Archive for the 'Police' Category

News from Pickens County, S.C.

EASLEY, S.C. (AP) — Pickens County deputies say a man killed this week in an Easley house was a burglar who was caught by the homeowner stealing several guns.

Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said in a news release that the homeowner fought with 27-year-old Justin Smith and managed to get a rifle from him and fired several shots at the intruder.

Deputies say Smith tried to leave, but collapsed and died on a deck.

Hashe says evidence collected agrees with the homeowner’s story. Prosecutors are reviewing the investigation to see if the homeowner should be charged or can legally claim self-defense.

I have just two comments about this.  First of all, if a man is in your home, you have a right to treat him as a threat to your life.  You don’t know otherwise, and it’s foolish and dangerous to pretend you do or to wait for validation of that assumption.

Second, the homeowner interacted with the police.  As I’ve observed before, here are the steps.  (1) I shot in self defense, my life was being threatened, and (2) any further communication will have to occur with my lawyer.

Never talk to the police.

CBS News:

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A 73-year-old man with dementia fatally shot by police had a crucifix – not a gun – as officers were led to believe, Bakersfield police said Wednesday.

A coroner found the plastic crucifix on Francisco Serna well after an officer fatally shot him near his home just after midnight Monday, Sgt. Gary Carruesco said.

So our suspicion was correct and there was no gun.  The officer reacted prematurely, and as for the caller, this sounds like the story you tell in a circle when you’re teenagers whispering mouth to ear, mouth to ear, and by the time it gets to the last person the message is so garbled it doesn’t even resemble what was said to begin with.  You’ve played that little game in church youth group, yes?

Except in this case someone died.  And I consider this no different than Swatting, which is a crime.  The caller filed a false police report giving information he didn’t really know.

So will the caller be held responsible?  Will the police officer be held responsible?

Courtesy of Wynn, this:

An unarmed 73-year-old with dementia who was shot and killed by police early Monday was struck nine times, the man’s son said in a video posted to Facebook. However, police say the son is “misinformed.”

The officer was answering a report of a man brandishing a handgun around 12:30 a.m. in Bakersfield, Calif. When a witness pointed to Francisco Serna, who was standing in a neighbor’s driveway, one officer fired and killed him, Bakersfield police spokesman Sgt. Gary Carruesco told CBS Bakersfield affiliate KBAK-TV.

No gun was turned up in a search of the scene, Carruesco said.

So where is the gun?  If he was armed, then a gun was recovered.  Where is the gun?

Remember I just recently said this?

… in the case of Indiana, we’ll have to fight (in many cases) the police, and in other cases progressive clerics.

On queue, a blue costumed special person weighs in.

“I believe people have the right to carry a gun, but the basic licensing requirement helps ensure that the people allowed to carry are the ones who are carrying,” Fort Wayne Police Chief Steve Reed said. “I think there would be even more guns in the wrong hands without it.”

Because LEOs are just like you and me, only better.

So if he believes in a right to carry a gun, but believes that he gets the right to override that right, then it isn’t really a right like he claims, and he was lying all along.

The chief gives you no means to contact him via writing to tell him what you think.  You recall what I said about men who don’t give contact information, right?

The Morning Call:

A Nazareth police officer went rogue on the department’s Facebook page Wednesday morning, according to borough officials, encouraging gun owners to “exercise your 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms” in the wake of a homicide and carjacking this week in Palmer Township.

Nazareth police Commissioner Randall Miller said he learned of the post after receiving a call from the mayor and had it removed immediately, acknowledging that it could have been interpreted as vigilantism.

On the police Facebook page, the department wished the public a “safe Thanksgiving vacation,” gave details of the crimes that happened Monday and Tuesday night in Palmer, and then said:

“We ask and encourage those of you who are responsible and educated enough to exercise your 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Providing you can and are legally able to possess a firearm and that you follow the Pennsylvania laws and local ordinances when doing so … If when ever possible CALL 911 FIRST, if you believe you see someone or something suspicious. Do not engage and use Extreme Caution!”

A police officer must have indeed gone rogue in order to suggest that someone exercise their second amendment rights.  I’m glad that the police chief had it immediately removed, because someone might have been able to save his life or the lives of loved ones in the case of attempted homicide without the assistance of the police.  They might begin to be responsible for themselves.

Actually, sarcasm aside, it’s sad that the chief equates suspicious looking people with attempted homicide, and assumes that the knuckle dragging dirt people are so stupid that they cannot differentiate between the two.  It sounds to me like the town needs both a new mayor and police chief.  The cop who posted this on Facebook can stay.  And dump that damn Facebook page, guys.  Facebook is for making Mark Zuckerberg rich.  You don’t want to do that.

mySA:

A Converse man who used his AR-15 rifle to detain four men he thought were going to burglarize his neighbor’s home last month now finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

Coty Bob McDonnell, 31, made his initial appearance Monday on a charge of deadly conduct, a misdemeanor, but the case was reset for next month.

