Thursday Prompt: Campfire

“Thursday Prompts” were something an online writing group I was in would offer as writing exercises. The moderator would post a short “prompt”, and you would write a short story based off that. The only rule was you couldn’t take more than a set amount of time to write it… I don’t remember what the time limit was, but I strained it every time. For this one, the prompt was “Campfire”. I think I had been reading David Drake or someone similar at the time.

___

“You think that’ll keep ’em off us for a while?” Phil asked, slinging a brass casing over the sandbags. The augmented muscles of his combat armor sent the shell one hundred yards away, raising a small doughnut of gray ash when it hit.

Gaelen shivered and sub-vocalized to bring up his suit’s menu. Amber icons scrolled across his helmet display as he quickly flipped through them to SUIT ENVIRONMENTAL. Another flurry of characters brought him to TEMP as he nudged the suit heaters up a couple of notches. “Shit, man, who knows. Maybe a couple of days.” He leaned on the receiver of the pintle-mounted heavy machine gun in front of him, causing the mount servos to chatter slightly as they compensated for the weight. A thin gust of near-arctic wind blew across the blasted plain, carrying a cloud of dark ash with it into the bunker.

Gaelen shivered again, this time with the memory of the assault he had just survived. Who thought the wogs had that many soldiers in this sector? Wave after wave of ebon cloaked figures emerging from the treeline several hundred yards away; seeming to walk across the shimmering tracers that snapped across the grassy field. How many had he himself killed in that frantic hour? Hundreds, certainly; but they kept coming from the trees, along with poorly aimed low-tech mortar rounds and rockets. What sort of idiot sent a wave attack against armor and heavy weapons? But even so, they had damn near made it across through the minefields and over the berm. So many of them, with the same blank expressions; not crying out even when his .52 rounds tore through their light armor and exploded in a pink mist. They just fell, their bodies trampled by the soldiers behind them. If it hadn’t been for the incendiary rounds screaming in from over the horizon, so close that the heat from their plasma flash-baked the outer layer of sandbags to glass, they might have made it into the firebase.

The wind gusted again, keening through the upright supports of the bunker; stirring the smoking, shattered timbers of what had been an observation tower into sullen flame. The faint scent of charred wood, roasted flesh, and the acrid, biting vapor from the incendiaries carried through his suit filters. Phil turned and popped the release lever on the machine gun, sliding the barrel from the receiver and tossing it to the floor with a resounding clang. “Well,” he said, hefting a replacement barrel from the crate at his feet, “At least we’ve got a seat next to the campfire tonight.”

Warning, frustrated author!

I think I’ve wanted to be an author since I was 10. From the first, not well thought out, gore-horror-mystery story idea I traumatized my 3rd grade teacher with; through the sketches for a sci-fi novel; onto college and my early 20s and a lot angsty, edgy werewolf shorts; through to the always unfinished novel; I’ve always had ideas and sketches for stories. Buoyed by Heinlein and Asimov and Bradbury and Niven, I would write in spurts and drabs and dribbles.

For 30 years, never finishing anything to the point of attempting publication. I joined a “Thursday Prompt” writing group, and started to write again; and then real life intervened as it always does, and that fell off as well. At one point I removed all shorts I’d had published on my website, with the idea of packaging them and shopping publishers. I wasn’t sure if anyone would touch them if they were available for free on a website. Obviously, that never went anywhere; and, frankly, a lot of them weren’t saleable in any case.

But now, well… why not. Throw them back up and let them go.

(Really, this is just a warning that there’s frustrated author stories about to flood the ‘blog for the next little bit.)

Law Enforcement is NOT (yet) a Profession

So… If you’re current or former law enforcement and read that title, and are ready to pour vituperation down upon my head, I ask you… Just read to the end. If you chose that career because you believed you could honestly do good for others, then you will give this article some consideration before attacking it.

A profession, sayeth Mirriam-Webster, is… Well, yes, the first three things; but also:

-a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation;

-a principle calling, vocation, or employment;

-the whole body of persons engaged in a calling

It’s the first one that concerns us here. Organizations such as the AMA and ABA identify four characteristics of a profession: 1) A common fund of knowledge 2) Certain standards or qualifications 3) some type of organization, and 4) Standards of conduct.

A Profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public, as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others. 

It is inherent in the definition of a Profession that a code of ethics governs the activities of each Profession.  Such codes require behaviour and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual.  They define and demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues.  Often these codes are enforced by the Profession and are acknowledged and accepted by the community.

-Australian Council of Professions, 2003

The 1996 Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council’s Peace Officer Reference Text- “P.O.R.T.” (the acronyms get out of hand pretty quickly); the manual you received Day 1 in the academy, mentions this definition, and compares it to Law Enforcement. It decides that “The first two characterizations of a professional are clearly evident in law enforcement. However, the last two, organization and clearly defined standards of conduct, are major deficiencies that must be corrected.” It goes on to say that while there may be national private bodies such as the IACP and international training organizations, they are private organizations and represent their own special interests. “but no national body establishes standards of conduct for the profession to the extent that members of the profession must adhere to such requirements”, the PORT concludes; “It is evident that law enforcement has taken the first steps towards professionalization. It is the responsibility of all in the profession to complete the progress.”

Whelp.

I read those words 25 years ago in my academy class, and remember it sparking a bit of debate between the class and the instructor. So, how are we doing now, in 2021? Do we have A common fund of knowledge, Certain standards or qualifications, Some type of organization, and Standards of conduct?

*Puts on green eyeshade visor and licks tip of pencil* Well, let’s just see.

Some type of organization

Well, yeah. It’s a quasi-military rank structure that falls under one governmental body or another. LE has that.

A common fund of knowledge

One thing Law Enforcement does do is share information. Memos and newsletters and bulletins fly back and forth; from state agencies and the FBI, ATF, DEA/EPIC, Homeland Security… Reams of paper of annual statistics, FOUO/LES/SSI memos, bulletins, and updates. Oh yeah, we share info; all the way down to the rural county Sheriff who posts a bulletin about an urban legend he read about on Facebook. LE folds, staples, mutilates, and collates forests worth of knowledge every year. In my own state, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC, pronounced “gyp-stick”… told you the acronyms were getting out of control) has detailed, cross-referenced and thoroughly annotated lesson plans on every topic that could possibly concern law enforcement. Certain specialties, such as accident investigations and forensics, cloak themselves in a scientific aura that sounds impressive but, upon investigation (and not a few Frye tests), turns out to be more attuned to anecdotal evidence than the scientific method.

But… None of them are uniform nationwide. When I went through the academy, it was 9 weeks. In Georgia, it’s now…

A little over 10 weeks. The average number of hours needed to become a mandated officer nationwide is 547…

A little over 13 weeks. And the curricula? Very, very varied. There is no national standard for training. National training groups exist; but they are all private entities… with their own agendas.

Certain standards or qualifications

Again, even more scattered than the last one… each individual agency decides what they need to have; and most of the time, that decision is made based on “what do we need to have at a minimum to keep us from being sued?” Occasionally, state agencies will mandate certain standards… When I started, you didn’t have to qualify with your weapon or have any training on use of deadly force after the Academy.

