Brian Mulkeen was a Fordham grad and worked at Merrill Lynch till he quit his job and joined the NYPD. Apparently Mulkeen was killed by “friendly fire” while wrestling with an armed suspect.
There’s a nice 1 minute video on twitter. I was mostly just sad and dry eyed till “Country Roads” kicked in. Because he’s not just a cop; he’s a person. RIP, Brian Mulkeen.
I wrote thislast night for CNN, about the massacre in Dallas:
Words have the power to inspire, inflame, provoke. Or else we wouldn’t say them. When words inspire others to kill, however deranged those others might be, we must see the consequences.
When those on the political right speak against immigrants, Muslims or abortion, those on the left are quick and correct to observe that words inspire crimes of hate and violence. Similarly, when those on the left speak against police officers — not just bad ones, but all police officers — this, too, can have consequences.
No matter one’s beliefs, we all need to call out extremism and hate, especially given American’s absurdly easy access to guns. No matter how many good people have guns, they cannot always stop a bad person with a gun. An armed society is clearly not always a polite society, so we need to tone it down.
Police need to realize that some in their ranks make mistakes, both honestly and maliciously. This needs to be better acknowledged by those in law enforcement. But just as decent society does not hold every black, Muslim, or white Christian responsible for the murderous acts of a deranged few, it is a mistake to blame hundreds of thousands of police officers for the bad deeds of a few.
In my call for common ground and more civility, I received nasty emails or tweets from some A) protesters, B) cops, C) blacks, D) whites, and E) gun nuts. So I must be doing something right.
Why in the world are people reporting on last year’s data when we have current data at our fingertips? Does reality only happen after numbers are published on DOJ letterhead?
NBC News reports:
Number of Police Officer Killings Drops, Reversing 2014 Spike.
Do reporters not have the wherewithal to see what the current situation is? It is but a mouse-click away. Officer Down Memorial Page keeps an excellent running and historical tab.
This year’s data show killings are up (albeit with a small n of 17). We’re on pace for 45 cops being shot and killed this year, and that would be much more than last year, and similar to the 47 shot and killed in 2014.
Now I wouldn’t want the headline to say “Police Killings Spike 55 Percent in 2016,” but at least that would be technically true. But it would be statistically irresponsible, with such a low n.
Oh, look what I just found. This is too good to be true:
2016 Sees Year-Over-Year Spike In Cops Killed By Gunfire.
And it’s also from NBC News! (File under “You can’t make this shit up!”) Well, at least NBC has all their bases covered.
Anyway, it looks like 2015 is going to be the blip, not 2014.
[I corrected a wrong number I had regarding 2014.]
“The shot that struck and killed Detective Colson was deliberately aimed at him by another police officer,” Stawinski said. “It’s another tragic dimension to this unfolding story.”
Ouch.
A black cop in civilian clothes being killed by other cop? This is not exactly frequent… but it is all too regular.
In 170 years of US policing, you know how many white cops have been killed in similar cases of mistaken identity? Best I know, four. (Jenkins, Skagen, Stamp, and Breitkopf)
Here’s my previous post.
An emotional story in the Baltimore Sun — related to the “friendly-fire” death of Officer Jacai Colson — about another P.G. County officer who shot and killed his partner and best friend in 1988:
“You’re not alone,” Sommers said he told the officer, who has not been identified publicly. “You can’t beat yourself up over it so bad that you lose all your self-esteem and want to swallow your [gun] barrel.”
Right now it is unclear if the shooting of Colson was inadvertent or a case of mistaken identity. Colson was black, armed, in civilian clothes, and actively engaged with the gunman. According to Prince George’s County Police Chief Stawinski:
[The criminal gunman] fired some shots at officers and the door of the police station to draw a response from officers and lure them out.
Colson arrived while the shooting was underway. He immediately joined the gun battle. Colson ran down Barlowe Road east toward Landover Road. Michael Ford followed, and remaining officers chased them. It is in this confusion we believe the errant round struck Detective Colson.
