Runaway- Guy-1, Local cops-0

Scenario time.

Let's say you operate a small, customer service related business. Your employees are mostly young, early twenties types you have to surgically remove their phones from heir hands. Good kids, albeit a little immature, that work hard most of the time.  

You receive a phone call from one of your stores. Your manager says the cops came by looking for another employee that we'll lovingly refer to as Skip.

Now, Skip is no stranger to the police. He is older than the others and has a history. But you like Skip. You met him at a friends house one night over some hard liquor and guns. When he needed a job for some cash, you were happy to oblige.

Unfortunately for Skip, his taste in women is suspect at best. Skips current girlfriend is one dangerously intelligent woman. She is working towards her doctorate and good looking to boot. You have to ask yourself why she's with Skip.

Because she's bat shit crazy.

Skip came to you a few weeks prior and told you about some domestic issues he had going on. You give him some friendly advise but you tell him his personal life cannot come to work. If the cops show up, you're going to have to let him go. 

Back to the phone call.

Your manager tells you the cops arrived and walked into the front office. The office is packed with customers. Instead of discretely asking to speak to a manger outside earshot of paying clients, they proceed to yell from the back of the store. They demanded to know if Skip was there. When told Skip wasn't scheduled that day they began to give them the fifth degree, insinuating they were being lied to.

This sideshow occurs in front of your mortified clients.

The fuzz finally leave. You tell your manager if they show up again to inform them that Skip is no longer employed with the company. You also tell them to get the officers name, badge number and contact information.

The cops show up for the next two days. Same shitty attitudes, same modus operandi. Only now they refuse to give their information. They don't realize that the entire store is wired with audio and video surveillance equipment.

What would you do? How would you handle this situation? You have officers coming to your business harassing your employees and upsetting your customers. They've been told Skip no longer works there and yet they still come. And now they're refusing to identify themselves.

Do you make a complaint that most likely will go no further than the supervisors trash can? Give them reason to target your business? Will they park a patrol car in front of your store just to intimidate you and scare you business away?

Only if they think you're ill informed.

If you know how they operate, you can pick them apart.

I'll tell you what ol' Guy did. 

On day one, after receiving the phone call, I sent a termination email to Skip. His phone was turned off. Skip knew this was coming, so it came as no surprise. He acknowledged the email. Skip had already skipped town. Run Skip, run. Only thing to do now is see if they take the bait.

Day two, they couldn't resist the bait. I recognized the personality I was dealing with from the officers action in the first encounter. He has already shown he has no respect for these kids or the business. I knew that there was a good chance he would refuse to give his information. This is the cop ego. How dare some twenty year old nothing question his authority.

Day three was the icing on the cake. I already had them for the refusing to identify themselves on day two. Now they've shown up again after they were informed Skip no longer worked there. Now we're teetering on harassment.

Game. Set. Match.

I've got them by the short and curlys now. Time to meet the locals.

This is the letter I typed up to deliver to them.

To whom it may concern,

This letter serves as official notice that *redacted* is no longer employed by *redacted*. Mr. *redacted* was terminated on *redacted*, 2014 for failing to show up for his scheduled shift. He was notified by email and confirmed receipt of same.

We respectfully request that your officers immediately cease service attempts at *redacted*. The officers’ behavior has caused undue stress to our clientele and staff.

Our business is not a first party address on any criminal arrest warrant. We will not allow entry into our facility again on this matter unless the officer has a search warrant, with our business address specifically listed, in hand. If this is a civil matter, they have no legal grounds to enter the facility without consent.

As a company, we fully support the efforts of law enforcement in our community. Unfortunately, the unprofessional behavior of the officers that have come to our business has forced our hand to protect our interests.

Thank you for your understanding. Please let us know if we can help in any other way.

Respectfully submitted,

Any further incidents will be interpreted as violations of *redacted* penal code, Title * section * as well as Title 18, U.S.C. Sections 241 and 242 of the United States code.

I printed off a grip of these, each personally signed by myself and the CEO of the company. I knew it was going to take some detective work to run down which officer had been coming by. This is a huge city with multiple law enforcement agencies. If I got the run around too much, I was planning on handing them out like a Vegas escort pamphlet to every officer I saw outside the precinct. Eventually they would entertain me just to get rid of me or they would arrest me. Its a win either way.

So the search begins. The first two places and multiple people I spoke with on the phone were pretty much what I expected. I'd start out talking to a civilian employee, whose attitudes tend to be worse than most officers. They'd try to be hard asses but didn't know what to do when I refuted their scripted bullshit they use to deal with complaints. They'd threaten to get an officer, I'd recommend that they did.

"Sir, the law says..."

"Lady, I'm well aware of what the law says, why don't you get me somebody that knows what the hell they're talking about."