This didn’t change until 2006. It wasn’t that many years before I went to the academy that you could work for up to a year as a cop before you had to go to the academy to be certified.

And every state is different.

The only requirements you have to fill to keep your certification in Georgia every year are to 1) attend a 1 hour Use of Deadly Force class 2) pass annual firearms qualification and 3) attend 20 hours of advanced or in-service training. The one thing that gets cops year after year is the 20 hour training requirement. Even though I offered in excess of 1,000 training hours a year as the departmental training officer, I had officers every year didn’t get that 20. But hey, no sweat! Yeah, you lost the powers of arrest on January 2 the following year; but all you have to do is make up the training and sign a waiver; and your powers of arrest were reinstated retro-actively! Now it doesn’t matter who you arrested in the meantime; you’re all good!

And every state is different.

Standards of conduct

You already know what I’m going to say here: And every state is different. But actually, every AGENCY is different. Each agency makes their own Standard Operating Procedures (or Suggested Operating Procedures… more on that later). Sure, there are national and state-level accreditation agencies, who certify departments based on what their policies and procedures say: CALEA nationally, and GACLEA in Georgia… but what does that mean?

If you go to their websites, you see vague promises of Staunch Support from Government Officials and Stronger Defense Against Civil Lawsuits if your agency becomes Accredited with CALEA…

But what happens if you don’t; or you lose your accreditation?

Nothing. Except you save $16,125 for agencies with 200-999 officers; which describes every agency I’ve worked for.

Accountability matters, and there is none here.

But, what are the things these accreditation agencies require of a police department before they can be accredited?

Well… on the face of it, they sound good. But in practice, they’re so vague as to be useless. Such as GACLEA Standard 1.10:

The agency shall have Use-of-Force written directives that address the
following:

a. Personnel will only use reasonable force to accomplish lawful
objectives and, when possible, apply de-escalation techniques.

b. Prohibiting the use of choke holds or the use of any technique
restricting the intake of oxygen for the purpose of gaining control of a
subject, except in those situations where the use of deadly force is
allowed by law.

c. When it is objectively reasonable that a subject is in law enforcement’s
full control, any use of force must terminate.

d. The duty and obligation to intervene in order to prevent or stop the
known and apparent use of excessive force by ANY law enforcement
officer, including reporting requirements.

e. Discharging firearms at or from a moving vehicle.

f. The use of warning shots.

See any wiggle room in those? Shit. You could parade all of the entire National Denny’s Gold Customer Award winners through those holes, and that’s pretty wide. How many times have we seen those standards violated, in a very public manner, over the past 4 years?

Let’s look at some that have been in the national conscience lately:

2.1 The agency has a written directive that requires each sworn officer receive
annual training on:

a. legal updates
b. vehicle pursuits
c. authorized forcible stopping techniques
d. bias based profiling
e. search and seizure; and
f. the agency’s Critical Incident Plan.

Whoa, hold on, why does the 06/2021 revision have strikeouts? Do we not care about Bias Based Profiling in Georgia any longer? Maybe it’s a mistake; let’s look at another…

2.2 The agency has a written directive that requires all employees receive
annual training on:

a. off-duty conduct
b. sexual harassment
c. the agency’s policy on citizen complaints/Internal Affairs
d. ethics
e. dealing with the mentally ill or persons with diminished capacity; and
f. the agency’s polices on domestic violence incidents involving
employees of the agency.

Holy shit. That explains a lot, don’t it? And I haven’t mentioned “Suggested” operating procedures yet. You see, that verbiage sounds good on the face… after all, “Standard” operating procedures, with words like “shall” and “must” in them can’t cover every situation a cop might find himself in. He might do the right thing but still get hung on the “technicality” of unbendable SOPs. I sympathize with that…

…but it leads to the untenable practice of “commonly accepted practice” becoming “SOP”. Agencies have been handed a lot of consent decrees based on their “unofficial commonly accepted practices” running afoul of common decency.

There have to be standards. If LEOs are so hung up on imitating the military, then let’s hold them to those standards.

I think we can discount this point, as well. And I haven’t even mentioned that there’s no national standard, and-

Every state is different.

Folks. If you care at all about policing; if you’ve spent hours of sweat and frustration because you believed this was a noble calling, you have to agree with me.

There HAVE to be national standards, in all four areas, that every LE agency conforms to in this country. Otherwise we’ll wake up to headlines about cops committing some atrocity somewhere in the US on a daily basis.

Like we do today.

Law Enforcement is NOT a profession.

But it can be.

Possibly the clumsiest metaphor ever attempted

When I was a rookie cop at my first agency, fresh out of the academy- almost 30 years ago- one of my duties, depending on what shift I was assigned, was to raise and lower the American and Georgia state flags. After a few years they were replaced, and I kept the old ones. I found them last year, buried in a box in the basement. The American flag was given to a Boy Scout troop for proper retirement. The Georgia flag, however, deserves no such respect; as at the time it flew it was the Georgia state seal on a blue field next to- yup. The Confederate battle flag, the stars and bars, the ol’ middle finger to those who died because of racism and who are still dying today. For it, it was combined with a poofer bag of smokeless powder and an electric match as part of a bit of performative theater on the 4th of July, 2020; after I’d about had my fill of “Heritage, not hate” idiots. It didn’t burn up completely; so I tossed the remains under the deck, intending to burn it in the fire pit later on.

Fast forward to almost one year later, and the wind and critters have moved it to the edge of the yard. The grass had been enjoying all the recent rain, and I was cutting by the edge of the deck when the south rose again.

Yup, the end of the flag got sucked under the mower deck and wrapped itself around both blade spindles, stalling out the mower. Sonofabitch. And it was wound tight around those spindles. But it was my fault; I should have finished the job on the flag a long time ago, and had forgotten about it. Back to the carport to laboriously remove the mower deck and flip it over, and hack, slash, burn, and yank bits of confederate flag out from around the shafts. Then re-install and re-level the deck, and good as new.

Rinsing off in the shower later- I cannot work on any piece of machinery, no matter how simple, without getting covered in grease and dirt- I thought about how apropos this situation was. Racism, once burnt and beaten, wasn’t properly disposed of… and it lurked in the background, moving closer to the light, until one day- perhaps emboldened by an orange man- it leaps out and tries to strangle the mower. The mower is only interested in law(n) and order (sorry); but now it’s hopelessly entangled with racism, so tightly wound around its core as to stall the whole mechanism. It ignored the danger, not realizing that the threat would come from it’s cutting edges.

Fixing it is an arduous, dirty, frustrating task, that calls for patience- and dismantling part of the whole machine. But only after the bits that are choking it off are removed can it be re-greased and re-assembled. Had it not been a strong riding mower; had it been the old, clapped-out push mower instead, it might have seized the engine beyond repair. But this is a strong mower. It’s well designed, and it can take- and has- a lot of abuse. It just needs maintenance, a clearing of the detritus- and a wary eye for dangers in the tall grass.