Meanwhile the gunman’s brothers filmed the whole thing on the cell phones.
I don’t post a lot of these videos, but this one is revealing. I honestly didn’t know which way this was going to go. Indian River Country, Florida, December, 2015. 3AM. A man has just gone to the convenience store to buy cigarettes. He’s riding a scooter without tags (that’s southern for “license plate”).
Stop the video right at 00:15. Don’t go a second further.
Ask yourself what you would do or do differently as the police officer. As a non-police officer, what would your reaction be if the cop aggressively brought this guy to the ground right there and then? Police brutality? White cop attacking unarmed black man? It’s easy to imagine the officer being criticized for excessive use of force.
Most non-police will probably see a seemingly compliant black suspect asking a white officer, “What’s the problem, sir?… No, no, no, no, I don’t want no problem.” Just a minor traffic violation.
Of course nobody knows if the suspect is armed or what he is thinking. And that’s the problem.
The man’s son said:
It’s crazy how it happened…. I don’t understand how it happened, from you going to the store on a scooter. What was the point of stopping him?… When I left him, he didn’t have no gun…. He doesn’t carry weapons at all. He doesn’t have any enemies. He doesn’t feel threatened by anyone.
Who do you believe?
Now watch the rest of the video.
After being shot in the leg, the cop manages to shoot and hit the suspect twice. Impressive. The suspect was later found by a dog. Both men lived.
Here are the warning signs (AKA things you should watch for as cop and not do if you’re not a cop):
0:04: “Don’t go reaching into anything,” says the cop. Fair enough.
0:05: Why does the suspect hold his hand up like he can tell the cop to stop? That’s not allowed. But as a cop I would probably let that slide. What can you do? But it’s a sign.
0:09: The suspect gets off the hood, like he was a choice to disobey an officer’s order. I don’t know what I would have done, but I’ll tell what the cop should have done: take the guy down without hesitation. Or create space. But that’s easy to say in hindsight.
It happened so fast. It often does. I’d like to think otherwise, but I probably would have been shot.
My sergeant’s words come to mind: “Never arrest alone.” Words to live by.
On 26 Feb, 2016, on her very first shift and just 1 day after being sworn in, Ashley Guidon of the Prince William County (VA) Police Department was killed. R.I.P.
In honor of Ashley, police are posting their rookie photo.
Ashley and two other officers were shot while responding to a domestic-related call. The killed murdered his wife and shot the officers as they approached his home. The suspect was arrested and uninjured.
Ashley is the 12th officer to be shot and killed this year. It is March 1st. Last year 39 officers where shot in killed.
I lived to tell the tale. Here are my notes from April 16, 2000, my first day of field training:
Not too nervous about starting, strangely enough. But there are not many jobs where your mortality come to mind before starting. I assume I will live, though I didn’t like the palm reading I got last night from J., A’s friend, telling me I wouldn’t live too long and would die in some sort of event.
I was told at one of the first calls we were backing up, “Let me tell you something, junior, you don’t have to carry your stick to every call. You have to, well, prioritize. Big fight on the corner, bring the stick…” I still want to carry it with me all the time so it’s habit. Let’s see if I can resist the peer pressure. [Ed note: I did. I loved my stick stick. Still do, in fact. And I think because of that, I never had to hit anybody with it.]
In Sector Three, they all had their sticks and hats. We [Sector 2 day work] had neither.
My FTO [who was kind of a dick to me] wasn’t there. Went out with [C.S.].
“If you go out looking for arrests, you’ll get complaints.”
“Man, I think they should just build a fucking wall around the Eastern District and let them fight it out.”
Q: Did you think that coming in here or is that me in three years?
A: “I think a little differently than some. You get to murder and nobody sees anything. I think if I were shot, I’d like somebody to say something. If they don’t want to be policed, fuck ’em.”
I do feel a lot safer having gone through the academy as opposed to just doing ride-alongs as a researcher. These streets aren’t Disneyland.
