What constitutes a weapon?

A weapon is best described as anything that is not used for its intended purpose.

A ballpoint pen is designed to be able to record data for future reference. When driven into the eyeball or neck it can cause death or serious injury.

A rake is designed to move dirt around in a garden to prepare it for planting. It becomes an eight-pronged weapon when swung at a human with the potential of death or serious physical harm.

A motor vehicle is designed to transport people from place to place. When aimed at a human being, it can seriously injure or kill the person.

A knife is designed to cut food. When driven into a human, it can kill or injure them seriously.

Police Academies throughout the United States spend time teaching the use of deadly force, the purpose of which is to neutralize the threat level of the offender. When the “weapon” is a motor vehicle, shooting the driver does not stop the threat which is the moving vehicle. The recent incidents involving federal ICE agents show that the shots entered the vehicle from the front and that none of them stopped the moving vehicle. That actually is a training issue. Local and state police officers rarely use their body as a deterrent to a vehicle because it is destined to be a failure with devastating results.

ICE utilizes multiple vehicles when making vehicle stops. They need to be trained to place their vehicles in a position which prevents it from being able to move rather than surround it with human bodies which can be easily knocked out of the path of a vehicle.

The legal standard for the use of force by police is well-established by the United States Supreme Court in two cases: Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) and Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989). A police officer may use deadly force when he has a reasonable belief that there is an imminent danger to himself or another person by an offender, or if there is an imminent danger to others if the offender were allowed to escape. Using this standard, these cases are within the law. They could, however, have been avoided by simply moving from the front of the vehicle and capturing the suspect in a different manner.