Boomerdog

Uh....maybe. I would offer the possibility that the delivery of the news was more nuanced versus the blatant bias we hear today from both sides. Further, what the network chooses and chooses NOT to broadcast is jsut as revealing. Finally, the purpose of the news is NOT to inform but sell advertising time. They collect what they believe are the pertinents facts then spin it to appeal to the demographics of their listnership. If ya don't like the news, go out and make some of your own!

Albeit, there are mulitple posts here by the same individuals (myself included), you have 110+ posts on this subject by reasonable people here. I don't always agree with them and likewise. But in reading the text of their posts, they make they defend their argument and don't seem "far side of the spectrum to me." Then again, some here may think I'm on one of those far sides. Many here have spent time in the Ivory Towers and a few here work in the Ivory Towers but the Ivory Towers ain't the only place the "Us versus Them" concerns exist. The memories do fade a little but I can remember some street fights I got into as a street urchin and I rolled around. Yea it's not fun even when your a kid. And yes in that case it clearly is you or the perp. then again, you signed up for the work, nobody forced your hand on the employment contract. The police can back off all they want. Where I live, the proximal separation between houses in rural areas is significant and the size of the police force is not big enough to cover the whole county and respond. IT'S WHY we're all armed to the teeth and the bad guys know it...they stay away lest they wish to be made an example of. You're NOT indespensible, none of us are.

I'll do a follow up. My apologies.

Your observation is I think a mixture of subjectivity and objectivitiy i.e. there's a ring of truth to it mixed with some legitimate speculation. The following URL sheds a littel more light on your point. http://triblive.com/aande/theatrearts/5527912-74/syas-costume-griff#axzz3Cp7Q7tT3 The point the article makes is that for some actors, they do not feel "in character" until they are in full makeup and costume.

You're absolutely right, THIS ISN'T A GAME. But given the tint and tone of your writing, this subject, I get the very clear sense that you think you're the only one around here who has clear understanding of this point. If this is the case, it smacks of hubris of the highest order. You can tell me I'm wrong all you want, but somehow, I don't think so. Yup and sadly, two cops dead and the innocent what are they? Acceptable collateral damage?

Yea but when seconds count, the cops are minutes away. Besides the Supreme Court clearly said it was not your job to protect me.

And with that, you've just told me everything!

If you're asking me, I don't have an answer. With the exception of body armor to protect, I have very serious concerns about surplus military equipment, particularly weapons and big a$$ed armored vehicles rolling down Main Street with cops in them.

Careful with the numbers. First, where is that .01% sourced from? Second, assumng that number is credible, it translates to one incdient in 10,000 that ends up in controversy requring post incident investigation. Given the size of this country and the the number of PD's, that's NOT a trivial number. As for lawsuits, as far as I know, it's the city funds and not the cop that has to pay when the judegment goes against the police. Resigning yourself to that inevitability strongly suggests a desire not to improve your public realtions skill to the populace you serve. I'm not talking about Ferguson. First off, there's a hell of lot more going on in Ferguson that has yet to come forth. The incidents I am referring, but would take too much space to list and describe are out there on the Internet. Much of the frustration and resultant anger is the police chief reports that after a thorough police department investigation to which the mechanics and procedures are rarely revealed, the officer(s) involved acted well within the norms of department police and if the DA gets involved, the statement is usually the same and as such reinforced. Simply put, the foxes at the top are telling us that the foxes in their charge used correct procedures in knocking over the hen house and that the rest of the hens in the other hen houses have no need to worry. everything was done according to proper fox procedure. The surviving hens can protest but, investigation over, time to move on. Thus, no transparency and no independent investigation resulting in no independent conclusions. So what we get down to is this, "Who watches the watchers?" Certainly not the FOP and the Police Union. The citizens, supposedly the ones who are supposed to be in charge as the Founding Fathers set it up are politely told to GF themselves. What's wrong with this picture? Back in the late 90's a couple of F-15's flying over the Balkans mis-identified a helicoplter that was actually a friendly and shot it down killing everyone on board. One of the KIA's was no more than a couple years out of the Air Force Academy and her parents were upset. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force, an idiot four star named Merrill McPeak, authorized an investigation and being a fighter pilot himself, used the "facts" revealed in the investigation to exonerate the pilots with the utmost regret that "these things" sometimes happen. The parents went livid and demanded more and they got more and this spilled over into the lap of the next Chief of Staff, General Ron Fogleman who was also a fighter pilot. Well, more facts came out and not only did it reveal a disregard to rules of engagement, some other procedures were ignored and not forthcoming during the investigation. The pilots involved were grounded, disciplined and dropped from promotion lists...CAREER OVER! Then Fogleman produces a video and ORDERS EVERY MEMBER of the Active Duty, Reserve, and Air Guard Components to view the tape under penalty of courts-martial. Attendance lists WERE taken and FORWARDED uo the Chain of Command. The theme of the video was accountability and integrity and the following phrase has stuck to me to this day. "We must and shall be absolutely accountable and held to the highest standards for the currency of our profession is lethal!" So if you think I'm dumping all over you, you're right. Things are just not addin' up out there. Something's going on and I file that one in the "JDLR" bin or "Just Doesn't Look Right." We can throw facts at each other back and forth but YOU know and I know something JDLR. And since you guys have the guns and the charter, the burden is on you and you run the risk of a citizen backlash of such proportion, you wish you had never ignored the warnings in the first place.

