cop's dust cover engaging used against him in court

“The Mesa [Arizona] police officer charged with second-degree murder for an on-duty shooting in January pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance Tuesday,” tucsonnewsnow.com reports. Officer Philip Brailsford [above] was released without bond. ‘He is not a danger to the community,’ Craig Mehrens, Brailsford’s attorney said. ‘He has honorably served the community as a Mesa police officer and he was honorably serving the day he received the call [to the shooting scene].'” Yes, well . . .

Attorneys for the victim, Daniel Shaver, argued Brailsford was malicious during the shooting and raised questions about the gun used.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Shaver was on his hands and knees when Brailsford shot him five times inside a Mesa hotel. The gun used was a personal AR-15 assault weapon that had been approved for service use by the Mesa Police Department. However, Mesa police noted that their investigation of the shooting turned up a vulgar inscription on the rifle that doesn’t meet department policy.

“Inscripted on the officer’s gun, and I hate to use profanity, but it said, “you’re f*****,”’ Laney Sweet, Daniel Shaver’s wife said.

According to several sources, the rifle’s vulgar inscription is on the inside of the rifle’s dust cover. The inscription is only visible if the dust cover is open, which happens automatically in order to eject spent rounds while the weapon is fired.

“That statement tells me this is a person who’s enthusiastic about killing people,” Marc Victor, lawyer for Sweet and her late husband, argued. “That’s what that inscription means.”

So, it seems that those aggressive gun inscriptions can and will be used against you in a court of law, as some have warned. My advice: just as you shouldn’t have a tattoo where a judge can see it, don’t go all Molon Labe on your firearm. Still, freedom of speech and all that. Right?

[h/t JY]

UPDATE: Despite the prosecution’s best efforts, the inscription on Officer Brailsford’s rifle was ultimately ruled inadmissible.

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333 COMMENTS

  1. You’re free to say whatever. They’re free to infer whatever. Nothing to see here. Move on to the next valid case detail.

    • http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/kern.asp

      Inference that’s supported by placing attempts at humor where they can cause confusion and be used against you. As someone who has lived in Tempe, Mesa’s corruption around a decade a go was legendary. Like Rampart legendary – though I don’t believe Mesa was ever brought to heel.

        • Never LIVED in Mesa I guess ??? Its one ot the worst in the country!! My friend was on probation there. In ONE year, they picked him up FOUR times!! All were technicalities; 5 minutes late on curfew, 15 minutes late for a probation appointment. Point is, its all about the money. Mesa has more cops per person then almost any city in the USA!!!

        • You’re right. Rampart officers ALLEGEDLY did one bank robbery. Other than that, no real evidence of actions against honest citizens. Mesa.. well that’s a bit different.

      • One of the reasons I moved back east. Mesa is corrupt as are most of the cities around Mesa and Phoenix. Maricopa is nearly as bad and its a fraction of the size.

      • I had a Mesa Lieutenant tell me how they conducted search warrants… they would literally stand in the street in front of the home they wanted to enter and whisper “Search warrant, Mesa PD. Open the door.”

        Then, the entry team bashed in the front door.

        • Here are “police” practices that deserve to be exposed:

          #1. During a traffic stop, the police officer will touch the back of your car. The reason for this “touch” is that, quite often, the police officer will have a small quantity of narcotics (marijuana or cocaine) on him (in his hand) that he will rub on the car in order to help “justify a search”. When the dog is brought in, it will react to “cues” from its handler as well as the drug residue on the vehicle and help “justify a search”. This tactic is mostly used against young people. Drugs can also be “planted” on a “suspect”.
          The “touch” used to be a way for police officers to “prove” that they had an interaction with a citizen, but no more . . .

          #2. Most (if not all) cops possess a “throwdown” weapon. This “helper” is obtained from a criminal who is then “let go” without his weapon and is always used to justify a questionable police situation and to “sanitize” a “crime scene to absolve police on the scene of criminal police behavior.

          #3. If you are in the back of a police car, LIE DOWN on the seat. Police use the concept of “screening” to abuse their unwilling “passenger”. This involves, driving at high rates of speed, violent turns and other antics to get the passenger to “hit the screen” separating the front from the back with his face. Hence the act of “screening”.

          #4. If you are being handcuffed, quite often the police officer will wrench you arm behind you, forcing you to “turn around”. Another “trick” is a foot to the instep, forcing the individual to involuntarily “pull away”. The officer will then add a charge of “assault” to whatever other charges they concoct against you (just for being forced to turn around). They “pile on” charges, hoping you will plead guilty to at least one.

          Remember–NEVER CONSENT TO SEARCH . . . You must be polite, but firm in your refusal. You can state that “you NEVER consent to searches” as well as using these “magic” words–“am I free to go?” The police officer MUST answer your question . . . If you are being detained and an illegal search takes place, you have legal recourse.

          Remember–police are not your friends . . .

          That being said, not all “law enforcement” personnel are criminal, but the “thin blue line” that they so jealously guard (and “look the other way” when rogue cops abuse their authority) does much to taint ALL “law enforcement” personnel with having ulterior motives.

        • Pure fantasy, but I guess that’s what you get from TTAG now days. That and pop-ups and auto-play ads. The cop bashing stuff gets old real quick, though. What do you guys want, a world without law enforcement? We’ll see how long you armchair commandos will last without the thin blue line protecting your dumb asses.

          • We would be better off if “the thin blue line” were run like fire departments, where officers do not patrol, but stay in their police stations until they are needed. This would cut down on the abuse of the citizenry as well as “revenue enhancement”, which is rampant in many areas. In today’s world, police need to be restrained, being brought out only when the need arises.

        • Anarchyst,
          You are a moron. The reason cops touch the back of your car on a traffic stop is to put their thumb print on your car in case they are killed. Evidence.

          • Your name-calling and lack of reading comprehension speaks VOLUMES as to your copsuck mentality. Grow up, already!
            If you had bothered to read my tome, you would have read that the “touch” USED TO BE A WAY TO PROVE “PRESENCE” OF A PARTICULAR POLICE OFFICER, but no more.

        • “If you had bothered to read my tome, you would have read that the “touch” USED TO BE A WAY TO PROVE “PRESENCE” OF A PARTICULAR POLICE OFFICER, but no more.”

          Here’s the problem: just because you say something doesn’t make it true.
          You’re far from the only one to come up with such drivel. While it’s true that there, in most departments, a few bad apples, that’s true of any organization. It’s human nature.
          I’ll bet you’re one of those who think LEOs make stuff up in order to pull people over. In fact, if you drive, you will notice that no cop ever had to make up and excuse for a stop to fill a “quota”; there are far more than enough stupid drivers who don’t know the rules (and drive like it) that they don’t need to make anything up. All they have to do is drive and watch. Some idiot will drive true to form, and any cop can more than make any supposed “quota” in a couple of hours.
          I notice that you don’t like to be called names, but you have no problem slandering all LEOs with no evidence.

