Archive for the 'Police' Category

Fox News:

In bodycam footage so stunning it could be mistaken for a Hollywood action flick, a Las Vegas Metro police officer chasing two men in an SUV is seen speeding through Sin City’s downtown while simultaneously shooting out his car’s front windshield and trading shots from his side window during a deadly gun battle.

The two suspects allegedly fled after a July 11 traffic stop conducted by cops investigating the murder of a man near a car wash, FOX5 Vegas reported.

The suspects traded more than 60 shots with police during the harrowing pursuit. The officer behind the wheel, William Umana, can be heard on video yelling “shots fired” multiple times. The chase ended when the suspects crashed into the wall of an elementary school.

Rene Nunez, 30, got out of the vehicle and tried to run upstairs into the school, but the door was locked, Las Vegas Metro police Assistant Sheriff Tim Kelly said.

Fidel Miranda, 23, moved toward the passenger seat of the SUV and started to move it back toward the officer’s cruiser. Police fired on Miranda and he later died at the scene. Nunez, who was also wounded, was arrested and is facing several felony charges, including murder, police said.

The shooting “paints a picture of the dangers these officers dealt with that day,” Kelly said.

“In my opinion, they show a level of bravery, professionalism, heroics, that we come to expect of our officers,” Kelly said. “The officer could have backed off but he didn’t, he stuck with that individual knowing what type of individual he was dealing with.”

So he’s a hero and pistolero.  But tell me after watching the video that he knew his backstop when he was shooting out the window while moving, and especially when he was shooting through the windshield of his patrol unit when the bullet could have been sent at virtually any angle.

Tell me the officer knew he wasn’t going to shoot some little girl or boy walking on the sidewalk.

Foxnews:

A flip of a coin by Georgia cops determined a woman’s fate during a traffic stop in April, body camera footage showed.

The video showed Roswell police officers laughing as they used a coin-flip app to decide whether to detain Sarah Webb during a traffic stop, 11 Alive reported.

Officer Courtney Brown was heard asking Webb whether she knew how fast she was going. Webb apologized and said she was late for work, and Brown asked her to turn off the car and hand over her keys.

“The ground is wet and it’s been raining you’re going over 80 miles an hour on this type of a road. That’s reckless driving,” Brown said.

“I’m so sorry,” Webb replied.

Brown returned to her police cruiser to talk with fellow officers about whether to arrest Webb or just give her ticket.

“What do you think?” Kristee Wilson, a responding officer, was heard saying.

Brown said she “didn’t have speed detection,” but the other officer pointed out that the body camera recorded her cruiser’s speed, which would have shown how fast she was going to catch up to Webb.

Brown was then heard saying, “Hold on,” as she opens a coin-flip app on her phone. Wilson suggested that heads should mean arrest and tails should mean release. Brown agreee (sic) and flipped the coin in the app.

“A [arrest] head, R[release] tail,” Wilson said.

“OK,” Brown replied.

“This is tails, right?” Wilson asked.

“Yeah, so release?” Brown responded.

“23 [the police code for arrest],” Wilson replied.

“Michael Jordan?” Brown said while laughing. “All right, so I’ve got too fast for conditions, reckless…”

So one thing I’ll point out is that pointing to your own speedometer, or saying that you “had to drive so-and-so MPH to catch up” has no bearing on anything at all, and jurors who believe that are idiots.  Catching up to a car isn’t the same thing as driving the same speed as the other car.  I trust that I don’t have to perform calculus to demonstrate that.

Second, it appears as if this is the same thing we’ve seen before, i.e., hiring the lowest common denominator pathological morons to perform LEO duties.  In this case it’s a little different in that these are “mean girls” back in a high school lunch room who didn’t happen to like the person they stopped.

Justice in Amerika.

David Codrea:

Before judging him for that, consider the environment that is New Jersey. Then consider the overwhelming force the state can bring to bear, and its predisposition to using it, especially if it’s to enforce citizen disarmament. It’s easy to anonymously declare “Molon Labe” on the internet. In meatspace, resistance is more effective when the aggressor doesn’t get to dictate the time and place, especially if that place is your home and you have family inside.