Well...I'm not going to try and change your mind. I would, however, ask you to consider the possibility that BASE jumpers made the decision that they were not being sufficiently challenged and see BASE as a means of achieving those ends. Me? No BASE in my future like SCUBA diving in caves. I've done caverns and wrecks and some other types of crazy diving in the oceans of the world (to exclude polluting it) but I draw the line at cave diving. My call, my choice and my limits of challenge.

I'll be the first to tell you in all sincerity that you deserve props and compliments for being a cop and raising the issue and taking the incoming for it. Even without Balko or You Tube, I can present to you too many cases of stupidity, violation of Constitutional rights, situational escalation when deescalation would have resolved the issue just as easily. The result, some dead cops and too many dead civilians and let's not forget the dogs....dogs shot in an innocent property owner's yard while the cops were chasing a perp, went into a backyard and the dog went protective aggressive (it's what dogs do) and paid the price. Botched raids, poor judgement and dead innocents are resulting in lawsuits settled out of court and the taxpayers...saps like me end up paying the bill. In the last 12 months there have been a few noticeable articles in National Review Online (NRO), a Conservative web page very critical of cop behavior. Now a lot of people here abhor NRO due to its Conservative viewpoints. But Conservatives tend to be the "law and order types" who are staunch supporters of you LEO's. The articles are very critical and that IS a canary in the coal mine.

So did I! Twenty-two years to be exact. I'm not going to write a long dissertation. I'll only state this, your perspective is a problem, a very serious problem! You can discount Radley Balko and You Tube Videos all you like on this matter, but the fact is this, you are losing support out there, you are losing hearts and minds. I tend to take a Conservative view of things that does not endear me to many here but that's OK, I've got big broad shoulders. And if you and your badged brethren are losing my heart and mind, you've got a problem.

Uh no! Of all the places the "warrior mentality DOES NOT belong is in police work. The following are warriors: Members of: The Army The Marines The Navy The Air Force ...and lest I forget The Coast Guard. Those are the only warriors I know of and should legitimately hold that title and mentality.

