Posted on 12/18/2019 11:25:59 AM PST by karpov
Serving as a cop in America is harder than ever — and it comes down to respect. A deficit of respect for the men and women in blue who daily put their lives on the line for the rest of us is hurting recruitment and retention and placing communities at risk.
This month, Sgt. Christopher Brewster of the Houston Police Department was shot and killed while responding to a domestic-violence call.
Several hours later that same day, Officer Stephen Carr of Arkansas’ Fayetteville Police Department was ambushed and executed while sitting in his patrol vehicle. Last week, Det. Joseph Seals was shot and killed by those who carried out the Jersey City massacre. Seals’ funeral is Tuesday.
There is no tougher job in the country than serving as a law-enforcement officer. Every morning, officers across the country get up, kiss their loved ones and put on their protective vests. They head out on patrol never knowing what threats and trials they will face. And their families endure restless nights, so we can sleep peacefully.
Policing is only getting harder. Police officers are now required to handle the fallout from a vast range of social pathologies that were once the domain of social workers, psychologists and family members, such as mental illness, widespread homelessness and drug abuse.
Even more demoralizing, police officers must look on as the criminals that they have risked their lives to apprehend get turned loose by “social-justice” DAs and “progressive” judges who no longer see their role as protecting the community from predators. Some DAs have even exposed police officers to greater danger by announcing that they will not prosecute those who resist police.
Increasingly, police officers find themselves the subject of physical attacks. Assaults against police jumped 20 percent from 2014 to 2017
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You’re reading quite a lot into the incident. Projection?
And why so many of you seem to piss your pants at the thought of trim haircuts and practical uniforms escapes me as well — ignoring the fact that most departments still use pretty traditional uniforms anyway.
Perhaps someday some of the people on this site will have their own confrontation with a cop with “ you’re fucked” engraved on his weapon.
Yeah, I see that I was mistaken about that. I hadn’t read about him since it happened, and had not heard that he was pointing the pellet gun out of his window. Still, it was not an actual rifle. People need to relax. It was a pellet gun. That should not have been a death sentence. That an unarmed sobbing man on his knees was a threat to five officers with AR-15s trained on him? Cop culture needs to change.
Hell, just this morning I saw a video from a friend of a similar situation in a hotel. Two cops in a hallway command a lady to come out of the room. They immediately shot her, and as she was bleeding out, made her crawl to them. She was unarmed and apparently not who they were looking for. I suppose as long as the cops went home safely, it was a job well done.
Your reply utilizes just the sort of reasoning that Democrats in Congress and their media have been trying to remove a U.S. president with.
“Absolutely not. He was in his hotel room, not pointing what looked like a rifle out of his window. People were peeping into his hotel room.”
What was done with the rifle to concern people is a major point of this case, and I see that now you’ve been corrected on it and admit that someone was seen pointing the rifle out the window, but it’s important to get the most basic facts straight before you decide someone’s a murderer, and you didn’t.
“Note that at no time did he actually have a rifle.”
He didn’t have a firearm rifle, but he had a pellet rifle. But even just accepting what you mean by that claim at face value, it’s still disingenuous.
I’ve never owned or fired a gun of any kind except for water guns when I was a child, but I’m well aware that any sort of gun or rifle that can potentially cause someone some harm when fired or that could be reasonable mistaken for a “real” gun comes with some serious safety rules. Shaver broke many of them that night, a fact you seem to willfully ignore, unless you’re somehow ignorant of them.
Do you claim, then, that you just don’t know or that you wouldn’t expect there to be safety rules and guidelines for the type of rifle Shaver possessed and used in his work?
Almost instantly through a web search I found pages upon pages of safety rules for such guns. I visited one of them. Here’s a little of what the page says:
“WARNING (in bold): AIRGUNS ARE NOT TOYS. RESPONSIBLE ADULT SUPERVISION IS REQUIRED. MISUSE OR CARELESS USE MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH. READ THE OWNER’S OPERATION MANUAL PRIOR TO HANDLING ANY AIRGUN. PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO ALL WARNINGS AND CAUTIONS.
“It is your duty to know and obey all laws governing the use and ownership of air guns in your city, town, province, state, and/or country.”
And then this:
“NEVER brandish, show, or display your airgun or airsoft gun in public.”
And this:
“Do not consume alcohol prior to, or during a shooting session.”
The man and the woman in the room with Shaver testified that he brought out the gun, that one of them pointed it out the window, and that Shaver asked the man, Nuñez, if he wanted to shoot it, and Nuñez told him it was a stupid idea.
This was not a proper “shooting session,” because Shaver broke the rule on brandishing the rifle in public, but I have to say that any responsible gun owner of any type, and the safety rules for all types of guns, will all say that guns and alcohol don’t mix under any circumstances.
So that brings us to this:
“As for the BAC of over 3 times the driving limit, how is that relevant? Was he driving around inside his hotel room? What exactly is illegal about drinking inside your hotel room?”
Again, are you aware or did you just not expect there to be any gun safety rules about mixing alcohol with using or handling the gun?
