A police officer shot a woman and the dog she was playing with when the officer thought the dog was attacking the woman... [More]And then we have Dennis Wallace:
I can't say that I would do anything different.A major point being, Dennis, do you think the "Only Ones" would have done anything different if it was you who did the shooting...?
[Via William T]
I agree with many of your posts. However, you obviously have a personal grudge against all law enforcement, never passing up a chance to put them down.
ReplyDeleteHaving put in over 30 years as everything from a campus cop to a state trooper I find this hard to understand, especially as most LEO's believe the same things you do.
If you total all of the "wrongs" of the police whom you so readily belittle and the approximately 870,000 LEO's in the US, the percentage of asshats to the total is minimal. Most of us just try to do the job we swore to do: "Support and defend the Constitution of the United States and of State of (employment)."
I wonder what the percentages are in the world of journalism.
Hmm.
ReplyDeleteSo pointing out a citizen who wrongfully shot a woman and her dog would likely be treated differently is "putting cops down" in your book? Do you expect us to believe a non-LEO doing the same would not have been arrested? (And why is it we don't know the cop's name?)
Did you read the "Only Ones" explanation in this blog's sidebar?
Did you read today's Gun Rights Examiner column?
Have you noted how many times I've said I don't go looking for these stories, and readers keep sending them in? Do you have any idea how many I don't post because I don't want the entire focus of this blog to be on the "Only Ones"?
Which of the abuses chronicled in my "Only Ones" files do you defend? Is it your contention that reporting on cop lawbreakers or special privileges is bad for a free republic?
As to that oath you took--say I come down to your jurisdiction. Now let's say I let you know I am carrying a concealed handgun and don't have a permit. And I also show you I have an unregistered machine gun in the trunk. And I do it all peacefully and politely, at no time behaving in a threatening manner.
Will you arrest me?
And as for journalists, take a look at my "Authorized Journalist" files. What, you didn't know about those?
That would be today's *first" Examiner column, about the Appleseed shoot at the Sheriff's facility. I'm guessing the one I'm releasing this afternoon will be perceived as another "put down."
ReplyDeleteIt's that "thin blue line" coming to the defense of the "few bad apples".
ReplyDeleteShow me one cop who will stand up and refuse to enforce any "laws" that attempt to control or prohibit anything other than actual aggression or theft (including fraud), and who will stand up and stop "fellow officers" who do attempt to enforce those "laws" and I will believe that he (or she) is a "good cop". Otherwise...
Antique, there is another aspect to this as well. Many of us have been waiting for some time, for all those good apples (that the bad ones are giving such a rotten name to) to rise up and purge the rot out of sheer professional pride.
ReplyDeleteSurely if the ratio of--ahem--asshats is so low, this would be a relatively straightforward matter and we could see hundreds of testaments from good cops who openly condemn sodomy-by-Taser, "I'm up here and you're down here", "I can suspend your rights", and the hundreds of other zingers of abuse of power and professional misconduct that seem invariably to end with "no charges filed".
If that were my profession, I'd be on a singular mission to make sure the public knew those people are NOT like me, their actions are NOT acceptable, and they should stand trial just like you or I would if we had done the same thing (which seems to be David's big point). Actually, I'd hold that by their nature cops should be held to a higher standard than the public they serve.
Thing is, I seem to have missed those. All of 'em. (Well, a couple of Oath Keepers notwithstanding, but every data set has a statistical fringe.) I see nary a squeak pipped from the brotherhood. Perhaps you can deluge me?
I'm actually quite serious. I'd love to believe better of the profession. I've known some extraordinarily good cops myself, and I even used to hear regular stories about the professional pride described above. Then, for a short period, those stories gained the telling common attribute of being penned by freshly ex-officers, who just couldn't stomach the changes in the profession any longer.
Now, nothing. Just a wall of silence at whatever atrocity the enforcers may decide to commit upon the peasantry. Rape, murder, assault, reckless endangerment, shakedown, coercion, theft, simple belligerences like insult and condescension--you name it, and some power-drunk badge has done it and got away with it.
Are you taking the Madeline Albright defense, that "the price is worth it"? That if the ratio of victims is small enough, the brutality and atrocity of the crimes becomes acceptable? I doubt that's what you mean, but boy, it sure comes across that way.
If you mistake the calling out of crimes against human beings by persons in positions of authority for what they are, with "having a personal grudge", then you are at serious risk of having no idea why some people are so pissed off. There is, after all, just a little difference between "Putting them down" and putting them down. Unlike the peasantry, enforcers can do either of those with little risk of accountability.
