LAW ENFORCEMENT IS FIFTY YEARS BEHIND AVIATION

Throughout 2014, American police officers have killed an average of three people every day. Bloody Blue Badges have taken the lives of 1,051 citizens this year...so far. Since 9/11, cops have killed more than twice as many people as al Qaeda murdered on that modern day of infamy.

If the aviation industry—airlines, military, business flying and general aviation combined—racked up more than 1,000 fatalities every year, no intelligent human being would ever climb aboard an airplane. So, why haven't federal, state and local elected officials taken aggressive steps to curtail police killings? By borrowing a few proven processes from aviation, courageous politicians could bring law enforcement into the 21st Century. Here's how:

LAW ENFORCEMENT IS FIFTY YEARS BEHIND AVIATION

FERGUSON II: Cops Killed Credibility

As protests and violence rage, following a grand jury decision to NOT indict Officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing Michael Brown, the news media and self-proclaimed "experts" continue to overlook a key factor behind citizens' anger: A lack of faith in police investigations. See why at:

http://williambscott.com/2014/11/ferguson-ii-cops-killed-credibility/

CHECKMATE JUSTICE: Disgusting Police 'Probe'

The first in a new series of commentaries, CHECKMATE JUSTICE, is available now at:

http://williambscott.com/2014/11/checkmate-justice-disgusting-police-probe/

In each post, real-world cases of police brutality will be addressed in unique ways by the fictional Checkmate team of black ops assassins featured in "The Permit."

What Would Checkmate Do?

RESTORE HONOR Series

The 5th commentary in a "Restore Honor" series is now available at:

Police Unions' Arrogance Breeds Violence

It exposes how St. Louis-area police unions' single-minded campaign to exonerate Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in August, could fuel another round of deadly violence in Ferguson, Missouri.

Federal, state and local officials are gravely concerned that a new outbreak of violence could spread to other cities that also have suffered from egregious shootings by killer-cops. If that happens, arrogant police union leaders must share responsibility for any deaths and destruction of property.

Three New Posts in the "Restore Honor" Series

Three new posts in the "RESTORE HONOR" series are now available at http://williambscott.com:


* Guest Post —  Serpico: "Police Are Still Out of Control"

* Abolish Police Unions

* Grow a Spine...and Some Hair

RESTORE HONOR: HAS COP-HUNTING BEGUN?

A new item, entitled "RESTORE HONOR: HAS COP-HUNTING BEGUN?" is posted at: http://williambscott.com/2014/10/restore-honor-has-cop-hunting-begun/

Cops Take Brutality Home

As of Oct. 1, 2014, this and "The Permit" blogs have been moved to www.williambscott.com

The latest is at: Cops Take Brutality Home

AMERICAN COPS' KILLER CULTURE (Reposted from barelyablog.com)

barelyablog.comhttp://barelyablog.com/american-cops-killer-culture/

            by Ilana Mercer

American Cops’ Killer Culture

CRIME,CRIMINAL INJUSTICE,IMMIGRATION,LAW

Police need to be put in their place. Stripping them of their green camouflage outfits, armored vehicles and machine guns and equipping them all with a dashcam is a start. “Scrap the federal subsidy programs for municipal police departments that gives them the second-hand military hardware from Tikrit and Kandahar,” counsels Mark Steyn, “and replace it with one that ensures every patrol car has a camera.”

The truth of the matter is that the culture of US cops is that of a craven disregard for American lives.

… when the police are dressed like combat troops, it’s not a fashion faux pas, it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of who they are. Forget the armored vehicles with the gun turrets, forget the faceless, helmeted, anonymous Robocops, and just listen to how these “policemen” talk. Look at the video as they’re arresting the New York Times and Huffington Post reporters. Watch the St Louis County deputy ordering everyone to leave, and then adding: “This is not up for discussion.”