The officers I dealt with were decently pleasant. They would arrive with a chip on their shoulder but quickly changed their tune when we started talking. Plus I still pretty much look and talk like a cop. The wording you use is key to defuse them. I would simply say that I had a complaint that I would like to see rectified without having to go to internal affairs and make a formal complaint. Most cops will help if they think they are saving another cop from a formal complaint.

You might ask why I didn't file a formal complaint. For one, its a pain in the ass. But most importantly, I know how IA investigations work. This is a big department I'm dealing with. Unless we're talking felonious actions by the officers, its not going to get much traction. The best bet is to hope the officer has a solid supervisor, go directly to him and make it personal. A good sergeant can make a shitbird officers life a living hell on a daily basis, you just have to convince him. If this fails, plan B is a formal complaint. Trust me, if you can get a hold of a decent supervisor, he will do almost anything to keep you from going to IA. It not only looks bad on the officer, but the supervisor as well.

Third place was the charm. I found myself at the downtown holding facility with a stack of fuck you memos and copies of my training record, in case I needed to go there. This is where the officer was headquartered out of. I walked in the main doors and found myself at a empty screening station. The officer sitting at the intake desk beyond waved me through. Apparently they had been expecting me. I guess word spread about the crazy asshole terrorizing random precincts over case law and procedure violations for half the day.

They directed me to a phone and connected me to the sergeant in charge. This is my one complaint, he wouldn't speak to me in person. He said it was shift change and couldn't come to the front where I was. This is a believable possibility considering the time of day and the activity I saw in the parking lot when I was walking up. I didn't get too bent out of shape about it, even though I would have recommended a sit down and told him as much.

He quickly realized that I knew what I was talking about and was very polite. I explained my disgust regarding his officers actions and behavior. I didn't drop the cop card but he knew. I questioned their decision to yell across my store instead of asking for a manger, the standard operating procedure for warrant service at a business. I also questioned why they returned after they were informed Skip was fired. Then I kicked him in the balls over his officers refusal to identify themselves.

"Are these reckless officers purposely ignoring protocol or are they trained to violate the law?"

Interrogation techniques work wonders against cops. I knew his rebuttals before he said them. I've worked off the same playbook. He couldn't make a solid excuse without an immediate rebuttal. Once he was told the encounters had all been recorded, his demeanor changed. To his credit, when he realized my complaint was valid he was very receptive. He looked up the warrants while I was on the phone so he could search through the CAD system to find the officer who had been assigned the file. He said he had a pretty good idea who the officer was. By his tone, I don't think the officer he had in mind was a star student. He assured me he would handle the officer and that we wouldn't have any other interruptions to our business. He gave me his direct line and personal cell phone number in case I had any other problems.

Mission accomplished.

No more visits to the shop and the officer was put on notice.

The sergeant took the appropriate actions in my eyes.

This is a war of attrition, death by a thousand paper cuts.

It's very easy to make their lives difficult.

Use their policies and procedures against them.

Electric Boogaloo- Beaker's Boys

I began my stint in law enforcement working in a county jail. I obtained my corrections certification and spent my time smelling body funk and feces in a roughly 2500 person facility.

I never intended to stay in the corrections field, this was the easiest way to get my Peace Officer Certification paid for. I would work in the jail until a slot opened up in the next police academy.

My time working in the jail was short, but far from uneventful. I was stabbed within the first month off my initial training. This would definitely set the tone for my time there.

This is also when I was first introduced to Beaker and his merry band of assholes.

If you're not up to speed on Beaker, feel free to play catch up here.

Beaker first approached me in the staff dining area one evening. I had been working there for about 3 months at the time. He wanted to let me know they were holding tryouts for SERT and that I was high on the recruiting roster.  I had apparently made a name for myself as quite the bruiser.

Unfortunately for them, I was fairly judicial with my ass beatings. I had seen the type of work they did. I wanted no part of it. If I put my hands on someone, it wasn't because they gave me a dirty look and called me a mother fucker.

Unlike this poor fella who most likely made the egregious violation of knocking on a cell door, asking for some toilet paper.

Like SWAT, these types of teams were meant to be used as a last resort. They are now the first tool used, even surpassing giving verbal commands on the force continuum.

They will beat your ass for not complying with an order that was never verbalized.

I was assigned to the maximum security unit during this time period. It was a lovely place to spend your days, filled with society's best and brightest. Child molesters, sexual predators, those facing the death penalty, those who had assaulted officers, the criminally insane, etc. etc. were my daily companions.

One particular inmate had caused the department quite the headache. We'll call him Jaws. Why? Because at one time he bit the veins out of his forearm. 

Jaws was in jail awaiting trail on some particularly nasty charges involving children. The problems began with him acting strange, requesting mental health appointments, and veiled suicide threats. These are typical behaviors for someone facing serious time. They all try the insane route.

No one took him seriously until one night, when he broke off a piece of porcelain from the toilet and sliced his forearms to the bone. I'd seen flooded cells before, but never with blood.

Jaws was rushed to the hospital were they were able to barely save his life. We figured it was a cry for attention that accidentally went too far. He wont try that shit again, will he?

