Citizen's Academy

A blog post by Xavier reminded me of something that I have actually meant to talk about here in the past.

At one time, I was firmly convinced that I didn't want to work in the engineering field, that I wanted to take my four year college degree and use it to find a job in federal law enforcement. As time went on, and I never heard anything back from the federal positions that I applied for, I looked to the idea of possibly getting involved in local law enforcement.

When I first move to Indiana from PRNJ in 2007, I was firmly in the midst of attempting to locate full time local police work. I had the opportunity to attend the Evansville Police Department's Citizen's Academy in the fall of 2007. I was hoping that attending the academy would give me a leg up in the future.

The Citizen's Academy is a great educational experience. We attended sessions ranging from the motor patrol group, to the K-9 teams, to the SWAT, to the firearms guys, to the homicide detectives. It was an awesome couple of months. At the time, class was once / week for several hours in the evening.

If you have any interest in law enforcement, or just want a better look at what the guys in blue do for a living, what they have to put up with, attending a citizen's academy like the one that EPD does is probably worth your time.

I wish Xavier nothing but the best in his experiences, and may he teach us all something :)

--Jim

M.W.A.G. Fireworks Festival

Took in the annual fireworks display on the Riverfront in Downtown Evansville on Saturday night. The show itself was nice, the music score not so much.

As is my custom, was carrying concealed. In this case, Kimber TLE II/RL with a Surefire X300 attached, as well as Ruger LCP in the pocket.

No problems, no funny looks from police, or anybody else. All's well!

North Texas Tactical Training Combat Handgun 1

Sorry for keeping everyone waiting on this review.

On 2/28 I took the Combat Handgun class with Hany Mahmoud and the guys at North Texas tactical. The class was held on the grounds of the Texas Tactical training area, just a few miles north of Weatherford TX.

The class started with some classroom stuff, before we all moved out to the range. We talked about being aware of your surroundings, and how the vast majority of people exist totally in condition white. We also talked about the fact that the proper mindset is condition yellow, which will blend in and out of orange as the day passes. Hany also emphasized that there are times when condition white is necessary for everyone's mental health. As an example, Hany mentions that he goes into condition white when he's relaxing at home, a pistol within easy reach. The key to doing the condition white safely is to have layered defenses (all the doors and windows locked, the alarm set, the dog ready to pounce, etc.) We also covered OODA loops and actions that could possibly disrupt your opponents OODA loop.

During the classroom section of the day, we covered range safety with a quick review of the four rules of firearm safety. Hany had an additional rule for us throughout the course of the day. From the time we stepped onto the range and went hot, until the time we were finished for the day pistols were to be either holsterd, or indexed on the targets. After all of this, we moved out to the range and started loading magazines and preparing for the range part of the day.

Range exercises started with some non-firing drills. We reviewed stance, grip, sites, trigger control, etc. From there we moved into live fire drills. I honestly don't remember all of the drills we did, but they were excellent, and were varied. We covered the draw in 4 easy steps, and then we removed the numbers from each of the steps and did it as a fluid motion. Then we added a lateral step to the mix, so that it became natural to take a step to the left or the right (disrupt the opponents OODA loop) while drawing the pistol. We did reloads, and then we added reloads with a lateral step.

One thing that particulary stood out to me was the use of multiple different target setups. Every couple of drills, the targets would get changed out. I don't mean that new targets were put up, I mean that a whole different style of target was put up. Hany pointed out that he uses multiple targets because there are only two things he CAN'T tell us about an encounter with a bad guy: When the encounter will occur, and what the bad guy will look like.

Overall an excellent class, and I'm hoping to take at least one more class with the guys at North Texas Tactical before I leave TX! Maybe next time I'll remember the camera and get some photos!

Sad News

One of the prettiest ladies on TV is in the hospital, apparently for the third time since December.

Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.  And she carries a gun on TV (just to keep this all on topic.)

North Texas Tactical Combat Handgun 1

So, all finished with class, and safe and sound back at my residence in TX.  I'll give a detailed account of what we covered in the next few days, but for now, a general list of comments.

-What the hell happened to the 80 degree day we had yesterday.

-Pay Up. And as a reward, he's a legal liability waiver...

-Awareness Color Chart

-OODA loop (no, not the loop de loop)

-Carry a gun regularly = 90% of your waking hours :)

-Things may not always be as they appear.  People standing around with hands in their pockets, be careful, they may just have a plan to kill you (which could very well include having a J-frame snubby in that pocket)

-Pistol will either be indexed down range, or holstered.

-Front site. Press.  Front Site.  Press. 

-Draw.