    • Rabbi, legally, yes, you can place any words there. While you can’t be prosecuted, no matter what it says, it is one more tool used to sway the jury.

      Prosecutors use the elephant approach–you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Their job entails chipping away at the accused’s story, credibility and likable one bite at a time. Having a violent name or slogan on your equipment can only hurt.

    • If “You’re F’d” engraved on your dust cover can be used to argue you have a guilty mind, let’s come up with the converse, some dust cover phrases that tend to show you are righteous. The Lord’s Prayer? “Self-Defense”?

      • How about nothing, since they’re public servants and the weapon is nothing more than a tool used in the line of duty…duty to, you know, the public?

        • Hey Bob, did you miss the part where it said it was a personally owned firearm? The PD should be providing them with the tools for the job, period. Then things like this would never be an issue.

        • personally owned does not give you carte blanche to have something unprofessional like YOU’RE FUCKED on a duty rifle. Would you get PUSSY WAGON emblazoned across the windshield of a company car?

        • Put down your phone & get back to collecting carts before you are out of a job like officer Brailsford.

        • There are a ton of what ifs I could throw out, but nonetheless, the Department acting like they didn’t know it was thereally is BS. A rangemaster, Sgt., Cpl., someone knwe it was there.

        • So……. if the guy was a threat to the officer and the officer deemed it necessary to use deadly force, wouldn’t that phrase on his dust cover actually be factual? I don’t have a problem with it. They are just words after all. What I have not read is any condemnation for the departed. He must have f^*ked up bad and got his ticket pulled. No one ever seems to find any fault in the bad guy anymore. I don’t understand people complaining for too many police in their community. Crazy times!

          • The bad guy in this case was the cop.
            The victim was crawling on hands and knees, he was wearing loose shorts. His knee caught the leg of his shorts and as he crawled, it pulled his pants down making it difficult to move. He used one hand to pull his pants up so he could continue.
            That’s when the asshole blew his brains out. No one else in this entire scenario were nervous. The woman they took from the room earlier was outside having a smoke and not one officer asked her what went on in the room.
            Some officers in the hallway had holstered their guns and we’re standing around relaxed.
            This punk needs some degree of murder charge.

        • @Sonny

          I don’t know, that could go a long way in these days of increased community policing. It’d be a great way to develop a rapport with the people you serve!

        • Jim- They did provide him with the tools of the job. He wanted his AR15, which is not issued to non-SWAT officers and they allowed him to carry it in addition to his service weapon.

      • If his attorney’s were smart, they would use the negative attitude and persecution of cops to reverse it. Instead saying that it was saying he was the one that was “fucked” for having to use his firearm in action.

        • Thats how I would have taken it seeings how the dust cover doesn’t open when the weapon is fired it opens when he charges it with a round. Pull back on the charging handle, the dust cover opens up with the message “Your Fucked”. Yup buddy, things have definitely gone from bad to worse.
          I of course am assuming he’s not traveling around with his long gun hot, something you wouldn’t do. His sidearm will be loaded and charged but his rifle and shotgun, nyet.

        • Cops aren’t persecuted, they are the persecutors.

          I thought you RWers hated the government?

          I don’t think government agents have the right to execute us.

          These pigs have me afraid to carry my gun. I can’t imagine how bad it is for blacks.

      • So would this comment be used to make the claim that anyone who is black can be considered violent and a deadly threat?

        Black Lives Matter supporter arrested for threat to purge town of all whites ..

        IM NOT GONNA STAND FOR THIS NO. MORE. TONIGHT WE PURGE! KILL ALL THE WHITE PPL IN THE TOWN OF LA PLATA,”

        Doesn’t it work both ways? Using either as an excuse it idiotic.

      • How about we not shoot people on their four paws four times with light posing a threat? That’s logic and that’s humanity, other than that, everything else is corruption!

      • Good point but along the same lines if you shoot a Muslim all they will do is use that against you claiming you have a religious bias and fired at them because of it. Sad and pathetic but I’m afraid that’s the way things are nowadays.

    • It’s just like implying a woman wasn’t raped because she was wearing a short skirt. But, they will use it if they can and it won’t help your case.

    • Unless you’re a cop. Cops aren’t allowed to speak their mind, have an opinion, or exercise most common rights. You’re expected to be a government drone and now, because of the climate we now live in, your badge comes engraved with the title of “Scapegoat”.

      • Indeed it does. That’s why I retired last year instead of going another 2 years and 3 months until I would’ve been forced to.

      • If their opinion is other than equality or have general common sense, that isn’t so common sense they shouldn’t be a cop. Common sense doesn’t seem so comin anymore

      • Today’s situation sucks for cop’s , I grew up around a few , I have the very deepest respect for all of you , thank you & God Bless Yopu

      • “Scapegoat” Who the hell else (including Soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan) could get away with escalating a non-threatening situation, screaming ridiculous, nonsensical orders for 6mins including having a person crawl to them, then shoot them when he reached to pull his shorts up and still get acquitted? Geez, in Iraq/Afghanistan you have to at least see a weapon and even then you could end up in Leavenworth.

        Cry me a river with your scapegoating…….

    • And if you are a cop, you are free to murder as long as there isn’t footage or witnesses. Turns out, Shaver was crawling on hands and knees as instructed and when his shorts were preventing this because they were being pulled down by his knees, he tried to pull them up which was wrongly interpreted as an aggressive move. If you have the draw on someone on the floor and they appear to reach for a weapon, seems like you have time to see the weapon before you need to open fire.

      • Hindsight Is 20/20 you can pick apart the details of a shooting forward and backwards from the safety of your computer but until you are in a similar position when seconds count you honestly cant know what your reactions will be

        • Oh, this was a complete cluster from start to finish. Tbh, Mesa PD made Brailsford into a fall guy: Yes, he pulled the trigger, but the cop screaming directions? He was either deliberately trying to escalate the situation, or he was so incompetent that he, and everyone involved in training him should’ve been terminated for cause.

          After Shaver was on his knees the first time, every command he gives is wrong. It’s ridiculous. This isn’t picking apart details; absolutely nothing he says is right.

          But Mesa PD gets to say “see, we fired You’re Fucked Guy so problem solved” and wash their hands of this, even though they obviously have an extreme, systemic problem.

