Texas S.W.A.T. is anti

[Smokey Joe]

Recently had a satellite TV dish installed; am still exploring the offerings. Saw my first episode of Texas S.W.A.T. and was very disappointed. Don't get me wrong; I fully support our LEO's in their efforts, but this show spent a good deal of time bashing the AK-47.

IMHO, people that would shoot at cops don't need any further demonizing, and I don't much care what they use.

The show used half-truths to make their point, for example, stating that the AK-47's rate of fire is 600 rounds/minute. Now that might be true but they didn't say that it has limited size magazines and is not belt-fed. By inference, the AK-47 could actually fire 600 rounds in a minute. The show also demonstrated the "awesome power" of the rounds it uses by shooting at what appeared to be an adobe block, which of course crumbled with one shot. They emptied a magazine at a cinder-block wall, and, surprise, the wall crumbled. (Of course they didn't say whether armor-piercing ammo, FMJ's, or what other types of bullets were being used.)

Come to think of it, how many BG's have automatic-firing AK's anyhow?? Aren't they pretty much limited to "fixed" semi-auto AK's like the rest of us?? That wasn't touched on in the show either.

Nowhere was the awesome 7.62x39 cartridge shown nor compared with the awesome power of a deer hunter's .30-'06, for example.

The clear inference was that these weapons are the weapons of choice for thugs and street gangs, for holdups and for attacks on police or defense against SWAT teams, and that they're somehow unusually powerful and fast-firing and scary.

Oddly enough, all the SWAT actions against gangs, portrayed in the same show, had the SWAT team surprising and overwhelming the gang members, usually without a shot being fired on either side. Not being an LEO, that's pretty much SOP for SWAT teams, as I understand it. Therefore what does it matter what weapons the BG's have? Lots of careful planning and organization, a couple flash-bang grenades, some tear gas, smash in the front door and pour in with overwhelming numbers, and then the BG's are all led, handcuffed, to the waiting paddy wagons.

(BTW, who pays for all the smashed front doors, broken windows, trashed furniture, etc?? Just a side thought.)

Anyhow, while I like TV that shows real cops doing their real job (COPS has been a long-time favorite) I think I've watched my last Texas S.W.A.T. (No knock on the Lone Star state, BTW.) My TV time is scarce enough I don't care to have it cluttered up with more anti-gun propaganda.

 

[Rob1035]

of course its the guns' fault, you actually think people are responsible for their own actions?

bleh, I get tired of inamimate objects being used as the subject of human behavior instead of the adjective.

 

[sturmruger]

I had the Texas SWAT on a series record for my DVR, but couldn't stomach all their anti gun rhetoric!!!

If I were you I would watch Dallas SWAT on A&E it is a lot less anti gun and is more interesting to watch because you get to see behind the scenes more.

 

[Rob1035]

like the hair dye job?

 

[rero360]

have to agree with you there, while it was cool to see the tactics that they use and all that, the blatent BS about the AK was overwhelming, its just as bad as those two ex cops huffing and puffing over the FN FiveseveN. oh well, thats todays television for you.

 

[chopinbloc]

many people have a superiority complex. law enforcement and special units particularly tend to attract this type of personality. while departments do what they can in the way of psychological screening, quite a few still get through. i believe that this attitude creates a "how dare they" attitude. an ak is a tool that, honestly, is particularly well suited for resisting invaders with body armor as long as they don't have rifle plates. it most likely makes the swat officers feel uncomfortable and vulnerable - feelings to which they are unacustomed. they respond by using the bully pulpit of the t.v. show to attempt political change.

was that a good attempt at pop psych? do i get a cookie?

 

[rero360]

you get a kudos which is much gooder than a cookie

 

[rick_reno]

It's TV - I don't think you should expect it to be objective. Turn it off or change the channel - or for a real change, toss it in a dumpster.

 

[odysseus]

I know I will get some heat for saying this; even coming from a perspective with LE in my family - but most SWAT members are very much more entrenched in a "us" versus "them". It's part of the nature of who are selected and their experience, and also what they are exposed to as a special operations group and what they see in their job.

