Officers kicked off SWAT after Bundy comment

[BluesStringer]

It ain't much, but at least it's something.....

Officers kicked off SWAT after Bundy comment

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Link Removed
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Las Vegas SWAT officer Russell Laws, 41, took to Facebook just hours after the April 12 standoff between federal and local officers and armed protesters ended without bloodshed.
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By MIKE BLASKY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A heat-of-the-moment comment in the aftermath of the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch has cost two Las Vegas SWAT officers their jobs on the elite unit.

The officers were booted back to patrol after a Metro sniper posted an inflammatory comment about Bundy’s militant supporters on social media, the Review-Journal has learned.

Officer Russell Laws, 41, took to Facebook just hours after the April 12 standoff between federal and local officers and armed protesters ended without bloodshed.

A Bundy supporter in a public Facebook thread posted a news photo of a militia member aiming a rifle at officers.

Laws replied that police had their guns trained on Bundy’s people, too.

“I just wish you could see how big that guy prone with the rifles head was in the scope of the (police) Snipers .308 …. don’t worry, he wouldn’t have have felt a thing!” Laws posted.

Laws, a SWAT sniper since 2009, was not at the standoff, but it didn’t take long for Bundy’s supporters to look at his Facebook profile and determine he was a Metro cop.

“I have a .308 with a 20x too, buddy. I’m not worried about some fat, oath breaking cooterville SWAT sniper,” replied J.L. Bourne, an author of zombie apocalypse books and a former military officer.

“I’m going to archive this, and screen capture everything in case their names ever come up in a police brutality case.”

Bourne provided the Review-Journal a screenshot of the Facebook post.

“I’m extremely concerned about the militarization of our police and Officer Laws’ open fantasizing of shooting civilians is a prime example,” he wrote in an email.

Laws deleted his post, but it was too late — someone called Metro to complain about the comment. The officer admitted his mistake to his supervisors but was transferred back to patrol soon afterward.

<....snip.....>

Laws’ supervisor, Sgt. Michael Quick, also received an administrative transfer in recent weeks.

His bosses were irked because Quick, while giving a statement to union lawyers investigating Laws’ transfer, said he didn’t see anything wrong with Laws’ comment on Facebook, sources said.

Department executives felt Quick had a gung-ho attitude and set a bad example for SWAT, which had three fatal shootings in the past year.

(More at link...)

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Read the rest of the link to find out that the cop union in Vegas is pitchin' a fit over these two administrative actions, which they have no control over. Neither were "punished" per se, they were just transferred within the department.

I have some mixed feelings about it to tell you the truth. It's nothing but a politically correct public relations move to transfer these guys out of their jobs, and Chief Gillespie is well-known as one who is in Harry Reid's pocket, so nothing that he does can be trusted to be politics-free or altruistic.

In any case, so far as I know, only these two cops have suffered any consequences for anything having to do with the Bundy Siege. That means that the private contractors, BLM, state and local cops who were there suffered no consequences for illegally trying to sell Bundy's cattle out of state, or for killing a bunch of them during the initial roundup, but neither have any of the armed resistance suffered any consequences, so in short, the consequences score is:

Government: 2
The People: 0


Blues

 

[MI .45]

How many police agencies even realize the quantity of psychopaths they have hired/created in their departments? I believe that there is "heat of the moment" and "web rage" out there and cops are no different than anyone else, but they are the one's with weapons and the cover of law. It's not too much to ask that LEO's be held to standards high enough that if they blow-up like the two in the article above there will be consequences. Probably should have been greater than they received but this is at least something instead of the usual crickets or "they were investigated and found to have acted within department guidelines".

 

[leadsender]

I really don't have a problem with what the officer said. I am still trying to understand how you can draw down on law enforcement and have no legal recourse taken against you. It appears from what you wrote in our last sentence that you (OP) are in agreement or leaning towards those on the Bundy Ranch. We have three small family farms in the family. We did not pimp the state or federal government for water or hay when our live stock needed to be feed or watered. If Mr. Bundy had paid his fees this situation would not have happened. We found a way to find hay, feed and water for the animals. These two officer's only went back to patrol duty, while two other Las Vagas officers loss their lives at the hands of a couple that has spent time at the Bundy Ranch. Makes me think that the situation could have turned out really bad. Detroit has not been in the news for cattle but, they have been in the news about water. Do you know what they are doing to people who have not paid the water bill? They are turning the water off for non payment. I would hate to see what would happen if the people in this town started picking up guns and pointing them at DPW workers like the folk on the Bundy ranch. Does anybody remember Detroit in 1967?

 

[BluesStringer]

I really don't have a problem with what the officer said. I am still trying to understand how you can draw down on law enforcement and have no legal recourse taken against you.

Simple. It was the BLM, their contractors and local cops who were the outlaws in that instance. They stole cattle, killed cattle, tried to take the live cattle to Utah to sell it after bribing an auction house with $300,000 buckeroos to illegally accept them, but the governor of Utah prevented that from happening and sent the beeves back at the state line. From beginning to end, the government was in the wrong, which is exactly what the 2nd Amendment was designed to prepare the citizenry for.

It appears from what you wrote in our last sentence that you (OP) are in agreement or leaning towards those on the Bundy Ranch. We have three small family farms in the family. We did not pimp the state or federal government for water or hay when our live stock needed to be feed or watered. If Mr. Bundy had paid his fees this situation would not have happened. We found a way to find hay, feed and water for the animals. These two officer's only went back to patrol duty, while two other Las Vagas officers loss their lives at the hands of a couple that has spent time at the Bundy Ranch. Makes me think that the situation could have turned out really bad. Detroit has not been in the news for cattle but, they have been in the news about water. Do you know what they are doing to people who have not paid the water bill? They are turning the water off for non payment. I would hate to see what would happen if the people in this town started picking up guns and pointing them at DPW workers like the folk on the Bundy ranch. Does anybody remember Detroit in 1967?

