- "The people of Los Angeles and other cities have
grim memories of the late 80s and 90s, when neighborhoods were torn apart
by assault weapon violence. If the federal ban on these weapons is allowed
to expire, that kind of horrific violence will no longer be a memory, but
a living reality once again."
-
-- Los Angeles Chief of Police, William
Bratton, Sept. 10, 2004
speaking on behalf of the Brady Campaign
-
-
- It is obvious, considering his support of the Brady Campaign,
that Los Angeles Chief of Police William Bratton is not only an opponent
of the Second Amendment, but a strong advocate of victim disarmament. His
mentality, as well as that of Sarah Brady's, is encased within the imaginary
bliss of police state security and a heavenly utopia ensuring personal
safety.
-
- As one considers President George Washington's definition
of government as being totally devoid of eloquence, implying rather its
inherent nature of brutal force, what possible last resort is available
to a people oppressed by statist tyranny if not to use its own force to
throttle such despotism?
-
- The Second Amendment is the most important and valuable
right the people have to ensure their liberty and freedom. It is the guardian
of the other nine Amendments that are the Bill of Rights. It guarantees
that the American people will always be able to access firearms if and
when needed to employ last resort force to remove tyrannical government.
-
- Consider this aspect of civilian force against the backdrop
of the despotic, secret and criminal activities of the present regime inside
the Beltway. Each newly-concocted piece of gun control legislation quietly
and gradually erodes our right to rebel. These are slow and timed erosions,
and were anticipated by the Founders as evidenced by their choice of words
in their attempt to preclude the State's connivance in disarming the citizenry:
"shall not be infringed."
-
- Gun control campaigners such as Bratton display a mentality
that is unbelievably unfathomable. Actual
recorded statistics as well as true historic references and their analysis consistently show an
armed populace as a serious retardant to criminal activity, which in turn
promotes a sharp decline in crime and the resultant reduction in murders
committed against police.
-
- The Brady Campaign also quoted Washington D.C. Police
Chief Charles Ramsey as saying, "[America's police] stand united in
the effort to ban assault weapons. They are a threat to the safety of our
dedicated police officers and the public." Brady has rounded up those
executive ranks of police that support her political views, and of course
shunned those that do not agree with her. And let's face it: If any of
us would ever encounter the kind of brutal violence she and her family
experienced, we too might go totally off the deep end and drown in a tsunami
of anger and paranoia.
-
- But as understandable as such illogical emotion-driven
retribution is, it is not the likes of the Sarah Bradys of the world that
should be either driving or writing laws for the rest of US to follow.
Neither should she be supported by so-called unemotional "professionals"
such as Bratton or Ramsey. And perhaps we should take a closer look at
the latter's cool-headed, professional, unemotional responses to real-life
situations.
-
- Let's start with Washington D.C.'s top cop Ramsey. You
may recall that he was the principal as regards the search for the body
of the missing Chandra Levy, the young 24-year-old romantically linked
to Congressman Gary Condit. When her body was found in Rock Creek Park,
which had been previously searched by Ramsey and his force, he was asked
why he hadn't also searched that particular area of the park where Levy's
remains were eventually found. He offered that he and his professional
police didn't search there because the terrain was "too rough"
and thought to be "very inaccessible." Seems like a good place
to hide a body, no?
-
- Then of course, there was the D.C. Sniper fiasco, as
well as charges
of police brutality and corruption. The D.C. area has consistently
displayed the highest violent crime statistics in the nation in spite of
a total ban on all guns. Chief Ramsey's professional efforts to curb crime,
corruption and inefficiency
obviously leave a lot to be desired. But this year, an improvement must
be noted - New Orleans has now replaced D.C. as the homicide capitol of
the world.
-
- Now for Bratton; according to an article
dated July 11th on the KCAL9.com website entitled "Baby Killed In
Standoff Shooting," Los Angeles Police responded to a call for help
from the wife of one Jose Pena, 34, who owned a car wash and auto repair
business. The article begins, "A man killed along with the toddler
daughter he used as a shield in a gun battle with a SWAT team fired about
40 rounds in three shooting outbursts over nearly three hours, and officers
were well within policy when they returned fire, Police Chief William Bratton
said Monday.
