A sniper ordered to take out a target seldom has the information needed to determine if it is right and proper to take out that target. That’s not his job.
His job is to hit the target. He is essentially a weapon, with the responsibility for its proper use rightly going to the guy who decides to authorize its use. A human drone, if you will.
Which is as it should be. In an emergency hostage situation, do we really want a sniper refusing to take a shot while he reviews evidence to decide whether it is justified or not? That’s not his job. Any more than it’s the job of a Marine squad to decide whether they ought to follow through on their orders to attack a building or not.
Admittedly, the longterm standoff at RR meant that the shooters had every opportunity to figure out what was going on and refuse to participate, which complicates the issue more than usual. Which is what they should have done. My understanding is that some of the guys at the standoff decided amongst themselves to revert to “normal” ROEs.
But to my mind the PRIMARY responsibility belongs to whoever decided to target the Weavers, not the shooters. Concentrating on the shooters I think lets him/her off the hook.
YMMV
>>In an emergency hostage situation, do we really want a sniper refusing to take a shot while he reviews evidence to decide whether it is justified or not?
This was NOT an emergency hostage situation. There were no hostages at all. Horiuchi is a murderer.
But, I’m not letting anyone off the hook. Give me a name for the person who said, “Take that shot.” There were documents stating that Vicki Weaver was the glue that held the family together and that she should be isolated from Randy. Horiuchi and some nameless field commander decided that murdering her was the best way to isolate her.
Cops should be held to higher standard than private citizens, just as an airline pilot is held to a higher standard of care than a fighter pilot.