WOW,  Here We Go Again !

Another black youth has been shot and killed by police doing their job and supposedly protecting society from a dangerously armed individual.

This time the young man supposedly had some mental problems and was running around with a couple of knives in his possession and the officers felt threatened and concerned for the safety of others in the area.

Again, they were within their legal boundary but I have to ask what ever happened to just using enough force to control the situation. Did they have to take his life? I'm a little premature in asking this as we don't even know what took place but I see an area that needs to be addressed with the deaths of all these subjects when it appears to me that some of them could have been stopped by 

other less fatal means.

Lets hope that this was justified and that maybe the powers that be in law enforcement can change their approach to these types of confrontations to give us a better outcome without endangering themselves or anyone else.

Prayers to all involved, Darrell

MY View, The Trial, 

Well it's 10;20 pm and we are still waiting. The verdict is "NOT GUILTY" !  I sure hope that the

 family of the deceased can understand what Terrence did to bring this about. It wasn't because he was a bad guy it was because of his action when confronted by a law enforcement officer doing her duty. If people would just learn from this and see how senseless this was because of someone being under the influence of a substance that probably caused him to not even realize the police were there.

Now we will see whether sane heads will prevail and let the protests be non violent rather than like the last big outcry, and let use all reflect on this and strive to understand and work to make it better for everyone .

Lets all Pray ! 

My view, what is the cause of the problem?

So, what do I think is the cause is of all this disrespect for the law?

We all need to be taught to be responsible for our actions and we need that taught at a very early age.

This is as hard to teach as it is hard to learn and an awful lot of parents give up way short of the goal and this gets translated into generation after generation of children growing into adulthood and never having to pay for their mistakes.

By not having to pay for your mistakes you loose the ability to rationally asses the end result and make an intelligent decision to not do something that may cause others harm or endanger themselves.

There are other factors that drive people to do wrong, but by far, if most would have been taught early to weigh the worst case ending against the pleasure of doing whatever, they would realize most times it isn't worth it.

Unfortunately it has progressed for several generations and involves so many people that we will never be able to correct it so we will just have to live with the criminal element in our lives and hope our law enforcement can keep up without over reaching their authority.   

As an aside I do feel that there are some officers who could stand training in people skills and there are some people who could stand some training in proper interaction with police. If we can  get that done we could go a long way to solving the understanding gap between the factions.

As always, stay aware and safe.

My View on Concealed Carry,

I like the fact that there are lots of people in my state walking around armed.  It causes some would be terrorists to think a long time about trying to create havoc here as they may get shot before they do much harm.

However, from my experience being armed in any society is a huge responsibility that a lot of people don't really understand. Just take Betty Shelby's problems now. She may face years in prison for doing her duty as a law enforcement officer with some immunity from prosecution because she is police, but an average citizen does not have that on their side.

As all who have taken the coarse know, you can only use enough force to defuse the threat and you will have to prove beyond a doubt that was your only choice. Plus for anyone to be able to use the weapon after they pull it is a mental place we all have to get before we are confronted by a would be criminal bent on inflicting great bodily harm or death upon us.  Any hesitation could mean you loose your weapon and it may be used against you or others.  This being paramount in a police officers mind and should also be in anyone's mind if they want to carry.

 For those who can't get their head around this fact in order to be effective in an encounter with a criminal but still would like to have some protection if this should occur, I would recommend taking a self defense coarse, arming yourself with pepper spray and/or stun gun and learn to be very vigilant of your surroundings, travel in groups if out at night or going to a strange place and use common sense about your person and belongings.

Please stay safe,   Darrell 

Securing our lives

My Views on Security,

I think we all remember the husband and wife in California that was involved in killing several people in a bar and at that time I remember the commentator asking if anything could have prevented it as the person was seemingly a non violent person with no outward signs of conflicting views of the general way of American life.

We later found that he was quite possibly radicalized by his wife and wanted to kill as many "infidels" as he could in the name of his belief system.

It is troubling to say the least, that Americans can't live in our homeland without people of another belief system feel they have to come here and bring fear and death to us.

I'm sure they feel they are getting back at us for the killing they feel we are performing on the various parts of the Middle East that we have tried to help in our way of thinking [right or wrong], and that should probably be fodder for another post. 

Anyway, back to the subject of could this be averted ?   Short answer=  YES

It's sad but I believe that all establishments that serve alcohol or anywhere that diverse people congregate where there is a feeling that security needs to be present, there should be a metal detector at the door to at least scan for metal weapons. This won't stop the most determined of the bad guys but in the California case he would have known from casing the place that he would not be able to get in the front door, therefore would have most likely picked another target.

Unfortunately,at this point, that is about all we can hope for, securing our own until we can come up with better ways to vet foreign individuals and U S citizens with views of destroying our heritage that other brave individuals [our servicemen and women] have fought and died for, and arrest, detain and deport or incarcerate them. 

In the mean time we should all stay vigilant of our surroundings when in public, put down the phone and be aware of the people around you. If you look like you are paying attention a would be mugger or purse snatcher will think twice about approaching you and hopefully you will have a blessed day. 

As always, Your comments are welcome and solicited,  Darrell

My view on our police

My Views,

In all but one of the last 6 or so officer involved deaths of a suspect the underlying problem I see is the suspect resisted arrest and caused his own death.

Perhaps there needs to be an explanation of what an officer is charged with doing when confronting an individual so that the general public understands how they should react if or when they are confronted with some kind of involvement with any law enforcement officer.

 There are several types of first contact and they don't always mean arrest, BUT, when the officer advises he is placing you under arrest he feels as if you exhibit something to suspect you may be or are planing to commit some type of crime or breach of law that needs to be investigated further.

Traffic stops allow the officer to run your tag and check your registration to determine if you have outstanding warrants which would cause an arrest or he saw you break a traffic law and has stopped you to issue a ticket to appear. This doesn't have to end in an arrest unless a record check warrants it.

But in that event don't make it worse by adding a felony to the charge by resisting arrest.

If an officer is responding to a call his first order off business is get control of the situation. If you are armed or if you are acting violent he will have to place you under arrest at least until he finds out if you or anyone else are a danger to anyone and at that time you may be released but again don't resist and get an automatic felony charge added to your situation.

Remember one thing, If you resist you are committing a felony in front of a law enforcement officer and leaves the officer with no choice but to place you under arrest and he can use as much force as is needed to accomplish that task including the use of deadly force. Couple that with the fact that he has to protect his weapon at all times and you can see most officers are not out to kill anyone and don't even want to have an altercation with anyone, but just have a very hard job to do while staying safe protecting the general safety of the people they serve.

I also know that there are some LEO's [Law Enforcement Officers] who have been on the force a long time and have had to deal with the dregs of society for so long that they get pretty hard core and don't have a lot of tolerance for the habitual criminal and some times have trouble with even a first time law breaker but unfortunately that kind of attitude comes with the territory, you just get to where you feel that everyone is lying  and are trying to get something over on you and that gives them some emotional baggage to live with that some times stays with them all their lives.    

 In closing I would just remind everyone that if you have to deal with an arrest DO NOT resist! Go with the flow and call an attorney to handle your case in court because very few people have a good outcome from that kind of altercation with the law.