Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Glendale shooting leads to fatal incident with officer (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/03/26/20110326glendale-phoenix-police-shootings-brk.html)

The shooter had just left a parking lot on his motorcycle. He had just shot another person and was fleeing. Patrol sergeant with civilian ride-along observer attempts to stop him (not clear how much she knew about the guy when she attempted stop). Shooter gets off bike and starts firing on sergeant and observer. Sergeant returns fire and he's DRT.

Later articles are talking about the shooter being a war veteran. While tragic, I chose not to link those articles as they seem more interested on placing blame outside the person pulling the trigger. Certainly that information was irrelevant to the victim he shot and the police officer who was forced to shoot him.

It's becoming vogue for the media to make nutcases victims because they served in the military once. It used to piss me off to the bone when the media displayed bozos in old fatigues drinking wine and portrayed them as typical Vietnam vets. Never mind that the vast (and I mean vast) majority of us came on, got jobs and continued on with our lives even though we may have some problems.

Now every asswipe that commits a crime and set foot in Iraq or Afghanistan did it because they were traumatized. My personal experience is that most of the people that were nuts when they came back weren't wrapped all that tight before they went. Garbage in, garbage out.

In this case, the expert the media is relying on is the shooter's aunt. She apparently worked Vietnam vets back in the day and that made her an expert on why this person came back with PTSD and alcoholism. Apparently he shot the original victim because he dared to mention that he thought the Marines were better than the Army. The aunt blames the lack of programs for this.

I am no expert on PTSD. I also don't know what services the army offers or what the VA provides. It seems, though, that the overwhelming majority are returned to society without randomly shooting people or getting in shootouts with police. I suspect that those that suffer from PTSD, like alcoholism, first need to decide to get treatment.

Update: Citizen observer on ride along was the Sergeants mother-in-law. Somehow I think this will turn out bad for the husband.

I am no expert on PTSD. I also don't know what services the army offers or what the VA provides. It seems, though, that the overwhelming majority are returned to society without randomly shooting people or getting in shootouts with police. I suspect that those that suffer from PTSD, like alcoholism, first need to decide to get treatment.

Mostly, it makes good play in the media. Not only do the overwhelming majority come back and not get into shootouts with the police, the overwhelming majority of those that do get in shootouts never served a day in the military.

Years ago, we accidentally killed this guy with the carotid choke hold. The only picture the media ran of the guy was one taken in Army basic wearing Class A's and in front of the American flag. What they omitted every time was that he was kicked out of the Army shortly after the picture was taken. But they wanted the public to believe we killed a war hero or something.

Look how much hay they made out of the fact that Timothy McVeigh had been in the Army. To watch and read the news, you would be led to believe it was the military that made him a lunatic. Again, garbage in, garbage out.