By Connecticut Catholic Corner
I am not one of them. Apparently I have a much longer memory than others.
CNN has created a scare propaganda video to make the public
think our police force are “over armed” with too much fire power because of the
1033 program (you’ll see mentioned in the CNN video here) which allows the Pentagon
to relocate weapons to local police forces.
This program was first created for the ‘war on drugs’, but soon after it
was expanded when this nation (oh how forgetful we are) saw firsthand why our police
MUST have these weapons.
I can’t possibly be the only one to remember the horrors of February 28, 1997 when two gun men robbed a bank in North Hollywood armed to the teeth with illegal military weapons, who then walked out of the bank and began to
“prey spray” (shoot anything that moves) the streets of California.
The police force were out gunned- totally. Their guns .9mm hand guns could not penetrate the
military grade armor the bank robbers were wearing.
The gun men on the other hand had illegal military weapons with
ammunition that pierced standard police Kevlar vests and shot threw concrete walls “like
butter”.
Out gunned and out armored.
Out gunned and out armored.
Police and civilians were shot and bleeding in the streets
while the gun men walked spraying bullets in every direction completely unfazed
by the police bullets that didn’t harm them.
Police officers RAN into gun
shops up and down the street to BORROW weapons and ammo from gun store owners that could take down
these ruthless gun men- all because the police were not armed to face such
opponents. They were out gunned- not
unlike the Kurds in Iraq facing ISIS today and begging the U.S. to give them weapons.
Take a moment to remember February 28, 1997 in North
Hollywood California and think about how different it might have been if the
police had been better equipped with military weapons…
With police down, the S.W.A.T team was called in…they
arrived 18 minutes after the second officer was down.
Now the battle was even.
The police with the help of military weapons finally ended
the bloody street battle against a mere TWO MEN who for a time had out gunned
them.
Now jump to today… we’ve got more threats coming at us than
back in the 1990’s- not just from ISIS promising to raise their Islamic State
flag at the White House, but also from our own home grown terrorist who ARE as
well armed at military soldiers.
You have to be a COMPLETE IDIOT to oppose our local police
not having access to the BEST weapons available to them.
These men and women kiss their family’s goodbye each day and
go off to work not knowing if they will return.
They knowingly and willingly put their lives on the line EVERY DAY to
protect and serve their towns and cities.
They deserve the BEST our country can offer them, so they are NEVER
AGAIN out gunned in the face of such evil. So they can return home to their families in one piece.
I am guessing the families of all the brave officers in North Hollywood on February 28, 1997 would have supported their loved ones having the proper equipment to better defend themselves and other innocents that day.
Well 'that day' will happen again.
When its YOUR ASS being shot at you see things a bit differently.
When "that day" comes- and it will come... you'll wish for all the protection in the world to keep you and your loved ones safe- lets just hope our police are still properly equipped to keep us all alive.
Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department's top brass told FoxNews.com.
“The Assistant (Police) Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” said the insider. “He was beaten very severely.”
According to the well-placed source, Wilson was coming off another case in the neighborhood on Aug. 9 when he ordered Michael Brown and his friend Dorain Johnson to stop walking in the middle of the road because they were obstructing traffic. However, the confrontation quickly escalated into physical violence, the source said.
“They ignored him and the officer started to get out of the car to tell them to move," the source said. "They shoved him right back in, that’s when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating Officer Wilson in the head and the face."
The source claims that there is "solid proof" that there was a struggle between Brown and Wilson for the policeman’s firearm, resulting in the gun going off – although it still remains unclear at this stage who pulled the trigger. Brown started to walk away according to the account, prompting Wilson to draw his gun and order him to freeze. Brown, the source said, raised his hands in the air, and turned around saying, "What, you're going to shoot me?"
At that point, the source told FoxNews.com, the 6-foot-4, 292-pound Brown charged Wilson, prompting the officer to fire at least six shots at him, including the fatal bullet that penetrated the top of Brown's skull, according to an independent autopsy conducted at the request of Brown's family.
Wilson suffered a fractured eye socket in the fracas, and was left dazed by the initial confrontation, the source said. He is now "traumatized, scared for his life and his family, injured and terrified" that a grand jury, which began hearing evidence on Wednesday, will "make some kind of example out of him," the source said.
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I do tend to believe the axiom that absolute power corrupts absolutely and I do not think the militarization of the police is a good idea...I do believe there should be access for extreme cases such as what happened in 1997...I have a natural distrust of them probably because of what happened to me in my own experiences...but I think I need to blog about this too, haha :)
ReplyDeleteHaving been a devoted follower of your blog for a very long time now, I have always held you in great respect and esteem as it regards your knowledge and analysis of the current state of the Church and our Catholic Faith. Over the years I have often found your sentiments, which you articulate so effectively, in complete congruence with my own. As it concerns the Church, your informative and in-depth commentary has proven to be a tremendous inspiration to me personally, and to others in my family. That, I suppose, is why I read your words in this posting with utter shock, angst and amazement, for they are so out of character with your usually rational, sound, factual and logical columns about various subjects relating to our Faith. I have never responded or commented on any subject heretofore, but I cannot sit and allow this particular posting to go unremarked by me.
