In an interview about guns seized from teens, GIMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski doesn't hold back: "Every gun in the hand of -- someone, is a potential homicide." Even mine, I guess. Wonder if the State Police realized that when they did the background check and granted me that lifetime carry permit?
"Every gun is a potential homicide" in the same way that every penis is a potential rape and every woman a potential prostitute. So it's chastity belts for the lot of us, ey, Chief?
[There was a video here. The hosting site has yanked it].
Note, too, that Officers of The Law finding, in teen hands, between 7 and 18 guns over the course of a month is an "enormous number" in TV-land, not to mention the assertion that today's youth have an easier time acquiring firearms than any prior generation -- including all those kids who, before GCA '68, could walk into the hardware store and buy a gun....
Also note that guns are blamed for teen violence. What, the unfortunate little choirboys are just dragged into it all by eeeeevil guns? Riiiight. Now, about that swampland y'had for sale?
Indy doesn't have a gun problem. We have a teen violence problem. And as long as there's rebar and brickbats for the taking, we're not going to fix it by making firearms the focus.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
18 comments:
Personally, I see every gun in the hand of a government agent as enabling a potential genocide or slave labor camp.
Why don't we start with the greater potential evil, Ofc. Donut?
Every baseball bat is a potential homicide - as is every lamp cord, wine bottle, and frozen chicken.
On balance, guns in the hands of the law abiding prevent far more violence than they enable. For, truth be told, a violent individual can always find some object to gratify their desire.
And on the record, each of the more than 22,387 restrictive gun laws has increased violent crime, in direct proportion to the severity of the law and the rigor of its enforcement.
The "Chief" needs a job commensurate with his knowledge. A permanent walking beat in the loneliest industrial district in town would be above his knowledge grade.
Stranger
I guess being found to be a "proper person" did not exclude the chance that I might someday use my powers for evil...
Either that, or the Chief was about to say "a black teenager" and caught himself just in time.
...And yet majority of even the demographic most likely to include Friends of Sumdood are...law-abiding folk. Some of whom own guns.
Yep. Sad, ain't it.
I'd like to note that I commented at Tam's before I read your take on this... :)
There are times when I think some places pick their chief-of-police by giving an IQ test to their police officers, the lowest score being the one who is promoted to chief.
BobG, sometimes they take a street cop who is a danger to himself and other officers and "promote" him to desk work.
I believe it's called "failing upwards."
Note that the voice-over did say "Stolen by teens..."
WV: corkiest. "This is the corkiest wine I ever had. Shoot the sommelier. With a handgun stolen by an improper teenager..."
Every badge in the hand of someone, is a potential Fourth Amendment violation.
BobG, Knitebane, D.W.Drang and Ninth Stage,
Sadly, after 25 years of police work, I have to say that I agree with all of your comments. I have worked at four different departments in the metro area, and whenever I found one with a chief who had a little bit of common sense, inevitably he was soon replaced by a total tool, causing me to have employment regret and move on to another department. I have given up seniority, rank and great assigments in my quest to find a department not run by an idiot the likes of the newly imported Indy police chief. I have finally resigned myself to riding it out to retirement in my current department. I have rank and a decent job assignment, along with a chief who is at least tolerable.
I sometimes wonder what the hell has happened to our country. I have, over the past several years, dealt with a number of homicides of youths, by youths. It is almost always blamed on "the easy accessibility of guns to young people".
Yet, I got my first rifle, a (gasp) SEMI-AUTOMATIC Winchester 190 rifle holding (gasp again) 16 ROUNDS of .22 Long rifle (more if you loaded longs or shorts into its tubular magazine) when I was 12 years old. I got my first handgun at 14 (Ruger single-six convertible). Since my parents weren't into the whole shooting sports thing, I did a lot of shooting with those guns without much supervision.
I was buying and selling firearms from adults when I was 16 and 17 years old (the '68 GCA went into effect when I was 13, so I couldn't buy from retailers without a parent). Many of my friends also owned guns from a young age, yet we managed never to shoot anyone.
What I'm getting at here is that it isn't the availablilty of guns that is the problem. It's the culture. the culture that doesn't hold any respect for life. The culture so wrapped up with gratification from material things that another person's life means nothing if they have something you want or if they slight you in the the smallest way.
I am sickened by the way many of the young thugs that I deal with from a police perspective, and the worst ones are enabled by parents (ooops usually a parent or grandparent in the singular) who either look the other way or activiely encourage their kids to be the homicidal maniac that many of them are, because the kid brings money or possessions home to them. I wish I knew of a way to turn the whole thing around, and have made inroads on an individual basis with some kids, but the problem as a whole remains.
The point is, that guns are far LESS accessible to the average teenager than at any time in the history of this country. They primarily have to steal them or buy stolen guns from someone who has them. When guns were readily available, like when I was a teenager, it was rare for a teen to be involved in a gun crime.
Mouth guilty of operating without authority of brain complicated by brain being MIA.
For that nothing less than a conviction in the court of public stupidity will do.
At the other end of this how do these teens get the guns and I may add apparently cars too? OH, right they steal them. How did I miss they are criminals. Their trial dates are?
Eck!
It's always been my thought that crime exists in society because society tolerates it. By that I mean it is tolerated at every level from the street to the highest levels of government (I mean violent crime here). There have been "programs" from hear to the moon, but I have yet to hear of one that works.
Pardon me for snagging low-hanging fruit, but if you locals aren't referring to that reporter as Jeremy Brilliantine, you're missing a grin or two. I haven't seen so much hair oil since Sal Mineo.
Actually, Joseph, Operation Exile worked very well.
Richmond, VA was experiencing a rapid climb in violent crime. State, federal, county and local police departments formed a task force where a convicted felon found in possession of a firearm was handed over to the feds first. Conviction meant a stint in the Super-Max prison in Colorado; half a continent away from home. To no one's surprise, violent crime declined below previous low levels.
Just a thought, gun owners have traditionally endured the lunacy of self-styled Progressives like Chief Ciesielski. State laws vary but would it be possible to sue in small claims court for slander? One can certainly make the case that these statements are unrelated to the performance of the duties of this office.
and every policeman is a potential prostitute robbing, crack smoking, piece of hominid waste product.
I mean if you're going to make generalizations....
Have you had you're gun fixed yet Bobbi?
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