Melting Pot Heroics

A clumsy attempt by a few officers to create fake heroes amongst themselves. 

https://nypost.com/2018/07/07/court-to-decide-if-flipping-off-nypd-officers-is-free-speech/ 

and 

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/07/21/nypd-midtown-suspicious-device/ 

Here is video of the police publicity stunt which nobody in NY was fooled by.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOxJ_XVQq-s

The supposed 'perpetrator' got 6 months, but not until he earned whatever they paid him.

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160721/times-square-theater-district/nypd-shuts-down-columbus-circle-after-man-throws-fake-bomb-at-police/

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161219/times-square-theater-district/hector-meneses-psychiatric-exam-results-fake-bomb/

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Still another, more disturbing kind of fake hero cop can be seen in articles like 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/celeste-ayala-police-argentina-breastfeed-baby-hospital-a8503641.html 

The news started with stories on almost every news site about a hero cop who breastfed a supposedly malnourished child.

But... they were in a hospital, was the baby in danger of starving?... and the ‘hero cop’ had a friend along who photographed the heroism and marketed it?... and then, of course, the promotion.

Even if the act were spontaneous and authentic, would she have been feeding the baby as a woman or as a police officer? The category “police officer” is an artificial, non archetypal role. Taking a natural function and trying to conflate it into a police officer’s role is done at the expense of the natural group that owns that function. Nobody with any integrity would encourage that, which is why you don’t see people in most professions promoting themselves in that way. 

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There are good cops of course, here are some examples. 

1) Today the police caught a serial killer who was murdering women in Texas https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/15/us/us-border-patrol-agent-arrested-slayings/index.html The serial killer turned out to be a federal agent, that isn’t surprising, but there was one element of the story that does portray police in a positive light. Near the end of the article, notice

”Andrew Meehan, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN that the agency is fully cooperating with investigators "While it is CBP policy to not comment on the details of an ongoing investigation, criminal action by our employees is not, and will not be tolerated,"”.

In other words, the United States Customs and Border Patrol will not tolerate any of its employees serial killing. A small step perhaps, but it does show some integrity, at least by the spokesman for that agency. Andrew Meehan appears to be a good cop. And aside from taking a dangerous predator off the streets, a high paying government supervisory job opened up “Sheriff Martin Cuellar identified the man as Juan David Ortiz a 10 year veteran supervisor of the U.S. Border Patrol”. http://www.kgns.tv/content/news/Suspect-Identified-as-Border-Patrol-Agent-in-Multiple-Murder-Case--493384811.html

2) Richard Decoatsworth was one of America’s most celebrated hero cops. He sat with the president’s wife in public, though fortunately she was wise enough not to join him for drinks after the inauguration. 

 

Later he would be charged with a whole host of crimes, ranging from allegedly forcing heroin on people, rape, deviant sex, kidnapping and other crimes. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/From-Hero-Cop-DeCoatsworth-Prisons-Most-Dangerous-208534241.html

He was an expensive cop https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/breaking/Hero-Police-Officer-Charged-With-Holding-2-Women-Captive-207991531.html

A mystery though. In February 2014 he plead guilty to a variety of charges https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/DeCoatsworth-Hero-Officer-Plea-Deal-247093091.html and https://6abc.com/archive/9444456/

Then a few months later the most serious charges were dropped and he withdrew his plea? https://6abc.com/news/rape-charges-dropped-against-one-time-hero-cop/328730/

So, how does he land on the “good cop” page of this website? Not sure. 

3) Maybe the real hero cops are actually the ones who commit fewer crimes than their bosses. This police chief in the news yesterday https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article218261470.html . Although some of his officers did frame innocent people with him, some others didn’t. Those who didn’t help the chief put innocent people in jail might be called heroes? Likewise the cops who worked under 

Chief Robert Kenny https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2018/08/thetford_township_police_chief_1.html

Chief Michael William Diebold https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/07/us/police-chief-arrested-undercover-sex-sting/index.html

Chief Randy Scott https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/07/18/former-columbia-south-carolina-police-chief-arrested-drug-charge/795529002/ 

An article from 2013 suggests chief Scott was giving law enforcement jobs to romantic partners and running a pretty leaky ship http://www.wistv.com/story/21672845/officer-fired-after-tom-sponseller-search-suing-former-boss?page=full&N=F which strongly suggests there are a lot of scandals in that town yet to break. The first article mentions that the chief claimed ptsd from seeing a deputy dead, but there are so many red flags in the deputy’s death, a person has to wonder if the chief was involved in killing his own employee  http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20050828/news/605067124/WM/ and http://www.wistv.com/story/3301180/i-20-accident-kills-richland-county-deputy-injures-two-others 

But wait, it gets better/worse.

