HANDS UP DON'T SHOOT!!!

HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT!!!

It is very troubling when people when confronted with the facts refuse to believe them like in Ferguson, MO.  The situation was tragic, as is whenever anyone loses their life; but, there are personal situations where you can almost determine, early on, who will not make it through life.  I think this was one of those situations.

When looking at police training you must look at the force continuum which has 8-9 steps officers are trained in on the different levels of force, it goes all the way from officer presence up the ladder or around the circle depending on which model you are trained in, to lethal force.  I don’t have the time to do a police course on the issue; but, the Officer in Fergusson went by the book.  He saw two men walking in the road and told them to get on the side walk, what was the response, “I don’t give a F--- what you say”.  The Officer is notified of a robbery at a store with a description of the two subjects matching who he was already in contact with.  The Officer was over 6’ but the main subject was 6’6” and around 300 pounds, which under most normal circumstances would have allowed for an escalation of force based on the subject’s aggressiveness.  What I don’t know is did the Officer call for backup knowing he would have a hard time making an arrest, did he have pepper spray or a taser and could he get to them?

We know the rest; but was interesting was there was no credible testimony that the subject had his hands up and trying to surrender; but, was attacking the police officer and trying to steal his gun, that is lethal force justification.  The old statistics were that 25% of police officers that are killed are killed with their own gun, you put yourself in the Officers position and you make the call.

People are saying the officer should have been indicted and you can indict a ham sandwich.  You probably can indict a ham sandwich; but, you better have substantial evidence that will lead to a conviction or as a prosecutor you’re in trouble.

In short the facts do not support the angry black rhetoric that is being put out by Al Sharpton and some of the others, the old saying of “don’t confuse me with the facts, I know the truth”, has come into play.

 

NY I CAN’T BREATHE!!!

We have another individual who was around 300 pounds and well over 6’ selling individual cigarettes on a street corner that is not the issue to die over.  Supposedly was arrested numerous times for similar problems.  A passive handcuffing technique might have worked, that is “ sir I am placing you under arrest, please turn around and put your hands behind your back, if you think the cuffs are too tight tell me and I will adjust them”, that type of technique.  If the officers had prior knowledge that he was aggressive and a fighter then that technique is out the window.  Police are trained in the technique that the safest position to handcuff that is non cooperative is by placing the subject in the prone position (on their belly).  The problem with this is when you fighting a guy this big, with a big belly, you have to be concerned with positional asphyxia, that is when you have a big belly and when you’re forced down on your stomach all that weight pushes up against your diaphragm and you can’t breathe; couple that with a number of Officers trying to control him and hold him down and he suffocated.

Another sad case and loss of life, yes, criminal no, civil suit big time and it is a training issue, did any officer do anything criminal, not that I could testify to.

This is a very short rendition of what I saw in the news; but what is scary is race relations in the US have been set back about 50 yrs.  What I am afraid will happen is the KKK and white groups will grow in strength and all hell can break lose.  Race relations under Obama have gone bad and we still have two more years to survive his presidency and who knows about his legacy.

TWO BACK STABBERS WHICH ONE DO I VOTE FOR???

 

That was the recent quandary facing the NH Legislature on organization day when they had to vote for a speaker.  In fact that was the biggest complaint heard from the State Reps that they did not have a real choice.  O’Brien cooked his own goose when one of the Billy bots made a motion for a rules change to make the vote for speaker public and not secret.  That told those Reps sitting on the fence that the kinder O’Brien was all BS and they voted against him.

The Democrats had plenty of scores to settle with O’Brien, about as many as the Republicans, because of the way he treated them; he treated them as some kind of enemy with a total lack of respect, the same way he treated Republicans that disagreed with him. 

Well everyone looking for pay back got it on organization day.

What people seemed to forget is Jasper is no better.  He was one of the very few State Reps that Matt and I were not dumb enough to trust.  In my opinion Jasper was jealous of Matt who was in leadership, yes, O’Brien’s leadership, and Matt was liked and trusted.  I think his sense of humor and honesty was something people respected in the group and he was very easy to talk to.  Jasper always had to be the only puppy in the litter which caused frequent disagreements and dissention in fact Jasper was not well liked and was eventually removed from leadership.  Jasper made serious and false accusations against Matt, which was proven false, after Matt quit the O’Brien team and refused to go along with Right to Work.  The accusation caused serious ripple effects through the house and other than being O’Brien’s lap dog Jasper was persona non grata with many Republicans and most Democrats who couldn’t believe he was such a lying back stabber, this was before he was removed.  Well now he is speaker and my suggestion is to hold on to your hat, the ride is just beginning.  Although many State Reps were right and there were no alternatives, the house just got sunk to a new low.

The rumors going around are that the Republican establishment was behind O’Brien’s derailment.  I heard they were afraid of the damage O’Brien would do and cause them to lose the 2016 elections for their chosen candidates, such as Kelly Ayotte, who poll wise is running neck and neck with Hassan for the US Senate race.  The establishment seems to be scared to death about this.  Well to the establishment, you just drove another nail into your political agenda; you have a whole new level of enemies out here you didn’t need to have.