Don't downplay the stakes here. Lots of people realize fully that they may be next. Whoever is next will not likely be comforted by the idea that the guy Tasing him up the south end, or shooting his fleeing dog, is "just a bad apple". Especially if there's no evidence of anyone going around cleaning up bad apples.
You got evidence to the contrary? Great. Show me. 'Cause I don't see squat any more.
I should mention that responding like that brings me no joy whatsoever. I feel like I just lost a friend.
ReplyDeleteAntique, as an insight: I am still wrestling with what to think of Massad Ayoob, whose writings I literally grew up with. That man has without a doubt saved many lives on both sides of the blue line, which may even include my own, given what I have learned from him about the tactics of avoidance. Mas has a long history of defending the right of honest people to defend themselves, and he has a reputation for not mincing words with regard to evaluating gear, processes, legal arguments, and attitudes. I will not soon forget any of that, and I am very thankful that he has thus given of himself. I suspect he is just about as good a cop as a cop can be, notwithstanding Kent's valid point that most of what cops enforce is in complete violation of individual liberty.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am increasingly dismayed to realize that he seems to say nothing of the alarming increase of abuse reports. (If I am in error on this, please direct me to where I can educate myself to the contrary. I really want to be wrong about this.) See, Mas is so connected that if these abuses are truly aberrations rather than common events, I find it totally implausible that he wouldn't know about them, and if they are so common that they slip under Mas' radar, then the "bad apples" argument kinda evaporates. Either way, it seems incredible that he, of all people, wouldn't know about it, or wouldn't have written about it as a matter of professional pride.
This is wholly depressing. None of the possible explanations is pleasant to consider. If he's staying mum, why? To protect his relationships within the profession? Is he ordered to do so by policy? Does he really feel that the brotherhood should be above such accountability? I don't want to believe any of that. On the other hand, if he's not staying mum on purpose, why not at least address what is a very palpable and growing disquiet among the observers of the profession's behavior? If there's reason to believe that all this is noise, where is it?
I don't want to believe any of it, but that doesn't make it go away. I'm still struggling, because my history with him makes me want to think better of the profession.
Thing is, I need at least something, other than ridicule at the very thought of criticizing the enforcement mindset, to stack up against all the other evidence of an entire profession out of control and getting worse. And if even Massad Ayoob can't deliver that...
Antique, I have not meant, here--just to be clear--to impugn your own performance, as I don't even know what that may have been. You may be every bit as good as a Mas Ayoob or a Rich Wyatt. But it seemed to me that after I unleashed a bit (yeah, that was only a bit), that a little more explication might be a gesture of good will. If you really believe as you say you do, that most LEOs "believe the same things" as David does, you might consider encouraging all those others to make that clearer by actually standing up and talking about it. I think most people here would love to hear it (witness David's GRE article today), but there's a whole lot of baggage to overcome now, and it's only getting worse by the day.
(As to that: anyone here know if the Oath Keepers has talked to Mas yet? I don't recall his having written about them yet, but I certainly could have missed that.)
The problem is not the bad apples, as I've noted before.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the bad apples are not being removed from the barrel, and in many cases are enjoying the protection of so-called 'good apples'.
You don't like this discussion, Antique? Then I suggest you start pushing to remove the riff-raff that wear badges and pretend to be policemen. Stop snivelling about Codrea's posting of these abuses and start working to stem them at the source.
I thought drawing the firearm was the "last resort" response. It seems in this story it was the first response. Not very good training.
ReplyDelete"I suspect [Mas] is just about as good a cop as a cop can be, notwithstanding Kent's valid point that most of what cops enforce is in complete violation of individual liberty."
ReplyDeleteThis is true, but it isn't praise, it's social commentary in the style of Monty Python. Next comes the musical number in praise of honest concentration camp guards.
Mas blogs at http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob Why don't you ask him your questions directly?
Here's an idea: the greater law enforcement community, which includes not only the police in blue uniforms with guns but the building code inspectors and the SEC regulators and the tax auditors, needs an Oath Keeper movement. Instead of swearing not to sack cities, they swear not to infringe the original intent of the bill of rights. This means they refuse to prosecute all victimless crimes, like no license plate and no driver's license.
ReplyDeleteYou can't picture it, can you? You can't imagine that bunch acting in accordance with the constitution, or reforming itself to.