Cops

Professional Negligence

Imagine that a man’s truck with half a dozen guns inside of it is stolen. The man uses the “Find My Phone” app to locate his phone, which is presumably still in the stolen truck. The app tells him that his phone is somewhere within a 4 block radius of a location, so he drove around the area in a rented car and somehow came to the conclusion that his phone, and presumably his stolen guns and truck, were located in a woman’s garage.

The cop assigned to the case somehow bought into this hunch, secured a warrant, and performed a SWAT raid of the house. The resident of the house, a 77 year old woman, opened her door to an armed and armored SWAT team who handcuffed her and placed her in the back of a patrol car, leaving her in there for hours without food, water, or her medication. The search, which lasted for several hours, didn’t turn up a truck, a cell phone, or any guns. In fact, there was no evidence of any criminal activity found there at all. The entire incident happened in Denver.

The woman has filed a lawsuit against the police (pdf alert), as she rightly should have. A search warrant is only supposed to be issued on “probable cause” that evidence of a crime is located on the property to be searched. The circle drawn by “find my phone” is an approximate location based upon the cell tower that the phone is connected to. In this case, the circle was four blocks wide and covered six different properties. That isn’t an indication that HER house was the one where the phone was. It isn’t even an indication that the phone is located within that circle.

The lawsuit alleges that the detective failed to disclose his inexperience using the “Find My” app, failed to explain how the ‘Find My’ app works, identify what technology it uses to produce its results, or establish that the app was working correctly. Going only on a screenshot from the “Find My” app that pointed to Johnson’s home, the search warrant was approved.

The police damaged the woman’s home by breaking her garage door and climbing atop her new dining room chairs to break holes into her ceiling, they also damaged irreplaceable collectables in the home. The detective then told the elderly woman on the day of the raid that the Denver police would pay nothing to cover any of these damages.

People need to have a belief that the police are not just another criminal street gang. The more I interact with and see how police work, the more I come to believe that we would be better without them. I have only called them a few times, and each time they did nothing more than write a report. It was a waste of time.

I have said before: the police need to clean up their ranks. I don’t think you can, because I believe that the bad cops far outnumber the good ones. The police have become just another group of criminals who prey on the people in this nation who actually produce wealth. They are a street gang with badges and qualified immunity.

By Divemedic, ago

It Gets Worse

On the Brevard county deputy ND homicide. He pointed the gun at the other deputy and pulled the trigger. When it didn’t go bang, he racked the slide and did it again. The second time he pulled the trigger, the pistol functioned as designed.

One thing that makes it worse is what the Sheriff got from the entire event:

he still believed the firearm was unloaded but should have known the magazine containing ammunition was possibly in the firearm by the weight of the gun,

Just like the Baldwin shooting, the shooter in this case deserves to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I would also suggest that the entire Sheriff’s department be forced to undergo a 4 hour firearm safety refresher course. This incident is a sure sign that training is lacking and attention to firearm safety is not being taken seriously.

By Divemedic, ago

Only Ones

Another case proving how police officers are more trained than us in the handling of weapons. One Brevard county deputy shot and killed another, his roommate, when he pointed his pistol at him and pulled the trigger. He claimed that he thought it was “unloaded.” Fucking dumbass. What the fuck passes for police firearm training in Brevard county? Apparently, they haven’t heard of the four rules.

  1. Treat all guns as if they are always loaded.
  2. Don’t point a gun at anything you aren’t willing to destroy
  3. Don’t put your finger on the trigger until ready to shoot.
  4. Know what your target is, and what is behind it.

You can get away with violating one, maybe even two. Unintentionally shooting someone requires that you violate at least three of them at the same time. This is no different than the Baldwin shooting.

I have had a negligent discharge. Two, in fact.

One of them was when I was dry firing a handgun. I had done it for a bit, then loaded it. In a moment of stupidity, I again pulled the trigger and shot my dresser. I was 19 years old at the time.

The second came while I was at the range. I pulled the trigger on a Smith and Wesson 4506, and nothing happened. The hammer never even fell. Keeping the firearm (mostly) pointed down range, I looked at it as I pulled the trigger again. This time, it fired and blew a hole in the ceiling of the pistol range. I was 21 at the time.

