Of course, my first preference is for all cops who discharge weapons to reliably hit their targets -- or at least *know* that stray bullets will not go flying around into schools, etc. -- but on balance, I'd rather have some infinitessimal chance of getting hit by such a bullet rather than far more significant prospect of extrajudicial punishment administered at the hands of a high voltage cop.

And even if she did not, if she feels her life is in danger, and of course it often is, then even a slight delay can mean death.

Oh, and you dodn't even mention that the suspect was caught, which me might not have been if the cop had not acted as she did.

Totally innocent bystanders almost never get shot by cops; it's almost always a bad guy.

It was approx 6AM. A gang of five thugs was involved in snatching cell phones, at gunpoint. Police eventually tracked them down using the phone's own GPS signal and recovered 'replica handguns'.

Of course, if you rely on Tim Redmond for your information all you get is that one police officer missed a shot at a suspect that she had reason to believe was armed. And of course Tim portrays the scene as the Office firing indifferently without bothering to look for school children behind the perp in a crowded urban area. At 6AM.

Mind you, no basis of course, but this is the SFBG. We make up whatever we want here, because nobody cares anyway.

Those of you who like to use cell phones in this city and who may have seen the video of a woman getting beat up on Russian her phone can identify with this armed street robbery problem and the odds just tipped a bit back in our favor because of the police.

Wow. Luckily nobody listens to Tim Redmond. Can you imagine how much worse of a cesspool this city would be if anyone did?

homeless people are better than homeowners, the unemployed are better than the employed, and poor people are so much more desirable than successful winners.

What a terribly sad perspective to have. I only hope he manages to avoid passing on such negativism to his children.

>"It went flying around Noe Valley. In the middle of the day."

Yeah. The story that Tim links to clearly says that the episode occurred at 6AM, not the 'middle of the day'. Or maybe it was a 'magic bullet' that ricocheted around a school yard for 6 hours.

If you expect anything other than false and misleading statements from Tim Redmond columns then you are just getting what you deserve.

An officer should only fire if they have carefully looked behind the threat, ensured that no one is in the area. Did Tim bother to go out to the actual scene of the shooting and see what the area was behind the suspect- perhaps it was a concrete wall and the office took that into account, you just don't know because as usual- Tim hits post without doing actual research- instead he relies on the reporting of others .