet, the cop made the decision to shoot the suspect thus bringing the episode to a swift conclusion. This is perhaps what happened. I don't know.
My bottom line is that I don't approve of the police shooting people unless it is absolutely necessary to protect life or prevent very serious injury. With several family members in various police forces, however, I wholeheartedly support the right of police to shoot-to-kill people who point guns at police or anyone else. I do not want to live in a society where arrest procedures routinely involve the discharge of firearms and where petty criminals go about tooled up in preparation for the inevitable gun battle with police if there is an attempt to apprehend them. Therefore, my opinion and engerim's opinions are diametrically opposed to one another. The debate on policing will I'm sure rage on, although not much in Taiwan it seems. This is because, I am sure, most people do not have the police pointing guns at them on a daily basis. I grew up with police and army pointing guns at everyone every day and being searched at gunpoint at roadblocks in the dark and even upon entry to shops and I don't like it a whole lot. So I am rather biased on this point.
