Police

Reporting the Police and Naming Names

David Simon, of The Wire, Homicide, and The Corner fame, has written a very powerful article in the Washington Post. The Baltimore Police stopped releasing the names of officers involved in police-involved shootings. Personally, I like reading the names in the paper to see if it’s anybody I know. Sure I could call up a friend and find out. But…

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Police

Robber Killed

This is the kind of shootings that makes cops smile. Bad guys gets what he had coming. Reminds me of the time in roll call when the sergeant was describing a complicated shooting in Sector One on Barclay St. or Greenmount Ave. It was a confusing tale of a Mexican guy, a black guy, a woman (perhaps girlfriend to one…

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Police

He didn’t follow orders

I feel like it was just yesterday I wrote: “If police think you might be armed and you won’t follow orders… well, it’s on you. Sorry. It may not be right, but that’s just the way it is.” Here’s a Baltimore case in point.

Police

BART Shooting (II)

Here’s a link to a The Raw Story and clearer video of the police-involved shooting of Oscar Grant on a Bay Area BART station. Thanks to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s blog for the link. In court, the officer’s actions will be judged by the standard of a “reasonable police officer.” It does not matter what the people shouting for the BART train…

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Police

BART Shooting

The big police news of the week is probably the police-involved shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant (a black man) at a Bart Station in Oakland. Riotshave followed. I hate riots and those who justify them. Like there’s any justification to bust up a hair salon called “African Braids”. And here’s to Oscar Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson. She is quotedas saying:…

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Police

Robbery suspect shot dead

I think the most amazing thing is that he kept the cigarette in his mouth the whole time! Pictures are here.

Police

Cop’s gun “accidentally” fires

The Daily Newsreports that a cop’s gun “accidentally” fired. No it di’int!If there’s one thing I learned as a cop, it’s that guns don’t fire by themselves. You gotta pull the trigger. Now there is a chance, if your finger is on the trigger, that you could get hit by something and accidentally squeeze the trigger. But if you did,…

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Police

Shoot Don’t Shoot

My former firearms instructor sent me this link. It’s a fun little game. Shoot the guys with the gun, not the guys with wallets and cell phones. You won’t do it perfectly (and neither do cops). You face around 100 people, my guess is half are black, half are white, half are armed, half are unarmed. All in all, it…

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Police

Meanwhile, in the NYPD

The brass is throwing the book at the officers involved in the Sean Bell shooting. What’s so unsatisfying about this, is that such discipline makes cops paranoid, and for good reason. What’s the moral? For police, it’s that if the department wants to get you (if Al Sharpton shouts loud enough), they will. Obviously the order had been given that…

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