Really? You’re a constable. You may be carrying on like the military commander of an occupying army faced with a rabble of revolting natives, but in the end you’re a constable. And the fact that you and your colleagues in that McDonald’s are comfortable speaking to your fellow citizens like this is part of the problem. The most important of the “nine principles of good policing” (formulated by the first two commissioners of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 and thereafter issued to every officer joining the force) is a very simple one: The police are the public and the public are the police. Not in Ferguson. Long before the teargassing begins and the bullets start flying, the way these guys talk is the first indication of how the remorseless militarization has corroded the soul of American policing.

Which brings us back to the death of Michael Brown. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that everything the police say about this incident is correct. In that case, whether or not the fatal shooting of Mr Brown is a crime, it’s certainly a mistake. When an unarmed shoplifter* in T-shirt and shorts with a five-buck cigar box in one hand has to be shot dead, you’re doing it wrong.

American police have grown too comfortable with the routine use of lethal force. To reprise a few statistics I cited three months ago:

So the biggest government in the free world chooses not to keep statistics on how many people get shot by law enforcement. So be it. It does keep figures on “justifiable homicide”, which it defines as “the killing of a felon by a law enforcement official in the line of duty”. When is a police homicide not “justifiable”? Ah, well. At any rate, for 2012, the corpse count was 410.

By comparison, for the years 2012 and 2013 in England and Wales:

‘No fatal police shootings.’

In the Netherlands:

‘The average for the last 35 years is three dead and 15 injured…’

In Germany, a nation of 80 million people, police in 2011 fatally shot six persons. In Denmark, police shot 11 people in 11 years, and this was felt to be so disturbing that the National Police Commissioner held an inquiry into why his cops had gotten so trigger-happy. In Australia, 41 people were shot by police in eight years, and the then Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone … thought that that was too high. In Iceland, police have fatally shot just one suspect. That’s one guy in the entire history of the country. He was killed by police last December.

So comparisons between the kill rates from American police and those of other developed nations aren’t worth bothering with. Indeed, the “justifiable homicides” of US cops are more like the total murder count for other advanced societies:

In Oz, the total number of murders per year is about 270, so a nation of 23 million would have to increase by 50 per cent to commit as many homicides as American law enforcement. In Canada, whose urban police departments have absorbed certain American practices, a dozen or so people get shot dead by cops each year, which is again somewhat short of the US rate. Indeed, that 2012 “justifiable homicide” figure of 410 compares to a total Canadian homicide count for 2011 of 598. In other words, in America 120,000 or so full-time law enforcement officers rack up the same number of homicides as about 24 million Canadians.

That strikes me as on the high side.

In Ferguson, both parties agree that the first shot was fired from inside the car. The rest were fired by the officer when he’d got out of the car, with Chief Jackson conceding there could have been ten bullets fired. For purposes of comparison:

In 2011 the German police fired 85 bullets. That’s all of them. The entire police force. The whole country. Eighty-five bullets in one year. That’s seven bullets per month. One bullet for every million German citizens.

So the Ferguson PD used as many bullets on Michael Brown as the Polizei used on ten million Germans. But, by American standards, that’s relatively restrained. The same year as those German figures – 2011 – the Miami PD blew through the Polizei’s annual bullet allowance on just one traffic incident:

Police killed Raymond Herisse, 22, of Boynton Beach in a barrage of gunfire after they said he refused an order to pull over while speeding down a crowded Collins Avenue in his Hyundai…

Twelve officers – from Miami Beach and Hialeah – unleashed more than 100 rounds at Herisse, police said. The hail of bullets also struck and wounded three bystanders.

By comparison, those 85 German bullets per annum were aimed somewhat more precisely …

That’s to say, of those 85 bullets, 49 were warning shots. America no longer does “the warning shot”. But whatever happened to “the shot”? With the 36 non-warning bullets fired by German police that year, they killed six people and wounded fifteen. That’s a bullet-and-three-quarters per target. Whether shooting to kill or to disable, they’re trying to do it with a single shot. American policing takes a third of Germany’s annual bullet allowance just to off a dog:

In July, three officers fired 26 shots at a pit bull that had bitten a chunk out of an officer’s leg in a Bronx apartment building. And there have been other episodes: in 1995, in the Bronx, officers fired 125 bullets during a bodega robbery, with one officer firing 45 rounds.