ReplyDeleteI am supremely appalled at your highly uncharitable and un-Catholic comments regarding the African American teenager who was murdered in cold blood by an out-of-control police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. While I do not condone, justify, excuse nor sanction his ALLEGED criminal behavior (if indeed it is proven that the person shown in the security footage is actually him…I’m not totally convinced at this point that it is) I don’t believe being a “bully” merits a death sentence. I’m not aware that just “roughing up” someone is a capital offense in these United States…at least not yet. Many young teenage males of ALL races, from ALL communities, and during ALL times in history, have bullied others and committed petty theft….since time immemorial. And yet did not pay for it with their lives. There was a time in this country that boys did things like that almost as a rite of passage…good Catholic boys from good Catholic homes, attending good Catholic schools….sure, it was wrong, but NO ONE WAS HURT, nor were the boys murdered for it.
You rant and rave about police being outgunned by thugs and then speak in the same breath of Michael Brown as if he were armed to the teeth like a Special Ops Commando and offered lethal resistance to the cops who are responsible for his cruel, bloody and inexcusable death. Tell us….WHAT WEAPON DID HE HAVE IN HIS HAND OR ON HIS PERSON, WHO FOUND IT AND WHERE WAS IT FOUND? Because, in every report and accounting of the event that has been made public, even that of the Ferguson Police Department itself, HE WAS TOTALLY UNARMED!!!.... and actual eye witnesses of the murder ALL agree that the kid had surrendered with his weaponless HANDS IN THE AIR.
So your diatribe about thugs outgunning the police does not have any place in a discussion regarding the way or reason for the manner in which the Ferguson officer handled this incident. You have created a totally false “Straw Man” premise, which is absurd and ridiculously out of context in this case. Again….MICHAEL WAS UNARMED.
Yet you have the temerity to disparage the kid, whom you know NOTHING about, and you gleefully slur the dead by calling him a “bullying disgusting thug.” No, you are the disgusting one here, and don’t come with the false allegation that I’m not a supporter of Law-Enforcement, because I have several family members serving with great honor in a number of Law-Enforcement agencies at every level, FBI, State Police and local Police. We are a very old and proud multi-generation military and Law-Enforcement family and I myself served in the Marine Corp during Viet Nam. Two of my sons are in Law-Enforcement, one in the FBI and another as an Asst. Chief in a local police department. Both are decorated Veterans who served in the military. So I know and appreciate those who place their lives on the line EVERYDAY to protect us, our property and our Freedom.
ReplyDeleteBut it is officers like that one who murdered that kid in Ferguson AND people like you, who have radical, fanatical and uninformed mind-sets about the need for some type of fantasized, unrealistic, military-style “law and order” jack boot, Nazi-like society, who make it horrible for the good, just and honorable members of our Law-Enforcement community, who bravely serve with compassion and fairness…..professional men and women of integrity, who would NEVER, EVER shoot an unarmed kid with his hands raised in the air surrendering in the streets this way and attempt to cover it up or remain anonymous….but who reach out to our youth and make every effort to redeem them and guide them onto the right pathway for a better life.
YOU ARE WRONG…wrong about this incident, wrong about the relevance to this shooting of the state of military-style weaponry in the hands of police, and wrong to speak so uncharitably about this kid, who did NOT deserve to be shot down in the street like some rabid, ravenous dog….. and no true son or daughter of the Church, who is spiritually close to Our Lady of Mercy, Mother and Protector of all children of the world, could think that he did.
Pray that you will never have to receive the news of the slaughter of your child the way Michael’s mother did. Think of how you would feel if it were your innocent loved one who was coldly and wrongly slain in the middle of the street by a cop, with their blood obscenely spread like mop water on the pavement…..because, to use your OWN words….. “When it’s your (loved one’s) $@#% being shot at you see things differently.”
Thank you all for sharing you views.
ReplyDeleteI stand by my views 100%.
To further my views, I give a link to a news article and news video showing that the OFFICER was attacked and beaten by Michael Brown (whom I called "a thug").
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/20/missouri-cop-was-badly-beaten-before-shooting-michael-brown-says-source/
I will ALWAYS give the benefit of the doubt to the POLICE FIRST, that's just how I roll. I know there can be "bad" police, but I do NOT believe that is the case here and I believe the investigation will prove the officer innocent.
Watch the news video and read the report, Michael Brown BEAT UP the police officer and was stopped when the officer used his gun to DEFEND himself.
My opinions remain.
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner