Albuquerque Police Shootings Update

In spite of earlier reports, Judge Shannon Bacon, as part of the trial of APD officer officer Brett Lampiris-Tremba, ruled that he had violated the 4th amendment rights of the victim, Kenneth Ellis III.  According to this account in the ABQ Journal on 27 April, 2013, Ellis did have a gun but was holding it to his own head and not threatening anyone else.  If this testimony stands, while it does not directly contradict my earlier post that he was armed, it certainly raises some question on whether the officer should have fired upon the shooting victim   We will have to follow this trial carefully, but this information does open up the question of whether the officer was justified in shooting Mr. Ellis.  The civil trial, not a criminal proceeding, is an issue for the city.  

I reserve judgement but certainly this sheds more light on the fatal shooting of Kenneth Ellis III.

Albuquerque Police Shootings and the Department of Justice - Updated

Updated broken links in chart.  Added some commentary 9/24/2014.

The Department of Justice has instituted a study of the Albuquerque Police Department's actions and methods in response to the police shootings over the last few years.  In spite of what you may think after listening to the anti-police sentiment, the events as reported by the news media overwhelmingly suggest that the actions taken by the police were justified.  In all of the instances in 2010 and 2011, as reported by the news media, the police shooting victims were either armed or struggled with the police officers for their guns.  The overwhelming conclusion is that it is very dangerous to confront a police officer with a weapon.

The issue that the DOJ is investigating is that the Albuquerque Police Department has shot, and in many instances killed, several suspects over the last few years.  Some Albuquerque citizens have alleged that some of the shootings were improper.

In spite of the negative opinions of some Albuquerque citizens, the DOJ will discover the same as I did when I went over the reports of police shootings from January, 2010 through the end of 2011.  They will find that almost all of  the incidents involved either suspects with weapons or suspects grappling with officers for their weapons.  Some of the suspects' families allege otherwise but grand juries, composed of citizens of Albuquerque, have cleared the officers involved.

Murder, Murder Rates, Cause and Effect Questions

We have many people asking for more gun control, others like me saying that there is no justification, and a generally declining murder rate.  If gun control was a necessity, wouldn't the homicide rate increase as the number of guns increased?  This is not the case.  While a causative link between higher gun ownership and declining murder trends cannot be proven, there is correlation between trained gun owners and the decreasing murder rate since 1992.  I set out to look at the data again.  Has there been a higher arrest rate for homicides over the same time period?  Have we put more police on the street during the same period?  The answer is no to both questions.  Stumped, I began to search the literature for any data-driven analysis that would explain the results.  The apparent answer is surprising. 

Self-Defense, Gun Control, and Perceived Racism

Over the weekend, Anita McNeil, wife of John McNeil, died of breast cancer.  While this horrible disease strikes many, the death of Mrs. McNeil is especially tragic.

You see, John McNeil was convicted of second degree murder in Georgia after a self-defense shooting at his home.  He shot an armed man who was charging his door and had threatened his son.  He fired a warning shot into the ground but the man kept charging.  Mr. McNeil shot and killed him.  This was in December of 2005.  In April of 2006, a Castle Doctrine law was enacted in Georgia that would have made the shooting a clear case of self-defense.  Mr. McNeil was free for 270 days, cleared by police detectives when a district attorney decided to charge him with second degree murder.  

Would Bugs Bunny be a better Secretary of Defense than Chuck Hagel?

I have been opposed to Chuck Hagel holding any public office since he voted against the surge in Iraq.  I felt at that time that he was posturing for a Presidential run and the vote did not reflect his convictions.  Now, with all of the publicity about his (maybe) confirmation as Secretary of Defense, I believe that Hagel truly thought that we were getting mired into Iraq as we did in Vietnam.  He was wrong then and wrong now.  History can debate the merits of the Iraq war.  While it appears now that we went into Iraq based on faulty intelligence, Mr. Hagel and his left leaning allies sought to deny support for the forces that were in place in Iraq.  That makes him incompetent for this post.  Disagreeing politically is one thing but acting to undermine the armed forces of this country is another.