Here at the house, I have a couple of decades plus of military experience. I have tools to dig in or out of natural disasters. I have extinguishers and hoses. I have a field trauma kit and bandages. I have weapons both melee and firearm. I know how to use them. I know how to trench, support and revet.
I understand the fire triangle and appropriate approaches. I understand breathing, bleeding and shock. I know how to detain, restrain and control. I have done all of these at least occasionally, professionally.
I’ve stood on top of a collapsing levee in a flood. I’ve fought a structure fire from inside so we could get everyone out before the fire department showed up, which only took two minutes, but people can die that fast. I’ve had structures collapse while I was working on them.
I’ve been in an aircraft that had a “mechanical” on approach and had to be repaired in-flight before landing. I’ve helped control a brush fire. I’ve hauled disabled vehicles out of ditches in sub-zero weather.
My ex wife has over a decade or service and some of the same training.
We have trained our young adult children.
My wife is a rancher who knows her way around a shotgun, livestock, sutures and tools, hurricanes and floods, and works in investigations professionally.
Our current houseguest is another veteran.
This means if anything happens at the house–and last year we had a lightning strike, a tornado and a flood within 10 days–we’re pretty well prepared.
Now, we’re probably better off than 95% of the households out there. The level of disaster that necessitates backup varies.
If we find it necessary to call 911, it means the party is in progress and it’s bad.
You will probably not be going home safe at the end of your shift.
And you know what? If it gets to that point, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit if you get smoked. I don’t give a shit if you fall under a tree. I don’t give a shit if you get shot at.
Because at that point, I’ve done everything I can with that same circumstance, and run out of resources.
If my concern was “you going home safe,” then I’d just fucking hunker down and die. Because I wouldn’t want that poor responder to endanger himself.
Except…that’s what I pay taxes for, and that’s what you signed up for. Just like I signed up to walk into a potential nuke war in Germany and hold off the Soviets, and did walk into the Middle East and prepare to take fire while keeping expensive equipment functioning so our shooters could keep shooting.
There’s not a single set of orders I got that said my primary job was to “Come home safe.” They said it was to “support the mission” or “complete the objective.” Coming home safe was the ideal outcome, but entirely secondary to “supporting” or “completing.” Nor, once that started, did I get a choice to quit. Once in, all in.
When that 80 year old lady smells smoke or hears a noise outside her first floor bedroom in the ghetto, she doesn’t care if you go home safe, either. She’s afraid she or the kids next door won’t wake up in the morning.
If I call, I expect your ass to show up, sober, trained, professional. I expect you to wade in with me or in place of me, and drag a child out of a hole, or out from a burning room, or actually stand up and block bullets from hitting said child, because by the time you get there, I’ll have already done all that. And there will be field dressings, chainsawed trees, buckets and empty brass scattered about.
I don’t want to hear some drunk and confused guy squirming on the ground playing “Simon Says” terrified you so much you had to blow him away.
I don’t want to hear that some random guy 35 yards away who you had no actual information on “may have reached toward his waist band. Or that “the tree might fall any moment” or that “the smoke makes it hard to see.”
Near as I can tell, I don’t hear the smokejumpers, or the firefighters, or the disaster rescue people say such things.
But it’s all I ever hear from the cops. If you and your five girlfriends in body armor, with rifles, are that terrified of actually risking your life for the theoretically dangerous job you volunteered for and can quit any time, then please do quit.
You can get a job doing pest control and go home safe every night.
Until a bunch of fucking pussies with big tattoos, small dicks, body armor and guns blow you away for minding your own business.
Because what you’re telling me with that statement is, your only concern is cashing a check. That’s fine. But if that’s your concern, don’t pretend you’re serving the public. If you wanted to help people at risk of life, you would be a firefighter, running into buildings, dragging people out, getting scorched regularly.
If you’re cool with writing tickets, then there’s jobs where you can do just that.
If you want to tangle with bad guys and blow them away, fair enough. But understand: That means they get to shoot first to prove their intent, just as happens with the military these days. Our ROE these days are usually “only if fired upon and no civilians are at risk.”
If your plan is “shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then if anyone is still alive try to ask questions,” and bleat, “But I was afeard fer mah lahf!” you’re absolutely no better than the thugs you claim to oppose. All you are is another combatant in a turf war I don’t care about.