Oh sure, I’ve got that.  I’m not sure if and when he’ll ever get them back, though, or how this ends.

Throwing down with a SWAT team in your front doorstep isn’t a good option.  When it comes to it, 4GW will be necessary to end this infringement.

In the mean time, I’m not sure why any thinking man would choose to live in New Jersey.  As for the cops, they are swine.  Every one of them who participated in this, and all of their colleagues back at the station since they allow this sort of thing to happen.

I guess that includes all of them since I folded in both the participants and the non-participants.

Via reader Randall, WBTV:

GASTONIA, NC (WBTV) – A woman was seriously injured following an officer-involved shooting in Gaston County late Sunday night. 

According to the Gastonia Police Department, officers were looking for Jarvis Lynn in the area of  Gray Street around 11:30 p.m. A warrant states officers received a call about a noise disturbance in the area. Police said Lynn had a pistol at the time of the shooting.

That’s when officers reportedly shot Lynn’s sister, in an attempt to shot Lynn, officials say.

Gaston County EMS said the woman was taken to CaroMont Regional Medical Center with life-threatening injuries but, police say, she has since been released from the hospital.

The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting.

The officer who shot the woman has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation which is standard practice. The woman is not facing charges.

Lynn was charged with refusing to follow officer’s commands, assault, breaking and entering, larceny and damaging property. He had previously been convicted in 2011 on drug charges.

Oh dear.

Minutes down the road from me.  Folks, it appears as if the LEO was the most dangerous person that night.  You just cannot discharge a weapon unless you know your backstop.  End of discussion.  You just can’t do it.  You can tackle, you can throw your body around, you can use OC spray, you can call for backup, but you cannot discharge your weapon when other people are around.  It’s dumb.  It’s dangerous.  It shouldn’t be done.

Gun owners know that.  Why doesn’t the police?  Also, I’m not sure the article is correct.  This might be the Gaston County Police rather than the Gastonia Police Department.

Via TCJ Western correspondent Ned Weatherby, this sad, sorry tale.

Newly released body camera footage shows Las Vegas police officers pausing for several minutes in the hallway of the Mandalay Bay hotel — as mass shooter Stephen Paddock guns down 58 people on the floor directly above them.

“Holy sh-t that’s rapid fire,” officer Cordell Hendrex utters in the chilling video, reacting to Paddock’s gunfire — which he later described as “like thunder all around and above us,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The officer and his first-day trainee, Elif Varsin, stayed on the 31st floor for four-and-a-half minutes, even as they heard the shooter’s position reported as “the 32nd floor, room 135.”

“I’m inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor,” Hendrex says in the video. “I can hear the automatic fire coming from one floor ahead, one floor above us.”

In a report, he later wrote that he “froze right there in the middle of the hall” after being terrified.

Eh, whether it’s a column or patrol car in Florida or hotel floor in Las Vegas, I’m just glad the cops had something to hide behind and that they went home safely at the end of their shift.  Officer safety first, of course.

And if things like this don’t dissuade you from the belief that the cops are there to protect and defend you, then you believe in fairy tales, myths and children’s story books.

The Gun Writer:

While traditional open carry is generally banned, Florida law allows the open carry of handguns while hunting or fishing.

To be clear, you can wear an exposed handgun in a holster if you’re fishing — period. It’s completely legal.

There are a few other exceptions.

This fishing exception was apparently unknown by Miami Beach police officers Sunday morning.

The results were almost tragic.

Thank God no one was killed or seriously injured.

Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know for sure:

A group of fishermen — who were lawfully open-carrying handguns — was fishing off of the South Pointe Pier in Miami Beach Sunday morning at around 10:40, when they were confronted by Miami Beach police officers.

At some point during the confrontation, a Miami Beach police officer pointed his gun at the group. At least one man was unlawfully detained and his weapon was confiscated.

Police injured one man’s shoulder when they took him to the ground. He was later transported to a hospital.

