‘Shockwaves of emotions’ after 4 L.A. Sheriff’s Department employees die of suicide in 24-hour span

The first victim was discovered Monday at around 10:30 a.m. in Valencia. A little more than two hours later, at 12:53 p.m., LASD detectives responded to another death in Lancaster and a third at 5:40 p.m. in Stevenson Ranch. The fourth victim was discovered Tuesday at around 7:30 a.m. in the city of Pomona.

ccording to The Times, one of the victims was 25-year career veteran Cmdr. Darren Harris, who was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Monday morning. Another victim was retired Sgt. Greg Hovland, who was discovered just hours later.

The four deaths are being investigated by homicide detectives and the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner, the department’s release noted.

LASD said its Psychological Services Bureau and the Injury and Health Support Unit were providing support and resources to the families of the four victims.

I vehemently disagree with you.

Law Enforcement is NOT a standing army, with the caveat that we have LET it become that through our laziness and indifference. The WE is you and I. In my opinion, your characterization of it as such (and calling it a “Democrats personal army” contributes to the problem.

One of the tenets of our governments at the local/state levels is to protect the citizenry from the predations of other.

This paragraph is not meant as an ad hominem attack on you. In this country, we are fortunate to have lived our whole lives in a framework of a constitutional republic which is the rule of law. Many of us, and I would put you in this category based on your comments, utterly take aspect of law and order for granted.

Because we have the rule of law (or used to) many of us can leave our house each day to go about our business and return to it at the end of the day with the expectation that our house has not been looted or destroyed.

In places where laws do not protect private property (as the Founders FULLY recognized) people had to be rooted to their property and were responsible for guarding it 24x7 to ensure their crops and property were not stolen. Having a Consitutional Republic, composed of states and localities with their own constitions and bylaws to protect private property.

We may disagree on exactly how that is done, but a return to vigilante law and posse law is absolutely not what is needed. That doesn’t mean we as citizens shouldn’t have common-sense laws that protect us in situations where we need to protect ourselves.

I say this as someone who believes in full, universal, open carry of firearms and weapons in our society, with exceptions made for people who have specific reasons they should NOT be allowed to, and that does NOT mean I support Red Flag laws. If someone has been convicted of murder or armed assault with criminal intent, those people should be denied that right, and should have a tattoo on their foreheads designating them as such. I believe I should be able to, if I feel the need or desire, to strap on a pistol and a sword, and sling a fully automatic weapon over my shoulder when I leave my house for any reason, and go anywhere I want to go with those weapons.

Just because the Left has subverted and destroyed law enforcement due to their weaponization of it against their enemies and the defanging of it as a protection against prosecution of their OWN lawlessness (and the lawlessness of those who vote for them) does not mean law enforcement for tax paying citizens does not work.

It only means that people like you and I bear the responsibility for allowing them to do that, and that our failure to fix the problem IS the problem, not the enforcement of law itself.

It used to be common even here on FR that people believed police had better moral character than normal people but these days that’s not the case.

Too much video from their own dash and body cameras shows the venal corruption that pervades police departments. Honest cops get forced out and the remainder act no different than a gang. Heck, in California they actually have criminal gangs in their police departments!

Yes, we have societal problems and one of them is enabling a cabal of thugs to terrorize us.

This isn’t a “Back the Blue” thing. It has absolutely nothing to do with that, the idiotic blind support for the law.

Defund the police? Get rid of the police? Go to vigilante justice with no law? Everyone for themselves?

The police have issues because we have let the Left co-opt and corrupt them, and we have removed any societal support for the police. We let them get hauled into court and thrown into prison for doing what their ostensible job was to protect everyday people who might encounter some drug addict on the street, strung out, threatening people.

But hey. People are all for this “No Police” crap. Well, I have news for you. It will come to that, so you won’t have to wait long. We are almost there now. In some places they are, and have been for a while. You want to run a business? Don’t expect help if people rob you blind, $999 dollars worth at at time.

And vagrants, just plopping them down wherever they like? Those are big cities, where we have removed the laws and the ability of police to keep people from setting up camp and crapping on sidewalks.

You folks sound like robust folks who can carry firearms and look out for yourself.

Thats really good.

But if you have a mother who is 88 years old and relatively infirm, with no law, and no law enforcement, I hope you can spend time around her house to make sure nobody preys on her. Or sets up a tent in her backyard. Or pisses on her driveway.

Well. This fight is over. We are all going to be San Francisco, LA, New York or Chicago soon due to this mindset. Rather than clean up the police or the military and set them on the right course, let’s just let them rot on the vine until they disappear.

I suppose Mencken was right when he said: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Yes, I saw that. In my initial post I said as well:

"...There are bad ones, no doubt, and they should be dealt with..."

Additionally, I am totally dead set against endeavors of many police departments to set up SWAT teams and such, not to mention the outfitting of them with Dodge Challengers and other high performance vehicles. Not that I don't understand the concept of high performance vehicles that standard police vehicles cannot keep up with, but that is why they are given communication gear.

I do not dispute that many (if not most) police departments are corrupt, out of shape, woke, bloated in mission, using money on things they shouldn't, and so on, but saying we should get rid of police because of this is like saying we should get rid of the military which suffers many of the same issues. And in the case of the military, it too needs control and reins, and not the kind of control and reins it gets from the Left today.

““As citizens, we need Police.”

No. No we do not. We do not need a standing army of chekists who gather revenue for government via fines and the outright theft called ‘civil asset forfeiture’.

We do not need a standing army that penalizes citizens for exercising their rights and defending themselves while criminals go free.

We do not need a standing army that holds our very Constitution in utter contempt and will openly retaliate against citizens who hold them accountable.

No, it is time to end the nearly 200 year experiment of modern policing. Restore Constitutional carry, defund and disband the Democrats personal army, and make accountable and elected sheriffs the face of law enforcement. Let them deputize a posse when they need to but otherwise let the people police themselves.”

Agreed 100 percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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