Kindly print out this article about the shooting of Jose Guerena.
Then, please print out this article about the shooting of Kathryn Johnston.
Next, print out this article regarding a "raid" executed on the Berwyn Heights, MD mayor’s home.
Finally, start printing out these 471,000+ Bing results.
Once you have finished all of that, kindly take the reams of paper you have created, fold them until they are all sharp corners, and shove them up your ass.
Sincerely,
Me.
For those looking for a bit more backstory on what it is I am talking about, feel free to peruse this comprehensive article by Bob S. an this originally-somewhat-shorter post by Roberta X.
In the interests of keeping the front page of this site as profanity-free as possible, I will confine myself to simply rephrasing what I commented over at Roberta’s: Yes, the "militarization of the police" is the gorramed problem (or, at least, one of them), and until that gets addressed, situations such as these are just going to spiral out of control until we do have a Shootout at Joe Schmo’s House. Worse still, it sure as hell does not help that the excessive force and tactics of SWAT teams have given criminals another believable vector to impersonate – when armed men knock down your door wearing black uniforms and screaming "police", what guarantee do you have that they actually are? Given that, "rolling over and taking it" is only the advisable course of action if you are personally profiting from the conflict, or too much of a damned coward to do something about it.
In Gabe’s case, it is likely both.
Suffice to say, no, I will not be taking any class from any totalitarian apologist, economic elitist, reasoned-discourse employing prat such as this, and I would strongly suggest you consider where your money goes in the future.
(Note: while I would love to take ownership of my instructions to Gabe, sadly, I cannot; instead, I am cribbing them entirely from Robert Heinlein, I believe from either The Number of the Beast or The Cat Who Walks through Walls.)
I wondered why Gabe Suarez felt so threatened by a law giving citizens recourse against police misconduct, then I was notified of his guilty pleadings to workers compensation fraud, money laundering, and grand theft. Explains a lot right there.
When police went from Peace Officers to Law Enforcement Officers, they became insulated opening the way to militarization. The upper commands bought a bunch of shinny toys and they HAVE to use them to justify budgets.
Even the excuse that SWAT and alikes are for the most hardened criminals do not fly. The most effective teams I have seen are the apprehension teams that search for murderers and dangerous parole violators. They dress in civvies and drive regular cars as they hunt for the truly scum of society.
@ ddbaxte: Likewise, he freely admits that he used to be one of the Only Ones who openly and publicly adopted the stance and tactics that they were going to win, even if it required burning your house down around you, regardless of whether or not the orders directing such an action were right or wrong.
With an attitude like that, it is no wonder he is less than enthusiastic about private citizens defending themselves against people like him.
@ Miguel: There are all kinds of ways to handle all kinds of situations that do not include the use of military levels of force to literally level a significant portion of a city block. But that is the easy course of action, the flashy course of action, the course of action that is bound to attract positive news attention and guarantee promotions and future political careers… and here we are.
And when the cops want to get someone who they know is dangerous -well- they don’t always roll up the SWAT.
Just look at this case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger#Capture
A known violent gangster and how do they get him? By tricking him out of his apartment and nabbing him on the street.
And that’s not getting into the fact that in almost all cases, the cops can wait out the perps. Which is far safer for everyone involved, but the whole justification for SWAT and no-knocks is to prevent the destruction of evidence.
Which tells volumes. Given the kind of State that values evidence of crime above all other things.
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. One of my favorites of Heinlein’s (also one of the first of his I read, and perhaps the two have something to do with each other).
Cat who walks through walls.
http://www.ems1.com/fire-ems/articles/1307244-Cop-who-stabbed-firefighter-medics-speaks-out/
Read this, and remember that in most states it is illegal to resist a police officer.
I think the instructions are from “Stranger in a Strange Land” I believe that Jubal Harshaw invited someone to do that with some rules or instructions.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/jubal-harshaw?before=1325911164
“Youngster, you can take your instructions, fold them until they are all corners and shove them in your oubliette.”
— Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Nicely put, Linoge!
@ The Jack: More poignantly, I believe, is that the state values shiny toys over American lives. SWAT teams are, after all, rather expensive, but they are also rather showy and get good news reporting for their respective towns. But if you do not use them, some upstart jackass (like me!) might accuse the town of misappropriation of funds.
So you use the SWAT team. On nobodies. And then you get the airtime, you get the publicity, and you can prove that you were “using” your “resources”.
And so the gulf between “police” and “citizen” gets wider with every day.
@ Chad C.: There we go. I actually started on NotB, so I tend to get the two of them confused, since they are functionally prequel and sequel.
@ B: Thanks!
@ Divemedic: Well, thankfully, Indiana is now a state where if the cop is doing something illegal, you can resist as necessary. As it always should have been.
