Bad Day at Work

[Nazrat]

Furiously has it right.  Felon, convicted of violent crimes, was allowed to be placed on a special type of probation that upon completion would result in no conviction instead of serving time or being convicted and serving on probation.  For example, I typically request deferred adjudication on my speeding tickets.  I pay the fine and get deferred for 30 to 90 days and them I am off without a conviction that is reported to the insurance companies and the state drivers license folks.

Here is the video of the end of the chase.  javascript:playVideo('361349', 'Police%20Dash%20Cam%20-%20Warning%20This%20Is%20Graphic%20Material', 'v', 'News%20-%20Special%20Coverage', '46767', 'News', '', 'www.kltv.com');

Pretty strange as I can't tell what caused him to fall.

[Kenrick]

Pretty strange as I can't tell what caused him to fall.

.........

wtf yeah.

[SirBruce]

The story made Countdown on MSNBC tonight.

Bruce

[Strazos]

Pretty strange as I can't tell what caused him to fall.

.........

wtf yeah.

My guess is a rifle shot from the left, beyond the view of the camara...or possible from the cop/car up ahead and to the right, on the road.

[Kenrick]

Or possibly even from the air, chopperstyle.

/shrug

Certainly weird looking.  Like someone unplugged him from the matrix and he falldowngoboom.

[Murgos]

Or possibly even from the air, chopperstyle.

Not in the real world.

[Kenrick]

But I live in jackbauerworld.

So fuck off.

[Stephen Zepp]

Or possibly even from the air, chopperstyle.

Not in the real world.

Hmm? Not sure what you mean by that. Sniping from a stable chopper platform is a tried and true tactic in the SF world. Obviously not the best option, but when you don't have others, it works fine. Just takes an extremely talented and highly coordinated three man team (helicopter pilot, spotter, and sniper). On some platforms, they even drop the spotter and let the pilot do that.

[Murgos]

It's a tactic.  It's not a particularly effective one.  I've spent enough time on firing ranges to know that if you want to reliably and accurately put rounds on a target doing it from a vibrating, moving, inherently unstable platform such as a helicopter is the wrong option unless you have no other really viable alternative.  I can imagine a situation where as a commander you might want to keep your shooter on a helo for mobility reasons, I can also imagine as that commander your first instinct is going to be to try and find someplace stable for your shooter to perform his job reliably.

When your heartbeat can make a shot miss by several FEET expecting first class marksmanship from a platform that is bolted to a 2000hp rotary engine is probably expecting a bit too much.

[Stephen Zepp]

It's a tactic.  It's not a particularly effective one.  I've spent enough time on firing ranges to know that if you want to reliably and accurately put rounds on a target doing it from a vibrating, moving, inherently unstable platform such as a helicopter is the wrong option unless you have no other really viable alternative.  I can imagine a situation where as a commander you might want to keep your shooter on a helo for mobility reasons, I can also imagine as that commander your first instinct is going to be to try and find someplace stable for your shooter to perform his job reliably.

When your heartbeat can make a shot miss by several FEET expecting first class marksmanship from a platform that is bolted to a 2000hp rotary engine is probably expecting a bit too much.

I can't argue with that! Unfortunately, I also can't go into details as to why and where the tactic was practiced/used. I will say however that some of the sniping skills I have seen demonstrated are truly supernatural in effectiveness--and scary as shit if I ever considered being a hostage taker ;)

Since we couldn't see the bullets, it is possible that some guy unloaded a full clip from the air and got lucky, too...

[Nazrat]

Ok, so there is an article in the local paper about the local state rep and state senator proposing a bill to allow district attorneys to conceal carry in the courthouse after the Tyler shooting.  Right now, only judges can conceal carry in the courthouse. 

So, I decided to email both of them. 

Enclosed is my email to them.

I am an Assistant Attorney General in the Child Support
Division working in Tyler.  The horrific shooting that occurred on
Thursday was my case.  I negotiated with Mr. Arroyo and Ms. Estrada and
talked with their son in January.  I spoke to Ms. Estrada and her son on
February 17 also.  Another AG and I were on the west side of the
Courthouse on the steps during the incident.

Despite both being former military, we are not allowed by state law and
agency policy from carrying concealed weapons.  I would ask that you
include us in your definition of prosecutors in your bill.

As you know, child support cases raise deep emotional issues and
directly impact family finances.  We faced more danger at our remote
court site that morning at 227 Spring Street as we have no baliff, no
metal detectors, no weapons, no telephones (except for personal cell
phones) and only one entrance and exit.  As we negotiate jail time, lump
sum payments, and 10 year probationary periods, we are completely
isolated from any semblance of security.  The ability to at least have
the possiblity of armed child support prosecutors would go a long way to
ensuring peace of mind for the entire staff.

As my request is not currently agency policy and I face the potential of
adverse personnel actions if this request were made public, I ask that
no public mention is made of my name.  Please feel free to contact me
either by phone or email.

Sincerely,

Here is the reply that, to his credit, I received at 6:00 on Sunday:

You are not prevented by law from holding a concealed handgun license.
The only thing this bill will do, is to allow the district attorney to
carry his concealed handgun into the courthouse.  We really don't want
to complicate this.  I don't want to end up with a dozen exceptions on
the list.  The anti-gun people are already E-Mailing asking us not to
add anyone to the list. I appreciate your concern.

Wow, way to take a strong stand.  If you are going to capitalize politically from a tragedy, at least you can have the courage to include the actual attorneys who were handling the fucking case and not Bob, the misdemeanor prosecutor, who handles traffic tickets. 

How about complicating it by reading what I wrote?  Not a single district attorney was at risk from this guy.  He didn't shoot anyone when he pled guilty on his criminal charge.  He showed up to shoot on my docket. So this genius is going to float his bill to look strong for the local conservatives but he isn't going to add child support prosecutors to his list. 

This is going to be a good week.  I can tell. 

SERENITY NOW!

Edited to add the other reply:

Thanks for your email.  I am certainly sympathetic to the difficulties
you face in your job and commend you for your work on behalf of children
and custodial parents.

I'm sure during the discussion and debate on this bill many deserving
groups will want the same consideration.  I will consider each and every
request but, as you know, the concealed carry law has always been
controversial and efforts to expand it have not come easily.  I believe
the law has worked well and most legislators and the public have become
more comfortable with it over the years.  But as a starting point I will
likely keep the proposal limited to DA's.  There are many occupations
that are "hazardous" and it would be difficult to figure out where to
draw the line.

Again I appreciate your comments and will keep them in mind as this
proposal is discussed and in the future.

[Margalis]

Wow. So it's in direct response to the horrible event, but wouldn't have made any difference had it been retroactively applied.

Sadly that happens a lot in politics - solutions which have little to do with the original problem.

[Nazrat]

From the First Assistant Attorney General Barry Mc Bee to the entire Office of the Attorney General of Texas:

Finally, you all also saw in the last few days stories about the tragic shooting in Tyler. Our staff at the Child Support Program office there were involved in the case that led to these horrendous acts of violence, and several witnessed the incident. They have handled themselves both in the child support case and the aftermath of this tragedy with grace and strength and the utmost professionalism, and are to be commended and thanked by all of us for bringing honor and credit to the agency even in the midst of such a terrible situation. Our prayers and thoughts go out to them and to the families touched by this violence.

At least we didn't get fired.