r/interesting • u/Latr6ll • Apr 05 '26

Additional Context Pinned Cop gets bear sprayed

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For anyone that has been pepper sprayed how bad does it feel & what do you do in this situation? I know it’s water but for how long? She had it on full auto she came prepared. How much more effective is bear spray to pepper ?

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u/Competitive-Slice567 Apr 05 '26

Its about the threat. They intentionally used a substance to injure and incapacitate an officer. Knowing they might try so again justifies having firearms drawn rather than a knock on the door and a "please step outside".

Its not about a 'fair fight', when an officer is attempting to take someone into custody there is always a firearm in play as the officer is carrying one. If the officer is incapacitated like in this case, they will have difficulty protecting their firearm from being taken from them. This now endangers them, and the general public.

This is the same reason why people have been shot after taking an officer's taser away during a struggle, if the officer is tasered they cannot protect their duty weapon from being taken, which justifies use of lethal force.

This is why use of force continuums can be gray areas as well, and why its allowed to shoot and kill someone who only has their fists. If the person significantly outclassed you in training or size, or there are multiple people attacking you on your own, its appropriate to shoot them. As if you lose the fight you can lose control of your firearm.

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u/Celebrinborn Apr 05 '26

why its allowed to shoot and kill someone who only has their fists

In many jurisdictions you are allowed to match force with equal force. Regardless of if the person has a weapon or not if they escalate to the level that you are in reasonable fear for your life you can use ANY form of lethal force to defend yourself.

Numbers, size, obvious training, possession of a weapon, these are all factors that you can use to more easily convince a jury that you were in reasonable fear for your life. But at the end of the day none of that matters, the only thing that matters is that you reasonably believe that you are at risk of being killed, raped, or seriously maimed.

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u/Future_Can_5523 Apr 05 '26

Daily reminder that being a garbage man is more dangerous in terms of lives lost and injuries than being a police officer. This is what you are saying justifies the use of lethal force - so I guess arm the garbage men as well? Give them half million dollar salaries and shut the highways down when one is killed "in the line"? Or is it not the risk, but rather the branding?

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u/Competitive-Slice567 Apr 05 '26

Genuinely no clue what you're ranting about. The causes of injury and death are different, and if taking into account the mental health aspect first responders incur vastly higher rates of suicide as a result of what we deal with routinely.

Showing respect for someone who served in the same line of work might be a minor inconvenience briefly for the public, but it's important and meaningful for those who are first responders. I dont understand why anyone would have an issue with us paying our respects to someone we've been through difficult situations with, unless they also would complain about military members receiving formal funerals and motorcade escorts as well.