Posted on 09/16/2007 2:35:18 PM PDT by flattorney
- - Miami's new policy reflects the growing trend of police departments adding firepower to compete with heavily armed criminals
Citing a dramatic increase in the availability of high-powered, semiautomatic assault rifles -- like the one used Thursday to kill a Miami-Dade County police officer -- Miami Police Chief John Timoney has for the first time authorized patrol officers to start carrying similarly lethal weapons. A burgeoning ''arms race'' between police and heavily armed drug gangs forced him to sign the new policy earlier this week, Timoney said. That was even before Thursday's lopsided confrontation between four pistol-toting county police officers and a burglary suspect armed with what police are calling a ''military grade'' assault weapon.
Miami-Dade police Sgt. Jose Somohano died in the shootout; three other officers were injured (1 seriously and will require 1 year of rehab - FlA). The assailant, Shawn LaBeet, escaped apparently unscathed until he was cornered and shot dead by heavily armed police in Pembroke Pines late Thursday night. The doctor who operated on seriously injured Miami-Dade police Officer Jody Wright -- who was about 200 feet from LaBeet when he fired at her -- described the grapefruit-size bullet wound on her right leg as the type ``you would see in a war.'' ''This is a very, very different injury from the common handgun Saturday night special wound we see in urban trauma centers,'' Ryder Trauma Center orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gregory Zych said.
Timoney, a longtime advocate of tighter gun control, blames the 2004 expiration of the federal ban on assault weapons for the escalation of firepower on Miami's streets. ''This is really a failure of leadership at the national level. We are absolutely going in the wrong direction here,'' Timoney said. 'The whole thing is a friggin' disgrace.''
Rank-and-file Miami-Dade police officers can carry assault weapons only upon special request. The change in Miami's policy is part of a growing trend in South Florida and across the country of police departments adding firepower to compete with increasingly heavily armed criminals. One in five homicides in Miami this year have been committed with assault weapons, Miami Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said. The number was 18 percent last year and up from just 4 percent in 2004. In July, a Miami police officer barely escaped with his life after a pair robbing a Brinks truck in Little Havana opened up with an assault weapon, Fernandez said. Countywide, 18 people were killed with assault weapons last year. Eleven have been killed so far in 2007, MDPD officials said.
Miami-Dade police union chief John Rivera said lifting the assault-weapons ban is one of ''many little components'' causing the apparent increase of military-style weapons on South Florida streets, and said adding firepower for police will help to even the odds. ''I know it starts to a look like a military state when you start doing that,'' he said. ``But we need bullets that are going to knock you down. We need a fighting chance.'' Assault weapons, like the Russian AK-47 and countless knockoffs, are cheap and easy to obtain. Online retailers offer them for as little as $300.
LaBeet, who attacked the Miami-Dade officers on Thursday, bought six of them in the space of four months using a bogus ID, said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Linda O'Brien. At the time, LaBeet had a 2002 arrest warrant pending in Broward, where he was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm. Some young people in the city have come to see the weapons as a status symbol. ''Not that long ago, we had a woman call to report her son's gold plated AK-47 stolen,'' Fernandez said.
The mismatch between an assault rifle and the pistols police commonly use comes down to range and firepower. An assault rifle can kill from 100 yards away, said former Miami-Dade police Maj. Ricardo Gomez. The effective range of police pistols is less than 25 yards. Bullets fired from an assault weapon can punch through car doors, walls, even some bulletproof vests -- all things police commonly rely on for cover. And then there's the issue of reloading: most police pistols have 10 bullet magazines, while AK-47 magazines commonly hold 30 rounds.
Add it all up and it's easy to see why police want to level the playing field, said Gomez, who will be the first chief of Doral's newly formed, independent police department. ''We're trying to mirror Coral Springs, a nice, peaceful community where they issue carbines to all of their officers,'' Gomez said. ``Down here, where there's a greater proclivity for violence, we're falling behind the eight ball.'' Fernandez said that unless the department can find additional funding, patrol officers who want assault weapons will have to pay for them out of their own pockets. They will have to go through specialized training before getting certified to carry the weapons on duty.
