Monday, December 19, 2011

Las Vegas Cops Under Siege

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on the increased focus that's been placed on the police for their trigger-happy ways. The latest incident alone is enough to warrant something a bit more than the usual investigation.

After a 30-minute standoff, police fired a nonlethal beanbag shotgun round through a window of Gibson's car with the plan to pepper spray and arrest him. But their plan might not have been understood by officer Jesus Arevalo, a nine-year department veteran, who reacted to the beanbag shot by firing seven shots from his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle into the passenger side of Gibson's car.

Gibson, who was unarmed, was the 12th person shot and killed by Las Vegas police this year -- a record number for the agency.
What's your opinion? Is something wrong with the Las Vegas cops? Do they think they can do whatever they want?

Please leave a comment.

10 comments:

  1. And yet, according to the Brady Bunch, the police are one of the acceptable gun user groups. Interesting.

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  2. I have no idea how often law enforcement officers fire on people unnecessarily. Something tells me it is higher than most people would want to know.

    I have insight as to why. My grandfather was a police officer in an "NFL city" in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. He instructed my father and I about two facets of being a policeman:
    (1) Dead men don't tell lies.
    (2) Always carry a "throw away" piece.

    In case anyone does not know what a "throw away piece" is, it is a pistol that police officers confiscate from criminals during encounters or arrests. Rather than submitting the pistol as evidence associated with the crime, they keep the pistol -- which is not traceable to them in any way.

    So what's the point? When in doubt, police officers who are alone shoot and kill a suspect. If they discover that the suspect isn't armed, then they put their "throw away piece" in the dead criminal's hand to justify their action.

    People are people. There are some outstanding law enforcement officers that uphold the highest standards of law and police protocol. And there are some law enforcement officers that are scumbags ... and everything in between.

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  3. I have come to learn another thing that is very disturbing. A police officer's job immerses him/her in the worst people of society. When you are in a daily environment where just about all you see are obnoxious, combative, violent, ungrateful scumbags, it is very difficult for any human being not to become severely jaded. On top of that, they have to assume that every encounter is dangerous.

    That has to take a toll on a person and it has to come out one way or another. We all hear about how abusive law enforcement officers can be. It is amazing that we don't hear about more of them killing people.

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  4. pn Crunchy writes:

    I have insight as to why. My grandfather was a police officer in an "NFL city" in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. He instructed my father and I about two facets of being a policeman:
    (1) Dead men don't tell lies.
    (2) Always carry a "throw away" piece.

    In case anyone does not know what a "throw away piece" is, it is a pistol that police officers confiscate from criminals during encounters or arrests. Rather than submitting the pistol as evidence associated with the crime, they keep the pistol -- which is not traceable to them in any way.


    So, does this seem like an acceptable kind of policing to YOU, Crunchy?

    Or are you telling us your grandfather was one of the scumbag police officers, who acted illegally andin violation of his moral and legal duty?

    What do you mean by 'an NFL city' btw? Do you think the citizens of cities with sports teams are somehow less deserving of honest police service?

    I'm sure you loved your grandfather Crunchy, but this kind of thinking personifies why some people really, really should not have firearms.

    That would appear to include your grandfather, and if you agree with his thinking, you as well.

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  5. dog gone:

    I think "NFL city" might be a dogwhistle.

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  6. Cops suffer from exactly the same problem as civilian gun owners, not enough practice and insufficient screening.

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  7. Some clarifications:

    I don't agree with the practice. I believe my grand father carried a throw-away piece just in case but never had to use it. (His duties did not involve working the streets very much.) Who knows if he would have told us if he had deployed his throw-away piece anyway.

    My grandfather portrayed the notion of carrying a throw-away piece as the norm -- something which just about every police officer did. I imagine there had to be some who didn't carry a throw-away piece. I have no idea how many officers employed a throw-away piece to enable killing people on a whim versus "CYA" (cover your ass in case an officer made an honest mistake).

    In my mind police officers that achieve "scumbag" status are the ones that routinely abuse their authority to commit crimes, whether it is stealing money, beating people, raping women, or worst case murdering people.

    The larger point is that police officers are human and perhaps even more vulnerable to act in a criminal manner because of the inherent stress and nasty nature of their every day job in addition to the "authority" they have.

    "NFL city" refers to cities that are large enough to have NFL football teams. In the 1940s through 1960s that would include the likes of New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc.

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  8. I agree entirely with MikeB's last statement.

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  9. And to make matters worse, when it comes to a "bad cop", the "good old boys network" jumps into action to protect the "bad cop".

    Few things frustrate me more than "good old boys" networks protecting bad police officers, physicians, attorneys, and the like.

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  10. It's good to point out the points on which we agree.

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