Since I know your primary concern is “being safe,” then I’ll do you the favor of not calling. Cash your welfare check, and try not to shoot me at a “courtesy” sobriety checkpoint for twitching my eye “in a way that suggested range estimation.”
If you’re one of the vanishingly few cops who isn’t like that, then what the hell are you doing about it? If there’s going to be a lawsuit costing the city millions, isn’t it better that it be a labor suit from the union over the clown you fired, than a wrongful death suit over the poor bastard the clown shot? Both are expensive, but one has a dead victim you enabled. So how much do you actually care about that life?
How is the training so bad that it’s not clear who is the scene commander who gives the orders?
How is it that trigger happy bozos who, out of costume, look no different from the gangbangers you claim to oppose, get sent up front to fulfill their wish of hosing someone down because “I was afraid for my life!”?
Why does the rot exist in your department?
If you can’t do anything about it, why are you still in that department?
At some point, collective guilt is a thing.
You’ve probably not been a good cop for a long time.
And I still don’t care if you go home safe. I care that everyone you purport to “serve and protect” goes home safe.
Category: Cops
Japan’s gun control laws so strict the Yakuza turn to toy pistols
Japan has some of the world’s strictest gun control laws with punishments that even scare gangsters
They also make their money via extortion, racketeering, loan sharking, and a host of other illegal activities.
For collecting protection money, guns would seem to be ideal, but these days, fake guns serve the purpose of striking fear into victims and rivals, without the heavy penalties. However, the results are sometimes comical rather than deadly.
According to Nagoya Television and other sources, on November 29 at the Nagoya District Course, a crime boss from the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi was sentenced to three years in prison (four years suspended) for threatening a rival gang member with a toy gun.
Last December, in Nagoya City, Yoichi Yoshida, 49, chairman of the Kobe-Yamaguchi-gumi Issei-kai crime group, confronted a 46-year-old rival boss in the Yamaguchi-gumi.
He pressed a fake gun against him and repeatedly pulled the trigger, making gunshot sounds several times. In Japanese, the sounds of a gun are represented as “BAN” “DON” “GAN” rather than “BANG BANG”.
Reports at the time of the crime vary as to what the fake gun sounded like, but police confirmed that the model gun did not actually discharge any real or fake bullets, of any kind.

The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest organized crime group, with over a hundred years in business split apart on August 27th 2015. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, the new group, has been skirmishing with the Yamaguchi-gumi ever since. There has been relatively little bloodshed. The toy gun threat was part of that conflict.
Ryo Fujiwara, long-time writer on yakuza affairs and author of the book, The Three Yamaguchi-Gumi, says that the punishment for using a gun in a gang war or in a crime is now so heavy that most yakuza avoid their use at all – unless it is for an assassination.
“In a hit, whoever fires the gun, or is made to take responsibility for firing the gun, has to pretty much be willing to go to jail for the rest of their life. That’s a big decision. The repercussions are big, too. No one wants to claim responsibility for such acts – the gang office might actually get shut-down.”
The gang typically also has to support the family of the hit-man while he is in prison, which is also a financial burden for the organization.
Japan’s Firearms and Swords Control Laws make it a crime to illegally possess a gun, with a punishment of jail time of up to 10 years.
Illegal possession more than one gun, the penalty goes up to 15 years in prison. If you own a gun and matching ammunition, that’s another charge and a heavier penalty. The most severe penalty is for the act of discharging a gun in a train, on a bus, or most public spaces, which can result in a life sentence.
After the mayor of Nagasaki City was shot to death by a Yamaguchi-gumi member in 2007, the laws have been continually revised to make them even stricter.
A police officer in Osaka’s Organized Crime Control Division, speaking on background noted, “In the de facto world of law enforcement, when a yakuza fires a gun, we’re almost always going to charge them with attempted murder—which is a very heavy crime and serious time in ‘the pig-house’ (jail). Guns kill people, so if you use one, intent to kill is right there. Toy guns? Not so much.”
He added, “Unless you’re an old gangster and wanting to stay in jail until you die because you got nowhere else to go, you don’t use a gun. The crime isn’t worth the time in jail.”
