Previous Post
Next Post

Cal State San Marcos SWAT take down umbrella wielding man (courtesy fox5sandiego.com)

 

Just what in Sam Hill is going on in the image above? OK, we know that cops were responding to a call of a man with a rifle at Cal State San Marcos. “Campus police said they located the man shortly after 9 a.m.,” fox5sandiego.com reports. “He was carrying an umbrella, not a weapon. But what up with all the rifle pointing? Especially as the man in question was a professor who called himself in. Strategically, this is nuts. [Make the jump for another angle.] If you have a choice, why take a guy in the open like that? And if you do, best get him our of there lickety-split. Just sayin’ . . .

Umbrella man surrenders (courtesy fox5sandiego.com)

[h/t MM]

 

Previous Post
Next Post

88 COMMENTS

  1. Can somebody explain to me why a CAMPUS POLICE DEPARTMENT has automatic rifles and class IIIA body armor? Did a frat throw one too many kegers so they decided to storm it like it was in Fallujah?

    • I schooled there. That school is not known for keggers. Its more of a commuter school, nicely populated with a broad spectrum of middle agers and 20 sumthins’. It is also a bastion of open socialism. As a history major, I was heavily exposed to the indoctrination there. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that the campus cops are armed to the teeth, stupidly clustered together in one spot, and pointing rifles at everything that moves.

      I learned a lot there. As I often say, there is a reason I no longer live in CA.

    • Sheriff’s did the takedown. Campus and other agencies may have been helped. Campus police are state law enforcement and assist in all kinds of off-campus situations, so they are no different from any other agency. As goofy as this situation sounds, his umbrella was all black with a straight handle (not a standard “hook” handle), and a sling exactly like a rifle. Wearing a black shirt and a shaved head didn’t help. (Hey, it’s the guy from that FBI active shooter video!) I work across the street, and by all accounts it was handled well.

        • Bingo. And if the pointer in the shorts and sneakers had four cops in the crossfire, you can’t claim it’s for “officer safety purposes”. And the other two morons pointing in random directions? The only cure for that SWAT team is to fire all of them and anybody who trained with them. Was the SWAT team from the sheriff’s office or the local PD? Were the three jackhandles who were pointing rifles in the pic full time or reserve officers?

        • I suppose what happened was better than having the cops conduct an investigation, figure out who he is, and then have SWAT raid his house (and trash the place, and shoot any dogs on the premises, and haul off all his electronics for 6 months)….

          …but none of it should have happened.

  2. I haven’t heard anyone say “What in the Sam Hill” since I was a boy growing up in Arkansas 40 or 50 years ago.

  3. There is no effing way I am ever “calling myself in,” not with Tactibobbie’s itchy trigger finger that can’t tell a Taser from a Glock. Way too much risk. Let ’em figure it out.

    (That, and the fact that I actually would be armed.)

    • You got that….If I figured it was my umbrella that caused the problem, I would ditch the damn umbrella. Those things are too cheap to be worth some asshole cop pointing a rifle at me. Way too much of a possibility of an AD. If I was in charge of those clowns they would be carrying nothing but mace ever again. One dead unarmed kid or professor with video of the stupidity would mean the school would be sued into oblivion (rightly so).

      • Rusty said: “… too much of a possibility of an AD.”

        What about it would be ‘accidental?’ Please use the right terms…

        …possibility of a NEGLEGENT discharge.

        The whole incident is, of course, insane.

  4. President Obama is wanting to take our right away US law abiding citizensstop carrying gunsthat makes me Sick

      • Surely you mean “draw assembly instrucions”. I just hate IKEA – not only they sell junk, they also display “No Berettas!” sign on their door here in Illinois.

        • Wow, guess you should carry Glock or Walther? Wonder why they hate Beretta? Must be some strange Swedish prejudice against the Italians.

  5. Waitaminute;

    “Especially as the man in question was a professor who called himself in.”

    This is a complete disconnect for me.

