@"Snarl" - I'd say you're right, to a degree. City cops and city prosecutors are a different breed from rural ones. I'd also say that being Rangers had a lot to do with them skating. There is a certain "brotherhood" that is generally unspoken but recognized among men who carry guns for a living. The average citizen may carry a gun, but does not carry it for a living, and that makes the difference.
I can recall doing security at a store that was going out of business, and there was an off-duty police officer doing security at the store next door in that strip mall, and as soon as he saw me there he came up and said "Man am I glad to see you here! This is a rough place, and now I know there is someone else on site to have my back, so I won't have to wait so long for backup to arrive". It's like that - they may not know you personally, but they recognize we are all on the same team.
I've been arrested twice back in those days. The first was not very cordial. I was being arrested on bullshit charges by a newly-minted badge heavy cop who got to bragging about how he'd "had guns pulled on him", and I knew that was bullshit, too, and told him so. I got a little mouthy about it, probably mouthier than I should have gotten, but I have a pretty low bullshit threshold. as near as I recall, what I said was "Bullshit. I bet you ain't been a cop for six months, and I also bet that if anyone ever pulled a gun on you, you'd piss all over yourself" - and away to jail I went. Not for long - the magistrate turned me loose on O.R., and when it came to trial, the judge read the arresting officer the riot act and threw thee case out of court. I guess they both knew bullshit when they smelled it, too.
The second arrest was pretty cordial, and also on bullshit charges. The arresting officer in that case was called as a witness by the prosecution, and instead spoke on my behalf when he got on the stand. Judge found me not guilty in that case.
Generally, I keep my dealings with the police on a cordial basis, and that pays off in the end. I have thanked officers for giving me tickets. That will get you a funny look from them, and one went so far as to ask me if I was being a smartass. I explained to him that no, I was not being a smartass - if someone had me down on the ground pounding the shit out of me, he'd step in and haul them off of me, because that is his job, and I'd be damned grateful for him doing his job... and likewise, in the case of giving me a ticket, he was also dong his job, so it would be irrational for me to be grateful in the one case and not the other, because both cases meant he was doing hi job.
Sometimes, it's a matter of how you deal with them that sets the tone. In the Ranger case, when the cops arrived they laid down their arms and cooperated, and that buys a lot of mileage over and above the "brotherhood" thing. Furthermore, the sergeant lived there, and the grill going in his back yard explained why there were so many Rangers gathered in one place... and above that, the cops had to chase the fleeing attackers down, so it was probably pretty obvious to them who belonged there and who brought the fight in. In other words, it should have been obvious to them that they didn't have a case against the Rangers, who on the face of the evidence were just defending themselves from an attack, which is what they were trained to do in the first place.
I've told the tale before, but in late summer or early fall of 2014, my house was mistakenly surrounded by a county SWAT team and a Tac Team from the State Police. I had no idea who they were. It was dark, and all I knew was that there were armed men hiding in the shadows outside my house, so I grabbed a rifle and went out on the balcony to light them up. If a surprise party is going to be sprung, I prefer to be the one springing the surprises. Doesn't always work out just they way you'd expect, though.
Imagine my surprise when I found about an acre of cops. It got a little exciting for a minute, but we got it sorted out without me getting shot or going to jail. Most of the cops were local boys from the Sheriff's Department, and the site commander was a local deputy, and I think in that case that made a lot of difference. Rural officers have a slightly different attitude from urban officers.
@"Abnarty" - yeah, I've taken a CCW class. I used to have to take the equivalent of one every year for my in-service retraining when I'd go for my yearly re-qualifications. One year, the instructor mentioned that our in-service training was the same thing as the CCW courses he taught, and he gave several of us CCW certificates due that that fact, no extra charge.
It's always a good idea to lawyer up if you have to pop smoke on someone's ass. If not because of the police and prosecutors, then because if the target lives, you can be sure of being sued in Civil Court, at the very least, and sometimes even if he doesn't. I knew a guy long ago that did 15 years in the state pen for shooting a guy and just wounding him, and he was flat out told that if he had killed the guy instead, he'd have never done a day. It was the "victim" coming into the court room in a wheel chair to testify that got him convicted, as it roused the sympathy of the jury.
