One way to inoculate yourself against anything is to ignore it day after day until it becomes—as they say—a new normal. I wonder if this is how people who work and live in Downtown Seattle experience Seattle’s self-inflicted blight. My God! Does anyone truly think allowing people to live in this urban squalor helps anyone? Actually, it seems pretty mean to me. It doesn’t help those living in the filth, and it certainly doesn’t help the decent, law-abiding, and productive who have to drive and walk past the out-stretched-hand harassment and piss stench of the indecent, law-breaking, and unproductive.

I had to make an unavoidable trip to Downtown Seattle recently. After slogging through the Democrat-made traffic snarl on I-5, and after completing multiple circuits of the area around city hall, marveling at the lack of bicycle use of the myriad parking-stealing, convoluted ribbons of bike lanes and sharrows, I finally found a parking space (I think somewhere south of Northgate). Ironic, since I’d just been in a parking lot on what they call a freeway. Perhaps, I should have just turned off my car, left it there, hopped the guardrail, and walked to my appointment at 5^th/Cherry St. –it was a lot closer than from where I had to park!

Trodding from my parking space, under the freeway, I swerved to avoid two charming gentlemen who were reclined, usurping half the sidewalk, and sharing a marijuana pipe. How Norman Rockwell.

I’ve recently heard that Seattle is the fastest growing major American city. I was at first surprised because who would move to a place with such an onslaught of bums. Then I realized that maybe they mean the bums. Now, that would make sense. The layabouts are everywhere in Seattle. The thing about those two particular bums, getting high in broad daylight, illegally in public, under I-5 is they were two of the least offensive of those gathered nearby in tents and sleeping bags on the sidewalks and along the edges of the HOV commuter parking. At least they were minding their own business and not harassing passersby.

Inoculation may be an effective liberal city survival strategy. But I’d encourage those who can to make a point of intentionally “seeing” just how bad this is. Liberals are always talking about the “rich” not paying their fair share. Shouldn’t we all do our fair share? If you had an able bodied person living with you and not contributing to your household, you’d boot them out, right? That’s normal. If normal people do not run their households this way, why should “normal” cities? Then again, that’s the point, isn’t it? Liberal Seattle is not normal.

Charleena Lyles’ attack on two police officers, with butcher knives, which resulted in her tragic death, has brought up many issues. One of them is the use of so-called, less-than-lethal weapons vs. lethal options: Tasers vs. firearms.

Many people have asked, “Why didn’t the cops tase her instead?”

Facts people should know:

• Seattle’s cops must carry a firearm and have an option to carry any of three less-than-lethal weapons: baton, pepper-spray, and/or Taser. An officer may carry one, two, or all three options. I carried a baton and pepper-spray.
• In training, cops are taught that to properly deploy the Taser against a person armed with a deadly weapon, three officers should be present. One officer to deploy the Taser, a second officer for lethal cover (ready with a firearm should the Taser application fail), and a third officer to place the suspect in handcuffs. Routine calls, such as the (false) burglary report Ms. Lyles called in, normally require only one officer to respond. Her known criminal and mental health history made it so radio dispatched two officers (obviously, short of the three necessary).
• When the Taser program started, many officers chose to take the training and become certified to use a Taser on duty.
• As the program continued, community activists and groups criticized the police Taser use. Some even regularly accused cops of “torturing” suspects with their Tasers.
• As criticism increased, policies began changing, making it so to use a Taser an officer needed nearly the same circumstances that would be needed to use lethal force.  
• Several officers told me that due to these policy changes, they were turning in their Tasers.
• Since a gun is much more efficient than a Taser in saving an officer’s life during a deadly encounter why would a cop put himself or herself in a position that causes hesitation? Hesitation kills cops.

So, when cop-critics harangue police officers for not using a Taser, they can look in the mirror for why an officer didn’t choose to have a Taser as an option.

The recent shooting in North Seattle of 30-year-old Charleena Chavon Lyles is an unmitigated tragedy. There is no doubt about that. During my police career, I worked a sector with numerous mental health facilities and patients. I dealt with the mentally ill often, had a good relationship with their staffs, and received commendations from them. While I had little sympathy for those who knew better and still committed violent crimes, I had a great deal of compassion for people with significant mental health issues. In some cases, their actions simply were not their faults. But that does not lessen the danger they present to police officers responding to 911 calls. According to news reports from KIRO, Ms. Lyles seems to have been one of those people with significant mental health issues.