So now do you want to hear how the MSM reported this event?  Hold on to your breeches boys.

Six armed people who were fishing Sunday morning at the South Pointe Pier in Miami Beach were detained by police and then released.

The anglers, whose guns were openly displayed on their hips, cited a state law that allows people to carry a firearm while fishing, hunting, camping or attending a gun show, said Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.

Park rangers spotted the group about 10 a.m. Sunday and summoned police. The anglers were questioned by police but allowed to stay after mentioning the state law, Rodriguez said.

“Out of an abundance of caution we have assigned two officers to the pier while they remain,” he said. “We are encouraging visitors to use other portions of South Pointe Park.”

It all sounds so peaceful and well-intentioned, yes?  So here is a question for you.  Abundance of what caution?  Exactly what did the police think they were protecting?

Let’s pose a question. “Why officer, you don’t want us to see a weapon on the carriers, but carrying concealed is acceptable, then exactly what are you doing by recommending we stay away from these men?  They could be carrying anyway and it be legal, it’s just that we wouldn’t know about it?”

They would only have one answer.  “We don’t want you to see peaceable men openly carrying weapons because you may figure out that there is no difference between open and concealed carry except that you don’t know it if someone has concealed their weapons.  Then you may demand that these men be allowed to do that everywhere, or at least not oppose open carry, and we can’t have the peasants with the same rights we have, can we?”

But the MSM reporter doesn’t go there, because like all MSM reporters, she got her talking points from the cops.  The MSM is an organ of the state.  It always has been, it always will be.

One final thing.  Let’s stipulate that the cops were poorly bred, uneducated imbeciles for a moment (that’s usually a good approximation for cops).  The first thing out of my mouth if I had responded to this event as a cop would have been this.  “Hey boys, how’s the fishing?  Catching anything today?  Let’s talk about what you’re doing here, sirs.”

Unholstering a weapon and pointing it at someone who is peaceable and innocent is the most idiotic, irresponsible, dangerous and thoughtless thing a person can do.  The cops truly are morons of the highest order.

Shreveport Times:

A Shreveport police officer is under an administrative investigation after he accidentally fired his department-issued gun while teaching two summer interns about gun safety.

Cpl. Marcus Hines accidentally fired his department-issued .40-caliber Glock handgun around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 20, while inside his office, according to a police report.

Hines told the department that neither he nor the two public information office interns — a 21-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man — were injured.

Hines’s work assignment is to serve as a department spokesman. Calls to him Thursday evening regarding the incident were not returned.

According to police reports, Hines and the interns recently returned from watching the department’s special response team receive tactical training when Hines began to discuss department-issued weapons and gun safety.

During the conversation, Hines unholstered his gun, removed the magazine and then removed a round from the chamber. He was telling the interns how one should always point the gun in a safe direction when it fired, said Chief Administrative Assistant Ben Raymond in a statement.

The round penetrated the carpet of Hines’ office. Police later removed round fragments near Hines’ desk and took photos of the scene, police said.

After the gun went off, Hines followed police protocol and contacted a supervisor. Hines was then taken to Willis-Knighton Work Kare for substance-abuse screening, police said.

Hines told police he was trying to make the weapon “safe” when the gun went off.

I know.  It just went off.  I hate it when that happens to me.

But here’s a tip that’s helped me a lot.  Take those dumb ass ear buds out when you’re on duty and trying to keep life safe for folks.

CBS Pittsburgh:

An investigation is underway after 17-year-old Antwon Rose was shot in the back by an East Pittsburgh police officer while Rose was running from a traffic stop.

KDKA-TV has now learned that the officer who is accused of shooting Rose, was only sworn into duty a few hours before the fatal shooting.

When a police officer shoots someone, even if they’ve been involved in a crime in a neighboring community as has been alleged here, Allegheny County homicide detectives step in.

“In accordance with police best practices in the aftermath of officer-involved shootings, Allegheny County police department homicide detectives were requested to assume the role of independent investigatory agency,” said Superintendent Coleman McDonough on Wednesday.

But it’s up to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala to determine whether Rose’s shooting was justified or not.

