What the heck is the agents deal on Spike's "DEA"

[Sage of Seattle]

A fully automatic mac 10 is a sub-machine gun. It fires pistol calibre rounds.

I think part of it may be that they want to use terms that makes sense to the average lay-person watching the show.

Wait. What? What's a sub-machine gun?

Oh, you mean it's like a machine gun? Well, why didn't you just say so?

 

[JeepGeeek]

It's called "Hollywood"

To expect it to have any semblance of comparison with the real world is folly, at best.

 

[wideym]

I have to call a major BS on TSH's statement that RPGs and SAMs are stolen from National Guard Armories.

National Guard Armories do not store ammuntion or explosives, with the exception of limited amounts of rifle and pistol ammo both live or blanks.

Rockets and missiles of any kind are stored in ammunition depots, not in downtown podunk's 1930s Guard Armory. Also Stingers come in serial numbered fiberglass tubes that mount to the sights just like TOW missles. After firing the tube is turned in along with any other dunage. The same goes for AT-4s and LAWs. Even grenades pins have to be turned back in.

If a Stinger or AT-4 were to come up missing that unit would be locked down until it turned up.

 

[TexasSkyhawk]

I have to call a major BS on TSH's statement that RPGs and SAMs are stolen from National Guard Armories.

Guess all those teletypes and briefings we got back in the early/mid 80's were just figments of everyone's imagination.

Reckon the frends and agents I went through academies with who chased the stolen weapons down were also figments of everyone's collective imagination.

I guess the "projectile" that took down a rival organization's Beechcraft King Air over the hills of a certain South American country back in 1985 must've been a big slingshot--even though the case and assembly was found and the numbers traced it right back to an armory just north of Detroit.

Likewise, the two zulu gangsters from Redmond/Detroit who were sent to Marion FPS, and the E3 who was sentenced to make little rocks out of big rocks at a spa & resort in Kansas, why they all must be actors hired by someone (who knows who) to fool all the whole justice system.

But then again, how did a few folks from a few certain Navy units manage to break into so many armories and then cause massive bowel movements when they laid out their haul in the CO's office a day or two later?

Security at active duty military installations in the 70's and 80's sucked. Security at armories was rarely more than a chain and padlock wrapped around a gate. We're still paying for that mess thirty years later.

Jeff

 

[Gunnerpalace]

how did a few folks from a few certain Navy units manage to break into so many armories and then cause massive bowel movements when they laid out their haul in the CO's office a day or two later

That was the Navy's Red Cell that did that fun stuff. Base security too,

 

[wideym]

How long do you think sensitive electronics in a Stinger missle will last when not in a controlled enviroment and regular maintaince? There is a reason we do not lose aircraft every day in Afganistan to Stingers we gave them in the 80's.

It's 2008 not the 70's and 80's. The abuses of those eras have been corrected. Security nowadays isn't some Gomer smoking weed behind the motorpool instead of guarding the ASP.

Yes you will always have some numbnuts who will try to make a buck stealing weapons from the military, but most if not all are caught with out losing track of the items. Red Cell? Come on, weren't those guy on our side?

We are living in the 21st century now, where security and accountablity are light years from what they used to be. BTW teletypes have gone the way of the dinosaur, it's e-mail now at Div.Intel.

 

[rogerxd45]

well they have to make it more interesting and most people dont know any better

ignorance is bliss

 

[RustyShackelford]

weapons-ammo, professionalism...

I take issue with the post about these sworn federal LEOs not knowing or maybe not caring about the weapons/ammo they carry-use.

Would you want your airline pilot to be that lax? How about your doctor?

To study up on weapons or read a FM/owner's manual is not that hard, .

To learn what weapons do what, what ammo does what or who makes different types of firearms is not that complex either.

I'm not saying cops/federal agents should be "bulletheads" or gun nuts but some basic skills are not a lot to ask for....
RS

 

[Erik]

The defining characteristic of a pilot is the abilty to fly.

The defining abilty of a doctor? To treat the sick.

The defining characteristic of a LEO? To enforce the law.

A pilot may or may not be good with a... pick a flying related gadget, a doctor may or may not be good with a scalpel, and a LEO may not be good with firearms.

All three may still be good, even excellent, in their respective fields, despite not knowing about the gadgets, the scapels, and the firearms.

 

[Erik]

Come to think of it, it is like driving, another law enforcement "core skill set." As it turns out, I am a capable driver, able to push vehicles in ways that makes driving instructors clap me on my back and call me "their boy." The thing is, I'm not much of a car guy, and couldn't care less about details car guys consider necessary to know. What ever... all I know is that they are the guys normally behind me.

