Here is my two cents.

Had police discharged a taser, a device that shoots two probes attached to wires - propelled by nitrogen gas, and the prongs missed, not penetrated his THICK CLOTHING, not arced properly, not completed the circuit...

We would have had the murder of a police officer on camera. We also would have had the shooting of the murderer by police on film.

Had police sprayed him with oc, he wouldn't have dropped the knife. He would have been as mobile and active as ever, only now more enraged and unable to see. OC does not cause you to drop anything. Go and cut an onion, your eyes tear up and cause you pain - but do you drop the knife? No. Again had they sprayed OC spray, their would have been the stabbing murder of a police officer caught on film. And then the shooting of the murderer.

You all want this world to be so perfect, so rosey and utopian. You don't want to see the seedy underbelly of our world shoved in your face like this. You want the police to protect you and you don't want to see how it's done. You're all critics from behind your computer screens, you're all suddenly fucking experts in ballistics, in use of force, in police work, in firefighting, in armed conflict. You all think you have the answers and you don't have a fucking clue.

Policing and emergency services is a contact sport people. Police have less than seconds to make decisions that will be dragged through the ringer by people in suits for months and years later in cool, air conditioned rooms without a care in the world.

If you want to expect more from Police, I suggest you visit the website and join up. Then once you have a mentally ill man charging at you with a knife - you can make the fucking decision. Until then, you have no right to criticise them or question them.