I-Team: Police faced possible 'bloodbath' at Bundy protest

8NewsNow ^ | 04-30-2014 | George Knapp

[PaulCruz2016]

Metro officers deal with large crowds all the time, but nothing like this. The crowd included former military men and ex-cops, people with various motives, their fingers poised just above the triggers of powerful weapons. With so much firepower in so many hands, a small incident could have set off a bloodbath and left nearly two dozen officers dead.

Assist. Sheriff Joe Lombardo:"We were outgunned, outmanned and there would not have been a good result from it."

I-Team reporter George Knapp: "A lot of scenarios could have played out that would have left a lot of dead officers."

Assist. Sheriff Joe Lombardo: "If you just have a backfire, somebody pops a firecracker, then it's over. We're done. We are going to lose that battle that day."

[imardmd1]

“An armed society is a polite society.”

Until the firefight starts. Then it gets quite nasty.

[crazydad]

I was just doing that and I am surprised at the Ignorance of the case and the sheer bootlicking of morons posting.. They are all good Nazi’s following the Fuhrer-er I mean the Government.

[Robert Teesdale]

If this battle had occurred, it would have been the start of a much larger and more widespread war for independence from the fedgov.

That is beyond the capacity of local responders to comprehend when staring down muzzles. They think it is about the immediate tactical situation, and don't realize it's merely one claw rising from the ground.

There's the whole remainder of that restless beast of revolution behind it. They really underestimate the fundamental betrayal of the American contract that Waco and Ruby Ridge represented.

[MrB]

The People are “Fed Up”.

[redhead]

Bump! wish FR had a ReTweet button... :o)

[Robert Teesdale]

I'd say they are way past fed up.

I'd submit for your consideration, rather, that a tipping point of the People are deeply enraged; mortally offended; thirsting for payback and eager to see shots fired and a violent, vengeful decision precipitated.

By tipping point, I don't mean "majority of the population"; that's a mistake in political calculation. The formula works more like this:

(I*4GW) = (.03*CB)

I think you can figure out the math. The 3% know who they are.

For the record, with respect to the sentiments of the tipping point noted above - it is, needless to say - uninformed, rhetorically hyperbolic and uselessly speculative conjecture on my part.

I am quite certain the collectivists can validate the theorem in practice entirely without my involvement.

[Respond Code Three]

"A significant number of folks join their local PD and then decide law enforcement isn’t for them when they find out there are no more peace officer positions."

Can you elaborate a little? Does the post mean that people might join their local PD in non sworn positions and then leave because there are no sworn jobs open? In this case, they could not be ex-cops.

Or do you mean people might join their local PD and decide that this is not what they wanted, but they quit because there are no peace officer jobs elsewhere?

[Respond Code Three]

"Until the firefight starts. Then it gets quite nasty. "

Friend, two thumbs for the POST OF THE MONTH!!!!!

[B4Ranch]

They hire on as officers then after a couple of years decide that they don’t want to be known as a thug after all. I know two men this has happened to in the past six years. One just recently.

[ClayinVA]

So why was the Las Vegas Swat team out there in the first place on a Federal warrant? Hope the County had a Mutual aid agreement in place before hand otherwise that was an illegal use of City Funds.

[mabarker1]

2 words:

dingy harry

[BenLurkin]

Somehow I don’t think it was the barrel riders in purple shirts which had the JBTs worried.

[BenLurkin]

Next time they will bring dogs and sic them on the people protesting.

[Lurker]

“One person in the crowd even asked Jenkins (Sgt Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) if he was ready to die.”

Well, Sgt? Are you?

[ponygirl]

I have had the have experience of observing a (former) friend who transformed from being a fun, laid-back guy to a raging a-hole once he went through LEO training, ostracizing all the neighbors he had previously associated with.

I've always been one to side with the police. After all, imagine all the idiots they have to deal with on a daily basis. But that one was an eyebrow-raiser for me.

[Cen-Tejas]

........while I respect your opinion, I disagree. I was alive and draft age during Kent State. If those mid sixties Ohio National Guardsmen had had 500 ex Army, ex Seals, ex marines and plain ole citizens and cowboys and snipers facing them all armed to the teeth and just madder than hell, Kent State would almost certainly not have happened. They would still even until today have planes with loud speakers low-flying over the Canadian Wilderness blaring out something like “it’s ok, it’s ok, it’s all over, you can come home”.

Now, before a bunch of guardsmen attack me, I’m not putting their service down one iota. It (the guard) has been the main stay in Irag and Afghanistan and is a superbly trained force compared to the mid sixties. For example, back in the sixties, some of the guard and naval reservists, like me, had little training and little motivation to engage in combat with anybody. Many of them (Ohio guardsmen at Kent State) wore peace signs and a flower in their lapel.

My boot camp for example was 2 weeks long. Frankly, one reason guardsmen may have not have ended up in Nam because all hell was breaking out here at home and they were needed here on the homefront.............like Kent State. Anti-war demonstrations today are laughable compared to the all out warfare of some similar motivated demonstrations (Chicago) in the sixties.

Most of these quardsmen back then, like many of us, had low draft #’s and they did not join up so much “to serve” in those days as they did not “to fight” in Vietnam. Much to their/our credit though, thousands fled to Canada and some are still there.

Then too, those young punky lefty college students, or their comrade non student pals, most on dope or worse, were just simply no comparison to the group of tough guys from all over the US that the BLM faced at Bunkerville. Let’s face it, Assistant Sheriff Lomabardo saved the BLM’s ass and many of his guys and himself (by his own admittance) from outright anilhation when he gave the order to turn the cattle loose.

[Cen-Tejas]

.......yes sir!.........I clearly remember the phrase “the Sheriff of Nottingham” as a kid over a half century ago.....

[Billthedrill]

I read the quoted remarks twice and came away without the slightest impression that the officers - or the media, for that matter - have reflected on the most important matter at hand: who were these people, why did they go there to support an obscure Nevada rancher, and is it likely to happen again? There appears to be a great deal of navel-gazing about lack of respect for authority - doesn't any one of these characters want to know why?

This wasn't about cattle. And the persistent "Bundy is a criminal!" meme only serves to keep the attention off of where it belongs: this wouldn't have been a war, it would have been a battle in a war that has been going on for some time now. Those people were not there to fight, they were there to fight back. Somebody in "authority" had better start paying attention or this really will spiral out of control. It's already spiraling.

[LevinFan]

“Assist. Sheriff Joe Lombardo: “If you just have a backfire, somebody pops a firecracker, then it’s over. We’re done. We are going to lose that battle that day.””

Interesting choice of words, considering it wasn’t that long ago that cops killed a couple of teenagers over their car backfiring.

There is no one more jumpy than a cop, and usually it is only his imagination running wild with visions of Robocop.

[Respond Code Three]

I do understand your concerns with the actions of rogue cops. But what I was pointing out was that in the beginning of the article it referenced that ex-cops had showed up IN SUPPORT of BUNDY. Generally when the police are bashed, the terminology is Jack Booted Thugs, holster sniffers, boot lickers, wannabes, cops and ex-cops.

What I'm wondering about though is what the FReepers who have a very negative view of cops think of the ex-cops who showed up to support Bundy. It seems that in essence, they have become ex-Jack Booted Thugs who were armed and helped face down armed presently employed Jack Booted Thugs. So, are the ex-cops who sided with Bundy still the bad guys?