Unfortunately, before anything more than a preliminary investigation has been conducted, some family members, community activists, and leftist politicians are already making assertions that police racism was a factor in the incident. Family members have leveled these knee-jerk charges, and anti-police groups have also glommed onto that all-too-convenient notion–it fits their narrative. Still, while families in mourning deserve wide latitude, regarding emotional comments after suffering such a loss, the cop critics do not—they know better but don’t care about the truth–the truth doesn’t fit their narrative. 

What a shame that the mainstream liberal media, progressive politicians, and leftist community activists have given tacit (sometimes, blatant) permission or even instructions to minority communities to make quantum leaps, blaming racism every time police shoot a black suspect.

During the fatal encounter, these facts should be remembered as critical: She was the one who called the police. She wanted to report a burglary. She armed herself with two butcher knives. She refused orders to “stay back” and came at the officers. Despite Ms. Lyles being a “known” entity to police for both mental health and criminal issues, officers can be heard on audio of the incident properly investigating Ms. Lyles’ burglary complaint. In fact, on audio the first words from one of the officers were, “Hello, good morning. You call the police?” Hardly the manner of a white, racist police officer intent on killing a black woman—or anyone!

While conducting the investigation, reports indicate Ms. Lyles threatened the officers with the two knives. Despite numerous orders to “stay back,” Ms. Lyles reportedly came at the officers who were forced to shoot her.

I know critical thinking is asking a lot these days, but rather than blaming the cops, how about looking at a mental health system that seems to have failed Ms. Lyles, her children, family, the community, and the police. And what about the judge who released Ms. Lyles despite her recent history of placing her children in harms-way and violent behavior toward the police?

On June 5th, Ms. Lyles confronted police in a similar incident where she’d armed herself with an “extra-long” pair of scissors, using them to threaten the officers (incidentally, the officers responding in the butcher knives case were aware of that incident. Fortunately, in that incident, she dropped the scissors, so the officers did not have to use deadly force). According to KIRO, she also told the officers, “Ain’t none of ya’ll leaving [her] here today!” Incredibly, her 4-year-old child was, “sitting in her lap, and, at points, crawling around her waist,” during that incident. 

Five days before the deadly shooting, Ms. Lyles attended a Mental Health Court hearing regarding the earlier incident. Think about this: The judge obviously considered Lyles dangerous enough to set this condition before her release: He ordered her not to “possess weapons or items which can be used as weapons.” Seriously? 

Now, I hesitate to criticize the mental health system too harshly because they are overburdened and understaffed. But, just think about the level of mental instability of this poor woman the court released back into society. Anyone think the criminal justice or mental health system, as a whole, did Ms. Lyles any favors? During the fatal incident, Police officers reported Ms. Lyles said she wanted to, “morph into a wolf” and mentioned “cloning her daughter.” But, it’s too easy to blame the cops, right?

But what about the people or person who made the decision to release her five days before her death? Do they deserve any culpability? Apparently not. I’m sure the release will come up in the discussion, but since they are a part of Seattle/King County’s liberal establishment, they will likely be seen as simply progressives who meant well, so they can’t be blamed. It must be the cops fault—always. And since the cops’ own political (and sometimes even police) leaders rarely support or defend officers’ uses-of-force with any vigor, if at all, then why shouldn’t society believe cops are bad? Most law enforcement jurisdictions remain horrible at teaching the public about what, why, and how cops do what they do.

How have we gotten to a place in our society where nationally and locally we have the best trained law enforcement officers in America’s history, yet the default response is to blame the police? Ms. Lyles’ demise is a true and plain tragedy. But not just for Ms. Lyles, her family and friends but for the officers, too. Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole echoed this in the Seattle Times, “The message I’m trying to get out right now is that this is a horrible tragedy all around.” She added, “The community is distraught. The family is distraught. The officers are distraught.” [Emphasis mine] Come on, people. These officers, who chose to dedicate their professional lives to serve and protect the Seattle community, are not happy they were forced to shoot a mentally ill, pregnant woman. To even think that is a malicious insult, ignorant, and just plain stupid.

