 |
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
Posted on 03/28/2010 12:00:42 PM PDT by marktwain
Police reports on a disgruntled Oregon Department of Transportation planner who surrendered to a police negotiator and SWAT team early March 8 indicate that the man hadn't made any threats, but people who worked with him were increasingly concerned that violence could erupt.
Incident reports from Medford police and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department describe verbal outbursts and "a declining state of mental health" seen in slipping personal hygiene and appearance, and a "somewhat disorderly and uncooperative" exit when the man was placed on administrative leave on March 4.
Fears of retaliation prompted electronic surveillance that notified authorities when the suspended planner, David J. Pyles, 39, bought three handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic AK-47 rifle over the next three days.
The purchases only heightened police concerns, prompting additional meetings, surveillance and, finally, in the pre-dawn hours of March 8, the intervention of a negotiator and SWAT team, who took Pyles into protective custody for a mental-health evaluation and seized his guns. He was released in about 3.5 hours and his guns were returned March 12.
"Given the circumstances, we decided to react to be on the safe side," Jackson County Sheriff's Lt. Rich Fogarty said. "I think we did what was necessary."
The seizure of the guns and Pyles' trip in handcuffs to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation sparked controversy among gun-rights and civil-liberty advocates.
"If the cops have an explanation, they should give it," Oregon Firearms Federation Director Kevin Starrett said in the days following the incident, which he called "chilling."
The Mail Tribune requested reports from Medford police, the sheriff's department and Oregon State Police in an attempt to piece together the details. The OSP hasn't provided its report yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at mailtribune.com ...
You bet, the middle school this week was something else.....new definition of hell.....middle school.....
Thing is I can’t think or type in complete sentences.
It should have read:
From “MY” Dead Cod Hands. and then that bit about deep blue sea tragedy.
LOL
We really need a season on them!
Need to know who that is, so I know not to go work for them in the future...
Need to crawl all up in their life and see about what their affiliations and mental state is...
Just to be on the fair, and safe side...
Nonsense. I’m quite proud of my arsenal, and never hesitate to say so in front of hoplophobes.
Nobody prosecuted him. It’s very beneficial to have laws that allow brief detention for psychiatric evalauations — in many cases, it has saved the detainee’s life and/or the lives of their immediate family members including children. If people are sending up red flags all over the place, we shouldn’t need to wait until they kill somebody to ascertain what’s going on.
It’s still not clear that police were out of line in this case. Though as I’ve said before, I don’t see any excuse for not having gotten a warrant before they started the early morning phone calls to him. And they’ve already admitted they screwed up by not submitting the required written form to monitor his gun purchases. But the question of whether or not they were justified in taking him in for a psych evaluation is still unclear. If, as a state trooper said (apparently based on reports from coworkers) he actually did come back to the office and bang on the door after being told by police he would be considered a trespasser if he returned to the premises without permission from his supervisor, then he broke the law. And if the reports from coworkers about his behavior having alarmed them were true, and properly documented by police before they started taking action against him (including monitoring his gun purchases), then they probably did have enough to justify the not-really-voluntary psych evaluation. And then there’s the matter of his hanging up on the police officer who was talking to him on the phone — the phone calls appear to have been part of an attempt to handle the matter in a less extreme way, and police could reasonably have interpreted the hang-up as a further sign of instability.
I’ll reserve judgement until more facts are out, but suspect that one or more people were feeding police exaggerated information about Pyles, to further some agenda of their own, and that that person or people should be on the receiving end of criminal charges.
|
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
I google his name and found a site that said in the description he had his firearms returned to him.
I tried to access the site and it shut down my archaic browser.
Still using Compuserve G2019
msntv internet explorer
Hi Tubender.
Nice and peacefull earth on the west coast today. : )
It has been so sunny and nice but today it is a stormin.
Sitting here watching the caps on the yaquinabay.
Window wide open butted up against if on my perch.
Hows the weather down there?
Gun Show in Portland and Eugene this month.
Ping. : )
The weather was crapy here on Humboldt Bay today and it looks the same for the rest of the week. Wife and I need to catch up on the weeds in our gardens but it is just too miserable for our age to be out there. No big shakers here lately...
Dang and now (as I understand it from other gardners around here) is the Time to get it done.
Well here is hoping the weather forcast is wrong.
Nope. Even half spun out union represented stimulus funded overpaid government employees have the same rights as the rest of us. And just about every one in the book was violated in this case.
Every step of the way the "authorities" acknowledged they had no probable cause and therefore no legitimate power to do what they did. And they did it anyway.
To keep us safe. Oh wait no, the children. Oh wait, a select few taxpayer funded comrades. Not us. Not the children.
And besides, there is a stink emanating from this thing I can smell clear over in Klamath Falls. And hopefully whomever's ass was covered ends up in the sling at the end of the day.
Yes, it should be thoroughly investigated and those responsible disciplined if there is no further info forthcoming. Not the taxpayers, the ones responsible. Otherwise, nothing changes.
No, it’s not the end of the world, and no one is claiming that it was.
Yes, other incidents have occurred that have ended up much worse. That’s no excuse, and the officers involved don’t get a pass because they didn’t kill anyone.
Ruby Ridge, Waco. Seems to me that the time to hold them accountable is right now. Before LEO commits another democide in the name of preventive public safety.
This action was unacceptable and they need to held accountable for it. They aren't supposed to rachet up the confrontation just so they can play SWAT.
So, now you're a zombie-fish? They don't normally have hands... meaning the government shouldn't have any qualms with you having guns. ;)
>Nobody prosecuted him.
That can be a problem too, though. If someone is not-arrested [detained w/o prosecution] they are in a gray-state, legally. This is why we have the Habeus Corpus securities in the Constitution; to allow for someone being “detained indefinitely” to be released.
>It’s very beneficial to have laws that allow brief detention for psychiatric evalauations — in many cases, it has saved the detainee’s life and/or the lives of their immediate family members including children.
One problem is that ‘brief’ may mean different things to different people. Another is that people can be pushed & prodded until they [naturally] DO “send up a red flag.” Lastly, I am a bit weary of “psychiatric evaluations” as they may be tainted by political correctness or the [stupid] idea that violence at any time for any reason is wrong.
>If people are sending up red flags all over the place, we shouldn’t need to wait until they kill somebody to ascertain what’s going on.
True, technically. I still don’t think that it is the job of Law _Enforcement_ to do so. If it were, then the police could legitimately detain you [to lecture you] about speeding you haven’t done yet.
>Though as I’ve said before, I don’t see any excuse for not having gotten a warrant before they started the early morning phone calls to him. And they’ve already admitted they screwed up by not submitting the required written form to monitor his gun purchases.
That’s two major failings by the police right there. You might argue tat they are ‘technicalities,’ but I would prefer the [citizen’s] security of having warrants involved.
>And then there’s the matter of his hanging up on the police officer who was talking to him on the phone
I don’t usually hang-up on people; but I remember doing it to my dad once.
>the phone calls appear to have been part of an attempt to handle the matter in a less extreme way, and police could reasonably have interpreted the hang-up as a further sign of instability.
Perhaps. Though I am unsure how ‘reasonable’ they were; as stated they were rather early and we really don’t know what went on therein. The police could have called and simply breathed heavily until he hung up. {I’m not saying they did, but they could truthfully say that they called him and he hung up on them in such a case.}
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.