mister3d doesn’t miss a trick. Scanning the horrific story 8 Found Dead, Including 5 Children, After Stand Off in Harris County, Texas at nbcnews.com, the TTAG reader caught this little gem: “[Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas] Gilliland said officers were called to the house in Harris County just after 9 p.m. Saturday, and upon arrival discovered that the man inside had an outstanding warrant for the aggravated assault of a family member. He said the High Risk Operations Unit was then called in to run the arrest, but officers decided to move in after seeing the body of a child through a window.” The what? Let’s have a look [via chron.com] . . .
[Sheriff Adrian] Garcia said in a released statement Monday [January 25, 2010]: “I can’t help bring my agency into the 21st century without first adopting 20th century crime-fighting techniques, such as a high-risk tactical unit that can be used to defend the 1.4 million people who rely on us to answer their emergency calls.”
Doguim emphasized that Harris County no longer should just rely on other agencies and should, in fact, be ready to help its law enforcement brethren respond to large-scale disasters — a Columbine-style high school shooting, a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks such as the ones in Mumbai in 2008, or riots. He also suggested that as the agency responsible for security at the Port of Houston, the sheriff’s office needs to have a team in place to respond to a terrorist attack.
“If, God forbid, there are multiple incidents around the city or the country, we too have to be able to step up to the law enforcement table,” Doguim said.
The sheriff’s departments of Travis, Bexar and Tarrant counties have SWAT teams. Travis County has two, one for the jails and one for the streets. Tarrant County’s sheriff has direct jurisdiction over only about 40,000 people, said the department’s executive administrator, Terry Grisham.
And so Garcia got his wish [above]. We so missed this one. As we learned recently, SWAT originally stood for Special Weapons and Attack Team. LA Chief Gates made it politically correct by modifying the name to Special Weapons and Tactics. And six years ago (or more) some bright spark rechristened SWAT as HROU (High Risk Operations Unit).
The even more PC nomenclature didn’t take – at least far as this gun blogger has seen. Until now. As the headline posits, I wonder if gun control – sorry, “gun safety” advocates will buy in, what with the cops using “assault rifles” and all. Hey! Maybe it’s time to rename them! How does “modern sporting rifles” grab you?