I was reminded tonight of a truth written of by Jeff Cooper, posted on a couple of blogs I read:
Not long ago it was easy to tell who the bad guys were. They carried Kalashnikovs. Now it is much more complicated, but one thing is sure – any man who covers his face and packs a gun is a legitimate target for any decent citizen. – Jeff Cooper
Think about that, for just a minute. Can you conceive of any reason for a police officer to cover his face when doing his job? I worked in law enforcement for over thirteen years, and never felt the need to cover my face, or even to cover my name or badge number. Yet, every time we see a SWAT team at work these days, their faces are covered. It didn't start out that way, but now the police are following the tactics of the Feds, like ATF and DEA. I haven't seen HRT out operating lately, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that they are covering their faces as well.
Actually, there is an excellent reason why they cover their faces: they do not want anyone to know who they are, because they are ashamed of what they do. Oh, not really ashamed, but they would be embarrassed if someone knew that they personally were doing what they are seen to be doing. It is easy to abuse, hurt and even kill when they can hide behind a mask, when they can act anonymously. Especially knowing they will never, ever be called to task for the crimes they commit against those they swore to protect.
When they intentionally shoot a mother holding her infant daughter, through the mouth, directly into the brain stem - the money shot for a sniper, and a piece of cake at 200 yards. When they enter a house, awakening a man who only got to bed a few hours before after working all night in a mine, and shoot 71 rounds at him, reportedly hitting him 60 times, and then refusing to let EMS people get to him for two hours, making certain he bled to death. When one of their number leaned into the doorway to fire several shots into his supine body after all of the other officers had stopped shooting, just so he could "get his licks in". These are the acts of men who hide their faces so that their neighbors, their families, their friends, won't know them, won't recognize them as the type of thugs who would murder a man in this fashion.
These are the kind of law enforcement officers who need to cover their faces. In fact, these are the kind of creatures who should be simply removed from society so that none of us have to look at them. Tactical teams of any flavor - Federal, state or local - should be kept behind glass, to be broken only in the case of extreme violence, or an actual hostage situation. Even then, most of these boyos are so trigger happy that the hostages are often more at risk than those holding them hostage. They definitely should not be the first response in any attempted warrant service or contact with a "person of interest". I've arrested felons on warrants as an officer with the San Diego Police Department, and most of them went peacefully when I treated them fairly and with a modicum of respect. We were quite short-handed back then (late 70's, early 80's), and we didn't have teams that would respond when arresting for warrants. Sometimes we did it solo, on a one-to-one contact when a radio check revealed the subject had warrants, sometimes with another officer for backup.
No, I'm not talking of actual warrant service, which usually involved two or more officers, more if it was a felon with a history of violence or resisting arrest. But even then SWAT was never called out simply for serving a warrant, especially a search warrant, as is the case today. When they train with the submachine guns and M-16s, they obviously develop a desire to use them, which is a very dangerous - and frequently deadly - situation for the person being served with a search warrant or warrant for arrest.
So, I'm with Colonel Cooper: being a decent citizen, any armed man with a mask becomes a legitimate target to me. Come to my door with an open, uncovered face and in uniform to serve a search warrant and I will comply. Break into my home with masks on, and I promise you that at least one of you will not be going home to your family and loved ones. If I see you coming, plan on losing more. That statement will give Janet Napolitano more reason to call me a "domestic terrorist", I am sure, but it remains my position on the use of armed and masked men to assault me and my family. Jose Guerena didn't know you like I know you.
Well said.
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