Here's a question for THall;
Is it their SOP to point rifles AT peaceful protesters?
What's the ROE for pointing a sniper rifle at a crowd?
Or any weapon for that matter?
Is it their SOP to point rifles AT peaceful protesters?
No an officer should not
point his rifle at a peaceful
human. Poorly trained police
marksman do this when they are
looking through their rifle scopes
to gather intel. This is why snipers
are equipped with both spotting
scopes and range finding binoculars.
We train them to use their binocs to
do a hurried search, and the spotting
scope to do a detailed grid search for
items and activity that have tactical
significance.
What's the ROE for pointing a sniper rifle at a crowd?
Or any weapon for that matter?
This is a safety violation unless
there is a known threat intermingled
with a peaceful crowd. Police snipers
have several types of ammo available
and one of them is very frangible ammo
for hostage rescue and threats trying to
hide in a crowd. They can shoot a perp
without overpenetration and greatly
minimize the risk of collateral damage.
To point a rifle at something you
are not going to shoot is a safety
violation and a violation of the force
continuum ladder and terrible TTP.
Pertaining to the any weapon part,
the less than lethal weapons that are
part of the array generally fall under the
same guidelines, don't point them at something
you do not need to fire at in the near term.