FBI employee arrested after firing shots at officer, Planet Fitness

[Erick Gelhaus]

SLG - that was a view of & perspective on how people react to events, wasn't a comment on the legitimacy of the news reports on this event or a recommendation on how people should behave.

[SLG]

SLG - that was a view of & perspective on how people react to events, wasn't a comment on the legitimacy of the news reports on this event or a recommendation on how people should behave.

I didn't think otherwise. I was saying we should all try to avoid rushing to a conclusion. Obviously that applies in general, not just here.

[luckyman]

If you happen to run into him, assuming he's still employed at that duty station, please tell him that his former colleague from the Miami SAC office who created the infamous map of Cuba everyone clamored over says hello. He should get a big smile from that.

Dang, turns out there are at least *3* big buildings in Long Beach all having substantial numbers of customs / ICE people. Oh yeah, duh we are the largest port in the nation

On a tangent (hope you LE folks don't mind this post) it seems like a good 15-20% of the ICE officers I see in the elevators every day are dressed in the following: Black "tactical sneakers", the standard dark blue ICE tactical cargo pants, and your stereotypical oversize button-up casual short sleeve concealment shirt. What's up with that? Surely no-one thinks that is "undercover"?? To my eye it just looks like a sloppy uniform, can't figure out the purpose.

[11B10]

"We should all, cops and civilians, strive to be impartial until all of the facts that will come out, have come out."[/QUOTE]



If there's one lesson I have learned - read again and again, that is consistent with each and every respected veteran TACOPS, LEO's, EMT's, etc. advice, here and elsewhere - it is the one stated by yet another veteran, SLG, above. It is so very obvious, and many times, the most overlooked in the rush to judgement. It is excruciatingly hard to be patient when emotions are so high, yet it is precisely at those times when we need it most.

[blues]

Dang, turns out there are at least *3* big buildings in Long Beach all having substantial numbers of customs / ICE people. Oh yeah, duh we are the largest port in the nation

On a tangent (hope you LE folks don't mind this post) it seems like a good 15-20% of the ICE officers I see in the elevators every day are dressed in the following: Black "tactical sneakers", the standard dark blue ICE tactical cargo pants, and your stereotypical oversize button-up casual short sleeve concealment shirt. What's up with that? Surely no-one thinks that is "undercover"?? To my eye it just looks like a sloppy uniform, can't figure out the purpose.

My guess is that they certainly aren't working undercover and they are wearing a de facto uniform of sorts which is appropriate for the rigors of their particular assignments. I can tell you that whether you are crawling into the chain locker of a Haitian freighter, searching a RORO, rounding up targets or whatever the rodeo of the day may be, you aren't going to be wearing your finest duds.

That said, I am not particularly familiar with their regalia as I put in my papers for early retirement the year that the U.S. Customs Service - Office Of Investigations was sent to a premature death when merged into the newly established ICE. In fact, I got out quickly enough that I retained my Special Agent badge and credentials. Sad how an agency which was created in 1789 was destroyed with one swoop of the pen in 2003.

[11B10]

That blows. I had a friend go down that road. The job ate him alive. A combo of family issues, health issues, being the subject of multiple seemingly senseless IA's and subsequent scrutiny by the press pushed him over that edge. I was working undercover at the time. I met up with him for coffee and he started asking me about the surveillance tech we used. I thought he meant how the top side guys wired up our cars, hotel rooms, or houses, that type of thing out of general curiosity as I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole he had gone... He was convinced his department had wired up his car, office, and the apartment he had rented. He took his phone apart and asked me to look at it to tell him if it looked like his phone had a tracking device. When we left, he looked under his car to see if anything looked different since he was convinced "they" were going to put a tracker on his car. It was one of the more painful things I've had to watch a friend go through.

If this is the case with this agent I hope he gets the help he needs. It is always a little bit of suck to see people walking around that are in their own world, seeing things the rest of us can't see, thinking things the rest of us can't comprehend, and losing the self-medication battle. It's a whole lot more suck when it's one of us and it's most likely because the job got to them. I always think, there go I.

I can literally feel your words, Mr. Sharp. You men and women are in my thoughts very much, especially in this current state of affairs. I have very few regrets in my life, the biggest by far would be not taking enough things and people seriously. Now? I can offer the most mature, sincere prayer-power for all, knowing beyond doubt, that while there is justice for all, only some receive it here.