Just what happened on Saturday is still being investigated. Police experts, however, suggested in interviews yesterday that contagious shooting played a role in a fatal police shooting in Queens Saturday morning. According to the police account, five officers fired 50 shots at a bridegroom who, leaving his bachelor party at a strip club, twice drove his car into a minivan carrying plainclothes police officers investigating the club.

The bridegroom, Sean Bell, who was to be married hours later, was killed, and two of his friends were wounded, one critically.

Three months ago I asked this question:

Are American civilians so different from Europeans or Aussies or Kiwis or Canadians that they have to be policed as if they’re cornered rebels in an ongoing civil war?

A startling number of American readers wrote to say, with remarkable insouciance, that the US could not afford the luxury of First World policing. Large tracts of America had too many illegal immigrants, drug gangs, racial grievances, etc. Maybe. But the problem is that, increasingly, this is the only style of law enforcement America’s police culture teaches – not only for the teeming favelas, but for the leafy suburbs and the rural backwaters and the college-town keg party, too. … MORE.

For syndication rights to http://BarelyABlog.com or http://IlanaMercer.com, contact ilana@ilanamercer.com. Read more @ http://barelyablog.com/american-cops-killer-culture/#ixzz3BWBJrXAV

INTERVIEWS & DEATH THREATS

Interview

Link to a NewsmaxTV "Midpoint" interview today: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVr_uZ-6B4&list=UUx6h-dWzJ5NpAlja1YsApdg

We discussed Erik's execution, the fact that rogue/outlaw killer-cops now constitute a dangerous domestic terrorist threat, why "The Permit" was written, and how law enforcement's lies and cover-ups have undermined Americans' trust, sparking riots in Ferguson, MO.

Death Threats

After doing an interview on "The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction With Pete Wichert" Internet radio show on Wed., 20 Aug., the host received a number of sinister phone calls throughout the night. 

The voice-altered caller threatened the lives of Pete Wichert, two of his other guests, and yours truly. The caller said, "William B. Scott will be lucky to be alive long enough...to get on 'Infowars,' because he spoke about his son's murder."

Pete's theory: My account of Erik's murder-by-cop might have "upset" the Cleveland Mob or a venal, die-hard police union. Pete said the caller repeatedly warned that "Scott had better keep his mouth shut." Evidently, the worst vitriol was focused on an Infowars reporter, Joe Biggs, and ol' man Scott. 

Joe's on-camera interview, earlier this week, showed a St. Ann, MO, cop, Lt. Jay Albers, pointing an AR-15 rifle at Joe and yelling, "I'll f****** kill you!" The video was carried by Fox News and other TV networks, and resulted in Lt. Albers being "suspended indefinitely," according to a statement released by the St. Ann Police Department.

Evidently, the caller demanded that I stop recounting the story of my son's murder at the hands of William "Curley Joe" Mosher. It's annoying police officers, who blindly, desperately hang onto the ridiculous, false narrative spun by Las Vegas Metro PD's chief cover-up architect, Captain Patrick Neville.

Upon advice of a retired sheriff and a couple of police officer friends, I reported the death threats to appropriate authorities. Personally, I think the caller's a sick, warped nutcase holed up in his mom's basement. Rest assured, though, all threatened parties are taking protective precautions.

Finally, please note these latest, shocking statistics about killer-cops throughout America:

At least 700 people have been killed by U.S. police, since January 1, 2014.

At least 1449 have been killed since May 1, 2013.

At least 1087 were killed May 1, 2013 - May 1, 2014.