        • I think all the pansy ass excuses have no bearing, yes he is a gung -ho new kid with badge boner as so many do, OK its not right to have a fuck you blazoned across your service weapon but so many of these kids think they are Gods guardian against crime and want to show their new found buds they belong. Doe’s that make him criminal? no, just a little a show-off wanting to belong, make him a murderer no, get real. Just a little boy with big man issues trying to be a bad ass cop. Show me body cam of what really happened and I would give my opinion but really , if woman wear twat hats are they anti-men? my shirt says come and get um- dare you, I am a killer for that? He probably got teased in school for being a shrimp and let his badge run his trigger-finger, sounds like the perp brought it on, and defenses shot him 5 times as he was begging rings BS to me. I say take away his dust cover and transfer him to a precinct that shows him how its done. Thehangman

            • anarchyst , well thank you for bringing that up, I believed the dust cover was a bad idea, but no reason to charge a newby cop for murder. After reviewing the footage its very clear to me what happened, unless you happen to be better gunslinger than say James Hickok, or Jesse James his actions are perfectly valid. Granted five shots is a bit- ahem- overkill, this would fall into motor reflex training. I would highly suggest you research reaction time training and response to deadly threat training. There you may find that as a responder you have less than a half a second to keep from being shot. A bad deal? definitely, a murderer? A resounding NO.

    • The “inferences” of 12 people can put him away for life! There is something to see, and learn here.

        • True but the point folks are trying to make here is a plain ejection port door cannot hurt you when you’re sending the right person straight to hell.

        • GRA- How was this the right person? He was innocent.

          I have cancer and when I have a month left, it’s going to take all the will I have not to shoot up some dirty cops who make life hell for all of us.

    • Personally, I think the cop was pumped to do some damage. I am a veteran, a gun supporter/owner, I try to be a good Catholic and love my country. I love our men in blue. This guy was over the top with his actions.

        • We’re watching it now. Not saying it is right but rather that you should be able to see it.

        • Because even though you have the freedom to speak(and inscribe) whatever you like, that CAN be used against you later, AFTER a crime is commited, in order to show what the attitude was, what the thinking was, what the actions might have been, etc.
          Think of it this way: Suppose a person angers you, and you say: “I’ll kill you, you SOB!”, in front of witnesses. Then he leaves, and the incident ends. No harm no foul right?
          Now suppose that that guy gets murdered in his sleep by an intruder that night. Just who do you suppose will be the prime suspect? You have already established your motive for the murder, FOR the prosecutor.
          You have the right to speak as you please, but; “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” -Mark Twain-
          Esp true once a crime has been committed.

        • The officer having the saying “You’re F*cked” on his dust cover shows his general attitude and demeanor and is relevant to his state of mind. The officer elevated the situation with his over the top threats and yelling at someone who was clearly scared out of his mind. He could have and should have calmed the situation down while still maintaining the safety to himself, his fellow officers and the suspect. He seems to have played too many first person shooters. I remember when officers couldn’t shoot until they saw an actual gun. I guess the standards have gotten pretty low. He should rot in prison.

      • But..but..but the ‘Social Justice Warriors’ insist that words are the same as actual gun violence!

        (I suppose the defense will now make the case that “You’re Fucked!” was a valid ‘trigger warning’.)

  3. Your freedom of speech may be used against you in a court of law. Especially if it helps build a case to your morality.

      • …there is a picture on the intertubes, of a guy protesting, with moran written on it…it was a joke.

      • Maybe he’s Irish(lol)…anywho slapping this on your cop gun is borderline retarded. Sorry buddy-you’re on your own.

        • This officer’s gun was approved by his department. Surely he would’ve known if they saw this under his dust cover, they would’ve made him take it off. He knew this weapon was purposely used for his job, and. Didn’t abide by their rules. It’s no different than you going to a job with a swastika on your hard hat w” kill all Jews “under it! Now he has to answer to his problem…

      • While you stated exactly what I was thinking, the comma goes inside the quotation marks (“moron,” versus “moron”,). If you’re going to be an ass and correct someone’s grammar you probably ought to have your own shit squared away.

        • Dark Helmet: Who made that man a gunner?
          Major Asshole: I did sir. He’s my cousin.
          Dark Helmet: Who is he?
          Colonel Sandurz: He’s an asshole sir.
          Dark Helmet: I know that! What’s his name?
          Colonel Sandurz: That is his name sir. Asshole, Major Asshole!
          Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
          Colonel Sandurz: He’s an asshole too sir. Gunner’s mate First Class Philip Asshole!
          Dark Helmet: How many assholes do we have on this ship, anyway?
          Entire Bridge Crew: Yo!
          Dark Helmet: I knew it. I’m surrounded by assholes!

          Spaceballs. Art imitates life imitates art imitates assholes.

    • Merriam-Webster says:

      Inscription – noun in·scrip·tion \in-ˈskrip-shən\ : words that are written on or cut into a surface

      • Inscription, the noun, is a word, but there’s no corresponding verb form “inscript” or “inscripted.” The appropriate verb would be “inscribe”, with past participle “inscribed.”

        An inscription has been inscribed. It hasn’t been inscripted. That’s a back formation into a nonword like “conversate” is from “conversation”, when the correct verb is “converse.”

  5. Freedom of speech, absolutely–but if you are carrying that weapon on duty it’s not a question of your rights but your toro feasibility and adherence to policy. Can we agree this is unprofessional? I would add that it is unwise. –not to mention tacky, but I guess tastes vary.

    • talk about tacky…how about a guy who lets his autocorrect convert “professionalism” to “toro feasibility?”

      • I don’t understand how autoincorrect comes up with some of the “corrections” that are far more nonsensical than my misspellings.

    • Agreed. My departmental AR has nothing on the inside of the dust cover but a light coating of CLP, and the remnants of a coffee spill whilst trying to get into a pursuit.

      • Better clean that coffee up, lest you be accused of over-caffinating that assault weapon, causing it to shoot more vigorously than necessary.

    • Unprofessional, unbecoming, tacky (or even toro feasability), are all debatable, I suppose. Hoisting this evil black rifle, mass murdering death machine up high in court and proclaiming that the dust cover inscription evinces an enthusiasm about killing, however, is way over the top.

      It’s a little gallows humor, ok, and not to everyone’s taste, to be sure. Hell, I have a T-shirt given to me as a gift which reads “The hardest part of the zombie apocalypse, will be pretending that I’m not excited.” So what? A gag gift in a drawer somewhere makes me history’s greatest monster? Please.

      This is a man’s life we’re talking about, though. If the facts of the case comport with the elements of the crime with which he’s charged, then fry him. I’m always up for a good frying of an agent of the State who’s been lawfully convicted of a violent crime. My God, though, let’s not prejudice the proceedings on the basis of an off color joke never intended for public consumption.

      • If it wasn’t intended for public consumption why was it on a rifle carried in public, by a publicly appointed officer of the law? Are the other features of his uniform or equipment intended for public consumption? Just playing a little devil’s advocate.

      • Yeah, but if I got pulled over, I wouldn’t expect to joke that the trunk is full of illegal drugs and I’m drunk, and have the cop understand. Interacting with LE is serious time for the public, LE should take it seriously as well.

