Shot in the Dark

The Wrong Lesson

Four Houston cops were shot (and another sustained a non-gunshot injury) serving a warrant against a couple of drug dealers.

That’s bad enough.

Worse?

Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi was upset:

“We are sick and tired of dirt bags trying to take our lives when all we’re trying to do is protect this community and our families,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

I get that. It’s downright understandable.

This next part – where he apparently declares war on anti-police thoughtcrime? A little more troublesome:

“If you’re the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, just know we’ve all got your number now, we’re going to be keeping track of all of y’all, and we’re going to make sure that we hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers.We’ve had enough, folks. We’re out there doing our jobs every day, putting our lives on the line for our families.”

I’m curious what level of criticism

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Mitch Berg

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23 responses to “The Wrong Lesson”

  1. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    I fear many of my conservative friends may suffer a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to cops.

    I find the most accurate way to consider cops is that they are a necessary evil; at best.

    They’re not you friends, their job is not to help you, and finally, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times…

    Not every cop lies, not every cop is crooked, but every cop knows one that is, and they look the other way.

  2. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    As for this coppers tear stained threat, well pal, shooting family dogs, kicking doors down and SEAL LARPing is all big fun until the shooting starts and you don’t have the safety of overwhelming firepower and numbers, ain’t it?

    Every once in a while you’re gonna run into someone who not only doesn’t respect the law, have no fear of you and who have got nothing to lose.

    But 99% of the time, you’re dealing with people who just want to make their contact with you as brief, and painless as possible, and be on their way.

    You don’t get to treat both of those groups the same.

    You don’t get to make shit up out of thin air, you don’t get to put words in people’s mouths in your report, you don’t get to plant damaging evidence, or hide exculpatory evidence. It sucks, I know, but that’s the job.

    You want the full support of the civilians? Cool. Start by cleaning out the the lying sociopaths you know are standing next to you during your morning shift briefing. And hey, stop shooting dogs!

    Oh, and don’t ever threaten people for speaking their minds; ever.

  3. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    Lecturing belligerent coppers is evidently a sure ticket to moderation.

  4. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    I can’t understand the seeming pass that many on the right give police, automatically. First, they are the armed wing of the government, the first place that governments of all time turn to subjugate the people. Second, our society has unfortunately, given them a free pass for even being accountable to following the limited rules they are given.

    Many times when a police use of force comes up, I think, what if instead of a policeman, a armed citizen found themselves in the same situation? Did the police officer have to be as accountable for every shot as an armed citizen is?

  5. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    You bring up some good points, Loren, especially when courts have ruled that police officers have no duty to protect citizens.

    Let’s say I am a cc permit holder and a police officer chooses to stand by while I am getting assaulted by an armed thug and I shoot the thug dead, what will the officer do?

    On another note, anyone that publicly advocates harming another, regardless of who it is, then some zombie goes out and hurts said person(s), the mouthpiece should be charged as an accessory.

  6. John Kraephammer Avatar
    John Kraephammer

    Law enforcement is lowest common denominator work. These are not bright people generally. And the laziness and self-dealing by far exceeds that of any govt bureau cube farm.

  7. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    I see it potentially as yelling fire in a crowded theater or death threats, not necessarily protected speech under the 1st amendment if you are encouraging or inciting violence against cops. Who determines the line? Probably SCOTUS in a decision in 2-5 years

  8. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    Also if you are under the illusion that you have ANY real privacy or arent being tracked 24/7 in some form by the government I have some bad news for you, we’ve basically been under constant watch since 1980 which is why it is so amazing 9/11 happened in the first place and why another one hasnt happened since then. Your smartphone spies on you 24/7 and anything internet related is traced no matter what things you think you have to protect you. George Orwell couldnt have come up with this. The only thing that keeps the American people from rising up is they dont know, or more concerning they just dont care.

  9. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    John Kraephammer,

    Please tell me that you were being sarcastic with that comment.

  10. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    Watching Live PD on the weekends as much as I do (Its essentially a live version of Cops every Friday and Saturday night on Tru TV) I can tell you that the police I see on there are incredibly intelligent and patient and composed. If the average citizens traded places with a cop for a month they’d last a week tops. And they probably would have used their gun a half dozen times as well. Yes some are bad but 90-95% of them (at least) are amazing with the human filth they have to interact with on a daily basis.

  11. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I’m of two minds about cops. I’m conflicted.

    When I was in private practice, our firm had the contract to serve as Prosecuting Attorney for a few small towns. The cops I worked with were mostly young, inexperienced and not super bright. They took jobs in small towns outstate because they couldn’t get hired in a larger department or agency. For example, Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Phil Castille in St. Anthony, was 28 years old with five years of experience. His superiors aren’t much better. I met a few Barney Fifes but no Andy Griffiths.

    I noticed the longer cops stayed on the job in larger city departments or sheriff’s offices, the more likely they were to develop an Us-versus-Them attitude. There are only two groups: “Us” meaning cops and “Them” meaning perps. It’s really tough on marriages. Your wife is in your face giving you a ration of grief so do you cut her some slack as if she were a cop or do you aggressively control the confrontation as if she were a perp?

    Some also developed a sense of entitlement. Most cities have a local code of ethics which prohibits a public employee from accepting anything of value on the job, to avoid the appearance of impropriety. But does that cover free coffee or reduced price lunch? Does that cover speeding tickets when you’re off duty? Booze or weed confiscated from underage drinkers? Should they also be free from criticism from the public they’re supposed to protect?

    It’s easy to become sniffy about those brutes, not our class, how deplorable.

