TheAgitator.com
A Great Cop
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
I spend a lot of time pointing out bad cops on this site, not because they’re indicative of the profession, but to point out the improper incentives we’ve set for police, and how poorly the criminal justice system deals with its own bad actors.
But it’s worth taking the time to praise one unquestionably brave and honorable cop: Sgt. Kimberly Munley. Munley took a bullet and nearly died after rushing to the scene where Nidal Hasan was massacring soldiers at Ft. Hood last week. But not before engaging Hasan, and bringing him down.
She single-handedly ended the killing. She almost certainly saved lives. She’s a hero.
I have her picture hanging in my cube with the caption “What a hero might look like.”
Everyone who sees it approves. ;)
If the stories of the shooters religious fundamentalism are true, I find it primitively gratifying that he’ll live to know that a woman took him down.
The badge-licking authoritarian crowd will do you one better, Radley: because of the actions of Sgt. Kimberly Munley, all cops are heroes.
A hero, and a hell of a good shot from the accounts that I’ve read. We need [many] more like her.
Kudos to Sgt. Munley.
She did her duty.
Les, I believe they can that an ‘insult to an injury”.
I’m no ‘badge-licker’ by any stretch of the imagination. However, Officer Munley showed true heriosm and bravery. No doubt she saved many lives that day.
It nearly cost her own life.
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
As a former paramedic, I worked with officers in the field up-close and personal. Like any other carerr field, you have good one and bad ones.
I personally saw both but most of all good. Many times on calls that involved injuries due to violence, I was grateful to see law enforcement there to not only protect my patients from further harm but EMS as well.
And trust me, I was met with a gun in my face unexpectedly on more than one occassion. I was there to help…yet I faced threats and violence.
So, Mr. DNA, call people ‘badge-lickers’ if you will but had you been in my shoes and the shoes of innocent victims I encountered, you too, would have been very grateful to have these people on your side.
Judi, the “badge-lickers” to whom I refer are those who claim that simply by suiting up and wearing a badge on their chest and a gun in their holster, ALL cops default to the position of “hero”.
There was a time where I defaulted to a neutral position on cops, but a few years of reading Radley’s blog have shown me that is no longer a tenable position. Sgt. Munley is an exception; I’m not saying she’s not a hero, I’m saying that her actions don’t by any stretch of the imagination make all cops heroic.
Hell, now and then I strap a guitar over my shoulders and plug it into an amp; that doesn’t automatically make me a guitar virtuoso; it just makes me another joker with a guitar strapped over his shoulders…
I was impressed by this woman, also. When you go to police boards and read about “everybody who matters came out okay” you sometimes wonder if cops know what they’re supposed to be doing. (For those who don’t wade in cesspools, “everybody who matters” means “cops”) This great lady is like the firefighters running up the stairs in the WTC, going against every instinct to try to help others. And, yes, even when here own life was imminently in danger she finished the job.
We need more like her.
Certainly a hero, but not even close to “singlehandedly”
This has been posted all over blogsphere
Subject: inside story from Ft. Hood
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 18:00:05 -0500
Since I don’t know when I’ll sleep (it’s 4 am now) I’ll write what happened (the abbreviated version…..the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come). I’ll not write about any part of the investigation that I’ve learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters are deeply involved in the investigation). Don’t assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate. They’re not. They’ll improve with time. Only those of us who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our statements they’ll get it right.
