Sunday, April 29, 2007

My Rant Continues

Lets take a look at Suzanna Hupp.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanna_Hupp Her beast was George Hennard. Hennard, coincidentally also a hater of womenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hennard, drove through the front of a Luby's restaurant in Killeen Texas and began shooting the patrons at random. Hupp owned a handgun but due to laws restricting her carrying it concealed, left it out in the car. Hupp first watched her father rush Hennard but he was gunned down before he could make his attack.

When an auto mechanic threw himself through a plate glass window and opened the way for others to escape, Hupp followed thinking her mother was close behind. Hupp's mother was not
and was subsequently shot and killed. Hupp lost both of her parents to the Beast and afterward entered the world of politics where she was a staunch advocate of the second amendment.

You know, as I think of it, I feel I'm beginning to sound more and more like an NRA advertisement. I promise you, I'm not.

My question here is this: Had Hupp known of the Beast's intentions, she obviously would not have let her family enter Luby's. But had she no choice in the matter, would she have disobeyed the law and entered with her hand gun in her purse ? Most likely. You and I are no different when it comes to our families. And what about ourselves ? Does not there also exist an urge for self defence in all of us ? Where is it, I wonder, in times like these ?
You, the civilian, the public, the people of this nation, must be wondering what the hell is going on. I tell you that none of this comes as a surprise to the law enforcement community. The problem you face is recognizing that the threat exists, acknowledging that there is a danger. The problem we face is defending against something that, due in large to the way our society and our laws are defined, cannot be defended against as the situation stands.
Case in point, the boy I met the other day. I cannot go into detail as my agency prohibits it. But I call him a boy as I am over twenty years older than him. He is by legal standards an adult. He committed a crime of violence that fell into the category of a felony that involved a weapon. He has a history of abusing animals, drugs, pedophilia. As much as I want to get my point across, I can't go into further detail. An FBI profiler would be deafened by the sound of the warning bells about now. In speaking with him, he had an air of aloof calm about him, yet he had less than an hour before committed a violent act. He wanted to help us in our investigation and did so with enthusiasm but if you look closely, you could see he just wanted the full extent of his acts known. A brag, if you will. His pride was this act and he wanted all to see. While he smiled and conversed with me as we drove in my patrol car, I felt the beast sitting right behind me. I wondered, is this what Harris and Klebold were like ? Do I have a spree killer behind me ? No, I didn't wonder, I knew. This skinny little skate punk, this boy, was the beast. The beast had no interest in me. I'm a small time player in the game. But I could see the potential in him. The ability to create a great tragedy. And me with no way to stop it. Sure, I could make the melodramatic statement here. I could say I wanted to end the boy right then. But we all know that is foolishness. Killing based on thoughts and ideas that had no way of being proven, would that not make me the Beast ?
I have known our local FBI guy for quite a while and worked with him before. Nothing major. I am, after all, only a patrol sergeant. But I'll copy all I can of this kid's file. I'll give it to my FBI friend so that he can see what I see and feel just as powerless to stop this as I do.

Disclaimer: I use alot of links such as Wikipedia to explain my points. I do not endorse any particular information source as 100% correct. (I've sent corrections to a few in the past) Do not believe everything you read. Find out for yourselves, my friends.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Making sense of it all. Or rather...

One must not beat dead horses as it will wear you out for no reason, but I can't help but touch briefly on the Trolley Square killings in Utah. Here we have Vanessa Quinn, married four years prior and she is finally able to afford a wedding ring. Valentines Day is nigh and this is the best time. Just thinking about it I can feel the love that must have been there. Looking for the perfect expression of their commitment to each others lives and looking forward to a life toge-BANG ! She's gone. A symbol or self expression by the Beast who likes to prove the point in blood. A point with little meaning as is expressed too often. Then people still breathing use words like tragedy and loss to express themselves. Words used so often that they have lost their meaning.
But when the living look at this act of the Beast, they catch a glimps. A seed is planted that one might not even know is there. The seed is Ken Hammond. An off duty officer who, like myself, believes the uniform is a twelve hour shift but the duty is 24/7. And Ken, like alot of other cops do and even more need too, carries a gun off duty. Ken hasn't forgotten the beast doesn't work shifts. Moreso, Ken knows that he may take his family into a restaurant and there will be the guy he arrested two nights ago for beating his wife and that guy might be holding a grudge. So Ken carries off duty.
So Ken hears the guns shots and rather than trying to make sense of it all right then he instead does the smart thing. Gets his family to run for safety. That being done, Ken goes to work hunting the Beast. Not much time, can't wait for others. Remember, each shot means a life taken. Ken corners the bastard. Now he can stop pressing forward. Local officers arrive and its over.
More on this later...

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Son of a ........