      • Light humor?

        This is a person that is sworn to protect his community and uphold the law. “You’re fucked” is the sign of a guy that didn’t get any in high school and now he’s angry.

      • Have you seen the video of the shooting? No weapon or bulge was observed or reported on the Shooting Victim’s person, by any Officer during the contact with the shooting victim.

        The shooting victim in shorts and a t-shirt, was observed as intoxicated, BUT was following ALL Police Commands, on his hands and knees, crawling towards the Officers ‘PER THE OFFICERS’ INSTRUCTIONS.” HE WAS COMPLIANT THE ENTIRE TIME.

        All the while, the Shooting Victim was stating to the Police “Don’t shoot me!” The Shooting Victim the Continued to crawl when the Shooting Victims’ Shorts started to fall off his waist and he attempted to pull his falling shorts up with one hand. Then was shot 5 TIMES.

        THOSE FACTS JUSTIFIED THE MURDER CHARGES AGAINST THE MESA POLICE OFFICER

        They also treated the Police Officer with Kid Gloves; NO ARREST, NO BOOKING, NO 6 FIGURE BAIL WHICH ARE ALL COMMON POLICE/COURT PROCEDURES FOR A MURDER CHARGE..

        An Officer cannot cause any action or cause a suspicious movement via commands and use that movement against a Person during the Use of Force. Courts have ruled on this many times.

        Example: “Stop, Don’t move, crawl towards me.” and when the person make a move he/she is shot.

        • Yes, he was, too, arrested and booked. Your complaint seems to be that he wasn’t jailed awaiting trial.
          Bail is demanded as a guarantee that the accused will show up in court. Bail is not punishment, and the Constitution specifically discusses excessive bail as a denial of human rights.

        • “well which is it young feller? you want i should freeze or get down on the ground? i mean to say, if’n i freeze i can’t rightly drop. and if’n i drop, i’m gonna be in motion.”

          “what a maroon.”

  6. You should never violate own right to shut the hell up. This includes your weapons. Because lawyers!

  8. yeah, this is a whole can of worms. I’m more interested in the suspect shot 5 times while on his hands and knees. Also we need to ban full automatic dust covers!

    • “I’m more interested in the suspect shot 5 times while on his hands and knees.”

      Yeah, I read the source article and related articles from the source. It doesn’t look very good for Mr. Trigger Happy. The police allegedly ordered the victim to crawl on his hands and knees and approach them. Next, the police claimed that the victim reached for his back and they thought the victim was reaching for a weapon on his back and therefore shot the victim multiple times.

      I have a hunch that police told the victim to put his hands behind his back so they could cuff him. The “beauty” of this command is that the police can then claim it looked like the man was reaching for a weapon on his back and use that as justification to shoot the victim!

      My strategy: if police have guns drawn to affect a felony arrest of me, I will simply freeze, not matter what position I am in and no matter what they say. If I move anything at all, they can claim that any movement was a “furtive” movement and justification to execute me. No thanks. I refuse to play that game. I will simply freeze in position so that police can approach me and handcuff me. Nothing more, nothing less.

      If by some strange set of circumstances I know ahead of time that police are coming to affect a felony arrest, I will lay down flat on the ground on my stomach in spread eagle formation and not move. Again, I don’t want to give them any justification to claim I made a “furtive” movement as justification to execute me. I will exercise my right to remain silent and my right to be still.

      • “My strategy: if police have guns drawn to affect a felony arrest of me, I will simply freeze, not matter what position I am in and no matter what they say. If I move anything at all, they can claim that any movement was a “furtive” movement and justification to execute me. No thanks. I refuse to play that game. I will simply freeze in position so that police can approach me and handcuff me. Nothing more, nothing less.”

        And your headline will read “Suspect killed after failing to obey multiple commands, resisting arrest.”

        • Vhyrus,

          Believe me, I consider that a distinct possibility as well.

          And this illustrates the problem with police departments in our nation these days: no matter what you do or don’t do, police can claim that your actions justify their actions to shoot you.

      • Just freeze and make them move you is the only safe position. Remember to loudly and repeatedly shout, “If I move you will kill me.” You don’t want to be charged with resisting.

      • This is what they learn in training – multiple officers shout contradictory commands. It allows for this sort of “confusion” which provides the opportunity for them to shoot you if they feel “threatened”. Make no mistake, this is a very deliberate tactic.

        (Can’t even trust the “highly trained” FBI agents. Deliberately lied about the Finicum shooting and then colluded to cover themselves.)

        http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/03/oregon_standoff_fbi_lie_uncove.html

        • No. Just no.
          That crap was debunked 5 minutes after its first posting. Please just stop.

          Finicum demanded to be shot by Police, and continued to escalate the situation until he got what he wanted. It would have gone down the same way if he had crashed his car into the front lawn of any private citizen and then jumped around with his hands in and out of his waist-line like that screaming “shoot me!”.

          That said.. the cell phone video of the protesters being shot at while laying on the floor of the truck screaming is just disturbing.

        • “Hostage Rescue Team is among the FBI’s most elite outfits.”

          like the smartest guy in the special Olympics lol

        • 16V, Which academy did you attend, where you were trained to shout contradictory commands? Just curious, as I was not ever trained that way.

        • @Ebby123, Did you even click on the article? No. no you didn’t. Had you done so, and actually read the article, you would understand the context for my statement. Your reaction to what you imagined I was referencing, which isn’t the case at all. Since you’re lazy, lemme give the Cliff notes – Highway Patrol investigated, found out Feebie who swore he didn’t fire, actually fired twice. Then got his fellow agents to collude with his fabricated story.

          UpNorth, I don’t have to attend to hear the same stories, from cops who have never met each other. I’m acquainted on various levels a dozen cops sprinkled widely through the Midwest and left coast. If you guys didn’t learn that in the “it’s not in the manual;” sessions, you’ll learn it on the street. Unless you’re in some non-violent podunk. If you’ve ever watched video of an actual take down (that wasn’t dept approved) you’ll see this technique. Often.

        • This is what they learn in training …..what a bunch of BS. document that or simply admit is a total fabrication. Confusion at the scene is understandable. The claim is a training method is a joke.

        • That’s funny! We were trained that ONLY one officer gives commands and directions while other officers cover.

