It would be nice if national media, politicians, and local community leaders would issue a statement lauding the officers for showing admirable restraint while subduing a large, agitated, and threatening man without using their firearms.
So the national media should give them special attention because they did their job properly?
I'm a cop. Guys like McDowell are a nightmare scenario when they start running around naked and threatening to fight. Tasers don't always work. He's charging at you. What's next? How fast can he run twenty or thirty feet? That's all the time you have left. And if he gets you he gets your gun. Ever fight someone that big, who probably isn't feeling pain like a mere mortal, and is not by any measure in their right mind? I have and he was in nowhere near NFL shape and I can tell you it is about as close to dying as it gets for most cops. He was alternating between ripping at my holster and pounding me in the face. I went all Pepe Le Pew on him with my OC spray, blinding us both in the process, but it winded him enough that I could get him into cuffs mostly because I sprayed it in his mouth. Against a pro athlete like McDowel I would not have been able to do that.
It's always a good day when someone obviously in some form of distress doesn't wind up getting shot in the process. Never hurts to slip an officer a donut and a pat on the back for doing things right.
I hope McDowell gets whatever is happening with him sorted out. He needs some professional help. Fortunately he has the resources to get it which is more than I can say for most folks who wind up in that situation.
