Posted on 06/10/2014 2:18:15 PM PDT by BBell
Sunday’s slaying of two Las Vegas policemen raises to 23 the number of law enforcement officers killed by gunfire this year, a 53 percent increase over the tally at this time last year, which is spurring concern about the influence of radical groups.
After shooting the policemen at point-blank range, the husband and wife killers took the officers’ weapons and reportedly covered them with a Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag, which depicts a coiled snake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” The officers’ killers — Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda — had been at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during his standoff with federal officials in April, though the rancher’s family said Monday the two had been chased away.
The Millers had an ideology that was along the lines of “militia and white supremacists” and that law enforcement was the “oppressor,” said Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill.
The slayings of officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who were gunned down while having lunch at a pizza buffet, add to a trend that has law enforcers worried that they are becoming the targets of crime.
“We are seeing more direct violence as a result of radical groups, and that does concern us,” said Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations. “There seems to be more people out there who are blatantly anti-cop, and heavy exposure through the Internet and other propaganda seems to make people with these violent views feed off each other.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“I admit there are people who would love to kill cops. And some do. But how many cops are there who would love to shoot anyone they consider “guilty”? Or dogs? Or would like to throw a concussion grenade into a baby’s crib? Or can’t wait to get a no-knock warrant so they can put on their jack boot uniforms and go kick a door in? The people are fighting back because of what the cops are doing.”
Although this killing in Las Vegas doesn’t qualify, people are starting to legitimately fight back against abusive LEOs. They can’t get away with the kind of egregious behavior we see routinely today forever. Sadly, officers like the two in Vegas may be the one’s to suffer for the behavior of some of their “comrades in arms.” The whole LEO training process needs to be rewritten. Sure cops need to oo home at night, but not at the expense of the innocent civilian population. And the first step is to remove some of the weaponry that is at the disposal of the cops.
I take umbrage with that statement. I work with many cops who are of outstanding character. There are those that don’t, but the majority of those I am privileged to work with are fine men and women: pro second amendment,individual rights, and just want to be professional officers. I do, however, work in a medium sized city...in a family oriented area. As I see it, the issues start with the academies, that don’t spend but four hours on the Constitution...
“They seem to relish situations where they can wheel out all their toys and flex their muscles.”
Yes, just look at the “War Wagon”(MRAP) that the cops rolled up in at the Portland High School this a.m. Now just how was that relic of the Afghan war going to help them in their mission today? Were they going to drive it through the hallways of the school?
And then there’s all this BS about the AR-15. There today every cop had an AR-15, and all of them that I saw had 30 round mags.
I'm sure the MSM knows the difference between their mindset and that of constitutional conservatives.
I was trying to be careful. I met a cop in small town Mo that I would want at my back if stuff goes bad, but I guarantee he’s looked the other way when one of his buddies did something illegal.
back then we had peace officers.
now we have paramilitary nazis who kick in wrong doors and shoot people who believe they are (and they are) being home-invaded. and then high-five each other after blasting the family pet who ran away into the closet and female’officers who punt the family cat and tell people they’re lucky she didn’t shoot it.
“Hysteria”? If only there’d been good people with guns to stop the bad people with guns. Insanity.
Lies, damned lies and statistics (or percentages) They are meaningless.
And I still contend that armed cops can protect themselves and shoot back.
Normal unarmed citizens cannot.
The one statistic you will NEVER see is how many ordinary civilians are killed vs how many cops are killed annually.
The numbers are hair raising.
The unarmed don't stand a chance!
Wait.
Let's not add insult to injury.
Think of all the minor and major riots caused by cops attempting to make a justifiable arrest.
The Amish and their enablers comprise 95% of the complaints about police brutality.
There is a real baby in this bathwater...
But there was a good guy (CCW) that slowed down the shooters. That slow down May have driven them into their suicide.
From the article: “Overall, 62 police officers have been killed this year, compared with 45 this time last year. Those figures include traffic-related incidents.” The rate of fatalities per 100000 LEOs is about the same as that experienced by construction and transportation workers.
Surely all reasonable people would agree that this justifies a wholesale repeal of the rights of any person whose politics deviate from those deemed acceptable by Obama and Holder.
