Recently in Law Enforcement Category

Not coincidentally, the Gotham City of the two most recent Batman films is based on Chicago, not New York City. This makes some sense, because Chicago residents are severely restricted in their methods of self defense. Masked vigilantes might be the only answer.

Photographing thugs 'is assault', police tell householder snapping proof of anti-social behaviour

It's the Daily Mail, but given the direction of things in Britain these days I'm buying it:

David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.

But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile.

And he claimed that a Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to a charge of assault.

When he started taking pictures, one of them called the cops. That's something right there, law-breakers asking the law for help. But the law sided with them.

Nothing to laugh about. This sort of thing is the natural next step after the right to defend oneself is outlawed. Note that I wrote that the right is outlawed, not removed. Big difference.

One thing worth laughing about is the Daily Mail's alt text for the image they included in the story:

Picture of yobs taken by David Green

Why is it that Green is apparently being treated like the yob?

Instapundit has a great post up on this insane incident which includes an email response from a reader claiming that part of the reason police are "hot-headed jerks" is because they "deal with hot-headed jerk citizens on a daily basis as a regular part of their job."

I happen to agree with this statement, but he takes it a lot further, essentially making excuses for cops acting badly. This is the topper:

Police officers get lots of training on how to deal with citizens, while citizens get zero training on how to deal with police.

My response is simple:

1) You're right.
2) SO WHAT?

Honestly, that's one of the most ridiculous things I've read in a while. Cops act badly because citizens don't get trained to interact with them properly?

That is utterly stupid.

Demarcationville:

What happened seems clear to me: Conover annoyed the cop by taking his picture. When Conover refused to delete them, the cop got angry and arrested him. (After all, the photos might have been taken with the intention of policing the police - and how dare a mere mortal citizen do this? ) After the arrest, the officer scrambled to find some law, any law which would back up his actions.

The officer said he thought Conover was pointing a laser at him. But, um, if he thought it was a laser why did he tell him to delete the pictures?

Via Michael Silence and Instapundit.

Teen with assault rifle shot by Battle Creek police

Thursday in Michigan:

A 15-year-old with a 9mm assault rifle was shot by a Battle Creek police officer just after 1 a.m. Thursday.

Police responded to reports of a man with a gun and shots fired in the 100 block of Hubbard Street. When they arrived, they saw the person with the gun.

Police shot the gun-toting person. Later, they found out he was 15.

The officers shot when the boy pointed his weapon at them. He will recover.

The "9mm assault rifle" is likely something along the lines of a Hi-Point carbine.

Although ARs and other actual assault rifle-based weapons are available in 9mm, they aren't terribly common. And they're fairly expensive. Those Hi Point carbines can be found for under $200. For much more info, see Mr. Completely.

Even if this thing were a fully-atuo 9mm AR, something that some law enforcement agencies use, it would really be a submachine gun, not an assault rifle.

Although I'm sure someone has cooked something up, I'm not aware of any AK-based 9mm rifles.

The Ministry of Minor Perfidy has a picture that appears to have been taken at the same event as the photo of the Iraqi police woman with an AK I posted earlier.

Go check it out.

I think the delivery of the Dirty Harry line would suffer from the layers of clothing masking the woman's expression during the delivery.

Incidentally, I've been revisiting the Dirty Harry movies recently. I plan to watch The Enforcer tonight. I haven't seen that in at least 20 years.

A female police officer aims her weapon at a practice range during a graduation ceremony in Karbala south of Baghdad, Iraq.

Found at MP.

Uncle points out an image from Guns Magazine of an Any Other Weapon created by adding a vertical grip to a Kel-Tec PLR-16 for a photo shoot. It's that easy to violate federal law.

Sebastian adds:

We're often told that gun control doesn't affect ordinary gun owners, only criminals and nutjobs. Well, sorry, that's bullshit.

Besides simple things like adding a standard vertical grip to the wrong weapon, you can get it if your weapon malfunctions.

But it's all about stopping crime.

Denver stocks up on pepper weapon

Rocky Mountain News:

Denver police are stocking up on guns that fire a pepper spray-like substance instead of bullets - a less-lethal weapon used to disperse crowds - in advance of the Democratic National Convention.

