Police Work, Politics and World Affairs, Football and the ongoing search for great Scotch Whiskey!

Thursday, October 31, 2019

K9 Down


K9 Defender
BNSF Railway Police Department, Railroad Police
End of Watch Thursday, February 7, 2019
Breed Unknown Breed
Gender Male

K9 Defender was shot and killed by his handler after being mistaken for a coyote in the area of Bena Road and Neumarkel Road in Kern County, California.

Defender's handler had placed him in their patrol vehicle before going out on a foot patrol in the area. Defender somehow managed to get out of the vehicle and approached his handler, startling him. His handler, who had just been briefed on recent sightings of coyotes in the area, mistook Defender for a coyote and shot him.
Rest in Peace …till our next roll call at the Rainbow Bridge!



In Memory of all Police Dogs

They handled themselves with beauty & grace
And who could ever forget that beautiful face
Whether at work; or at home; whatever the test
They always worked hard; and did their best

They were real champions; at work or at play
But their lives were cut short; suddenly one day
While working on the job with their partner one day
They put themselves out on a limb; out into harms way

They gave the ultimate sacrifice; any dog can give
They gave up their life; so someone could live
The best of their breed; as his partner and anyone would say
Many hearts are now broken; that he had to prove it this way

Now as the trees are blowing in the gentle breeze
The sun is shining; thru the leaves on the trees
The meadows are green; and the grass grows tall
Off in the distance they can see a waterfall

As they look over the falls; down through the creek
The water flows gently; as a rabbit sneaks a peek
Far up above; in the deep blue sky
They see the birds soar high; as they fly by

They see animals playing; at the bridge by a waterfall
Chasing each other; and just having a ball
They play all day; from morning to night
There's no more rain; just warm sunlight

Off in the distance; they hear trumpets blow
Then all the animals look up; and notice a bright glow
The harps would play and the angels would sing
As they know they've come home; they've earned their wings

We remember that they died; in the line of duty
And are now with the Lord; sharing in heaven's beauty
Off to the meadows now; where they can play and roam free
With an occasional rest stop; under a tall oak tree

No more bad guys to chase; or bullets to take
Just a run through the meadow; down to the lake
A quick splash in the water; then back to the shore
Then it's off to the forest; to go play some more

These special dogs are back home; up in heaven above
They're cradled in God's arm's; and covered with His love
We'll light a candle for all of them; in the dark of night
In loving memory of all; these very special knights

By John Quealy

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Officer Down


Patrol Officer John David Hetland
Racine Police Department, Wisconsin
End of Watch Monday, June 17, 2019
Age 49
Tour 24 years
Badge 1928

Patrol Officer John Hetland, who was off duty was shot and killed while intervening in an armed robbery at 9:40 pm.

He observed the robbery occurring outside of a bar at 1936 Lathrop Avenue and took immediate police action. The subject opened fire, fatally wounding him. The subject then fled the scene and remained at large until being captured 10 days later. The man was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Officer Hetland had served with the Racine Police Department for 24 years and was preparing for retirement. He is survived by his two children and his parents.
Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

K9 Down


K9 Chucky
Bexar County Sheriff's Office, Texas
End of Watch Friday, January 25, 2019
Breed Belgian Malinois
Gender Male
Age 6
Tour 4 years

K9 Chucky was shot and killed in the area of West Loop 1604 and Highway 151 while attempting an apprehension of a subject following a vehicle pursuit.

The pursuit had started in Karnes City and had traveled through Karnes County and Wilson County before entering Bexar County. K9 Chucky was deployed for an apprehension after the vehicle stopped. K9 Chucky was able to bite the subject before the man produced a handgun and fatally shot him.

Other deputies and troopers returned fire, wounding the man.

K9 Chucky had served with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office for four years and was trained in narcotics detection and patrol.
Rest in Peace Chucky…till our next roll call at the Rainbow Bridge!



