The Deadly Force Script: How the Police in America Defend the use of Excessive Force

How many times have you read a news story about someone being shot by the police while reaching for their waistband? Or about an officer who testified at trial that the person he shot during a physical struggle had superhuman strength or a thousand-yard stare in his eyes? And how many times have you watched a police chief or sheriff during a press conference invoke the “21-foot rule” to justify their officer’s killing of a mentally ill person with a knife?

These and a host of other verbal de...