-
- "Well within policy?" Now get this: "Around
6:30 p.m., Pena exited the rear of the building where a SWAT unit was setting
up. Police said [when] Pena reached for his weapon, officers opened fire
and the man ran back inside while shooting at them." If he was leaving
the building without his daughter, why didn't police simply take cover
and allow him to get further away from the building? Why did they drive
him back inside with gunfire? Why didn't these "professionals"
hit their target? They drove him back inside where his daughter was hiding
and then followed him inside.
-
- The 19-month-old toddler, Suzie Pena, was "professionally"
shot in the head, not with a military semi-automatic pistol, not with a
shotgun or machine-gun, but with a rifle! A single solitary rifle bullet
to the head ended her tiny life. Let's hear it for the LAPD SWAT Team!
And this comes on the heels of another act of bravery where the LAPD Sig-Sauer
Brattons wasted
a 13-year-old kid for stealing a car and then allegedly ramming a kop
kart. The offended officer first fired five rounds to stop the stolen
car, hitting instead his own threatened police cruiser, and then fired
five more into the kid to make sure that he didn't move again.
-
- According to SFGate.com, in a July 14th article
entitled, "Autopsy finds toddler killed by LA police in shootout,"
Greg Risling writing for the Associated Press offers: "Police Chief
William Bratton sent his condolences to the girl's family but adamantly
maintained that Pena was responsible for his and his daughter's deaths.
Bratton said the realization that it was a police officer who actually
shot the girl was hard to take, for both himself and his officers. 'Believe
me, as chief of police, and for the officers involved, it is very tough
to deal with that,' Bratton said."
-
- Does this all sound familiar? It should. Recall the angry
words of Boston Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole as related in an article
on prisonplanet.com originally posted on Counterpunch at the time of the
Victoria Snelgrove murder by that city's killer kops: "O'Toole was
forced to say she 'firmly and emphatically' accepted responsibility for
the incident but then in the same breath praised the officers for their
'great restraint' and condemned the 'punks' for turning celebration into
a 'near-riot.' [Mayor Thomas] Menino toed that same line, expressing regret
but then blaming 'thugs' who 'sent events out of control.'"
-
- In his article of October 25, 2004, "Boston's Killer
Cops: Death of a Fan," Dave Zirin offers: "Victoria Snelgrove
is dead. The 21 year old Emerson College journalism student exercised her
right as a fan to stand on her Boston street and cheer the Red Sox's pennant
victory over the New York Yankees. For her trouble, she was shot by the
Boston Police Department with a 'crowd dispersal' pepper spray projectile.
The projectile completed its purpose and exploded on impact in her eye
socket. She died the next day."
-
- Boston Police offer that they were not at fault in the
Snelgrove murder. But make no mistake - it was clearly and irrefutably
a savage and deliberate act of murder. It was not even remotely connected
to "crowd control" and certainly no "accident" as police
politician O'Toole would have us all believe. To them, the fault and blame
is always to be found elsewhere and in the citizen sector, usually blamed
on an unarmed citizen, who in all likelihood was either just at the wrong
place at the wrong time, or fleeing the deadly, unaccountable police. These
tinhorn charlatans never find wrongdoing originating with the State itself.
-
- Here's Zirin again: "None of this passes the truth
test. 80,000 people were dancing in the Beantown streets that night, yet
there were only 8 arrests. An Oklahoma Sooners tailgating party is rowdier
than this. Also video of Snelgrove's shooting doesn't show a near riot
but a bevy of hugging, chanting, high fiving, college kids."
-
- In their initial lofty statements motivated mostly for
outrage, crowd and riot control, such oft-repeated public statements by
"government officials" are not only becoming a sickening standard
and self-serving ritual, but serve as well to blunt criticism, nullify
responsibility, subvert prosecutorial motivation and public outrage, and
thereby ensure that such acts will be repeated again and on an ever-increasing
scale.
