Gunmen Erupt in L.A.

As you may have heard, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has stepped on its dick again, big time. From the LATimes (whose site has a nice new look, by the way):

Compton officials today joined a chorus of protest over the weekend shooting of an unarmed motorist by 10 sheriff's deputies who fired 120 times, striking the suspect, an officer, and the homes of five residents.

Compton, for those of you unfamiliar with L.A. neighborhoods, is predominately Afro-American, and the original home of the Crips and Bloods. Not that the ethnicity of the area would have anything to do with this story, perish the thought, but I can't see this happening in Beverly Hills.

"The overriding objective of every police operation is to protect the public. However, 120 rounds sprayed along a narrow residential street is not in the interest of public safety," Hall said.

Keeps folks off the street and out of trouble, though.

The shooting came after Hayes had been driving around the neighborhood for several hours playing loud music.

Wow. 120 rounds? I never use more than eight to retaliate against motorized boom boxes. That's all my Garand holds. But then, I have to pay for ammo with my own money.

Ten deputies fired 120 rounds, for an average of twelve rounds each, and scored four hits on the poor bastard, as well as a lot of collateral damage to the 'hood. If I'da done that poorly, my Primary Marksmanship Instructor would've hung me by my 'nads, which is exactly what oughta happen to these fool deputies, and not all because of their aim.

I was always taught that you should never point a firearm at anything unless you intended to shoot it. What the hell were those idiots thinking? Don't they know guns can kill people? Do they just plain not care what happens to folks in Compton?

Cops have in their job description the power to kill. I think they either need to have the serious nature of that explained to them before they are let out in public, and not to use potential deadly force lightly, or be disarmed, shitcanned, and told to go forth and sin no more against the people who pay their salaries. Preferably the latter.

The damage is done in this instance, however, and thank God nobody was killed. I'm sure some heads will roll, but probably not those of the higher-ups who let those idiots out on the street with a badge and a gun.

Training? Discipline? Communication? Planning? Marksmanship? Brains and/or common sense? Leadership? LACoSD? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!