[EDITORIAL] Our Officers at Risk

With the second wave of Ferguson protests marking the anniversary of the police shooting of a black teen — who assaulted and robbed a store clerk and then assaulted an officer when he attempted to detain him — there’s been a renewed, and ongoing, focus on the actions of police in such situations.

Police continue to be under the microscope — and on cellphone video — but many allegations of police brutality are absolutely absurd, and some tales are fabricated.

We’re not saying all cops are saints and their actions under stress are always correct.

Certainly there are bad apples in police departments, just like there are bad doctors, lawyers, even journalists.

And like all of us, they’re human and make mistakes.

But for the most part, based on our experiences dealing with police for many decades, the majority are sincere in their jobs to “serve and protect” citizens and property.

The fact is that police, deputies and other law enforcement officers daily face the risk that they will be assaulted, and wounded as they go about their job of investigating crimes and apprehending criminals. Sometimes they face danger in responding to routine calls.

It happened last week in Franklin County when a deputy encountered a suspect while investigating an armed robbery at a Villa Ridge business.

After hours of searching, a deputy answered reports of a suspicious man in a subdivision not far from the business. He approached the man who at first appeared cooperative.

Then the situation quickly changed and the deputy found himself looking down the barrel of a handgun the suspect pulled from his waistband.

In that instant, with his life on the line, he took action and charged the suspect. During an ensuing scuffle over the deputy’s gun, the suspect was shot in the head, but was not seriously wounded.

It turned out that the suspect has a long history of violent crimes in several states and was free on parole after serving a number of years in a federal prison. He now is facing new charges in Franklin County.

That is just one dramatic example of the dangers deputies face each day.

Over the weekend, a man who was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend on a float trip on the Meramec River fought deputies when they tried to take him into custody. He had to be stunned with a taser gun.

It’s another example of the risks that officers undertake to provide a peaceful society for all of us.

Like others, we’re fed up with all the jabs, both verbal and physical, being taken at police!

Via: Emissourian

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Carjacker Tries To Steal Unmarked Cop Car

AUGUST 1--A knife-wielding Florida man who attempted a carjacking Thursday night quickly discovered that the vehicle he targeted was an 

undercover cop car occupied by a pair of armed plainclothes detectives, according to an arrest affidavit.

Dominique Albert, 27, allegedly approached the car on a St. Petersburg street around 9:45 PM and yanked open the passenger door. Albert, pictured at right, leaned into the auto while holding a steak knife in his right hand.

While Albert’s would-be victims were initially startled by the interloper, they quickly rallied.

“Police!,” shouted Detective Daniel Torok from the driver’s seat as he drew his handgun and leveled it at Albert, who “turned and fled on foot.”

Torok and his partner then chased after Albert, who dropped his knife during the pursuit. When the cops caught up with Albert, he “fought Police with violence, but was finally taken into custody after a lengthy fight.” Albert, who allegedly continued to struggle after being handcuffed, stopped resisting after a backup officer “deployed his Taser.”

A search of Albert turned up two other “large, fixed blade knives,” police reported.

Charged with carjacking, resisting arrest, and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, all felonies, Albert is locked up on $170,000 bond.

At the time of the alleged carjacking, the hapless Albert was free on bond in connection with an arrest last month for shoplifting at a Walmart store. 

Via: The Smoking Gun

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[VIDEO] Civil defense: Citizens, vets, guardsmen and cops take up arms to protect military facilities

It’s supposed to be the other way around, but civilians – as well as state and local authorities – have taken up the task of protecting the military in the wake of the Chattanooga terror attack.

Citizens groups, veterans, local law enforcement and the National Guard are all standing armed watch over the men and women of the military, protecting them from terrorists and – some say - from a federal policy that leaves service members unable to defend themselves on Pentagon property.

“After the recent shooting in Chattanooga, it has become clear that our military personnel must have the ability to defend themselves against these types of attacks on our own soil,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Arming the National Guard at these bases will not only serve as a deterrent to anyone wishing to do harm to our service men and women, but will enable them to protect those living and working on the base.”

“We’re just a group of citizens who exercise their rights and do things like this when it comes to filling security gaps where the government falls short,” spokesman Chris McIntire

- Chris McIntire, 3% of Idaho

The July 16 attack that left four Marines and a Navy sailor dead at Chattanooga’s Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center, and followed a shooting at a recruiting center nearby, has sparked a national conversation on the 23-year-old policy. But governors, sheriffs, police chiefs and concerned citizens across the nation are not waiting for Washington to change the law.

The governors of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma,  Texas and Wisconsin have all signed orders in the last several days to allow National Guard troops to carry loaded guns on bases and at military recruiting centers in their states.

Citizens, veterans and local police are also stepping up to protect service members.

In Idaho, an 800-member volunteer group calling itself “3% of Idaho” is guarding military recruiting centers in an effort it dubs “Operation Guardian Angel.”

“We’re just a group of citizens who exercise their rights and do things like this when it comes to filling security gaps where the government falls short,” spokesman Chris McIntire, who said his group is not a militia and takes its name from the number of colonists believed to have taken part in the Revolutionary War, told KBOI 2News on Tuesday.

James Maxwell was one of five men who stood guard Wednesday outside a Farmington, N.M., recruiting substation. He told the Daily Times service members deserve protection since the attack in Chattanooga and amid calls from ISIS for its "lone wolf" sympathizers to attack Americans who wear the uniform.

"They weren't expecting anything to happen in Chattanooga," he told the newspaper. "They're sitting ducks here."

Via: Fox News

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Marilyn Mosby’s Father Was A ‘Crooked Cop,’ Police Officer Grandfather Sued For Racial Discrimination

Marilyn Mosby has made it widely known that she comes from a long line of police officers, five generations of law enforcement to be exact. The 35-year-old Baltimore city state’s attorney’s father, mother, grandfather, and uncles have all at some point worked as cops — a history which Mosby cites to push back against the claim — as Fox News’ Griff Jenkins put it during a recent interview — that Baltimore’s finest believe the rookie prosecutor does not have their backs because of how she’s handled the Freddie Gray case.

“I come from five generations of police officers,” Mosby responded to Jenkins. “That’s absurd.”

But while it’s true that numerous Mosby family members have worn the badge, a thorough look reveals a more complicated picture of that law enforcement background than she has let on in public.

Start with Mosby’s father, a former Boston police officer named Alan James. In 1989, James and a fellow officer named Dwight Allen were arrested and charged with assault and battery for their role in several armed robberies in a high-crime area of Boston.

According to a Boston Globe article at the time, James, Allen and another suspect flashed badges and brandished guns while shaking down drug dealers. The officers identified themselves as “renegade police” and were reportedly drunk. During one robbery, one of the men fired his gun, though nobody was hurt.

James was arrested while on duty at a police station in Dorcester but was acquitted of charges in the case in 1991. After acquittal he was immediately fired for conduct unbecoming an officer, according to the Baltimore Brew, an independent newspaper.

Mosby has not publicly acknowledged this mark on her family’s policing legacy. Though, according to the Brew, she acknowledged her father’s troubled past in a biography written for her campaign for state’s attorney.

“My dad was a crooked cop,” Mosby said, according to the document, which was not released to the public. “He confiscated drugs and money from the dealers on a regular basis.”

Via: Daily Caller

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