2 items in todays tactical wire (
www.thetacticalwire.com ) caught my eye,
1)
Four Officers KIA, Suspect Dead in Oakland CA
Major media outlets are reporting the loss of four Oakland CA PD officers from an incident starting with a traffic stop on March 22, 2009. A pair of motor officers apparently stopped the suspect who responded by shooting them both. The suspect fled, ultimately getting into a residence. Acting on information, a SWAT unit entered the apartment and was fired on. A pair of SWAT officers were killed. SWAT returned fire, killing the suspect.
The suspect was Lovelle Mixon. He was apparently wanted on a parole violation.
He was on parole, it seems, for assault with a deadly weapon. He allegedly used a handgun at the scene of the traffic stop. Through media reports a police spokesman said Mixon used "an assault rifle" at the apartment.
Oakland PD members of service Officer John Hege, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Sgt. Ervin Romans, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai were lost.
Please keep these officers, their families and department in your thoughts today, as will we.
2)
Editor's Notebook
By Rich Grassi
A veteran of the US Army, I've been known to have some respect for other military veterans. Since the expiration of my term of service, I've even been known to respect a few military officers - current and former, active and retired. I figure someone doesn't get to be a highly ranked Army officer (or Marine officer - any service branch) without having something on the ball.
Sometimes it's hard to find what someone has on the ball however. A person fitting that category is General Barry R. McCaffrey, USA (Ret.) A "drug czar" under President Clinton, the General is apparently still active and seeking something to do. On the internet, I found his "after action report" (AAR) to a visit to Mexico, that visit occurring on 5 through 7 December 2008. (
http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/pdfs/Mexico_AAR_-_December_2008.pdf)
By way of a detour, there are places in Mexico one would be foolish not to visit during that time of the year. While wondering if the good General availed himself of those resort destinations, I recognize the digression and put a halt to it.
While showing extraordinary good sense in going south for the winter, our intrepid General showed nothing else by way of good sense. In his AAR, subtitled "Memorandum for Colonel Michael Meese, Professor and Head Department of Social Sciences" (sic), he determined that the cause of the massive violence from the Mexican drug cartels along the border was the U.S., specifically that nasty little cultural quirk that citizens can be armed if they want to be.
Let's explore the General's assertions, taken from the .pdf of the memo and found at the General's website on Al Gore's internet.
Section 5. C.:
"The bottom line--- nearly 7000 people murdered in the internal drug wars since 2006--- 3,985 murdered this year alone through 25 November. The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG's, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns."
This section gives us an impression that drug gangs down there have access to military arms, including submersibles - submarines! They support their operations with rockets, mines, "heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles (sic), . . . military hand grenades, and . . . 40mm grenade machine guns."
Wow. This gives pause. Where do they get this stuff?
Section 6. D.:
"Mexican law enforcement authorities and soldiers face heavily armed drug gangs with high-powered military automatic weapons. Perhaps 90% of these weapons are smuggled across the US border. They are frequently purchased from licensed US gun dealers in Texas, Arizona, and 7 California. AK-47 assault rifles are literally bought a hundred at a time and illegally brought into Mexico. Mexican authorities routinely seize BOXES of unopened automatic military weapons. The confiscation rates by Mexican law enforcement of hand grenades, RPG's, and AK-47's are at the level of wartime battlefield seizures. It is hard to understand the seeming indifference and incompetence of US authorities at state and Federal level to such callous disregard for a national security threat to a neighboring democratic state. We would consider it an act of warfare from a sanctuary state if we were the victim.
"The bottom line---the US is ineffective and unresponsive to Mexican concerns about weapons, bulk cash, and precursor chemicals flowing south into Mexico from the United States--- with a blow-torch effect on the security of the Mexican people."
That's plenty of bovine excreta through which to cut. Taken one part at a time, we find this:
"Mexican law enforcement authorities and soldiers face heavily armed drug gangs with high-powered military automatic weapons. Perhaps 90% of these weapons are smuggled across the US border. They are frequently purchased from licensed US gun dealers in Texas, Arizona, and 7 California. AK-47 assault rifles are literally bought a hundred at a time and illegally brought into Mexico."
Ok, they have high powered military automatic weapons - 90% of which are smuggled across the US border.
What? Are they hitting National Guard Armories?
No, they are "frequently purchased from licensed US gun dealers in Texas, Arizona, and California." Uh, no they're not. High powered military automatic weapons are covered by the National Firearms Act of 1934. They're not buying them from gun dealers. Check with a Class 3 into the price of a Browning M2 - if you can find one for sale. Oh, don't forget Form 4, the transfer. I'm sure BATFE has the photos and fingerprints of the guys who got these transferred before they were illegally taken into Mexico. And the AK-47 "assault rifles"? We don't have any. We have semi-auto variants but even those are restricted by parts content - a certain number of parts in new AK-style guns have to be made here.
Of course, the General apparently wouldn't know an assault rifle if you dropped one on his foot.
"The confiscation rates by Mexican law enforcement of hand grenades, RPG's, and AK-47's are at the level of wartime battlefield seizures. It is hard to understand the seeming indifference and incompetence of US authorities at state and Federal level to such callous disregard for a national security threat to a neighboring democratic state."
Okay, General. Let me explain this so even you can understand it: US gun dealers, federal licensees every one, DON'T SELL HAND GRENADES, RPGs OR AK-47s (in the sense you mean AK-47). The indifference and "incompetence" of US authorities at state and Federal level(s) is precisely because the war materiel is brought into Mexico from other countries, specifically in Central and South America and from (rumor has it) southeast Asia. And some of the gear is likely coming from the Mexican military.
You talk about incompetence? You want to blame your own country and its Constitution - that document you swore an oath to defend against all enemies, foreign or domestic - for a problem that is internal to Mexico. Why would you render a report with such a conclusion - a conclusion that is obviously false?
Well, there can only be two reasons. You may be lying intentionally - for political expedience perhaps? The only other conclusion is that you are incompetent - you failed to examine the situation in light of the law and regulations and just took what someone told you at face value.
I don't want to believe either possibility; not about a highly decorated US Army officer who served his country gallantly and with a dedication that befits the uniform we wore. I want to believe the best about our officers, particularly of such high rank. A simple mistake, perhaps "completed staff work" gone wrong? I would hope so.
You were wrong. Admit it, publicly, and let's get it behind us.
First, it is unacceptable that some one should be PAROLED for assault with a deadly weapon, especially when , knowing how the legal system works, it was probably pled down from attempted murder. This is yet another example of the stupidity of Ca. Victim disarmament laws. If the cowards and traitors ruling Ca. were serious about cutting violent crime this lowlife would have been in prison where he obviously belonged. Fortunately for us, at grave personal risk, the Oakland PD killed this menace to society. My thoughts and condolences go out to the Families of the Officers who gave their lives getting this POS off the streets, but I can't help wondering how many more just like him were released today.
The second article pretty much anticipates all my comments, Americans CAN'T BUY hand grenades, heavy machine guns, or RPG's. Gen McCaffery is another one of those A-holes in denial about the fact that the only Americans involved in arming the Mexican cartels are in Congress.
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