The Real Hawkeye said:
Is it true that Lon Horiuchi lives in fear for his life?
While I would never advocate the initiation of force, I certainly hope the rumor is true. It's not life in prison without possibility of parole or worse, but it's something. Even his being "despondent" is a little something.
So what if the
cause was "simple bad judgement," he killed someone who offered no threat to him. You don't get a free pass to do that, not in any decent society. It carries a heavy price the shooter must pay, no matter if it is you, me, or a highly-trained FBI sniper.[1]
R.H. Lee said:
Who makes the 'shoot/no-shoot' decisions in HRT operations? Is it the 'sniper' independently, or was Horiuchi a tool of higher-ups, command and control or whatever?
"I vass only followink orders!" Nope, won't wash:
Be sure of your target and what's behind it. He wasn't. Even if the man's a tool -- and I don't know him well enough to make that call and do not care to -- it was his finger on the trigger. Either he recognized and shot anyway, or he couldn't tell and simply guessed, then shot at his guess. Either one is wrong.
The entire situation was idiotic, an excellent example of why "shock and awe" military-type tactics are moronic methods for police work: they escalate the situation and get people killed.
Especially when applied half-heartedly. [2]
Has anyone here heard of "sousveillance?" It's sort of the opposite of "surveillance," tricks like pointing a webcam at and/or tracking it with a security camera in a public area, or staging little plays for 'em, that sort of thing. Hypothetically, one would have to wonder if some aspects of that approach might be applied to snipers in situations like Ruby Ridge. Of course, you'd need folks who knew the lay of the land well enough to locate them without undue bother, first. Even innocently asking the man in the tree or on the rooftop what he thought he was doin', callin' the police to report a suspicious prowler or taking him cookies and milk might keep another mother or child from gettin' whacked by some tacticoool d00d on the gummit payroll.
Police and military skills are not the same,
especially in "engagement." The goals are very different. LEOs hadn't ought to play soldier. Soldiers shouldn't play police. (Or only the MPs should -- and they are policing their own. It's a darned hard job and there are some darned fine folks doing it).
--Herself
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1. Why is it the highly-trained types who have all these finely-honed skills get
more leeway to make fatal or injurious errors than regular folks like us, anyway? It's like Mario Andretti getting away with running down pedestrians!
2. A full-out surprise assault might very well have produced fewer casualties and less outcry -- and less publicity. Randy Weaver and family weren't exactly what you'd call shock troops. But the Feds wanted to play to the cameras and didn't want to look too evil. See how well that worked!
