Pretty Simple

Buffalo Police JBTs

Wow, only a couple of days since my last JBT post, and the Buffalo Police Department has already shown a perfect example of why the militarization of our police is a bad idea.

Story

Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight.

The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.

And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Schavon Pennyamon, who lives at the mistakenly raided apartment on Sherwood Street with her husband, Terrell, and six children.

Pennyamon alleges that after wrongly breaking into her apartment, police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment.

She says she’s left with a broken door, an injured husband, jittery children and — what bothers her most — still no apology from police.

“They know they did something wrong and they were still ignorant,” said the 29-year-old Pennyamon. “At first, I just wanted an apology. Now, because they want[ed] to be ignorant and rude, I have to take it to the next level.”

I hope she sues their ass off. A spokesmen apologized eventually, but why aren't the police at least fixing her door, and checking on the innocent citizen they beat in the head?

“It appears to be an honest mistake and we certainly apologize to all involved,” added Michael J. DeGeorge, Buffalo police spokesman.

An honest mistake? Luckily no innocent CITIZENS were killed this time.

Pennyamon remains unconvinced it was a mistake. She says officers told her they had “raided the house before” and she believes they felt entitled to do it again — warrant or not.

“The way they make it seem is ‘we can do whatever we want,’ ” she said.

Pennyamon’s troubled by what she says is an arrogance by police officers and an unwillingness to “serve and protect” those who need it.

“It’s a sad situation. I’ve always looked up to the police. I’ve always expected them to be on my side.”

How sad.

The Difference is Clear

Obama is a clearly pro abortion, while McCain is not. While many claim that both parties are the same now, this video shows a very clear difference, and it is an important difference for me.

Edited to add: I forgot the main thing this video said to me.:)

Obama's lame answer was that the question was "above his pay grade". That is quite a comment coming from a United States senator. He is to have us believe that such a simple question is beyond his ability to answer. Beyond that, he is applying for the most powerful position in the world, but admits he is to stupid to amswer a simple question about one of the most important issues to many people.

JBTs

There is a label on the right that is entitled "JBTs". This stands for Jack Booted Thugs. This wikipedia entry should explain the reference rather well for anyone who does not understand it.

I am not here to claim that every cop doing their job is an authoritarian fascist maniac. I don't believe that, nor do I respect that opinion in the least. It is the position of a leftard antiwar marcher, a lazy parrot that is most likely a drain on society.

There are however many officers that abuse their power, swat teams that think they are in Fallujah, and plenty of administrators that see us "civilians" as cattle to be herded.

The militarization of police forces across the country is quite alarming. We see SWAT teams dressed out in tactical gear, with assault rifles and subguns at the ready, all the time on our television sets. We have grown accustomed to seeing such things. A police SWAT team is not necessarily a bad thing at all. The overuse of one is however.

We shouldn't be using them any more than is absolutely necessary. No knock entries by a large group of heavily armed police creates an inherently dangerous situation. Sometimes this may be warranted, but most often it is not. Storming a guys house that sells a few dime bags of weed on the weekends does not warrant special treatment for example. Maybe if there is evidence that he has weapons in the house, AND has a known violent temperment, such force is appropriate. Otherwise it isn't.

This reference also can be used for federal forces, as Wayne LaPierre did, which caused quite the controversy. The events at Ruby Ridge, and Mount Carmel illustrate the danger very well. I am not supporting what David Koresh or Randy Weaver did in the least, but both of these situations could have worked out very differently if the authorities involved had thought out a better plan before going in like ninjas.

This is nothing new to most people who read my blog or people that have similar blogs. I am not the first person, by a long shot, to study this phenomena. I do however think it is appropriate to put up this post to clarify why that topic will be getting some more posts in the future, after containing only one prior to now.

We must fight to preserve our liberty. A police state is an inherently safe state generally, but it is not a free state. We must resist turning over our free will to the government.

Never Talk to the Police

Everyone needs to watch the following two videos. As much as we like to believe the police are our friends, they are not. It is very easy to get convicted and sent to prison for a crime you did not commit. Whether the police know you were innocent or not does not matter. You are still sitting in a cell wondering how the hell this happened to you.

Obama Wants to Take My Grandpa's Gun

This guy illustrates very well why anyone who cares about the RKBA can't vote for Obama.



HT: Sportsmen for Obama?

Book Review: Trigger Men

Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper (Hardcover)
Author: Hans Halberstadt
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (March 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312354568
ISBN-13: 978-0312354565

Amazon Link

This book was purchased after reading a positive review from a member of the gunthing.com forums. I would post a link to his review, however that site unfortunately will be taken down soon.

Trigger Men is a book about killing people. It contains stories detailing the killing of insurgents mainly in Iraq, by Marine and Army snipers. This book is unapologetic about the subject matter it contains. There are graphic details about what bullets do to humans within this volume's pages. If that is something you are not interested in reading about, this book is not for you.