Source: Police reports via corporate news reports.

LAS VEGAS ANTI-GUN POLICY: KILL AND COVER

The following appeared in the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel on July 19, 2014.

LAS VEGAS ANTI-GUN POLICY: KILL AND COVER

William B. Scott

On July 10, 2010, Erik B. Scott, a 1994 U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduate with an MBA from Duke University, was shot to death by three Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (“Metro”) officers in front of a Las Vegas, NV, Costco big-box store. While many readers will recall that egregious, senseless murder, few know what followed: A jaw-dropping cover-up more typical of the old Soviet Union than America.

To every man and woman, who carries a firearm, the Erik Scott shooting is a chilling reminder that billion-dollar companies, such as Costco, have irrational, secret, anti-gun policies that literally kill their customers.

Erik, a Boston Scientific cardiac pacemaker sales rep, was carrying a legally registered concealed firearm, while he and his girlfriend were shopping at Costco-Summerlin in Las Vegas. He also had a concealed-carry permit in his wallet, issued by the same Metro police force that killed him.

When Erik squatted on the floor to verify that three metal water bottles would fit into a soft-sided, zip-up cooler, a Costco employee spotted Erik’s Kimber Ultra Carry .45-caliber semiautomatic in an inside-the-waistband holster. A civil interchange with a Costco manager ensued, and Erik was told that a Costco policy banned guns inside company stores—although there were no signs to that effect posted outside or inside, and there’s no mention of a gun-ban policy in the membership application. Erik calmly responded that his sidearm was legal and that he had a concealed-carry weapon (CCW) permit on his person. The manager never asked Erik to leave the store, and the two parted on good terms, according to witnesses.

The Costco manager reassured a plainclothes security guard, Shai Lierley, that Erik would be leaving soon. For reasons known only to him, the young, cocky Lierley—defying management practices and company policy—placed a 311 call to the local police, falsely claiming Erik “had a gun and was acting erratic.” Thinking an armed madman was barricaded inside, Metro cops rushed to the store in overwhelming force—15 police cruisers, a helicopter, an incident-command team and an ambulance.

An inbound Metro lieutenant suggested that Costco managers quietly evacuate the store. Unaware that the evacuation had anything to do with him, Erik and his girlfriend calmly walked out with the crowd, passing three Metro officers waiting at the entrance and exit doors. Costco’s Shai Lierley identified Erik to an agitated, scared Metro officer, William Mosher, who was clutching a semiautomatic, visibly shaking and sweating profusely. Alarmed, Mosher spun around and immediately yelled something, which even nearby cops failed to comprehend.

Erik turned to find a frightened, obese cop shouting three conflicting commands. With his left hand, Erik lifted his T-shirt to expose the Kimber, and repeated, "I am armed, I am armed..." Witnesses said he moved his right elbow enough to expose the Kimber. In his right hand, Erik held a BlackBerry cell phone.

Mosher instantly panicked and fired two shots with a .45-caliber Glock 21. The cop’s first hollow-point slug struck Erik in the heart; the second went through his right thigh, well below his jeans’ front pocket.

Two other officers hesitated a long beat, then fired another five rounds, all into Erik's back. Erik was shot a total of seven times. The five that hit him in the back were fired after he was on the ground, dying.


Based on a recording of Lierley’s 311-call, we’ve confirmed that Mosher gave Erik three conflicting commands and fired, all within two seconds. Mosher then knelt on his victim’s back and handcuffed Erik’s hands.