        • The siege at Ruby Ridge was a prime example of government abuse and lawlessness…Randy Weaver was a “white separatist” –not a “white supremacist” (as the mainstream media falsely stated)-fake news), who merely wanted to be left alone to take care of his family. As his neighbors were part of a neo-Nazi organization, the feds wanted Weaver to spy on them. Two ATF agents (unknown as federal agents to Mr. Weaver) convinced him to saw off two shotgun barrels one-quarter-inch below the legal “minimum”. In order to convince him to spy on his neighbors, they “busted” him for possession of the shotgun barrels. He still refused to spy on his neighbors. The feds then played dirty by giving him a summons to appear in court WITH THE WRONG COURT DATE. When Mr. Weaver didn’t appear, a warrant was issued and the siege was on…
          Lon Horiuchi, a so-called government “sniper” murdered Vicki Weaver, who was holding her child, as she opened the screen door during the siege at Ruby Ridge. (Aren’t snipers supposed to “know their target” before taking the shot??)
          In the days following Vicki Weaver’s murder. government agents taunted the rest of the family with phrases such as “Good morning Mrs. Weaver, what did you have for breakfast this morning” and other sick phrases.
          The government ended up paying the Weaver family over a million dollars to settle the case WITHOUT ADMITTING ANY WRONGDOING BY GOVERNMENT AGENTS.
          In fact, the government agents and supervisors who executed this horrendous situation were all promoted and/or given bonuses.
          Government actions at Ruby Ridge set the stage for the murderous government actions of the Branch Davidians at Waco…

      • This seems very wise. How many times have we seen just watching ‘COPS’ when they get a suspect out of a car or something and multiple officers bark orders; ‘DON’T MOVE!’ and another says ‘PUT YOUR HANDS UP!’?

        I recall even seeing this exact thing done by a single officer. ‘DON’T MOVE! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!’

        Freeze seems to be the best of a bad set of options.

        • So it happens all the time? And how many times do those cops shoot?… This particular cop in Arizona shot and hes facing 2nd degree murder charges…. I dont think this murding police thing happens as often as you are imagining.

        • california richard; Did I say it happens all the time? I did not.

          That said, all one needs to do is watch COPS which is on everywhere, seemingly all day long on Spike, and you will see this behavior nearly every episode. It is common, and if it is not trained into the force, it dammed sure ought to be trained out of them.

          Irregardless, if I ever find myself in this situation, which I will do my very best to avoid, I plan to do exactly as discussed here.

          Along with that, we all know not to even speak to police. The police are not our friends, they are not there to help us except in the broadest of senses and the exceptional cases. They can and will lie to you, bully you, and even as we see here, may just flat out shoot you.

          Are you really trying to defend this by saying, it doesn’t happen ‘all the time’? Isn’t that clever.

          They are a controlling force against the civil society, and a revenue generation system. That is all. Sorry if you don’t like that, but it wasn’t me who created this condition.

        • It’s never usually an issue of ammo expense. It’s an issue of the overtime used to take officers off the road to train them. Either they are in on their day off or officers have to be called in on OT to work the road while other officers are training.

          It’s easy to say “just pay the overtime”….then the politicians complain about the OT budgets and the residents complain about the tax money being spent on OT. And the pressure flows back down to cut OT….what do you think the first things cut wind up being?

        • Sorry for the delayed response Mr. 308……

          No, you didn’t say it happens all the time, but you do spell it out that way. If it happens in every episode of COPS all day on Spike TV I suppose it doesn’t happen “all the time” just nearly all the time……. but, no…. No you didn’t specifically say, “it happens all the time,” so I guess I stand corrected in the most stupid, technical, and literal of ways?

          Regarding your rebuttal; if you replace the word “police” with “blacks”, then you would easily be labeled racist…. But leaving it “police” simply makes you a biased simpleton.

          The best laid plans of mice and men…. Keep living in your TV watching fantasy world.

      • I’ll just chime in here with my experience of about 300 felony stops or so. First of all, there is no training on the books anywhere, that I’m aware of, that tells officers to yell conflicting commands so that they can shoot people. Lawyers sue individual cops as well as the agencies they are from. They subpoena “every and all” piece of material associated with a lethal force incident including the arrest report, body cam footage, vehicle camera footage, nearby camera footage, training records, use of force manual, firearms manual, etc. Lawyers regularly attempt to subpoena things that don’t even exist.

        What you hear regarding officers yelling conflicting commands are excited / inexperienced / inadequately trained police officers experiencing a substantial adrenalin rush. Want to calm them down when guns are pointed your way? The easiest way is to slowly comply and avoid any furtive movements. If there are conflicting commands, loudly yell “Which one is it? Do I get down or do I put my hands up?” Yell it loud enough for it to be heard on video and for bystanders to hear. Otherwise it is possible to put you hands up while lying on your stomach if appropriately motivated.

        If you fail to comply, or the police have to come get you, they are probably going to get even more excited. Some will get angry that you aren’t complying. If it’s a felony traffic stop, you’ll be closely approached by officers who have handguns or long guns who now have to figure out how to secure their firearms while using physical force such as control holds to get you up, out of your car, off the ground, etc.

        I wish I had more confidence in police training nationwide. To me it seems that most use of force incidents, whether justified or not, occur when compliance does not occur. That can include active resistance such as fighting or a weapon attack, foot pursuits, or passive resistance.

        Many of these cops are shooting 50 rounds per month or less, and may train on physical methods of arrest / force options only once a year. My guys are constantly demonstrating searches, pursuits, force options and their limitations, practicing control holds and do daily discussions on law enforcement scenarios. Unfortunately we still only shoot about 50-150 rounds per month.

        • How would you respond to simultaneous commands of Freeze, Get Down, Put Your Hands Up. Serious question.

          I didn’t intend for those orders to sound like dance steps.

        • Compared to my 200+ rounds per week in just pistol bullseye work, this seeks pretty weak.

          Compared to the financial issues involved in shooting incidents gone wrong, it would seem that 100 rounds per officer per week would be a very small financial burden on a department by comparison.

        • I want Accura81 cloned and placed in departments across the country. Though, some of his clones may have some slow-backup times, at domestics, in sketchy neighborhoods.

          I’m glad you didn’t get the “not in the manual but here’s how it really works” asides. I’m glad your FTI didn’t teach you that off-book stuff when you were a boot. I’m glad that your body camera will never suffer a “timely” malfunction, that your holding cell vids always work without “glitches”, where nobody would ever stick a magnet on the video recorder in the cruiser, I’m glad you have no idea who carries the drop piece on your squad, I’m glad that during a confrontation with a non-compliant person, you’ll wait till there’s 6 cars to back you, and then actually answer the guy who’s asking which command to follow. I’m actually kind of hopeful that you might even arrest cops for DWI without them causing an accident first (that’s a real tough call, the internal politics can crush a career or when you need some ‘professional courtesy’…). I’m glad you department doesn’t have ‘production goals’ or whatever euphemism, you only write tickets to those who genuinely deserve it. You don’t get ‘promotion points’ per bust, with special bonuses for asset forfeiture.

          I know what I know from a dozen people in departments of varying sizes throughout the MW and left coast. As well as my own family history. These guys (and one woman) have never met, yet all tell me the same stories. The same thing I see constantly validated in the newspapers and the interwebz with video.