Last June, two members of the Matsuba-kai crime group, had a wrist watch worth 850,000 yen ($7,626) sent to their office in the Arakawa district of Tokyo, cash on delivery.
When the watch arrived, one of the gang members pulled out a model gun and told the delivery workers, “Leave the watch and get out of here!”
The deliverymen, however, didn’t flinch. They grabbed back the box with the watch, took the model gun away from the yakuza, ran out of the office and called the police. The gang members were later arrested on charges of attempted extortion.
According to the National Police Agency of Japan, in a nation of over 122 million people, there were 12 shootings in the first half of 2017, with two people killed and three injured. Eight of the shootings were believed to be connected to organized crime.
A low-ranking member of the Kobe-Yamaguchi-gumi put it this way: “All of the smart guys got rid of their guns a long-time ago. The penalties are way too high. You get life in prison if you just fire a gun. That’s not fun.”
Jake Adelstein is the author of the memoir Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan and chief editor of on-line journal Japan Subculture Research.
They look like a bunch of fun guys Huh?
By Brian Maass
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – A CBS4 Investigation has learned Arapahoe County Deputies and Colorado State Troopers poured more than 50 shots into a stationary car in March believing the driver was armed.
It now turns out she was only armed with either a dustbuster or tire jack but emerged unscathed. However at least one deputy inadvertently shot up a marked state patrol unit during the unusual standoff.
“It was all her behavior and we have to respond to that behavior,” said Arapahoe County Sheriff Dave Walcher of the March 3rd standoff with Jasmine Johnson.

(credit: CBS)
It began with two drivers reporting to police that Johnson was driving erratically on Interstate 70.
Johnson subsequently called police and in slurred tones, said that she was armed with an Ak-47 and intended to kill as many police as possible. “I want to kill cops,” said Johnson on the taped call. “I’m gonna kill all the cops I can. I have a gun, have a machete, have an AK-47.”
Arapahoe County deputies and the Colorado State Patrol caught up with Johnson’s Ford Focus on I-70 near Agate at about 11:30 pm. On March 3rd. They conducted a high-risk stop, keeping their distance and repeatedly urging Johnson to show her hands and get out of her car.
“Wasn’t sure why I was being pulled over, trying to figure out what was going on,” Johnson said.
According to CSP dashcam video of the incident obtained by CBS4, Johnson responded to the police requests by displaying lewd gestures and threatening the officers with threats like, “I’m going to kill you.” Johnson told CBS4 “I was quite fearful of something happening to me if I did get out of the car.”

(credit: CBS)
After about 15 minutes, believing Johnson had pointed a gun at them, officers unleashed a volley of shots into her car.
When nothing happened after the first round of shots, officers continued shouting commands at Johnson to get out of the car.
When they again thought they saw a gun, more shots were fired into her car.
“Those deputies and troopers showed a lot of restraint in not causing a further confrontation,” said Walcher.
In about 30 minutes, from approximately 75 feet away, deputies and troopers fired 55 rounds at Johnson’s car from AR-15 rifles, .40 caliber pistols, and a shotgun. Not a single round hit her.
“I am surprised,” said Walcher.
Inside the car, Johnson said she could hear the bullets striking all around her.
“I could hear them, the glass shattering. I was extremely scared and in disbelief. I was praying that I survive it.”

(credit: CBS)
She did. After about two hours, law enforcement brought in an armored vehicle to approach her car. They spotted her apparently asleep in the front seat. Johnson was handcuffed and arrested although police say she struggled and tried to spit on officers.
Johnson later told authorities she had attempted to commit suicide that night by overdosing on a pain reliever, a muscle relaxer, and alcohol. When interviewed by CBS4, Johnson denied the suicide attempt, denied making those statements and denied drinking and ingesting medications that night.
Although no weapons were found in her car, a Colorado State Patrol spokesperson apparently told multiple media outlets the next morning that officers only fired at Johnson after she shot at them. CSP Chief Scott Hernandez now acknowledges that was not true. “Unfortunately sometimes things are said that’s not specifically accurate”, said Hernandez. “I don’t think it was intentional to go out that way”.
He said somehow incorrect information about Johnson being armed was repeated and shared with law enforcement and the public. “As we know the facts now, that’s not the case.”