Costco had numerous security cameras inside the store and at least four trained on the entrance, where the lethal shooting took place. Violating department policies, Metro detectives did NOT immediately seize the surveillance system's two digital video recorders’ hard disks. They left the critical DVR and hard drive in Costco's control for five days, allowing Costco-Summerlin personnel and the store’s IT contractor to tamper with video data. Five days after the shooting, Metro detectives finally decided to pick up one Costco DVR. After valiant attempts to “recover” critical imagery, the DVR was sent to the U.S. Secret Service’s Los Angeles office, where forensics experts examined it. The experts later testified that 96 percent of the DVR’s data were recovered. The four percent not recoverable just happened to encompass the time Erik was in Costco, as well as the fatal officer-involved shooting. The hard disk’s platter sectors, where that critical four percent of unrecoverable data resided, was physically damaged, as if the disk were running, “then dropped from about chest high,” according to forensic experts’ testimony.

Within hours of the shooting, a Clark County Deputy Public Administrator and a Metro cop illegally broke into Erik's condominium and stole several of his firearms. One pistol, a small Ruger LCP, was later produced as "proof" that Erik was carrying two guns. Why two? Because the AMR ambulance crew had reported finding a gun on Erik’s body. The sole gun Erik really was carrying (the Kimber) had already been removed from the corpse and placed on the ground at Costco, still in the holster, as if Erik had pulled it, thereby “justifying” Mosher's murder. In fact, the only item Erik ever had in-hand was his BlackBerry smartphone. In a state of panic, Mosher couldn’t distinguish a BlackBerry from a semiautomatic pistol. He literally executed Erik.

There is absolutely no doubt that Erik was murdered. However, integrity-challenged cops of Metro’s “Blue Wall” immediately resorted to post-shooting procedures that are standard practice for hundreds of corrupt Las Vegas police officers: Conceal the facts, destroy and manufacture “evidence,” coerce selected eyewitnesses, and systematically demonize the deceased victim. The cover-up of Erik’s murder-by-cop was aided and abetted by the Clark County District Attorney, an unprincipled union—the Las Vegas Police Protective Association—and wealthy power brokers, who control The Strip.

My family filed two lawsuits in federal court—one against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the three shooters and the sheriff, Douglas Gillespie, and a second against Costco. For unbelievable reasons, both suits went nowhere. After the second was dismissed, our lawyer said, “I don’t think it’s possible to get justice in this town.”

The truth about Erik’s murder and its blatant cover-up is so bizarre that non-Las Vegas citizens would never believe it. Consequently, I resorted to asymmetric warfare. I wrote a novel based on the actual events of my son’s senseless execution. Entitled The Permit, the book is “faction”—truth wrapped in a techno-thriller story. According to reviewers, The Permit is a fast-moving, riveting tale of intrigue, corruption and accountability.

Synopsis of “The Permit:” A murder-by-cop victim, “Erik Steele,” was actually a covert assassin for Checkmate, an ultra-secret Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism team. Arrogant, low-intelligence Las Vegas Metro cops had brazenly killed a high-value federal agent. As Metro leaders soon realize, their trigger-happy cretins truly did kill the wrong guy.

Metro’s clumsy attempts to cover-up Erik’s execution triggers a deadly campaign codenamed Operation Gold Shield. Activated by the highest office in America, Shield is designed to neutralize INDIGO, a new, dangerous class of domestic terrorist that has killed more Americans since 9/11 than were lost on that modern day of infamy: Rogue cops and their corrupt allies. Shield is launched to prevent the U.S. from erupting in armed revolt. However, the initial targets are those responsible for killing a fellow Checkmate agent, Erik Steele.

Integrity-devoid killer-cops, corrupt district attorneys, police union thugs, an unscrupulous sheriff, and even a powerful billionaire are held accountable via advanced, highly classified means, such as tiny missiles with nanoparticle warheads; a microwave-beam weapon that fries a victim; an airborne system that creates “ghosts” in a target’s bedroom; a “black world” fighter aircraft armed with T-Rex, a stunning electrostatic weapon; an acoustic beam that shatters bones and buildings, and a lethal disease that precludes sleep.

Ultimately, bodies pile up, government officials run scared and the glitzy Las Vegas Strip is silenced.

Checkmate Justice is done.

