Los Angeles, CA —The latest technology tool for newsgathering is taking a propaganda beating from the media.   As incredible as it seems the media is promoting ignorance about camera drones rather than enlightening their audience!   The little drones are indeed amazing.   They can take sophisticated yet tiny cameras to incredible heights to get inexpensive video and still images in near absolute safety!    They are definitely a novelty and local police have zero training about these devices.  They have not been around long  enough for police and procedures to be developed.  The obvious best policy is to simply leave the drone operators alone.  Cops seem to want to make arrests for drone use because they know right now they will get substantial news coverage.   However t hose highly publicized recent arrests of drone pilots have turned out to be absolutely bogus. Two police helicopter pilots in New York spotted a lit...

Phoenix, AZ —Cops here like everywhere wind up in enough danger that they fire their weapons. It’s a commonplace event in larger cities. Cops have no special license to kill and they make mistakes sometimes. Cops expect to get the benefit of the doubt in those close cases where they thought they saw a weapon. There is barely enough time to evaluate every situation and it’s difficult to punish a cop for erring on the side of survival. In the last two decades there has been remarkable gains for Americans and their right to self-defense. Castle doctrine laws along with the right to carry concealed weapons have made Americans safer. Cops are still trying to adjust to the idea of citizens using deadly force in self-defense. Too many cops seem to judge the citizens entirely too harshly. They are erring on the side of questionable arrests that actually bankrupt the average citizen. There is a rub here and that’s that citizens deserve no less or more than cops under the same circumstanc...

Chicago, IL —In most police agencies the service pistols of our cops is restricted to department-approved firearms. What gets approved is based on many things but too often common sense is not one of them. There is a lot to be said about all officers using the same caliber of ammunition but only if the department plans to replenish the officer’s supply in the field should there be a major insurrection. I have never experienced that happening nor do I know anyone who has. Most cops can remember the Bank of America shootout in North Hollywood where poorly armed officers were threatened and actually shot by two felons armed with Russian fully automatic AK-47s and more. To end the firefight cops had to borrow heavier weapons from local gun shops. Today there is still not a single gun shop in Chicago. No police officer should ever be endangered by being outgunned like today’s Chicago cops. This should be a major scandal but will never be addressed until some fine cops perish at the ...

Columbus, OH— This came to me via a Facebook friend who works as a Cook County Public Defender in Chicago. At this time I can’t give you background on the underlying circumstances that brought the police to this scene. You see the event unfold as the cell-phone camera owner and others agitate the police for all they're worth. An old woman goes down hard and was bleeding after she brandished a nasty looking knife at a young policewoman. The officer properly followed her training here. The results are tragic in that the old gal somehow lost it. I’m sure the officer was herself traumatized by the entire event. This was one of those split-second decisions cops must sometimes make. For those that don’t know it knives at close range are much more deadly than firearms.

When you begin a career as a cop the risks to your life on the job are drummed into your soul for the next year or so. Your training surrounds the issue of survival on the mean streets along with all the other areas such as law, enforcement methods, first aid and dealing with the hostile public. What they don’t tell you is that you’re a target for more than fists and bullets. People will try and frame you through bogus complaints. Just like cops are killed, careers are also killed. I will never forget how some great Chicago cops arrested a young and prolific burglar on Chicago’s Northwest side. The burglar would claim brutality, false arrest and anything else he could to evade prosecution. Cops were fired, disgraced and blackballed from future law enforcement positions. As for this particular burglar he was the son of the late, Democratic Chicago Alderman turned Congressman, Roman Conrad Pucinski . The young Pucinski was able to destroy the careers of no less than a half-dozen good cop...

Oakland, CA —The New Year’s shooting that took the life of Oscar Grant was tragic for sure. I don’t buy that event as an intentional shooting. No cop would intentionally shoot a helpless man in the back in front of scores of witnesses under the conditions made clear by the cell-phone captured videos. Before this is over it may destroy the life of a second man, Johannes Mehserle , 27, the cop who pulled the trigger. The duty or service weapon for BART police officers is the Sig -Saur .40 caliber semi-automatic . It has a 12 pound+ trigger pull. This is an ideal police sidearm. What then caused the event? I won’t rule out some form of negligence but there were serious distractions that most certainly contributed to the killing. Police officers are trained to fight off tunnel vision . That is our natural instinct to focus on what’s happening or the threat in front of us. Police are taught to pay attention to all 360 degrees around their positions. The answer to the questions about was go...