@ Ted: Huh. Must be a recurring theme in Heinlein’s repertoire then, given I know it also showed up in CWWTW.
I need to read SiaSL again… Read it when I was too young, and did not really grok it.
@ Roberta X: High praise indeed
.
Mr. Suarez is a thug with a badge. Fortunately, I have yet to encounter one here in San Antonio or in any of my travels. We should hold our LEOs to a high standard due to the trust that pace with them. Address mistakes are unacceptable under any circumstance.
My plan is to resist a home invasion, should one occur. LEO mistake or thug robbery, I’ll make my objections with gun powder.
@ MAJ Mike:
Make that, “…due to the trust that we place with them.”
My fine motor skills fade with advancing age.
Well, in fairness, Gabe no longer has a badge, and for good reason, from my limited readings on the situation.
That said, yes, our police absolutely should be held to a higher standard than the rest of the American people, and, more poignantly, they should not be immune from prosecution due to failures or “mistakes” on their parts – that current dispensation removes any and all motivation to ‘check their work’.
Indeed.
I fully understand the value of training and practice. I see no value in training with someone like Gabe Saurez.
@ Dan:
Nor would you be valued as a student.
@ Dan: Agreed. He may offer the best training in the world, and I would not provide him money if my life depended on it.
@ Jeepers: Really? You come galloping in here to Gabe’s defense – for reasons I can only speculate upon – and that is the best you can manage?
I get the most disappointing trolls.
@ Linoge:
The poster stated he observed no value, I commented he would not be a valued student. Where’s the problem? My opinion is the majority of you are mostly worthless. The only redeeming quality is your mouth piece that mentions trainers like Suarez. No matter how much trash you talk, your still putting his name out there, and for that we thank you.
I think you miswrote your third sentence – specifically, you added some rather superfluous verbiage in there; instead, it should read, “My opinion is worthless.” You are a nobody. You are nothing more than yet another Gabe-fanboy who comes charging to his “rescue” and acts the idiot in the process. For example: in that context, it is spelled “you’re”, not “your”, dumbass.
And if you genuinely believe that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” in this particular context, you are an even bigger dumbass than you would have lead us all to believe with your two comments thus far.
Jeepers loves the cock.
@ Ted N: Zipper
nibbler, you left the word “my” out of your statement. Yes, I do love my cock.
@ Linoge:
“You’re” going to try and argue about my level of intelligence because I wrote “your” incorrectly? You’re weak. How’s that you holster sniffer?
No, I am going to accurately observe your sub-standard-and-steadily-decreasing level of intelligence based off your decisions to (1) show up at a weblog you have never commented at before and lead off with nothing better than personal attacks, (b) actually take the time to defend a totalitarianistic idiot with delusions of grandeur, (iii) actually presume to believe your opinion means a damned thing to any of us here, and (D) never progress past kindergarten-school-yard grade insults.
The fact that you cannot spell is simply icing on the Cake of Idiocy you so graciously baked for us.
Now, I would direct your attention to the top of this page (apparently I need to re-add the link down here), the “Commenting Policy” link there, and, specifically, this tract from that policy:
You have not met that “certain level” with any of your comments, and I would strongly suggest you re-evaluate your commenting patterns should you wish to continue freely expressing yourself on my property.
Let me get this right.
Jeepers, an insulting troll, comes here to try to convince us that the training provided by someone is worthwhile.
And he does this not by discussing the merits of the Trainer’s position on the militarization of the police. Not by discussing the merits of the actual training provided by someone willing to burn down a house to get a target. (and the fact that the trainer views a citizen as a target is another issue all together).
Nope, fanboy comes here with insults and bad ones at that.
yeah, that is the type of person I want to associate with — NOT.
>>Any comment or trackback that does not meet a certain level of decorum, decency, courtesy, and politeness will be summarily deleted.>>
What about Ted N? “Jeepers loves the cock”. Will that person get a similar warning? Honestly I could care less if you train with the man or not. However, calling Mr. Suarez a felon is an out and out lie. The man was never convicted of a felony. Calling his training not worth while when you’ve never attended any? How can you base that accusation? If calling you to task for your comments is trolling here, by all means call me a troll. The bottom line is you don’t agree with his stance and what’s he’s written. He’s been called a thug with a badge. Did you also warn that person? Even the first comment here was inflammatory. Which of those charges listed is a Class B Misdemeanor? Answer, not one of them. Will that person be warned as well?
Do your rules apply to your own posts as well? I’m guessing not.@ Linoge:
Allow me to make this as painfully simple as I possibly can for you – I apologize for the polysyllabic words, but such is life:
My site. My property. My rules. If you do not like them, go pay for your own webspace and get the hell off mine.
