Monday, March 29th, 2010
- Woman claims massive police raid on her home caused her miscarriage. She was accused of violating city animal control ordinances. Her attorney says she was later cleared. In addition to the usual overkill, there’s also a certain irony in bringing a SWAT team to confront someone charged with neglecting dogs.
- Close-up photos of dew-covered insects.
- Great post by Will Wilkinson on “Earth Hour.” I thought the counter-protests in which people burned as much energy as possible were silly and not particularly helpful to the discussion. But Will makes a very good point about energy consumption and poverty.
- Old pictures of drunk Brits.
- “Area police officers were involved in hundreds of vehicular collisions last year that could have been avoided had the drivers adhered to traffic laws and basic roadway etiquette, according to official reports.”
- Woman paints people to look like paintings, then photographs them. Result: Rather nifty.
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on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 9:27 am by Radley Balko
and is filed under Photo Blogging, Police Militarization, Police Professionalism.
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TheAgitator.com
I was so wrapped up in March Madness I completely forgot about Earth Hour. I would have been willing to turn off everything except the television.
Close-up photos of dew-covered insects.
I’m going to have nightmares now.
The dew covered insects were pretty damn rad. As much as I like the political coverage, the links to the other interesting stuff is what keeps me coming back.
“Area police officers were involved in hundreds of vehicular collisions last year that could have been avoided…”
Given them a break. They would probably be safer drivers if they weren’t burdened with the job of having to shoot people’s dogs, raid wrong addresses, walk the streets posing as hookers (and johns), masquerade as drug buyers, stake out cross-walks, and rubber neck passing cars to see if the occupant’s have their seat belts fastened.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/29/earlyshow/main6343009.shtml?tag=contentBody;cbsCarousel
Woman carjacks car with 7 and 2 year old children inside (along with their mother). Cops unload weapons at car. Miss carjacker altogether. They did, however, manage to hit the 2 year old. Twice. He’s in critical condition.
Erm, misread. They killed the suspect. But one does have to question the wisdom of shooting in this situation. Not that this surprises me after reading this site on a regular basis.
Much better than my idea of being drunk and taking pictures of old Brits. What a waste of a buzz.
I heard some police official on TV yesterday talking about how tough it was for the cops when they found out there was a kid in the car who got shot. Leave it to a police official to try and elicit sympathy for the cop after he shoots innocent bystanders. What a friggin’ asshole.
#5–Am I the only one who thinks cops should not shoot at moving vehicles? Not only is there a major risk of hitting innocent occupants, but if the driver is hit, the car will careen out of control endangering God knows who. Yet it seems to be standard procedure. It’s not like there are no other options for stopping a vehicle.
#9 – I think cops shouldn’t engage in high speed chases. Watch any show similar to ‘wildest police chases’ for 3-4 minutes (usually long enough to see a car chased by a cop run a red light and kill someone’s cross-traffic-driving mother or sister) and I think most would agree.
I know the producers want me to be saying “damn that criminal guy is crazy! and reckless!”
I say it about the chasing police guy. In a pursuit like that the ONE thing an officer can control is his participation.
#5: 5 Officers fired a total of 45 rounds at the car! WTF! You can’t fire that many rounds in a hurry accurately without serious training, which we know the cops don’t have. I hope the kid makes it and gets a nice house and a free ride to college out of this. Only when the taxpayers get F’ed over this stuff will they crack down on reckless cops and institute a real citizens oversight board.
#11 – The problem with cops unloading their weapons like that, and with how they drive (hence the story on preventable accidents), stems from the tendency of cops to *think* that they are “expertly trained” at what they do. Most cops believe that they are part of an elite trained professional class and that their training makes them expert drivers, marksmen, and criminal litigators all wrapped into one.
This conflicts directly with the reality of police work, which has notoriously low and inadequate professional standards. Most entry-level police jobs require little more than a GED, while higher rank and managerial positions require a few credits from community college. While there are always exceptions where intelligent people may seek a career in which they are overqualified, these factors combined with the disproportionately high salaries police make relative to their qualifications effectively mean that the police applicant pool consists of people will attract the dregs of society.
Couple that with the absurd culture of self-importance that most police have, and the results are outright dangerous. You basically get a group of people with below-average intelligence who undergo minimal entry-level training in specialized techniques of driving, shooting, and the law, but leave thinking it makes them world-class experts in each.
Most cops accordingly think of themselves as some sort of elite combination of Mario Andretti meets Annie Oakley meets Clarence Darrow. That self-perception is both delusional and deadly.
