CHP duo who shot alligator to be fired

San Diego Union ^ | Feb 12, 2006 | Juliet Williams

[diverteach]

Gee, thanks for coming all the way from California to help out after Katrina. "You're FIRED"

Thats the new American gratitude for ya.

[mwyounce]

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?

[King Moonracer]

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.

Something tells me they were hoodwinked. I don't think hunters or whites are allowed to be cops in Kalifonica.

[P8riot]

Gee, thanks for coming all the way from California to help out after Katrina. "You're FIRED"

Thats the new American gratitude for ya.

That's OK. I hear they are looking for replacement officers in N'awlins.

[higgmeister]

Why wasn't this the headline?

CHP duo to be fired for Not reporting the discharge of a department firearm.

[Vaquero]

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.

[MozarkDawg]

"No Ponch, that is not the way you get yourself a new set of luggage ..."

[usmcobra]

There are NO New Orleans area Bayous, those were streets.

[Emmett McCarthy]

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.

[jwh_Denver]

Run?

An alligator can run faster than a man for about 100 feet. But one can never outrun PC and California BS.

[xrp]

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.

[conservative physics]

I guess they should have just let them eat people.

[L98Fiero]

"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.

[mwyounce]

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."

[BenLurkin]

Where did you see they were hunters?

Where did you see that they were white?

[shelterguy]

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......

[King Moonracer]

This article is kind of brief. Knowing Kalifornica, its not likely they were hunters, which rules out the "Hunter Rampage" theory that the left loves. Kalifornica probably screens out real Americans, (legal gun owners).

Also, its almost impossible for a white person to become cop/fireman/EMT in Kalifornica, but that was a gratuitous attack on affirmative action, my bad. That aside, my guess is that the volunteers were mostly young, unmarried, etc....and gullible.

Anyways, they were with local LA cops, so I'm thinking they were hoodwinked. "Sure boy, you better shoot'em, they can run like the dickens and they'll bite. THERE's ONE NOW!!!"
blam, blam, blam.

[L98Fiero]

When they see one, they think, "kill it before it kills me."

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. :)