I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but you’re supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox vaccination site (it’s this big itchy growth on your shoulder). I am probably alive because I pulled a ———- and entered the wrong building first (the main SRP building). The Medical SRP building is off to the side. Realizing my mistake I left the main building and walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building. As I’m walking up to it the gunshots start. Slow and methodical. But continuous. Two ambulatory wounded came out. Then two soldiers dragging a third who was covered in blood. Hearing the shots but not seeing the shooter, along with a couple other soldiers I stood in the street and yelled at everyone who came running that it was clear but to “RUN!”. I kept motioning people fast. about 6-10 minutes later (the shooting continuous), two cops ran up. one male, one female. we pointed in the direction of the shots. they headed that way (the medical SRP building was about 50 meters away). then a lot more gunfire. a couple minutes later a balding man in ACU’s came around the building carrying a pistol and holding it tactically. He started shooting at us and we all dived back to the cars behind us. I don’t think he hit the couple other guys who were there. I did see the bullet holes later in the cars. First I went behind a tire and then looked under the body of the car. I’ve been trained how to respond to gunfire…but with my own weapon. To have no weapon I don’t know how to explain what that felt like. I hadn’t run away and stayed because I had thought about the consequences or anything like that. I wasn’t thinking anything through. Please understand, there was no intention. I was just staying there because I didn’t think about running. It never occurred to me that he might shoot me. Until he started shooting in my direction and I realized I was unarmed. Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her. (according to the news accounts she got a round into him. I believe it, I just didn’t see it. he didn’t go down.) She goes down. He starts reloading. He’s fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn’t dropped the one that was in his weapon. He’s holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go). I see the male cop around the left corner of the building. (I’m about 15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, “He’s reloading, he’s reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!) You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter. He goes down. The cop kicks his weapon further away. I sprint up to the downed female cop. Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She’s bleeding profusely out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we’ve been trained (I hope we did it right…we didn’t have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had). Meanwhile, in the most bizarre moment of the day, a photographer was standing over us taking pictures. I suppose I’ll be seeing those tomorrow. Then a soldier came up and identified himself as a medic. I then realized her weapon was lying there unsecured (and on “fire”). I stood over it and when I saw a cop yelled for him to come over and secure her weapon (I would have done so but I was worried someone would mistake me for a bad guy). I then went over to the shooter. He was unconscious. A Lt Colonel was there and had secured his primary weapon for the time being. He also had a revolver. I couldn’t believe he was one of ours. I didn’t want to believe it. Then I saw his name and rank and realized this wasn’t just some specialist with mental issues. At this point there was a guy there from CID and I asked him if he knew he was the shooter and had him secured. He said he did. I then went over the slaughter house. the medical SRP building. No human should ever have to see what that looked like. and I won’t tell you. Just believe me. Please. there was nothing to be done there. Someone then said there was someone critically wounded around the corner. I ran around (while seeing this floor to ceiling window that someone had jumped through movie style) and saw a large African-American soldier lying on his back with two or three soldiers attending. I ran up and identified two entrance wounds on the right side of his stomach, one exit wound on the left side and one head wound. He was not bleeding externally from the stomach wounds (though almost certainly internally) but was bleeding from the head wound. A soldier was using a shirt to try and stop the head bleeding. He was conscious so I began talking to him to keep him so. He was 42, from North Carolina, he was named something Jr., his son was named something III and he had a daughter as well. His children lived with him. He was divorced. I told him the blubber on his stomach saved his life. He smiled. a young soldier in civvies showed up and identified himself as a combat medic. We debated whether to put him on the back of a pickup truck. A doctor (well, an audiologist) showed up and said you can’t move him, he has a head wound. we finally sat tight. I went back to the slaughterhouse. they weren’t letting anyone in there. not even medics. finally, after about 45 minutes had elapsed some cops showed up in tactical vests. someone said the TBI building was unsecured. They headed into there. All of a sudden a couple more shots were fired. People shouted there was a second shooter. a half hour later the SWAT showed up. there was no second shooter. that had been an impetuous cop apparently. but that confused things for a while. meanwhile I went back to the shooter. the female cop had been taken away. a medic was pumping plasma into the shooter. I’m not proud of this but I went up to her and said “this is the shooter, is there anyone else who needs attention…do them first”. she indicated everyone else living was attended to. I still hadn’t seen any EMTs or ambulances. I had so much blood on me that people kept asking me if I was ok. but that was all other people’s blood. eventually (an hour and a half to two hours after the shootings) they started landing choppers. they took out the big African American guy and the shooter. I guess the ambulatory wounded were all at the SRP building. Everyone else in my area was dead.
I suppose the emergency responders were told there were multiple shooters. I heard that was the delay with the choppers (they were all civilian helicopters). they needed a secure LZ. but other than the initial cops who did everything right, I didnt’ see a lot of them for a while. I did see many a soldier rush out to help their fellows/sisters. there was one female soldier, I dont’ know her name or rank but I would recognize her anywhere who was everywhere helping people. a couple people, mainly civilians, were hysterical, but only a couple. one civilian freaked out when I tried to comfort her when she saw my uniform. I guess she had seen the shooter up close. a lot of soldiers were rushing out to help even when we thought there was another gunman out there. this Army is not broken no matter what the pundits say. not the Army I saw.
and then they kept me for a long time to come. oh, and perhaps the most surreal thing, at 1500 (the end of the workday on Thursdays) when the bugle sounded we all came to attention and saluted the flag. in the middle of it all.
this is what I saw. it can’t have been real. but this is my small corner of what happened.
