Let me put it simply, she met the level of deadly force so deadly force was used.
It is a shame a person values their own life so little as to put themselves into that position. It sounds like some on-going, probably untreated mental illness given the history of domestic calls and the text messages about satan. Sad that she was walking the streets unsupervised rather than having someway to receive the mental health treatment she needed.
Of course, how such a person gets needed treatment in a libertarian/anarchist society would be an interesting if uncomfortable discussion for those who hate government. Personally, I'm a huge fan of private charity, but also recognize that some government run (ie taxpayer funded) welfare is probably needed in a civil society.
Long gone are the days when police actually tried to find a solution without harming someone.
Sounds like the cops tried to use their taser and it failed. Sounds like before that, co-workers had tried to calm the woman. It appears that the officers attempted to talk to her, though for how long I don't know. A friend of mine who is a police officer has told me how talented he is at getting compliance with verbal requests and that reaching for either his taser or his gun are very last resorts. Another friend who works as a probation/parole officer has related a similar sentiment while also noting the somewhat unique "needs" of many who are "in the system". In my interactions with street cops while OCing I've never gotten any sense of any desire to use force if it is not needed.
That all said, I wonder if the rate of cops being faced with deadly force has increased in the last few decades. Or if their use of deadly force in such cases has actually increased, or whether we are simply getting more coverage of such incidents thanks to the combination of the 24 hour news cycle and nearly ubiquitous cell phone video cameras.
I'm sincere in this query. Do you or does anyone else have any stats on any of these things? Would such stats even have been kept 20 or more years ago?
How are the rates of mental illness among those walking the streets compared to the days before we closed down our mental facilities and turned a bunch of folks loose in the late 70s?
Even when shooting them is justified. The deputy is not guilty of a crime, but our society is guilty of lack of empathy for our fellow human beings. This is not just a police problem, it is a society problem, people would rather solve their problems with violence instead of reason.
It is a social problem. Why even on this site I've seen someone be so lacking in empathy as to strongly criticize a private citizen for not having what it takes to pull the trigger when he was, demonstrably, able to resolve a situation without pulling the trigger. How ironic (a nicer word that hypocritical) for that very same person to turn around and criticize the cops for using deadly force when their attempt at a Taser failed to subdue a violent and erratic person threatening them with a deadly weapon.
Of course, the same folks who will criticize the cops for a legally justified shoot, would cut them how much slack if they waited too long to act and some innocent person was injured? Or would such critics suddenly find a lack of empathy for innocent bystanders who were not prepared to use deadly force themselves? Ironies all around.
Again, I'm saddened that a woman was killed. I would be even more saddened were an innocent person injured by the criminal/ill person wielding the weapons.
I will add this, there are very few deadly force incidents in Britain, if the winds of politics and emotions change the police could lose their guns forever.
Making such a comparison to England is no more useful on this side than it is when the gun grabbers point out that England has far fewer gun crimes and murders/suicides committed with guns thanks to their strict gun laws. "If the winds of politics and emotion change, the US public could lose their guns forever."
Perhaps if we could limit anti-cop criticism to unjustified cases that criticism would carry a little more weight. Something about the boy who cried wolf comes to mind here. When "Black Lives Matter" after a criminal thug assaults a cop, or beats a private citizen's head into the ground, a lot of folks have a hard time taking seriously claims that police are over-reacting.
As I've written here previously, show me cases of unjustified use of force (including the vast majority of forced home entries by police), and I'll join in the chorus of criticism of the police.
But if I'm confronted by someone acting nuts and wielding edged or pointed weapons and escape is not a viable option, I'm going to end the threat. As it happens, the Tueller drill demonstrating the risk of a knife inside about 21 feet was done by Sergeant Dennis Tueller, of the Salt Lake City, Utah Police Department and published in SWAT magazine in 1983. Having the gun in hand, rather than in the holster reduces the size of the danger zone, but does not eliminate it. I won't expect cops (whose job description is not to run away from such threats but to isolate and/or eliminate them before innocent persons get hurt or killed) to behave materially differently. If a cop can end such a threat without use of deadly force, I'll praise him. But I won't condemn the cop who uses deadly force when legally justified any more than I'd want to see a private citizen criticized for using deadly force when he is legally justified in doing so.
There are some very legitimate issues that need to be addressed regarding current police practices and government intrusion into our lives' generally. Criticizing and second guessing cops for using deadly force when its use is legally justified undermines legitimate criticism IMO.
Charles