When the chief resigned due to ‘ptsd’ an interim chief was appointed. https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article13839422.html Uhm, duh. Let’s try to figure this one out.

Anyway, what is he doing now? Directing federal law enforcement operations of course https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-santiago-7a056a28 

It looks like a loose network of ‘friends of friends’ from military orgs took over control of an area. They have to arrest one of their own when there are a lot of agents from different jurisdictions involved, but they protect themselves well. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article215098855.html and 

http://www.wistv.com/story/26315974/sheriff-leon-lott-richland-county-sheriffs-departments-military-grade-equipment-mostly-for-pr-ferguson-police-tacticss and 

http://www.wistv.com/story/26154459/state-act-county-capped-to-pay-13m-less-than-jury-awarded-plaintiff Unfortunately, the top FBI agent in that state is a former undercover drug cop, as crooked a cop as you will find. https://www.southcarolinaradionetwork .com/2013/08/30/5-questions-fbi-special-agent-in-charge-dave-thomas/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150919121605/https://www.southcarolinaradionetwork.com/2013/08/30/5-questions-fbi-special-agent-in-charge-dave-thomas/ 

Does he have any connection to this group?

Oh no. If you remember the Ben Fields fiasco https://heavy.com/news/2015/10/ben-fields-richland-county-south-carolina-sheriff-deputy-spring-valley-high-school-photo-football-coach-bodybuilder-cop-student-desk-video-complaints/ 

Uhm https://heavy.com/news/2015/10/sheriff-leon-lott-richland-county-south-carolina-deputy-ben-fields-dating-black-woman-spring-valley-high-school-photo-student-desk-video-fbi-charged/

Chief Gary Lee Smith https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article215604290.html

Chief Eric Tinsley https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article215446340.html

Obviously some renegades have been arresting police chiefs. Might be fun for a while trying to rob the robbers but ask Reality Winner how it ends http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-reality-winner-20180825-story.html

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4) Garrett Hull appears to have been one of the extremely rare cops who did take his job seriously and chased bad guys instead of creating them http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/15/texas-police-officer-dies-after-shot-in-head-during-gunbattle-with-robbery-suspects.html

He was one of eleven cops surveilling three people who had committed some armed robberies. As with most ‘police hero’ stories, it’s possible more information will come out eventually to change the narrative, but so far there are no red flags to indicate he was anything other than an honest cop willing to take risks to do his job properly.

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Aside from the death of what appears to have been a rare solid cop, there is another aspect of the Hull shooting that is troubling.

Three young guys had robbed a bunch of crowded establishments in Texas? Wait. What?

Texas is widely considered to be one of the ‘safer’ places in America. You are never likely to be the only person in a room with a gun, so generally it would seem not to make sense to pull a gun in a crowded place, unless you are selling it or showing it off.

And yet, three guys with handguns were able to rob many dozens of presumably armed people? 

Were the armed customers put off by the fact that there were three robbers? I’m not a gun fan but guns are force multipliers. A person with a decent gun and some skill can reliably win against three people if he shoots first. I’m not a fan of shooting first, but in this case the three robbers were threatening deadly force, and all indications were they were not bluffing. 

Why would not a single Texan, aside from Hull, draw a gun on these gangsters???

The three robbers should have been killed during their first robbery, but... Also worth pointing out that the gangster who was killed probably had no real means of getting a decent job. He was poorly educated and not employable. Would he have had any motive to revert to armed robberies to get money? His son was in the news three years ago https://www.jrlawfirm.com/news/dacion-steptoe-jr-dies-at-illegal-fort-worth-daycare/ and his wife speculated that was what led to his desperation https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article218406025.html

So

a) the guy already had one child die because childcare was too expensive,

b) he was pretty unemployable, and not likely to be able to afford childcare, except the same sort that led to his kids death.

What would you do? Should he just kick back on welfare? Sell drugs?

If somebody has no honest chances what should they do? He probably made the best choice he could.

Should he have had better options?