          Until cops police their own like they police the rest of their fellow citizens, your occupation will always be suspect. Don’t let that keep you from doing the right thing, but realize there’s lots of your ‘brothers’ on the wrong side of that thin blue line.

          I’m glad you’re a good cop. There are some out there. Most though enjoy the cushy job, decent (to obscene) pay, and if asked to leave something alone that may jeopardize that, well, you know, they have a wife and kids. And little else they could do for a living that would pay so well with those benes, and that pension.

        • Accur81, stop resisting.

          Heh heh, just kidding.

          I take you at your word, you are a good cop. I will say thanks, and mean it.

          Other than that I will take my standard option when dealing with LE and decline to answer any more questions.

        • I’d love to see increased training and that of a more realistic nature. Unfortunately, budgets don’t allow it. A 100 rounds a week? Never going to happen for the average department. The cost or ammo and overtime would be a killer. This is FAR from the only mandated area of training departments must satisfy yearly.

          50 rounds a moth would be a luxury. Even the military is lucky to get two hundred rounds a year in training outside of a specialized unit.

          (If this is all the Prosecutor has, then they have a poor case at best. The other factors are much more relevant. The attempt at making an inscription the main focus can easily backfire and seen as desperation. They will try anything. Who it works is another question.

          Aside from that, none of my firearms have anything written in them not put their by the factory. The only customization on any firearm is my competition models.

        • rds, so you’re not expected to do anything to make you more proficient at your job, on your own time unlike the citizens you are to serve?. The mechanics and doctors of the world are expected to learn on their own time, but you, speshul snowflake, expect to get paid for it?

          This type of thinking is why the populous holds you in low regard. 9mm by the 1000 lot is never even $1 per round, so you work for a dept who is so broke they can’t (supposedly) ‘afford’ to spend a fraction of a shift per officer more? A couple hundred dollars per month is a deal breaker? Gimme a break.

        • It’s never usually an issue of ammo expense. It’s an issue of the overtime used to take officers off the road to train them. Either they are in on their day off or officers have to be called in on OT to work the road while other officers are training.

          It’s easy to say “just pay the overtime”….then the politicians complain about the OT budgets and the residents complain about the tax money being spent on OT. And the pressure flows back down to cut OT….what do you think the first things cut wind up being?

          • If the ammo is really the insignificant cost, then simply supply the cops with boundless quantities of practice ammo and a charge account to the officers favorite shooting range.
            That way off the clock practice only costs the officer their time.

        • 100-150 rounds a months in training???? Wow! When I was a cop, 23 years, we qualified ONCE a year with 50 rounds! You had to get 40 on target or else the 2nd box was at your expense. “Ready on the right, ready on the left, On my command draw, fire 6 rounds, holster, pick up your brass, move forward to the next line.”

        • Part of the problem is the militarization and the Israeli training that today’s American cops receive. We are all Palestinians, now…
          Police officers are the only group that can LIE to elicit false confessions, utilizing “bad cop good cop” routines, badgering suspects, making them uncomfortable for long periods of time, getting them to admit to falsehoods, just to get away from the incessant questioning.
          Police officers are the only group that can murder someone by falsely claiming that “they feared for their lives”, have 48 to 72 hours to “get their stories straight”, and have a union lawyer and compliant prosecutor-steered “grand jury” absolve them of responsibility.
          Police demand immediate compliance (Israeli-style)–with two or three cops issuing and yelling out conflicting commands, it is easy to see how a person under police control could lose his life for merely attempting to follow conflicting directions.
          The solutions are to abolish their official “immunity”, get rid of police unions, take any awards for police misconduct out of their pension funds–not from insurance or the taxpayers, require them to purchase an insurance company bond at their own expense–no bond=no job, and establish a database of former cops who should NEVER be allowed to hold another police job. Dash and body cams that cannot be disabled or turned off should be a part of the deal.

  10. That is some absolute bullshit! If the officer broke the law that’s one thing, But if he was doing his job correctly What friggin difference does it make if he’s got an inscription on a personal owned rifle? That is the most Crap I’ve heard out of a lawyer’s mouth Since the last time I heard some stupid ass lawyer talk shit Exclamation point They always try to blame the police department For the axe Of a criminal. I remember one case in particular here in Florida Where a man was breaking into a restaurant And fell Through the roof that he was breaking into and landed on a stainless steel countertop in the kitchen severely injuring himself. He sued the business owner and collected on the insurance for his injuries even though he was committing a felony During the injury. It’s getting so bad in this country Criminals get away with whatever they want law-abiding people Don’t get away with it. If the founders of this country knew the status of our country Today they’ll be rolling in their frigging Graves!

    • He shot a guy who was in the prone position 5 times. He’s up for murder 2. You should probably RTFA before going off like that.

      • You’re arguing with Random cap Guy. dOn’t ever Argue with random Cap guy. ranDom caps Indicate A disordErly Mind.
        You may win the argument, but who knows how RCG is going to react?

    • Believe it or not, murder is indeed against the law in some bleeding heart jurisdictions.

    • If he’s acting in an official capacity as an agent of the state, having “you’re fucked” inscribed on a duty weapon is an issue. It speaks to the mindset and motivation of the individual, as well as a lack of judgement in not thinking through the consequences of what may happen if such came to light…say…if accused of shooting a prone person multiple times.

      Much like the Marine who threw the puppy off the cliff while videotaping it, even if the actions inherently arent the worst out there, doing these things in ways that harm the image and reputation of the organization and mission are bad, and the lack of good judgement in not realizing that even worse.

    • Huh.

      Well some of our founders were lawyers or at least had legal skills and would understand that a defendant’s statements or actions before an incident can speak to his or her frame of mind and be relevant in court.

      Bill O’Reily and “Der Trumper” notwithstanding the police can and do make mistakes. And some of them (a small percentage) actually are bullies who relish the opportunity to use force. And I say this as a former fed leo.

      • Except for one fact your bypassing. That phrase can mean many things to many people. Can this Prosecutor see into the mind of this person to determine what it meant to HIM? His lawyer can twist it in the other direction.

        Would I do it? No. but that’s not the issue. Did a phrase in that area make him more susceptible to the use of deadly force? Once again it seems the case is heard in the media using hand picked items instead of holding the case in a court of law. Seems today they are more concerned with the public opinion than the rule of law.

    • Huh.

      Well some of our founders were lawyers or at least had legal skills and would understand that a defendant’s statements or actions before an incident can speak to his or her frame of mind and be relevant in court.

      Bill O’Reily and “Der Trumper” notwithstanding the police can and do make mistakes. And some of them (a small percentage) actually are bullies who relish the opportunity to use force. And I say this as a former fed leo.