 

[TexasSkyhawk]

We are living in the 21st century now, where security and accountablity are light years from what they used to be.

Yes, I noticed that--particularly on 9/11.

Same as with all those stolen FBI laptops and guns. Or the discs missing from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sorry, but I spent a large part of my life working high-level, high-risk operations for the government. Security sucked then, it sucks now, and it will suck tomorrow and the days afterward. It's been proven time and time and time again. Lot of great TALK about security, but . . .

BTW teletypes have gone the way of the dinosaur, it's e-mail now at Div.Intel.

I believe the blanket statement was, paraphrasing, "those kind(s) of weapons don't make it onto the streets."

Well, I'm here to tell you, unequivocally, they did. And BECAUSE they did, operations management for storage of many of those types of weapons changed--and for the better. But it is still far too easy for other lower-tier military weapons to walk away and end up anywhere in the world for the right price.

And when you consider that if the cartels were recognized businesses, most would be Fortune 100 companies--except with no debt, and not publicly owned.

Very few things money can't buy--something that has been proven endlessly since the beginning of history.

Again, NOT defending the idiotic statements of the "agents" on a tabloid sureality entertainment show. But to think that our military and government installations are impenetrable is a joke. And THAT has been proven time and time again.

Jeff

 

[FFMedic]

I would consider driving a core skill for anyone who uses lights and sirens to respond to emergencies. It's a very dangerous part of the job, LEO, EMS or Fire.

But, if a call comes in for armed robbery with a felling vehicle, do you jump in the Crown Vic or the Excursion? Most anyone would know that a car with a V-8 is better than a huge top heavy SUV, and not because the mechanic puts "teflon based wheel bearing greese" in the Crown Vic so it can go way faster

FFMedic

 

[Sage of Seattle]

Come to think of it, it is like driving, another law enforcement "core skill set." As it turns out, I am a capable driver, able to push vehicles in ways that makes driving instructors clap me on my back and call me "their boy." The thing is, I'm not much of a car guy, and couldn't care less about details car guys consider necessary to know. What ever... all I know is that they are the guys normally behind me.

FFMedic kinda beat me to it (post 62, don't need to requote it), but I was gonna say this: (EDIT: I'm using the 'you' impersonally, not directed at anyone in particular)

If it's your job to know the laws regarding street racing, aren't there also laws that describe what kind of engine components are legal and which are not? So you go up to a street racing car, pop the hood and because you can't tell the difference between a carbourator and a clutch cable, what are you gonna do? Shrug your shoulders and say, "I'm not a car guy" and arrest the person anyway?

You don't have to live, eat, and breathe livestock, but if you're a forest ranger and if knowing about livestock is part of your job, then there's no excuse for not knowing the laws regarding livestock, right?

I don't think anyone is saying cops should automatically be gunnies, but geez, there are twenty some odd thousand gun laws on the books across the nation -- dontcha think that maybe since the people/legislators made so many damnable laws regarding guns that cops should know the laws surrounding guns and not be making these kinds of basic faulty statements?

 

[hobgob]

They are indeed "out gunned." Instead of picking on them we need to show them compassion, give them support, and run like hell whenever an armed DEA agent appears.

ya, thats all good and well.... but the last thing I would do is run like hell. I think that would soon end in getting tackled and cuffed by an agent with gun pointed at your skull. no thanks. I'll either get out of the way, or get on the ground.
BTW, I seriously doubt than any drug dealer they encounter will outgun a team of DEA agents. Each of them has a primary weapon that is usually F/A, and one or more side arms. if you have a team of 9 thats at least 18 guns possibly 27. I think the odds are in their favor. But hey, let them run their mouths. its good for ratings.
BTW, im not sayin that their job isnt hard and that they dont do a good job. It is a dangerous job and im glad someone is doin it.

 

[Group9]

Try telling the people who were working in the federal building in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1983 that police who say that criminals can get their hands on military anti-tank rockets are full of ****.

That's just the incident I remember off the top of my head. It's not the only one.

And, I do remember hearing an agent say for me to grab a machine gun one day, to which I replied, "You ignorant *******. This is a sub-machine gun, not a machine gun, and I will not pick it up until you call it by it's proper nomenclature. What if one day some cameraman from a TV show is here, and they film you calling it a machine gun? What then, you stupid bastard?"

 

[Pigspitter]

Watching Spike TV for facts is like watching ESPN for dating advice or TLC for the score from last night's game.