At ABC's town hall event on Thursday, Democratic candidate Joe Biden had a plan to deal with the so-called problem of police brutality. Instead of training police officers to shoot violent suspects in the center of mass, Biden says police officers should just "shoot them in the leg."
"So, instead of anybody coming at you, and the first thing you do is shoot to kill, you shoot them in the leg!” Biden exclaimed.
Biden's "idea" came as the candidate threw out ideas on how to de-escalate the use of deadly force by police officers.
It's a pretty bad idea, but bad ideas thrive in the Democratic Party. A "minimum force" bill was introduced in the New York State Assembly earlier this year requiring police officers to "shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg," and to shoot "with the intent to stop, rather than kill."
Police are trained to shoot violent suspects in the center of mass, the torso area, to increase the likelihood of hitting the target and neutralizing a deadly threat. It can be hard enough to hit a target when someone isn't trying to kill you, so it's ridiculous and unrealistic to expect police officers to aim and hit an individual in the leg or arm. Such a policy would decrease the likelihood of officers neutralizing a violent threat, jeopardizing the lives of officers and anyone else involved.
But these are the kind of dumb, deadly ideas that may very well become law under a Biden-Harris administration.
While President @realDonaldTrump was debating Savannah Guthrie, over on ABC, @JoeBiden suggested police officers shoot violent suspects in the leg to "de-escalate circumstances" instead of "shoot to kill." pic.twitter.com/mvQGR6ZVVt
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2020