Well there you go. 32 dead. The killer dead but he was just the tool for the Beast. The method to the madness. I'm still in shock over investigating the Columbine shootings and my earlier blog post coming in a time frame so close in relation to this incident.

Before the bodies were off the floor people were going live and calling it a comparison to Columbine. It happened in a school, people. That's the only similarity.http://www.acolumbinesite.com/ Here. Read a little bit about it.

And where, may I ask, were the guns ? Virginia Tech is in a Southern state. We in the south are mighty partial to our firearms. Are you telling me that out of hundreds of students not one had a gun ? The freaks at NRA Headquarters must be jumping for joy at the cliche. 32 dead because guns were outlawed and only the outlaw had a gun. http://www.nra.org/ They haven't made any formal comment yet, preferring to be cautious. Wouldn't want the people reading to get the impression they're using 32 dead as a political tool. Smart move on their part.

And I am quick to say that I wasn't there, but I stand in smug self-righteous indignation when I see the cell film of those sworn law enforcement officers standing outside the building as shots are fired indoors. Not that far of a stretch to think that each shot means a life taken. Combat News Network (CNN) web site has the cell film if you want to see it.

We've had the title 'Active Shooter' for years in the law enforcement world. Another synonym for a form of the beast. There can't be a cop alive who hasn't seen the films of the Columbine shootings. Seen the officers standing OUTSIDE, behind their cars. Waiting for the SWAT team while people died inside. We have all stood witness to the mistake made then and sworn to use the hindsight to never make the same mistake those cops in Colorado did. Hell, My department dropped some $50,000 on equipment after that. We sent our SWAT Commander and other trainers to Active Shooter Training. The entire department had to undergo the training. Painful training using sub-munitions. I left my share of blood on the floor with everyone else. Scalp cuts. Bruised knees. Skin torn from hands. We all left with some kind of hurt but we left knowing that if it happened here any one of us, man or woman, road patrolman or evidence clerk, could form a diamond and neutralize the threat.

But you don't need the training. Its a great tool in fighting the beast but you don't need it to know that there's a bastard inside the building in front of you killing people and you have the means to stop him. Go do it.
More on this later....

Monday, April 16, 2007

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Its been a while, but I haven't forgotten.



Take a look. Its what I've been looking at for a month now. I set Mr. Klebold and Mr. Harris as my desktop to remind me of what I should be fighting. After ten years of law enforcement one gets into the rhythm of going from call to call. A stolen bicycle here, my neighbor's music is too loud and I don't have the self esteem enough to go next door and ask him to turn it down there. I lost my cel phone and need a police report to get a new one (x10 a week) and I did something extremely stupid because its all about me when I drive and strangely enough I wrecked my car. But about a month ago I got a twinge, going from bullshit call to bullshit call. That nervous twitch that you get when you think you should look over your shoulder even when you know nothing is there. I was missing something. I had forgotten The Beast, and instinct was telling me to remember. "The people sleep knowing that rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." George Orwell was speaking of men (and women) like me. I'd forgotten that in the complacency of the daily job. Complacency will get you killed. Complacency is also a factor in allowing incidents like Columbine to happen.



Should we be paranoid ? No, just watchful. Mind what we see and believe our instincts. Hold others accountable for their actions and force those with responsibility (cops, judges, prisons) to keep alert. No, we can't be everywhere. Ask the lovely young woman to the right. Anna Sviderski was 6 days shy of her 18th birthday, working at McDonald's, when the Beast came looking for her in the form of David Sullivan. By witness and coworker accounts she was sitting at a table out front when Sullivan walked in and shoved a knife into her side. Sullivan didn't know her. By his own words Sullivan left his house that day with the intentions of 'hurting a woman'. Any woman will do for the Beast.

Sullivan is a prior sex offender and schizo from way back that seems to have slipped through the system, as usual. Blah blah blah. You've heard it all a million times before. He slipped through because the powers that be forgot the Beast. He was free. Anna died. You can see the You Tube video memorials and the My Space pages and get a quick glimpse, not into her of course. Anna had an eight inch piece of steel shoved into her and now you'll never meet her. But you can take a look into the minds of those who loved her. How they saw her. The 'people' who aren't sleeping because the 'rough men' were not 'standing ready'. I wasn't standing ready. Do you see my point with this ? My meaning behind the words ?

I had one more picture I wanted to show you. A news photograph that I can't seem to find but has been in my mind for a couple of decades now. Its a bicycle in front of a McDonald's. Lying next to it is a dead little boy. The boy had saved his allowance and taken it to McDonald's to get him a real McDonald's burger. He met the Beast in the form of James Huberty who walked in and started firing on the crowd. Something like 20 casualties. A Police Sniper took him out before he could kill everyone. The sniper was standing ready. I need to remember that.

PS: Should any of you have a copy of the McDonald's photo of the little boy, I'd love to get a link to it. Been wanting it for my research files for years.