  11. I don’t know the facts of the case, but how is a man charged with 2nd degree murder released on his own recognizance?

  12. What a half a***d click bait article.

    Yeah, it’s the dust cover that’s the issue, not the body cam video of him shooting an unarmed man.

    • The PD are refusing to release the video footage and the CA gave him a crap plea deal off record after he appeared in court and plead not guilty to the 2nd degree murder charge. Daniel Shaver is on the body cam video stating ‘Please don’t shoot me’ prior to Brailsford shooting him 5x while he was on the floor. His wife and her attorney have been trying to get Mesa PD to release the video and so far they have not allowed it. It’s complete crap.

  13. A prosecutor could try to twist anything that a person says or writes. Having said that, I don’t think it is wise to make it easy for the prosecutor to portray you as a person who was determined to murder someone.

    • Hmm…Let’s say that the cop in question was a lady and she had a pink AR with bunnies and rainbows on the dust cover. Would the defense or anybody else claim that this should be used in her favor to either dismiss the case or reduce any potential sentence? I don’t think so. So how can an opposite be true? Why is the cop’s vulgar inscription used against him? If he’s guilty of murder, then by all means charge him appropriately. I don’t care what his dust cover looks like and it should not be relevant.

      What if we had two people in two cars who plowed into a group of kids and each killed about the same number of them. On one car there’s a sticker that says “I love kids” and the other has one that says “I hate kids.” Is one worse or better than the other? If both were accidental or both were intentional, should any sticker like that either help or hurt the drivers?

      • OK let’s suppose that the officer was involved in shooting a black man, claiming self-defense, and it turned out under his uniform shirt he wore a T-shirt saying “F**k N**gers”. Would that be relevant to his state of mind? Or you were accused of killing your wife and that morning made some statements about “I hate my bitch wife” – under certain circumstances state of mind is highly relevant and admissible in court. How do we know somebody’s state of mind? Well one way is through his or her previous statements and actions.

        So no, fluffy bunnies on your gun won’t get you out of a charge but in certain circumstances inflammatory nonsense on your gun which might seem “violent” to your “peers” could make it worse.

      • And in your example the person with “I hate kids” may have a tougher time arguing it wasn’t intentional, yes.

        • I understand that a lawyer might make an appeal to the jury’s emotions, telling them that the F word on the guy’s dust cover suggests he was prone to be more violent than average. But from strictly legal standpoint, does that matter? Unless you can go back and show that this cop has a history of violence or aggression, I don’t see how having “You’re fu***” anywhere on the rifle shows that he is violent or dangerous. What if he had something silly, like “free lead” or “smile, wait for flash”? Does that mean he’s mentally unstable, for example? Or what if he had a verse from a holy book that some could interpret as violent? What then? Again, unless there’s some history to this guy, I don’t see how that inscription should be relevant in the slightest.

          The same goes for my example with the car. If a person with a “I love kids” sticker intentionally plows into a group of them and kills them, they should receive the same punishment as someone who has a “I hate kids” sticker and does the same thing. Unless, of course, you could prove that this person has a history of being abusive to kids and expressing that someday he/she will hurt them. But aside from that, any half-decent lawyer should be able to deem this irrelevant.

        • Think about it this way: if you see somebody with a “I hate kids” sticker on their car, are you going to call the cops and have them arrested because they could plow into a group of kids? Should the driver be punished in any way simply for having that sticker on their car? Same goes for the cop. If there’s no proof that he was violent or aggressive, that dust cover inscription is just that, an inscription. It might be considered unprofessional, but that’s about it.

        • “Mr Pierogie says:
          …I don’t see how having “You’re fu***” anywhere on the rifle shows that he is violent or dangerous.”

          Here’s the thing. Ok, so you have a point. The defendants attorney can make this argument to the jury in court.

          Don’t you think it would be better if he didn’t *have* to make this argument in the first place?

          If I was on this jury I would take this evidence as just that – one more thing to consider. And it is unprofessional for a LEO, who should take his responsibility with the greatest of seriousness, because that is what it is, dead serious business, pun intended.

      • Your hypothetical lady cop with the pink bunnies and rainbows AR would probably have trouble, too. A smart prosecutor would hold up that rifle and claim that it shows that she doesn’t take her job seriously.

        The best move, if you’re a cop, is to use a bog-standard factory rifle.

      • What do you think a jury is going to think? Not what SHOULD they think, what they WILL think?

        Remember, OJ is innocent of murder because he can’t fit two gloves on the same hand. Juries can be pretty ignorant.

    • Then you would clearly have not been taking your position, the weapons potential to insert lead into things or the gravity of your situation seriously enough.

      Only answer on a duty weapon (even if you feel the need to get approval to use your own) is unless the writing or imagery came from factory it doesn’t go on it. If it comes with something that could be considered inflammatory from factory choose another make/model. I suppose you could put the Dept. logo on it and Officer name, but that could cause problems for Officer Kilemaul.

      A lawyer can take almost anything an run with it. End of the day the dust cover may help with the commentary its all the important stuff like witnesses, forensics, body cams etc etc. That will decide it.

    • Mine has our Flag and the inscription Don’t Tread On Me.

      Does that makes me a wanna be terrorist, an OFWG, or the crew that ended the Cold War?

  15. “on his hands and knees”. I call bullshit. One, that was from the “victims” attorneys, of course they’re gonna say that. Two, being on your hands and knees means your not a threat? May have he been crouching? Going to lay in the prone perhaps? Only fell to his hands and knees after he’d been shot? The attorneys story Sounds like a bunch of hearsay and lies to me.

    • “hearsay and lies ”

      No, it wasn’t the government employee’s version of events.

      All cops lie, all the time.

      It is well past time we started disarming government employees. Citizens should be armed, not the cops.

      • WHAT? Unarmed police officers. No No No. I think they should have bazzookas, flamethrowers, mortars, M102A’s, grenades,claymore mines, 20mm vulcan cannons, SAW’s, 4 gauge punt guns, mustard gas,chainsaws, axe’s, machete’s, spears, broad swords, big rocks, a mean ass German shepherd ,woodchipper, and a D8 dozer

      • Mallory an uneducated retard such as yourself should know a thing or two about lying as that’s clearly all your education has been. A lie. Of course it’s hard to get one in a mental institution.

    • In the CA documents filed to court for the second degree degree charge, their own police statement states he was on all fours. Do your research before citing wrong information.

  16. I haven’t read every single comment yet, but can’t believe no one else brought up the stories use of the term “AR-15 Assault Weapon”.

    • It’s only an “assault weapon” because it was the officer’s *personal* AR and it’s a murder case.
      Note you will never see those words on a ‘justified’ department shooting with a department-issued identical weapon, even if the dustcover says “front: toward criminal —>”.

