Guess He Skipped a Day of Class…

Someone bumped me this across twitter and initially I thought it was SSCC material.  The more I thought about it though it’s really hard to tell.

A Salem police officer shot and killed a pit bull dog as it attacked him Saturday, and a man who jumped into the middle of the attack also was struck, receiving a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the foot.

Now it is worth noting, they were evidently in a house talking with residents.  It appears that this was their dog, it was not during the execution of a no-knock, however the officers were there searching for a wanted individual.

First let me note, don’t ever let the police into your house, even if you call them.  Second of all, keep your animals away from the officers.  It is difficult to tell if the officer was really being attacked.  I have to say if I was attacked by a dog I wouldn’t just try and push it away.  The dog is probably going to be injured from my kicking it and it will be followed shortly there after with a shot.

I don’t know of anyone who would just push a dog away when being “attacked”.  Maybe the dog was wanting attention, who knows?   But the owner then tried to intervene to protect the dog, obviously late to the party because he reacted as it went south.

My guess is the dog was hopping up and putting his paws on the officer, the officer drew his gun to shoot after pushing the dog away didn’t work, because you know that’s a serious threat right there.  You know, so serious it’s worth discharging your firearm with other people present.  When the owner saw the officer start to draw his gun he attempted to restrain the dog and the officer already having made the decision ended up shooting the dog as well as the owner.

The big issue here is how readily and quickly officers will descend to the use of lethal force, even against an animal when it’s most frequently unnecessary.  It’s getting to the point where even lawful uses of force could be seen as yet another example of puppycide since it’s become so common.

The answer is to have officers use their heads. The problem is they’re never held accountable for their decisions so there’s no incentive to think prior to acting.

The quickest way to look at this is the fact that had this been any average citizen and not and officer, the would be arrested and probably jailed for their reckless actions.  Bottom line is he wasn’t sure of his target and what’s beyond it, which in a dynamic scene like that is difficult.  Either way though it is yet another indicator of problems in the system.

Remember, She Can and Probably Does Vote…

Honestly I hope this is a joke, but I don’t think it was.  Also worthy of rememberence is not only the fact that she can vote, but she’s also probably reproducing.

h/t To the Wife on this one.

SSCC #414 – Eldorado Illinois

A dog, confined within his own yard, was shot and killed by an Eldorado, Ill. police officer who had mistakenly arrived to the wrong house to investigate a report of a stolen ladder.

Best part was, the dog was chained up.  Hey officer, you want a clue how to not get bit by a chained up dog?  First, go to the right damn house.  Second, stay out of the reach of the chain of the dog.

Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the dog attacking you, and on top of that you wont look like an incompetent moron.

Unsurprisingly this happened in Illinois instead of out here in free America.  The reason being is in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana, shooting a man’s dog is a great way to get shot yourself.  Shooting the dog here is like shooting a member of the family and is considered a hostile act.  Shooting my dog gives me every reason to fear you as you just deployed lethal force on my property against my family.  Any cop that needs to do that is merely LAZY and doesn’t want to do his damn job.

Lastly why was the officer going to the back door and not the front door?  Again, another fantastic way to get yourself in trouble both with the home owner and their pets.

State Sponsored Criminal #414: Officer John Doe

Because cops are allowed to kill any animal they want any time they want.  The key is they just need to say that it tried to attack them.  Doesn’t even matter if it’s in a cage with a kid behind it.

In which I take advice and set the bar higher

So as Joe mentioned while we were in Reno we ran the LAPD qualification stage.  I passed, not as comfortably as I would have liked but was no slouch either.

I followed through on my word since I knew when these stages would be coming and practiced less and less as the day approached.  Prior to this shoot the last time I had shot was the beginning of August at that USPSA match.  I hadn’t shot any steel either since March and hadn’t done any extra practice either.

So for all intents and purposes I went into this thing pretty damn cold since I only really shoot about 150 rounds at a USPSA match at most.  Overall my opinion of the stages was that it wasn’t hard or difficult.  Doubly so since we made the stages harder than what actually required by the LAPD.

Ry suggested I try using Adobe Premiere and step up my game in production quality for the video.  I happen to think on this it’s probably a good idea.  So I spent this morning playing with Premiere and could actually cut a raw video that looks decent of Joe and I both shooting the qualifier from multiple angles.  That however isn’t the type of video I’m looking for.