Converse police arrested McDonnell on the night of Oct. 22 or early Oct. 23 after he detained the men, believing they were burglars, according to an account provided by his neighbor, Doug Stearns, and his lawyer, Daniel De La Garza.

Charging him might have a chilling effect on Texans who want to protect their property, they argued. McDonnell himself declined comment, citing the pending case.

Texas law gives some leeway to persons who believe they have been asked to protect the property of a third party, allowing the use of deadly force to prevent theft or criminal mischief, but the circumstances of McDonnell’s case differed considerably when described by police and his neighbor.

Converse police say McDonnell went too far when he chased the four down the street and blocked their way out with his vehicle. The four were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, but not burglary. They told officers they were on their way to a party, according to a police report.

A Converse man who used his AR-15 rifle to detain four men he thought were going to burglarize his neighbor’s home last month now finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

Coty Bob McDonnell, 31, made his initial appearance Monday on a charge of deadly conduct, a misdemeanor, but the case was reset for next month.

Converse police arrested McDonnell on the night of Oct. 22 or early Oct. 23 after he detained the men, believing they were burglars, according to an account provided by his neighbor, Doug Stearns, and his lawyer, Daniel De La Garza.

Charging him might have a chilling effect on Texans who want to protect their property, they argued. McDonnell himself declined comment, citing the pending case.

Texas law gives some leeway to persons who believe they have been asked to protect the property of a third party, allowing the use of deadly force to prevent theft or criminal mischief, but the circumstances of McDonnell’s case differed considerably when described by police and his neighbor.

Converse police say McDonnell went too far when he chased the four down the street and blocked their way out with his vehicle. The four were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, but not burglary. They told officers they were on their way to a party, according to a police report.

“These kids just stopped in the roadway to change drivers,” said Assistant Chief Rex Rheiner. “He pursued them, and when he pursued them down the road is when he left the realm of protection of property.

“He pointed the weapon at them,” Rheiner added. “He was out there acting as a police officer, when he has no police powers.”

Stearns, 51, an Air Force retiree, said he had asked McDonnell to keep an eye on his house while he was out of town and gave him a key. Their subdivision has had a rash of burglaries and recently saw a Converse school vandalized, he said. McDonnell even mowed his lawn and took care of his cat, Stearns said.

Stearns said McDonnell told him he had noticed a car coming down the street with its lights off and when it stopped near Stearns’ home, three men got out and approached or entered Stearns’ driveway. McDonnell grabbed his rifle and approached them and, “They said, ‘Oh (expletive), there’s somebody here,’” Stearns said.

McDonnell prevented the group from leaving in the car they arrived in, but had put away his weapon by the time police arrived, according to Stearns.

He called the prosecution a waste of time and money.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Stearns said. “We should be able to protect our homes and do so in a way that doesn’t cause a loss of life.”

Most states don’t recognize the right to deadly force to prevent theft, but Texas does if I’m not mistaken.  So does Missuouri, to some lesser extent.

The police chief doesn’t really know how this all went down, since he wasn’t there.  I don’t know either, but there’s just something that tells me the founding fathers would have looked askance at the notion that a blue costume somehow grants powers that other men don’t have.

It seems to me that the real problem here is that the chief is offended that someone else out there sees himself empowered.  The chief would have defended until his dying breath the right of his officers to wield weapons at night in the presence of suspected thieves and detain anyone they deemed appropriate.

It’s the blue costume, folks.  It’s special.

Watch the video below.  It’s disturbing to say the least, but let what the cop said to Luigi Fogli sink it.  “I’m just doing my duty.”

Duty disconnected from morality brings brutalization, and means nothing more than accepting payment for doing deeds of wickedness.

Ask yourself this question.  Do you know the LEOs in your area of operation, and what would they do?

Eugene Volokh:

Veteran suffering from PTSD calls suicide hotline, admits to gun ownership, but repeatedly explains he doesn’t have a weapon at the ready. His interlocutor calls D.C. police anyway, who send in SWAT. He surrenders. Police search his home, see nothing concerning in plain view. Hours later, they re-enter, rip the place apart — and (allegedly) leave the stove on and the front door unlocked for two weeks while he’s in jail. D.C. Circuit: The second search violated the Fourth Amendment.

Well, what the hell else did you expect to happen?  The cops were involved.

Take a long look at this picture.

Reason.com:

A group of Detroit police officers executing a narcotics search warrant knocked on Nikita Smith’s door on January 14, 2016. The only fact that both Smith and the officers agree on after that point is that, a short while later, Smith’s three dogs were all shot dead.

What really happened in the moments between could be a costly question for the city of Detroit. In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in May, Smith says the Detroit police executed her three pit bulls, Debo, Mama, and Smoke, without provocation. Essentially, they acted as a “dog death squad.”

According the lawsuit, Smith tried to tell the officers she was putting her dogs away, and placed two in the basement and one in the bathroom. As the officers burst into the house, Debo slipped back upstairs. The officers shot it as it sat down by Smith. Next, they charged into the basement and shot Mama, who was pregnant and backed into a corner. Finally, they moved onto the bathroom, where Smoke was closed in.

