Outrage: Cops Stand Impotent As Family Gets Murdered

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Outrage: Cops Stand Impotent As Family Gets Murdered

Written By : Melissa Clouthier

This reminds me of Columbine and Virginia Tech and pisses me off just as badly. From the Washington Examiner:

The District police department policy on forcible entry caused a “deadly delay” as officers waited for a supervisor outside an apartment while a mother and her two young sons were being stabbed to death inside, according to a lawsuit filed by the woman’s family.

The policy that led to police taking nearly an hour to finally bust down the door and find the murdered family is at the center of a $60 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officers involved.

An hour? What good are police? Really? Besides writing tickets and generally harassing people, if they cannot SERVE AND PROTECT what good are they?

Lee

To all supporters of the 2nd Amendment, here's yet another story of why it's good for homeowners to have their own gun (and know how to use it) and not rely on the police to “protect” them. By the time the cops show up, you're already dead. Or, as in this case, you may still be alive but will be killed while the cops wait for approval to enter.

tblrk2006

Guess we better ban knives too. Maybe the criminals will turn those in, or not find a way to get them.

Mr. EMT

yeah… oh wait MS 13 members use machete's.
Several gangs prefer ball bats…
and most others just don't care if they are obeying gun laws while they are breaking other laws…

http://www.angry.net/blog2 Angry Webmaster

When seconds count, Police are an hour away…if they show up at all.
StanW

How very sad. The police involved in this tragedy should be removed from law enforcement and jailed, just like I would be if I stood by and allowed someone to be murdered when I could have prevented it.

Oh, and for you Liberals, this was not a gun crime so you cannot use it to try to further your pathetic attempts to take our Constitutional right away from us. Better luck next time!

Mr. EMT

If i remember correctly, it is not a crime to not render aid to someone who is being killed/dying etc.
It is horrendous and amoral, but I have never heard of it being against the law.
However, for a police officer who has the duty to act, and fails that duty? Yeah that is another story.
However, big question is if the officers involved are union members.

StanW

Sorry, you are right. With my training, I have a duty to act and forget that itr is not that way for everyone.

It is still totallyu reprehensable that a police officer would stand by and listen to a women and children being slowly murdered.

SabianKinslow

Unforunately, these same police, having gotten an annaymous tip, will do a no-knock entry, kill the family dog, points guns and a wife and kids all the while looking for a $2 pinch bag of medicinal pot.

Don't get me wrong, I think pot should be illegal and stay that way but the flambouant use of Rambo SWAT tactics for something that a footpad should be able to investigate over an afternoon is completely out of control. And when SWAT SHOULD be breaking doors down to help, they stand around with their thumbs up their rears.

The 2nd amendment is partially for this type of situation. Protection from tyrany is the rest of it.

Christopher_Taylor

Yeah that's the annoying part, the inconsistency and lack of common sense. And if you have a camera they'll drag you in and confiscate it too heh.

UFKA_Smithwick

So the standard line is: we ought to ban guns, they have no place in the hands of average citizens, if you want protection just call the cops.

I wonder how they will try to spin this.

StanW

The way they always spin incidents that do not conform to their preconceived notions of how society should work…

They will ignore it and later deny it ever happened.

UFKA_Smithwick

That is absolutely slanderous and a complete misrepresentation of the truth. Shame on you stan!

You completely left out the bit where they label you a bigot for even mentioning it then blame Bush.

StanW

That is SOP for ALL Liberal arguments, Smith, not just inconvenient ones like this. I thought it was understood.

Mr. EMT

Well, this did happen in DC, not sure what their current gun laws are, but they have had a city wide ban for years until recently.

UFKA_Smithwick

So you're saying they need to ban guns even more before they'll be safe?

Androhip

Really? What good are we? Maybe call somebody else in the middle of the night, no you'll call me. You'll call because the neighbor's music is too loud, or you found someone’s wallet. Maybe you'll call because the boss got a little too friendly or your car broke down. Maybe you found your door open when you got home and you were sure you locked it, you'll call. You'll call because the guy down the street speeds by your house every day or because someone let their dog run loose and it scarred your kids. Or maybe you'll call because someone threatened you with a knife. And you know what, we'll come. We’ll come when no one else will. we've been shot at and had our friends shot. We put broken people in ambulances and bags. We'll sit with a crying parent after they've killed their child, or bring a lost child home to another crying parent.

And we've written tickets, chased the dog home, checked your house, returned the wallet, told them to turn down the music, arrested your boss and chased the man with the knife. Really.

This is not written in defense of the indefensible acts of the few.