Removing the entangled shreds of racism from law enforcement will take the same patience, hard work, and dirt; and in some cases, dismantling the mechanism and rebuilding. And maybe the machine should be more narrowly focused instead of trying to solve all problems with it. Planting more areas of native wildflowers would reduce the amount that had to be mowed, and would increase the diversity and amount of life in the yard as well. You wouldn’t use the lawnmower to tend to the flowers, of course. There are far better, less destructive tools for that.

And I think I’ve stretched this metaphor to the breaking point.

The excellent tactical training I gave cops is why policing today is such a hot mess

When I was a cop, and I saw that another cop was in the news, I would read the news article with a lot of trepidation. “Oh, geez… what now? It’s hard enough trying to gain the trust of the public, without the fact that every time I turn around, some cop somewhere else is proving the public’s mistrust isn’t unfounded.” And it didn’t help that a lot of the things cops do aren’t very well understood by the public, and a commonplace action gets misinterpreted as something sinister. For example, the practice of raising the hood of your police car if you’re stationary on a hot day and have to leave the car running. There were many times when I’d be blocking a lane of traffic with my car while I worked a vehicle wreck in the middle of a Georgia summer, leaving the car running to power the strobe lights and the AC. If I didn’t raise the hood, the car would start overheating, despite the heavier duty engine cooling that Ford police interceptors had. I saw a picture of this recently, with the caption “Cops raise hoods to block their dash cams, so they won’t get in trouble!”

Sigh.

But…

Maybe…

Just maybe…

The public wouldn’t be so quick to attach nefarious reasons to everything cops do…

If the goddamn cops didn’t keep proving them right.

This past week, we all got to see yet another confirmation that sometimes, the public’s opinion is- and has been for a while- correct. If it seems like there are a lot of cops out there who think they’re part of an occupying army, well… The events that befell Army Lt. Caron Nazario in December in Virginia have once again proven that this assumption is correct.

Lt. Nazario, who is Black and Latino, was driving home from his duty station in a recently purchased vehicle, a black Tahoe with darkly tinted windows. The articles and video I’ve seen show that there isn’t a license plate affixed to the rear; but do state that the tag was visible in the rear window once someone was close enough. And, in fact, this was the reason for the traffic stop that Windsor Virginia police officer Daniel Crocker began on the vehicle. This, in itself, is entirely routine; both the stop, and the tags being inside the car in the back window. I do not know if Virginia issues paper temporary tags to newly purchased cars; but Georgia does, and it was not uncommon to have the temporary tag stolen off of your car- being paper, they are easy to remove- so a lot of people would place the tag in their rear window until their paperwork had reached the tag office for a permanent one.

Officer Crocker calls in the traffic stop and activates his blue lights (the bodycam footage I’ve seen starts shortly after the stop is initiated, but before Nazario pulls over). Nazario continues to drive, at a very slow speed, until he reaches a lighted, public area, where he pulls into a gas station and stops.

Again, none of this so far is unusual. In my time as a mandated officer, I lost count of how many traffic stops like this I made for no tag visible; in a lot of those cases, I would see the tag in the window (usually it fell over) when I approached the car. Then it would just be a quick chat with the driver- “I stopped you because I couldn’t see a license plate, but I now see it in the rear deck. When you get home, maybe put a little piece of tape on it so it doesn’t fall down.” I also stopped hundreds of cars with dark window tint- a violation in Georgia at the time, but I never wrote a ticket for it, not even when working a traffic unit. I never stopped a car on suspicion of illegal window tint; I was never that desperate to write a ticket. And I’ve had many cars continue very slowly to a safe space to pull over, something I appreciated. There were always stories in the news about some guy putting blue lights in his car and pulling people over; not that common but common enough to make people think twice about pulling over for a slick-top car. Mostly, I appreciated it because there’s nothing quite like the pucker you get when a car passes a foot from your ass at 70mph when you’re talking to the driver of the car you just pulled over that isn’t over far enough.

So, by all rights, this would have been a routine traffic stop. (And if you, dear reader, are about to pounce on me over my use of “routine traffic stop”, just hold your water; we’re going to talk about that phrase, and how it’s really at the heart of this issue.)

So, how did this stop go wrong? And when?

It went wrong as soon as the video starts.

The footage is from Officer Joe Guiterez’ body camera, as he follows behind Crocker. Crocker can be heard over the radio calling out the chase, calmly and professionally, noting speeds- 18 mph- and lane position. As would be standard after a vehicle finally stops after a chase, both Officers begin the “Felony Stop” procedure; a method of controlling a situation so all occupants of the car can be removed and secured, one by one, minimizing the risks to the Officers.

Can you see in that paragraph where things went wrong?

It went wrong the moment this stop became a “chase”.

There’s always a moment of tension when you turn on the strobes to pull over a car. Is this guy gonna take off? Is there something I don’t know about the driver that would make him want to run from the cops, when all I want to do is see if he has a tag or not? Did he just rob a bank? Am I about to get in a shootout?

Wow, that sounded kind of… paranoid. More on that later, too.

So, when the car didn’t immediately pull over, sure, there’s going to be some concern. I’d let Dispatch know the car hasn’t pulled over yet, but… 18 miles per hour? He’s not running… And as he started to move over and pull into a well lighted public area, well, I know he’s just looking for a safe spot. I’ve even had drivers call 911 to tell the dispatcher to let the officer know they’re going to a safe spot.

The video I’ve seen doesn’t start right at the beginning of the stop, so I can’t hear what Crocker says when the car doesn’t pull over immediately, but I’m betting the words he used were “vehicle is failing to yield”, which immediately has connotations to anyone hearing it on the radio that there’s about to be chase… Or, “10-80”, which was the formal declaration that this is a chase.

I don’t know what was said. I’m sure more will come out as Nazario’s lawsuit proceeds. But what I did see suggests that these officers already considered it a chase, to be concluded by a felony stop, which is what then happened.

A typical “Felony Stop” involves the police stopping two vehicles side by side behind the suspect vehicle, illuminating it with headlights, takedown lights, spotlights. One officer is the cover, one is the contact. Cover officer only gives the commands to prevent confusion– hands out the window, left hand to reach in and turn off the ignition, then drop the keys outside the window, open door with the outside handle, step out, turn around with hands raised (raises shirt hem above the waistline to see if there’s weapons), back up to the sound of my voice, stop, down on both knees, go prone, arms out like an airplane… contact officer moves to handcuff while cover officer covers the car at gunpoint. All people in the car are removed this way and handcuffed; then the car is searched for other occupants. As its name implies, it’s used when the occupants of the car are expected to be armed and expected to fight the cops if given the chance. It’s a high-risk, armed encounter; and hearing the words “Felony stop” immediately puts everyone into a heightend state of tension.

In other words, they’re not usually done on a misdemeanor traffic stop, even with the flags of the car not stopping immediately and the tint making it very difficult to see inside. I’ve yet to see window tint so dark that a spotlight at the side of the car didn’t illuminate the interior, and two officers can “L” the car if lighting conditions aren’t right.

