WAPO article on Dallas shooting, Foxtrots

[GJM]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...mepage%2Fstory

Snippet:

DALLAS — Sgt. Ivan Gunter climbed the stairs, sweating beneath a ceramic-plated tactical vest, his finger resting beside the trigger of his 9mm handgun. He could hear the suspect’s muffled voice above, between thunderous cracks of gunfire.

Gunter, 49, led a specially trained team of nine Dallas police officers called the Foxtrots. In the July twilight, beneath the city’s skyscrapers, a gunman had taken aim at his officers as they stood along Main Street policing a protest rally. One fell, then a second, and a third. After helping to drag one of his wounded men into a patrol car, Gunter followed the gunman’s trail of broken glass and blood.

[jnc36rcpd]

I'm really surprised that the Post wrote such an objective article. The authors only mentioned race when they described the sergeant. They did not note how many black suspects are killed by the police. The Foxtrot unit was not criticized for "militarizing" with personally owned rifle plates, having an unauthorized patch (turned into a tattoo no less), or being a version of a SWAT team.

That said, I'm sure WAPO will have another hit piece, editorial, or cartoon lambasting us within a couple of weeks.

[Gray222]

WAPO has a long proven history of hit pieces which are anti-le and blatantly lying to make their agenda driven points.

It probably helped that Sgt. Gunter helped write the article, that's probably why it has the tone it does.

[BehindBlueI's]

The Foxtrot unit was not criticized for "militarizing" with personally owned rifle plates...

Death changes the tone. We're the good guys for a little while. Until they forget, and they will.

When I first started, I was given a 'talking to' for putting on a ballistic helmet to clear a grocery store with a supposed armed gunman hidng inside. Fast forward through the years when an officer is killed by 7.62 rifle fire and there's fundraisers for rifle plates and the external vests in the trunks aren't 'secret' any longer. Patrol rifles used to have to have a supervisor's approval to come out of the trunk/gun rack and there was a strict set of criteria for when you could and could not bring them out. (Exception for active shooter or when there was no time to speak to a supervisor, but you were responsible if you were wrong). Now it's at the officer's discretion. I hope the pendulum continues to swing our way, but all that can reverse on a dime.

[Gray222]

Death changes the tone. We're the good guys for a little while. Until they forget, and they will.

When I first started, I was given a 'talking to' for putting on a ballistic helmet to clear a grocery store with a supposed armed gunman hidng inside. Fast forward through the years when an officer is killed by 7.62 rifle fire and there's fundraisers for rifle plates and the external vests in the trunks aren't 'secret' any longer. Patrol rifles used to have to have a supervisor's approval to come out of the trunk/gun rack and there was a strict set of criteria for when you could and could not bring them out. (Exception for active shooter or when there was no time to speak to a supervisor, but you were responsible if you were wrong). Now it's at the officer's discretion. I hope the pendulum continues to swing our way, but all that can reverse on a dime.

So in other words, paper pusher brass being scared something will happen and not trusting the patrol officers who are the ones who are in the shit everyday. Until it becomes clear this is the new standard.

[iWander]

... And cutting training before anything else, and frequently denying practical, relevant training.
That being said, we invite several small, local agencies to our active killer, scenario based, or Taser/DT/firearm integrated training. We provide everything but Taser cartridges and rifle ammo. Most of the agencies have little or no training ( remember, qualification is NOT training ) and are less than ten officers. In ten years, ONE cop showed up. Something about a horse and water...

[Gray222]

... And cutting training before anything else, and frequently denying practical, relevant training.
That being said, we invite several small, local agencies to our active killer, scenario based, or Taser/DT/firearm integrated training. We provide everything but Taser cartridges and rifle ammo. Most of the agencies have little or no training ( remember, qualification is NOT training ) and are less than ten officers. In ten years, ONE cop showed up. Something about a horse and water...

This is an issue which disguises itself as policy often times and other times is certainly at the discretion of a supervisor, one which most likely has never needed said skillsets and will not entertain any mention of them, especially in a training aspect.

I have, on average, used two or so weeks of vacation time each year for the specific purpose of attending training. This is usually after I submit a request for the PD to cover my time, as long as I cover everything else. The response has been overwhelming "you don't need this training."

In fact out of all the training I've gone through which was LE only/specific the only training my department has covered in terms of time/in service outside training was a commercial vehicle/vehicle compartment training and one high risk carstop. tactics/counter ambush class.

The rest I've paid out of pocket and taken my own time. We are required to submit any outside training we have to the department for filing/record keeping. I'll say about 1/10th of the training I submit has been approved to be added to my file. I've had a commander say "why would you possibly need a counter terror/active killer cqb course?" This was a few years ago, before the current Isis stuff became mainstream. same commander refused to approve any of my rifle based courses because they were "outside the scope of patrol."