Update for fun… I got to use a Python function I’ve just never had need for before now. You might like the name of the function because it makes me grin every time I see it in code.
f = open(“junk.py”, “w”)
pickle.dump(vars, f)
f.close()
pickle.dump()… I ask you, how can that not be funny? Of course there’s also pickle.load(), which I assume works well with reuben sandwich objects.
****
I’m supposed to share, to communicate, to trust.
Well, fine. Here’s how I feel today.
I feel like driving around with whaleskin hubcaps. That’s how I feel.
****
Ok, so Tennessee cops fired 59 shots. 43 bullet wounds were found on the suicide-by-cop… uh… individual. (victim?) (alleged criminal?)
Police have described Heyward’s death on July 18, 2009 as a case of “suicide by cop.”
The medical examiner found 43 bullet wounds in Heyward’s chest, face, arms, hands, legs, buttocks and groin. Police have said he was a danger to others and threatened the six officers.
That’s 73% accuracy! In extremis, too! I know I’d feel a lot safer if I knew that the police in my area could handle a weapon as well as these fellas.
If we use an interesting study in order to have a “just supposin'” kind of conversation and assume that the officers all had semiautomatic handguns, there’s a number something like 4.5 shots avg per cop when having to use his/her weapon. So let’s do the divide thing… and we end up with 13 cops (numerically) but the actual value had to be something like 11-14 cops because no one fires a fraction of a bullet.
It took 11-14 cops (for the sake of argument) to train weapons on a single suicidal idiot with a gun? If we had 8 guys with really twitchy fingers and awesome aim for fast shooting or 14 or more who are sedated but still decent shots… well, does it require that many officers to handle a single suspect?
Ok, was that grins and giggles argument fun? Did you actually read the article? SIX cops fired an average of almost ten shots apiece at this guy. How many shots can you pull off before his dead body hits the ground? Most cops don’t carry .22’s. They carry 9mm or larger – 10mm or .45.
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He had to have been dead of shock before he even started to drop. At least it was quick.
Perhaps 2 or 3 of them only pulled off a couple of shots while the others reloaded. (not in the least bit likely)
Look, I’m all in favor of an officer, if he has to pull his weapon, doing the job right and taking out a bag of shit out before he can hurt someone – it is their duty, in fact. But ten shots apiece for six officers covering one armed suspect? I’ve shot more handgun rounds than I can count and it doesn’t take a great many shots in the larger calibers to know on an instinctual level that after just so many shots, you done killed what you hit.
Note: My brother is a state trooper and two nephews are cops, so if you’re taking extreme exception to what I’ve said here, spare me the indignant “adrenaline-powered responses” tirades, m’kay? I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to crap all over me for it in your stead.
Update: I wonder if my familial law enforcement members would be open to using my Grazer Safety Slugs…
Grazer Safety Bullets - click to embiggenify.
Our minds are traveling the same road recently, LK. I just (Wed.) hit my permanent link to the “Asshole” video and played it twice.
It always refreshes and invigorates me!
It kinda centers me in the universe – y’know?
* And please, folks. Do not spare LK your ire. Post your self-righteous liberal disgust for his disrespect for that poor ventilated scumbag!
Post it here – or better yet, my place!, so’s I can take a big dump on you. I’m feeling like I have a mighty carb-&-fiber-laden load to drop on someone.
Hmmm…..well, taking the side of the cops, I say this. Most of us have read about cops having to take down some idiot who was fired up on PCP. Those types can be real scary motherf***ers, and they don’t go down easy at all. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine some big ass freak wired to the gills who just kept coming at the cops even after being shot a multitude of times. Now the article doesn’t really say anything about the incident itself, but I imagine it was a case of someone, probably a big guy, who was either wired on some drug, or just insane enough and on a major insane adrenaline rush that just kept coming, and if he had a knife or some other weapon and kept rushing the cops, damn straight they would keep shooting. Also, I imagine most of those shots were not lethal at all, and he just probably shrugged them off. Another point I would add is that the whole thing probably happened very quickly, so there’s a good chance if he was on an adrenaline rush, he didn’t even feel any pain for the first few seconds, he just kept going. I know from fights I’ve been in that I never felt the effects of the punches I received till an hour after the fight, and then I hurt like hell.