So, that’s the setup- this minor traffic violation has now turned into a dangerous felony stop.

And here’s where this smoldering dumpster-fire of a traffic stop ignites: When Officer Guiterrez gets his jackboots rustled.

Multiple commands to open the door, open the door and step out, open the door by Crocker, who has assumed the role of cover. I can almost see him thinking “The Book says he should be getting out now, but he’s not… Why isn’t this working?”

Then Guiterrez loses his patience and yells, full throated, “GET OUT OF THE CAR! NOW!”

You can see this startle Crocker. Startles him so much that he shifts his grip on his gun, moving from a perfectly serviceable modified Weaver, though he’s leaning back too much, into a… well, I don’t think there’s a name for it, other than “railroad tracks”… because with his left thumb riding across his right hand, and directly behind the slide of the Glock, if he fires that gun, the slide will cut across his thumb, leaving parallel cuts in the skin– railroad tracks. It’s not something you normally do more than once on the range, because it’s a very painful lesson. Crocker also yells, much more forcefully, “open the door and get out of the car!”

There might have been a chance to salvage this stop before Guiterrez lost his patience. A chance to slow down just a step, figure out what’s really going on, and de-escalate. But once Guiterrez started controlling the scene, Crocker mimicked his actions and escalated as well. Crocker’s actions make me believe he’s more inexperienced than Guiterrez.

Guiterrez now moves to the left of the vehicle, around some gas pumps, using “meh” cover (not really cover, more concealment), and Crocker follows, keeping to the rear. We can now more clearly hear Nazario asking “What’s going on? What’s happening?” as the commands to exit continue. And then Guiterrez shouts the real reason behind his seemingly irrational anger- “You know what, I’m a veteran too! I learned how to OBEY!”

That’s about as close as you can get to “Respect mah AUTHORITAAAAH!” without actually being Eric Cartman.

OK. This will not end well. From the very start, this routine traffic stop was doomed to fail; doomed by the very training that was theoretically designed to prevent injury and violence.

To the officer, that is.

(Side note: There has been a lot of Twitter fury directed at Guiterrez saying “You about to ride the lightning, son!”, but for the wrong reason. It is another indicator of his bull cop tactics and attitude, yes; but most people took it to mean Nazario is about to be executed in an electric chair. It is also a common cop term for someone getting Tasered… and, in fact, Guiterrez holsters his Glock and unholsters his Taser after saying it. Still a clue into Guiterrez’s mindset, but not an indication of immediate execution. Context is important.)

The rest of the video continues as we’d expect- Nazario doesn’t exit until after he’s pepper sprayed repeatedly by Guiterrez, doesn’t get immediately to the ground and is kicked down prone. Nazario doesn’t make any violent or sudden gestures, however, and genuinely seems afraid and confused; especially after being pepper sprayed. Having been pepper sprayed many, many times myself, I can say that this is a completely understandable reaction.

Notable is Crocker attempting to open Nazario’s door after pleading for Nazario to exit- “Sir! Just… get out of the car! Work with us, and we’ll talk with you!” Textbook Academy presentation. He, at least, realizes something’s wrong and is trying, a smidge, to de-escalate. But Guiterrez orders him aside and begins spraying OC.

(Also notable is Guiterrez coughing after spraying Nazario… When you spray OC, it leaves a cloud of vapor and droplets that get on everyone nearby. You can even see it hit the lens of his bodycam. But, instead of the discomfort reminding him that he’s going too far, he probably wore it as a badge of honor.)

I haven’t mentioned possible deeper-rooted reasons for the cop’s reactions; but it can’t be ignored. When I was a cop and someone saw a car with limo tint, their muttered comment was “Probably a gang-banger”. And those dirty, dangerous, elusive “gang-bangers” were, of course, Black or Latino. Did that play a factor in why this became a felony stop? Don’t know, but it can’t be ignored. What also can’t be ignored are the number of POC that have been killed after following police orders to the letter and were still shot. I am a the whitest, most anglo-saxon male you could ever find- my picture is in the dictionary next to the entry for “honky”- but even I know that fact, that danger from the police, is in the back of every POC’s mind when they encounter the police, especially in this manner. So, yes, while this might have been avoided had Nazario just exited the vehicle… it might have ended even more tragically, and Nazario knew that, just by virtue of being a POC today.

I’ve mentioned in this article several times the evidence I’ve seen of Crocker and Guiterrez’ excellent tactical training. A lot of it was textbook, tactically; the same things I taught hundreds of cops in Georgia. But it’s also this training, taught officially and unofficially by the field training officers and senior officers in every department, that truly caused this encounter to end the way it did; and probably caused countless other encounters like this, infamous or unknown. It’s the training that says “there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop”.

I started in Law Enforcement in 1988, a freshman in college, as an auxiliary officer- a glorified Security Guard working for a University Department of Public Safety. I became a police dispatcher in 1991, and, having an interest in firearms as part of some strange but common ideal of manliness, often went to the range with the sworn Officers of the department. It was a Lieutenant, impressed by my marksmanship, who convinced me to go to the Police Academy in 1996 to become a Mandated Officer, with the powers of arrest- a cop. In the Academy, I excelled- Top academic score, Top Gun at the range, and voted Class President (after, though, the first Class President had to quit the Academy after being fired by his department for some scandal). At the Academy Graduation (after 11 weeks of training; a sadly paltry amount), I had to give the Commencement Speech. I was introduced as the Top Gun, Honor Graduate (with an overall academic score of- get this- 94%), and Class President. I spoke nervously about networking with one another post-graduation, to teach each other what we learned on our separate paths, and therefore become better in our profession; and was met with a standing ovation by the class and my instructors.

Afterwards, an older, black, County Commissioner, who was invited to attend the graduation (this was a regional state academy that actually used to be run by my department until the State consolidated Academies), made his speech. He congratulated all of us… and then proceeded to say that it was a shame that the Top Gun score of 99.8% on the handgun qualification was higher than the top academic score of 94%. He said that the study of Law Enforcement, the Profession of Law Enforcement, to fairly and equitably enforce the laws that our society holds as important to civilization, should be more important than the ability to kill another human being accurately.

That caused a jolt in me. I was, after all, the holder of both those achievements; so it felt like an insult to me, personally. Afterwards, when diplomas were handed out and we did our diploma walk, all of the instructors whispered words of encouragement; including “To hell with that guy, you deserve this.”

25 years later, I think on this; and I realize…

The County Commissioner was right. And foresaw where we were headed. He wasn’t insulting me, personally; but rather taking exception with this idea that cops are faced with “combat” every day, guarding the “Thin Blue Line” between Order and Chaos; so much so, that skill with a weapon is more important than knowledge of the law or things like empathy and de-escalation techniques. And it’s this attitude that leads to some police instructor, just like me, using the phrase “There’s no such thing as a ‘routine’ traffic stop!”, that’s a perfect example of the mindset.