Regardless of what the cop-haters spew about police officers “hunting minorities in the streets” (which government statistics have thoroughly debunked), those officers now must deal with the emotional ramifications of having to end the life of a mentally ill woman who should never have been at that location, never been holding those knives, and never been threatening those two police officers on that quiet Sunday in Seattle.

Busy with home projects, I’ve had little time to blog, lately. However, a recent photo and story on the FB Brier Community Page yearns for comment. I’m not including the photo or name of the FB page poster (it’s a private group). You’ll have to trust me on this one. For the record, I’m posting this blog in my capacity as a critical thinking advocate.

In today’s touchy-feely, politically-correct-on-steroids social environment, this incident is so ridiculous it illustrates the lens through which some people choose to view ordinary things.

Passing a house in Brier, an alert citizen observed, and then reported to the police, what he or she thought was a “noose” hanging from a tree limb. In the photo, the thick white rope can be seen suspended from a branch with the “noose” (a loop), dangling close to the ground (scratch head here). Coincidentally, the “noose” loop just happens to be positioned perfectly for a child to place a foot (not a head) into the rope’s loop. 

More head-scratching comes when you see in the photo the rope and “noose” is obviously a swing. The homeowner says her kids have been enjoying the swing—for the past FIVE YEARS! (Sorry for yelling, but come on, people). 

Hypersensitive folks with their offend-me switches turned up to eleven, listen up. Please, stop looking at the world through moron-colored glasses. If you look at a child’s rope swing and see a hangman’s noose, please seek help. Now! 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Never, ever, think that the lunacy oozing from Seattle’s leftist Laboratory can’t reach new heights—or depths. Per MYNorthwest.com, when Seattle police officers complete use-of-force reports, now, they are no longer allowed to use the term “suspect” to describe, well, a suspect.

What term have they come up with that better describes a suspect who has presented enough resistance or threat, including deadly, that officers had to use force, including deadly, to subdue the suspect? “Community member.” No folks, this is not a SNL skit or a story from The Onion; this is what has become normal for Seattle.

Can you imagine? I’m a cop. I’ve just come in after having arrested a career criminal who pulled a knife and tried to stab me. I finally get to writing my reports including a use-of-force report. Now, I’ve got a lot of names I’d like to call the criminal, but I settle for “suspect,” because that’s what he is: suspected in a crime—resisting arrest and assaulting an officer (Me!) with a deadly weapon.

However, I can no longer use the term “suspect.” People in city government, and vendors selling progressive law enforcement software, most who have never been cops and don’t have the slightest idea what cops do, have a better—more respectful—term for suspects who fight with police officers.

Use-of-Force Statement: This is a true and involuntary statement given by me, Officer… Blah, blah, blah. On yadda, yadda date, at 0-dark-30, I was dispatched to a disturbance at a house known for narcotics sales and frequent violent criminal activities. On arrival I observed the community member, later identified as…, stride in an aggressive manner toward my patrol car. I exited my vehicle and told the community member to stop. The community member failed to obey my instructions. When the community member was within 10 feet of me, the community member reached into his jacket and withdrew a knife with what appeared to be an 8-10 inch fixed blade. I drew my department-issued sidearm and ordered the community member to stop and drop the knife. Instead, the community member….  

Again, are you kidding me?

People who know my writing, know that I hesitate to use words and phrases that convey personal attacks rather than those that attack a person’s actions or views. But, come on… Who was the idiot, moron—fool who came up with or is forcing Seattle’s cops to use this politically correct excrement?

Using the term “community member” to describe a dangerous suspect is yet another attack on police officers whose job it is to deal with Seattle’s human vermin. “Community member” conveys an air of respectability violent criminal suspects don’t deserve.

Oh, wait a minute. I just thought of something. I suppose Seattle’s social justice language pirates may actually have held back on the term they truly would have preferred. Perhaps, we should be thankful they didn’t order cops to refer to a suspect as, “comrade.”

