In my home state of California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s (wooo LASD!) SWAT team rescued a 2 year old girl after her father shot and wounded her mother and held her hostage for two hours.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Byron Ward said that deputies responding to a call found the wounded woman outside the house.
…
“He refused to surrender or release his daughter, while making threats to kill himself,” Deputy Ed Ward said.
Deputies believed the child was in imminent danger and fired a single shot that killed Arvallo when he was not near the child, authorities said.
According to the linked story, the mother was hospitalized with an abdominal wound, but is in stable condition. The father who threatened his daughter and shot the mother of his child in the stomach died from a single shot from LASD SWAT at the scene, which is in my estimation about what he had coming.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is one of the largest law enforcement organizations in the country, spanning an area over three times the size of Rhode Island, and performs a large array of law enforcement services in that area, as well as assisting with brush fire control, and rural search and rescue.
Tomorrow we’ll have more in the week long “Only Ones” series, highlighting the valuable and often quite thankless job done by America’s law enforcement officers.
Hear, hear!
We do need to see both sides of it – both the admirable and the despicable.
I’ve only seen the term “Only Ones” used in a negative context. I don’t know if you trying to change the usage of the term but it looks very strange to me.
I, too, have only see this on another “Gun Blog” in negative context. I believe the phrase is derived from the video of the DEA agent (or other federal agency) where the agent shoots himself in the foot after telling the kids, emphatically, that “he is the only one professional enough” to handle a gun.
But, I fully appreciate both the negative and the positive. We only do a disservice to ourselves, however, to standby and believe that our hired guns are all good. I am happy to see the positive things the guys in blue do, too. But, to try and change the language or to possibly dissuade or misinform that they’re some sort of angels on high, isn’t truthful or fair.
This might not have been your intention, though.
And….RIGHT ON/GOOD JOB to LA SWAT for removing this human piece of shit from our midst and the planet.
Well, that was the point of using “Only Ones” in this continuing series. I felt like too much attention had been drawn to negative activities of law enforcement, and wanted to point out that despite some bad apples, the majority of cops are good people – hence hijacking the meme ever so slightly.
The thing is, for every story you come up with about how wonderful and honorable the cops are, there’s seems to be another case of armed-robbery-by-cop:
http://www.coltcco.com/?p=306
If you want to celebrate heroes, cheer for firemen. The only honorable cops I’ve ever met are those at the local Sheriff’s department. He’s elected by a small rural community, and he keeps them honest because it’s his job on the line.
LASD gets the job done!
I disagree that the “only ones” meme should be hijacked.
Both citizens and cops need to be reminded that cops are not above us – they are our peers, as in “a jury of your peers”. Cops need to be held to a higher standard (that they often don’t meet) precisely because of the power that they have: a position of special trust and authority – same as a doctor, priest, or lawyer. When they abuse their power, it should be grounds for dismissal, and possible criminal sanction. Instead, what too often happens is the department turns a blind eye.
When that happens it’s bad for all of us – the bonds of trust are weakened; cops can’t count on us because we can’t count on them, and the criminals benefit. When the cops ARE criminals, then vigilante justice is the only justice that there is.
The “only ones” meme is an attempt to reveal that cops are far from the TV heroes we expect them to be, and are not the brilliant detectives we see on TV, but are just folks with a job. Some do it well, some poorly. A few corrupt ones can drive the honest ones out, and then you have the mafia with badges and SWAT teams for backup.
I have yet to see the original Only Ones meme point out anything other than corruption and vile behavior on the part of cops – it certainly did not point out that they were just people like you and doing a job.
I am the first person to decry negative behavior from cops, because I’ve been in that world; but I’m also not the kind of guy who wants to sit around and see the vast majority of cops, who are good people, be painted with this negative brush.
I think what the original does is ask a question. That question is, “Why do these shitbags still have jobs?”. I agree with Just Joe… These guys/gals get too many freebies.(and I don’t mean food)… Oh, DUI on the job….we’ll give you five more chances. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’d be GONE and in the system… for sure. These peoople should b elocked up for some of the shit they pull. But then you gave a cop in Chicago sent prison for two years. punching a gun in the face, off duty, after the “victim” attacked him. Where’s the parity? Where’s the justice? Good guys go to jail…..bad guys keep on being bad guys. WTF?
