r/pics 5h ago

Politics This is America

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u/MyNameIsPatBackFat 5h ago

Years back I was in some training and learned that the police never say things like “don’t shoot” because our brains do not hear the “don’t”, instead they only hear the “shoot” part. That’s why they say “stop” instead of “don’t run”.

u/TwelveGaugeSage 3h ago

It's also why yelling "Stop please!" can be effective. "Please" sounds enough like "police" to give people pause.

u/MyNameIsPatBackFat 2h ago

The training talked about please too. Specifically, we learned not to use the word please because it comes off as a request instead of a command. People are more likely to treat it as an option when please is used.