I try to stick to law enforcement and libertarian issues, but sometimes it too hard. I see something “shiny” and I must speak up. I heard something this morning that is making my head spin.

Do you know about the Taylor Force Act?

 First, what about the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) official policy of paying money to the families of terrorists who kill Israelis and others? The PA has it in their charter and has allocated it in their budget, to pay families of suicide bombers and other attackers of civilians.

This now includes the family of the murderer of Taylor Force, an American, visiting Israel. Walking down the street, Force was among the many innocent civilians 22-year-old, Palestinian terrorist, Bashar Masalha, stabbed on March 8, 2016 in Tel Aviv. Force died from his wounds. Ten others survived. Police shot and killed Masalha.

Troublesome is that the United States provides to the PA some of the funds distributed to the family of Masalha in foreign aid. That’s right, you and I are paying a bounty to the family of an honored Palestinian murderer who killed a fellow American. The terrorist’s body arrived home in the PA to a hero’s welcome. 

Now for something even more troublesome. According to the report I watched, not one Democrat is supporting a bill to cut off funding to the PA unless the government stops these payments to the families of terrorists. The amount of payments totals in the hundreds of million of dollars per year. Think these bounties encourages violence against Israel and others? 

Does a bill to stop helping the PA conduct this brutal practice sound radical to you? What justification could any Democrat—any sane person—have for not supporting such a measure? This is yet another sign of the lunacy of the left and how radical that party has become. Personal integrity be damned; support the Party at all costs.

It is nothing less than barbaric that a fledgling political entity, endeavoring to gain inclusion among the family of nations, would maintain such a ghoulish practice in today’s modern world–and do it with the largesse of other nations. Such audacity. 

Having grown up in a non-political, but decidedly Democrat household in Massachusetts, where the families I knew had three, non-family, photos on their walls: John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Jesus, I have to ask. What the hell happened to the Democratic Party, and where have all the freedom of speech-loving, violence-hating Democrats gone?

I was pleased to see the January 11, 2017 Pew Research Center results of a comprehensive survey of police officers’ views on the current anti-police (my words, not theirs) state in America and its effect on cops. Listen, this is not a new phenomenon, especially in big liberal bastions such as Seattle. This alleged “abuse of force” and “bias policing” controversy and animus toward cops by the left has been with us for many years. It’s just that now we have a nationally-known, alliterate tag for it: the “Ferguson Effect.”

Since the Ferguson incident, in which a police officer shot and killed a robbery suspect who’d assaulted and attempted to disarm him, gave rise to Black Lives Matter, activists and media have selected that event as the inception of the anti-police culture in America. But it’s not—not even close. Anti-police lefties have been chipping away at the integrity of law enforcement officers for a long time. Now, after eight years of enjoying support from one of two major political parties, the United States Department of Justice, and from the President, the fruits of their onslaught are being harvested on America’s streets. 

The environment in which police work today allows for an officer to act entirely according to the tactics and policies instructors taught in the police academy or advanced training unit yet still suffer consequences as if the officer had acted improperly. This recently happened to a friend of mine. In fact, despite the department’s lead defensive tactics instructor describing the officer’s actions during the incident in question as “perfect,” Seattle’s police chief fired him. How do you think that affects future actions of other police officers?     

One positive aspect of this increased attention is that sane America is finally taking notice of this attempt at societal suicide. Marginalizing—demonizing—our cops when our nation is so vulnerable to lawlessness in our inner-cities and from potential terrorist threats is insane. 

No matter how many times FBI statistics and Ivy League studies inform us of the reality that cops are not gunning down young black men in the streets—other young black men are, the Ferguson myth persists. Mind numbed miscreants still thrust their hands in the air, chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot” regardless that the DOJ, of all agencies, debunked that lie.

Look at the recent controversy over a painting displayed in Congress depicting police officers as pigs. In fact, in the painting, a young man in the background has his hands up. The controversy has resulted in a, put-it-up-take-it-down, game between offending Democrat and defending Republican lawmakers.  

But this is not game. This blatant insult to America’s police officers is occurring in the U.S. Congress. We have American leaders, the Congressional Black Caucus, exhibiting a painting which portrays police officers as pigs. The Democrat who hung the painting, Rep. William Lacy Clay, still cites Michael Brown as an example of so-called police abuses against Americans of African descent.