Note that, even though there was a negligent discharge, no one was hurt. Why? Because I am not a complete dumbass and wasn’t pointing it at another person. That was a long time ago, when Reagan was still President. I learned my lessons.

The worst part of all of this is that we gun owners will see this “gun death” used as an example on why gun rights should be taken from us while we hear about how cops should be the only ones trusted to have guns.

By Divemedic, ago

Bad Apple, again

A rookie cop is answering a disturbance call at a local McDonald’s. In the parking lot, he sees a car unrelated to the call that looks like one that had fled from him the day before for having the wrong plates attached to the car. Having never seen My Cousin Vinny and realizing that you can mistake a metallic mint green 64 Skylark with a 63 Tempest, he decided that running the tag to confirm it was the same car was silly, and figured that he would just walk over to this car and demand that the driver step out of the car.

Since there was obviously no reasonable suspicion that the driver had committed a crime, much less probably committed a crime, what came next was an entirely illegal stop. Let’s see what happened next:

So he dumped 10 shots into a car with a 17 year old in the driver’s seat. Now there are many who will jump in and say that the kid should have complied. Here is the issue- the entire stop was illegal to begin with. It doesn’t matter what the kid did or didn’t do.

Multiple bullets struck the teen, who stopped his car just down the road. He was transported to the hospital and is now on life support. He is not expected to live. Get this- the cops arrested the kid for evading detention with a vehicle and assault on a peace officer. The local prosecutor, realizing that this was a shitty case, refused to prosecute.

The San Antonio cops fired this cop immediately, which they can do because he is still in his probationary period. My guess is that this kid’s family has got a very large paycheck coming. I’m sure that they would rather have their child back.

Perhaps if this kid had been armed with an AR-15, the cops would have stood around for an hour and a half before deciding what to do. This was a cop who was pissed that a ‘bad guy’ got away, and was looking for a little cop revenge. Instead, the cop lost his job and has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a police official. When this kid dies, and he probably will, the cop will be facing a murder charge.

Here is Donut’s take on the shooting:

By Divemedic, ago

Surprising Restraint

A female cop who safely took cover outside while children were being slaughtered for over an hour in the Uvalde incident was seen on body cam video saying that, if her kid was in there, she would have gone into the school to save him. I guess other people’s kids weren’t important enough to her. She was fired, and rightly so.

Less than three months later, the department quietly rehired her. It wasn’t until the parents of dead kids discovered it that she was re-fired. To the parents of Uvalde, the lesson should be clear: their local politicians and cops don’t give a flying rats ass about them or their children. If some parents in that town don’t start demanding that every, single. cop. in that town be fired, then they and their kids deserve whatever happens to them. The contempt that is evident in the stealth rehiring of this cowardly bitch speaks volumes on how they feel about the children of their town.

What surprises me even more is that some distraught parent of a dead child hasn’t decided on some vengeance. The first kid who was killed is on the shooter. Most of the ones that were killed later? Those all lie at the feet of the cops, and I am surprised at the restraint shown by the parents.

Is it restraint, or herd mentality?

By Divemedic, ago

Cops Stealing PMs

This man sued PA cops because they took his silver coins and bullion. Note that the suit wasn’t dropped because it didn’t have merit. It was dropped because the man just couldn’t do it any longer.

I have a problem with how it all went down:

Because of Schifter’s rambling and vague answers plus a record showing arrests in three states, Conrad sought permission to search the RV.

It was denied due to six dogs in the RV. Asked if he would allow a search were it not for the dogs, he said no.

So no probable cause, they asked to search and were denied. So far, I don’t have a problem.

A search was conducted after Conrad’s drug detection dog had an alert at the front and passenger side of the RV. That is when the cash, bullion, coins and jewelry were discovered.

The entire thing of drug dogs alerting is bullshit. It is long past time for drug dogs to be eliminated as probable cause.

Dogs are very good at reading people. They know that if they give their handler what he wants, they get a reward. If the cop wants the dog to alert on a car, the dog will alert on a car. There was one study that actually supported that, but once the study was published, cops have refused to participate in any more studies unless those studies are being performed by pro-policing organizations.