The department recently ordered 88 Mark IV launchers and projectiles at a cost "in the low six figures," the company that makes the weapons stated in a news release Monday.

The request was for delivery in advance of the DNC, according to Louisville- based Security With Advanced Technology Inc.

The convention, scheduled for Aug. 25 to 28 at the Pepsi Center, is expected to draw thousands of protesters to sites throughout Denver.

Here's the Veritas Mark IV:

• .68 Caliber
• 15 Round Magazine
• Air Supply in the Magazine
• One to one scale to an M4
• Point target Accurate to 50 Meters
• Easily index between rounds at the chamber
• Hard Target / Area engagement to 100 Meters
• Accepts most aftermarket accessories for M4/M16

More info at Veritas Tactical.

The City of Denver doesn't want to release specifics of what they're spending money on in preparation of the convention because they fear it will give protest organizers an opportunity to counter the plans.

The comments section of the news story has a bunch of (apparent) Lefties thinking that it's going to be "Right-Wing Extremists" who are rioting at the DNC. Yeah. Whatever.

I can't decide if all the "Recreate 68" talk is serious or not. Or, rather, I can't decide if the talk is seriously going to attract serious people. There's no doubt a certain lunatic fringe element wants to wreak havoc, but whether or not they will gather sufficient numbers or like-minded people is uncertain.

I'm guessing that the big riot is going to be a letdown for all the hippies, though I won't be surprised if I'm wrong.

What do we think of this:

One resident, however, grew angry when he was not allowed to pass a checkpoint Monday, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.

After being denied re-entry to a flooded neighborhood, Rick Blazek, 53, returned to his vehicle as a state trooper used his police vehicle to block the checkpoint, according to the news release.

"Blazek drove his vehicle toward the state trooper and struck the state trooper three times with his vehicle," the release said.

Police told Blazek to get out of his vehicle, and when he refused, "the driver's window was broken out because the doors were locked and Blazek was removed from his vehicle," according to the release.

The trooper was not injured. Blazek, who was arrested and charged with assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Account from CNN.

I don't have any problem with someone being arrested for trying to drive their vehicle into a police officer. But the police weren't allowing him to return to his property, and I'm not so sure about that.

I don't think you can rightfully be forced to evacuate, and I would side with the citizen every time if police were trying to forcibly remove him from his property without charges. But are they obligated to let someone back in once they've left?

UPDATE: Discussion at Sebastian's.

UPDATE 2: Higher-res image added. Click for better look. Found at boston.com.

Man found guilty in Super Bowl plot

A man accused of planning a massacre at this year's Super Bowl was convicted Thursday of federal charges...

Authorities alleged the 36-year-old Havelock bought an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition from the Scottsdale Gun Club on Jan. 30. The documents say Havelock wanted to kill people at the Feb. 3 Super Bowl in Glendale and was armed when he reached a parking lot near University of Phoenix Stadium where pregame activities were happening.

Remember back when the Einsteins on Democratic Underground were arguing that since the media reports called it an "AR-15" that is must absolutely be a real (select-fire) AR-15?

Whoops. They were mistaken. Or morons. Or, most likely, mistaken morons.

Anyway, the guy's dad is (somewhat understandably, I guess) playing the "my boy would never have done that" game:

Havelock's father said his son was generally a good person who was being punished for momentarily snapping.

"I know what kind of kid he is. If he was a bad kid, I'd say 'you deserved what you got.' But he's not," Frank Havelock said. "He needs to talk to a counselor. He doesn't need to be incarcerated."

Look. Everybody has problems. We all "momentarily snap." But very few of us "momentarily snap" and then buy a gun to massacre a bunch of people. Even though this guy had a last-second change of heart, he needs more than a good counselor.

He was going to kill people because his liquor license application had been rejected. In retrospect, that was apparently a good call.

Say Uncle points out a loonie:

It's about time we get real about gun control in our cities. If we can have sobriety checkpoints and now motorcycle checkpoints, why don't we have cops creating gun checkpoints? Have them create checkpoints in the city where the gun violence is running rampant.

Remember not too long ago wacky Chris Matthews suggested the same thing.