How it went down in my mind (and I’ll keep this image till the papers give the actual details of the incident:
6’8″ freak armed with butcher knife or hatchet (use your own imagination here) rushes cops and others screaming “die die die”. the cops open fire as they’re being rushed, and though they see the guy knocked back multiple times, he recovers and rushes them again, making only animal grunts and sounds by this time, and they keep diving out the way, backing up, and shooting because nothing seems to stop the freak. Finally he goes down, but out of panic and adrenaline, he gets shot a few more times. The surrounding people are enormously grateful, because they were sure their number would have been up if the cops hadn’t been there.
I’ve had friends in law enforcement and in security jobs who relayed many stories where they had to take down someone with extreme force, and it was very scary for the cops and security officers in those situations. I always love when someone criticizes the cops and starts saying things like “well, why didn’t you step aside, take careful aim, and bring him down with well-placed shots to the legs, and maybe arms to stop him shooting, and yada yada yada yada……” I love tearing those people up in argument.
I really have no opinion on the suicide-by-cop post. But if it makes people aware of the lengths cops will go to protect and serve, maybe it was a good thing.
As to the Denis Leary clip, he can go take a flying leap at a rolling porcupine. I may agree with the sentiment, but his assholish liberalism makes me puke, as does his truther-ism.
Shit, now I feel like an ass 😛
Trutherism is just natures way of saying “I’m defective on some level”.
My soon-to-be (1 more day) step-mother is as liberal as the day is long and my dad is as conservative as I am. I can tolerate liberals as long as the control the ad-hominem attacks in a debate.
But for Leary’s “Rescue Me” and his “Asshole Song”… he’s got my solid support at least part of the time.
To quote McGoo… did you actually puke or just throw up in your mouth a little?
[Lemur pokes Aggie with a stick…]
[poke… poke… poke…]
It was just bile, really 😉
I liked “Rescue Me”, until they went on a truther tangent. That killed it for me.
Quit poking, honey. I own machetes 😛
Geez, what is it with (using your words = poke = poke = poke) you spics and your machetes? **
Mmmmm. Biiiiillllleeee.
I pretty much love Rescue Me for the hallucinations that Tommy has. I think I came into it later on so I may have missed the truther tangent.
** Feel free to call me a kraut if you like… given my cynicism you could even call me a sour kraut.
Nah…I don’t mind being called a “spic”. I do mind you thinking I would 😀
Best man at my wedding (married to Cruel Wife 15 years as of yesterday) is hispanic. Back in college one day we were watching tv and he said something particularly insightful about a show we were watching.
I said “Not bad for a wetback.”
Five, maybe ten minutes go by.
Suddenly his arm pistons out, hits me in the hip, and throws me off the arm of the couch where I was sitting and I slam onto the floor.
A few seconds go by and I hear this whisper/mutter… “Don’t call me a wetback.”
So we called him “dirty mexican” instead.
God, his mom made the best tamales in the world. We used to joke that he was the good brother and I was the bad brother (while making crossing motions as we said bad brother).
WTF??? It was your anniversary????
Shit, I feel like a heel. Hope you had a great anniversary, honey, and give CF a big hug from me!!
Yeah, you don’t call legals “wetbacks”. Someone called me a wetback once. It took the priest and three nuns ten minutes to get me off his back.
Yes, it was a Sunday, and yes, it was another Hispanic who called me that, and yes, I left a few marks, and yes, I DID HAVE TO GO BACK TO CONFESSION, OK???
STOP JUDGING ME!!
Seriously, what set me off was his arrogant assumption that, since I was not born in the States, I was illegal, and even after he was told I was Puerto Rican, he still called me that. It was a good thing he graduated from HS before I got there, too. I don’t think I could have gotten into college with a juvie record 😀
That’s CW… not CF…
I would never judge you. Mmmm-mmmm. Nope. Uh-uh.
The whole machete thing and all.
I mean, the fact that you had to go back to confession after hacking me into little bitty pieces would not be much consolation…
I don’t judge short women who scare me.
Well, SHIT!!!!
I was so flabbergasted about it being your anniversary and all I typed it wrong.
Whatever can I do to make it up to you???????
And I don’t hack. I flay. And set exposed entrails on fire if the occasion calls for it. Stories for another time 🙂
Easy there, killer.
Didn’t exactly announce it, did I? You can’t be blamed for what you don’t even know you’re ignerent about unless’n of course you ‘tended to be ignerent.
Make it up to me? Oh, try this: Chill out there, hard-charger. It’s all good. We’re cool. Just a bunch of little Fonzies.
Oooh, flaming entrails! That should make for a great story. Give me advance notice so I can pop up a bowl of popcorn.
