Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Is there a showdown coming between law enforcement and the public?

*Sigh* I just read another one of "those" stories, and I'm waiting on my blood pressure to decline.

Deputies from a Florida sheriff's department do the usual o-dark-thirty raid on a house--the wrong house--and kill the occupant who comes to the door with a gun in his hand.

I worked in law enforcement a long time ago. Not once--repeat, NOT ONCE--did we ever knock or bang on a door without announcing that we were the police.

Not once.

Yeah, we went looking for people at o-dark-thirty because even scumbags sleep. But at o-dark-thirty, most scumbags are out at scumbag locales doing scumbag things.

At o-dark-thirty, most law-abiding, righteous citizens are sleeping so that they can work another day and pay another day's worth of taxes to help keep dumbshit sheriff's departments up and kicking in doors in the middle of the night without announcing who's kicking in the door.

What really grates the living hell out of me in this story is the sheer arrogance of the ass who is defending the murder of this citizen. I quote:

"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies, and that's when we opened fire and killed him," Lt. John Herrell said. "Even though this subject is not the one we were looking for when he opened the door. He was pointing the gun at the deputy and if you put yourselves in the deputy's shoes. They were there to pick up someone who was wanted for an attempted homicide."

Not sure about you, but if/when my doorbell gets rung or my door gets knocked on at 1:30 a.m., I answer the door with a gun in hand. I'm not a criminal--I'm an American citizen for who the Constitution guarantees me the right to answer the door at 1:30 in the morning with a gun in my hand.

Especially when whoever is doing the knocking does not announce who the hell they are.

Another example of police arrogance and stupidity resulting in the death of an innocent citizen.

And, another example of some asshole police "commander" trying to blame it on the innocent citizen exercising their rights to defend themselves against whatever scum may come pounding on their door at 1:30 in the morning.

This final "justification" quote from the jackbooted deputy pretty much sums up why law enforcement across America is falling into the same favor as trial lawyers and politicians:

"It's just a bizarre set of circumstances. The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police office, you're going to get shot," Herrell said.

OK, Mr. Herrell, think about this. The bottom line is if you go pointing a gun at innocent citizens, badge or no badge, you're liable to get shot. And having shot in many matches with cops, I know who the better shots are.

And the police ain't them.

Police: Get your act together and start putting a muzzle on idiots like this Herrell and you damned well better start identifying yourselves when you pound on people's door.

Otherwise, we're going to start shooting back.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hear, hear!! What was once "to serve and protect" seems to have evolved into "to harass and assault." I hope that the family of this innocent victim finds peace with their loss and that justice is done regarding this murdering, so called, police officer.

RVN11B said...

When I read about this latest fiasco I could only sit here and curse.

I still am. I wore a badge in two states and NEVER failed to identify myself clearly and distinctly.

I can only hope this encourages all the good citizens out there to re-think their tactics and protect themselves from the monsters that come in the night.

Man I am so PISSED!

An Ordinary American said...

Ben--I'm of the mind that if LE started getting indicted, tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for crap like this, we'd see BS like "no-knock warrants" and "midnight raids" and other such garbage go away rather quickly.

The problem is that the gov't in its rush to enforce its own mandates has rendered law enforcement ABOVE the law and no longer accountable.

And until we begin voting as a nation rather than just as a small percentage, it will only get worse until the inevitable bloodshed of a second revolution--at which time, law enforcement will find themselves squarely on the wrong side of the battle lines.

RVN--The problem is one I saw developing over twenty years ago when I was still in the business. It's the screening and recruitment process.

You know what I'm talking about, so no need to elaborate.

Affirmative Action/EEOC and Political Correctness has turned the law-abiding into the enemy and the criminals into victims.

--AOA

Old NFO said...

We need more laws like Indiana passed... This HAS gone far enough, and you're right, people WILL start shooting back!

Will said...

Poor guy should have shot first and asked questions later. How the hell do you raid the wrong house anyway?

Ron Russell said...

I'm some how reminded of the movie "Innocent Man"---but those were crooked cops who got their just dues in the end. Following on twitter.

Anonymous said...

You kick in my door you will be greeted by the roar of my Remington 870.

Anonymous said...

This is one reason why I hate liberals. they are blood sucking disgusting animals...they want to be treated with respect and know that even though they are scum most conservatives will treat them that way.
They of course having been raised without manners of even the concept of manners do not have to treat other human beings that way.

It is all part of the liberal zombie agenda.
They are the most vile of humanity. Totally without souls, putrid, evil twisted morons. There simply aren’t enough adjectives to describe slime like this. There is something seriously wrong with them. And as for the the Colorado theater tragedy, Liberals never let a good tragedy or crisis go to waste! Nothing Wrong Obama With Politicizing A Tragedy.. But then again, they'd use anything to change the topic from "you didn’t do it Yourself" speech!

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