William B. Scott, the late-Erik Scott’s father and author of “The Permit,” is a full-time author and consultant. He retired in 2007 as the Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology. Over a 22-year career with the international magazine, he wrote more than 2,500 stories, and received 17 editorial awards. He is a coauthor of two other novels, “Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III” and “Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III,” and a nonfiction book, “Inside the Stealth Bomber: The B-2 Story.”

During a nine-year Air Force career, Bill served as aircrew on classified airborne-sampling missions, collecting nuclear debris by flying through radioactive clouds; an electronics engineering officer at the National Security Agency, developing satellite communications security systems; and an instrumentation and flight test engineer on U.S. Air Force fighter and transport aircraft development programs.

Bill is a Flight Test Engineer graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and a licensed commercial pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings. He has logged approximately 2,000 hours on 80 aircraft types, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University-Sacramento.

THE RIGHT SHERIFF: ACCOUNTABILITY

The next sheriff of Clark County, NV, will face two daunting tasks—getting rid of rogue or outlaw Metro police officers and instilling a culture of accountability. However, he absolutely must do both, or good, honorable police officers on the Metro force will face the wrath of increasingly outraged, distrustful citizens.

To the latter point, this week, one of our most tireless, loyal "Erik's Warriors" cited a news story written by John B. Whitehead, attorney, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of A Government of Wolves, entitled, "The Growing Epidemic of Police Violence: Is It Time to De-Militarize Police Forces?" She noted that a shocked Las Vegas Metro police officer had claimed, in his 25 years of law enforcement work, he'd never seen more violence toward cops than today. She replied, "As he was saying that, I was thinking, 'DITTO.' [I’ve never seen more] violence from police against citizens, the mentally ill, babies, young people, the elderly, and especially pets.” 

The Right Sheriff (TRS) knows all too well that cops are directly responsible for any increased violence aimed at them. As a group, they’re reaping what they sowed. Americans, in general, and Las Vegas residents, in particular, are extremely fed up and disgusted by out-of-control, militarized, arrogant police officers. And TRS is acutely aware that he has very little time to get rid of Metro's dozen or so "crazies"—a moniker fellow officers gave their killer-cop brethren, such as William Mosher and Bryan Yant—before angry natives revolt and literally start hunting down Metro cops.

Consequently, The Right Sheriff will attack the "crazies" problem head-on, regardless of predictable whining and legal objections from a venal, malfeasant Police Protective Association that should be decertified and disbanded. I predict Las Vegas citizens and honest county commissioners will back the new sheriff’s “Rid the Ranks of Rogues” campaign a hundred percent.

Next up is the daunting job of changing an incredibly corrupt Metropolitan Police Department culture that routinely condones abuse and murders of the very people paying cops' salaries. The Right Sheriff has no choice but to institute stringent accountability standards, if he expects to improve internal morale and gain the trust and loyalty of his good officers, who are as revolted and demoralized as Clark County’s cop-abused citizens.

The new boss will immediately implement a standard of accountability that would be unthinkable under the malfeasant administrations of Doug Gillespie, Bill Young and their predecessors. In essence, TRS will require Metro officers to adopt and inculcate the spirit of an Honor Code that U.S. Military Academy graduates—such as my son, the late-Erik Scott—lived by:

 “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.”

No longer will patrol officers be allowed to look the other way, when their outlaw brothers- and sisters-in-brown commit an act of misconduct. And, when the infamous "Blue (or Brown) Wall” of silence is erected, and transparent lying proliferates in the name of "protecting one of our own," The Right Sheriff will fire each and every cop, who openly condones malfeasance and protects a crooked outlaw in their midst. Further, any police union thug, who dares to threaten an honest whistleblower, or blindly backs a Metro killer-cop, will be upbraided and, possibly, dismissed. The PPA’s unlawful counsel of bald-faced insubordination will simply not be tolerated by TRS and his good, professional officers. To paraphrase Checkmate’s message in “The Permit,” You kill, you lie, you’re gone. Period.