In Memory of all Police Dogs

They handled themselves with beauty & grace
And who could ever forget that beautiful face
Whether at work; or at home; whatever the test
They always worked hard; and did their best

They were real champions; at work or at play
But their lives were cut short; suddenly one day
While working on the job with their partner one day
They put themselves out on a limb; out into harms way

They gave the ultimate sacrifice; any dog can give
They gave up their life; so someone could live
The best of their breed; as his partner and anyone would say
Many hearts are now broken; that he had to prove it this way

Now as the trees are blowing in the gentle breeze
The sun is shining; thru the leaves on the trees
The meadows are green; and the grass grows tall
Off in the distance they can see a waterfall

As they look over the falls; down through the creek
The water flows gently; as a rabbit sneaks a peek
Far up above; in the deep blue sky
They see the birds soar high; as they fly by

They see animals playing; at the bridge by a waterfall
Chasing each other; and just having a ball
They play all day; from morning to night
There's no more rain; just warm sunlight

Off in the distance; they hear trumpets blow
Then all the animals look up; and notice a bright glow
The harps would play and the angels would sing
As they know they've come home; they've earned their wings

We remember that they died; in the line of duty
And are now with the Lord; sharing in heaven's beauty
Off to the meadows now; where they can play and roam free
With an occasional rest stop; under a tall oak tree

No more bad guys to chase; or bullets to take
Just a run through the meadow; down to the lake
A quick splash in the water; then back to the shore
Then it's off to the forest; to go play some more

These special dogs are back home; up in heaven above
They're cradled in God's arm's; and covered with His love
We'll light a candle for all of them; in the dark of night
In loving memory of all; these very special knights

By John Quealy

Monday, October 28, 2019

Officer Down


Lieutenant Robert Jones
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, New York
End of Watch Saturday, June 15, 2019
Age 55
Tour 21 years

Lieutenant Robert Jones died from complications of surgery that was required as part of treatment for an on-duty injury. He served in law enforcement with the Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey for 21 years, including time on scene following the September 11th Terrorist Attacks.
Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Once an Eagle, the good, the bad, and the ugly

The last few years the concept of leadership has been something I've focused on. Last month I finished Call Sign Chaos, General Mattis' book, and it is phenomenal. And a couple of years back I read Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer. One friend on FaceBood called it the "finest fiction book" on leadership ever written. I killed the 1300 plus page book in just over a week, I had not wanted to not put a book down so much since Tom Clancy's in the 1980s. Multiple officers had professional development training based on this book, and for good reason, IMHO. But there is a bit of disagreement, if you will, on this matter.

With that said, I found this article on this book
O! The damage ‘Once an Eagle’ has done to my Army — and yes, it is partly my fault

By Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Best Defense guest confessor

I was commandant of the Army War College in 1997 when Anton Myrer’s widow gave the Army War College the rights to her recently deceased husband’s book, Once an Eagle. She requested that the college republish the book. We received funds from the college foundation for the reprint and it has remained in print ever since. On the flyleaf I wrote that the book:

"Has been a moral compass for me and my family of soldiers for more than two generations. It’s ethical message is as fresh and relevant today as it was when Anton Myrer wrote it during the war in Vietnam."

The book’s lasting attraction for soldiers is the personal and moral battle within its pages between true and false officership as embodied by Sam Damon, a former enlisted man and true soldier’s soldier and Courtney Massengale, a West Pointer who embodies all that is evil among the grasping and politically driven staff officer elite.

My dad was a mustang like Sam. He was a high school graduate, one of the first to finish Engineer Officer Candidate School in 1942. Thus he was in the branch at the time densest in West Pointers. He fought through three wars to retire as a colonel. He gave me a first edition in 1972 and told me to read it as a reminder of what a young West Pointer should know about the difference between a true combat leader and a "staff officer." For years the book became a bedside volume and often I would, like many in my generation who had seen insensitive staff REMFs in Vietnam, warn too-clever officers not to "act like a Massengale."

Over the post-Vietnam era, virtually every Army officer read three books. First was This Kind of War by T.R. Fehrenbach. It remains today as one of the best works on the Korean War. The enduring value of the book is that it chronicles the dangers of unpreparedness, a lesson all too familiar to the service that always suffers the most between wars. The second was Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, a fictional portrayal of the Battle of Gettysburg. Neither Shaara nor Fehrenbach were professional soldiers or military historians, yet both of their books captured the essence of real war and each taught enduring lessons every officer needed to learn about his profession.

Of course the third and most revered was Once an Eagle. Four decades of officer readership has made it both a moral guide for comportment and an indelible cultural metaphor for the difference between unit command and service on a staff. Yet after 10 years of war I’m beginning to question if this cultural icon might have done a generation of the Army a disservice … and it’s in part my fault.