How wrong we were. When this guy finally went off the deep end, he did so with a beer bottle up his ass, clucking like a chicken.

Jaws was released from the hospital after a few weeks. He was returned to the jail on suicide watch. This means he sat in an empty cell wearing a paper gown. An officer visually checked on him every 10-15 minutes. No pens, no paper, no magazines, no books, no toilet paper, no toothbrush. Absolutely nothing is allowed in the cell except for meal time. He is given a styrofoam tray, usually containing a peanut butter sandwich, no jelly, and an orange slice. An officer must watch him eat, then immediately remove the tray.

This was his diet until he tried to eat the styrofoam tray. He was then restricted to the sandwich only.

Until he balled it up and tried to jam it down his throat, attempting to asphyxiate. 

Enter Nutraloaf.

This stuff tastes like Satan's butthole after an all you can eat chalupa night at Taco Bell.

So there Jaws sits, with absolutely nothing in his 8x6 cell to occupy him.

Except for the hundred or so stitches still in his forearms.

Which he decided to rip out with his teeth, flooding his cell with blood once again.

Jaws was raced back to the hospital. Once he was stabilized, he was sent to a mental hospital for evaluation. They had to strap him down to his bed and keep him medicated until the wounds healed.

The medication seemed to help Jaws at the hospital. They slowly removed his restraints over time, eventually allowing him to attend group counseling sessions.

Such improvement, until he beat an orderly half to death with a desk drawer.

They immediately shipped him back to us. Hospitals aren't equipped to handle that sort of violence.

I soon found out, neither were we.

The responsibility to handle this inmate fell on none other than Beaker and his goons.

What could go wrong?

This all occurred at the time when tazers were just becoming popular within law enforcement.

This is not going to end well for Jaws.

Beaker's Plan

Jaws was to be kept in a isolation cell in the medical ward. One of Beaker's goons was with him at all times. If Jaws started acting tacky, he was to be tazered immediately. The electrocution would continue until back up arrived. Jaws would then be moved (dragged naked) to the maximum security unit. They had just obtained a restraint bed and they were itching to use it. 

Jaws would stay in the restraint bed for 4 hours. He would be removed and taken back to medical to start all over again. The purpose of this, we were told, was to correct his behavior. He would have to earn every privilege back that he had lost. His behavior would either improve, or they would continue the non medical shock treatment.

This plan was not only ludicrous, but cruel as fuck. Nothing like trying to rationalize with a guy who has eaten his own flesh.

I was briefed on all this because I was the maximum security officer for my shift. The restraint bed was in my unit. I would not be involved in any of the shenanigans, but I sure as shit was a witness to them.

Beaker came to me, trying to feel me out. He wanted to know if I was going to "cooperate" with their unique situation. Meaning, he wanted to know if I was going to keep quiet.

I had only been working at the department for a few months, but I knew even then how "rats" were treated. If I bucked it, I would essentially kill my career before it had a chance to start. I was on the list for the next academy. I had made a good reputation for myself in the short amount of time I had been there. 

So I took the cowards way out.

I didn't think what they were doing was right, but what did I know? I was a jailer with zero real law enforcement training. This guy was a pedder-ass, what did I care? I wouldn't participate in their circus, but I wouldn't speak out against it.

Beaker was an idiot, but he was a high ranking idiot. This was unsettling, but it had to be legal, right?

It went like this.

About 10 minutes after shift change you would hear the call go out over the radio. Jaws had been tazered. About 4 minutes later he would be drug into my unit by a group of these idiots. They would strap him down to the bed and leave his assigned storm trooper in the room with him. He would be beaten and randomly tazed for the next 4 hours. They were very good about not leaving any marks.

When the 4 hours was up, he would be removed by the goon squad and taken back to medical. He usually lasted about 10 minutes before he was tazered again and drug back to my unit.

What kind of behavior was Jaws exhibiting to warrant such barbarism?

Asking what time it was was.

Not waking up fast enough upon demand.

Asking to brush his teeth.

Standing in the corner of his cell.

Not responding to questions.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

They jokingly referred to it as "shock treatment". They weren't tazering him because he was assaulting someone or trying to injure himself. They were doing it on a time line.

This went on for a few weeks. Jaws' behavior did improve, partly to the fact that he was half catatonic by the end of the treatment. Towards the end, he would lay in the bed drooling on himself. They would tazer him till he vomited on himself then leave him to lay in it.

He finally went to court and was sent down the road to a state facility.

No one cared that this man was brutalized. He was crazy and he touched kids. It was fair game as far as the department was concerned.

You might feel the same way but these incidents happened over 10 years ago. The treatment that this man received is now being dealt out to people arrested on drunk driving, outstanding traffic tickets and disorderly conduct. It could be your mother, your father, your child, your friend or you.

We cannot accept brutality, no matter how deserving we feel the receiving party is.