The rush to create heroes starts before the facts are in.
She may be a hero. Let’s get some facts first.
Seconding what others have said. Sgt. Kimberly Munley is a cop hero who deserves praise for her bravery.
Think Columbine for the flip side of that coin.
You know, the first thing I thought of when I saw this on TV was Columbine…tons of cops hanging around outside the building because it “wasn’t safe”.
This gal, whether she ended it or just stood up to her end of the bargain when she put on her uniform (her partner too by the above account), got it right. Helicopters waiting on a safe LZ? SWAT teams taking their time? This ended because the very few that were necessary remembered their honor and stood between the demon and the defenseless. My hat is off to them, and I hope their scars are minimal.
i.e. I don’t care if she’s the one that actually shot him. Going in without backup because that’s what the f*** needed to happen makes her the only kind of hero I need.
I concur with SamK. Whoever actually took the shooter down, these two officers ran TOWARDS danger. I thank them, and the others who exhibited bravery as well.
Sad, sad, sad day all around.
It is worthwhile to point out that DOD police officers do not get LEO pay, do not get LEO retirement, can not carry firearms off duty, and do not have statuary law enforcement powers. Something to think about changing.
i’ll pray for her recovery. she’s a 1%-er
“To have no weapon I don’t know how to explain what that felt like. ”
It’s how everyone else feels when they are abused by someone with a gun.
I’ll be happy when the guys who come back in body bags from Afghanistan and Iraq, who voluntarily put their lives on the line for (what they, at least, think is their duty to) their country get the same attention from the politicians as these soldiers who were killed at Ft Hood. Don’t they deserve having the flag lowered to half mast, too?
One of the things I hated about 9/11 was the fact that the government paid the families of the unsuspecting victims millions while those who knowingly stepped up and sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq simply became statistics.
Your life only matters if losing it generates press coverage. Politicians are the sickest opportunists on the planet.
@#17 | Zack:
I agree. Which is why I believe in the legitimacy and effectiveness of concealed carry permits, and dread seeing buildings in my state (Nebraska) that ban all firearms, including legally concealed ones. It’s essentially advertising that the building is a target-rich environment.
Also, I’m given to understand that the U.S. Army doesn’t by default give bullets to the guys carrying their guns all over the post (Army vets please correct me if that’s a misapprehension — I was in the Air Force and we carried our pistols fully loaded, chambered, and with the safety on FIRE). That may account for some of the delay in dealing with MAJ Hasan.
I’d like to point out she’s former military.
The point that troubles me with praising any cop, or any person, as a hero is does that one act of true heroism negate all of the horrible deeds they have done in life, especially a cop who has the power of The System to make life hell for people, destroy people, and even kill them, and be absolved because another human being said so?
She’s a former Wrightsville Beach police Officer… I live there… Most are jack booted pricks… I met her once… she could have given me crap by giving me a DUI on a bicycle driving on the sidewalk as some would have on the WB police force… not her… she had attitude but she also had a smile! Not some ridiculous lecture about how most people die in traffic accidents within a couple miles of their home… but alas… no one has perished within a couple miles of their hiome in Wrightsville Beach by vehicle in years! HELLO!!!!!!
To be clear, praising someone as a hero with no knowledge of their past behavior is a dangerous process of recognizing heroism. In one act a person can be deemed a hero, because you remove all other past acts from consideration. The dictionary defines a hero as someone who has performed a heroic act (singular), but this disavows consideration of all other acts in a person’s life, and that logically doesn’t follow. Too many are too quick to not consider anything other than a singular act, and then to lavish praise on a person.
Hate to be the jackass here, but I’m sure that forty-three (43!) people shot before she responded sure appreciated her heroism.
I suppose she did the best she could and showed some bravery, but this really teaches us of the folly of relying on the government for protection. If people had been allowed to exercise their second amendment rights the death toll would have been much lower.
A heroic act doesn’t absolve past wrongs, but at the same time, I think you can praise someone for doing good even if they have done wrong in the past. It strikes me as odd to judge the totality of someone’s life in every situation. “Thanks for saving my life, but you’re still scum.” As we are all flawed, that just seems like an unhappy road to go down.
Attagirl Munley! thank you.