There have always been two tracks for an officer’s career: command or staff, Sam or Courtney. With reflection I think, in part as a result of the book, the Army today venerates Sam Damon too much and castigates Courtney Massengale to its detriment. Its pages might well have contributed to the conflation of two views of careerism between the good warrior versus the bad staff officer. Today’s generation has spent a great deal of time in the field and very little in the classroom or on the staff. Many are unduly contemptuous about serving in the purgatory of the Washington bureaucracy and treat staff time as an unwelcome interlude between assignments in the field.

Perhaps the pull of the Sam track has made too many commanders out of officers whose place is on a staff, and too few brilliant staff officers who choose to leave right in the midst of their most productive years because they failed to make the cut for the next command. My favorite Courtney model is retired Colonel Allen Meyer, who was my staff mate in the ‘80s in the plans and policy shop on the Army Staff. He was the smartest officer I have ever known. As a colonel, he ran the classified operation against the Soviets in Afghanistan at the behest of the Army’s chief of staff. Later, he was President Reagan’s speechwriter and wrote the famous "good-bye, old friend" speech at Arlington that still stirs hearts. Al left too soon. He went on to great success as an entrepreneur and his drive and brilliance made him a wealthy man. And, unlike Courtney, he remains a great guy. But I think not a great infantry combat commander.

My sense is that because too many of the Als and Courtneys have left, much of the critical brain work in the Pentagon today is being done by civilian Courtneys. Visit any influential policy shop in the Pentagon and you’ll see bitter senior staff officers willingly taking a back seat to a young Georgetown M.A. just returned from supporting some political campaign. The lack of uniformed staff brilliance has over the past decade distorted both the quality and the impact of the advice that soldiers are supposed to give to their civilian masters, and that’s too bad.

Sam Damons serve well as company and battalion commanders. Courtney Massengales serve better as senior staff officers. Perhaps we have too many of the former and not enough of the latter. We need more officers with Courtney’s skill as strategists, officers with the ability to think in time, who are able to express themselves with elegance, clarity, conviction, and intellect, and yes, navigate through the swamp of political-military policymaking...

Bob Scales is a retired Army major general and former commandant of the Army War College.

Respectfully sir, I must disagree, Your point is that we need effective staff officers as well as excellent commanders is well taken. However, during the Pacific operations, it shows what happens when you put in a commander who is more concerned with personal glory than his command. And I've seen in my years commander's who had no business being is charge. We now have careerism in the service, where officers do get command assignments because they need to punch their ticket. It's very rare a mam becomes a general without a battalion or brigade command, or both.

Perhaps it would be better to not delete Once an Eagle, but change the Army. Allow for a better "support" track if you will, for staff advancement. My two cents, and worth what you pay for it.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Oficer Down


Trooper William Moden
Colorado State Patrol, Colorado
End of Watch Friday, June 14, 2019
Age 37
Tour 12 years

Trooper William Moden was struck and killed by a vehicle while assisting at the scene of an earlier crash on I-70 near mile marker 324 in Deer Trail, Colorado.

He was checking on the occupants of one of the involved vehicles when another car struck him at approximately 9:40 pm. Another trooper on the scene immediately began providing medical care. Trooper Moden was flown to the University of Colorado Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Trooper Moden had served with the Colorado State Patrol for 12 years.
Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Thursday, October 10, 2019

America arms Mexican gangs, film at 11...

Many cliche's, accepted as fact, permeate the national discussion right now. The usual suspects in the "global warming" crowd scream we must control CO2 emissions, as they are poisoning the planet. When you point out that without CO2, plants would quickly die, and mammals (e.g. humans) would soon follow, they are incredulous. The scientific fact of the Oxygen Cycle seems to escape them.

Now we have this, comes back up every few years. The Mexican gangs are murdering countless people south of the border, and it's the fault of American gun makers. From the LA Times:
Guns from the United States are stoking a homicide epidemic in Mexico

The sun had not yet risen when dozens of gunmen stormed into the town of Ocotito in southern Mexico and started shooting.

Salvador Alanis Trujillo tried to fight back, but his shotgun was no match for their assault rifles. So he and his family fled.

This rugged stretch of Guerrero state had always been a little lawless, home to cattle rustlers and highway bandits. But by the time the gunmen seized Ocotito in 2013, the region was overrun with dozens of criminal groups battling for territory.

