After reading this thread, I have a few blanket statements-
First, give yourself some dignity and do not call LEO's "pigs". It degrades the user of the term far worse than using it to label a LEO.
From there, I again remind everyone who is judging that they have the luxury of hindsight, your chair, and Hollywood movies to base your opinions on. Oh, mind the lack of experience, too.
Someone mentioned the driver was "lit up brighter than daytime", I'd like to point out that no he wasn't. The flashing lights, shifting shadows (other traffic, glare, reflection, etc), and noise can all play tricks on your eyes. Trust me. Go back and listen to the passing cars for the noise and pay attention to how the lighting changes. No, it isn't giving the LEO a free pass but what some are claiming as "obvious", isn't. Again, hindsight is 20/20. Never forget that. We can sit here and say "He should have...", or "I would have...", etc. The LEO didn't have that luxury.
"This is what happens when the cop was: 1) Poorly trained; 2) Overly paranoid and frightened.; 3) Unable to use reasoning skills under stress" - 1> The LEO probably had 12-15 weeks of nothing but training in laws, scenarios, communication skills (PR), weapons (5+ weeks alone), first aid, etc, etc. He was highly trained, but possibly/probably short on experience. I do not know. 2> Paranoid and frightened? Perhaps, I don't blame him. It is not easy being around people that would rather slit your throat than look at you on a consistent basis. 3> Unable to reason under stress??? Too quick on the draw? Maybe. Even though I've been in enough situations similar and I have not drawn and fired, I will not fault the LEO. He did what he thought he needed to do. On the average, officers have less than a second or two to make life saving decisions. For this one video that turned very bad for both the driver and the LEO I can show you dozens more videos that turned out very bad for a complacent LEO due to a hostile driver.
For those of you spouting off on the LEO's lack of accuracy- I say *again* that under stress the motor skills go to Hell. Try it sometime. Stand on a firing line, 7 yards from your target, and have your buddy stand behind you maybe 20 or 30 yards back and shoot a paintball gun at your back. Tell me how good your groups are when someone is firing at you. No, this LEO wasn't being fired at but he thought he was going to be fired upon. As far as his accuracy goes he fired 8 times in a short span at a target 20+ yards, under the stress of "driver is going to shoot". It is the same -hair standing on the back of the neck- feeling when the adrenaline kicks in. I've only been shot at with simunitions and paintballs. They both hurt like a **** and I knew I wasn't going to die if I got hit, but my accuracy went to Hell in a hand basket when I heard that "pop pop pop" of the sim-/paintball gun. Breathing becomes harder, vision becomes tricky, fingers get heavy and actions become delayed. Oh, and the mind and the body don't always communicate worth a hoot, either. Been there and done that. FWIW, try hitting a target at 20+ yards with 8 shots in under 3 seconds without any stress. See how well you do.
My biggest pet peeve with how LEO's are trained is the "rapid fire" in which they/we are taught. I've disagreed with more than one instructor on the pace of what is and is not an appropriate rate of fire in different scenarios. Mind you, I did it off the line in order to not show disrespect and I did it in a discussion and not a debate format.
