...officers (or armed civilians, which there are few/none of in NYC) use deadly physical force to protect themselves and others from deadly physical force.

A knife is legally a deadly weapon.

According to NYPD training and policy, all shots are to center mass (the torso) and possibly to the head if the subject is wearing a vest.

If the law is the same in Israel, and the same thing happened, no one has any grounds for criticism of the police.

I don't know what the law is in Israel, however. I'm sure it's similar.

Intelligently for Israel, civilians are permitted (encouraged?) to carry weapons, unlike New York City. Good for them. They guy would have been done with by the time the cops got there.

Pretty much the doctrine everywhere. The idiots who ask 'why didn't you shoot to wound' or shoot the knife out of his hand would be laughable except they are serious.

I am sad when someone dies from attacking a cop or an armed citizen, really, the deceased *IS* often a genuine victim of society, someone who in a first world nation would have perhaps gotten mental health intervention or some other form of help. But that doesn't mean you blame the cop(s) any more than you blame the truck that runs someone over when it had no chance to stop (and yes, there is a big distinction between 'suicide by cop' and an officer or officers escalating a situation or just being thugs with badges).

Regardless of race, political context or state of mental health, coming at someone armed with a gun when you have a knife is suicide.

Actually, I am rather proud of our local (Sonoma County) cops this morning, a young kid tried to do just that and they shot him in the foot and subdued him. Details are still coming in, but beats hell out of a dead kid.

One, they are a small target and tough to hit, and its less likely to stop the threat.

Source: Vice News, May 18, 2016

A New York police officer reportedly burst into tears after fatally shooting a knife-wielding man and wounding a bystander during rush hour in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning.

The man, 46, tried to buy a beer at around 8:20am at The Food Emporium, a grocery store near 8th Avenue and West 49th Street, according to the NYPD. After the man became "belligerent," store employees called the cops, who quickly arrived on the scene.

One officer, who had been patrolling a nearby picket line of striking Verizon employees, apprehended the suspect. The man reportedly started to fight back, starting "a brawl... that left both men on the ground," NYPD Deputy Chief James O'Neill told reporters at a press conference.

The man then allegedly brandished an eight-inch knife, and approached the cop "menacingly."

By this point, another officer and a sergeant had arrived on the scene.

When the man refused to drop the weapon, one of the officers and the sergeant opened fire, shooting nine bullets in total, O'Neill said.

A taser is also not like some science fiction phazer with a "stun" setting. In fact, tasers are very short range, one shot, marginally usefull weapons that often fail to subdue a target for a multitude of reason

Tasers nevertheless still sometimes cause serious injury and death, and it's the same people here who complain about police using lethal force in response to lethal force who will then vociferously complain about tasers.

I used to be far more critical of police tactics and use of force. As part my training and research at the National Institute of Justice, U.S. DOJ, and then later in law school, I participated in numerous police ride-alongs programs in Washington, D.C. and NYC. As theory was confronted with the real world, my perspective rapidly changed. While law enforcement should always been held to a high standard, and all serious uses of forces scrutinized for appropriateness, understanding the type of people and circumstances confronted by police on a regular basis under less than ideal circumstances and with little time for reflection was truly enlightening (it also was a strong motivating factor in my firearm rights opinions).

The whole thing seems pretty trigger-happy to me, and more an example of policing gone wrong than an example to follow.

is very dependent on the particular circumstances and innumerable variables..

The horrible situations are sudden, quick and very deadly, and must be judged by what was known and encountered by the officer, not quiet and safe reflection hours or days later.

Similarly, people fail to understand that few options or weapons are really that safe or reliable, and suggestions by some like shoot to wound are tactically ludicrous, and more likely to lead to injuries to police officers and innocent bystanders.

Police are expected to face some reasonable danger, but real life is not the movies or television, and police are not required to gratuitously risk their lives and that of the public against armed and violent individuals.

In the cited incident, if the facts are remotely accurate (and they should indeed be investigated as a matter of course), the man died because of his own choices, and the shooting appears totally justified.

I know of at least one other country where the killing of people waving knives are almost never investigated.

Personally, I think that this kind of behavior against stonethrowers is not acceptable in a democratic country, whether it's in Jerusalem or Albuquerque. If something like this happened in the US, it would be considered police brutality, and asses would be sued.

The US isn't facing an enemy dedicated to killing every last American man, woman, or child. No rockets, suicide bombers, knife attacks or car rammings against innocent civilians. When the US faces that, let me know.

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with what the the undercover Israeli agents did. What did they do wrong in your view?

Before you answer that, I want you to acknowledge the report you cited is false. If you cannot do that, it goes to show where you're really coming from.

I seem to have forgotten about all those instances where American undercover cops were shooting fleeing demonstrators - perhaps you can refresh my memory?

I mean, if you see any Israeli agents there throwing rocks or inciting Palestinians to throw rocks - where precisely is that in any of the footage from that day?

It's not there, right? Now ask yourself why all the lies, if not due to incitement?

==========

And then you respond with protestors "throwing stuff"? You mean, rocks and stones to maim other people? Tell you what, find me footage of stone throwing at American police or soldiers and how that situation went down, okay? Were the targets of those rocks any more "civilized" in response? The point is, whether in America or elsewhere, dumb-asses throwing stones & rocks will get shot.

The footage from Youtube is "dramatized", but it's not doctored enough to give a false account the event. 18 protesters got shot, mostly in the back. One got shot in the head and was seriously hurt - perhaps he's not even alive today. No other people were maimed.

Israel is the only "democratic" country doing this kind of crap, and I want Israel to be judged by the same standards as the US or any other real democratic country.

....changed course once you realized it was bullshit. That you can't even acknowledge the story is bullshit tells more about you than anything else.

And as the stories I cited shows, Israel is not the only Democratic country....

I also call BS on you holding Israel to American standards. The USA's actions in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria.....are 10x worse than anything Israel can be accused of.

Apparently I'm not the only one:
Scathing report deems fatal Border Patrol shooting ‘highly predictable’
Source: Reveal News, March 4, 2016 (Reliable source?)
(snip)

I approve of shooting at psycopaths attacking me or my family (for instance) with knives or stones that can kill.

Put your own ass on the line and let's see you state otherwise.

==============

Also, you're the one who approves of torturing and/or executing Palestinians who sell land to Jews. You agree with B'tselem on that.

If you're not arguing in favor of your own argumentation, could you then please be more clear with what you're arguing in favor of, or against?

Here's more on the US: