Killed in the line

Hey folks. I was checking up on my blog from vacation and saw the flurry of comments from people on my last post. I've got a little free time and felt the need to reply to "llama" who seems to think that officers dont play nice nice long enough before going hands on.

I recommend you read this article.

It is very eye opening that many of the officers killed have that "officer friendly" attitude that llama seems to think is so important.

Friendly.
This adjective was frequently used to describe the murdered officers, along with “well-liked,” “laid back,” and “easy going.” While a friendly demeanor “does much to promote a positive image for the officer and the department, overly friendly behavior at an inappropriate time” can backfire, the researchers warn. That mindset can lull you into a sense of complacency, lead to the granting of dangerous favors or accommodations, and “might be misinterpreted by an offender as potential weakness…a sign of vulnerability.” A savvy officer knows it’s often useful to appear friendly as a conscious strategy, but you “never should let down [your] guard, because no one can know what is in the mind of another person.” The subject you’re dealing with “may be contemplating [your] assault to effect an escape.”

Hesitant about using force.
Victim officers tended “to use less force than other officers felt they would use in similar circumstances,” the researchers found. And they customarily “used force only as a last resort;” their peers said they themselves “would use force at an earlier point in similar circumstances.” Courts have clearly confirmed that it’s justifiable in situations you reasonably perceive as threatening to employ even pre-emptive force to stop a threat; you don’t have to wait until you are assaulted or injured. Yet some trainers are noticing that some officers today seem so hesitant about using force that it appears they are more afraid of being sued or thought overzealous than they are of being murdered!

llama, if you are a current or ex-cop, handle your calls any damn way you please. I wish you the best but I am afraid you will just end up another FBI stat. However, I intend to go home at the end of the day even if I have to hurt some feelings to do it.

Laters.

A difference in styles

Thanks to Hammer (http://whenyouronlytoolisahammer.blogspot.com/) for sending me this link. Anyone notice difference in how this call was handled when compared to the one below? I bet this "lady" will hand that license over next time she is pulled over.

I have to give it to the trooper. He was one of the most patient and professional cops I have ever seen. I think he let it drag on a bit too long but he certainly kept his cool.

Those wacky Europeans

I don't know what bothers me the most about this video. Is it the disrepectful/childish attitude of the woman? Could it be the lack of control and officer presence of the police? Or maybe it's the horrible subtitles.




Either way, it's obvious that cops do things a little differently across the pond. I've noticed that they are much more reserved and slow to take control of the scene. I've wondered about this and I think it is because Europeans are generally much less likely to become violent. Guns are rare and the crime rate is low in most countries. Since it's less likely that a citizen will attack you, why not let them rant a little? From what I can tell, it is also less politically acceptable for the police to go hands on.

I'm not judging but I don't think I could operate like that. Many of the folks I deal with don't attack me simply because they're not sure that they could take me and I don't intend to give them a chance to decide. Cops in the states are taught to control the scene quickly. Hopefully, we can just do this by our presence but if not, we use more forceful means. We don't do this to be jerks. We do it for safety. If you let someone run like a fool during a traffic stop, bad things could happen. Or maybe we just have bigger egos over here?

I remember one traffic stop I made a few years back that involved a British woman. She got pulled over for a minor violation but was very upset. She jumped out of her car and started demanding to know who I thought I was for stopping her. She then got on her cell phone and called someone and started telling them that she was stopped by some "wanker" of a cop.

I told her several times to hang that phone up and get in her car but she didn't want to listen. After being told to "piss off", I snatched her phone out of her hands, threw in the backseat, and put her in cuffs. I decided that a ticket was not what I wanted to do in this case.

As I drove her to jail, I got to listen to her whine that she acted that way at home all the time and the police never had the nerve to put their hands on her. Welcome to the USA lady.

With that being said, I want to let everyone know that I will be going on vacation for the next few weeks. I'm going to be headed to northern Europe for a little while and plan on hitting a few different countries. If I can make it out of Amsterdam alive, I will try to update while I'm over there. If not, I'll post when I get home.

Laters.

Dope on the table

Well the operation was a success.

During the course of things, we destroyed a door, scared the heck of a couple of pit bulls, and made a grown man scream like a little girl. On top of that, we seized some drugs and got a lead on a few bigger fish. Most importantly, nobody got hurt.

All in all, it was a pretty good op. It was so good that it looks like we developed enought information to start targeting my guy's supplier. It looks like I'll be planning another raid in a couple of weeks.

*groan*

Just kidding. Despite the stress (or maybe because of it), I really enjoy this assignment. If you want to get an excellent example of what I do for a living, watch the new reality show "DEA" that comes on Spike TV.

The show is a little bit on the dramatic side. It seems like everyone they target is a "drug kingpin" and they are always disrupting a "drug distribution network". Sometimes the guys in my unit sit around and crack jokes about the tone of the show. Despite that, they do EXACTLY what my team does. The only difference is they have better undercover cars and more people (damn federal funds).

The other night I was watching an episode where they popped a dealer, flipped him, and had the dealer order up from his supplier. The second dealer showed up and the agents did a vehicle assault on him. I was with a non-cop friend who saw it and started going on about how cool it was. I had to chuckle because my team had done almost the exact same thing two days earlier.

Of course, we did it with more style. You can't let the feds outdo you.

Gearing up

We have a raid planned tomorrow and I’m starting to get that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach again. I get a little nervous before every raid but it’s always worse for the case agent.

Tomorrow, I am the case agent.

That means that I own tomorrow’s operation in every way. If things go right, I’m a stud. If things go bad, I’m a screw-up. Every raid has a case agent who is the man in charge. As case agent, I developed this target. I gathered the intelligence, conducted the surveillance, and coordinated the undercover buys. I’ve drawn diagrams of the location and planned the route to the target. Tomorrow I draw everything on a board, make assignments, and brief my team. Once we roll out, I will lead my team to the front door. Whenever or however that door opens, I’ll be the first one rushing towards whatever the heck’s inside.

I’m not that worried about my own safety. Heck, if anyone ends up getting hurt I hope it’s me. Concern for yourself is the small stuff. My biggest fear is always that I may miss some danger sign and end up getting one of my buddies hurt. This particular target isn’t especially dangerous but there’s always that unknown factor. There is really no way to predict if someone is going to decide to shoot it out when the cops start banging on their door.

I expect to spend a restless night tossing and turning as I run every little piece of my plan through my head. Occasionally I am tempted to postpone my raids so that I can do just a little more research but then I think about a famous quote by Patton.

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”

Guess I’ll see you on the other side of the door.

A little more about Sean Bell

My recent post about the NYPD shooting verdict where I called Bell a thug got this response from one reader:

"Were you at any of the trials to make a ststement like that, "A THUG." Did you know him personally? Do you have no sympathy for the loss of that family and shame on makeumdothechicken(bull shit ass name)for calling him a dope dealing scum? No wonder people have such an issue with bloggers! I'll pray for your souls!"

In answer to your questions, no I was not at the trial. However, I followed them closely on the new and NY Times website. There are tons of information there that indicate Bell and his friends were nothing but criminals. I have sympathy for his family but that doesn't change the facts.

Finally, take a look at his bio on the internet.


This is from Wikipedia:

"Bell was the nephew of University of Miami basketball coach Frank Haith.[4] As a teenager, he studied acting in Flushing, Queens.[5] He was a star pitcher for John Adams High School in Ozone Park. His senior year season ended with an 11-0 record, a 2.30 E.R.A. and 97 strikeouts in 62.2 innings. Bell then gave up baseball because his girlfriend was pregnant.

Bell held odd jobs after the birth of his daughter. His fiancée, Nicole Paultre, told Larry King that Bell was an electrician by trade and in between jobs when the shooting occurred.[6]Bell had been arrested three times, twice for drug dealing and once for a firearms possession.[7] In all cases, he was released on his own recognizance.[8] The New York Daily News reported that, according to unnamed law enforcement sources, Bell sold crack cocaine twice to a confidential police informant in August of 2006.[9] Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, also shot in the incident, had been arrested nine and three times, respectively, each having been arrested at least once for illegal firearm possession.[7] Benefield was subsequently arrested during a gambling raid in Harlem after attending the funeral of James Brown, and again on September 25, 2007 for hitting his child's mother. His latter arrest resulted in him pleading guilty on October 12, 2007 to a lesser charge, and accepting a conditional discharge along with counseling.[10]"

Bell was arrested for drug dealing and fireams violations. He sold to undercover cops. I stand by my original post.

Thug.

Congrats NYPD

Get ready for the protests...

Don't get me wrong, I think that bad cops need to be sent away. Corrupt officers give us all a bad name. However, I hate when good cops get wrapped up in these racially charged cases. Sean Bell was a thug and anyone who followed this trial can see that. The officers were just doing their jobs and Bell made the call to try to drive over them. Score one for the good guys.

Police not guilty in groom's death
Detectives acquitted of wrongdoing in Sean Bell shooting case

Crowd angry but generally orderly; union chief praises verdict

From Deborah Feyerick
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A judge acquitted three New York Police Department detectives of all charges Friday morning in the shooting death of an unarmed man in a 50-bullet barrage, hours before he was to be married.

Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora were found not guilty of charges of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell, 23, and the wounding of two of his friends.

Detective Marc Cooper was acquitted of reckless endangerment.

Justice Arthur Cooperman said he found problems with the prosecution's case. He said some prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves, and he cited prior convictions and incarcerations of witnesses.

He also cited the demeanor of some witnesses on the stand.

As the judge read his decision, Nicole Paultre Bell -- Sean Bell's fiancee before his death -- ran from the courtroom, saying, "I've got to get out of here."

The announcement immediately sparked anger among some in the crowd outside the courthouse, but the protests were generally orderly.