Another Brick in the Wall- Guy's interview with Copblock

A big thanks to Pete at copblock for putting this together.

A GOOD (I.E. FORMER) COP SPEAKS OUT

Published On August 18, 2014 | By Pete Eyre | Articles

Not long ago a former police employee – Guy, who now speaks out against police statism – came to my attention. I asked Guy if he’d be willing to answer some questions sent via email and he was receptive.

As I told him, I suspect we’ll see more who choose to follow his lead – going from current police employees to former police employees.

Connect / Follow Guy’s Musings:

• via his blog ExposingTheBlueLine.blogspot.com
• via Twitter Twitter.com/ShotOutDD

Related:

• CopBlock.org/WelcomeLEOs

____________________________

Pete Eyre: On your blog you self-describe as a:

Marine, Iraq War veteran, retired law enforcement, reformed statist. Here to bring some insight into the twisted web that is policing in the United States and to chronicle what happens when a decorated officer begins seeing the truth.

Can you expand on that journey?

Guy: This was a 15-year process to get where I am today. I grew up on Chuck Norris and Lynyrd Skynyrd in the Deep South. This was pre-9/11 America, it was an entirely different world. Football and keg parties… I was the all American statist.  I joined the Marine Corps out of high school still thinking I was going to kill some commies.

My first couple prewar years in were a decent experience. I saw quite a few countries and did some interesting training. Had a lot of fun, got in a little trouble. Underage drinking, nothing I couldn’t bounce back from rather quickly.

9/11 interrupted a platoon barracks inspection my company Gunny was conducting. We watched  the planes hit, live, in my room… complete silence. Gunny finally spoke up. “Get to work, gents”.

I remember sitting at a stop light on base, watching the California sun rise over the mountains. The man on the radio started screaming about the first tower coming down. Shit just got incredibly real.

I was involved in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. At the time, I truly believed we were doing the right thing. It didn’t take long for that illusion to fade a bit. There seemed to be very little planning involved during the build up for the invasion. While sat in the middle of the desert, near the Iraqi border in Kuwait. We got our daily intelligence reports from the BBC. No one knew what was going on.

We were told on March 18th that we would be starting the ground offensive in two days. Our marching orders… Go north, don’t get killed.

We invaded a country with door less, canvas topped Humvees. We had no ballistic plates for our  body armor. We had to tie down the crew served weapons with paracord because we didn’t have mounts for the tops of the vehicles. We didn’t even have a full load out of ammo. Thank God for the generous Army supply specialist that felt sorry for us. Met him Day 2, sitting in a traffic jam in the middle of the Iraqi desert. ‘Merica.

It was a complete cluster fuck. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend reading Generation Kill by Evan Wright; the HBO miniseries was nicely done as well. It is the most accurate portrayal of the ground invasion, at least in my experience.

I wanted to reenlist, but got tired of jumping through the hoops. It’s a bureaucrat nightmare. The time frame between returning from Iraq and standing on my parents’ doorstep with discharge papers was 30 days. I got a job at a reputable company you all would know, making some decent money. I remember sitting in orientation at the corporate office. Everyone was sitting at this big, round, mahogany table introducing themselves. It was mostly college graduates going on about their degrees, fraternities, and wild, epic parties, etc. They had obviously not been hired for the same semi-skilled labor position as me.

It came time for me to speak. I had no idea what to say. I had nothing to say to these people. It’s hard to describe that feeling. It’s like you’re an alien observing some strange species. You can’t relate to anything being said. It felt like I was standing outside, looking in. I don’t remember the exact words I spoke, but it was something along the lines of “Six weeks ago I was in Iraq. Now I’m here.”

Blank stares and silence. That job lasted all of three months. I came to the conclusion, like a lot of veterans, I needed some form of structure like I had in the military. I needed to be around people like me. People that had similar experiences. People that “got it.” People that knew the rush of combat. I missed that rush. It’s the best drug out there. So I joined the family business, law enforcement. This is where the blog comes in.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: Do you anticipate that we’ll soon see an uptick in the numbers of current-turned-former police employees who espouse a similar message? If a current police employee is reading this, what information or idea do you hope to impart?

Guy: I hope so. One of the many reasons I started the blog was to be a voice for the good ones tired of the bullshit. It’s career suicide to buck the system, but I’ve already pulled that trigger. I’ll do it for them.

As I’ve talked about on the blog, a lot of these guys want to leave. They hate it and are disgusted by what they see. But they have families, credit card payments, car notes and a mortgage. It’s economically impossible to walk away. They aren’t going to have their families living on the street. They have to survive. I’m not making excuses for them, it’s just the reality of the situation.

Plus, “knows how to research, plan and conduct a variety of tactical operations” doesn’t go far on a resume. I have around 2,000 hours of specialized law enforcement training. Not a one of those hours means jack shit to anyone outside law enforcement or private contracting.