Interesting twist of racial profiling: a lot of it happens in our district, but it’s only of white people. White folks looking for drugs (we assume) being told, “you got no business here. Get out of this neighborhood!”
[C.S.] is a good example of some problems. He’s a bit burnt out, and knows he’s not accomplishing much at all. But he doesn’t think there is a solution.
Two dumb looking white guys, but more in a dumpy intellectual rather than mutant way, were arrested for coke possession, driving without a license. Both Chris and I were asked, “do you want a summons?” No, I said.
After work: ate with T., W., S., and W. [all from my academy class]
S. said his gun was drawn and he really was hoping there was somebody behind the door they were searching: “I had my finger on the trigger, and I was just praying there was somebody there with a gun!” Why does he want to shoot people? I was talking with W. about it on the way home. W. said, “No, he wasn’t joking.”
Soon after I left, S. transferred to a department in New Jersey. Last I heard, and I might be wrong, but I think he stuck a fork or something in an electrical socket and hurt himself.
Eight cops have been shot and killed this month. And February, 2016, ain’t even half over. Already, on my social media stream, I see my cop friends blaming Obama.
Well, you must remember December, 2003 when seven cops were shot and killed? Republican George W Bush was president. August of that year? Nine cops were shot and killed. April? Ten cops shot and killed.
Or maybe it was better when Reagan was president and this country “was great”? In July, 1982, eight cops were shot and killed. August: ten. September: eleven. October: eight.
Ronald Reagan? 37 cops shot and killed in four months!
Under the Obama administration, you have to go back to May of last year to get 37 cops shot and killed. (That’s nine months, for those lacking in certain skills.)
Do I think the president is to be blamed for dead cops? No. And that’s my point. But maybe you just hate Obama so much that you don’t remember any of that. That’s fine. Honestly, I had to look up those old figures. But you conservative Obama-hating motherf*ckers said you’d “never forget.” But you have.
If you want to judge presidents by the number of cops shot and killed, Obama has been the most pro-cop president ever. And if your conservative ideology is more important to you than dead cops? Well, then, fuck you.
Does all the talk about cops being too quick to shoot people “for no reason” have an effect? (A “Ferguson Effect”?) I don’t know. But it might have been in the back of the mind of 14-year police veteran Deputy Derek Geer. Just two days ago Geer tried to tase an armed 17-year-old boy. For his less-lethal efforts, Geer was killed. He leaves behind a wife and two children, ages 13 and 11.
Geer was the second cop this week to be shot and killed in a situation where police brought a taser to a gunfight. The first officer killed after using using leth-lethal force was Sergeant Jason Goodding. He and his partner recognized a man with an outstanding warrant. The wanted man resisted arrest, was tasered, and then shot Goodding three times. The other officer then shot and killed the subject. If only the cops had shot the wanted man a few seconds earlier…. Then people would be calling for “justice” for the criminal.
Update: While writing a post about two killed officers, two other officers were killed. Both were shot and killed by a 67-year-old wanted man. Together these Harford County Sheriff’s deputies had 46 years experience.
Officer Jesse Hartnett is lucky to be alive. And bad-ass for returning fire and hitting the wanna-be killer. From ABC:
“I just have to tell you, when you look at the video – we have video that captured all of this – it’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” said Ross. “This guy tried to execute the police officer. It’s amazing he’s alive.”
The moments immediately following the shooting were also captured in a dramatic recording of police radio calls obtained by Action News overnight.
“I’m shot! I’m bleeding heavily!” Hartnett was heard saying.
The bad guy said he was doing it in the name of Islam. His mother said:
He had been hearing voices recently and that family asked him to get help. She also said her son felt targeted by police and described him as a devout Muslim.
…
“Last March, Archer pleaded guilty to firearms and assault charges stemming from a 2012 case, but was released and placed on probation, court records show. His criminal record includes domestic violence and a traffic and forgery case.