-Failure to stop drills DNE 2 to the COM and 1 to the head.  Address the body, and then address the head.

-Wait, you want me to do what now?  Sit down and shoot the target with my ass on the ground? OK.

-Now laying flat on my back!?!?!?  OK, we can try that too.

-You shouldn't see shoeleather when you're looking through the sites.

-1,2,3,4,5,6 drill.

-Move and Shoot!

-SCAN!

-FINGER!

-Walrus story (which I'll tell you is kind of cool, but you have to attend a class to find out what it is!)

All in all, a very very worthwhile day, and if you can possibly make it up to see these guys, well worth the time and effort!

February 15, 2009

Op-Ed Contributor

The Coming Swarm

By JOHN ARQUILLA

Monterey, Calif.

WITH three Afghan government ministries in Kabul hit by simultaneous suicide attacks this week, by a total of just eight terrorists, it seems that a new “Mumbai model” of swarming, smaller-scale terrorist violence is emerging.

The basic concept is that hitting several targets at once, even with just a few fighters at each site, can cause fits for elite counterterrorist forces that are often manpower-heavy, far away and organized to deal with only one crisis at a time. This approach
certainly worked in Mumbai, India, last November, where five two-man teams of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives held the city hostage for two days, killing 179 people. The Indian security forces, many of which had to be flown in from New Delhi, simply had little ability to strike back at more than one site at a time.

While it’s true that the assaults in Kabul seem to be echoes of Mumbai, the fact is that Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been using these sorts of swarm tactics for several years. Jemaah Islamiyah — the group responsible for the Bali nightclub attack that killed 202 people in 2002 — mounted simultaneous attacks on 16 Christian churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve in 2000, befuddling security forces.

Even 9/11 itself had swarm-like characteristics, as four small teams of Qaeda operatives simultaneously seized commercial aircraft and turned them into missiles, flummoxing all our defensive responses. In the years since, Al Qaeda has coordinated swarm attacks in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and elsewhere. And at the height of the insurgency in Iraq, terrorists repeatedly used swarms on targets as small as truck convoys and as large as whole cities.

This pattern suggests that Americans should brace for a coming swarm. Right now, most of our cities would be as hard-pressed as Mumbai was to deal with several simultaneous attacks. Our elite federal and military counterterrorist units would most likely find their responses slowed, to varying degrees, by distance and the need to clarify jurisdiction.

While the specifics of the federal counterterrorism strategy are classified, what is in the public record indicates that the plan contemplates having to deal with as many as three sites being simultaneously hit and using “overwhelming force” against the terrorists, which probably means mustering as many as 3,000 ground troops to the site. If that’s an accurate picture, it doesn’t bode well. We would most likely have far too few such elite units for dealing with a large number of small terrorist teams carrying out simultaneous attacks across a region or even a single city.

Nightmare possibilities include synchronized assaults on several shopping malls, high-rise office buildings or other places that have lots of people and relatively few exits. Another option would be to set loose half a dozen two-man sniper teams in some metropolitan area — you only have to recall the havoc caused by the Washington sniper in 2002 to imagine how huge a panic a slightly larger version of that form of terrorism would cause.

So how are swarms to be countered? The simplest way is to create many more units able to respond to simultaneous, small-scale attacks and spread them around the country. This means jettisoning the idea of overwhelming force in favor of small units that are not “elite” but rather “good enough” to tangle with terrorist teams. In dealing with swarms, economizing on force is essential.

We’ve actually had a good test case in Iraq over the past two years. Instead of responding to insurgent attacks by sending out large numbers of troops from distant operating bases, the military strategy is now based on hundreds of smaller outposts in which 40 or 50 American troops are permanently stationed and prepared to act swiftly against attackers. Indeed, their very presence in Iraqi communities is a big
deterrent. It’s small surprise that overall violence across Iraq has dropped by about 80 percent in that period.

For the defense of American cities against terrorist swarms, the key would be to use local police officers as the first line of defense instead of relying on the military. The first step would be to create lots of small counterterrorism posts throughout urban areas instead of keeping police officers in large, centralized precinct houses. This is
consistent with existing notions of community-based policing, and could even include an element of outreach to residents similar to that undertaken in the Sunni areas of Iraq — even if it were to mean taking the paradoxical turn of negotiating with gangs about security.

At the federal level, we should stop thinking in terms of moving thousands of troops across the country and instead distribute small response units far more widely. Cities, states and Washington should work out clear rules in advance for using military forces in a counterterrorist role, to avoid any bickering or delay during a crisis. Reserve and National Guard units should train and field many more units able to take on small teams of terrorist gunmen and bombers. Think of them as latter-day Minutemen.

Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen all responded to Qaeda attacks with similar “packetizing” initiatives involving the police and armed forces; and while that hasn’t eliminated swarm attacks, the terrorists have been far less effective and many lives have been saved.

As for Afghanistan, where the swarm has just arrived, there is still time to realize the merits of forming lots of small units and sprinkling them about in a countrywide network of outposts. As President Obama looks to send more troops to that war, let’s make sure the Pentagon does it the right way.

Yes, the swarm will be heading our way, too. We need to get smaller, closer and quicker. The sooner the better.

To quote Tam: Carry your damned guns people!"

Article seen here.

Ryan Frederick Verdict Announced

Sailorcut over at Captain of a Crew of One has been following the Ryan Frederick case, and the verdict was announced yesterday.  For those of you who haven't been following case, or don't even know about it, Ryan Frederick is the man who stood accused of murdering a police officer when the cops broke down his door as part of a drug raid.

As far as I've been able to tell, and I wasn't there, so this is all after the fact, a confidential informant told the cops that Ryan Frederick was growning marijuana in his house.  The cops got a judge to sign a search warrant, and the raided Ryan's house.  Supposedly Ryan was asleep in the back room when his dogs woke him up.  Ryan grabbed a pistol and when he saw the front door of his house being broken in, he shot through the door killing one of the detectives attempting to serve the warrant.

While I absolutely believe that it was a tragedy that Detective Jarrod Shivers lost his life in the process of doing his job, I think the responsiblity for the situation that caused him to lose his life should be carried soley by the police department.  Please don't misunderstand me, I think that police officers do a very dangerous and very stressful jobs, and I am proud to call some of them my friends.  That being said, as a general rule, police departments in this country are getting more and more militarized, and have more and more an opinion of "us and them."

As a factor of that militization of the police deparments, more and more SWAT teams have been formed.  Now with budgets being tightened, departments are attempting to keep their teams active, because the taxpayers don't want to pay for the units if they aren't being used.  This actually leads to SWAT teams being used for routine warrants and other incidents that do not require the use of a SWAT team.

SWAT teams often use a dynamic entry method, which leads to incidents like the one that cost Jarrod Shivers his life, and has now cost Ryan Fredericks his freedom.  To compound the problem, there numerous incidents of police going to the wrong address, and invading the home of an innocent person.

I'll say that I think Ryan should have been found guilty of the marijuana posession charge, then again, I don't exactly agree with the War on Some Drugs.  That being said, I hope he appeals the involutary manslaughter charges, and is acquitted.

Line of Duty Death

I was cruising around the blogsphere today, and happened across this post over at Medic Three.

It appears that Mark Davis was shot and killed by a patient while on an emergency run. The worst part is, according to the news reports that I've read about the incident since, it appears that EMT Davis and the rest of his crew were doing everything they were supposed to, at least according to the book.

I've never agreed with the prohibitions of firearms in relation to emergency services, although the people who develop the policies think they are sound. I'm not sure that having a firearm would have helped in this case, but it would have offered other options to the crew...

Mr. Davis, RIP, and thank you for your service. Your life was ended far too soon. May God welcome you into Heaven's Brigade.

HEAVEN'S BRIGADE

Did you know there's a Fire Department in Heaven?
I heard Cap tell that sorrowful lad.
The young boy stared, working over the words he'd just been given.
Cap, do you think God's got a spot on the truck for my dad?
Cap smiled, even though you could tell his heart was heavy, and said,
You bet son, as he roughed the hair on the boy's head.
Timmy looked up, his sadness, for now, gone.
Cap went on, holding back the tears that were trying to fall.
They've got the biggest, reddest fire trucks you ever saw,
And they keep them all cleaned and ready,
Just in case they get a call.
Of course they don't get many,
Bein' in Heaven and all.
But God knew this, so right next to them He made,
A great big tree, that puts out a lot of shade.
And each day they have at least one run,
Down the streets of Heaven, leading the afternoon parade.
That's been years ago now,
And in that time, things have changed alot.
Cap, he's been retired, and I some how, made it to Chief.
And Timmy, He's just Tim now, down at station two,
And, I must say, one of the finest Captains on my crew.
The day came, the worst of any other,
When we have to say farewell to a fallen brother.
I watched, as Tim walked over to that hero's son,
And share some words, just as my Cap and Tim had once done...
Did you know there's a Fire Department in Heaven?............

Funny... but Scary!

http://view.break.com/584896 - Watch more free videos

Found in a comment from a friend on MySpace. I can't imagine how I would react to this.