A LE goes on a shooting spree?

A few years ago, here in Colorado, a LEO took his wife hostage and barricaded them in their house. His wife was divorcing him.

In the end, it was a murder suicide.

I forget the details, but there may have been a child involved as well. All in the house were killed, so if a child was involved, he/she too was murdered.

There are bad apples in every bunch. Don't forget it, or you may get a mouth full of worms.
 
You can be LEO in Alabama at 19, but your department must buy your weapon. I've only known of one... guy I went to academy with, no surprise but he was Chief's nephew or something like that. I was only 23 at the time myself, but this kid had A LOT of learning to do.
I love my profession, and I take great pride in doing the best job I can on every call. With that said, people who think that police can keep them safe so they take no personal responsibility for their own protection are out of their mind.
To bad someone couldn't take this guy out before he did this horrible deed, it is unfortunate that he ever wore a badge. My sympathy goes to the victim's and their families.
 
All I can leave you with is this- an officer went bad and another officer stepped up and punched his ticket. My heart and prayers go out for all the tortured souls, living and dead, who are or were caught in this maelstrom. Nothing I can say or do will explain it, or make it better.

Well said

Yellowfine stated :I hope this should get the point across that people should NOT look to LE as the source of safety to those who may previously have thought so.

Pure B.S.

The same way you shouldn't look to doctors for medical care, since a number of them have killed people intentionally, same for nurses.
Fireman to put your fire out since a number of them have been convicted of arson.
Postmen to deliver your mail because some have been convicted of mail fraud.

Exactly.

Lets not turn this into a finger pointing match, it's a terrible tragedy. My sympathy's goes to the victims
and their family's.

We are diminished.

12-34hom.
 
12-34hom wrote:
The same way you shouldn't look to doctors for medical care, since a number of them have killed people intentionally, same for nurses.
Fireman to put your fire out since a number of them have been convicted of arson.
Postmen to deliver your mail because some have been convicted of mail fraud.
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Exactly.
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I have to disagree.

I don't trust doctors, nurses, P.A.s or anyone else in the medical profession, and I take the precaution of multiple opinions and my own research. I have been doing this since I read about the death rate going down in Israel when the doctors went on strike.

I sure as heck don't wait on firemen, and I took two firefighting training courses so I can get started till help arrives and direct the help when it gets there.

Anything I put in the USPS system of any value is insured because the USPS is not reliable, based on my experience.

So tell me again why should trust someone whose primary job is to apprehend persons wanted by the authorities after the crime has been committed?
 
Back when I was a kid, I was taught to respect and call on a officer of the law any time I had a problem. Times have changed. Hell they was talking about hiring Mexican Nationals up in ABQ Not long ago! Look at what they are hiring and putting behind a Bagel and Weapons! The ones we have around here would make your skin crawl! Ok Not all of them , Just Enough!!!!!
 
I have to disagree.

I don't trust doctors, nurses, P.A.s or anyone else in the medical profession, and I take the precaution of multiple opinions and my own research. I have been doing this since I read about the death rate going down in Israel when the doctors went on strike.

I sure as heck don't wait on firemen, and I took two firefighting training courses so I can get started till help arrives and direct the help when it gets there.

Anything I put in the USPS system of any value is insured because the USPS is not reliable, based on my experience.

So tell me again why should trust someone whose primary job is to apprehend persons wanted by the authorities after the crime has been committed?
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I don't believe anyone suggested you should put never ending trust in anyone, but to paint a picture that none of them can be trusted is a bold faced lie at worst, disingenuous thinking at best.
 
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Back when I was a kid, I was taught to respect and call on a officer of the law any time I had a problem. Times have changed. Hell they was talking about hiring Mexican Nationals up in ABQ Not long ago! Look at what they are hiring and putting behind a Bagel and Weapons! The ones we have around here would make your skin crawl! Ok Not all of them , Just Enough!!!!!
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This is a terrible, tragic, and ISOLATED incident, not a referendum on immigration or a time to take cheap shots about the supposed culinary preferences of policemen. Try to have some damned respect for the dead. :mad:

I don't believe anyone suggested you should put never ending trust in anyone, but to paint a picture than none of them can be trusted is a bold faced lie at worst, disingenuous thinking at best.
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Well said.
 
I would like to think that this will not turn into a general cop-bashing thread. At least, not more than it already has. Such nonsense will cease now. Or some of you will be taking vacations from L&P.

AAR, there is new information here.

The perpetrator was Tyler Peterson. He was hired as a deputy sheriff in Sept. of 2006, at the age of 19. Apparently no POST training was required, just a years probationary status which ended last month.

This is a very tragic situation and my prayers go out to all involved.
 