Clay is an intelligent man. He can read as well as any other person. He knows what the FBI statistics show. But this issue is not about knowing; it’s about not wanting to know, and it seems the good Congressman and his compatriots simply do not want to know the truth, or they ignore it. They’d rather perpetuate ideology-fabricated myths befitting their chosen narrative. 

Now, I don’t like what the painting represents, but it’s doing part of what art is supposed to do: it’s making us think and discuss. But that doesn’t change the inappropriateness of the venue–on display in the U.S. Congress. The painting also does something else: It demonstrates what some schools are apparently teaching our children. I don’t know the young artist, but It’s obvious his view of police is colored by the anti-police mythology “taught” by many teachers and community activists. I don’t blame the young artist; if you’re told lies every day by people you respect, you’re likely to believe them.

Regardless of the controversies listed above, contributing to what Pew’s research found about American cops, this anti-police trend has been with us for a very long time. First in liberal localities and then eight years ago when Americans elected a president who holds police officers in contempt and who has no problem showing it.

Don’t believe me? Aside from incidents such as the well-known Cambridge police incident and President Obama’s Eric Holder-led DOJ pogrom against American law enforcement, I’ll leave you with this: A few days ago, on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, despite the many murders of police officers in 2016, including the single-incident slaughter of five Dallas police officers, and despite having swathed the White House in rainbow colors to celebrate gay marriage, President Obama again refused honor the nation’s police officers by illuminating the White House in blue.   

Here we go again. In a speech given at Princeton University, Seattle’s police chief, Kathleen O’Toole, called on police departments to “embrace reform.” She elaborated: “Everybody wants to talk about guns and drugs, and, yes, we need to talk about crime and crime rates, but my most complicated issue right now is first of all equity and social justice in our policing, in our community. And also it’s the intersection of public safety and public health.” At the risk of appearing puerile, gag me! 

Anyone espousing “social justice” in law enforcement exposes themselves as a left wing ideologue and displays contempt for constitutional equal justice. Social justice, as defined by liberal government, cannot coexist with equal justice because it treats people not as individuals but according to which “victim” group(s) they belong.

Take Seattle’s race-based enforcement of Driving While License Suspended 3^rd degree. For years, unlike other citations issued directly to offenders, officers must forward these tickets to the city attorney’s office so they can determine who “merits punishment,” according to social justice criteria, including race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. (Yes, no kidding) Check it out for yourself.

In her speech at the Woodrow Wilson (well, there’s one problem, right there) School of Public and International Affairs, Chief O’Toole cites a focus on the relationship of trust between the police and children. She said, “Without that trust we as police fail.” Answer this: How does perpetuating lies about cops and what cops do engender trust? 

To give you an idea of the false premises under which Chief O’Toole and other leftist leaders view police officers, the article’s writer used this springboard: “More than two years after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, law enforcement and government officials, scholars, student leaders and community members gathered to address the issue of “Racial Justice and Policing in America.” Ferguson? Michael Brown? In the article, the writer cites the Ferguson incident twice as if it’s an important anchor in this discussion of a false police excessive force epidemic—talk about fake news.

Did I miss something? Wasn’t it Eric Holder’s U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that established Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson acted properly after robbery suspect Michael Brown assaulted him and attempted to take his gun? The writer is highlighting Ferguson as an apparent precipitating incident regarding the police “problems” discussed by Chief O’Toole. The writer is emphasizing a lie. The Ferguson “hands up, don’t shoot” never happened.

According to the article, “She [O’Toole] described the past two years in Seattle as a very difficult period, with the department under a federal consent decree, required to curb excessive force and biased policing.” 

Well, the left fabricated this “difficult period” over the past several years through an alliance between Seattle’s liberal government, anti-police community activists, and President Obama’s DOJ. The consent decree never should have occurred. What happens when you try to fix something that isn’t broken? It breaks. I point you to Seattle University Professor Matthew J. Hickman’s Seattle Time’s article and his study debunking the DOJ’s “conclusions” and advising Seattle to, “Call the DOJ’s bluff and demand an apology.” 