The blog is fairly new, but I’ve already had a few emails from anonymous officers thanking me for what I’m doing. That motivates the shit out of me. The good ones HAVE to start speaking out, and they can’t do it one at a time. If enough of them stood up, at the same time, things could change. The problem is they have to be willing to lose everything and I don’t think the intestinal fortitude is there yet.

My plan is to set up a way for officers to submit stories of corruption and abuse from inside their departments. The stories they can’t get out without reprisal. I want to spread these stories. If their departments won’t do anything about it, let’s try them in the court of public opinion. I want to be that avenue. Law enforcement is an incredibly closed society. They are leery of any outsiders. They are far more prone to open up to a fellow officer than anyone else.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: On a recent post you made to your blog you noted:

As we departed for the target location that morning, I had this recurring thought that I couldn’t get out of my head. Like a recorded loop playing over and over. This isn’t right. What are we doing? This isn’t right.

Was that subject ever broached with colleagues?

Guy: I strongly objected. I raised absolute hell with my boss, who concurred. Unfortunately the head honcho ordered us to do it.

My team knew, by my operations plan and my briefing, how I felt. My boss signed off my plan without a second thought. We did our best to minimize the damage inflicted.

Afterwards, I spoke with a few guys I was close with. Everyone agreed it was ridiculous, but I don’t think “that was wrong” ever entered their minds like it had mine. It was a shrug your shoulders, “what are you gonna do?” kind of response. I wasn’t awake yet, but this incident set the alarm clock.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: How insidious has the decreed prohibition of certain substances (i.e. “the war on drugs”) been to individual liberty?

Guy: The “war on drugs” has been the single biggest catalyst for the growing police state and trampling of civil liberties, with the “war on terror” coming in at a close second. It’s all about the money, Jerry.

Law enforcement agencies have relied on drug money to run their operations for years. Taking that honey pot away would cripple a majority of departments. They are junkies and will do whatever it takes to keep the revenue flowing. That’s why, despite all the research out there, the majority will fight tooth and nail against decriminalization.

The new reefer madness propaganda is in full swing in the policing world. Now the focus is on THC potency, and how dangerous the new strains are… They are actually teaching this shit.

Narcotics officers are some of the most easily corrupted officers I’ve ever encountered. That assignment attracts a certain personality that can turn abusive very quickly. These guys will kick in your door for a plant, go out drinking afterwards to celebrate, and drive home drunk as fuck without thinking twice. Most are nothing more than frat boys with machine guns.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: How have cameras and other information-liberating technology been to this conversation?

Guy: Information is our greatest weapon. You aren’t going to win a head on fight with these guys. The police behavior we have been seeing more of over the past years is nothing new. It’s definitely more prevalent, but nothing new.

There were very few cameras around when I started policing. I can tell you that we acted a lot differently on a daily basis toward the end of my career. The possibility of a camera being on you at any time was always in the back of your mind.

Before the rise of the smart phone, a police officer could do pretty much anything he wanted. It was his word against yours, and you would lose. Now we can hold them accountable with irrefutable evidence.

Obviously the Internet has made educating yourself much easier. Now you can sit in your favorite recliner at home and read up to date case law that affects how police must govern themselves. If you know case law, you can shut most officers down pretty quickly.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: What scenarios do you think could unfold over the next few years, related to the supply of policing?

Guy: It’s hard to say. With the firestorm that Ferguson has created, I’m not sure where it heads now. Nothing will change in the immediate future, but Main Street America finally saw the militarization of law enforcement in full force. It was streamed live into their living rooms. Maybe the revolution will be televised.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: Incentives are key. What has been the impact caused by the influx of FRNs and tools of war (facilitated by employees of the Defense Logistics Agency) to local police outfits and those they “serve”?

Guy: Not to quote hypocritical slave owners, but this is the standing army the founding fathers warned us about. Our streets are now warzones, and we are the enemy.

Take a child, give him a bag of candy. Now tell him that all the candy is his, but he can only eat it when he thinks he really, really needs it. What is the kid going to do? He’s going to make himself sick eating all of the candy.

Now replace the child with a state worshiping, overgrown man-boy who suffers from an inferiority complex. The candy with automatic weapons, gas guns, explosives, sniper rifles and tanks.

The indoctrination of these officers is intense.

There’s danger lurking around every corner. Anybody can kill you. Take no chances. Go home at the end of the night. Officer survival. I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. Brotherhood. Fraternity. We are the sheepdogs protecting the herd from the wolf.

They teach that. You are either a sheep or a wolf unless you are one of the chosen.

They beat this nonsense in your head. You can’t get away from it. You take this group of paranoid, raging personality disorders and mix it with more firepower than I had invading a sovereign country and you get what we saw in Missouri. A military operation carried out against people in our own backyard.

There are powder kegs just like Ferguson in every US city. I’m not saying that policing doesn’t have its risks. Lord knows I’ve had more brushes with death than I care to think about. I’m saying law enforcement as a whole has proven over and over again, their “judicial application of force” tends to be extremely heavy handed.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: What resources, tactics, ideas or concepts do you encourage readers to ponder, pursue or implement?