Shaver worked for his father-in-law’s company, news reports say. Maybe another important area of interest here is what sort of training and instruction he received from his father-in-law and/or the company on the safe handling and use of the rifle, and what the company legally required of him. Typically following all safety rules at a company is officially mandatory, and employees are required to sign off on receiving the training and agreeing to follow all rules.
“I watched the video and the officers were shouting at him and made contradictory commands. He was terrified and pleading for his life. How could anyone not realize that, especially trained professionals? If the cops were in fear of this guy, they shouldn’t be cops. They suck at their job.”
And when asked if he could hear and follow instructions, he said yes. And when asked if he was drunk, he said no. And when asked to affirm that in that case, he’d therefore have no problem following the officers’ instructions, he verbally agreed that he wouldn’t. He also intelligibly answered the officers’ questions such as that there was no one else in the room.
Police officers today also have to consider that people can be intoxicated on a variety of drugs that can have a variety of effects. Watching that video, which is truly terribly tragic and very hard to get through, it is nevertheless very difficult, without the benefit of hindsight, to clearly understand what was going on with Shaver, and whether he might actually pose a threat or not. But one thing was already established: he was very irresponsible in the use and handling of a gun, to the point of indifference to others. Just like alcohol intoxication doesn’t absolve you of responsibility or guilt in the use or misuse of a vehicle, it doesn’t absolve you of either in the use and handling of a gun.
“In my opinion, it was just a matter of time before that hot-head cop with the “you’re fucked” gun engraving was going to murder someone.”
Perhaps, and that might be partly why, personality-wise, that particular officer fired, although, then again, perhaps not. There is so much sick thinking, at the Family Guy level, that is part of our culture today but we are all expected to think and allow ourselves to be bullied into agreeing that it’s just meaningless entertainment that doesn’t actually affect anyone. And if the circumstances reached the threshold that altogether justified the shooting as reasonable, then it’s irrelevant. It wasn’t that cop who told Shaver if he made another false move that they were going to shoot him, but the officer in charge. Brailsford likely took those words as indirect guidance about his superior’s view of the situation and how they should proceed.
Ultimately, a lot just went a little wrong in this case, on top of the major wrongs done by Shaver himself, in which he broke some cardinal rules on the use and handling of they type of gun he was responsible for. Additionally, Nuñez saw the Mesa police downstairs, thought they were probably there because of he and Shaver playing around with the gun, but decided to say nothing. And one of the web pages I linked to says a hotel employee went to the room, asked if there was a problem and Shaver said no and put the gun away. Where that information went, if it could even have made a difference, I don’t know.
But Shaver likely committed some sort of crime just by pointing the gun out the window. Some of the other safety rules:
“Don’t let the muzzle of the gun cross anything you’re not prepared to shoot.”
“Always be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.”
Links:
https://www.umarexusa.com/air-gun-safety
See this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3801853/posts?page=65#65
Also, he was not a kid. That was the sort of claim made about Trayvon Martin. I had so many white liberals telling me he was a child and Zimmerman was a “child murderer.” One even inexplicably “yelled” at me, online, that GZ was a “baby killer.”
And as I said in post 65, being intoxicated doesn’t absolve someone of any legal responsibilities. I’m sure you know it doesn’t make a person innocent when they get behind the wheel of a car. Shaver broke serious safety rules on the use and handling of guns that night, and while you say that he didn’t know what was going on, he also answered many of the officers’ questions and instantly complied with many of their directions. But when asked if he could hear and follow their directions, he said yes. And when asked about being drunk, he said he wasn’t. And when asked to confirm that because he wasn’t drunk, he therefore wouldn’t have any trouble following their directions, he said he wouldn’t. While it’s only opinion, I have to think he would have lived through that incident, more likely than not, if he’d told the police that he’d been drinking and had had quite a lot.
The very second that a municipality didn’t come down HARD on a person or persons who acted in any negative way toward a police officer, they lost the battle.....
He does, however, have a private life.....
There are numerous instances where cops can and should enter homes without warrants. For the thousands of home entries that occur each and every day, yes there are a few that should have been handled differently. But you cannot make the rules by looking at the exceptions, IMHO.
Acts by individuals do not condemn an entire organization..
Apparently in practice they do. You constantly see the acts of an individual used to tar an entire group. It’s the mainstay of politics.
First, I watched that video over and over for at least a week breaking it down to every detail. It added up to the bigger psychological picture I mentioned.
Second, I have been in that exact type of situation many times in my life and am lucky to be alive, if I had twitched a finger I would be dead. I understand the authoritarian mindset very very well.
Third, Both my father and my uncle were law enforcement officers who retired early years ago because of that very trending authoritarian mindset that disgusted them as old school LE when they still actually served the public.
Fourth, my son in law is currently a law enforcement officer and he cannot wait to get out because of that very mindset he has come to hate. It’s real, And I understand it very well, been there many times.
You’ll shoot your eye out kid.
Holy hell, that essay you wrote justifying the taking of a life by trigger happy cops is frightening. It’s amazing how little it took you to feel that this was justified.