It is painfully obvious that you haven't a clue what the grazing and water rights issues involved in Nevada were/are. I don't have the time or inclination to educate you, but you're damned right I "lean" towards the Bundy side of things. If the government decided to reduce your potential earning power by 90% that has been in your family farms for over 100 years, perhaps you would "lean" that way too. Get a freakin' clue before posting badgefluffer drivel.

Blues

 

[dogshawred]

I wish the department reaction would have been more severe. I don't know if they could have illegally been more sever, but at least they did something. Understandably it wasn't enough nor adequately appropriate.
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Having thoughts of mayhem is not illegal nor is it criminal, posting them publicly if not directed specifically at an individual is still not criminal. Otherwise I would have been locked away a long time ago without seeing the light of day for a long time.
~
The thought police have no place in a society with a 1st Amendment, but the attitude of someone on the job who is willing to more or less boast about taking such pot shots at citizens sets a dangerous precedent and needs reigning in as the department chose in this incident. Not enough but at least something was done and hopefully it will do some good. It will for one thing keep people from being so forthright on social media, hiding the true feelings until they can pull the trigger, don't ya know.

 

[Mobuck]

Do these cops really believe that citizens aren't going to start treating fuzzballs the same as they treat US? I've pointed a gun at lots of things I didn't shoot while hunting. If the picture displayed is of the cop in question, I'd call him a real gung-ho, giddy up go, WANNABEEE. Those guys need to stick to popping clueless, doper, gangbangers in the city.

 

[ljnowell]

I have much respect for honest hard working police officers. However, I do hold them to a higher standard than normal people.

They are entrusted with certain privileges that non-LEO don't have. Such as ultimate respect in a courtroom(try to say a cop is lying in court when it's your word against his, see how that works). With that benefit cones a higher standard.

If a cop lacks self control on an Internet forum how can we trust him in the courtroom? Or on the streets?

 

[Mobuck]

"I am still trying to understand how you can draw down on law enforcement and have no legal recourse taken against you"
It might be very difficult to prove the rifle was actually aimed at the fuzz. If the cops were aiming their weapons at non-aggressive citizens, those citizens should be prepared to defend themselves.

 

[MZIngrahmm]

It's not that LEO upper management oppose these comments by their thug underlings - they share the same attitudes, just don't post it - yet. After the police militarization of America is complete, then feel free to speak these things publicly.

It ain't much, but at least it's something.....

Officers kicked off SWAT after Bundy comment

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​

Link Removed
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Las Vegas SWAT officer Russell Laws, 41, took to Facebook just hours after the April 12 standoff between federal and local officers and armed protesters ended without bloodshed.
​

By MIKE BLASKY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A heat-of-the-moment comment in the aftermath of the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch has cost two Las Vegas SWAT officers their jobs on the elite unit.

The officers were booted back to patrol after a Metro sniper posted an inflammatory comment about Bundy’s militant supporters on social media, the Review-Journal has learned.

Officer Russell Laws, 41, took to Facebook just hours after the April 12 standoff between federal and local officers and armed protesters ended without bloodshed.

A Bundy supporter in a public Facebook thread posted a news photo of a militia member aiming a rifle at officers.

Laws replied that police had their guns trained on Bundy’s people, too.

“I just wish you could see how big that guy prone with the rifles head was in the scope of the (police) Snipers .308 …. don’t worry, he wouldn’t have have felt a thing!” Laws posted.

Laws, a SWAT sniper since 2009, was not at the standoff, but it didn’t take long for Bundy’s supporters to look at his Facebook profile and determine he was a Metro cop.

“I have a .308 with a 20x too, buddy. I’m not worried about some fat, oath breaking cooterville SWAT sniper,” replied J.L. Bourne, an author of zombie apocalypse books and a former military officer.

“I’m going to archive this, and screen capture everything in case their names ever come up in a police brutality case.”

Bourne provided the Review-Journal a screenshot of the Facebook post.

“I’m extremely concerned about the militarization of our police and Officer Laws’ open fantasizing of shooting civilians is a prime example,” he wrote in an email.

Laws deleted his post, but it was too late — someone called Metro to complain about the comment. The officer admitted his mistake to his supervisors but was transferred back to patrol soon afterward.

<....snip.....>

Laws’ supervisor, Sgt. Michael Quick, also received an administrative transfer in recent weeks.

His bosses were irked because Quick, while giving a statement to union lawyers investigating Laws’ transfer, said he didn’t see anything wrong with Laws’ comment on Facebook, sources said.

Department executives felt Quick had a gung-ho attitude and set a bad example for SWAT, which had three fatal shootings in the past year.

(More at link...)

​

Read the rest of the link to find out that the cop union in Vegas is pitchin' a fit over these two administrative actions, which they have no control over. Neither were "punished" per se, they were just transferred within the department.

I have some mixed feelings about it to tell you the truth. It's nothing but a politically correct public relations move to transfer these guys out of their jobs, and Chief Gillespie is well-known as one who is in Harry Reid's pocket, so nothing that he does can be trusted to be politics-free or altruistic.

In any case, so far as I know, only these two cops have suffered any consequences for anything having to do with the Bundy Siege. That means that the private contractors, BLM, state and local cops who were there suffered no consequences for illegally trying to sell Bundy's cattle out of state, or for killing a bunch of them during the initial roundup, but neither have any of the armed resistance suffered any consequences, so in short, the consequences score is:

Government: 2
The People: 0


Blues