Like I said, I don’t argue that the system is fucked up, because it is; and it needs to be fixed. But we also need to remember that most cops are just out there doing their job, and they just want to go home each night.
THose guys are a given. They’re praised every day by citizens across the nation. They’re praised by TV and Movies. They’re praised by the citizens that are afraid of them. We shouldn’t have to be afraid of our police….but we are, and that’s mainly because the the “only ones”.
I gotta tell you… I live in a beach city in CA. I move here from another beach city in CA. The former city had the worst cops EVER. ALWAYS dicks. ALWAYS roughing people up. ALWAYS getting in your face….even when you were the complainant.
Now, in Beach City #2….the cops are GREAT. They’re polite and professional. They call you back and give you status on your complaint. My city has great cops….and in the face of a gang riddled city, too. Maybe they’re just happy to work with people that are happy that they’re nice. Not sure. But it’s a breath of fresh air.
Hijacking something someone else came up with because you can’t seem to create anything on your own. The facts are, the bad they do, the free passes they get, the money they steal on the job both by writing tickets and extortion far surpasses the good they do. And, by the way, being a cop is not a dangerous job, doesn’t even make the top ten most dangerous jobs, so stop with that nonsense.
Call it re-interpreting the meme, then. Also, writing tickets isn’t stealing, it’s enforcing the law. I suggest if you have a problem with that, you’re within your rights as a citizen try and change the system; or here’s a shocking thought: try working with your local LE instead of against them. I’m not saying that all cops are saints, but like I said, they’re not devils either – most of them are just folk like you and I.
There’s a common fact that is taught in most business and marketing schools: a customer who has a negative experience is going to tell 10 people about it, and a customer who has a positive experience is going to tell 1 person about it. That holds true for encounters with law enforcement; the people who have been wronged by the cops are going to be more loud and vociferous with their complaints than the people who are praising the law enforcement officers.
All I’m doing is pointing out that most cops are just folk, and that most of the good cops are just doing their job.
Additionally, just because a job doesn’t make the top 10 most dangerous, does not mean that it’s not dangerous – that’s a foolish statement; unless you’re going to tell me that the cops killed in the line of duty died by their own hand.
I just want to say that Cops have been put up on a pedestal long enough. Their “self-esteem” is at an all-time epic high right now. That “other blog” is one of the few places where the real face of today’s militarized ploce force can be seen in the full light of day.
I had scores of Cops work directly for me for eight years when I ran a cash collection operation at an NFL stadium. I saw all kinds during those years, and I agree that there are both good and bad among them. But BY FAR (in my opinion) they have reached a point where the average Cop feels himself to be above the law.
The gun control/banners say the “Only Ones” that should have guns are Police Officers and the military.
David’s “Only Ones” series was started to point out that those people are people too–and they fuck up just like any other person or group–and they shouldn’t be the “Only Ones”.
To use the phrase “Only Ones” to highlight the good that Police enforcement does is to reinforce the anti-rights side of the argument–Police and Military organizations are the “Only Ones” that should have guns.
It’s your site and you do it any way you want to–but I’m thinking you’re missing the target and should use another term.
Context is important, which is why when it comes to the gun issue, I’m not using it like that.
I’m using it in the sense that “Cop in situation X was the ‘Only One’ to risk his life, etc”.
So, the “Only One” who should have a gun used it in an approved manner…
One of the “Only Ones” stopped a crime…
A group of “Only Ones” arrested a drug dealer…
I understand where you’re coming from. However, I still believe you’re missing the mark by using the “Only One” label– –after all, they’re the “Only Ones” that should have guns; not us common plebes.
I’m not saying that highlighting the good that people do– –be they an “Only One” or just a common Joe– –is a bad thing, I’m just saying that labeling such instances as “Only Ones” cases is a misnomer.
A real quick way to restore COPS to their position as our peers would be to disarm them. Just like in Britain.
They’ll be a LOT less likely to go all Rambo at any time when they don’t have the means to do so on their hip.
I’d only let COPS earn that right after about 20 years on the force walking the beat to prove he can be trusted.