“That officer has the same rights as any other citizen,” said McDonough.

I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I shot a man in the back.  I had seen him running down the sidewalk and thought that maybe he had just robbed my house.

Turns out I was wrong, but they found that I was entirely within my rights in assuming he was a thief.  They brought up Tennessee versus Garner, but I shut that down in a hurry by claiming it only applies to cops.

Sun Sentinel:

Many have called him a coward, but former sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson had no legal duty to stop the slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his attorneys say.

Peterson took shelter rather than confront the killer, but he did not act with malice or bad faith, according to his attorneys, Michael Piper and Christopher Stearns of Fort Lauderdale. Therefore he can’t be held legally responsible for the deaths, they say in court documents.

Allegations against Peterson suggest only that he “opted for self-preservation over heroics,” the attorneys wrote.

The statements came in a motion seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Andrew Pollack, the father of 18-year-old Meadow Pollack, who was killed in the shooting.

[ … ]

Peterson’s lawyers say police officers are responsible for injury only if the officer takes control of a situation and people are hurt as a result or if the officer creates risk.

A Florida statute gives immunity to officers for injury suffered as a result of what they do while on the job unless they acted in bad faith or exhibited “wanton and willful disregard of human rights, safety, or property, ” the attorneys say.

I told you so.  There is a difference between cowardice or irresponsibility and legal culpability.  An officer who does something like that isn’t a man and should be shamed until he leaves the earth.

But he isn’t legally required to assist.  Period.  We’ve seen that before with Castle Rock versus Gonzales and Warren versus the District of Columbia.  The attorneys didn’t even have to get there because Florida law protects LEOs.

Now.  I want every gun controller out there to queue up and tell me how I should relinquish my guns because the cops will protect me and my family.

Go ahead.  I’m waiting.  Let’s hear it.  Bring it.

WGN9:

Police raided the wrong home on the South Side and handcuffed the wrong people before they realized their mistake Tuesday afternoon.

Police raided the first floor of an apartment building on the 5200 South Wells Street in the Fuller Park neighborhood just before 3 p.m. Terricky Pender said her kids got caught in the middle of the incident. The family’s front door is now damaged.

“They put us in handcuffs and told us to sit on the couch,” Janell Island, one of Pender’s children, said. “I was confused. The police officer told me to shut up.”

Island was just getting into the shower when about 10 police officers breached the front door. Police entered the home, said it was a raid and said they were looking for drugs.

Island said she told them they had the wrong house. Island and her two brothers were the only people home at the time.

Jamell Island was closest to the front door, playing video games, when the door was busted open. He said the officers did not announce themselves as police. He said they just banged on the door.

He said he started to run.

“What’s happening now out here in Chicago, there’s too many bad things out here. You can’t trust nobody out here,” he said.

He said police knocked him down, put the gun to his head and handcuffed him and his brother. He said they took him to the bathroom, pulled his pants down and started checking to see if he had anything on him. He said he felt humiliated.

The warrant police had said they were at the correct address but the man they were looking for, named Deebo, lived upstairs. They had the wrong apartment listed.

After searching every corner of the apartment, police apologized and left the building.

Terricky said it was little consolation. She said she was left with a ransacked home, a broken door and shaken image of the police.

“I feel it was wrong that they came in my house and did this to my kids,” she said. “My kids had to suffer with guns in their faces, pulling their clothes down. They could have been running out the door and somebody could have shot one of my kids.”

Chicago police said they take these matters very seriously and will investigate the incident, including “the accuracy and reliability of information provided to officers.” They said they deeply regret the hardship caused to homeowners and have expedited the claims process to properly secure the home.

Oh, well good.  I’m glad they apologized.  That makes everything better.  The only thing that would make this outstanding is if the cops had all been shot.

Of course they should realize that criminals (in this case the cops) pose as cops using tactical gear and shout “Police, Police, get on the floor” in order to subdue their victims.  Yes, you cops know that.  Of course you do.

That means a man is morally justified in shooting anyone who comes in the door, cop or not.