Once the lights go out, random chance and sometimes Mr. Murphy takes over, and there is no way of knowing what things are gonna look like at the other end of that tunnel-vision until you get to the end of it.
.
I can recall doing security at a store that was going out of business, and there was an off-duty police officer doing security at the store next door in that strip mall, and as soon as he saw me there he came up and said "Man am I glad to see you here! This is a rough place, and now I know there is someone else on site to have my back, so I won't have to wait so long for backup to arrive". It's like that - they may not know you personally, but they recognize we are all on the same team.
I've been arrested twice back in those days. The first was not very cordial. I was being arrested on bullshit charges by a newly-minted badge heavy cop who got to bragging about how he'd "had guns pulled on him", and I knew that was bullshit, too, and told him so. I got a little mouthy about it, probably mouthier than I should have gotten, but I have a pretty low bullshit threshold. as near as I recall, what I said was "Bullshit. I bet you ain't been a cop for six months, and I also bet that if anyone ever pulled a gun on you, you'd piss all over yourself" - and away to jail I went. Not for long - the magistrate turned me loose on O.R., and when it came to trial, the judge read the arresting officer the riot act and threw thee case out of court. I guess they both knew bullshit when they smelled it, too.
The second arrest was pretty cordial, and also on bullshit charges. The arresting officer in that case was called as a witness by the prosecution, and instead spoke on my behalf when he got on the stand. Judge found me not guilty in that case.
Generally, I keep my dealings with the police on a cordial basis, and that pays off in the end. I have thanked officers for giving me tickets. That will get you a funny look from them, and one went so far as to ask me if I was being a smartass. I explained to him that no, I was not being a smartass - if someone had me down on the ground pounding the shit out of me, he'd step in and haul them off of me, because that is his job, and I'd be damned grateful for him doing his job... and likewise, in the case of giving me a ticket, he was also dong his job, so it would be irrational for me to be grateful in the one case and not the other, because both cases meant he was doing hi job.
Sometimes, it's a matter of how you deal with them that sets the tone. In the Ranger case, when the cops arrived they laid down their arms and cooperated, and that buys a lot of mileage over and above the "brotherhood" thing. Furthermore, the sergeant lived there, and the grill going in his back yard explained why there were so many Rangers gathered in one place... and above that, the cops had to chase the fleeing attackers down, so it was probably pretty obvious to them who belonged there and who brought the fight in. In other words, it should have been obvious to them that they didn't have a case against the Rangers, who on the face of the evidence were just defending themselves from an attack, which is what they were trained to do in the first place.
I've told the tale before, but in late summer or early fall of 2014, my house was mistakenly surrounded by a county SWAT team and a Tac Team from the State Police. I had no idea who they were. It was dark, and all I knew was that there were armed men hiding in the shadows outside my house, so I grabbed a rifle and went out on the balcony to light them up. If a surprise party is going to be sprung, I prefer to be the one springing the surprises. Doesn't always work out just they way you'd expect, though.
Imagine my surprise when I found about an acre of cops. It got a little exciting for a minute, but we got it sorted out without me getting shot or going to jail. Most of the cops were local boys from the Sheriff's Department, and the site commander was a local deputy, and I think in that case that made a lot of difference. Rural officers have a slightly different attitude from urban officers.
@"Abnarty" - yeah, I've taken a CCW class. I used to have to take the equivalent of one every year for my in-service retraining when I'd go for my yearly re-qualifications. One year, the instructor mentioned that our in-service training was the same thing as the CCW courses he taught, and he gave several of us CCW certificates due that that fact, no extra charge.
It's always a good idea to lawyer up if you have to pop smoke on someone's ass. If not because of the police and prosecutors, then because if the target lives, you can be sure of being sued in Civil Court, at the very least, and sometimes even if he doesn't. I knew a guy long ago that did 15 years in the state pen for shooting a guy and just wounding him, and he was flat out told that if he had killed the guy instead, he'd have never done a day. It was the "victim" coming into the court room in a wheel chair to testify that got him convicted, as it roused the sympathy of the jury.
Once the lights go out, random chance and sometimes Mr. Murphy takes over, and there is no way of knowing what things are gonna look like at the other end of that tunnel-vision until you get to the end of it.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’