You can review the stats yourself at http://stats.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm#rates. I’m not interested enough to analyze rigorously, but a simple check of a few years of the LEO rates revealed that their rate is highly variable. Traffic wrecks account for about half of LEO fatalities. If there is a adverse trend in LEO fatalities, it would probably be more effective to offer defensive driving instruction to LEOs, to improve roadside stop practices, and to review policies for high-speed chases.
Incidents like Las Vegas give the Obama Administration license to infiltrate conservative groups that are activist with undercover FBI agents and confidential informants.
A cop once told me about another cop planting drugs on a black guy. He said “He didn’t have any drugs tonight. But I’m sure he had some last week.” A question like that can pertain to cops, too. “He was only eating pizza today. But I’m sure he was violating someone’s rights last night?” Sadly, cops’ actions are forcing many people to think like that. It’s just not right for an innocent citizen to get nervous when he sees a cop.
The officers’ killers — Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda — had been at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during his standoff with federal officials in April, though the rancher’s family said Monday the two had been chased away.Thanks BBell.
I’m pretty certain that we’re not permitted to execute people who make us nervous. And what about the innocent bystander that they murdered at Wal-Mart? What did he do to deserve death?
The relative unpopularity of the police began in the 1970s, when there were some police assassinations in the US.
Before that time, police used what today can be called “Old West” rules of behavior. Their guns remained holstered, and if drawn, were only drawn with intent to shoot to kill. The typically used police weapon was a baton.
But there were several other rules, for example, if someone murdered an LEO, they would be sentenced to death, and that sentence would be carried out in a reasonable length of time, without exception. This gave police officers considerable confidence in the line of duty.
However, after these assassinations, the federal government went on a course to “paramilitarize” police departments across the US. This began with widespread Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) training, which is aggression oriented, and soon officers were brandishing their guns at frequent intervals, in situations where doing so was wildly inappropriate.
But behind the scenes, the federal government was more than engaged in supporting this. With the passage of the RICO Act in 1970, the door was opened to massive amount of funding and military equipment purchases by local police departments.
The most recent notorious procurement has been the distribution of 13,000 MRAP armored cars around the US, paid for with RICO money distributed to these police departments.
The only sane response is for the individual states to call a halt to this paramilitarization, by strictly limiting what equipment local police departments may own or have available to them. Their cries that “we *need* military hardware” should be met with disdain, in that they have no need whatsoever for belt fed heavy machine guns, fragmentary explosive devices, large amounts of high explosives and incendiary ammunition, etc., ad nauseum.
SWAT teams should not exist at below county level. SWAT training should be limited to just SWAT personnel, and no SWAT personnel should be legally used for non-SWAT missions, such as delivering subpoenas, or any other reason than when police would be met with large amounts of gunfire.
“SWAT teams should not exist at below county level.”
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I have no dog in this fight but in MA many people do not even know what county they live in or who is the sheriff.. Our county government,as far as law enforcement, isn’t that strong.
How would you like it handled in a state like MA?
State police?
.
If a government employee of any kind is wearing a helmet, he is one two things, riding a motorcycle or an enemy of the people.
Yeh how many people were tased, stomped, beaten to death etc. by the cops?
It is actually a question of distance. That is, if police are restricted in their weaponry and other equipment in a state with large counties, their argument that they *might* need that equipment can be met by saying it is “near enough”, under the storage and temporary issue by their county sheriff.
However, in smaller states with counties that are far less important, the state police would have facilities for the storage of special equipment near enough to be available if needed. Importantly, in most states, the state police would develop the list and inspect for authorized and unauthorized equipment; but this would need exemptions for unique purposes. For example, if a police jurisdiction had a large body of water, they might need boats and diving gear, that a municipal police department wouldn’t.
But the bottom line is to return police departments to the equipment they need, not the equipment they fantasize they might need for some unlikely purpose.
What really touched this off for me in particular, was many years ago, when a county sheriff insisted that he needed a .30 caliber, belt fed machine gun, *in case* he needed to shoot down a hijacked commercial aircraft.
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