They typically also don't usually get involved as much in getting to know and even empthasize with people as a regular LEO cop does. So I am not surprised to see and hear anti-RKBA talk from some SWAT members. Also it's good for T.V., right?

 

[No_Brakes23]

I am not going to watch the show again because they had about 10 minutes of commercials for every 5 minutes of show.

 

[adaman04]

There aren't many shows that aren't anti-gun. Cops for example always talks about how dangerous guns are, but the one time someone uses one for defense, they hardly mention it. The only shows that are pro-gun are the shows on OLN and the outdoor channel. Only because they have "shooter" in the title. The country ain't country no more.

 

[denfoote]

Texas SWAT.

Now is this the SWAT unit of the Texas Rangers??

If so, then maybe a letter campign to the director of the Texas DPS (I think the Rangers are under him) would be in order!!

Letters to your leglislative critters might be in order too especally if state moneys were used to produce this!!

 

[Johnny_Yuma]

No heat, Odysseus

I know I will get some heat for saying this; even coming from a perspective with LE in my family - but most SWAT members are very much more entrenched in a "us" versus "them". It's part of the nature of who are selected and their experience, and also what they are exposed to as a special operations group and what they see in their job.

You are dead right. I'm an investigator. I have more contact with victims and witnesses than I do criminal subjects. At least HALF of the victims and witnesses are fairly normal people. In some investigations, ALL of the victims and witnesses are regular guys. SWAT operators, on the other hand, make entry into target houses several days each week. When I was in Dallas, some of the guys on the teams (they were "Tactical" teams, not "SWAT" when I lived there) hit two or three houses per day, 5-6 days per week. It would be real easy to lose perspective when the only people you deal with are 1) hard-core gang-bangers and 2) cops.

The us vs. them attitude was very common with SWAT operators out there.

 

[Mumbles_45]

On top of all that crying about the AK, dont forget the scene where one cop holds up what looks like an M11(I could be wrong) and calls it a machine pistol, maybe it was, I dont know (but I wouldn't be suprised if it was semi only). ANyway, he was there I wasn't, maybe it was full auto, but the show imediately cuts to a scene of a glock 18 firing full auto tearing up jugs of water.

 

[Brandon223]

Hhhhppphhh

On top of all that crying about the AK, dont forget the scene where one cop holds up what looks like an M11(I could be wrong) and calls it a machine pistol, maybe it was, I dont know (but I wouldn't be suprised if it was semi only). ANyway, he was there I wasn't, maybe it was full auto, but the show imediately cuts to a scene of a glock 18 firing full auto tearing up jugs of water.

I was gonna point out that part. But, yea Texas SWAT is a crappy anti-gun show. I saw the previews thinking "this looks cool" but throughout most of the show I was like "this funking show is anti-gun"

 

[Standing Wolf]

Television broadcasts blatant anti-Second Amendment bigotry? I'm shocked I tell you, positively shocked!

 

[MrMex]

Being a tv junkie I was stoked when they announced Texas Swat. With class 3 guns, crackheads and busting down doors what could be bad? How about the whole damn show!

Try Dallas swat, written much better and personal gun pov's are left out.

 

[xd45gaper]

i kinda thought the same thing when i watched it they where bashing the AK47, SKS, Mac 10's etc. they confinscated a Mac10 or whatever it was ( was a mac something lol) and then showed them firing the "confinscated weapon" to show its firepower but the funnything was they where firing a fully automatic glock with a 30+ round magazine. hmmmm

 

[chrisTx]

i hate to say it, but most police are fairly ignorant when it comes to firearms. i attribute it to the same mentality that leads many officers to believe their crown victorias contain some miracle superchip that makes their granny crown victorias 'supercars.'

most of the officers i've ever worked with carried their issued duty gun. that was the only weapon they owned and only shoot during required training. the others, like me are, usually a little more extreme with a small aresenal and range time evey free weekend (one co-worker even having a collection totalling over 375 firearms). i arrested a guy with a shotgun once. i had to take the gun into custody with the owner (he was not being arrested on a firearms charge and i was not going to release it to the tow company). i removed the barrel from the receiver. while putting it together would seem like a no-brainer to most of us, when the guy was released, neither he nor the officers on duty knew how to put it back together.

a couple of us have tried to get our personal AKs pressed into service. it failed because AKs are not 'politically correct' looking. the only fault the AK47 has is that it does an exceptional job of doing exactly what it was designed to do.