Christopher_Taylor

I agree, and believe me we all are very grateful for your work as police officers. Honestly most of this crap isn't your fault, its the guys who write your rules, the drones and pencil pushers, the managers.

StanW

When rules and and drones and pencil pushers stand in the way of saving a life, then screw them. I have a great respect for police and the unappreciated work they do. But at the same time, I hope the officer that stood by while this woman and her children were brutally murdered can never close his eyes without hearing their screams for help, knowing that he could have stopped it.

Mr. EMT

The Justice system is fucked up.
Law enforcement is also fucked, especially in DC/maryland area.

No doubt you are involved in law enforcement, from your post. I have heard the same basic defense/rant made by other police and law enforcement I rub elbows with.
But let me ask you two questions.

Do you consider law enforcement to be a friend of the common citizen?
If so, then is it safe for John Q Public to be interviewed and questioned by law enforcement with out a lawyer?
Because I say NO to both those questions.
I have yet to see or hear any story of any law enforcement promoted or rewarded for being a good Samaritan.
http://conservativebootcamp.com Martin Hale

With any profession in which split-second decision-making can make or break the outcome of any situation, it's never an acceptable choice to have trained professionals hamstrung by policy. Not in the pursuit of lawbreakers, not in a medical emergency in the field/OR/ED, not on the field of battle, not in the halls of national leadership. People working in these professions need extensive and continuous training to help them learn how to form excellent and reliable judgments, and then they need to be given as much freedom as possible within the constraints of reality to exercise those judgments.

That said, in this case I would caution all that the quoted piece is as much about a lawsuit (a $60MM lawsuit at that) as the incident which spawned the lawsuit. That fact tells me that much of the information in the piece is coming from some feckless mouthpiece who's trying to build public opinion against the police even before he/she gets into court. I'd recommend holding your opinions until the case actually gets into court (if it ever does) and the facts are allowed to come out.

It could well be, and it would be no surprise, that this tragedy was furthered by rigid adherence to an inflexible policy. But it also might be that there are additional facts which might tend to support how police on the scene responded. I don't know based on what little I've read, so I'll wait to hear more.
billdalasio

No offense, but in this case, what the hell good were the police?

Please understand, I realize you guys do a difficult and dangerous job. And, if done properly, an absolutely vital one. But, that “if done properly” is the rub, isn't it? I mean, consider the list you mention. They're all good and useful things, if done as a means to an end. If I'm calling the police to register a complaint, and the sum total effect is that a report gets taken and filed away, the police have done me no good. If I'm cooperating with questioning and agreeing to be inconvenienced to give the police some latitude, yet criminal activity continues unabated, how have the police helped me? Calling the police is of no value to me. It is only a means to get something I value.

I understand that the overwhelming majority of police officers really are interested in protecting the public. They aren't there to eat donuts or gain some feeling of authority. I get that. However, when you get a situation where the police aren't writing tickets, chasing the dog home, arresting the boss or chasing the man with the knife, something has gone terribly wrong, wouldn't you say? In that case, the police, as an institution, haven't exactly rendered value.

Pork_Soda

The child murderer will never be allowed in gen-pop. He'd be killed in a San Quentin minute otherwise. Case in point:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/…
Mr. EMT

Reminds me of a joke, which is inappropriate now except for the learning lesson from it.
So it goes something like:
Man calls the cops and says someone is breaking into his home.
The dispatcher tells him remain calm, police will be there soon.
After waiting 5 minutes he calls the cops again, tells them “Don't bother I just killed the burgler”
Cops respond en mass within minutes and catch the buglar before he gets away.
The cops then ask where the body is, The home owner replied he got tired of waiting for them and knew they would respond faster if they thought someone was shot.
Mr. EMT

Excellent Post.
Spicer_g

Reminds me of a case where a woman called police and they didn't come for 14 minutes (or some long period). In which time her husband was killed. She sued the police and the court ruled that she has no constitutional right to expect police protection.

Buy a gun and protect yourself. a .357 slug travels a whole lot faster than calling 911.
Newbius

The District is immune from liability (Warren v. District of Columbia, 1981) and the residents were disarmed due to District policy against the personal ownership of firearms. The police were hamstrung by district policy which was put into place to prevent shooting more children during no-knock drug raids, but which had the unintended consequence of allowing these same cops to sit outside while a family gets murdered.

Let's see, government refuses to allow citizens to protect themselves. Check. Government refuses to allow police to protect the citizens. Check. Criminals are protected by government policy requiring high-level supervisory approval. Check. Government is immune. Check. Citizens die. Check-mate, we lose. Anybody got any tar and feathers???

Ed Klein on ‘The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House’

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