Agreed, European police and British in particular are skilled in the art of the unarmed takedown. But there are, alas, a lot of suspects in the US who have firearms, and even more whom the police like to say they "feared" had firearms.

-- Mal

is at the root of the massacre.

... I'll grant that point. Setting aside all the other rhetoric on the issue, criminals use firearms because they can get at them, and thus the police need to be able to match them in murderousness. I think, though, that even were firearms banned as strictly as possible tomorrow, it would take a long time for them to stop circulating enough to make a case for disarming police. But meanwhile, we seriously need to do something about the militant mentality of our police forces. (Stipulating, of course, that our rulers are really interested in promoting citizen welfare in the first place, which is problematic at best)

-- Mal

to solve arguments, disputes and parking space disagreements.

,,, and how much to an awe-inspiring sense of asshole entitlement is a question. One of my first OPs here at DU wondered why US culture so much encourages violence, whether with firearms or fists or even just language. I can only assume there are a lot of people with a lot of rage and no empathy or self-discipline at all.

-- Mal

Or the person handcuffed and lying on the ground who moved in an aggressive manner.

-- Mal