Colonialgirl said:
Well, So Far, the PA LEO's have NOT done the Southern California Leo thing and shot up the NON-Matching vehicles of INNOCENT citizens or burned down their cabins.
Hi,
That the PA LEOs have taken a different course is true. What's also true is LAPD is just like most other "big city" police departments and goes "ape s(p)it" when one of their own is involved. Stories of that kind of behavior are NOT simply a "Southern California Leo thing."
As for burning down cabins, though, some personal observations from someone 3000 miles closer, and far less bitter about CA, than Pamela, may or may not be of interest:
In the Dorner case out here, the young woman (police officer's daughter) who was killed was a friend of a buddy's daughter. She and her fiance, also killed, were innocent civilians.
That same buddy and his wife live perhaps a mile from the location where LAPD shot up the pickup. They were awakened by the sound of the helicopters, and he sent me an e-mail later that I should turn on the news as "He's coming your way!" Along that way, he shot two LAPD officers followed by two Riverside City police officers. One of the RPD officers died. He was a patient of one of my clients who works in a medical center just down the street from the site where he was killed. As Dorner made his way to Big Bear, he abandoned and burned his truck. That site was less than two blocks from another client's cabin.
Dorner then hid out, within roughly 300 yards of the "command post" LEOs set up in Big Bear for several days! I'm not exactly sure how he got out of there, but when he did, he headed "down the hill." As he drove down, he was spotted by two game wardens. One of them is an acquaintance of mine, whom a hunting buddy has worked with over the years in his own capacity as a hunter education instructor.
After being spotted, Dorner proceeded off the main highway into a small residential settlement. The cabin he "holed up" in I've driven past many times to go fishing in the stream a block or two away. While there, he engaged San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies in a gunfight: he hit two of them, killing one. I didn't know the deceased deputy, but he was assigned to our local station, and many people here who have kids did know him well from his involvement with youth sports. After that deputy was shot, the decision was made to end the standoff before it got dark. Had Dorner managed to escape in the dark, and if he knew anything at all about the area, he could have gotten away and perhaps never been found.
Instead, the authorities chose to "smoke him out" with the gas grenades. Whether is was a form of "tear" gas that has a side effect of being incendiary, or intentionally "incendiary" gas--does it matter? Prior to "the end," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was quoted as saying "This is not about catching a fugitive suspect, it's about preventing a future crime, most likely a murder. This is an act, make no mistake about it, of domestic terrorism." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/11/los-angeles-murder-charges-dorner/1910643/ Four people died, four more were wounded, at the suspect's hand. Whether one approves of them or not, the actions of SBdo County Sheriff's Dept. achieved that goal, which LAPD failed to do: Dorner took his own life as the cabin started to burn. I have a picture from essentially my "back yard" of the smoke rising as it did.
Story closed.
It's easy to sit a continent away two and a half years later and criticize. What cannot be denied is the fact that, one way or another, OUR guys "got their man." Regardless of our own personal feelings, though, we must remember none of us was involved in the operation or decisions that were made. Weighing human life--civilian or LEO--against the cost of buying the property owner a new cabin seems to me to be a no-brainer. Would that the armchair quarterbacks take that fact to heart, whether it involves a past event or one ongoing as we speak.
For myself, it's a bit disconcerting to have as many "connections" to those events (Dorner) as it turned out I did! Even so, in the current situation I must be content to let the PA authorities play this out "their way" and pray for a successful resolution, the sooner the better. When it's over, however it ends, the AQs will have plenty of time to wear themselves out criticizing some more.
Rick C