Guy: That’s a book in and of itself. I’ll hit a couple of highlights.

Educate yourself. Learn your state and local laws; County and city ordinances. Read some case law. A quick search for “case law for cops” will bring up a treasure trove of information. Learn everything that the cops are supposed to know and use it against them. Trust me, a large majority of them are clueless on well-established legal precedent and even basic law.

Record, Record, Record. Any interaction. Record.

I recommend staying respectful but firm in any police encounter. Even if the cop tries to instigate, stay respectful but firm. Why? Because you’re recording. That recording might be played for a jury one day. It might be broadcast across the world. Don’t give them ammunition against you.

If confrontation is your style, more power to you. To each his own. I do thoroughly enjoy the videos. My videos would be pretty boring. Which brings me to…. Am I being detained? Am I free to go? Wash, rinse, repeat. That’s all they get from me. I have yet needed to say anything more.

Another overlooked tool that I don’t see used much is the Freedom of Information Act. You’d be surprised how much information you can get, and how much heartache you can cause, with this. You can pick these guys apart if you know how they operate. But I caution you, there is a fine line between asserting your rights and being an ignorant street lawyer.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: On a recent post you made to your blog you included a picture of Lysander Spooner – can you that framed a divisive situation, that he likened to a “contest between two bodies of men” – masters and slaves. What does that mean to you?

Guy: To me, Spooner is talking about the futility of this insane concept of government we are raised to believe is normal. That because a larger group of people say so, that’s the way it’s going to be.

But what if the majority is wrong? We are all slaves to the collective. Politics is nothing more than fighting for the bull whip.

____________________________

Pete Eyre: What are some of your favorite quotes?

Guy: “The difference between someone driven by principle and driven by bias is that a person driven by principle will stand up to his allies and side with his ‘opponents’ if truth and morality dictate. A person driven by bias will go to war with reality to defend the identity of the herd.” – Unknown

“Even if you believed that you could make men wise and good by depriving them of liberty of action, you have no right to do so. Who has given you a commission to decide what your brother-man shall or shall not do? Who has given you charge of his life and his faculties and his happiness as well as of your own? Perhaps you think yourself wiser and better-fitted to judge than he is; but so did all those of old days — Kings, Emperors, and Heads of dominant Churches — who possessed power, and never scrupled to compress and shape their fellow-men as they themselves thought best, by means of that power. You can see as you read the story of the past, and even as you look on the world at present, what a mess the holders of power have made of it, whenever they undertook to judge for others, whenever they undertook to guide and control the lives and faculties of others; and why should you think that you are going to succeed where they failed? On what reasonable ground should you think so?” – Auberon Herbert

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus

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Purple Haze- Anarchy in Ferguson

An armed society is a polite society.

I've seen pictures like the one above everywhere this morning. People are losing their minds over the lack of response from the police to quell the looting last night. The horror of armed people protected their property with weapons, while fully adhering to the non aggression principle.

I  call this progress.

Although someone needs to teach this guy the basics of weapons handling. The Call of Duty pose is not conducive to a stable firing platform.

You are watching the system completely fall apart.

The cops only have two options.

They can confront the looters. This would undoubtedly required the use of force much like we saw the first few nights. I'm sure it would be toned down from the all out military dog and pony show Ferguson PD put on. But it would still require riot cops with shields, batons and more gas.

This option only breeds more violence, more rioting and more looting.

Option two, which the state troopers chose, was to sit back. Keep a loose perimeter, make sure it doesn't get too out of hand. Don't risk lives for property.

They will only take this stance for so long. If the looting continues, they will eventually move in.

This will start the cycle all over again.

Government cannot solve this problem. Only the community can.

Level headed leaders from the local neighborhoods need to organize.

Absolutely NO politicians.

Come together and protect your communities.

The moral high ground is with the cause but the antics of a few are drowning out the message. It's giving them a way to spin the situation.

They are counting on this community to fail.  That they wont be able to control their own. This will give them the reason to eventually move in with force, again.

This will be the end of the cause. Their narrative of lawless thugs will prevail.

The community must realize that government IS the problem. You can't protest the police using force then, in the same breath, denounce them when they don't use that force to protect YOUR business.

This is a case study on Voluntyrism.

The residents of Ferguson are all anarchists now.
They just don't know it yet.

Shotgun Blues- ExCops thoughts on Ferguson

What you are witnessing in Ferguson is a bad cops wet dream.

And hopefully a wake up call to the good ones.

I don't know enough facts about the case to pass judgement on the shooting itself. If reports are right about Brown having his hands up when he was shot, I would be interested in hearing the justification for the shoot.

Something doesn't pass the smell test.

Is there an epidemic of minority involved police shootings? 

Absolutely.

Does this mean the police are card carrying members of the Klu Klux Klan?

No.