Photos of the crime scene obtained by CBS4 also show that in the bursts of gunfire, an Arapahoe County deputy accidentally shot up a state patrol cruiser. Reports suggest the patrol vehicle was struck 28 times.
The deputy was standing immediately behind the car but was apparently unaware that many of his shots intended for Johnson were actually hitting the patrol car. Arapahoe County Sheriff Dave Walcher said,”With all the distractions and lights I don’t think our deputy realized he was hitting the top of the car”. He said his department is doing additional training to address the misfires.
A legal review of what happened concluded officers were justified in their actions since they believed Johnson had a gun and intended to kill or hurt them.
Johnson was charged with numerous felonies stemming from that standoff, but court records show most charges were dismissed when Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor menacing. She was sentenced to three years probation.
Johnson, who offered shifting and varying accounts of her behavior that night, told CBS4 one thing that was indisputable.
“I am extremely fortunate to be alive.”
CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass has been with the station more than 30 years uncovering waste, fraud, and corruption. Follow him on Twitter @Briancbs4.
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Because the Law will never stamp out the evil in men’s heart!
Homeless man stabbed to death with 3-foot sword, suspect arrested

A homeless Florida man was arrested and charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed another homeless man to death using a 3-foot sword, officials said.
Authorities received a 911 call on Saturday afternoon about someone covered in blood lying next to railroad tracks in Lake Worth, about 10 miles south of West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Responding authorities found a man dead from “visible injuries consistent with a violent attack,” the sheriff’s office said. A 3-foot sword was also found near the victim, the sheriff’s office said.
After witnesses and a person of interest were interviewed, George Livingston, 51, was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder, the sheriff’s office said.
It appears that the suspect and the victim, David Beckett, 58, got into an altercation, which led to the stabbing, the sheriff’s office said.
Virginia police arrest sword-wielding man dressed as the Joker
Swedish sword attack leaves teacher dead, students injured
Both men lived in a homeless camp near the scene of the apparent attack, the sheriff’s office said.
Livingston made a first appearance before a judge Sunday morning and “is being held without bond pending a full hearing to determine whether he can be released from jail,” according to the Palm Beach Post.
It’s unclear whether he entered a plea.
Livingston, a felon with past arrests including aggravated stalking, is not permitted to carry a weapon, the newspaper reported.
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BOTTOM LINE- If somebody needs killing, it can always be done somehow ! Grumpy
Man arrested in wife’s death says gun accidentally discharged during sex act
Shortly after 7:50 a.m. Thursday, John Fitzgerald Gonzalez called 911, reporting that his wife, Nicole Nguyen, had been shot in the stomach after a struggle over a gun.
When officers arrived at her home in the 9000 block of College Green Street in the southwestern valley, police said she was found on the floor of her garage next to her vehicle, suffering from a gunshot wound to her left torso.
After the shooting, Gonzalez initially told police he was picking their son up for school at the home when Nguyen pulled out a gun. He said a struggle broke out, and the gun accidentally discharged.
An arrest report for the 53-year-old Gonzalez indicates he later told police he was performing a sexual act on her prior to the subsequent struggle and shooting.
“It is unknown if the sex was actually consensual or if it was coerced by force or threats of force,” the arrest report said.
Gonzalez met arriving officers outside the residence with the couple’s 6-year-old son. The child was uninjured during the incident, police said.
Clark County family records show Nguyen had filed for divorce seven weeks earlier, prompting Gonzalez to move out of their College Green Street home.
But according to his arrest report, he told police Nguyen had recently expressed interest in getting back together. He also told police they had an appointment with her attorney later that day to cancel divorce proceedings.
The two had agreed to meet about 7:30 that morning, Gonzalez said in his police interview, adding he had two guns with him because he was concerned the meeting was an ambush.
Gonzalez told police she reached for the gun during the sex act and the gun fired once; he said he held the gun by the grip and pulled the trigger when she tugged the gun toward her.
“Detectives found his excuse for having brought the gun and keeping it by him during sex implausible,” police wrote in the report, adding they were skeptical of his description of how she reached for the gun.
Gonzalez’s interview with police is the only interview noted in the arrest report.