Following a bogus study by the DOJ and its resultant sham conclusions, the feds enacted a consent decree against a police department that didn’t deserve it. Has anyone asked how the Seattle Police Department went from being considered a model American law enforcement agency one day, sought after by other departments for examples of “best practices” in policing, and the next day deemed a veritable American law enforcement disaster? I remember training with German police officers who traveled across an ocean and continent just to benefit from SPD’s superb knowledge base and training. But to leftists the ends justify the means, right? So sacrificing an excellent police department on the alter of liberal, political correctness was just business as usual. To hell with all of the good police officers negatively affected by their anti-police, political agendas.

The DOJ’s result was no surprise. The DOJ hasn’t met a police department it didn’t find to be racist and abusive. Former U.S. Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy laid out the DOJ consent decree formula: From a Newsmax.com article, “McCarthy cited a string of federal civil-rights investigations into some 20 police departments, including Ferguson, Missouri’s, which he said the Justice Department has approached with a presumption of racial guilt.” Precisely what happened in Seattle.

Could the SPD be improved? What organization couldn’t? Just because an organization must keep abreast of developing policies, strategies, techniques, and technologies doesn’t mean that organization is broken. Just because an individual officer violates policy or law, doesn’t mean all officers need “new” training. Especially when the liberal’s “training” is more about leftist, political indoctrination disguised as law enforcement training than it is true police instruction.  

None of that matters to Chief O’Toole. She said, “Not only did the department [SPD] deserve that consent decree, it is a much better place as a result of that decree. We need to embrace reform as a good thing. Change is not bad.” Well, change is bad if it’s based on lies.

SPD is “better” now? Oh, I want to say bad words!

How does O’Toole know? She came to Seattle after the phony decree was implemented. She’s had to rely on the left wing ideologues permeating Seattle’s halls of “social” justice for her information. I retired from the SPD a month or so before she was sworn in to office. I was optimistic. On paper, she seemed a stellar selection. Also, we’re from the same state, Massachusetts, so I felt a kinship. No longer. While she is a nice person—in person, as with all of Seattle’s police chiefs, regrettably, she is a marionette whose strings are manipulated by Seattle’s leftist government. Drink the Kool-Aid or you’re out. 

 O’Toole boasted, “We’ve reduced our use of force by 55 percent just in the last year and a half.” Well, duh. Proactive policing is virtually nonexistent. Out of career preservation, officers can’t do nearly as much as they used to or want to—can you say, de-policing? How can they when their leaders will not back them if things go wrong, even when they act in good faith?

Here’s a question: How can you do the job when even if you do it correctly, even if the department’s lead defensive tactics instructor says your use of force was “perfect,” the chief still fires you? I suppose it could be worse. An officer could be tried, convicted, and sent to prison for doing his or her job. Just ask Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes who’s tried and failed several times to prosecute Seattle police officers.

The Princeton article noted that, “Ms. O’Toole also commented on the importance of hiring officers who reflect the communities they serve, and ‘not people who think that policing is all about the gun fighting and car chases they see on television, but people who understand that policing is a vocation.’” Oh, help me… I really, really, want to say bad words!

Just look at what Chief O’Toole thinks about the type of people, prior to her administration, who’d become police officers and their motivations for serving. What a profound insult to police officers. This is the person responsible for leading Seattle’s Thin (and getting thinner by the day) Blue Line? Officers are persecuted (not to mention executed) enough these days without having a chief who seems to hold her veteran officers in such low esteem.

“‘We’ve hired young responsible, articulate, idealistic people from very different backgrounds with very different professional and personal experiences,’ she continued. ‘It’s very exciting to see. They’ll make our department so much more effective.’” Gee, thanks, Chief. And good luck with that Utopian social experiment.

Hey, all you old, stammering, realistic people [cops] from homogeneous backgrounds with very similar professional and personal experiences. You SPD dinosaurs who’ve dedicated your lives to making Seattle a safer place, just step aside. Salvation has arrived. No, really. The liberals have come to save the day. I mean, the left is well known for its commitment to “law and order,” right? 