Minden, NV—Bay Area Rapid Transit cop, Johannes Mehserle , 27, of Lafayette, CA surrendered here on a California arrest warrant from Alameda County, CA. Mehserle was recorded on several cell phone video cameras shooting 22 year-old Oscar Grant who was face down in a prone position. Grant died from his wound. The videos show Mehserle trying to put cuffs on Grant, and Grant appears to be struggling, when Mehserle suddenly pulls his service weapon from his holster and fires one shot into Grant's back. This event polarized Oakland and has lots of very ugly anger spilling over. Small riots have broken out bringing about ove1 100 arrests in Oakland since the shooting. That anger caused Mehserle who had been getting death threats sought safety and refuge in Nevada. The biggest question that remains unanswered if whether or not the act was deliberate or an accident. That question may be answered by a jury of Oakland residents. Nobody said being a cop was easy.

Los Angeles, CA —I noticed that the uniform pockets of most local L.A. area police uniforms had sap pockets. I asked some of the coppers if they carried saps. They all did not even know what a sap or a blackjack was. I felt like a real dinosaur knowing I was old enough to be the father of these grown officers. They carried other items in the sap pockets like flashlights or collapsible ASP batons. Blackjacks are round and saps are flat. They are impact weapons designed for close up and personal combat. The bigger blackjacks will smash skulls and break bones. The idea is a person can be subdued with these impact weapons in short order. I own five of these law enforcement relics in good condition. The two best I have are the Convoy blackjack and the Texan sap. I also have a great pair of deerskin gloves with six ounces of powered lead protecting each fist. Saps were great to use for plain clothes assignments because regulation police batons are too difficult to conceal. These weapons are ...

Oakland, CA — Bay Area Rapid Transit police had arrested Oscar Grant . He resisted and died as a result. Was it excessive force, an accident or something else? The truth is I don’t care. When someone engages in risky behavior such as resisting police there is always that chance they could lose their life. Save the fighting for the courtroom since you can’t do that on the street. This is a case of White cops trying to keep order in an area populated by Blacks. In this instance, as soon as there were signs of a conflict every Black kid with a cell phone camera whipped it out and recorded the event. I’m not sure what happened other then the lad took a calculated risk and gambled away his life. This kind of an event is ugly for every cop. You don’t want these things to happen but unfortunately sometimes they do. Being a cop is risky too. You can be killed or punished emotionally for the rest of your life should you accidentally kill someone. Having worked in a ghetto I know that police are...

Los Angeles, CA —Believe it or not California’s gun-hating politicians learned something from a tragedy. Two suicidal gunmen armed with exotic fully automatic weapons, body armor and lots of ammunition was discovered by an LAPD officer on their way into a Bank of America branch. That officer called for help and the rest is history. In hindsight it would have been better to simply ignore the incident because the LAPD was no match for the robbers. The price paid in causalities was horrific before the carnage was over. LAPD’s officers had only 9MM handguns and a few .12 gauge shotguns. They were defeated by the robber’s armor. Unlike Chicago where politicians completely ran the gun dealers out-of-town the LAPD officers sought and obtained high powered weapons from a gun store. Chicago police could never cope with anything like what happened in North Hollywood. Mayor Richard Daley and police superintendent Jody “J-Fed” Weis both know the truth but have taken no steps to remedy the s...

Las Vegas, NV -- Former KTNV Channel 13 reporter Christina Brown has filed a law suit over a hearing loss suffered during a story she did about Metro officer’s firearms training. I think this lawsuit is serious business and has merit. I suffered a similar hearing loss and am hearing impaired today as a result. I’ve used both ear plugs and muffs together ever since my first traumatic ear damage. Some sadistic U.S. Army officials forced me and my basic training company comrades shoot M-14 rifles at Fort Leonard Wood, MO with no hearing protection whatsoever in 1968. Please, always wear the strongest rated hearing protection while on the range because the damage is irreversible. Hearing aids are miserable to use as I have learned. You can read about this lawsuit from the Las Vegas Sun.

Glock is the current winner of this contest. Officers are limited to using the Glock at least until they complete probation. Superintendent J-Fed wants everyone to use the same weapon and there are valid reasons to do that for a military infantry unit. However it’s not so necessary for street cops as long as the firearms are functional and safe. Officers will be stuck using the crap 9MM round so we can count on hearing people complain and demand to know why the cops are firing so many rounds at suspects. My only concern is every officer knows how to use their own gun and that of any partner they may have. Chicago cops must locate and purchase their own firearms using fund from their uniform allowance. I’m surprised Daley did not allow the local reverends decide what the officers could carry. The problem is that both Alderman Ed Burke and Daley have taxpayer funded bodyguards they don’t want to see equipped with rubber guns. Here’s more about this story.