Too many people will never even acknowledge that a person, while heroic in one action, could be quite the opposite when the entirety of said hero’s life is considered. It’s a mental exercise to contemplate the entirety, and doesn’t dismiss the heroism of the single act. Prosecutors, cops, and judges are in a position where they can perform a single heroic or noble act, yet have destroyed hundreds of lives along the way. Being a cashier at the grocery store, a bank teller, an auto mechanic, etc. doesn’t give you the opportunity to destroy/end lives every single day. A much larger dose of scrutiny should be applied to lines of work where you can destroy/end lives every day, and have virtually no repercussions.
Bravo to this woman for doing what most others may not have done.
And she’s hot.
Radley, come man. You a bit quick on the draw. Wait till all the facts come in before throwing accolades. That’s good journalism right? Even live on CNN Munley’s partner indicated that he dropped the suspect.
“If people had been allowed to exercise their second amendment rights” EXACTLY. One lunatic isn’t gonna be shooting 40+ people unless government had disarmed them first. Your supposed “hero” — NOT mine — was actively enforcing victim disarmament which is directly contributing to such an enormous death toll. “Just following orders” is not a defense for disarming these victims, but it is the only defense your “hero” can mount.
You might even call her a heroine.
*ducks*
Dave Krueger “Your life only matters if losing it generates press coverage. Politicians are the sickest opportunists on the planet.”
And journalists. Brilliant as usual Dave!
Dave:
“One of the things I hated about 9/11 was the fact that the government paid the families of the unsuspecting victims millions while those who knowingly stepped up and sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq simply became statistics.”
Those who “knowingly stepped up” were compensated. In the form of a pay check. Not saying this is better or worse. I’m just saying..
I’m a bit disappointed that Radley jumped on this “Jessica Lynch redux” bandwagon. Especially now, almost a week later, when the facts are floating to the surface that Officer Munley’s parter was most likely the one who actually took down Hasan.
Please know that I intend no slight towards Officer Munley: she charged willingly into danger, eager to engage it and do her best to end the threat. Her personal bravery is not even a question in my mind. But, I do have to roll my eyes at the “made for morning network shows” view that she is some kind of single-handed superhero who out-gunned a mass murderer. The evidence just doesn’t support that, no matter how well the headline sells.
A government employee solves a government-created problem…. Hmmm, manufactured hero if anything.
My point is that there seems to be a huge disparity in how important we consider those who died by accidentally being in the wrong place at the wrong time (such as the 9/11 victims) as compared to those who explicitly had the courage to intentionally risk and, ultimately, sacrifice their lives for a cause.
But, you’re correct. The paycheck certainly was compensation.
If the worst thing I ever did was hand out praise before all the investigations and Congressional inquiries ran their course, I would expect a special place in Heaven.
I am going to join the ranks of people who think that Radley should not be in the business of heaping public praise on this one particular officer. I certainly won’t be.
Does that sound mean-spirited? Maybe a little ‘un-American’? Well so be it.
In my opinion, someone who helps a kid through school, or helps resolve a domestic confrontation, or volunteers at a homeless shelter is just as big a hero as this woman. But they won’t be on TV for it any time soon. What people don’t realize is that the whole glorification of this woman has on some level an undertone of police glorification. You can bet your ass that it is very related to the subconscious idea that ‘police shooting people = good.’
There are around 299,999,000 people out there dedicated to showering her with praise. I choose to be one of those devoted to pointing out any abuses she comitted as a cop, any innocents she helped ruin. Yes, I will catch flak for it. But if I don’t do it, and just join the chorus of praise, then who on earth will? In fact, why don’t we just elevate her to God-hood right now? As people pointed out, a single good deed will make 99.99% of people forget anything else. I choose to be in the 0.01%. I never join the crowd. I remain eternally vigilant.
She’s a hero, but not the only one. There’s room for two great cops here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091107/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting_officers
She may be a hero, but who really cares. America is totally down the crapper, everyone may as well give up on ever improving anything. And as police are the fascists who enforce these illegal and unconstitutional laws on the populous; as far as I am concerned they are all targets.
So if someone blew her brains out tomorrow I would cheer.
Also, who is to say this Maj. Hasan guy didnt have some totally righteous reason for launching his killing spree? Just because he kills a bunch of people that automatically makes him a bad guy?
So if someone blew her brains out tomorrow I would cheer.
To some extent, I agree. While her actions on one particular day may have been commendable and even heroic, she is still a cop, and the average dead cop makes the world a better place.
If she’s one of those rare “good cops,” she should find an honest line of work.
@RWW, pierre: People like you two are disgusting, and try to make your small lives feel more meaningful with statements like those.