I started writing up a script tonight and am intending to spend a decent amount of time editing to provide the maximum punch possible from this video.  There are some serious notes that and things that need to be emphasized regarding many of the stages and that needs to be done correctly.  Further, as I am evidently a beer swilling redneck, I figure I might as well act like one and start surpassing the CSGV’s and Brady Campaign’s production values for their videos.

The end goal is to get down to a short 3 to 4 minute video to educate people on the truth behind these “standards”.  Some have said we were self-selecting and I could see that if this was a National or Area level match, but not for a local match.  Local matches give you a wide variety of shooters, including multiple new shooters, with new and unfamiliar equipment.  The details on how and why that matters will be clearly illustrated in the video.

In the mean time enjoy this instead:

The War on Mice

Those who know me know I hate varmints and vermin with a passion.  We had a small problem last year but we quickly got it taken care of and didn’t have any further issues.  Well this year they have returned, with a vengeance.

Our cats clued us in to their return as they started staring at the access panel to the Jacuzzi tub again.  We opened it up and there was evidence galore they had recently come back.  Down went the kill traps and the wait began.

Yesterday morning I woke up to this:

The other trap had been set off but evidently they got lucky and didn’t take a metal bar to the face.  I reset the traps and away we went.  The wife got home and informed me of the following:

That’s right, two more of the little buggers took metal bars to their necks.  I reset the traps and not even 3 hours later I’m informed by the wife, they’re full again.

Now I’m saying, holy !@#$ Huston we have a problem.  I clean it all up.  Reset the traps and add in two more.  I wake up this morning to find the sneakiest bastard of the bunch:

The little bastard tripped three out of the 4 traps and some how didn’t get snapped… Well the 4th trap broke his neck and ripped open his nose.

Earlier in August the wife and I signed up for pest control which thus far had worked well.  Took out a couple of larger wasp nests that were forming in areas that were difficult for me to get to.  We’ve seen fewer creepy crawlies overall.  At that point we hadn’t seen much in the way of mice signs so they didn’t do much at that time.

Well now that harvest is in full swing, and I’ve killed 6 in 24 hours, they’ll be back out on Thursday.  TMW is less that thrilled right now though because I’m leaving with Joe tonight for Mecca and then we’re headed to Reno for GBR tomorrow morning.  So that means if there are any more of the little buggers she gets to clean them up and reset the traps.

As an FYI, just about everyone has mice problems this time of year in the area, even brand new construction.  It’s the down side of basically living surrounded by wheat fields.  I would poison them, but the last thing I want is for them to die in the crawlspace.  The house would stink to high heaven and then finding the little buggers would be an interesting venture all of it’s own.

Be Prepared…

For what? Oh any old thing.

So far it’s not clear why the man police say is Joel Neveraz, a wedding guest, encouraged his pit bull to attack the bride and also attacked the woman himself.

I had a two fold protection for that at my wedding.  One, I was strapped.  Second I had a tiger pit at the reception.

Just because it is supposed to be a happy day, and it should be dream like, not everyone may be sympathetic to your view.  Carry your guns and be prepared, you never know when trouble will come to your door step.

SSCC #385–St. Paul

A St. Paul, Minnesota family claims in a lawsuit that police officers who conducted a wrong-door raid on their home shot their dog, and then forced their three handcuffed children to sit near the dead pet while officers ransacked the home.

Words fail to express my rage.  I shall do as Weer’d said and let it speak for itself.

State Sponsored Criminal #385: The St. Paul Minnesota SWAT Team

Because you need to teach little Timmy and Tiffany to obey their perverted Uncle Sam at an early age, and if you plug their dog and make them lay next to it, the next time Pedo-bear TSA agent molest them they’ll ignore it because they don’t want their new Sparky to take a bullet.

h/t Popehat

Life Imitates the Movies

Usually the movies imitate life, but in this case I think not.

The Madagascar movie series is hilarious, but I never thought I would hear about an escape that sounded like it came from that movie.  Well here it is:

Hoffmann said the kangaroos got out of their enclosure after a young fox snuck into the park and dug a hole next to the cage’s fencing. Two of the three were then able to escape the park entirely through another hole dug by a wild boar under the exterior fence.

The only way this could have been better is if it had been penguins* that did the tunnel digging.

Madagascar – Smile and Wave
Get More: Madagascar – Smile and Wave

*FYI if you don’t know, the wife and I both love penguins.