There was another key difference: The criminals were now packing AR-15s, AK-47s and other weapons of war.

Mexico is in the grips of a deadly arms race.

It began as part of an escalating conflict among major criminal groups, and it accelerated in 2006 after Mexico’s military went to battle with the cartels.

Today, millions of weapons are in private hands — in direct violation of Mexico’s strict gun laws.

Some of those firearms once belonged to the military or police and were sold into the underworld. But the vast majority were smuggled from the world’s largest gun market: the United States.

The arms buildup has helped fuel record levels of violence. Last year, Mexico saw 20,005 gun homicides — nearly seven times as many as in 2003.

Impunity in Mexico, where 95% of killings go unpunished, has spurred more people to take up arms — and carry out their own justice.

After Alanis was forced to abandon his property, which he had bought with savings from a stint as an auto mechanic in North Carolina, he went to state authorities for help.

When none arrived, he and others who had been displaced formed what they describe as a community police force — and began acquiring the most powerful guns available on the black market.

The group’s aim is to eventually take back Ocotito, a town of 6,000 at the base of a verdant mountain range, using an arsenal that includes dozens of machine guns.

In the meantime, Alanis and his group — the United Front of Community Police of the State of Guerrero — have been steadily taking territory.

They say they are cleansing the countryside of predatory gangs, a mission that they acknowledge sometimes employs the same brutal tactics of their enemies.

Salvador Alanis Trujillo, founder of the United Front of Community Police of the State of Guerrero, a vigilante group

They have incurred, and inflicted, many losses in a conflict that Alanis said can only be described as a “civil war.”

“The assassins that kill us are Mexican,” said Alanis, 40. “And the people we shoot are Mexican.”

As for the weapons, that’s another story. He pointed to the words stamped on the barrel of a Colt Match Target assault rifle slung across the chest of a teenage fighter: “HARTFORD, CONN, U.S.A.”

“We kill each other,” he said. “And you send the bullets...”

No question, you kill each other. I might remind you if the guns were not available, there are knives, rocks, etc to use. Ever since Cain and Able, man has killed man. But this is an excuse for the murders south of the border.

I've been a subscriber to STRATFOR.COM for over twenty years, and a few years back they had a great point on this belief that America is shipping 90% of all weapons used in Mexican wars. To borrow a phrase, everything is accurate. But none of it is true.
Security Weekly- .Mexico's Gun Supply and the 90 Percent Myth February 10, 2011

By Scott Stewart

For several years now, STRATFOR has been closely watching developments in Mexico that relate to what we consider the three wars being waged there. Those three wars are the war between the various drug cartels, the war between the government and the cartels and the war being waged against citizens and businesses by criminals.

In addition to watching tactical developments of the cartel wars on the ground and studying the dynamics of the conflict among the various warring factions, we have also been paying close attention to the ways that both the Mexican and U.S. governments have reacted to these developments. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects to watch has been the way in which the Mexican government has tried to deflect responsibility for the cartel wars away from itself and onto the United States. According to the Mexican government, the cartel wars are not a result of corruption in Mexico or of economic and societal dynamics that leave many Mexicans marginalized and desperate to find a way to make a living. Instead, the cartel wars are due to the insatiable American appetite for narcotics and the endless stream of guns that flows from the United States into Mexico and that results in Mexican violence.

Interestingly, the part of this argument pertaining to guns has been adopted by many politicians and government officials in the United States in recent years. It has now become quite common to hear U.S. officials confidently assert that 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels come from the United States. However, a close examination of the dynamics of the cartel wars in Mexico — and of how the oft-echoed 90 percent number was reached — clearly demonstrates that the number is more political rhetoric than empirical fact.

By the Numbers

As we discussed in a previous analysis, the 90 percent number was derived from a June 2009 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress on U.S. efforts to combat arms trafficking to Mexico (see external link).

According to the GAO report, some 30,000 firearms were seized from criminals by Mexican authorities in 2008. Of these 30,000 firearms, information pertaining to 7,200 of them (24 percent) was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing. Of these 7,200 guns, only about 4,000 could be traced by the ATF, and of these 4,000, some 3,480 (87 percent) were shown to have come from the United States.

