New Year's Eve, well, actually afternoon, a disturbed man took his life by jumping off a bridge in Arlington, Texas. He'd been threatening to jump for a few hours, and the cops had traffic diverted and snarled up for hours. Tragically, the efforts of the police shrink/negotiator failed and he jumped to his death.

Less than two weeks later, in Fort Worth. Texas, a police officer was shot by a store clerk while the officer was arresting a drug dealer. The officer was undercover, but was not wearing a mask, not only identified herself as a police officer, but the jacket she wore clearly identified herself as one, and she was wearing a bulletproof vest. Bad luck was that the bullet missed the vest and entered under her armpit.

What do these two stories have in common? In both cases the cops lied about what happened.

In Arlington the police issued an after-action type report that detailed what happened, but they left out a key event. Just moments before the man jumped, he was shot with a Taser. This fact only came to light with the publication by the Dallas Morning News of a series of photographs by one of their photographers clearly showing a police officer holding a Taser and the jumper being shot by the Taser. The wires connecting the Taser to the jumper are seen quite clearly. The police may not have overtly lied in this case, but they definatley lied by ommission. They only mentioned the Taser after it was public knowledge. (http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/4890564.htm)

In Fort Worth, we have since learned that the officer was wearing a mask, did not identify herself, and while she was wearing a police jacket, it was dark in color and only had a small graphic on the front in the shape of an office's badge. Certainly not large white letters that said POLICE. She was not wearing a bulletproof vest. Contrary to initial reports, she did not purchase drugs in the store and then attempt to arrest the dealer, she or another officer purchased drugs outside the store, then she followed the suspect into the store to arrest him. She did this by driving her car at high speed to the front door, squealled her brakes, then ran in with a pistol in her hand and a mask on her face. I ask you, what was the clerk supposed to think? He thought she was a robber and shot her. (http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/4873541.htm)

In both cases, the cops either left out important details, or outright lied. The only reason we know they did this is that other people were present with recording devices. In the case of the officer who was shot, the store did have a surveilance system (the tapes of which have not been released). I am certain that if the store did not have cameras, then we never would have heard the truth.

Why is this?

Then today I read about a cop in Detroit who cut off a woman's finger while trying to cuff her. (http://www.freep.com/news/locway/knife7_20030107.htm) And of course there were the cops last week who shot some tourists dog. (http://asia.cnn.com/2003/US/01/08/police.kill.dog/)

What the fuck is going on with our police?

Howdy,

As a birthday present, my sister gave me a trip to a friend of her's private gun range. We spent about 8 hours out there the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There were five of us out there and I think it's safe to say that everyone had a blast.

I brought along a digital camera but did not get to take too many pictures. I was too busy shooting.

http://www.gandalf23.com/guns/11-30-2002

The big suprise of the day was that I was able to shoot a World War Two era M1A1 Thompson (the Army's version of the Tommy Gun). What a hoot! Usually when I go to the range I shoot about 200 rounds total, maybe up to 400 rounds if I haven't been in a while and I have a lot of time. Well Saturday I shoot at least 450 rounds through the Thompson alone! I'd never shot a full-auto rifle and let me tell you, everyone who wants to should have the chance 'cause it's just plain ol' fun. I ended up shooting over a thousand rounds that day, by myself. And I have the sore trigger finger to prove it. Who says guns are only for killing?

If you look at the pictures you'll see the range we were at. There are nine pepper poppers, steel targets that fall over when you shoot them. Three torso sized metal targets with a swinging triangle going from the throat to the nipples. Three cardboard torsos used to sight in guns, and a bunch of stuff that clanged real loud and fell down when shot by rifles at 100+ yards.

-Gandalf23