This likely means that the knife never existed in the first place, and was made up by the cops in order to justify shooting into a crowd.
A little background on the NYPD and firearms
Back when most departments were transitioning from revolvers to semi-auto, NYPD held on to revolvers for quite a while. Their revolvers used double action triggers, which means pulling the trigger both rotates the cylinder and also cocks the hammer. This means the trigger pull is long and heavy, you have to pull it a long distance back and with a good amount of force. Many officers would ‘pre stage’ the trigger, pulling it halfway back to an indent where the pull gets slightly harder. This is a horrible practice that no one should ever do, because it means you might unintentionally discharge if you get jostled, but it made them more accurate when it came time to actually fire. But NYPD didn’t train it out of the officers even though it is against virtually every firearm guideline.So then the department switched from revolvers to semi-auto, mainly for the magazine- average semi-auto pistol holds 17 rounds, revolver holds 6. But they used striker fired pistols- these guns have a very short and much lighter trigger pull as the only thing the trigger does is move a catch to release already stored spring tension. That can make you much more accurate because the force of pulling the trigger moves your aim off, so less force needed to pull the trigger means more accuracy.
Problem was, a lot of officers had muscle memory from years or decades of carrying the double action revolver so they would try to pre-stage the trigger. And that would of course fire the gun when they didn’t want to.
NYPD’s solution to this was to simply make the trigger on their semi-autos really really really hard to pull. They had a custom spring designed that increased the trigger force- a semi-auto usually requires about 4-6 pounds of force to pull the trigger, they put a 12 lb spring. That allowed the officers to apply pre-stage force from their revolver days without discharging the weapon. Still absolutely horrible practice, but this stopped the unintentional discharges.
This had the side effect of course of making the guns relatively inaccurate. When you have to squeeze the trigger with that much force, it throws your aim off. And especially when you are in an emergency situation and adrenaline is pumping, it’s hard to shoot accurately when you need to pull that hard. And, for a very long time, they kept issuing these 12lb trigger guns even to new recruits, many of whom had never fired a gun before and could be easily trained with proper trigger discipline.
For the record, no other police department in the nation did this. Every one of them transitioned from revolvers to semi-autos without much problem, because they did not tolerate bad trigger discipline to begin with. And while some recommend a slightly stiffer trigger, NYPD is literally the only one with a 12 lb trigger.
It wasn’t until 2021 that NYPD started to back off, and started issuing new recruits weapons with ‘only’ 8lb trigger springs. That is still fairly high, but those 4 lb less makes it a lot easier to shoot accurately.
Point of all this– When I hear that NYPD is shooting multiple bystanders, I’m not surprised. Unless those officers first hit the streets in the last couple of years, they are still using the 12 lb trigger and it’s not surprising they have shit accuracy and are shooting bystanders.
That was really interesting and informative. Thank you that comment.
Most welcome!
Distraction from what actually happened here… They panicked, escalated a nonviolent situation and shot an innocent bystander in the head. That man was your father, your brother, your husband, your son. Riding the subway and then shot in the head.
These stories will get closer and closer to you. They will impact acquaintances and then friends of friends and the then, one day, you’ll get the worst phone call of your life…
Distraction from what actually happened here…
The initial “he had a knife!” was a distraction, certainly. But now it brings us back to the meat of the matter - the NYPD lies on impulse about everything in order to cover their asses.
At this point, who even fucking knows if he actually jumped a turnstile or if the police just decided to chase after and harass a guy who’d legally paid his fare?
These stories will get closer and closer to you.
I’ve got family in Manhattan and Queens. Fucking horrifying to think one of them might have been caught in the middle of this. Unfortunately, my NY family cannot stop having a hard-on for the cops. Given the deluge of far-right media around the incident and the degree to which the lies of the police are embellished and added on to by even less reputable talk radio goons and social media crackpots, I doubt this will change their view of what happened.
A demon-man used his magic knife to force two police officers to shot into a crowd, and only the brave champions of law and order were able to stop him.
Only if you’re American.
You’re very right - There are famously ZERO tourists from other countries in New York City that could be struck by these stray bullets from these cowardly police officers.
Congratulations on contributing to this conversation. We were all waiting on you to speak up and you just really delivered for us all.
You’re very right - There are famously ZERO tourists from other countries in New York City that could be struck by these stray bullets from these cowardly police officers.
Any tourist visiting the US should be aware of the risk of getting shot. Either accidently by the police or drive-by-shootings, or intentional by gang violence or “stand-your-ground” idiots that shoot everyone passing by who “is not from here”. Visiting the US is like eating Fugu - it is a calculated risk.
Man, even the article can’t get the story straight…
“NYPD can’t find knife”…
“the department put out a request seeking the public’s help to find the knife”…
“a man believed to have swiped the suspect’s knife”…
“Video circulating on social media appears to show the man scoop up the knife”…
OK, that’s all consistent…
“the NYPD posted on X that the knife had been “recovered” following the police shooting.”
Um, no.
"Below is a picture of the weapon recovered from the scene of today’s incident. pic.twitter.com/D3AZjNr4cL
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 15, 2024"
Recovered? But then…
“Now, they are seeking the individual potentially in possession of the weapon”… Did you or did you not recover the weapon?
“the now-missing knife”… OK, so NOT recovered.
The current position of the NYPD is that some random black guy wandering past a crime scene after the cops shot up a crowd decided to steal the knife that the cops considered to be key evidence. This is, to put it mildly, somewhat less credible than the claim that a crow tried to steal a murder weapon.
Why hasn’t the mayor released the full body cam footage yet? If they are going to release statements but withhold material evidence we should assume they are doing it to manipulate public opinion against the facts.
And he’s also a cop, so guess which side he would be on