    But I haven’t lived in Cali for over 20 years, and things may have changed a bit since then…

    • Someone else reported “a man with a gun”. The professor knew it was him and his umbrella, so he called the sheriff dept. to let them know it was an umbrella, not a gun, and worked with them to get it resolved quickly and safely. Pretty smart.
      San Diego had about 4 inches of rain last year. People really don’t know what umbrellas look like.

      • So then the question becomes:
        .
        “Why was this professor carrying a black, high-capacity, scary umbrella, with a thingie on the end that goes up?”
        .
        He should have a mental evaluation both for being a professor at a university AND for being allowed to mingle with others of his species.
        .

        • You mean he should have a mental evaluation for turning himself in right?

          How exactly does that work? He hears a report of a man fitting the description of Bald Bull with a rifle, decides ‘yep that’s me and my magic sunbrella’ and calls himself in? …. And, boy would he have felt dumb if a real shooter would have been there too!

  6. Is that guy standing on his tip-toes?

    I believe he is trying his damnedest to levitate for those gentlemen with the rifles.

    • When I was a kid, I learned about about Nazi Germany, East Germany, Iron Curtain, Soviet Union, etc.

      I remember thinking, “Well, it’s a good thing I live in the United States, since that kind of police state could never happen here.”

      Clearly, I was naive and living in a dream world.

      I’ve woken up quite a bit in the past 10 years.

  7. Anyone catch the story link just below the article on the Fox San Diego website?

    Deputy rolls through stop sign, hits civilian vehicle, seriously injures other driver…

    Civilian victim gets charged with DUI, Reckless, Driving without Headlights- by another deputy.

    Surveillance footage proves the original deputy was lying. Lady had to wait months for charges to be dropped, still hasn’t had her medical bills paid.

    Cops are rotten.

    • OMG! Not a pushbutton, automatic umbrella! .
      .
      Please, Please! I swoon at thought of one of these being in possession of anyone other than the Police, the military, or a Liberal politician.
      .
      Why would anyone need such a scary device in Southern Kalifornica?
      .

  8. Hmmm…weren’t a bunch of folks posting on this blog about a “good shoot” when a possibly deranged young woman got shot to death while pointing a POWER DRILL?!? Who can’t tell an umbrella isn’t a rifle? DUH indeed.

  9. ” a black shirt and shaved head didn’t help” , and awhile back another poster complained about cops with shaved heads and wrap around sunglasses.wtf

    I think us bald guys need to be a protected class.

  10. It does appear as if they are taking a high profile position, almost to the point of brandishing. Actually, in my work it would be called brandishing. Not really sure what is going on here in the picture. However, I disagree with one statement. If I am going to take someone down it is best done out in the open where I have a good field of fire and a better idea of where my rounds will be going. Unlike the movies, bullets go through walls and I don’t have x ray vision so I have no clue what is on the other side of a wall. As for why they are pointing their rifles in every direction that is a totally useless posture especially if you have no real idea where the threat is. When you have your head in the sights your field of view is reduced greatly. Instead, you hold the weapon at the ready so you can bring it up quickly, keep your head up and sweep the surrounding area for threats. Something else I am not all that sure about is the use of AR’s in congested area like a collage. Keeping a couple of AR’s for isolating and taking out a target at long range is a good idea but for congested areas a shotgun is more effective and less likely to create collateral damage. They look like the Keystone Cops. One other question? Doesn’t the campus have a surveillance system? Stupid to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a surveillance system and not use it. It is obvious that they didn’t or they wouldn’t have gone after a man with an umbrella.

  11. All these recent shooting are false flags hoaxes which set up precedents for stuff like this to happen. It’s sad people overreact in this way.

  12. What exactly can be said of presumably adult-age people who can’t distinguish between a Rifle and an umbrella? Not much, but since it is after all, an institute of higher learning, maybe flash-cards might help.

    The Keystone Cops were Mostly Harmless. As for the Goonstone Squad on scene, one can only hope their Supervisor had the good sense to keep the bullets securely stored and didn’t issue any. Fortunately for the victim, he wasn’t out delivering newspapers.

    Re: the photo depicting the maroon in the camo shorts with his Rifle aimed at the good professor?
    Comment Withheld on Moral principles, but suffice it to say that in addition to No Apple Pie for that guy — serious counseling wouldn’t be a bad idea before he does something that’s worse than just plain stupid.