“This conflicts directly with the reality of police work, which has notoriously low and inadequate professional standards. Most entry-level police jobs require little more than a GED, while higher rank and managerial positions require a few credits from community college. While there are always exceptions where intelligent people may seek a career in which they are overqualified, these factors combined with the disproportionately high salaries police make relative to their qualifications effectively mean that the police applicant pool consists of people will attract the dregs of society. (Emphasis mine – nemo)
You mean, like this? Judge Rules That Police Can Bar High I.Q. Scores
from the article:
” A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.
In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.”
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so frightening.
Lasiks surgery ain’t everything it is cracked up to be.
In the Old Drunk Brits link I thought Walter Harrison had been labeled as being “raptured” instead of “ruptured”
#12 | PW |
Absolutely correct. I worked at a gun range for 4 years and we always had cops in there struggling to pass their firearm qualifications. From 110 lbs females to 260 lbs 6’6″ men. Even worse were the security guards. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to become a decent marksman with a hand gun. The idea that it can be accomplished in 6-8 weeks is absurd. Even if they have military experience, the military doesn’t spend a great deal of time training people to use hand guns either.
Of course, our government doesn’t take anything seriously. No reason for them to properly train the people who are mostly likely and expected to discharge their weapons in public places.
Drive fast in a stolen car, possibly after robbing a bank, and you get off scot free? I can see some real problems with that policy.
I’m not saying that there are no unwarranted high speed chases, there are. I’m suggesting the policy would be a boon to criminals.
Really, J sub D? This isn’t Grand Theft Auto… once you “get away” the cops generally will not say “oh, screw it, not gonna bother looking for that guy anymore”.
Police chases do have a place, I’ll admit. If someone is an immediate violent threat, then I can see going after him. But that’s a minority of chases. Though I guess if we did that, TruTV wouldn’t be able to air “World’s Wildest Police Chases” 3 times a day.
Since SWAT made the morning links, I thought I would share a personal current event with y’all. Sorry in advance for the long post.
My cat Rocky and I walk together in the late evening, no leash. The walks were actually his idea, I followed him on the first few we took. Several months later, we can walk up to a mile from our home and he follows me the whole way, stopping to sniff along the way of course.
The other night, we took a route through our neighborhood. As we rounded a bend in the street, a man came out of a house, crossed the street and entered his pickup truck. Rocky and I were standing about 15 feet away from him. We held back, waiting for him to drive off.
Suddenly, silently, five shadowy figures emerged from the surrounding hedges and shrubs. It took me several seconds to make them out. They were dressed in black, wearing helmets and body armor and armed to the teeth — a SWAT team! How exciting!!!
They swooped in on the man in the pickup truck. I was 15 feet away as this happened. Rocky was sniffing an oak tree in a neighbor’s yard about 10 feet away from me.
Seconds later, one of the SWAT officers spotted me and strode directly toward me. Being the devotee of this blog, I decided the best course of action was for me to prominently display my outstretched bare hands! He was reasonably polite, and asked me what I was doing there.
SWAT officer: “What are you doing here?”
Me: “Just out walking my cat, officer.”
SWAT officer: “Where do you live?”
Me: “A few houses that way.”
SWAT officer: “Do you have any ID?”
Me: “Not on me, officer, but if you’d like to go to my house, I’ll show it to you.” [I know, I know, I didn't have to say that.]
SWAT officer: “That’s okay, we’re conducting a search here.”
Me: “Well, have a good night, officer.”
And with that, I did an about face, called out to Rocky, who dutifully followed me in the opposite direction. What a story we had for my wife watching the 10 O’Clock news when we got home. Plus, I’m sure the officer had a blast telling his cop buddies about the freak walking his cat!
I inquired with the city the next day and was told that it was a City of Tustin SWAT operation regarding a parole violation.
To their credit, I observed the SWAT team to be non-violent and professional. Whether it was a wise use of resources to send a SWAT team on a parole violation, I have no idea.
Just thought I’d share. And yes, no animals were harmed during this SWAT operation.
“City” of Tustin. LOL.
May want to correct the lead into the first story about the lady with the dogs. It does not state in the story that a SWAT team was used. Only at the end the comment was made that it was like a SWAT raid. Though a dozen officers does seem like overkill for a local ordinance.
@ #10 – Banning pursuits will actually increase the number of incidents. If the bad guys know that they can speed out and the officers can’t follow then they are more likely to do so. It will also be more likely for someone to run for just minor infractions. With the increase of vehicles running at high speed and they won’t have flashy lights and sirens, you can probably see an increase in accidents.