Oh, I used that phrase innocently enough as an instructor. I wanted to impress upon my students the fact that you always have to be ready for the unexpected, always in Condition Yellow/Orange while on duty, that you can never let your guard down. That guy you just stopped for a broken tail light- or, maybe, no license plate- Might… Might… have just murdered his girlfriend and stuffed her in his trunk. So you better position the take-downs and your car just right when you stop them, and let Dispatch know. Take a second to watch the driver… is he fidgiting nervously? Reaching under the seat? Shoulders raised, indicating he’s pulling a gun from his waistband? Slowly exit, keeping your eye on his reflection in his side mirror. Stop at the trunk to push down on it to ensure it’s latched; just in case there’s a gunman in there ready to pop up behind you (wait, I thought the dead wife was in the trunk? Never mind.) This would also leave your fingerprints on the trunk, in case they had to identify this car after you were gunned down, in the days before dashcams. Hug the side of the car; shine your flashlight in the back seat to make sure there’s no one hiding there. Stop at the B-pillar of the car, so if the driver tries to shoot you he has to turn all the way around. Get a good whiff of the air inside the car when he rolls his windows down, to sniff for booze or pot smoke (those degenerates). At the end of the stop, sigh heavily; happy that you’ve survived another encounter with a…

Civilian.

And so on, and so on. Yes, every one of those possible scenarios during a traffic stop has happened in the past. These lesson plans were developed on the blood of another officer, another line of duty death… but. Those things, even in the big city, don’t happen that often. Especially not on the University campus, or in the urban counties where I worked. But we taught these horror stories, and the officers ate up this training, throughout my career; and long before then. Buoyed by Starsky and Hutch and Hill Street Blues and Cagny and Lacy and Miami Vice, we believed the danger was constant and omnipresent. When there was a real danger that any agency might have to deal with- Active Shooters- we, as a nation, spent more time learning SWAT-style tactics instead of asking why these kids are shooting up schools and how the hell did they get these guns, anyway?

This kind of training- you must always be alert, must always mis-trust the people you contact; this constant paranoia- may have saved a life or two, but is corrosive on your world-view and your mental health. What are the statistics on cop divorces and rate of alcoholism and suicide after retirement, again? They’re pretty shocking.

There is, also, and always, the question of race. I’ve been faced with that my entire life in the South, and it’s always present in Law Enforcement. When I joined my second agency, a metro-area but still mostly rural Sheriff’s Office, a “sundown” sign had existed until a couple of years before my arrival along a stretch of state highway that passed through an area known, by the sign the crotchety old white guy who lived there put up, as “Struggleville”.

A “Sundown sign”, in Georgia, means a billboard that says “Nigger, don’t let the sun set on you here”.

Yeah. One of the first black deputies to reach the rank of Lieutenant at this Sheriff’s Office used to tell stories about how black deputies didn’t ride through Struggleville alone, lest they be lynched. Memories of the “County-Line Gang”, the Southern Mafia, Buford Pusser’s nemesis in “Walking Tall”, had connections to my county and it’s history.

Once you combine this militarization of Law Enforcement with the also deep-rooted, but subtle, racism inherent not only in the south but all of white society in the US, you get the reason why cries of “Defund the Police” have some merit, even if the messaging isn’t clear. There is a deep, deep rot in Law Enforcement; that seems plausible on the surface- it can be a dangerous profession- but the actual level of danger is far, far less than justifies the current state. It’s the mindset that leads two officers, one of whom has a serious authority complex and another that seems too inexperienced to know better but knows it’s wrong on a deep level, to over-react this badly on a, yes, ROUTINE traffic stop. And this “law and order” ideal is also shaped by the general attitudes of the public towards what they think Law Enforcement is about.

There must be a re-boot of policing. A tear-down and re-birth, based on humanity and compassion… the things those of us that became cops… some of us, anyway… thought Policing was about, even if we found out later it really wasn’t.

And if you’re a cop today… you need to have a real talk with yourself what you thought the profession was, and what it has become… and work to change it.

On Open Carry; or, Jesus Keeerist Annie Oakley, Put That Thing Away!

Author’s Note: In this essay, I’m not talking about “open carry” in the sense that you’re camping or hiking in an area with dangerous wildlife, or hunting, working in your personally owned business, or even lounging around naked in your home (you sweet, sweet pervert you); no, I’m talking about openly wearing a firearm, handgun or long gun, in populated, public areas. Also, you’ll have to take into account that my Law Enforcement experiences ended in 2010, and may not reflect cops today.

Standing in the checkout line at my local Northeast Georgia Wal-Mart, I find myself behind a portly gentleman wearing a t-shirt extolling the products of a certain firearms manufacturer, and sporting a large stainless semiautomatic handgun (that I know for a fact retails between $900-$1200) in a kydex pancake holster on his hip. I’m familiar with the holster, I used it myself as a cop in plainclothes assignments. I do have to admit, it is a comfortable holster; although it was banned from being used at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center because it requires you to press a button with your index finger to draw the gun- and the button is in line with the trigger. After a couple of cops shot themselves in the ass trying to draw their guns on the firing range, they nixed that holster.

This exact model here, in fact

As I waited in the interminably long line, I idly wondered if he practiced drawing from that holster enough to do it safely; and did he realize that a person standing behind him can easily pluck that thing out because he’s not paying attention to anything but his phone?

I wasn’t particularly surprised to see someone openly carrying a gun in my local Wal-Mart; first off, it’s Wal-Mart, what did you expect? Secondly, there’s been a huge number of people in the past few years pointedly showing off their guns in public even before they started doing it at Trump rallies. It happens so much where I live that I’ve started getting bored with critiquing their weapons and carry styles. Even before recent events, I’ve been immersed in the world of firearms in some way for the past 40 years; starting with the Marksmanship merit badge in the Boy Scouts, through to becoming a law enforcement instructor in every firearm used by Law Enforcement, to serving on two different SWAT teams as entry team leader, as well as rangemaster and armorer for three departments. I’ve been around guns most of my life, and lived mainly in places where guns in private citizen’s hands are omnipresent.

So. You know. One more guy in the checkout line with a gun on his hip is no shock. But…

Why carry it openly? Out there for everyone to see (and snatch fairly easily)? Why is it better to let everyone within eyesight of you know you’re carrying a gun?

If you ask open carry advocates, they’ll usually spout a few similar reasons. Let’s look at the ones that sound sort of reasonable on the surface:

1) It’s the foundation of the Second Amendment

OK, that seems a little of a stretch… Open Carry, by itself, is the only thing holding up the 2nd Amendment? Without it, guns will surely be banned any second? Usually, their rationale for this is that the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 held that the 2nd Amendment states that possessing and carrying a weapon, whether open or concealed, is protected by the constitution. What they ignore from that ruling- and subsequent others from lower courts- is that the Second Amendment is not unlimited, and states can regulate how it is carried out.

2) Education

Education, in this case, means “Educating people that there are guns out there and that they shouldn’t be afraid of them”. Hm. I’m not sure carrying an AR-15 over your shoulder to a political rally is a great educational tool. It’s almost as if there’s another reason for it… I think I’m getting closer to the real reason people open carry…

3) Practicality

This usually broken down into 1) it’s more comfortable, 2) it’s quicker, 3) the cops do it all the time, and 4) it lets you carry BIGGER GUNS!