Stop calling that toy he had a rifle. It’s a pellet gun. You can’t kill someone with a pellet gun. You can shoot an eye out perhaps, but it is not a firearm.
Sure the manufacturer said it’s not a toy and don’t drink and shoot pellets with it. That’s for the lawyers. I mean, I’ve seen a package for a set of small screwdrivers that had a warning to not insert into penis. It’s all for the lawyers.
Bottom line, it was the cops in the wrong. Entirely. They’re the ones with the deadly military grade rifles, they’re the ones with the training, they’re the ones charged with public safety. Shafer was absolutely no threat, and you damn well know that they knew it too.
By the way, a friend sent me a link to a video this morning. It was of two cops in a hotel hallway demanding a woman come out of her room. As soon as she did, they shot her. As she was bleeding out, they made her crawl down the hallway to them. You can see the blood streaks in the carpet. She was unarmed and not the person they were expecting. What a bunch of animals. I’m sure you’d find a way to justify their actions though. I guess she scared them by actually following their orders.
Police who conduct ‘asset seizures’ against citizens whose only mistake was legally carrying a large amount of cash are committing armed robbery under color of authority.
Police frequently get away Scot free with wrongful and even deliberate (also called First Degree) homicides (also called murder) of perfectly innocent people.
And police rape citizens at an alarming rate. Fortunately more and more of these predators are being caught (but almost never by their own departments) and imprisoned like they deserve.
The USA averages 51 fatalities from lightning strikes every year.
In every one of the past ten years more people died from police action:
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2019 (listed: 118)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2018 (listed: 390)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2017 (listed: 125)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2016 (listed: 186)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2015 (listed: 837)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2014 (listed: 622)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2013 (listed: 331)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2012 (listed: 597)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2011 (listed: 172)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2010 (listed: 285)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, 2009 (listed: 72)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States prior to 2009 (listed: 170)
And it’s not the ‘trim haircuts’ I criticized, it’s the freaks who completely shave their heads in order to appear more aggressive and to intimidate people.
https://www.livescience.com/23766-shaved-head-dominant.html
Whenever I see such a vile creature I assume that this person gets off on being a bully and I also assume that this person is a potentially unpredictable and lethal threat to my family and to myself and I act accordingly: the safety comes off and the hammer gets cocked.
See, if Officer Jackboot wants me to think he’s a threat then I will be happy to oblige him.
Sorry that offends you. Feel free to grovel before your betters with badges if that consoles your authoritarian impulses.
As for me and mine we only bow before the Lord.
No, I judged the situation with intellectual honesty, ever mindful that the Lord hates acquitting the guilty and convicting the innocent (Proverbs 17:15). On the other hand, your comments here bear false witness. Oh, and I had already read up on and watched the video of that case of police shooting the woman. Altogether, including in how you view that situation, you try to promote a liberal view of the police here which isn’t truthful or righteous. There are times the police should be truthfully and righteously criticized, but without engaging in the liberal demonization of the police that’s meant to tear at society’s foundations, a la Saul Alinksy, and young people are especially targeted with this view of them.
No one wants to hear it, but this guy is Deep State as it gets. Ruby Ridge was on his watch & he went to the mat for Lon Horiuchi. Trump’s weakness is the snakes he hires. Don’t trust Barr!
Here’s a recent example of why I said what I said.
These jackboots beat, tazed, and arrested a man for daring to question their authority.
Care to defend this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Tc1s_NFvw&feature=youtu.be
word of advice for everyone when getting pulled over is call 911 immediately and leave the phone connection open so 911 dispatch hears and records everything going on, the recording can be retrieved legally due to foia regulations for your benefit...
Oh boy. We brought what the lord hates into the conversation. Well, what about Thou shall not kill? (6 Commandments 10) How do you square that with your rootin' tootin' gun slingin' cops? Do you think he hates acquitting the guilty more than murdering the innocent?
Okay, all joking aside. The woman in the video, presuming we're talking about the same one... I will concede that you have probably studied it very intently and know all the relevant facts leading up to the policemen's actions. I have not. I saw all I needed to see. They shot an unarmed lady and made her crawl to them while bleeding out, and once she made it to them, crying, they didn't even render medical assistance. Unless you call telling her to put pressure on the hole in her that they put there. Who knows, maybe she was a bad person. But holy hell what the fuck is the matter with those cops!?! Those are not the type of people who should be cops.
As for the liberal demonization of the police... well, I am neither a liberal nor demonizing the police as a whole. Just the ones who murdered Shaver, and more recently those two who shot the lady in the video. I do not fear the police, nor do I think we are actually living in a police state, but we're moving in that direction. The war on drugs and the war on terrorism have modified the behavior of the police. Policing for profit, no-knock predawn raids, militarization of the police are some examples, and if it were up to me, I'd put a stop to that before it leads to cops shooting unarmed people in their homes, their cars and in hotels. Oh wait...
I haven’t seen you deal honestly with the facts in your responses. And yes, I brought God into it. Why should that offend you? God is the author of justice, and He instructs us in how to be just. You should have more respect for Him than to curse.
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