That being said there are of course incidents where the officers violate policy and make stupid, even criminal, decisions. But a flat out ban I think would make the issue worse in many regards.
The story andrew linked:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/29/earlyshow/main6343009.shtml?tag=contentBody;cbsCarousel
Clearly, the problem here is that cops only have the crappy little guns that hold 14, 17 rounds tops. After 3 or 4 of them unload that tiny clip, then reload and start firing again, the suspect can still escape unharmed! I mean, really… statistically, firing 42 rounds at a suspect will result in only 1 or 2 rounds that hit. There have been cases where 6 of 7 cops, all lined up and firing, have gone through 3 clips before sufficiently subduing some evil doer!
What cops need are better guns! If they had these:
http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Machine-Guns/GE_XM214_Minigun.htm
They could be MUCH more effective at getting rounds in the general direction of where they want to shoot… some small percentage of them will almost certainly hit the intended target.
Cynical in CA @ #18
My guess is that this “deployment” (or whatever they call it) got to go in the books and be counted just like any use of the SWAT team, which results in the department getting to show need for monies next year. So, I suppose whether or not it was a “wise use of resources” depends on whom you ask.
If you ask me, no. Nevertheless, I’m sure if you ask the bureaucrat in charge of buttering the department’s bread with federal and state money, he’d say yes.
That’s how government budgeting works.
P.S. — Cool cat you’ve got there ;-)
Read my point again. Cops are going to look for a guy last seen, not very clearly, in a stolen car that is soon to be ditched. Good luck with that. It is extremely rare for people to leave their real names and addresses at a crime scene. After eluding the cops, you ditch the car.
Police have radios. Radio waves travel much faster than even the fastest car.
#21–this was less of a problem when cops carried 6-shot revolvers. Now, after years of arguing that they were “outgunned” (they weren’t but who’s counting?) by criminals they have their 16 and 18-round Glocks and whatnot. It seems like there’s a lot more “spray and pray” than making each shot count for something (which is always present in your mind when your gun only holds 6 rounds).
J sub D-
Who says a high speed chase is the only way to track a suspect?
There are many cases where the police will back off a chase because they feel it’s become too dangerous to the surrounding community (well, everywhere except California). They’ll follow well back without sirens on, and they’ll follow with aircraft, and officers not chasing will radio ahead with positions. Just because there’s no active chase doesn’t mean they’re not tracking the car.
Someone close to me eluded the police in his car, last month. It was after dark, he got out of sight of the vehicle that was chasing him, and then abandoned the car, made his way on foot over to a friend’s house, and crashed for the night. Meanwhile, the cops were looking everywhere for him. (Including calling people he knows, which is how I got a call at 2:30 in the morning about the subject)
The next day he called the cops to tell them his car was missing. They had no proof he had been driving.
This happened in a rural area. The cop chasing him had no realistic radio backup that could arrive before the chase was over. They did look for him, and found him, after the chase was over, but they couldn’t prove he wasn’t where he said he was all night. Looks like he’s going to get away with it.
#19 | johnl — ““City” of Tustin. LOL.”
Hmm? Nomenclature? There are 70,000 residents. You know the place?
#15 – Not only that, but I bet you encountered quite a few of those jackoff cops who couldn’t shoot worth a damn but believed themselves to be the next incarnation of Samuel Colt.
I’ve seen those types many times when visiting the gun range. They come stomping in with their police caps, sweatpants, and whatever other logo-emblazoned crap they get from work, and start offering unsolicited shooting advice to everyone else there. Or – even more annoying – they appoint themselves to monitor and correct perceived “gun safety” habits among other shooters, usually to the chagrin of the range inspector. They’re cops after all, and that means they simply must know guns and everything about them.
And then they actually go shoot for themselves…pulling back a target with no discernible grouping and giving off the appearance that it was hit at random by a wad of very large buckshot.
We didn’t have anyone get out of line on the range. Our’s is sub divided so we can group people on one side away from everyone else.
The real indignation came when they realized we didn’t give law enforcement discounts. Cause they’re owed something after all.
Just because there’s no active chase doesn’t mean they’re not tracking the car.
Just because you’ve discontinued the chase doesn’t mean that the car is being actively tracked or that a PD has the resources to do so.
Sorry, chasing a guy at high speed is sometimes the right thing to do. It is very easy to get lost in city traffic despite the efforts of all the kings horses and men.
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@ #27 | MattJ
Awesome! So Dukes of Hazzard!
@ 18 and 19: every time I hear “Tustin” I keep thinking it should have a sister city with a cough syrup factory: RobitTustin.