Really. I’m not exaggerating that last one.

-More comfortable… well, yes, it is more comfortable than concealed carry. The whole rationale of why concealed carry is better than open is that in concealed carry, no one knows you’re armed. To do this, you’ve got to carry a relatively small weapon, depending on your body size, and keep it snug against you so it will be hidden by your clothing. Cheap holsters and bulky guns tend to poke, prod, and bruise you when carrying concealed. Even with compact guns and well-made, comfortable holsters, effective concealment is hampered in hot weather by restricting what you can comfortably wear. The only concealable holster I could use with shorts in the summer in Georgia was a fanny pack; which did the job quite well… but that’s not exactly an option for macho men, now is it?

-It’s quicker… Yes, it is this, as well. The time to draw a handgun from concealment can’t compare to the time to draw from an open holster; especially if you’re carrying it in basically a sock with no retention capabilities at all. I mean, that’s why-

-The cops do it all the time… Sure, because they’re automatic targets. You can’t hide that you’re armed when you’re wearing a very visible uniform. But… those cops are also wearing retention

Sure looks impressive, don’t it?

holsters that are very difficult to remove a gun from very quickly- so difficult, in fact, that it takes a lot of training and practice to draw from a triple-retention holster as quickly as from an open one. The first time I tried to draw from one in the Academy, I came damn near to lifting myself off the ground. They’ve also had a lot of practice, from day one, on weapon retention- keeping someone from snatching that gun from it’s holster and shooting you with it. Even with all this, 8% of officers killed in the line of duty from 1994 to 2003 were killed with their own gun.

While we’re talking about cops- and firearms trainers, whether law enforcement or civilian- ask them why they prefer to carry concealed when they’re off-duty. They’ll tell you that they’d rather not be the first target in an armed robbery or some other confrontation. Armed guards haven’t deterred bank robberies; the armed guard gets it first. If you’re a cop in the bathroom of a 7-11 and,  when you’re done, you use caution when you open the door; it’s in case the place is getting held up and you’re about to walk into it. Same reason you sit facing the door- you want to know if trouble’s coming, to give you time to assess the situation and make the right decision on how to handle it. And yes, those are both actual situations that have happened before, and have therefore been ingrained into cops.

Most cops and serious instructors would rather keep their weapon concealed, so they have time to assess the situation and decide how to handle it. Charging in guns-a-blazin’ with little forethought usually ends up in the shooter, the robber, and some bystanders dead. In fact, we were taught in Law Enforcement that if we were off-duty in a store and it was robbed, the last thing you do is start waving your pistol around- in some situations, it’s better to be a good witness, than a gunslinger. (One scenario we ran all the time was being in a convenience store when the guy in front of you pulls a gun to rob the cashier. You fearlessly draw down on him and snarl something along the lines of “Go ahead punk… make my day”, while checking out your look in the mirror

…aaaand the accomplice who came in earlier as backup, who you didn’t notice, shoots you in the back.

Do you think the guy in front of me in this line at Wal-Mart has the situational awareness to avoid such a fate, even if he was carrying concealed and less likely to be a target?

Hell no. He’s still scrolling Instagram on his phone. Remember last post where I talked about the Cooper Color Codes and situational awareness? When you carry a gun, whether concealed or not, you have to be in at least Condition Yellow at all times…

…and this guy, giggling at the funny meme he just saw, is in perpetual White.

Props for rockin’ an AT-4 missile; even if it is fake… You never know when you might need to defeat some light armor.

– It lets you carry BIGGER GUNS!… It sure does that. Just look at the photos from recent protests where one of the anti-ANTIFA (you reduce the fractions on that one) protesters was carrying Barrett M-82 .50 BMG rifle that is 4 feet in length and weighs 30 pounds. Not exactly subtle. Some advocates will claim that bigger handguns are easier to shoot- for example, this:

 

“It’s that simple. Larger guns are better weapons than smaller guns. Sure, you can compensate for some of this with training, but that same training would make you that much better with a full-sized pistol. All guns make compromises but compact and sub-compact guns make the most. “

 

Hoooold on there, hoss. First off, the fundamentals of shooting a handgun are the same for big ones and small ones, semi-autos and revolvers. You should be practicing with your handgun often to ensure proficiency, but you toss that off with a sneering “Suuuure, you COULD practice until you’re as good with a smaller gun as you are with a bigger one; but who’s got the time?”

This attitude pisses me off to no end. It’s the “I’ve been shooting all my life and I know what I’m doing; you can’t teach me nothin’!” attitude I see in every self-proclaimed expert who then proceeds to 1) miss their target even at ridiculously short distances and 2) do something flagrantly unsafe and get pissy when you call them on it. So don’t use this excuse on me. My best range scores- consistent 100%’s on a more difficult version of the Georgia Double-Action Course- were shot with a compact Glock .40 cal, the weapon I practiced with the most and was most comfortable with. Size didn’t matter; training did.

No, what they’re talking about here is the concept of “ballistic advantage”- the idea that more powerful rounds are more likely to defeat attackers with fewer rounds; which means that rifles are even more betterer because the bullets they shoot are 1) faster 2) heavier 3) both… they’re more ballistically advantageous.

You know… the bullets are thicker and longer than wimpy pistol bullets.

…which means they’re also more likely to overpenetrate the target and hit the person behind the target (yeah, right, you were thinking about your backstop before you pulled the trigger. Sure, sure. You won’t even take a training class; why should I believe you?) or, the more likely scenario, out of the 20 rounds you just sprayed off, one hit the target and the rest went trough three walls before hitting bystanders. Never mind that the weapon itself is heavy, bulky, and hard to deploy from a sling on the back. So why would you even want to open carry a long gun in day to day carry? What could possibly be attacking you in the Wal-Mart that necessitates that much firepower? Hordes of armed robbers wearing body armor? A Hollywood style bank robbery shootout on every corner of your small town?

But having that AR-15 on your back or that 7-inch barrel .44 Magnum revolver on your hip sure looks coooooool.

… Hmm, an idea of why people advocate open carry is forming…

4) It deters crime

It seems like it would, right? Criminals are opportunists; they’re not going to rob a liquor store where the manager is openly carrying a gun, are they? If a large portion of the public is carrying and everyone knows it, the “bad guys” will go somewhere else?

We’ll leave aside who, exactly, a “bad guy” is- and how their skin tone might affect that identification amongst open carry advocates- for now. Is it statistically sound to say that open carry states are safer than non-open carry? Matt Gaetz said in 2015, during his bid to get open carry legalized in Florida, that “It is important to note that in the states that allow open carry, violent crime was 23 percent lower, the murder rate was 5 percent lower, the aggravated assault rate was 23 percent lower and robbery rates were 36 percent lower.”

Is that true?

Well, as usual per Mr. Gaetz, he cherry-picked data from the FBI’s Uniformed Crime Reporting (that most agencies resent having to send data to), and didn’t provide any verifiable methodology behind his research that anyone can validate. However, there have been a lot of studies on this very topic, including a 2020 Rand Group study, and the results are…

Inconclusive either way.