This means that the 87 percent figure relates to the number of weapons submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF that could be successfully traced and not from the total number of weapons seized by Mexican authorities or even from the total number of weapons submitted to the ATF for tracing. In fact, the 3,480 guns positively traced to the United States equals less than 12 percent of the total arms seized in Mexico in 2008 and less than 48 percent of all those submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF for tracing. This means that almost 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico in 2008 were not traced back to the United States...



Not about to claim there are no firearms of American origin in the hands of Mexican gangs right now. God knows our border is wide open. But it's not the wild number of 90%. It's often easier to buy the weapons on the black market, and ship them in from overseas. Not to mention if it's stolen from an American owner, it's not the fault of the American manufacturer, or the person it was stolen from.

The LA Times does not show itself well when it's "journalism" is less than what is expected of a high school paper. Hopefully the gangs in Mexico will be controlled at some point in the future. However, this falsehood doesn't help in any way.


Monday, October 7, 2019

Once more, Alfred Noble must be looking down and crying...

Of recent times, the Nobel Prize has become a complete joke. When I was in middle school, there was a legitimate award between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for their efforts that culminated in the Camp David accords. This was the highest achievement of the Carter years (achievements, at least positive ones, were rare then) and I believe the then president should have received the prize for his efforts. Like Teddy Roosevelt, he actually accomplished peace among nations.

Jimmy Carter did win the prize in 2002, in an open insult to then President George W Bush. The prize became more meaningless as it was awarded to a snail oil salesmen in 2007 (ALGORE, aka ManBearPig), and a no accomplishment man-child, B Hussein Obama, in 2009. In 2007, the Nobel Committee awarded Gore over Irena Sendler, a woman who helped save over 2, 000 Jews Obama's was really funny, they awarded the prize to him "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Seeing he was in office for a few months and he had spent most of his adult life dividing peoples make it particularly funny.

Now, the Novel Prize will likely show itself more worthless. Hope you're ready for this:
Controversy stalks Nobel Peace, Literature prizes

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Controversy stalks the Nobel prizes for peace and literature in a way it rarely does for science.

The revamped panel at the Swedish Academy who will hand out the Nobel Literature prizes Thursday for both 2018 and 2019 would relish arguments about the winners, rather than intrigue about the #MeToo scandal that forced the institution to suspend the prize last year...

...“Controversy is a natural effect of the Literature Prize,” says Mats Malm, the Swedish Academy’s new permanent secretary, appointed to head a reformed 18-person panel after two years of convulsions at the prestigious institution. “We want to contribute to the international discussion about literature and what it is supposed to be...”

...However, a better signal for this year’s award might be former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who won the Peace Prize alongside the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007. Gore at the time was the face of the climate movement, a mantle now sitting on the slender shoulders of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden.

The teenage activist bolstered her profile last month, stepping onto the global stage at the U.N. to berate world leaders.

“How dare you?” she kept saying to some of the world’s most powerful people, accusing them of ignoring the science behind climate change. “You are failing us.”

Last month, Thunberg won the Right Livelihood award, often called the “Alternative Nobel.”

British bookmakers have Thunberg as the hot peace prize favorite this year, with Trump listed as a rank outsider behind several other world leaders, including two prime ministers, Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
This propaganda out, no accomplishments, she's flavor of the week (Climate change, or whatever it's called now), insults a sitting Republican president, she's in.
The panel could also choose to acknowledge the joint leadership of Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and North Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev. The two prime ministers put 30 years of acrimony between their neighboring countries behind them when they agreed that the former Yugoslav republic should officially be renamed from Macedonia to North Macedonia and Greece should drop its objections to its neighbor joining NATO.

No, those men are actually working on issues of war and peace. So 20th Century.
On the literature side, the British website Nicer Odds has solved the dilemma of having two winners announced this year by only taking bets on the 2019 winner. Among the favorites are Canadian poet Anne Carson, novelists Maryse Conde of Guadeloupe and Can Xue of China and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which has been made into a hit TV series...

I remember seeing The Handmaid's Tale in my college bookstore. I read the first few pages and put it down. There is fiction and willing suspicion of disbelief, but good God, this is bad. A few years back I was in bed, sick as a dog, with my dogs next to me. And I decided to watch the premiere episode of the The Handmaid's Tale. And afterwards, I was convinced I wasted an hour of my life. It was that bad.

Bet money on it, Thunberg and Atwood take it.