Cops don’t even keep records of how often dogs alert to drugs and then no drugs are found. The police say:

“There’s been cars that my dog’s hit on… and just because there wasn’t a product in it, doesn’t mean the dog can’t smell it,” says Gunnar Fulmer, a K9 officer with the Walla Walla Police Department. “[The drug odor] gets permeated in clothing, it gets permeated in the headliners in cars.”

The problem here is obvious- even giving the dog the benefit of the doubt, probable cause means that the search is being done because drugs are probably there. What the cop in the above quote is saying is that by alerting, the dog is indicating that drugs may have been there at some time in the past. The dog indicates the odor of drugs, but not the presence of drugs. That isn’t the same thing and shouldn’t be enough to trigger a warrantless search of someone’s property.

Anyhow, back to the story at hand.

The silver was seized and taken to the state police barracks in Milton where Schifter claimed he had bought them periodically over the past several months at Nevada Coin and Jewelry but did not have any receipts.

Contact was made with the manager of the business who said Schifter always paid cash.

A review of receipts that were obtained revealed eight purchases for silver bullion between Oct. 17 and Dec. 19, 2019, totaling $64,904. One was in the name of the woman with him and the others in his.

That should have been the end of it. If they can’t prove that he bought the coins with the results of criminal enterprise in court, that is the end of it.

There were suspicions of money laundering because an ion scan indicated the cash had been in close proximity of high levels of methamphetamine.

We aren’t talking about cash. Where did cash enter this story? Just bad reporting. Are they saying that Schifter had cash on him that tested positive for drug residue? So what, most of the money in the nation does.

This is nothing more than theft. The government is out to steal your possessions. Asset forfeiture is theft. It is unconstitutional, but the courts don’t care about that.

By Divemedic, ago

IRS cops

Check this out. These agents will be going after landscapers, roofers, and others. Not billionaires. How do I know? Here is one job posting, and it is in the “Small Business Self Employed Office of Fraud Enforcement Field Operations” division. They carry guns, ammo, and “no Tasers:” dead or alive, you are coming with me:

I would also say that the way the agent is teaching how to apply handcuffs is not correct, according to how I was taught. You don’t “smack” the handcuffs on, because that is painful for the arrestee. Why be an asshole?

It looks like they are also looking for digital currency tax dodgers.

Interestingly, they refer to tax evasion as “stealing from the government.”

By Divemedic, ago

Most Training EVAR

Osceola County School Resource officers claim to be receiving “the most extensive active-shooter training ever.” Let’s look at that training:

When they become an SRO, they receive 40 hours of training to become certified as SROs. The majority of that 40 hours is spent in crisis-intervention, bully-prevention, childhood development and psychology. What percentage of that is active shooter training? Ten percent? Less? Range time?

This summer, the deputies received another 36 hours of training. They spent a day of this in crisis intervention training, including roleplaying, learning how to listen, and talking to children in crisis. What does that have to do with active shooter training? How much of those 36 hours was range time? Less than 8 hours:

Lopez said all SROs also spent a full day on the firing range, practicing with handguns and long guns.

Look at this picture. They are practicing at a range of less than 10 feet. Zoom in on that target. Not exactly impressive for dealing with guns around lots of non threats, like a school full of kids. Keep in mind that your accuracy during static range time will be much better than during an actual shooter event.

How about the 50 foot rifle practice?

What the actual fuck? My daughter shot better than this when she was 12 years old. Maybe they are better with the shotguns. Let’s see.

Wait a minute. Those aren’t even cops. Those are the armed security guards that Osceola county is using as guardians instead of teachers. They can’t shoot for shit, either. Look at those shooting stances. What is that? 20 feet? Is some minimum wage asshole with a shotgun that he trains with at 20 feet going to rush a shooter to save your kids? Probably not.

Of course, it isn’t like this career donut eating, Farva looking fat ass is going to be rushing anyone without having to take a break, either.