-
- So these are our professionals, huh? These are the only
ones who should be allowed to carry military semi-automatic handguns, "street-sweeper"
semi-auto shotguns, fully automatic AR-15s and MP5s, and all sorts of Lon Horiuchi super
telescopically sighted sniper rifles? It is astonishing how many of we
the weak-minded, subservient sheeple believe this way. And if it wasn't
a "horrible accident," or a "tragic mistake," and caused
by others, then you just know what card you're going to be dealt next:
"lack of training!" The State's jackboot crimes and lies - perfect
together!
-
- The Boston Herald article seems to lean that way, but
what a shock to see the "lack-of-training" lie blow up as effectively
as the killer kopper's skull exploding pepper-spray "non-lethal"
projectile. In her May 26, 2005 article in the Herald, "Discipline
due in Snelgrove shooting; Report rips commanders for fan," Michele
McPhee begins, "A trio of Boston police officers, and two police commanders,
will face disciplinary charges for firing up to 60 pepper-spray balls at
an unruly mob on Lansdowne Street, including the shot that killed Emerson
College student Victoria Snelgrove, police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole
said yesterday."
-
- McPhee continues with the standard training breakdown
excuse: "The move came the same day a scathing report revealed Boston
police officers fired less-lethal weapons they weren't trained to use -
shooting in an 'indiscriminate manner' under order by unprepared commanders."
"Unprepared commanders?" Why did Commissioner O'Toole put such
untrained, unprepared and incapable leaders and "professionals"
in charge of riot control? Isn't this the closest thing to armed conflict
on a battlefield?
-
- Here's the excuse: "As a result of that command
breakdown, police officers used excessive force by firing wildly into a
crowded, narrow block, injuring several people and killing Snelgrove, the
report states. Two police officers were issued the FN303 weapons even after
telling their commander, Deputy Superintendent Robert O'Toole, they had
not been trained to use it." Superintendent O'Toole is not related
to Commissioner O'Toole.
-
- But then this: "'Just pull the trigger,' Robert
O'Toole told one cop who made it clear he had not been trained, according
to the report. That officer, Steven Gil, did not use the gun." And,
"Robert O'Toole has since retired, which will prevent the department
from seeking adminstrative charges against him. The police commissioner
said she recommended that he, along with Superintendent James Claiborne,
face internal BPD charges. Three officers - Samil Silta, Rochefort Milien
and Thomas Gallagher - will also face displinary procedures. Yesterday,
O'Toole could not say what charges will be leveled against them.
-
- The report states Milien, the only officer trained to
use the weapon, fired the fatal shot. However, the BPD did not establish
a crime scene at the spot where Snelgrove died or secure the officers'
weapons after the she was hit, so the commission could not determine how
many shots he fired."
-
- Some professionals, huh? The only guy trained turned
out to be the killer, and only because he "missed his intended target."
Oh, is that what happened? Why was he firing that high - aren't gas projectiles
intended to be fired at the lower torso or near the ground to break the
projectile-container to allow the gas to rise? And wasn't Snelgrove standing
behind the intended original victim?
-
- And let's all get ready for yet another case for "triple indemnity."
Will retired Superintendent O'Toole kick in his pension payments to help
the Boston taxpayers out with the payment of $5 million to Snelgrove's
grieving family? How about garnishing Milien's pay for the "wrongful
death?" That should be a new angle for defense lawyers: Your honor,
my client didn't commit murder - he's only trained in administering wrongful
deaths! You don't think they're going to fire this efficient killer, now
do ya?!
-
- Is the mentality of unaccountable politicians, unaccountable
police, and an unaccountable media finally hitting home mentally to any
of you "only-the-military-and-police" gun-control sheeple? How
many more innocent citizens and their children have to be slaughtered by
this triumvirate of anti-social psycopaths and sociepaths before a majority
of Americans wake up and smell the blood?
-
- These are the gun-controllers, "government officials,"
police, government snipers and killers, shooting unarmed and usually defenseless
people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time, or who were young
and foolish in both committing a minor offense and not deserving of the
brutal and terrifying force of the State. Think of our government's use
of force in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Waco
-
- Guns don't kill people - the State and police do!
-
- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
|