It won't take long for honest cops to line up behind The Right Sheriff and support his campaign of cleansing. It might get ugly, but good, honest officers will do whatever it takes to get rid of moronic thug cops, including complicit supervisors. The days of rampant “cowboy cops” that now constitute 25-30 percent of Metro’s ranks are numbered.

How will The Right Sheriff destroy Metro’s rotten culture? Ex-lawmen, retired senior military officers and corporate executives have shared the following suggestions:

• Change the language. Police officers will no longer refer to themselves and their chosen career field as “Law Enforcement.” They will now call themselves “Peace Officers,” and will act accordingly. Metro cops will be told every single day that their job is to keep the peace on Clark County streets, not find questionable excuses to “enforce” the law at any cost.

• Scrub the nauseating “Partners with the Community” pablum from Metro cruisers and replace it with an old-school police motto, “Protect and Serve.” Again, every cop wearing a Metro badge will change his attitude and demeanor to reflect a true protect-and-serve mentality. Those who won’t or can’t will be looking for a job.

• Institute a policy that any Metro officer participating in an officer-involved shooting or incident resulting in death or severe injury will be questioned at length by an outside investigative agency; automatically take a lie detector test, and immediately be tested for illegal and prescription drugs, including steroids and so-called “growth hormones.” 

• Completely revamp the Metro police academy training program. Inputs and advice from active-duty and retired police officers will be solicited, as will suggestions from outside agencies, consultants and families of Metro shooting victims. While details are yet to be defined, Metro’s upgraded training regimen will be the antithesis of today’s, which was articulated quite well in the previously referenced news article:

“Yet the tension inherent in most civilian-police encounters these days…goes far deeper, to a transformation in the way police view themselves and their line of duty. Specifically, what we’re dealing with today is a skewed shoot-to-kill mindset in which police, trained to see themselves as warriors or soldiers in a war, whether against drugs, or terror, or crime, must “get” the bad guys—ie., anyone who is a potential target—before the bad guys get them. The result is a spike in the number of incidents in which police shoot first, and ask questions later.

“Just as troubling as this ‘shoot-first-ask-questions-later” mindset is what investigative journalist Katie Rucke uncovered about how police are being trained to use force without hesitation and report their shootings in such a way as to legally justify a shot. [Jack, a concerned citizen, who went undercover to attend law enforcement training classes] said ‘these trainers consistently promote more aggression and criticize hesitation to use force. …They argue that the risk of making a mistake is worth it to absolutely minimize risk to the officer. And they teach officers how to use the law to minimize legal repercussions in almost any scenario. All of this is, of course, done behind the scenes, with no oversight from police administrators, much less the public.’”

Worth it to absolutely minimize risk to the officer? No way. Not for my dead son, Erik, or me. Not to the loved ones of all Metro’s victims. Most would be alive today, if an amped-up, quick-to-shoot killer-cop had demonstrated a smidgen of courage, good judgment and restraint, instead of shooting an innocent citizen. 

The Right Sheriff will weed out Metro’s chicken cops and replace them with old-school lawmen–men and women who have the courage to confront danger, yet hesitate long enough to give a “target” the benefit of doubt, instead of saving their own hides at any cost.

Finally, The Right Sheriff will lead from the front, not from behind a headquarters desk or cocktail glass. If an officer-involved shooting takes place, TRS will race to the scene and get a timely first-hand look at the situation. And, if he spots a guilty Metro cop’s “throwdown” gun, or smells the stench of another imbecilic Patrick Neville-orchestrated coverup, The Right Sheriff will immediately detain the on-scene shooters and cover-up architect. He absolutely will not tolerate liars and cover-up artists on Las Vegas Metro’s force. The decades-old routine of kill-and-cover is ended.

In my opinion, The Right Sheriff is Ted Moody. Elect Ted as the next sheriff, and LVMPD has a fighting chance of gaining the trust and support of about two million Clark County citizens.