This book does provide a no bullshit look at modern sniper training, tactics, weapons, and results. A majority of the book is taken directly from the shooter's accounts of events themselves.

Trigger Men was a very quick read for me. I was very interested in the subject matter, of course, but it was also a very accessible and fairly entertaining read. The book contains a mix of first hand accounts, as well as background technical information about modern sniper warfare.

The first chapter is a walk through of sniper mission basics. It covers topics such as moral aspects of the sniper mission, the differences between police and military snipers, and a brief history of the art.

Chapter two is a short chapter based on a USMC sniper's experiences. The third chapter talks about sniper selection and training. The rest of the book primarily deals with individual accounts from the battlefield. There are however sections on ballistics, and sniper weapons.

The flow of the book switching between technical detail and commentary is very good. A lot of the information presented in the documentary chapters is reinforced by the individual accounts. This unfortunately brings up the only thing I did not like about this book. It tends to repeat itself. Many of the snipers tell the same story about a particular weapon for example. This was not overly distracting at all though, and often I was able to glean more details about the particular event or implement from the different viewpoints. Several of the snipers were operating in and around Ramadi, so some of the things they experienced were very similar.

The book does provide a great insight into the sniper's art, as it is being applied in Iraq, that I have not seen elsewhere. It's technical detail, while limited, is a great primer. The stories told by the soldiers and marines were very interesting and really give you a glimpse into their world.

If this subject is interesting to you, I would urge you to purchase and read this one. You won't be disappointed.

The Olympics

I watch the Olympics every chance I get when they are going on. Winter or Summer it doesn't matter.

For some reason the games have always held my interest. I don't know if it is the international competition, the uniqueness of the sports, the constant improvement in most of the sports, or the infrequency of the events that holds the most intrigue for me.

For now I will fore go the needed China bashing while the games are occurring. There is much that needs to change in that country, of which we are all aware.

The opening ceremony can only be described as an epic spectacle. It was completely amazing. The scale and precision were breathtaking to be sure. I have never witnessed anything even close to it. There were over 15,000 different performers involved.

As for the sports themselves my personal highlight so far was the amazing victory the American swimming team had in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay. They were not supposed to win, and it looked like they would not until the very end of the race. Michael Phelps swam the first leg, and the team was behind the favored French team until the last 10 meters or so.



This was one of the greatest sporting events I have ever seen. The French apparently said they were going to "smash" the Americans. Of course our boys were totally classy afterwards, and showed great sportsmanship in their win.

I also enjoyed our basketball team's smashing of China of course. This team is showing a lot of class thankfully after what had gone on in the previous two Olympics. I also watched a few volleyball matches, some gymnastics, and a very little bit of diving over the weekend.

Our house will be glued to the boob tube every night most likely.

More Global Fry Monster Hysteria

The Guardian tells us we are all going to die!

Story

I Want a Garand

Who doesn't right? Well, I can thank DirtCrashr for starting this. He graciously sent me several hundred pieces of Lake City '06 brass. It was very nice of him to do, and I am going to make use of it.

I do have access to a properly chambered rifle currently. It is an older Remington 7600 pump gun. It belongs to my grandfather, and I can use it whenever I want. It is a great rifle, and it will be used as a benchmark for my eventual Garand purchase.

If they are still available, when the time comes, the purchase of milsurp loveliness will be made through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. There are certain requirements one must go through to be allowed to purchase from them. One of these is a certification of various types that you are able to safely handle a firearm. A CHL license is one way to fulfill this requirement.

The wife and I have neglected getting our CHLs for a long time. This is a good motivator to getting it done. We also have a child to think about now. I would hate to have something happen to her because I was unarmed. It would be bad enough for one of us to not be able to defend ourselves, but Brooke is a totally defenseless child who relies on us for her safety.

The leering spectre of an Obama Presidency also looms. He has supported a federal ban on concealed carry before, so getting mine before then adds to the number of potentially disenfranchised citizens ready to hit the reset switch.

Ultimately I want both of us to be able to legally exercise our right to bear arms, and the perpetual delay is over. I plan to get us signed up for a class within the next month. Kim will most likely use her LadySmith revolver to qualify, and I will use my XD-45.

Once that is complete I will work out the rest of my paperwork and get a Garand ordered hopefully. They are such neat old guns, with such a rich history. I also think they make a good affordable battle rifle with PLENTY of punch on the other end so to speak.

Sure they don't have a large magazine capacity, but through training, loading clips is a fast process. Sure I would love to get a Springfield M1, but I don't see being able to afford a $1,500-2,000 rifle any time soon. For what they cost I can buy a Garand, and a DPMS .308 AR.

I am going to use the brass that Dirtcrsher sent me to build up the most accurate loads I can. Then I will shoot both the Remington and the Garand to see how they compare. From there I should be able to customize a good load for either gun or both.