Posted on 07/13/2003 2:01:40 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
The dangers in responsible civilian oversight and control of law enforcement are miniscule compared to the dangers in handing whatever oversight exists over to LE.
And this is a GOOD thing?!?!?
And some of the same people are posting all of their comments thrice apiece.
Just kidding, FR was flaking on me for a while too. :-)
Is there any explanation for the spelling change?
Who says I am against it? I am just saying it will fail if it is composed of humanist anarcho-ideologues rather than moral and religious conservatives.
Be advised that the latter are not too enamored with the whole idea of picking up and moving someplace for the sole vicarious thrill of being tolerant of evils which the ideologues claim none of their ranks are involved in anyway.
Kevin doesn't mind you pinging him even after you called him a terrorist who wants to destroy the nation? ;-)
OTOH, the story is certainly interesting. The supposed perp had a "CZ-762x25" which is described as both "large" and "high powered". I have seen the 9 mm CZs and they are by no means large. This appears to be a 7.62 mm version, which would make it a .30 caliber semi-auto and probably a bit smaller, althought I hear that it is fairly powerful.
Stark County Coroner James Pritchard said Taylor, who was wearing a protective vest as is required by the Massillon Police Department, was struck in the buttocks by a bullet that traveled up through his body, damaging vital organs.
Have you or anyone else devoted even a few seconds thought to how this might have happened? For the bullet to hit the officer in the butt, travel upwards and hit vital organs I can envision only two scenarios.
A. The officer was straddling the perp, standing over him like he had captured a trophy, but had somehow failed to disarm him, or
B. The officer was lying on the ground facing directly away from the perp. Although this is possible, there is but scant logic which would explain how he came to be in this position, crawling away from his target.
Of course there is always another explanation. What about the possibility that he was in a prone position, facing the "perp", but was shot in the buttocks by another officer firing from behind him?
The CZ is an inexpensive, but very reliable pistol. Ever heard of a cop carrying a "throw down"? Oh wait, that never happens in your world. On the other hand, maybe it was a "back-up", which just happened to also be very inexpensive.
Sure, this could have happened just the way the newspaper says, but somehow that doesn't pass the smell test.
Just suppose that this was a case of "friendly fire" and the boys got together afterwards and decided that it might be better for all concerned if the dead officer was remembered as a "fallen hero", instead of someone who was shot in the butt by a fellow officer firing an unauthorized weapon. The "perp" is dead so he won't care.
Not only that, but this way the fellow officer doesn't have all that pesky paperwork to fill out.
Do you have a link to the someplace where we get an official explanation for how officer Taylor came to be shot in the buttocks while facing away from the man he was chasing? Where is this procedure described in the training manual?
It is certainly a tragedy, and I have great sympathy for Officer Taylor. But, I have a hard time believing the storyof the shootout is the complete truth.
Yes, a murdering freak is just an eccentric fellow to you. Well that explains everything.
Being the cynical old man that I am, I suspect that any video camera would either be turned off, covered by someone's shirt, or pointing in completely the wrong direction whenever anything "interesting" happened.
I know there have been a few cases of cops tripped up by video in their squad cars during traffic stops, but if they are going into a more serious situation, I bet a week's salary that somehow that camera is malfunctioning just at the very moment when it would shed some light on a problem. And then it would get fixed as soon afterward as the problem was noted and the action was over.
Any more "control" of this sort will lead to the complete breakdown of law enforcement in urban areas. Morever this statement leads me to believe that you have little or no understanding of the situation in such areas whatsoever.
When civilian complaint boards made up of liberal defense lawyers and black panther sympathizers can discipline cops through suspension, loss of vacation time or indictment you can kiss urban America goodbye. When a cop's word is judged equally with that of an ex-con or a ex-con's family member the vet cop's mantra to the rookie will be what I hear increasingly:
"Be safe, do nothing"- ie "Don't arrest anyone unless the kill someone in front of you on videotape."
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.