So, while we can’t disprove the idea that open carry deters crime, neither can we prove it. However, mass open carry is a relatively recent thing… will the “bad guys” move away to areas where there aren’t so many people armed, like a giant mass migration of predatory locusts? You know, using those intercity mass transit systems that residents around here always vote against because they’re afraid “those people” will use them to commute from downtown Atlanta into the sticks to rob, rape, and pillage?

Snort. I’m sorry, even in the heart of “white flight” Georgia, that’s never been an issue. No, the “bad guys” will stay local… except, now they know they have to deal with people openly carrying.

But, let’s ask the open carry advocates what they think:

 

Rather unfortunate ad placement on your uber-masculine site

“The first rule of not being a victim is not looking like a victim. This is one of basic laws of nature and one that most of us learn in grade school. The best way to avoid a fight is to look like you can win one.“

 

OOOOoooooohh. I think we’re getting to the heart of the matter here. The real reason people choose to open carry, and not the excuses they hide behind that I’ve laid out here.

It’s not because that without it, the 2nd Amendment would vanish.

It’s not because they’ve been trained on how to do it safely (because they haven’t).

It’s not because of any practical necessity. It’s not because it has any practical advantages over concealed carry other than it’s “easier”.

And the only “educating” of the public that they’re doing is showing them that they’re ready to blast the “bad guys” with overwhelming force and no mercy…

While they’re at a Proud Boys rally where the “bad guys” are anyone who disagrees with you.

No, Open Carry Guy, it’s all really because…

You want to look like a badass. You want everyone around to know that you’ve got the biggest dick, and those “bad guys” better watch out; we’re not taking any shit any longer from them damn Antifas and BLMs and drug dealers and Jews and Ragheads and uppity black folk…

Oh dear. I’ve said the quiet part out loud, haven’t I.

The World’s Dumbest Coup Attempt… is still a coup attempt

Whelp. It seems that baby new year, after receiving the top hat and sash from old 2020, promptly downed a fifth of tequila and rode a dumpster of flaming MAGA shit downhill into an orphanage of screaming toddlers, while flinging plague rats with Mitch McConnell’s face at passers-by.

Does that sentence make no sense? Neither does baby new year. (Apologies to Jim Wright, who has a similar saying that I now realize I paraphrased. Seriously, though; check out his ‘blog. And Twitter @Stonekettle. And photography.)

Except… that it really does. What happened on January 6th- all of it; the hordes of delusional Qanon MAGAidiots descending on DC, the usual Republican names egging them on, members of law enforcement and the military in the crowd, members of Congress actually aiding and abetting the crowd- was completely predictable. And had been predicted, by many, many people. I didn’t think they’d actually try and claim Antifa was behind it all, but some predicted that too.

Worst. Day. EVAR!
“Nothing to see here, move along!” Photo: Tyler Merbler

And while it’s amusing to chuckle at Conan the Brietbartarian in his face paint and horns, and the idea (possibly fallacious) of some guy tasering his balls to death, and MAGAs not being able to fly home and crying about it; there’s something far more serious here that these same people who predicted 1/6 are still screaming about… Something that those of us secure in our mundane existence don’t want to think about, because isn’t there already enough shit going down, man? Almost a year of lockdowns and avoidable deaths and job losses and that annoying guy at the water cooler who won’t shut up about Nancy Pelosi? Can’t I just get a break already?

I wish I could tell you that it’s alright; that the DC authorities have learned their lesson and there won’t be a repeat during the inauguration and these weird guys will vanish after Trump is out of office…

But.

As much as I fervently hope for the same thing, I truly do not think that’s how it’s going to go.

As buffoonish and clumsy as this coup attempt… (and let’s not mince words about what this was… attempting to remove leaders of the opposition government so your favorite outgoing president can stay in office despite there being absolutely no evidence that this position is valid IS a coup attempt, and to call it anything else is not just phrasing or semantics but a lie to reduce the perceived severity of the situation) …as clumsy as this coup attempt appeared, there were people involved who had some semblance of a plan and organization, and skills necessary to achieve their goals. That they failed may only be due to the quick thinking of a single black police officer who led the seditionists away from the congresspersons they almost certainly intended to kidnap or kill. That noose they assembled wasn’t solely for optics, and their choice of a noose wasn’t coincidental. There were current and former law enforcement and military members in this attempt, and many, many more who didn’t go to DC but share the goals and ideas of those who did. Do you get a chill when you think about how many cops, how many National Guard members, how many regular military troops share the same sentiments?

You should. Because they are the ones you are relying on to keep in you in your warm, safe bubble. Are you sure they won’t find you objectionable, even if you’re white? Got a Biden sticker on your car? Hmm…

More than that, while this MAGA movement is, at it’s core, a white supremacist movement, (yeah yeah, surprise, cockbag, racism is still alive and well and more widespread than you thought); unlike that LAST white supremacist sedition, this isn’t North vs. South (and it wasn’t entirely that last time, either). We’re all mixed together now. That guy at work with the confederate flag sticker he still hasn’t removed? He’s probably one. That woman with the thin blue line Punisher sticker? Sus, dude. The person wearing a MAGA hat in Wal-Mart with no mask? Oh yeah. And while a lot of them may be appalled by what happened in DC, a whole lot more will be cheering it on, even if they don’t say it out loud.

Which means they won’t raise any objections when the mob decides to beat you with an American flag because you said “Hey, hold on, that’s wrong, you need to stop!”

So what I’m trying to say is: Even if we get through the next week without violent confrontations, it’s not over. While 81 million voted for Biden, 74 million voted for Trump. And a startling number of those don’t have any problem with what happened in DC. They won’t quit overnight. And a large number of THEM have been raised on the Turner Diaries, just as Timothy McVeigh was, and wank themselves to sleep each night dreaming about knocking out the power grid by shooting very hard to replace transformers with their .50 caliber penis extension rifles, or bringing down a federal building with a truck full of ANFO, or even just beating the shit out of whoever they think is antifa this week. You can’t count on them all to be incompetent.

So, be careful out there. Prepare yourself, mentally, for the possibilities. Use some situational awareness when you are out and about, especially if you live in a state capitol.

In law enforcement, we were taught the “Cooper Color Code” for situational awareness… we’ll leave aside Col. Cooper himself right now and just look at the idea. At any given point, you are at a certain level of awareness, represented by a color… Sitting in your living room in your underwear binge watching Netflix and cramming pizza down your gob? You’re at White, no awareness on what’s going on around you other than the show on TV and how many slices are left. That’s cool, you’re at home and it’s been a rough day.

In an unfamiliar neighborhood and trying to find an address? Probably at Condition Yellow; paying attention to your surroundings, don’t see any threats, but you’re looking for the street and paying more attention than you were in White.

Suddenly see a guy standing on the side of the road, looking like he’s about to cross the street? Body position says he’s about to go for it? Condition Orange… you’ve seen a hazard (because you were paying attention and you’re focused on him, ready to slam on the brakes if you have to so you don’t turn him into a hairy wet alpaca sack full of strawberry ice cream (you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to allude to a Catch 22 reference)).