So the average SRO has a total of 76 hours of training in operating in a school, and less training with guns than a barber does in cutting hair. That’s right- in Florida more hours of training are required to be a barber than are required to be a police officer.

What about teachers who are part of the guardian program? Well, aside from the fact that there are NO classroom teachers in Florida who are part of the guardian program, any teacher who would be part of it is required to receive 144 hours of use of force training. Contrast that with police officers. Most cops in Florida get 80 hours or less TOTAL of firearms training,  so even if you count the training they have to become SROs, Osceola SROs have more training than ever- 156 hours, which is only 16 hours more than a guardian, even though most of that time is spent jerking off while on the clock, but guardians can’t be trusted.

By Divemedic, ago

Following Orders

The police and their supporters in the Uvalde shooting have been making a couple of excuses for standing around while children died. The two that I see the most are: “You don’t know how you would react unless you have been faced with the choice of running into a deadly situation,” and the other, “They were following orders to wait.” Let me tell you about those:

I was a firefighter and a paramedic. I can recall a few times that I ran into truly dangerous situations, because not only was it my job to save defenseless people, but because I could not call myself a man while standing there safe as children (or others) were dying.

  • There was the time when we went into a burning house. We entered through the garage. The door that led into the kitchen from the garage was under so much pressure, that it was bowing out towards us. It was outlined in fire, looking like the door into hell.
  • There was the time that I entered an apartment through the front door, following my Lieutenant through a wall of flame, searching for two lost children. Even though it wasn’t safe to do so, we split up to do the search. I found one kid, but knowing he was unable to get out through the wall of fire between us and the door, we took refuge in the bathroom. I put him in the tub and laid on top of him to shield his body with mine.
  • When 9/11 happened, I think every firefighter in the country watched those 343 firefighters enter those towers, many of them *knowing* that the tower was going to collapse. They went in anyway. We all wondered if we would have the same set of HUGE balls that they did. I finally decided that I did, because it was what we all did. every. single. shift.

So I think that I can say that I would have the guts. What about following orders?

I think back to the time when we were called to a house where a woman had gotten a suicide note email from her ex-husband while the kids were there for visitation. We arrived and peeked in the door to see the man’s body hanging by a noose. We were told to wait for the cops. I wasn’t going to do that, so I went in against orders, looking for the kids.

I just couldn’t sit there, knowing that children were in danger while I sat safely outside. It turned out that the kids were at the grandparents’ house. I got a stern talking to for that one, nothing more.

So with that, I feel qualified to speak about this. Those cops? They were cowards. The one that stood outside, trying to get his wife to respond to text messages? If he didn’t go in to at least TRY and save her, he is a pussy. If she lived, I hope that she divorces his cowardly ass and takes his fucking pension in the divorce settlement.

Then there are those who ask how armed teachers would have done any better. The answer to that? The teachers are locked in the classroom with the little mass shooter asshole. They are committed, they have skin in the game. Nothing would be better than watching some mass shooter incel getting his ticket punched by a school librarian carrying a pink .380 Lady Smith.

At the least, this incident shows that we could cut the number of cops in half in this country and it would have no effect on stopping violent criminals.

By Divemedic, ago

I’ve Been Thinking

I asked a couple of days ago why they were making such a big deal about the police not doing their jobs. I was wondering what the end game was, and I think I have it. They are following the Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” and the CIA insurgency manual. If you are unfamiliar with them, I did a three part series on them back in 2020. You can find part one here, part two here, and part three is here.

When an attempted overthrow of a government is in the works, one of the things that needs to happen is a loss of trust in the government’s ability to run things and provide needed services to its citizens. They do this by using violence and mayhem to both make the citizens feel unsafe, and to sabotage infrastructure so that people are crying out for basic services.

Once the people don’t trust the government to do that job any more, they turn to the revolutionaries to do it for them, and the revolutionaries step in and “fix” the problem that they themselves created. I think we are seeing a variation of that. The left already hates the local and state police. Now all they have to do is get the right on board.

American Greatness thinks that this is exactly what is happening to the police, and I can’t say that I disagree with them. That is no way means that I am going to support cops who stand around and arrest parents while children are being murdered, but I see what is happening.

By Divemedic, ago