One woman shouted at a black police officer, "How can you be proud to wear that uniform? Stand down! Stop working for the masters!" Sean Bell was black.

Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Police Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said "there's no winners, there's no losers" in the case.

"We still have a death that occurred. We still have police officers that have to live with the fact that there was a death involved in their case," Lynch said.

But, he added, the verdict assured police officers that they will be treated fairly in New York's courts.

"This case was not about justice," said Leroy Gadsden, chair of the police/community relations committee of the Jamaica Branch NAACP. "This case was about the police having a right to be above the law. If the law was in effect here, if the judge had followed the law truly, these officers would have been found guilty. ...

"This court, unfortunately, is bankrupt when it comes to justice for people of color."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been advising Bell's fiancee and family, left the courthouse about an hour after the verdict without making a public statement. He had called for calm Wednesday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement saying, "An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son. No verdict could ever end the grief that those who knew and loved Sean Bell suffer."

However, he said, the legal system must be respected.

"America is a nation of laws, and though not everyone will agree with the verdicts and opinions issued by the courts, we accept their authority."

Bloomberg also said he had spoken briefly with Paultre Bell on Wednesday and agreed with her on the need to ensure similar incidents would not occur in the future.

Bell, 23, was killed just before dawn on his wedding day, November 25, 2006. He and several friends were winding up an all-night bachelor party at the Kalua Club in Queens, a strip club that was under investigation by a NYPD undercover unit looking into complaints of guns, drugs and prostitution.

Undercover detectives were inside the club, and plainclothes officers were stationed outside.

Witnesses said that about 4 a.m., closing time, as Bell and his friends left the club, an argument broke out. Believing that one of Bell's friends, Joseph Guzman, was going to get a gun from Bell's car, one of the undercover detectives followed the men and called for backup.

What happened next was at the heart of the trial, prosecuted by the assistant district attorney in Queens.

Bell, Guzman and Trent Benefield got into the car, with Bell at the wheel. The detectives drew their weapons, said Guzman and Benefield, who testified that they never heard the plainclothes detectives identify themselves as police.

Bell was in a panic to get away from the armed men, his friends testified.

But the detectives thought Bell was trying to run down one of them, according to their lawyers, believed that their lives were in danger and started shooting.

In a frantic 911 call, police can be heard saying, "Shots fired. Undercover units involved."

A total of 50 bullets were fired by five NYPD officers. Only three were charged with crimes.

Oliver, who reloaded his semiautomatic in the middle of the fray, fired 31 times, Isnora fired 11 times, and Cooper, whose leg was brushed by Bell's moving car, fired four times, the NYPD said.

No gun was found near Bell or his friends.

Soon after his death, Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre, legally changed her name to Nicole Paultre Bell. She is raising the couple's two daughters, ages 5 and 1.

"I tell [them] that Daddy's in heaven now," she said. "He's watching over us. He's our guardian angel. He's going to be here to protect us and make sure nothing happens to us."

Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said forensic and scientific evidence presented during the seven-week trial contradicts the testimony of prosecution witnesses.

But Paultre Bell's father, Lester Paultre, said, "For those naysayers who say the police was doing their job, they should imagine their child in that car being shot by the police for no reason."

Paultre Bell, Guzman and Benefield have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court that has been stayed pending the outcome of the criminal trial. Guzman was shot 16 times, and four bullets, too dangerous to remove, remain in his body, according to his lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York have been monitoring the trial. In the event of an acquittal, it is likely authorities would conduct a review to determine whether there were any civil rights violations.

Gun question

I currently carry a Sig that is an older model. Since it's older, it doesn't have a railing for a tactical light. In low light conditions, I've always carried a small flashlight in one hand and my pistol in the other in a cross type grip. The tactical light is clipped to my belt for quick access. This has worked pretty well for high-risk stops on patrol and stuff like that. However it's starting to become a problem with doing building clearing.

A few weeks ago we rolled up on a house for a raid. I was the lead man and as we approached the house on foot, I saw a guy standing out by the front door. As I approached him, I realized that I was probably going to have to put my hands on him. Accordingly, I left my light on my belt in order to have a free hand. The guy started listening to my commands and laid down on the ground.

Since he was no longer an immediate threat, I bypassed him and entered the open door of the house. At this point I realized the house was almost pitch dark and I didn't have a light source. I couldn't stop to pull the my flashlight without causing the rest of my team to pile up in the fatal funnel.

Instead, I kept moving while hoping I don't trip over furniture or a bad guy. The first chance I had, I moved aside and got behind a guy who his flashlight on. The whole experience was very uncomfortable.

Since then I have decided that I need a tactical light attached to my pistol. I'm not really sure how to do this since my pistol doesn't have a rail built in. My question to all the gun folks out there is this:

Is it possible to get a rail cut into my pistol or is there some kind of clip-on rail that I can buy somewhere?

Anyone have any advice for me? I really don't want to buy a new gun because I am very attached to my current one. I also have a lot of cash sunk into it due to custom grips, anti-rust coating, night sights, and a built in laser.

Thanks