One of the officers cracked the door open, peeked inside, and closed it again. “Should we do that one, too?” the officer asked, according to the lawsuit, before two of them fired through the closed door, killing Smoke.

In the police version of the story, told through reports filed after the raid, the officers received no response when they announced their presence and forced entry into the house. Inside, they encountered a “vicious grey pit bull” that charged at them. It was shot eight times. In the basement, they encountered another “vicious white pit bull” that charged toward them. It was shot five times. According to police reports, the third dog charged out of the bathroom toward the officers and was shot.

However, extremely graphic photos entered into evidence in the case show bullet holes riddling the outside of the door and the dog dead inside the bathroom.

In other news, a concealed handgun carrier recently assisted a cop in the process of being beaten.

ESTERO, Fla. — A passerby shot and killed a person who was fighting with a Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputy on Interstate 75 Monday morning.

Deputy First Class Dean Bardes, a 12-year-veteran, was working a crash at mile marker 126 when the suspect came upon him, causing Bardes to pursue him at high speeds, according to multiple sources.

Bardes and the suspect exited their vehicles at the Corkscrew Road exit and a fight started, sources said. The suspect was armed, Bardes told his supervisors, according to sources.

The passerby, who had a Concealed Weapons License, exited his vehicle and told the suspect he’d shoot him if he didn’t stop beating the deputy, sources said.

After noncompliance from the suspect, the passerby shot the suspect three times, sources said. The suspect later died.

First of all, to appeal to the sense of personal affection of CLEOs for their officers, one has to wonder how long the good people of America will continue this sort of assistance when LEOs are brutalizing citizens in the manner shown above.  This is something you really want to think about if you’re a CLEO.  At some point, the good people of America will begin to think of you as enemies, and if that happens you’re doomed.

But back to the issue of LEOs who have a predilection for the kind of brutality you saw above.  If a LEO joins the force wanting to participate on a SWAT team, that means he wants to perpetrate acts of violence against American citizens.  You may summarily conclude that he is pathological and you should refrain from hiring him.

As a CLEO, if you want to have such a force at hand in order to perpetrate acts of violence against American citizens, you are pathological and should resign your post immediately.  You and your officers are a danger and immediate threat to life and liberty.

Even a cursory reading of Exodus 23:5 and Deuteronomy 22:4-7 teaches us that the good man has regard for the life of his beast.  And not only that, he has regard for the life of other beasts.  That’s why hunters focus so much attention on taking ethical shots in order to prevent the needless infliction of pain.

If the good man has regard for the life of his beast, the wicked man does not.  A fortiori, if he must have regard for beasts in order to be good, he must have that much more regard for the life of humans.  Any man who doesn’t meet this requirement is unfit for constabulary work.

Prior:

Buffalo Police Department, The Dog Butchers, Strike Again

$262K Settlement For Owner Of Dog Killed By Police

Psychopathic Police Chief Kills Caged Dog For Sport

Grieving Texas Dog Owners Want Cops Trained In How Not To Kill Animals

Buffalo Police Department: The Happy Dog Killers

David Codrea: No guarantee that Hillary will be toppled.  No, there isn’t.  And nothing will dissuade the insane collectivists from casting their vote for the bitch, even if she was tried in a court and found guilty of child sacrifice.  But then there is this.

The Clinton Foundation case is headed towards a likely indictment.  Well, I’ll believe it when I see it.  She’s a demon, and indictment is too good for her and as for that matter, her enablers.

Via David Codrea, Sweden is on the brink of disaster and at a breaking point with immigrant violence.  This goes right along with what we discussed about Germany.  It’s all by design.

For more police shenanigans with a gun, see this and this (via David).

A Michigan trucker said a bullet accidentally discharged from a state trooper’s weapon landed “inches from [his] head” Monday afternoon near Troutville as authorities investigated an abduction report.

John Leisenring, 54, said Tuesday the shot hit the sidewalk near where he lay as the trooper tucked the trucker’s right arm behind his back.

What a damn goober.  You or I would be in prison right now.

Want another good deterrent for criminals besides a gun?  Get a big dog.  I’ve told you that you need to do this before, for different reasons.  What’s not to like about having a dog?  Really?  Can you think of a single reason?  If you think you can, then add this little goody to the pile of good things about dogs.  Muslims hate them.  My former Marine, Daniel, loves dogs just as I do.  There were packs of feral dogs in Fallujah in 2007 that would attack humans.  Of course they would – they were starving to death.  Daniel took in one of the strays, medicated and washed it, trained it, and used it on patrols to help in ascertaining when a feral pack of dogs was about to launch an attack (his dog would always provide ample warning so that Daniel could use his SAW to respond to the threat), and the dog would assist with identifying human threats as well.  The Muslims hated the dog.  Daniel loved him.  How rich.

Again I say, why not have a good dog?  They’re worth their weight in gold in situations of threat.

There’s a lot of cool stuff about working on your AR-15 in this article.