William B. Scott

The Permit 

WHO GETS THE POLICE UNION’S LOVE & KISSES?

One foolproof method for deciding who is the right person to elect as the next Clark County sheriff and leader of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is to scrutinize endorsements.

And the perfect way to eliminate the wrong sheriff candidates is to ask: Who is the Las Vegas Police Protective Association (LVPPA) backing? 

The LVPPA is an unabashed, integral cog in the Cartel of Corruption machine that controls the county’s law enforcement and judicial system. Chris Collins, as PPA director, exemplifies the arrogant, overbearing, in-your-face attitude of unionized Metro cops, who routinely alienate hundreds of thousands of Las Vegans, driving a wedge between citizens and police officers. Further, the PPA dictates to Sheriff Doug Gillespie, who is such a weak, ineffective leader that he routinely rolls over and does whatever Chrissy Collins demands.

The PPA routinely backs killer-cops, defending egregious shootings of people the PPA derisively refers to as “civilians,” even when video data prove, beyond a doubt, that the officer(s) screwed up and literally murdered the victim. Collins struts before TV cameras, spinning falsehoods about what really happened and bad-mouthing the victim, invariably implying that a Metro cop couldn’t possibly make a mistake or be devoid of good sense and courage. 

Collins has angered thousands of Southern Nevada citizens, and is personally responsible for at least 250 Metro police officers leaving the union. Good cops refuse to support a despicable, lawless union that fuels taxpayer hatred and disrespect for police officers. Consequently, professional cops drop their PPA membership. Many honorable officers have dumped the PPA and joined the Fraternal Order of Police Officers, instead.

For decades, the PPA has only backed sheriff candidates who promise to perpetuate Old Las Vegas operating procedures, which were put in place for one reason: To keep money flowing into resort-hotel-casino moguls’ pockets. And those billionaires make sure their Mob bosses continue to reap obscene profits, thanks to assistance from uniformed Metro flunkies, who serve as “enforcers.” The PPA’s role in the Cartel of Corruption machine is to defend outlaw cops at all costs, because those integrity-devoid officers ultimately take care of business for the big money.

Consequently, a PPA endorsement of a sheriff candidate is a loud and clear declaration that the man is a willing tool of Strip billionaires, who control Las Vegas. It also means that candidate, if elected sheriff, will never, ever hold a cop accountable for shooting and killing an innocent citizen, or performing illegal “services” on behalf of Vegas elites.

In the 2014 election, Chris Collins and his Las Vegas Police Protective Association badge-heavy thugs are backing Larry Burns. In my humble opinion, that’s reason enough to scratch Burns off the list of viable candidates. He fails a key test for being an honest, tough sheriff, who will get rid of killer-cops, such as William Mosher and Brian Yant.

The Right Sheriff will not coddle killer-cops and turn a blind eye to malfeasant behavior by Metro officers, like Gillespie does. And The Right Sheriff, immediately after he pins on his badge and four stars, will order Chris Collins to dust off a Metro uniform and return to the streets as a beat cop. Collins and the seven or so other Metro cops, who now do nothing but serve as the PPA’s full-time leadership cadre, will earn their salaries as working peace officers. 

No longer will the sheriff be a willing stooge for a union that actively works against the best interests of hard-working citizens, the people who pay cops’ cushy salaries. If PPA members really value Collins and his buds, they’ll gladly vote to increase their dues and pay for such indispensable leadership. 

Bottom line: The Right Sheriff will refuse to waste scarce taxpayer funds underwriting haughty, obstructionist PPA leaders, who will never back his policies. And that, Mr. and Ms. Voter, ensures the PPA will do everything in Chris Collins’s bag of scumball, reprehensible tricks—lie, slander and scaremonger—to submarine The Right Sheriff’s campaign.

Consider the PPA’s dearth of credibility, and do NOT vote for any PPA-endorsed candidate.