This is from a few months ago, but it isn't that old. I post it here to raise awareness of the frequency with which these occur.
From MSNBC.com and 13.com:
From MSNBC.com and 13.com:
Hold people accountable for this kind of gun violence AFTER they're dead? Yeah, right.UPDATE: Victims named in apparent murder-suicide involving cop
By: , | Alabama's13.comBIRMINGHAM - The Irondale Police Department reports a Birmingham police detective apparently shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself.
Published: September 07, 2011
The corner's office says 41-year-old "Rodney Jerome Wilson" shot his 23-year old wife, "Uteva Monique Wilson" at their Irondale home this morning.
It happened about 3:00 a.m. CT Wednesday at the Enclave at Mountain Brook apartments. Irondale Police arrived in the 3,000 block of Sharpsburg Circle.
The IPD says the Birmingham officer worked as a burglary detective, and allegedly shot and killed his wife.
The Birmingham officer then called his dispatchers who in turn, called Irondale Police to say there had been an officer involved shooting.
Two children, a little boy and a little girl were at home during the shooting, but police report they stayed in their rooms.
Birmingham Police called Irondale Police to respond, and when they arrived, they found the Birmingham Officer dead from a gunshot wound.
The owner of a store near where Det. Wilson lived reported seeing the couple. Eric Walker says it appeared Wilson was chivalrous towards his wife and the couple didn’t appear to have trouble.
"He'd come in every morning before going to work. He'd come and get a Welch’s grape juice, sometimes he'd get a coffee,” Walker told Alabama 13’s Hilary Golston. “He seemed to me to be a mild mannered man.”
A nearby day care facility also confirmed to Golston that the facility took care of two small children. A woman at the daycare said Wilson did most of the talking when they came to pick up the kids and he paid. Besides that, she didn’t see any visible problems between the two.
Neighbors did tell us, off camera, that they had witnessed the couple having marital problems in the past.
Wilson had been with Birmingham Police for 10.5 years.
That's too little, too damned late for all the people whose rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness are damaged by the people using guns, with access to guns, with too easy availability of guns. It is way too damned late and it's way too damned little. It is way too damned little weight that is given to the rights of the victims, and way too much weight given to the people with these guns to have them. Holding them accountable after they've done the damage is NOT an acceptable or remotely reasonable response.
Dog Gone,
ReplyDeleteYou go on and on about gun availability, but this was a cop who did the shooting. Unless you're arguing for disarming the police, I see no point here.
I don't advocate disarming cops on the job. I do advocate a much stricter limitation on cops who engage in domestic abuse, including them not having a private firearm, including kicking them off the force and relieving them of their firearm for any abuse of authority or power towards a family member or romantic partner.
ReplyDeleteThese incidents occur because fellow law enforcement officers tolerate it, in mistaken solidarity and loyalty.
" I do advocate a much stricter limitation on cops who engage in domestic abuse, including them not having a private firearm, including kicking them off the force and relieving them of their firearm for any abuse of authority or power towards a family member or romantic partner."
ReplyDeleteWe already have that. Police officers are subject to the Lautenberg Amendment the same as everyone else. In fact, they were surprised to learn that they did not have an exemption and sought, unsuccessfully to add one.
How would you guarantee that no police officer uses his gun illegally? If you can't guarantee that, then why are you willing to let the police officers carry weapons? How many innocent victims of gun violence by police is acceptable to you before we should disarm the police?
ReplyDeletePolice are supervised, and there is some insurance involved so that if someone is harmed, they have a reasonable expectation of recovering some damages, unlike ordinary citizens. There is also internal affairs that makes an effort to keep cops on the straight and narrow in a way that cvilians don't have.
ReplyDeleteNow if you want to make something like that - some additional supervision, and some sort of bonding or insurance that guarantees people who are harmed or their hers and estates, have some expectation of resources for recovering damages...........that would be a GREAT idea.
ReplyDeleteWe already have that. Police officers are subject to the Lautenberg Amendment the same as everyone else. In fact, they were surprised to learn that they did not have an exemption and sought, unsuccessfully to add one.
ReplyDeleteThe domestic violence stats of the family and romantic partners of law enforcement suggests that it is not being enforced.
I've personally known former spouses of law enforcement who have been harassed and not given the support that a non-LEO spouse would receive.
Dog Gone,
ReplyDeleteIf I do something wrong, I'll get prosecuted and sued. The point that we're making is that you tolerate a preferred group having firearms, but you keep showing us evidence that they behave in many cases worse than we do.
The police are no different than the rest of the gun owners. You all need better screening and more training. Some of you, both police and civilian gun owners, need to be relieved of your weapons.
ReplyDelete"The domestic violence stats of the family and romantic partners of law enforcement suggests that it is not being enforced."
ReplyDeleteYou we have a law that says that anyone convicted of domestic violence cannot have a gun and this law applies to police officers. But you believe that the law isn't being followed so your solution is we need another law that does the same thing.
This logic is why gun control fails.