I mean, really… It’s not worth it to humiliate yourself this way. From CBS 60 Minutes

Crap! He’s making a run for it! You are now in Condition Red! You’ve already decided- maybe subconsciously- what you would do if he jumped into the street, and now he has. You put your plan in action; slam the brakes and hit the horn and cuss.

Folks… Even if you are still in condition White- quite an appropriate color name at this point- you need to slap yourself and get in Condition Orange. No, I don’t mean you need to start applying war paint and the skins of dead animals; but recognize that there’s a credible threat and start planning on your response.

Let’s all be careful out there.

On Southern Heritage

Hi, all. On this glorious July 4th, I thought I’d take a second to talk about a topic that’s been on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds in recent weeks: Heritage. Specifically, “southern” heritage.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Georgia, and have lived within an hour of Atlanta my entire life. In grade school, we had a class on Georgia history; and, as part of that history, the Civil War. We learned that the Civil War was basically fought over state’s rights. Oh, there was the slavery issue too; but that was just a smokescreen. We learned that Sherman was a sonovabitch while at the same time learning that Lincoln was a saint who freed the slaves. Might have been something about Frederick Douglass in there. Oh, and Martin Luther King fought for equal rights and was assassinated. Roadside history placards still called the Civil War, “The War of Northern Aggression” well well through the end of the century.

And that’s… about it, until high school (and sometimes not until college) history classes. But the seed was set… We were led to believe that all that racism stuff was handled in the 60s and we’re all good now. Sure, some guys still tell “black jokes”; but, you know… That’s just guys telling dirty jokes; they don’t mean anything. The “Stars and Bars”, as we proudly called the confederate battle flag, were everywhere and on everything, including the State flag. We were told that was to honor those that died fighting during that terrible conflict and not at all racist, and we believed it. Every Friday night we watched Dukes of Hazzard and watched the Duke Boys make a fool of Roscoe P. Coltrane, the flag prominent in almost every scene. It’s part of our history; our heritage.

Except… it isn’t. Most of what we learned wasn’t an outright lie… but it was only one sanitized sliver of the whole story. Yes, state’s rights and economic peril did figure in the roots of the Civil War; but those issues only existed because of slavery. The Civil War was a rebellion of rich, white slaveowners against the United States that killed 750,000 people and cemented racism in the south as a permanent fixture. Oh yeah, they lied about racism not being an issue any longer in these modern times, as well. The confederate battle flag isn’t a symbol of plucky good ‘ol boys who never did no harm and hasn’t been since the end of the war. It’s a gigantic middle finger to anyone who isn’t white; a reminder that for a vast number of people, the much seen on bumper stickers slogan “The South will rise again!” isn’t a pride-swelling symbol of the south, but an implied threat to everyone who isn’t white, or heterosexual, or protestant. It isn’t heritage, it IS hate, solidified in a symbol.

So, on the 4th of July, 2020, I’d like to remind the staunch defenders of the ol’ Stars and Bars, that…

The Confederacy lost.

On George Floyd

Someone who knew I had worked 20 years in one form of law enforcement or another asked me what I thought about the riots in Minneapolis. I didn’t answer, because I was wondering what answer he expected or wanted from me. I guess I should have been happy he asked, rather than assuming I was already in agreement with his take on it.

MY take on it is: It’s about goddamn time.

About time people start actively calling out the bullshit that everyone’s known about but most ignore because it doesn’t directly affect them. It’s tragic that it took a blatant, flagrant crime*- that, to paraphrase a quote from my case law books, “so shocked the conscience” ** of the public that it could not be ignored no matter your privilege- to bring this widespread outpouring of frustration about.

What? I’m not taking the cop’s side in this, even though I once was part of the Thin Blue Line?

No. Fuck no. Even though I was one of those people privileged enough to not notice how bad things were getting because I was in the middle of it. But then you get out, and turn around and see the forest that you couldn’t see around the trees… and notice it’s gotten drastically thicker and taller and wonder, as I feel my stomach sink, how I never noticed it before.

THAT’S a whole ‘nother essay or three.

There is no doubt that society’s impression of the profession of law enforcement is irreparably damaged. And the only way for it to be repaired is to finally stop paying lip service to the Code of Ethics every cop learned in the academy and actually enforce it. The one I learned- had to memorize and analyze, in fact- was right up in the front of the Peace Officer Reference Text, in the chapter on Ethics and Professionalism (right after the Constitution; remember the 14th Amendment, fellas?):

“As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence and disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice.

“I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all; maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule; develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my department. Whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to me in my official capacity will be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of my duty.

“I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings, prejudices, animosities or friendships to influence my decisions. With no compromise for crime and with relentless prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favor, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force or violence and never accepting gratuities.

“I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith, and I accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of the police service. I will constantly strive to achieve those objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.”

This is what “tarnishing the badge” means, former officer Chauvin. Law Enforcement has been tarnishing it for decades, but now I think the stain is well and truly set.

You may have noticed a lot of wiggle room in that Code of Ethics… While the intent seems straightforward enough, it’s this wiggle room that’s partly responsible for the rot that consumes any attempt to to create a truly ethical police force; and the reason such a simple concept as the Use of Deadly Force- Deadly force may ONLY be used to stop a forcible felony or prevent the death of or great bodily injury to the officer or third party- becomes perverted to whatever you can get away with; good luck! The deck is stacked in your favor, Officer!

…but that’s an essay for another time.

*…and don’t tell me it wasn’t a blatant, flagrant crime. I was a Use of Force and Use of Deadly Force instructor and the film is pretty damn clear on what happened. The officer had his knee on the side of Floyd’s neck, flat on the ground. It’s clear from his body positioning that he has most of his weight on that knee. Unless Minneapolis just puts them on the street from day 1 with no academy, he knew that was extremely dangerous, and it wouldn’t have taken 8 minutes to come to that conclusion. Not to fucking mention COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY AND EXCESSIVE as Floyd was secured.

**That quote, BTW, is from Rochin v. California in 1952; in which the Supreme Court of California decided that forcing a tube down a man’s throat and forcing him to vomit up the contraband he just swallowed was such a shitty thing to do that maybe that evidence outta be thrown out, dontcha think? Only took two appeals before they found some judges that thought that this may be, well, a little shocking.

Whoa! Weblogs, man!

Soooooo… It’s been… let’s see…

6

Years

Since I posted to this ‘blog.

Yeah.

No excuses. Let’s see if we can pick up where we left off… again.

Playing with several things… changed themes, cleaned up the menus… Added a new page, Live Weather Station; Neighborhood has been updated; Bedroom will be updated; and Workshop, Firearms, Webcams and Tattoos have been taken down while I decide what to do with them.

In the mean time, check out the Live Weather Station… I acquired an Ambient Weather WS-2902A weather station and set it up; just in case you had a burning desire to know just what the UV index was on my back deck. Using tacky realistic gauges because that’s the kind of 80s guy I am.