The reaction you are seeing has been generations in the making. Institutionalized racism and government dependency created the perfect firestorm. This goes far deeper than the black/white narrative we are seeing.

But today is not the day to solve all the worlds race problems. We'll get to the minority/cop paradigm at another time.

What you are seeing with the convergence of at least 20 different law enforcement agencies on a town of roughly 21,000 people is a look into the future.

If this would've occurred a decade ago, the scene would be a lot different. The militarization of the police is a real thing. I was a part of growing that standing army. When I started with SWAT we had an old, seized panel van we used as a vehicle for operations. Our weapons were Vietnam era M16's we made modifications to. Our body armor was pieced together with whatever we could get our hands on. That was pretty much the extent of our arsenal.

By the time I left, our arsenal included but was not limited to

State of the art H&K 416 short barreled rifles

One of these

One of these, just in case

Another in case the first two break down

2 of these for some reason

Bought a pair of these 

And to keep with the tradition, 2 of these as well.

These are just the big ticket items. this doesn't take into account the ballistic vests, pyrotechnics, gas guns, less lethal options, uniforms, ammo, etc etc.

How did my department afford all this? That's a two part question, and its the same way these smaller agencies are acquiring the same equipment.

The big ticket items come from the federal governments 1033 program.

This is how departments with 3 full time officers have a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle sitting in their motor pool.

The feds give the local departments the equipment free of charge. Its up to the locals to retrofit it to their needs and keep it maintained. 

How on earth do they pay for that?

Glad you asked.

Part two of our answer is a doozy.

Federal officers have much less power than a regular cop, despite what you might've heard. Typically a federal officer cannot enforce state and local laws. They only have arrest powers if they have a federal warrant for a federal crime which has to come from a federal magistrate. This is suppose to act as a checks and balances on enforcement power.

Of course, rules have never stopped the government before, and this is no exception.

They get around this by forming task forces. All the federal agencies have them. FBI, ATF, US Marshals, DEA, ICE, etc etc.

These task forces are comprised of state and local officers pulled from agencies throughout the state. These local officers are given federal credentials and work directly for their federal agency heads. These officers can now make local, state and federal cases.

Agencies jump at the opportunity to send officers to a task force. If that officer is involved in a case that nets a large sum of money, the local agency gets a large chunk of the proceeds to put in their drug forfeiture account. 

The amount of money brought in from these task forces is staggering. Checks come into these departments for millions. Local drug seizures make up a very small percentage of a departments war chest if they have officers in task forces.

Many of these task forces are not interested in making arrests. They are only interested in finding the money. If an arrest happens to fall in their lap, so be it.

Its all about the money.

Which brings me to this picture.

A powerful picture, no doubt. But this picture also gives me some insight on the kind of people we are dealing with. Their uniforms speak volumes.

1

These guys are "kitted" the fuck out. Meaning they have every piece of gear imaginable. I'm looking at the gloves, the knee pads, the high end gas masks and the boots. They are all the same, meaning they were most likely issued these creature comforts. These are things a lot of officers have to buy for themselves. This is an agency with a lot of money.

2

The officer in the middle of the picture has night vision on his helmet. If you haven't noticed, this picture was taken during the day. Night vision attachments are not comfortable to wear. They hurt your neck and give me a headache. This leads us to 2 possibilities.

A-This picture was taken late in the day. He wasn't sure he'd make it back to the police staging point by sundown, so he's being prepared.

OR

B- This is the first chance he's had to bust those bad boys out of the box. I mean, check out how cool he looks.

This leads me to believe there is little oversight with these guys. Piss poor planning and piss poor supervision.

3

This is a riot control operation. These officers are wearing full battle rattle. Meaning they are wearing heavy vests meant for building entries. You cant tell me after all the money this department has spent on tacti-cool accessories for these guys, they forgot to buy them patrol vests. Riot ops and SWAT ops are two different animals that need to be handled accordingly. 

Piss poor training and piss poor leadership.

These are riot cops.

These are not

Might explain why this situation has been handled so aggressively.

These were boys waiting to open their toys.

Christmas came early in Missouri.

Comfortably Numb- Good initiative, bad judgement

I want to visit a subject sure to ruffle some feathers. My analysis is not here to make excuses or stand up for anybody. My only intent is to visit the facts as I saw them.

Lets talk about the good cops.

Yes, I know. There are no good cops because if there were they would stop the bad ones. I hear this a lot from people. This is the same as correlating high minority areas with crime. Is there truth to the statements? Of course. Are there much deeper socioeconomic and political issues at hand than simple faulty deductions? You bet your sweet ass.

Good cops still exist, but their numbers are dwindling. Let's talk about a couple.

"Me and Jesus were zone partners" 
This is your officer that's been around since Carter was in office. He's old school but professional. He has, against all odds, survived somewhere in the ballpark of three decades in law enforcement. He's close or at retirement eligibility but sticks around.

