The first priority for policing in a civil society should not be to shoot to kill in order to preserve the peace and standing one's ground in self-defense should either represent Constitutional rights that apply uniformly or not be designated a license to kill for special parts of the population. A new discussion on police procedures and rules of engagement should not focus on protests against obvious or less-obvious police racism without considering
the entire culture of police gun violence and its rules of engagement.
In that sense the recent events of LEOs shooting and killing unarmed civilians demand new consequences - rather than administrative leaves that ultimately allow officers to patrol again after legal reviews of conduct, officers who use their firearms should never be placed in that situation again. There is plenty of police administrative work that does not require the use of firearms and while that may be a motivating factor in joining law enforcement there should be federal/state requirements applicable to any officer-involved shooting that requires any LEO who fires their weapon in a patrol context to never be allowed to patrol again. Whether this exempts SWAT teams is certainly one for discussion, but it also raises the question of how much paramilitary force is necessary in the US with the present outbreak of police militarization, often disproportionate to the population served. It is a time where the decision to use lethal or non-lethal force needs to be understood with actual individual consequences that define professional conduct.
Taking of cops' right to kill might get legislated down to some "reasonable" amount of time as LEOs change jurisdictions but the point should be clear - LEOs need to understand that the judgement required to discharge your firearm comes with a responsibility and if nothing else, "a bag limit for your hunting license", just like any other citizen. If nothing else, and not unlike the larger portion of the population with combat experience and perhaps medical issues returning from our numerous wars and joining or returning to law enforcement, there are sound professional reasons not to put such LEOs out in the American field.
The police officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager in Madison, Wisconsin, had previously been involved in a fatal shooting, authorities said.
News reports from the time detail how Officer Matt Kenny was not only exonerated from wrongdoing in the 2007 shooting and received the medal of valor the following year for that incident.
http://www.thewire.com/...
License to kill is the official sanction by a government or government agency to a particular operative or employee to initiate the use of lethal force in the delivery of their objectives, well known as a literary device used in espionage fiction. The initiation of lethal force is in comparison to the use of lethal force in self-defense or the protection of life.
The legitimacy of deadly force usage from country to country is generally controlled by statute law, particular and direct executive orders, the common law, or rules of engagement.