Guns, Cars, and Tech

Category: OFFICER SAFETY!

  • Why would you ever need a gun in a bar?

    Because you never know when some jackass wants to go on a shooting rampage in hopes that police will kill him.

    Note, however, that he didn’t actually wait around for the cops to show up and kill him. Nor did he try to go out in a blaze of glory when the police finally caught up with him came to pick him up after he confessed to a FedEx worker

    Also, this wasn’t what I’d call a “thug bar” where you’d expect drug-related violence to break out. We see that all the time. This was a sports bar filled with college kids. That kinda kills the “just don’t go to those kind of bars” argument that our opponents kept trotting out.

    No good info on what kind of weapon the shooter used. The press is reporting it was an “assault rifle” but I’d also seen reports that paramedics claimed it had created small-caliber wounds. My guess is a Ruger 10/22 with a 30rd mag. That would explain the high number hits, but zero fatalities.

    He also shot someone about an hour before this, and set two fires at his former place of employment.

    Oh, and just in case it comes up? He was a prohibited person. Shocking, I know.

  • I LOL’d

    image

    Seen on my walk this morning

  • Just another isolated incident

    How many “isolated incidents” do you need before you get to the “widespread institutional behavior” level? How many until you get to “standard operating procedure”?

    Officer charged after video shows beating

    There is a six minute local news report attached to that article. Your standard local newscast is 22 minutes of programming.

    The long and short of it is a couple of officers beat the crap out of a senior citizen, put him in the hospital, and then charged him with assaulting two police officers.

    Only problem is, there’s video. Now the officers are in trouble (for assault, not for false arrest or lying on a police report or any of that other boring procedural stuff that the rest of us would be crucified for) and the victim is clearly recognized as the victim.

    But, you know, isolated incident.

    Just like this other one from Florida.

  • Like you and me, only better

    Transportation Licensing Commission Edition.

    Basically, some folks that work as “inspectors” for a non-police city agency took it upon themselves to start carrying badges.

    And guns.

    And install blue lights on their vehicles.

    Metro cops are NOT happy. I notice, however, that instead of arresting them, they merely confiscated the badges.

    It’s good to work for the king, I suppose.

  • Two in the same three days?

    So there were two local cops that made the news for behaving badly in the past couple days.  Namely DUI and possessing firearms while under the influence.  This is usually where you expect to hear that they were sent home with pay to think about what they’d done.

    Not this time.

    Both have been decommissioned.

    Both are “under investigation.”

    Both are out on bail (which I read as there are criminal charges).

    While I’m never happy to see folks endangering the general public, it is sadly refreshing to see a department doing similar to their own as they would to you and me.

  • Officer Roid Rage has been fired

    For now.

    He’s appealing, and no word on whether or not he gets to keep his POST certification (allowing him to just go to another jurisdiction). The bulk of the article quotes his union rep bemoaning the fact that he was fired even though they “discovered” he had PTSD….for eight years and no one noticed.

    Obviously, he’s not going to be charged.

  • I know who to blame!

    Over the weekend, a 24 year old vet with PTSD and a restraining order (read: Prohibited Person) shot a bunch of people at a party and then took off to Mt Ranier National Park. When he ran a snow chain checkpoint, Rangers followed him. He killed one of them before evading the other.

    Clearly, this is the NRA’s fault:

    The shooting renewed debate about a federal law that made it legal for people to take loaded weapons into national parks. The 2010 law made possession of firearms subject to state gun laws.

    Bill Wade, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said Congress should be regretting its decision.

    “The many congressmen and senators that voted for the legislation that allowed loaded weapons to be brought into the parks ought to be feeling pretty bad right now,” Wade said.

    Wade called Sunday’s fatal shooting a tragedy that could have been prevented. He hopes Congress will reconsider the law that took effect in early 2010, but doubts that will happen in today’s political climate.

    Calls and emails to the National Rifle Association requesting comment were not immediately returned on Monday.

    The NRA said media fears of gun violence in parks were unlikely to be realized, the NRA wrote in a statement about the law after it went into effect. “The new law affects firearms possession, not use,” it said.

    The group pushed for the law saying people have a right to defend themselves against park animals and other people.

    The shooter died from exposure.

  • Like you and me, only better

    If YOU get caught selling counterfeit goods, expect to get raided, your stuff to get confiscated, and spend some time in prison.

    If a Detective gets caught selling counterfeit goods, expect them to keep their jobs while authorities decide whether or not to demote them. Jailtime is for those other people.

    Please update your scorecards.

  • Officer Roid Rage had a hearing

    Last Thursday. A decision is due sometime in mid January, according to the article.

    I want to pull two very telling things from that article. First:

    At the hearing, “information was presented by the police administration, city law department and also from the (Fraternal Order of Police),” Ream said.

    That may or may not be standard procedure, but don’t you think they might want to hear from the citizens this man has been videotaped terrorizing?

    The second pull quote is really hard to believe:

    Harless has been on paid medical leave. After running out of his own sick time, some other officers have been donating their sick days to Harless, which is permitted under the union contract.

    The next time someone says “oh, it’s just one bad apple, none of the other officers support his actions” just point them here. If the other officers thought he had done something wrong, I doubt they would be paying for his time off.

  • That’s funny right there

    “Suppressors are legal with a tax stamp, but silencers are illegal”.

    Check out the link for the rest of the story. It’ll make you smile.