  13. Cops sure give educated gun owners a bad rep!

    Automatic weapons? My how times have changed! In college one prof inspired me to try to make a “granny grenade” but shooting her seemed so gauche!

  14. Wait wait wait… Am I high or something. This is blowing my mind. This is completely insane. Are you telling me that a law abiding man cant walk down the street in CA with an umbrella without fear of having SWAT called out on him? Seriously what the hell is going on here? Is this how cowardly and fearful we are becoming in America that if you happen to be holding something black and cylindrical expect the cops to show up with their ARs because people are terrified? Of things that are black? and Cylindrical?

    I remember when the American legal system was governed by the ideal, “Innocent until proven guilty” and if people called the police on you for no reason THEY got in trouble. Apparently now our ideals are, “Innocent until holding an umbrella.” I ask again, am I high? Or did the whole world lose it’s collective mind while I was sleeping?

    • Yup.

      Pretty much, yes.

      It’s been going downhill for a while, now, and No, it’s not “Innocent until holding an umbrella”. It’s more along the lines of “you’re a felon that hasn’t been caught yet”. Now, where’s my maul? There’s a fly buzzing around.

    • Ding, ding ding…. Winner!
      Supposed to be innocent til guilty but more often treated as guilty until I clear you to be innocent lowly civilian.
      Because, you know… it’s for the safety of those officers that they have all those weapons. To hell with the safety of others when rounds go astray in the streets or into a dog. Why it’s for the good of many not the few. (/Sarc)
      Really once the guy called himself in couldn’t someone undercover or covertly checked him out, came and talked to him . You know with police nearby but ready, but not causing a scene or panic?
      If this had been subversive and it was just ploy to draw cops in those cowboy commandos would have been toast.

  15. I think it’s pretty screwed up that the prof heard someone had called the cops about a man with a gun, and thought “they must mean me, since I have this umbrella. “

    • I know, right? That makes no sense at all…then again, we are talking about a professor. How did he know that there wasn’t a real gunman somewhere else on campus? So he calls himself in (whatever that means) and draws all the attention to himself while the gunman shoots up the faculty lounge. Like my father used to say: You can never underestimate the intelligence of a human being.

    • Kinda makes me wonder if there’s not something weird with this… like if he was pointing it out a car window or something. Still ridiculous.

  16. The Real Tripple B (look him up on youtube!!!) said it best:


    What happened to the home of the brave? Are we now the home of the scared of our own shadow? I wish I was reading The Onion….man was still held at gun point and cuffed over holding an umbrella.

    Americans should never fear gunmen; gunmen should be pissing their pants worried about what a bunch of fire-shitting, snake-eating Americans will do to them.”

    And seriously?

    I get the “Hey that looks like a rifle!” I get the “OMG We’re lookking for a guy with a rifle everybody keepy your eyes peeled!” I get the “Hey guys, I’m pretty sure that scary bald guy in a black shirt with a rifle you’re looking for was me… I had an umbrela.”…

    But I DO NOT GET “OMG WE FOUND THE RIFLEMAN! HE TRIED TO TRICK US INTO THINKING IT WAS AN UMBRELA! LET’S GO GET ‘EM”

  17. Never know. Maybe he also had tophat and cigarette holder and kind of waddled when he walked. Better call Batman.

    • Had it not been for the ground being wet from recent rain, I would have had no mercy on this fellow. Paul T. McCain and I would join the fight to belittle this mouth breather for this shameful display of an umbrella ninja on a sunny day.

  18. What a bunch of pansies all dressed up in their combat gear and shiny black rifles.
    Toss a firecracker over there and they would all hit the deck in a second.

  19. They have all that gear but no one has binoculars or a scope that they could have used to look at the guy to see he wasn’t carrying a rifle?

  20. Again, why is this an issue. They came out and neutralized the situation. No one was shot so God wanted that guy to live another day. Good for him, but he probably did something like fornication or adultery and deserves to die. Maybe next time he will.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here