The rather understated title of “Police Shooting Frenzy Raises Concerns” [click on link to see video] heralds a story from Miami, Florida’s CBS affiliate about an incident in December that saw 23 officers fire over 375 rounds into a car that held two men who turned out to be unarmed, one of whom was guilty of nothing except being in an extraordinarily bad place at an unbelievably bad time. Both men were killed, and two officers were injured in what amounted to a circular firing squad. Adrian Montesano had earlier that evening robbed a Walgreens at gunpoint, and then a short time later shot a Miami-Dade police officer in a nearby trailer park. Montesano stole the injured officer’s cruiser, driving it to his grandmother’s house where he parked it and took her blue Volvo. At that point, the chase was on, with nearly every law enforcement officer in three counties looking for that Volvo . . .
It was spotted a little after 6 a.m., and shortly thereafter Montesano crashed into a neighborhood back yard, pinning the car between a power pole and a tree. Exactly what happened next is still unclear, but what is known is that about a minute after the car crashed, officers fired about 50 rounds into the car, but the men apparently survived that volley. Then, after about two minutes of quiet, officers opened up again, this time with a volley of bullets that lasted for about 25 continuous seconds. Both occupants, Montesano and Corsini Valdes, who had committed no crime, were dead. One officer had taken a hit to the arm, and another a grazing wound to the head. The men in the car were found to be unarmed. Later, at least a couple more officers would be treated for ruptured eardrums sustained during the gunfire. The shooting is being reviewed by both the State Attorney’s Office and the Miami Dade Police Department, and those reviews are expected to take a year or more, at minimum.
A Daly City (California) police cruiser caught fire and burned to the ground last Sunday evening as an officer was taking a handcuffed suspect into custody. Sfgate.com, who has an extraordinarily uninteresting bystander video attached to their story, reports that the fire set off ammunition inside the car, and says that it “ricocheted” as the car burned. No one was injured, and the street the car was sitting on was kept closed for about an hour as fire crews extinguished the blaze.
A police officer in Sumter, SC recently showed that “serve and protect” isn’t just a catchphrase on the fender of his car. A 13-year-old boy called police after fighting with his mom, saying he didn’t want to live there with his family anymore. Officer Gaetano Acerra responded to that call, and told the boy that having a roof over his head was a good thing. But then he discovered that the teen didn’t even have a real bed to sleep on, or really anything else in his bedroom. He’d been sleeping on an air mattress that would slowly lose air overnight, leading to waking up with a sore back most days. Officer Acerra decided he could personally make a difference in this case, and a few weeks later he showed back up at the house with a bed, a desk, a chair, and even a Wii game system that someone had donated after Acerra told them the story. Acerra plans to find a dresser and mirror, as well, and has fielded several calls from other folks looking to help out. “I didn’t do this for publicity or to get people to notice me,” Acerra said. “I did it because I could. It was the right thing to do and I think people should do things like this.”
Dynamic Pie Concepts brings us Art of the Mag Flip: To maintain survivability an operator must possess inter weapon system awareness providing for autonomous kinetic targeting. By synchronizing the manual of arms to the Earth’s rotation, economy of motion is maintained. Utilizing centrifugal force allows for rapid jettisoning of an ammunition feeding device. Whether for ammunition hand off or critical attack capabilities. Leveraging and synchronizing capabilities at a primary component level requires less time and less steps than introducing a secondary munitions delivery device. Shortening the kill chain and ultimately reducing friction within an operator’s decision cycle. When prioritizing kinetic options to render defensive enablers ineffective- integrating improved methodologies produces a mechanism to deny and bypass an adversary’s asymmetric battle space advantage.
I lost it at “centri-fewgal” force.