Does it sound like Chief O’Toole has a legitimate, objective view of her veteran Seattle police officers? No, Chief O’Toole describes the ideal police officer as, apparently, different from current officers who’ve served Seattle for many years and decades. Her perspective comes from a left wing, social justice ideological one—and that’s putting it politely. 

“‘Princeton Police Chief Nick Sutter [appointed by liberals], who applauded the ‘excellent forum,’ echoed Ms. O’Toole’s message, observing that her proposals have been implemented in Princeton and are consistent with best practices as outlined in President Obama’s report on 21st Century Policing. Mr. Sutter summed up the comments made by Chief O’Toole… that ‘the police are the public and the public are the police. Without collaboration and trust, neither can be successful.’” This is so profound, I think my head might just implode from the dazzling brilliance of these people.

Sounds like Chief O’Toole’s Princeton speech was another successful liberal echo [literally: see above paragraph] chamber. Leftists back-slapping each other, congratulating themselves on yet another brilliant forum about how to fix problems that don’t exist (or that they created or imagined), exacerbated by lies that won’t die, and delivered by ideologues who won’t quit.

Whenever the left argues about their “support” for the 2^nd Amendment, they argue they are only interested in “common sense” gun laws. This is funny. No, really. Think about it. People who know nothing about guns attempt to lecture (and legislate) about guns to people who know a lot about guns.

One “common sense” gun law the left promotes are “assault weapons” bans. Liberals say, “No one needs military-styled, automatic combat weapons for personal or home protection.” Unless you are federally licensed, you are not allowed to own an automatic weapon (machine gun). Still, many “common sense” politicians have no clue which end of the gun you hold and which end the bullet thingies come out. Still, they lecture us.

Former New York Mayor, and anti-gun zealot, Mike Bloomberg gave a seminar on the difference between semi-automatic and automatic weapons: “a pistol, you have to pull the trigger each time. An assault weapon (AR 15, et al) you pull the trigger and it goes (insert childlike machine gun noise here).” Nope! So-called assault weapons (semi-automatic rifles that “look” like badass military automatic rifles) shoot pretty much the same way as common hunting rifles—one trigger pull, one bullet.

When talking about an “assault weapon,” California Senator Kevin de Leon used his expertise in firearms using this terminology, “…can shoot a thirty-magazine clip in ½ a second.” Hmmmm, I always thought a clip was another word for a magazine—you know, the thingie that you put the bullets into. At any rate, he’s about as clear on automatic vs. semi-automatic as Mayor Bloomberg. And Senator de Leon was flip flopping terms all the while handling the rifle as if he were a six-year-old child holding a fifteen-pound lobster by its claws.

Diane Feinstein tells us that it is, “legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines.” Maybe she meant “clips.” She appeared upset people can only use three rounds to hunt ducks. I know I’ve been retired a couple years now, but last I checked, it wasn’t legal to hunt humans with even one bullet. She must be thinking of the Black Lives Matter claim that police (I think cops still qualify as humans—maybe) are hunting young black men in the streets, so…

Not to be outdone, the Executive Branch needed to make its own profound contribution to the great gun debate. Infamously, Vice President Joe Biden once advised his wife to scare intruders off by firing a shotgun off their back porch. In another brilliant stream of genius, Biden also advised that if people want to “keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.” Holy moly, Batman! Get a shotgun!

So, if non-gun people ever wonder why gun people get so frustrated with liberal politicians claiming they have cornered the market on “common sense” gun laws, just do a quick internet search on some of the intellectual luminescence emanating from the liberal side of the gun argument. On second thought, if you value your sanity, don’t. Or better yet, have a few sips of your favorite alcoholic beverage first.

I was listening to the Todd Herman Show on KTTH 770 AM yesterday, and he gave Donald Trump sound advice: Pick only a few of Hillary’s “difficulties” (out of an untold number) and hammer her on those.

For me, Hillary Clinton sparks a paraphrase of noted French philosopher Jean Rostand: break one law, you’re a criminal; break a thousand laws, you’re a corrupt politician; break all the laws, you’re a goddess.