 

[Kim]

Wonder if one of them is Alberto Gonazales's brother. Remember he is for the AWB as he has a brother who is a poiceman in TX. At least that is what he testified to congress

 

[DunedinDragon]

For those interested in sending Court TV some feedback about their bonehead handling of this show, you can do so at the following address:

http://www.courttv.com/contact/feedbackform.asp?subject_id=81&start=true

As for me, this was MY feedback to them.
Have you done any market research regarding who watches these types of shows? Apparently not. It's clear that a good portion of the audience for reality law enforcement shows are conservative, pro-law enforcement, GUN OWNERS. Yet you infuse this program with political statements about how "bad" certain guns are like the AK-47 along with a number of other "anti-gun" messages. I guess you decided you wanted to doom this show from the onset, which now you have. If you have any question about how you have turned off your prime target audience, feel free to review the following thread from a very popular gun forum:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=178538

Looks like A&E's Dallas Swat will be eating your lunch..
Do you actually PAY your producers to be so stupid?

 

[jtward01]

I hate to say it, but most police are fairly ignorant when it comes to firearms.

That's been my experience. I've tried to engage a few officers in gun talk and most of the time they've looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. When cops would show up at our bowling pin shoots they were almost invariably out shot by the civilians. Sure, there were some that could shoot pretty well, usually sheriff's office deputies rather than city police, but the majority were pretty poor. The exception was a couple of federal Air Marshalls. Now, those boys could SHOOT!

I've also noticed while watching COPS on TV that often, when they've taken a gun off a bad guy, the cops have a hard time figuring out how to unload it and clear the chamber. There's usually quite a bit of fumbling around before an older officer snatches it out of the rookie's hands and makes it safe.

 

[chopinbloc]

There's usually quite a bit of fumbling around before an older officer snatches it out of the rookie's hands and makes it safe.

reminds me of a time when my friend and i had a conversation with a police officer. long story so i won't get into details but suffice to say we weren't the folks he was looking for. anyway, during the conversation the officer wanted to take control of our weapons, of course. not particularly unusual but our 1911 style pistols confused the heck out of him. he figgered the mag release out easily enough, probably because it's in generally the same spot as his glock. he couldn't get the slide open because both pistols were safed. we told him several times that he had to take the safety off first. finally, i reached in and, cringing, cliked the safety off for him. the scary part was that although his finger mostly stayed off the trigger, mostly, he spent a fair amount of time sweeping us with the muzzle of a firearm with which he was clearly unfamiliar. the whole time i kept seeing the headline: "man shot by own gun - police confused."

 

[pete f]

yes I remember several episodes of COPS where in particular Eastern Big City cops had real trouble just getting the slide back on small semis. in another I think it was Real Hiway patrol, The lady trooper was having a heck of a time opening a python...and after it was opened just sort of tossed on the concrete of a loading ramp, you could clearly here it skidding...

I have not seen the TEXAS SWAT series, Ii am assuming it is on Cable and I do not have cable. I would have to say that none of the "cops" type tv shows really give good 2A messages, once in a while Cops has a good incident, but way too often the Officer chosen to be the ride around officer seems to be the most politically correct. I did see one not too long ago where an older woman had shot at two people in her back yard who turned out to be OFFICERS looking for a burglary suspect. She was elderly and had a ancient Smith and the lead officer after the incident was telling her she had a right to self defense and just needed to be more careful at who she shot at...and then he RELOADED her revolver for. As they drove away, his comment was something about ladies like that made texas a good place to live.

 

[walking arsenal]

was that a good attempt at pop psych? do i get a cookie?

you get a kudos which is much gooder than a cookie

Kudos aint gooder than a cookie! Now, a Hershey bar, that might be gooder than a cookie. Maybe.