Click picture to enlarge. Thanks to retired, Chicago Police Homicide Sergeant Johnny “North side” Northern, I was taken back more than three decades. North Side worked at Area Six in another now demolished building located at Damen Avenue and Grace Street. North Side sent me this picture of the old Chicago police Academy. The non-descript building was used as a hospital during the Civil War and has the look of so many of Chicago’s public grammar schools. I guess one architect had the clout to design so many buildings during that period. I wonder whose political campaign he had to fund to get the job? The building served the city well for a very long time. I can remember every day I spent in that building that had no air conditioning but for a single window unit in the training director’s office. Rank has its privilege. The classrooms were large and noisy. You could smell the Vienna Sausage Company’s products in the air from several nearby hot dog stands on Maxwell Street. The ...

This is a notorious video that hit the Internet shortly after this December 19, 2003 incident was caught on tape by an interrogation room camera. The person who let this clip out will face serious professional and legal problems if he or she is found. Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was suspected of shooting a policeman twice in the abdomen. He was subsequently arrested and brought into the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department for interrogation. Every single cop involved with the arrest and transportation of Cerna failed to search him and by the grace of God he did not open fire on the unarmed detectives before he shot himself in the head with a .45 1911. This illegal alien became a good alien in an instant. This is a real suicide by a gun, VIEWER DESCRETION IS ADVISED!

52 year-old FBI Special Agent Barry Bush was accidentally shot and killed by another agent duiring a surveillance operation on a group of three suspects wanted for robbing several banks in central New Jersey. Bush was in a car that tried to block one suspect acting as a scout for his accomplices outside the PNC Bank in Readington, New Jersey. A van full of agents pulled up next to the suspect's car, and one of the agents accidentally fired his rifle as he exited the vehicle. The FBI and legendary Director, J. Edgar Hoover were victims of their own over-promotion. They have given themselves an undeserved reputation as an elite and superior force with training that is somehow far beyond that of mere policemen. The effectiveness of police combat techniques are shaped by a combination of training and actual field experience with violent and near violent encounters with dangerous criminals. Hoover was a world class PR man who could have made millions with ad campaigns. The public’...

What’s the “Bubba profile” you ask? Just that, it’s some red necked, White boy with a pick up truck and a gun that is singled out for selective enforcement. In Houston the cops and prosecutors are out-of-line as they make their own law that supercedes all other law in this East Texas land. Most cops claim to be in favor of gun rights as they earn their brownie points by arresting people for petty and even unwritten gun law violations. Government prosecutors must present all cases in court. You’d think between the cops and prosecutors some common sense and discretion might prevail. That’s just not so in the Houston area where some cops and the Harris County D.A. have placed their own warped judgment above the law. The Federal and Texas Constitutions have mandated rights to keep and bear arms. In recent years the Texas Legislature have debated and relaxed gun laws that have either dubious value or no impact on crime or criminals. To combat abuses the ACLU has come forward to hel...

After watching that frightening and sad video of a lady bartender being badly beaten by an off duty cop, I have another that more accurately reflects just who are the men and women of the Chicago Police Department. You will see some early 1970s and before rare images of Chicago policewomen at work.

An off duty 20th District tactical officer is in very hot water today for his Feb. 19th, apparently unprovoked attack on a lady bartender on Chicago’s Northwest side. I like to avoid these stories but this one needs attention. Officer Anthony Abbate, 38 faces a two to five-year prison term for Aggravated Battery along with swift and certain firing from the position of public trust he’s held for over 12 years. In addition to the Aggravated Battery felony charge is an allegation of witness tampering. Officer Abbate has destroyed his own future and brought tremendous embarrassment down on all of his fellow officers with his shocking behavior. I will be following this case through the court system and you can learn the results right here. A Chicago Tribune with security video can be seen here .

I’ve never been a fan of the Taser stun gun. They are a public relations nightmare in too many cases. The Westwood, CA, November 2006 UCLA library incident is an example where an 18-year veteran officer is battling the threat of unwarranted civil litigation. This in a land where the jury pool is polluted with extreme, Liberal cop haters. As for the UCLA officer’s continued employment, I suspect that’s shaky too in an academic institution top-heavy with the Liberal elite. The Taser carries the reputation with it of an ugly American past where cops used cattle prods on African-Americans to gain compliance in Southern states. Personally, I would not have used the Taser in that UCLA incident only because I fear the predictable outcry and circus especially when applied to an unruly minority group member. Nobody seems to care that the UCLA case like so many others only injured the pride of the so-called victim. At the Orlando, FL 2007 SHOT SHOW, I met with Taser representative, Jay Keyh...

It was exactly 34 years ago when 25 year-old recruit Chicago policewoman Ann Leybourne came home from a New Years party to find herself kidnapped by a serial rapist. The rapist made a deadly error in his victim selection because this time he picked a pretty young woman who had been just days earlier required to carry her service revolver at all times. You can read this story right here .