I know it is nuanced but I am really on the side of the cops. Seriously, I don’t doubt that said aerated bag-o-shit had it coming. I am in full support of the idea that you have to fire your weapon, you are shooting to kill, center-of-mass.
I am surprised that they didn’t try to beanbag him.
But it still remains – In what universe does it take ten large-caliber rounds to take down a suspect? Now ask in what universe does it take sixty large-caliber rounds?
Glazer Safety Bullets would be even better… just picture a Sig P229 loaded with Glazers. (see edit to main post above)
I agree with what you’ve said LK. All my joking and obnoxious silliness aside, I am essentially ALWAYS on the side of the cops until explicit evidence of egregious misbehavior emerges.
(Their job is a bitch and their pay sucks heifer drippings: I’ve known a few (cops, not heifer drippings) and tend to cut them a lot of slack.)
I don’t consider 60 large-caliber rounds to take down a suspect excessive. If nothing else, it’ll keep potential crooks thoughtful about their behavior.
“Commit a violent crime and you too can be riddled with blood-gushing holes!”
BTW: notice that even spraying 60 rounds (or whatever) around, NO ONE else was injured.
Why the enthusiasm for Safety slugs for law enforcement folks, LK? They’re for civilians who don’t look beyond what they’re aiming at – if they’re aiming at all, that is.
Hey ‘Goo…
Frangible ammunition just makes sense to me. I’m sure everyone has their opinion.
One, the ricochet issue is much reduced.
Two, bullets don’t really pass through, so punching through the bad guy’s upper arm isn’t going to nail the guy “over there” wherever that is.
Three, it’s my understanding that they just do a fuckload of damage right in the general area of impact. Tip the bad guy over, let the goo run out, now you have a fresh wound with which to apply some neosporin and a band-aid. We don’t need to have infected corpses lying around. Sprinkle some kitty litter… problem solved.
I would like to see any study that talks about whether system shock to a body hit by one of the safety rounds is greater because of the … well, greater energy transfer, I guess you’d say.
Oh yeah, also if I have to choose a personal protection weapon at home, I’d go with a Mossberg 500 with magnum loads & 00 buckshot.
Aiming when you’re really wigged isn’t as easy as it sounds and a shotgun kind of wipes that handicap off the board.
And it will take way way less than 60 shots to ensure the safety of you and your family.
I’ve heard of alternating shot w/ slugs but that doesn’t float my boat for some reason.
That said, a .40 XD would be an acceptable substitute for me.
Oh, hell yes. It’s all about energy transfer. Bullets don’t kill by cutting, like a sword, knife, or arrow does.
They kill by smacking the fiddly-fuck out of a body (think small baseball bat), pulverizing tissue with the MASSIVE shock wave that is generated from … transferred kinetic energy.
But you knew that! 🙂
All valid points, LK.
What I suspect though is that in a classical projectile, you have a conical shockwave traveling through and it is dumping energy in a pay-as-you-go plan.
But with a glazer, it’s all localized and instantaneous then the shockwave propagates, radiating out from essentially a big fat point source.
I gotta believe that the volume*damage product is higher for the glazer because it’s not spending much energy trying to push it’s way through a bag of water.
I picture a line of black powder on top of sand in a sandbox. Light it and sand goes flying around.
Now make a pile of black powder – same amount – and watch the sand really fly.
Would that be the wrong way to picture it, do you think?
You could be right, LK, the V*D product may be (a bit) higher with the point-source energy injection scheme rarthere than the traveling line scenario.
But I think I’d like that Damage distributed over a line, rather than in the volume of a sphere, because pulverizing a big slab of muscle spherically doesn’t necessarily kill or incapacitate, but let that same energy just whack the muscle on the way past the HEART, then you can easily cause a heart stoppage without even hitting it. You can also tear blood vessels via the Temporary Wound Cavity, so you want that TWC to extend over as long a track as possible.
But all this has been discussed endlessly in hunting and law enforcement…and every one has their opinion.
Good point. It’s the “shock ’em dead” vs. “let ’em bleed out” conundrum.
Or, as in war, incapacitate but don’t kill because carting around living people is much harder than leaving a dead one.
I guess it really depends on what you want to do. Broadheads cut for bleedout. Bullets aim for violence in any scenario.
What you’d REALLY like is something that makes love not war. Oh, wait, wasn’t that “The Gay Bomb” that DARPA was looking at?