    On the other hand, cops willing to abuse suspects’ civil rights in bad parts of town are keeping the perps out of my neighborhood. I’ve been on ride-alongs, I’ve watched dash-cam videos, I’ve seen enough encounters to know that not every conflict can be diffused with incense and drum circles, some require pepper spray and batons. Some people claim those cops are simply thugs in blue. Maybe so, but they’re our thugs. Embarrassing to admit, but I want them doing the job that respectable people won’t admit they want done.

    Finally, I’ve been to other countries where law enforcement isn’t as professional as ours, bribes are routine, rights are mostly theoretical, and the police really are just another gang to be avoided. The alternative to public employee police is private security or a vigilance committee, neighborhood watch with guns, who administer their own brand of peace keeping. None of those are better than what we have now.

    It’s a conundrum.

  12. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    In this case, it’s worth noting that it’s pretty doubtful the deceased perps shot at blue because blue was demonized by otherwise law-abiding people. They shot at blue because they had a stash, a record, and the prospect of a long time in the big house. So the entire notion by the union boss is nonsense. There are cases of police being hurt because people are conditioned to hate them, sure, but this is not one of them.

    Which speak to John K’s contention about the police not being the brightest bulb in the chandelier; and it’s true. Back in 2008, the City of New London won a case where it wanted a maximum intelligence score for new officers, and if you think about it, being a meter maid or manning a speed trap is not going to attract people who have the ability to work in medical research labs, to put it mildly.

    Self-dealing? Well, let’s ask the question; how many departments man the speed traps and bust potheads, but have untested rape kits? How many departments have been found to have “cleared” sexual assault cases where there was sufficient evidence to arrest or indict?

    I’m not anti-police, but I do think in many areas, not just sexual assault, some better priorities need to be made. Being glorified meter maids isn’t good for justice or the police who help achieve it.

  13. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    “These are not bright people generally…”

    Bingo. They are well trained mid wits and follow directions well. Problem is, PD’s cultivate an environment that promotes aggression ahead of higher order thinking.

    Did I leave anything out? Lol.

    We really don’t need platoons of cops running around with the mindset of a newly minted USMC boot camp grad, but that’s what we have. They don’t issue instructions; they bark orders. The thin veil of professionalism often can’t conceal the low regard and occasional outright contempt cops feel for the general public.

    Cops all to often ape the behaviors and characteristics of the low level criminals and drug addled losers they are in contact with.

  14. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    POD, “live TV” ain’t real life. Trust me. The departments allow the ride alongs because it’s free PR, and the cops assigned are carefully hand picked.

  15. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    bike,

    Many police departments now require college degrees, many require at least a BA.

    I have a family member in law enforcement that has a Masters. I also have friends and family members that have or are considering careers in LE, some of whom have gone through the pre-screening process with usually two head shrinkers. If dim bulb cowboys are getting through that, then the police departments and their doctors themselves are at fault.

  16. John Kraephammer Avatar
    John Kraephammer

    I could not have said it much better, my dude.

  17. John Kraephammer Avatar
    John Kraephammer

    Jeronimo Yanez has a bachelors from Mankato. I don’t know him but I’m quite confident he’s ‘not bright’.

  18. John Kraephammer Avatar
    John Kraephammer

    Swiftee yeah you’re typing that, and I’m typing “But the other thing is its a profession that self selects for people who like crossing the line into other’s someone else’s personal space, figuratively and literally. There’s not much to distinguish there between people who become cops and people who become criminals. You put that person within the paramilitary-bro framework…

  19. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    bosshoss; I’m well aware that there are college degrees for police. I am also well aware that at my alma mater, criminal justice was one of the go-to majors for academically marginal athletes.

    It’s not that there aren’t smart police out there, but the simple fact that so many police spend so much time in things like traffic enforcement is going to push a lot of people away from the job, as the New London police legal briefs actually argued.

    And as we see in many cases, law enforcement is suffering for this. Recent example; the Chicago PD pictures of the two possible suspects for the alleged beating of the Fox actor were silhouettes of two people in trenchcoats–pretty much a uniform in that city this time of year, and you couldn’t tell anything about them. But the pictures were released. We are not talking rocket scientists here.

  20. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    Many police departments now require college degrees, many require at least a BA.“

    Fauxcahontas Warren has a law degree. Phyllis Kahn has a MSci in Physics. Somali Barbie has a PoliSci degree and Occasional Cortex has a BS in Economics.

    Education =/= intelligence.

  21. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    Swiftee, fair point, I’ll definitly cede that.

  22. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Swiftee; not only is education not equal to intelligence, intelligence is not equal to wisdom. I have no doubt that Fauxcohontas, Kahn, Somali Barbie, and Tide Pod Evita have raw intelligence and college degrees; where I part company with them is in whether they have wisdom.

  23. Mammuthus Primigenius Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenius

    A BA is the new high school degree. An average person, with average motivation, can get a BA. The reason many people do not go further than high school or trade school is because they are college averse (not stupid, but don’t like being in a classroom), or because money is an issue. Not as in paying tuition, but as in needing to work a full time job to support yourself or others.
    Graduate degrees outside of the hard sciences vary in quality. It is possible to meet an idiot with a PhD in psychology (“idiot” meaning does not know which side we were on in WW2). It is not possible to meet an idiot with a PhD in astrophysics, if they graduated from an American college.
    Another good measure of the quality of a graduate degree is to discover who paid for it. If you are getting a PhD in physics, but can’t get a fellowship, you are probably better off pursuing a degree in a different subject.

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