Perhaps I should further elaborate. What I was referring to is those people who think that because cops are armed and supposed to handle criminals that they shouldn't take responsibility for keeping themselves from being a victim and take it completely for granted that authority automatically equals good guy. Not specifically that cops aren't untrustworthy by nature--far from it-- but that you can't take it for granted that 100% of the time, and asking any human entity to be sole bearer of power and responsibility for one's security is inherently dangerous. 99%+ not a problem, but let that 1% happen to you and it becomes 100% as far as you're concerned.
 
My family have been in police work and most with military service some at
a young age but it is my opinion that no one should be considered for a
position with any police force until the age of 25 and all should be required
to take a psychological test. The stress and strain of modern life puts added
stress on todays officer and again "most" at age 20 are not equipped to handle the job long term.
 
It would certainly be nice if all our law enforcement and military personnel were of an age that we all agree is "mature," in the sense that if you are ever going to be mature you will have achieved it by then. Twenty-one? Twenty-three? Twenty-five? I don't know.

Unfortunately, financial, legal, and population constraints make this unlikely.
 
DonR101395 wrote:
I don't believe anyone suggested you should put never ending trust in anyone, but to paint a picture that none of them can be trusted is a bold faced lie at worst, disingenuous thinking at best.
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In context, I said I could not trust them to protect me. I do not deal with individuals on that level, therefore, I the point I was making was police as a group.

If you had said "cynical", I would not have been offended. But since I am neither lying nor being disingenuous, I can only assume that you either have an agenda or you are ignorant as to what constitutes police mission and execution in the United States.
 
In context, I said I could not trust them to protect me. I do not deal with individuals on that level, therefore, I the point I was making was police as a group.

If you had said "cynical", I would not have been offended. But since I am neither lying nor being disingenuous, I can only assume that you either have an agenda or you are ignorant as to what constitutes police mission and execution in the United States.
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I would venture to say that the majority of LEOs would/will protect if they happen to be in the same place you are when protection is needed. I have no agenda nor am I ignorant of the police mission or how it is executed in the United States. They aren't bodyguards.
You insinuated they were not trustworthy. I called you on and stand by my statement.
Had you said, So tell me again why should rely someone whose primary job is to apprehend persons wanted by the authorities after the crime has been committed? It would have at least been a truthful statement.
 
Folks, this tragedy was the work of one nutjob who happened to be a cop. This one slipped through the process instead of being weeded out. But, we have to expect that occasionally. No process is perfect.

On the other hand, I don't depend on the police to protect me because I know that there are not enough of them to protect us all, and they are already stretched too thin to do much more than take pictures and collect evidence after something has already gone down. I look at it this way. My job is to do whatever it takes to stay alive and (hopefully) uninjured until I can call 911 and get a police response on the scene. That might mean shooting to stop some criminal bozo who thinks that I am an easy target. It might not. Either way, most of my days are spent without a cop in close proximity, so I have to watch out for myself. That is just the way it is.
 
If anything this is an indictment of our mental health system and attitudes more than our LE community. Too many young men with emotional problems don't seek help because they think it makes them appear weak. This is especially true for airline pilots, cops, firemen and surgeons.

If we can learn anything from this it is to encourage young men who we as more mature adults might mentor to go see a therapist or pastor or something when they have problems. I had a first seargent make me go so a shrink when I got divorced, it was his policy, whether you needed a shrink or not. The shrink told me I was better off, I agreed and got on with life, but it sure didn't hurt me any, and in different circumstances could have done a great deal of good.

I think the bottom line is that the old standby of 'sounds like a personal problem to me', just isn't good enough. How many times does this happen and everyone says, "what a surprise"? Usually there are a lot of people who say, "I wondered what was bothering him" or "I knew he was having problems".
 
Strangely enough, I actually do have faith in the law enforcement officers of this country, precisely because I know that this was an isolated case. Doesn't make me naive, doesn't mean I can't take care of myself within reason if need be, doesn't mean that I'm blind to the few proverbial bad apples (or even systems), just means I still have faith in the American system of law enforcement.

To say that there isn't much that the police can do other than "take pictures and collect evidence after something has already gone down" is a bit too sweeping. With regard to this case, yes, it is unfortunate that the police were unable to prevent the killings in the first place. However, they certainly do not appear to have hesitated in bringing the situation to a decisive end, which qualifies as something quite different than what seems to be the limited view of policework common among some posters here.
 
Justme, your entire analysis seems to miss the point.

This young man, joined the Sheriffs Dept. at 19. No POST was required. No psych eval was given. Nothing. Nada. He was just on probationary status for a year. It was, OJT all the way. There are no standards in Wisconsin for police work. It is literally, every Dept. for themselves.

How this can be an indictment against anything short of a more rigorous selection process and proper training is beyond me.
 
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