“The department is very embarrassed that this happened,” Seattle Police Department Sergeant Sean Whitcomb told slog.thestranger.com. “We’re incredibly grateful to the person that flagged down the bike officers and the woman who followed the patrol car driver around to let them know there was a rifle on the back of the car.” Looking into it, won’t disclose whether it was loaded, no laws broken, yada yada yada. No one’s asking the question posed in yesterday’s rant: Is America Becoming a Police State? What were the Seattle cops doing with a military-spec rifle and why was it out of the police car in the first place? Yes, the cops responsible were irresponsible for forgetting their rifle, but society is irresponsible for making paramilitary police such a normal part of the landscape that the cops can carry an AR so casually. Just sayin’.