Posted on 08/20/2013 7:11:14 PM PDT by markomalley
Tough-talking Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is warning civilians who embark on armed patrols in remote desert terrain that they could end up with "30 rounds fired into" them by one of his deputies.
His unapologetically terse comments came Tuesday after a member of an Arizona Minuteman border-watch movement was arrested over the weekend for pointing a rifle at a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy he apparently mistook for a drug smuggler.
"If they continue this there could be some dead militia out there," Arpaio said.
Richard Malley, 49, was heavily armed with two others dressed in camouflage Saturday night along Interstate 8 near Gila Bend, a known drug-trafficking corridor in the desert about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, when he confronted the deputy who was on patrol conducting surveillance, authorities said.
According to court records, the deputy and his partner stopped their vehicle, then flashed their headlights and honked their horn, a common practice used by law enforcement to trick drug smugglers into thinking the car is there to transfer their narcotics load and lure them out of hiding.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Now we learn that many of the questions from this article were right on the money:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/08/azman-watching-for-illegals-arrested.html
The deputies were in an unmarked car, they were wearing camouflauge instead of regular uniforms, did not have badges on, and were playacting as drug dealers.
All charges against Mr. Malley should be dropped immediately.
I'll buy that when they quit gearing up and acting like they're seal team 6 and when they quit treating the rest of us civilians like it's occupied iraq.
there is a lot of money in crime...for both sides..!
As long as law enforcement (Read: local, state, and federal) do not have the capabilities, enthusiasm, or funding to search and destroy these cartels and the mules, militias will stand up and do the job. This is human nature. It is called defending oneself, their families, and their communities. I think Sheriff Joe is making the wrong move here.
I doubt I’d trust you either. Push and push back is forcing sharper divisions all the time. Not that I’m at all trustful of the police after some shootings in Tucson a couple of years ago.
Lets face it, hatred is ruling the day. I’d just as soon not have someone who hates me, or what he thinks I am, pointing a gun at me.
“That’s what the prosecution said about Zimmerman.”
The owners of the property approved of Zimmerman’s Neighborhood Watch. And concealed carry is legal. Zimmerman was in a NEIGHBORHOOD. He wasn’t patrolling an Interstate, or going out on state of federal land. He was ALSO in contact with the police...
I live in southern Arizona. I know the geography. I’ve driven that section of road many times. It does NOT need armed civilians of unknown training, without coordination with the cops, patrolling it with rifles.
If I ran around on public streets, armed and telling people I was their self-appointed protector, and I didn’t cooperate with law enforcement, just who in the hell do you think I would be helping? That is a shooting waiting to happen.
If I saw these guys, I’d assume they were drug smugglers. I wouldn’t talk to them, show them my ID, or do squat to cooperate with them. MY gun would be out, and I’d be ready to use it to defend myself.
Then these buttheads had the gall to refuse to cooperate with cops in uniform, with badges. They deserve time in jail!
The bottom line to all of this is the refusal of the federal government to control the border. Instead, their alternative is to try to put vast stretches of US territory effectively off limits to US citizens.
Now, while the Democrats who control southern Arizona might be fine with that, those who live in *central* Arizona, which includes Maricopa and Pinal counties, are not happy at all with the idea that unless land is developed, the government owns it, and it is forbidden to the public.
In *years* of operation, this is the first real citizen-police conflict I’ve heard of, and was based on some pretty extraordinary circumstances.
The Minuteman was clearly in the wrong only in trying to confront people he thought were drug smugglers. However, a shoulder patch, especially at night, especially if it is a subdued patch, is laughable as a form of ID at any distance.
http://i.imgur.com/Dwqg83k.jpg
Add to that the deputies were trying to lure drug smugglers, so they would not be making themselves known as deputies until the smugglers were close enough to catch. But instead of luring prey, they lured another predator.
The bottom line is that they should let this guy go with a slap on the wrist, telling him first not to ever, ever, draw down on a cop, or someone who might be a cop; and if he sees somebody he thinks is a criminal, call LEOs, don’t try to apprehend somebody who might very well be able and willing to fight back with better weapons.
Well...I largely agree with your points.
As an aside, I have a rather silly anecdote on the subject which illustrates how bizarre it can all get.
In the 1980s, the Verde River valley just northeast of Scottsdale was pretty much undeveloped, and a popular spot for the ASU ROTC to practice their maneuvers. However, they were far from alone. In addition to thousands of rattlesnakes, it was a popular playground for white and Mexican dumbasses with guns to go shooting in random directions. And there was a lot of patrols by both forest rangers and MCSO deputies, looking for drugs, liquor, guns, explosives, girls in bikinis, dumbasses with guns, river tubers, you name it.
In any event, a group of Army ROTC were out there practicing US Army Ranger tactics, under the watchful gaze of their Special Forces adviser, who was in a foul mood with a hangover and random gunfire making him seek cover once too often.
A pitch black evening, and the maneuver had been going well, when an MCSO helicopter showed up, throwing a spotlight on one of the groups, which illuminated their position and fouled up a big part of the exercise. And this was the final straw for the Green Beret, who pulled out a star cluster aerial flare and fired it a football field away from the helicopter, which was several football fields away too close as far as the helicopter pilot was concerned, so he turned off all his lights and split in a hurry.
Only after that did the Green Beret pause for station identification, and give orders that everyone was to immediately exfiltrate across the shallow river and conceal themselves. A wise move, because the helicopter pilot had called in backup from every MCSO within 50 miles, who were soon crawling all over the other side of the river, much like when the government was chasing E.T., and to the same result.
At least they chased off all the other white and Mexican drunken dumbasses shooting their guns in random directions for the evening. After drying off, the rest of the exercise went off without a hitch.
(I will add as an aside that the Verde River is the one North-South corridor for helicopter traffic out of Phoenix Metro, and it gave me great amusement while watching the movie Blue Thunder, of the villain supposedly throwing a captured North Vietnamese soldier out of his helicopter onto the saguaros below.)
No, he shouldn’t tell them where HE is going to be. But he could tell them particular areas to work in each day, so he and his men would know where they are.
oh they sure love to dress the part and play with all the big boy toys like sub machine guns and armored vehicles like Bearcats. I'd like to require that any vehicle like that they get has to be painted bright pink with Hello Kitty emblems on the side.
Actually,dude,you have a better chance getting capped by the po lice
That would make so many people happy.
“Law enforcement officers should want to work with concerned citizens.”
Indeed. So why is Arpaio threatening concerned citizens?
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