"No Ponch, that is not the way you get yourself a new set of luggage ..."
Posted on 02/12/2006 10:28:13 AM PST by radar101
The California Highway Patrol plans to fire two officers after an internal investigation found they used their service weapons to shoot alligators while working in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, the CHP said Friday.
The CHP said the officers shot and killed at least one alligator and failed to report the firing of their weapons, as required by agency policy, said Fran Clader, a spokeswoman at CHP headquarters in Sacramento. The officers broke Louisiana law when they killed the animal, she said.
“This is an embarrassment to our department and especially to all our personnel who went to Louisiana and served honorably in helping the citizens of that state to recover from the clutches of disaster,” Clader said.
The department sent 116 Northern California officers to the state for two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29, Clader said. They were relieved by a CHP contingent from Southern California.
The two officers are from the Sacramento area and were with Louisiana State Police troopers Sept. 13 when they shot at alligators in a New Orleans-area bayou, the CHP said.
Louisiana State Police referred calls to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which is conducting a criminal investigation. That agency didn't respond to calls Friday for comment.
Clader said the length of the investigation was caused by the large number of witnesses in both states. She said the CHP wouldn't release the names of the officers while the criminal investigation is continuing.
The officers were placed on administrative leave pending their dismissal, but Clader declined to say whether they were being paid.
“Not reporting the discharge of a department firearm is a serious violation of policy, leading us to conclude termination is the appropriate action in this case,” she said.
Clader wouldn't elaborate on how many alligators the officers might have shot or whether the officers claimed to be acting in self-defense. She said she didn't know the specific types of guns that were used.
Gee, thanks for coming all the way from California to help out after Katrina. "You're FIRED"
Thats the new American gratitude for ya.
Well, they should've reported firing their weapons, but come on... if a Californian gets dropped in the Louisiana bayou and a gator comes at him, what else is he gonna do? Run?
Something tells me they were hoodwinked. I don't think hunters or whites are allowed to be cops in Kalifonica.
Thats the new American gratitude for ya.
That's OK. I hear they are looking for replacement officers in N'awlins.
pretty anal those CHP supervisors. I guess you have to shoot shove and shut up...if you cant, I s'pose you gotta report it.
"No Ponch, that is not the way you get yourself a new set of luggage ..."
There are NO New Orleans area Bayous, those were streets.
Personally, I'd make it a law that people are required to shoot alligators, but I just hate 'em. On the other hand, if a cop, who'd lock me up in a heartbeat for an infraction, were just shootin' them for fun? Did they even claim self-defense? Because I've heard that runnin' from a gator isn't much of a defense.
Run?
An alligator can run faster than a man for about 100 feet. But one can never outrun PC and California BS.
Yet cops who blow away innocent Americans in wrong address drug raids or sending in SWAT teams to arrest doctors suspected of gambling are given paid administrative leave.
I guess they should have just let them eat people.
"if a Californian gets dropped in the Louisiana bayou and a gator comes at him, what else is he gonna do? Run?"
I've seen a lot of gators in my day and I've never known one to "come at me". Every one I've ever seen has ignored me or hit the water and swam away. I was born and raised in LA and have never known anyone who had to shoot an alligator.
My guess is they shot them for fun.
That was my point... I guess I could have phrased it better.
I would imagine most California state police officers have never seen an alligator in person and wouldn't have a clue what their 'normal' behavior is. When they see one, they think, "kill it before it kills me."
Where did you see they were hunters?
Where did you see that they were white?
So, several states were wiped off the map, stores were looted to the bare walls cops emptied car dealerships and they want to spend time investigating someone shooting an alligator? Probably give more manpower to this than if it would have been a human that was shoI was in NO about a month ago. Got a t-shirt that says;
I STAYED IN NEW ORLEANS FOR KATRINA AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.... and a new Cadillac, a plasma TV......
Exactly. I could see that happening. Also, we were taught pretty early on in LA that messing with alligators is highly illegal. I doubt those guys had a clue about that. One of my alligator storys: About 10 years ago, my former roomate Steve and I were hunting and came across a 5 foot alligator. Steve decided that we needed this guy for our pond at home. Well, we chased this thing for 30 minutes, trying our best not to let him get back in the river, until we finally got him cornered against a small embankment. That was not a happy alligator. We managed to catch him using a ski rope, a small cargo net and a tree limb. I learned that a 5 foot alligator is very strong. So we get him in the back of Steve's truck and head home. We managed to get him all untangled but that left him free in the truck bed. To get him out all I had to do was poke that limb at him and he grabbed on and did not let go until I had dragged him out of the truck onto the ground. He then made a bee-line for the pond. Needless to say, the ducks took off and we didn't see them for a few months. A month or so later, I'm reading the paper. What do I see on the front page? Some Wildlife and Fisheries guy posing with "my" alligator on the front page. Evidently, he decided to go on walkabout and got informed on by one of our neighbors. In the paper, the W & F guy said the alligator had gotten to our neighborhood through a series of creeks and channels that lead to the river. Thank goodness because we could have gotten in a LOT of trouble for that. Anyway, that's one of my "hold muh beer" Southern boy stories. Sadly, I have many more. :)
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