First and foremost, shooting is incorrectly viewed by many as a legitimate dispute resolution mechanism. Nonexistent training on how to keep interactions from escalating coupled with a glaring absence of non-lethal options all but ensures a shooting at the instant a cop feels he is in a situation that he can no longer control, either due to noncompliance or when within a crowd of people that is closing in.
In the video, the number of people who are still within a threatening distance of the cop after the shot was fired and the number of those bystanders who proceeded to run around in anger were just tempting fate. Luckily nothing else happened. Shooting someone in the foot, is a novel approach through. I wonder if as is usually the case this cop was aiming somewhere else (like the sand) and ended up actually hitting a person. It might be possible this cop only intended a show of force but because he put his finger on the trigger, he was but a twitch and a 1/2 inch away from firing.
Cops are unpredictable here, one needs to be careful around them even if you are not directly involved in an interaction. They can go from apathetic to full on cowboy really quickly and they are terrible shots at anything more than 10 feet away. By enlarge they don't aim and have no idea what a correct sight picture looks like.
This right here .. cosign..
but i dont think he was aiming for his foot .. he even made a downward motion with his hand AS he pulled the trigger .
Almost impossible to make that shot, unless you are really good ,..which he might be , but that was a dead center foot shot.
Pretty impressive if it was done on purpose .. the sand was probably his target though , but he did not flinch because he hit him either .
Its all about their Machismo with these Cops ,and the Tigueres ... Cops do NOT hesitate to shoot them
If you have been in the DR long enough you WILL see a cop gun down one of the local Tigueres , its a certainly. I have only seen one gunned down, well actually heard it , and then looked and the guy was dead as a doornail .Its quite startling to us Visitors , but its THEIR way.. Notice the other people did not even panic .They are so used to gunfire they dont even scatter .
They know who the cop will shoot and who he wont .. the odd thing is another person Waving a gun in the air , esp a woman will NOT get shot, but this Tiguere who probably insulted the cop and taunted him, he got to taste one ..That was just a taste , if that cop wanted to really hurt him he would have shot him much higher and done some real damage .
Its their way, only this time it was on full display on a Beach with Tourists also present ..