The Broward Sheriff's Office approved use of high-powered weapons ''about a year ago,'' said spokesman Elliot Cohen. About 25 percent of Broward's deputies have gone through training and received certification to carry the guns in locked boxes inside their patrol cars, or in their trunks, Cohen said. BSO districts have AR-15s -- the civilian version of the military M-16 -- that officers can sign out, Cohen said.
The girls too. They gotta rely on the weapons even more than the guys do.
I don’t either, but you have to admit when cops abuse their authority (lie the above post) its worse because the gub’mint says we’re supposed to listen to the guys with the badges.
I'm not defending this BS article but that is one of the points that the author is making. The max effective range of handguns against armed perps is about 25 yards. BTW, I work for a class 3 dealer that has way more powerful weapons than our local LE departments.
You are right of course. I based my statement on my own shooting experience with all types of small arms.
And when was the last time you heard of those front line officers responding to a citizen's 911 call in time to do anything other than fill out the paperwork and order doughnuts?
The dog population in Miami-Dade will certainly drop now, however, as they seem to be the cop's main targets.
That’s true (it was about a half mile from the State line), but you have to admit that missing a berm with 30 to 40 rounds is pretty hard for anyone who is the least bit competent to do. Missing the entire State, however, is something worth remembering.
The range was closed down by the Mayor at that time. The police came around and asked to use OUR private range to train at. At first, we were willing, but they tried to put so many restrictions on us, the owners of the range (such as we would have to leave whenever they showed up to practice), that we eventually told them to pound sand. Of course, with their accuracy, maybe it was for our protection.
“Palm Beach County has already gone this route and is using money obtained in drug busts and sale of confiscated property to fund purchasing assault rifles for their police department. - FlA”
The main reason unconstitutional money seizures by law enforcement will never end.
Simple rule: your finger doesn't enter the trigger guard until your sights are on the target.
Cops are the worst offenders of this rule, judging by the number of reports of them shooting themselves while holstering or unholstering their sidearms.
At 100 yards, I'd take a rifle over a pistol anytime.
More good news...
As I recall, the only people killed were the bank robbers, so yeah.
(Whoops, that happened once in the not-too-recent past in Philadelphia-Waco was by tank).
Whatever came of those incidents anyway?
Bullets are to cartridges as flour is to bread, as cement is to concrete.....etc. When will they ever learn?
Oh yeah, everybody knows that if you make AKs illegal all the bad guys will stop using them. I wonder if that moron Chief of Police thinks that there were no AKs available on the street during the years when Clinton's AWB was in effect?
I never cease to be amazed by people who seem to believe that if you pass a law against having a gun, then criminals for whom breaking the law is a way of life will obey that one law but not any other law that gets in their way. The only people who obey gun laws are law abiding people (maybe that's why they're called law abiding??) who aren't a threat to anyone to begin with.
I don’t know exactly what happened, since it was never completely reported. However, I doubt what you speculate since there were 30 to 40 rounds fired over the berm. I cannot conceive of 30 to 40 rounds being AD’s.
My guess (and it is entirely a guess since a report was never publicly released) is that they were playing with the new fully-automatic M-16’s they got from the Feds and placed some targets on top of the berm instead of in front of it.
bookmark
The max effective range of handguns in the hands of 95% of city cops, or anyone else who doesn't enjoy shooting and practice often, is maybe 25 feet.
The answer to ineffective handguns in the hands of the incompetent is better training, not handing those same incompetent people AR-15s so they can miss more dangerously and often.
That was a once in a generation incident. For 99.9% of departments, it isn't just a once in a generation incident it's a just plain never incident. For the traffic stops, warrants, domestic calls, drug searches, etc. that police actually do on a daily basis, AR-15s are at best useless and often a dangerous liability. Give boys toys and they will play.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.