You have no standing – no right whatsoever – to demand to know how I treat my other commenters or how I handle their behavior. Specifically to you, however, in the course of four whole comments, one of which came after a very clear warning, you have successfully failed to provide any value-added to either my site, myself, or my readers. In fact, as Bob said, if you are representative of the kind of person who trains / associates with Gabe, I feel even more vindicated in my decision to stay as far away from that man as possible.
Moving on, you are the first person to mention “felony” or “Class B Misdemeanor” in the course of this thread – I genuinely have to wonder if you are even paying attention to what you are responding to at this point, or just knee-jerk copy-pasting previous comments from previous arguments you have had on this topic before… and indubitably lost.
You had your warning. You squandered it. Any further comments from you will be handled as I see fit.
Gabe is a known quantity in the circle of trainers I associate with. His felonious past should warn off anyone seeking professional instruction, for Gabe’s past _will_ come up at any ensuing lethal force grand jury trial. Do you think you would enjoy having an instructor show up for your defense that plead out of a major felony rap?
I think not.
There are many other instructors out there that do not have the credibility baggage that Gabe has. Attend one of their classes, and let the Gabe fanboys have their _sensei_. They will see soon enough what having his name on their training certificate means…
Not being a lawyer of any type, I cannot speculate or guess as to how the people who trained you in self-defense would affect your self-defense related case, but I cannot guess it would be that much. Perhaps someone with more experience in the court room could clarify that point?
In any case, I simply will not give my money to a statism facilitator like Gabe, no matter how good his training might or might not be. One has to stand for one’s principles, and apparently he has decided he does not have any.
@ Jeepers:
I’m funny. You’re not.
I’m not sticking up for a statist douchenozzle. You are.
wnt t plgze t y ll. ddn’t rlz tht y gys hv zr mpct n nythng rmtly mprtnt.
(Editor’s Note: Due to this comment’s complete and utter lack of any redeeming quality whatsoever, it has been disemvoweled. Future comments from the same author will probably receive similar treatment, if not deleted outright.
Discuss amongst yourselves when “y” is a vowel.)
Jeepers wrote:
“Y” is a vowel when you’re listening to EBN-OZN.
Sometimes.
@ Ted N: And you occasionally write comments of worth.
The same cannot be said for this recent troll.
@ Jeepers: Wow. You successfully managed to craft a post so devoid of any meaningful content or value that disemvowling it did not reduce its quality one iota. Impressive.
From here on out, your comments are auto-moderated. I would point out that you are joining the ranks of people like MikeB302000 with that proclamation. In fact, in real life, you seem to associate with wanna-be petty authoritarians who want average citizens subjected to an increasingly militarized and hostile police without any recourse or alternative, and in digital life, you are being grouped with wanna-be petty authoritarians who want average citizens subjected to an increasingly militarized and hostile police force without any recourse or alternative.
I could say a lot of things about you, but I could not honestly call you inconsistent, I will say that much.
Oh, and just for everyone’s edification, this post is now the 12th Google return for “Gabe Suarez”, a distinction that is due, in part, to this troll’s ongoing commenting here, I feel certain. Yay me!
@ AuricTech: That music actually broke my cats’ ears…
[...] posting this info bleg relates to a post over at Walls of the City about Gabe Suarez, which had some thread drift into the actual value of the training Gabe Suarez offers. Having [...]
@ Linoge:
Mea Culpa about breaking your cats’ ears (the linked video to Enigma’s song with that title ought to be easier on their delicate ears).
If I may further impose, I hope you don’t mind my springboarding from this discussion to a bleg about the value of training provided by Front Sight? I plead, in my defense, that the subject of my bleg is germane to the topic of your post, in that it pertains to well-known firearms trainers.
The fireworks were bad enough last night
.
And no worries about the linkage – I have no actual experience with the company, but I have alerted a few folks who do to the post.
@ Linoge:
Thanks for spreading the word about my blegging! Chris from AK has already responded with some useful comments.
Awesome. Good to hear I could use my power for good
.
Keep in mind that the majority of Suarez’s students are probably the hyped up testosterone fueled mega-cops that he is defending. While I’m sure he receives a significant enough quantity of “mere civilians” to make training them worthwhile, we proles cannot likely compete with the bloated budgets of modern American police forces. His can’t train Barney Fife into a SuperKOP on the one hand and the civilians who will resist them on the other.
Oh, I definitely understand that Gabe is doing scant more than catering to his bread-and-butter customers, but it is still disgusting.
Yes, the situation sucks, and yes, we mere peons would be rolled over if we tried to actively resist, but if you honestly believe “that is just the way it is, and not only is there nothing we can do about it, there is nothing we should do about it”… well, damn, I dare say this post summed up my feelings about people like that.