He doesn't leave because he knows how bad things are. He sees how corrupt the world he spent his entire life in has become. He sees the people he's worked with, been friends with, his entire career turn into criminals once they climbed the ranks. He has played politics wisely and gained some rank. But he is outnumbered.

He stays for the good cops under his command. He stays to try and inoculate them from all the bad they are surrounded by within their department. He stays to try and teach them the right ways, no matter how few officers listen. At least there are a few.

He will try and make things right, but he will try to do it from within the system. This is his fatal mistake. He cant buck the system too much. If he has enough rank to actually change something, there is a high probability that he is a political appointee as well. This means he can be fired without cause, at any time, at the whims of his political masters.

He knows if he leaves there will be a power vacuum. He knows that void will most likely be filled by another criminal with a badge. A dangerously incompetent yes man is the best outcome he could hope for as a replacement.

But he's not all integrity and professionalism, he is human after all.
He has a pension to think about.

Retired on Duty
This is the guy who has around eight years till retirement. He hates what he sees. He wishes he could walk away. But he's so close. So close to that promised golden egg.

This guy usually doesn't have much rank. Maybe a little, but not too much. He's probably got an internal affairs file with a few suspensions, but these suspensions tend to be bullshit. Politically motivated fishing expeditions to screw with the guy because he didn't kiss the right ass.

He's usually jaded, in a horrible mood, quick tempered and foul mouthed.
He's the guy that refuses to revenue generate. He wont give you a second look unless you are committing a crime with a victim. He doesn't even know where his ticket book is.
He's the guy that will run into a burning building to save a stranger.
He's the guy that will take a bullet for you.

He's also the guy who married the stripper from his zone partners third bachelor party. He usually has at least two ex wives and a clowns car worth of children from multiple waitresses and bartenders around his beat. If he is remarried, the wife du juor will have a minivans worth of her own shit machines in tow.

He's tried to make things right in the past. All he got for it was a personnel file four inches thick, a transfer to a shitty assignment with shitty off days, and a slew of suspensions. The whole while watching the dirty ones move past him up the chain.

All he wants to do is watch the seconds tick by on the clock for the next eight years. If he cant do that, he'd like to at least help some people. He's just as content changing someones tire on the side of the interstate as he is serving an arrest warrant on a child predator.

He has been beaten, not into submission, but into apathy. He needs the job to pay for the hordes of screaming mouths at home. He's tried fighting the good fight, but lost every time. He has a mortgage, two car payments, a motorcycle, child support payments and three maxed out credit cards.

And don't forget about that pension.

Family Guy
This one is self explanatory. Married to his first wife, popping out their first couple of kids. This guy has a lot in common with retired on duty (ROD). Except everything this guy does is for his family. He sees the abuses, but he also saw what happened to ROD when he tried to report it. He doesn't partake in the corruption, nor does he condone it. He feels powerless to stop it.

He cant get suspended, he wouldn't be able to afford jr's t-ball lessons. He cant get transferred, he would miss family board game night. He cant say anything to put his family in danger, fiscally or otherwise.

He goes to work. He follows the law. He knows proper policy and procedure. Hell, he's usually even a pleasant person to have a run in with on the side of the road. He'll usually cut you a break if you're not being a dick. He causes little harm, but makes no waves.

He's also invested heavily into his career in policing. He been around for a handful of years. He started young, hired in his early twenties. Now he's started a family. He could leave law enforcement, but then what? Policing is all he's ever known. Would anybody in their right mind leave a secure career with a wife and newborn at home?

Plus he's got to think about that pension, and future college costs.

Do you even gun, bro?
This one is tricky. This is not the time to debate foreign policy. Take the following for what it is.
Military combat veterans, in my experience, make some of the best cops. They also make some of the worst. I'm talking combat military occupational specialists. Infantry, reconnaissance, armor, medics, cavalry, etc etc. with real world experience.
But it only works if they understand that they're not at war anymore. That citizens are not the enemy. This is what differentiates the good from the bad.

The good vet joins the force for obvious reasons. They joined an all volunteer military with the good intentions of serving their country. They went oversees and did what they thought was proper. But they saw some things over there that made them start to question all the 'murica propaganda they had so eagerly bought into.

Now they're back home. No real tangible job skills except good under pressure and hell in a firefight. They also miss the structure. Law enforcement is an obvious choice. Of course they remember the bullshit they saw in the military, but that's federal government for ya. Right? Local government is much more streamlined. They want to serve their communities like they wanted to serve their country.

They soon find out they were terribly wrong.

The smart ones get the fuck out immediately. They see it for what it is.
They've been through too much to be tricked again.
Others stick around for a while, usually kept there by a perceived lack of transferable skills.
They'll handle the serious situations, at times having to become belligerent with superiors over safety concerns. After they safely handle the situations, the supervisor who almost got everyone killed will get the credit, and the officer will have a suspension for insubordination to deal with.

Whether they leave after a week on the job, or 15 years. They all finally come to the same conclusion.

Fuck your pension.