One of the subjects Todd suggested was Hillary’s disdain for American law enforcement. I agree, Todd. Great idea—mostly because it’s so true. And it’s not hard to find examples of her cop-hating ways:

Alicia Powe writes in DailySurge.com, “The incident [Freddie Gray] is just one of a number of controversial police-involved deaths of African-American men. Clinton attributed to their[Brown, Garner, and Gray] deaths to a racist criminal justice system and said their deaths were a part of a pattern.” She quotes Secretary Clinton, “From Ferguson to Staten Island to Baltimore, the patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable.”

Hillary’s statement is baffling when you consider two of the examples: The DOJ ruled Ferguson a justified shooting relegating “hands up; don’t shoot” to myth status. And, except for one officer’s trial which resulted in a hung jury, a black judge acquitted all of the officers who had been charged by a politically partisan, overzealous prosecutor. Even in Eric Garner’s case, there were extenuating and exacerbating circumstances brought on by Garner himself. These are Hillary’s examples of an “undeniable” pattern of police systematically harming black men?

Just her opinion, right. So, what’s the big deal? Well, only that she may be our next president…. Thump! (Sorry, passed out for a minute. I’m okay now.)

Anyway, I’ve been against leftists for a long time, so I opposed Hillary, going into this election. But I’m no huge Trump supporter, either. However, the amount of trivial crap I have to ignore to vote for Trump compared with the voluminous and serious crap Hillary supporters have to ignore to vote for her is stark (come on… the FBI told us she lied, U.S. secrets were compromised, and people died!).

Moving on…

The DailyCaller.com’s Derek Hunter quotes Hillary at the “Brown and Black Forum” in Iowa earlier this year, “I think that when you have police violence that terrorizes communities, that doesn’t show the respect that you’re supposed to have from protecting people in your authority.” Is she kidding me? “police violence terrorizing communities??? How insulting is that to American law enforcement?

There’s more…

John Hayward, writing in Breitbart.com quotes former Secret Service Officer Gary Byrne’s, speaking about his experiences with Hillary Clinton: “And the truth is that Hillary Clinton has become so angry—you mentioned about the security detail at the State Department trying to get away from her. Like you said, I talk about it in my book Crisis of Character, she gets so angry one day, sitting in her limousine, she strikes a Secret Service agent in the back of the head with a Bible. That’s not normal behavior. That’s bizarre behavior, and it’s criminal behavior. And that’s the real Hillary Clinton.”

The officer has found it difficult to get the attention of the mainstream media. Hayward writes, “Byrne said the media blackout of stories damaging to Hillary Clinton was frightening, ‘because you’re never going to know what the truth is’ under a new Clinton Administration.” Mainstream media helping Hillary? Say it ain’t so.

Byrne also talked about the broader issues of how law enforcement from local to federal view Hillary. He believes that FBI agents are upset about the way the agency handled the email investigation. Byrne believes agents and other employees of these agencies will continue to leak materials about Hillary that will vindicate the “stuff you hear in my book.” Byrne finishes with this: “Anybody that doubts what I say about Hillary Clinton: read George Stephanopoulos’ book, and read Dee Dee Myers’ book. They say the same things.” And those two are hardly right-wingers.

And how about what was said today just before the debate…

I have enormous respect for Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. In fact, I’ve said if he were Seattle’s police chief, I might still be working today (Anyone else just feel that collective shudder from Seattle’s liberal politicians).

This morning on Fox and Friends (from: www.infowars.com, Sheriff Clarke made no bones about what he thinks about Hillary’s view of law enforcement officers: “Hillary ‘is a straight up cop hater.” He continued, “She has made it clear from the convention that she is all in with the criminal element, she doesn’t care about victims of crime, she’s a straight up cop hater, and so she is, like I said, rolling the dice on not having support of law enforcement. The problem for her is that middle America, mainstream America does not share her sentiment in having sympathy for criminals.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani backed Clarke’s assertion: “The Democratic Party has become an anti-law enforcement party. And this [Hillary refusing to even seek an endorsement from the National Fraternal Order of Police, but supporting anti-police groups such as Black Lives Matter] is the best demonstration of it.”

Like Todd Herman says, if Trump can stay disciplined in tonight’s debate and limit his points to a few strong ones, such as Hillary’s disdain for American law enforcement, we can avoid allowing a lying, criminal security risk to contaminate the White House—the American people’s house.