Gentlemen, Gentlemen, please.... RonD was talking to me. Now understand that the free wheeling nature of this forum is cut a wider berth of patience and tolerance so let's let things stand as they are. My initial premise was not the advocacy of violence in any way shape or form. However, with a little bit of investigation of the internet all here will find some very good stories about how demonstrators from the Westboro Baptist Church have had the irritiating and corrosive nature of their way thrown back at them WITHOUT breaking the law. I don't think anyone of these sick demonstrators are worth spending a second in jail over. I've also stated that Veterans learn things during their service about how to get things done against the challenges put before them. Some here still think I'm going down the violence path in spite of my explanation to the contrary and refusal to reveal the TTP's of countering these dirtbags...YA DON'T TIP YOUR HAND in these matters. However, being a Veteran after many years of service of one Cold War, one Desert War and a few things after that and coming out rather unscathed, I take a dim view, A VERY dim view of mistreatment or abuse of wounded Veterans who see action and come back wounded in body and spirit and of course some come back to be buried. They answered the call of their country when their country needed them most. They may not have voted for the President at the times in question, but that was not the issue for them. They said yes and they followed the legal orders given to them and served. I was around and saw the undeserved abuse of returning Vets from Viet-Nam. Given the fact I also have a very good friend on "that Wall" in Washington, D.C., well, I have little to zero tolerance, for those like the Westboro Baptist Church that see the KIA of Veterans as some sort of divine vengeance for the political objections they have. Their actions are not only ignorant and misguided, they are downright evil. Now...do we understand each other?

...P.S. Why don't you go find that Ab!!!

I don't give away my tradecraft or TTP's,

Keyboard Warrior you say? I've done a little bit more than that.

About 28 - 35' but it was off season besides, we were on tanks. Who said anything about force or violence? You assume WAY WAY too much here!

Oh gawd....I don't live in California anymore so those crazy assed laws you're talking about don't apply here in Virginia. But I'll do you a favor with a hot tip. Twenty years ago, I saw a 12 inch Ab about 200 yards offshore of directly West of the Georgia Pacific Mill up in Fort Bragg. It ought to be about 15 inches by now at least. Why don't you go look for it!?!?!?!

EVERY National Cemetery is filled with dead veterans who defended the right for you to speak that drivel. Drivel on!

Violence? Threatened violence? Holy Inference Batman, there's inferred threatened violence being spoken here. Quick call the Commissioner and Chief O'Hara! Do you think any of these protesting dirtbags are EVEN worth a New York Minute in the Crowbar Hotel after getting busted for assault. Do you think you're worth some veteran doing time if you were to show up and voice your opinion at any one of these sad events. Puhhleaze, don't flatter yourself. Us Vets know there are many ways, all legal to make life a living hell for these scumbags without firing a shot or swinging a fist, a baseball bat etc etc. We learned it during our service time. I don't know about you but Vets like freedom. There's not a hell of a lot of freedom inside a jail cell. I'll send some PM's to other Vets around here not to write in "Vet Speak." so we're not misunderstood next time. Violence...what violence...I don't see no stinking violence around here. "That's not disobedience of a direct order, THAT's a mission ready to launch!" -Flight of the Intruder

Care to elaborate? Truly not asking a sarcastic question here. I am curious where you got the information behind the statement.

To follow up, the NRA already commented in 2013. http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/fact-sheets/2013/firearm-safety-in-america-2013.aspx You brought your article, here's mine.

Yup, read the article. And of course our mainstream press who hates the NRA picked up on it real quick and made some hay with it. Now the rest of the story is the NRA provides a very comprehensive and large firearm safety program. The range downstairs in the national headquarters building in Fairfax, VA,is not only a state of the art, it is staffed with highly competent and trained range safety personnel. There are classrooms for training and no one goes on the range until they take and pass a range safety course and yes there is a test. So if you go to the NRA home page and then click through their firearms safety program, you'll find it's rather extensive. But all that safety is nil against poor judgment and lapses of common sense and when one is around firearms, any compromise of safety and common sense is an invite to an accidental shooting. The NRA; in fact NO ONE, can protect against that. I personally would not want to see young children on the range. Yet young children have shot weapons on ranges and safely as well. One very very tragic accident against the many safe and successful occasions and the everyone gets into a hissy fit and debate. The ensuing debate and the chest beating, kevetching etc. IS NOT about this accident, it's about fueling and justifying the gun control crowd to their position of stricter gun control. And with a willing press, it's the same old reaction, the same old story, the same old bromides, the same old crap.

Well what do you think the NRA is going to say? Care to guess? It was a tragic...very tragic accident borne from poor judgement. At best, maybe, and this is a stretch of the adults were going to let this little girl fire a weapon...a single shot .22 short and that is the limit. A lot of firearms owners including myself would not have let a 9 year old child on the range at all.