    • If it’s from the attorneys, and the attorneys weren’t eyewitnesses, it’s more like hearsay.

      • But what is it if it’s a description of the body cam footage, which appears to be the case in this instance? That’s got to be at least as good as eyewitness testimony, and certainly way past hearsay.

        Dr. Brainwash appears to have some reading comprehension problems, since the article states, “The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Shaver was on his hands and knees when Brailsford shot him five times inside a Mesa hotel.” The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is not the “victim’s attorney”, they’re the prosecutors.

    • And how reliable is that? Perhaps as reliable as the “hands up don’t shoot” narrative? Maybe we’ll see a big on your hands and knees narritve now? Actually… I’d like to see that..

      • We don’t know. Is the wife’s desire for the $35M and or punishment for her husband’s killer any more lie inducing than the cops interest is staying out of prison?

  18. Marc Victor, the attorney of the victim’s family, is pro-gun and has a reputation for defending armed citizens involved in shootings. I hope they win and this POS cop goes to prison.

  19. Yeah, at one point I thought it might be neat to inscribe “veritas” and “aequitas” on the twin barrels of my bobbed HD 12-gauge–and almost immediately decided that would not be a good idea.

    • I have Psalm 144:1 inscribed on the barrel of my antique 10ga S×S

      Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for for, and my fingers for battle.

  20. This cannot be!

    I’ve been told, on good authority, on this very site, that nary a case has or could be made.

    • Which is exactly why I submitted this story. I’m tired of hearing “my punisher grips don’t mean shit in court.”

      • I figure, if I’m lawyered-up in a courtroom, then I’m already on thin ice…

        I’ll take my chances without the death dealer gun bling.

      • It’s fair to ask the question, but it remains to be seen if it really matters. The truth is, no matter the outcome of the trial, we may never know if the jury cared about this particular issue a little or a lot.

        Lawyers bring up crap all the time…some of it is ruled “irrelevant” at trial. Doesn’t stop him from talking about it to the press (especially beforehand). Even if admissible, the jury can absolutely choose to completely ignore it as BS.

        So, the best we can say is it may matter. Your choice if you choose to roll those particular dice.

      • “I’m tired of hearing ‘my punisher grips don’t mean shit in court.'”

        Fair enough, but it has yet to be determined whether this officer’s rifle modification means shit in court. What we have is a lawyer’s statement made out of court, and it hasn’t even been determined if it will be permitted as evidence.

        Keep an eye on the case and let us know how it turns out, ok?

        • Actually what we have is a Lawyer’s statement in court, in a bail/bond hearing. And it didn’t mean shit because the murdering SOB was let loose without bond.

  21. The police should always use politically correct fluffy bunny unicorn weapons painted in pink with little white cute cartoon animal characters painted on them.

        • I am truly glad I got a laugh. However I’ve seen the ballistic demonstration of jelly beans. They penetrate bare ballistic gell less than 1.5in at self defense range. That means they won’t penetrate clothing, hence higly painful less than lethal round with the added benefit of being incredibly sweet and hilarious.

  22. The inscription on the rifle, like one on a t-shirt that says “Kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out” is relevant to state of mind (intentional, knowingly, recklessly, negligently, etc.). Those mental states can only be proven by inference. I recommend no “controversial” be on your chest, your rifle or pistol, your shooting box or in your possession if you must act in self-defense.

    • Massad Ayoob has mentioned cases where the lawyers made a big deal out of a guys T shirt (gag gift from in laws that said Killing is my business and business is good) and a case where the defendant had a gold plated pistol engraved with his name.

  23. I’m glad they didn’t use the bail amount punitively. I hope they don’t use it punitively fon non-police awaiting trial.

    The defendant; oh lordy, what a slob. Slob =\= murderer, but if it were my area, I’d want him fired for bad conduct for the dust cover.

    • Nah, it’s bad enough that he has to pay for his own weapon to do his job. Worst I’d do is rule the gun unacceptable for duty use, due to giving the department a bad image.

      • Not bad enough for me, not even close. Even if he donated it $2K or whatever of machinery doesn’t excuse his conduct. It’s couch money compared to the value of the department and its relationship with the public.

        If it were my area, I could be satisfied by his supervisor getting fired or demoted as well.

    • That’s sort of what I was thinking. “As long as it stays closed I know I am not in hot water.” Still, you would be hard pressed to find anywhere in an American workplace where that phrase would be considered acceptable on any piece of equipment. Especially if your position was customer or public facing. How long do you think a reporter would last with “You’re F****d” on their microphone, a utility worker would be employed with the same on the bucket of their cherry picker, or a taxi driver with it taped to their meter?

      Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE humor that pushes the boundaries of poor taste, but there is a time and place for it. Unless you write for South Park, that place is generally not at work. I understand that as an LEO he is required to go into stupid places but he should know better than to be the stupid person doing a stupid thing while he is there. All that before the first shot was fired.

      If I’m on the jury the clever comment on his dust cover means nothing unless the prosecution can prove to me that it was fairly recently installed because he was feeling that way. If that was the same dust cover that he has had on the rifle for ages as a bit of humor at the range, I would have a very difficult time believing that he even remembered it was there let alone influenced his behavior.

  27. The PD should probably just have that phrase embroidered on some Velcro patches, so they can stick them on the uniform when appropriate.

    • Yeah, you can say he’s a scumbag. Maybe he is.

      But any attorney in this situation is going to look to the defendant’s state of mind before the shooting – and statements like “you’re fucked” or “Die Cockfag!” on the guys gun are indications of state of mind.

      It’s pretty much like picking the biggest freaking racist on the LAPD to investigate OJ Simpson, it’s relevant.

  29. Who’s the audience in this case?
    I get that logos or generic phrases are for the rifles owners own enjoyment or to impress simple-minded peers. Playing dress-up and all.
    But this phrase is targeted: you’re.
    The person taking fire wouldnt be looking at the dist cover. Any eyes to his right that could see it aren’t “f@#$ed” presumably.

    I never understood bumper stickers, logos and sloganeering.

    Reminds of a SWAT training video I saw a while back loaded with heavy metal music and each edit cut was met with a giant Punisher logo on the screen. Why? So all the 8 year olds will think you’re cool?

    • Was it a legit training vid or one of those you buy from an ad in the back of soldier of fortune?

      • Private companies (ones that make millions from individual departments) often advertise their wares in the most operator, advertising COD to 13 year olds way as you can imagine.

        Rock music, slick angles, stunt drivers, everyone exiting an APC then standing in front of it looking all Darth Vaders’ bigger badder cousin, giving the enemy a clear shot. No specs or actual use trials, just full-on tacti-cool.

        Internal videos may do the same after all it’s one guy trying to do professional editing, he could spend hours and hours getting seamless transitions or just hit image transition and pick whatever is on the desktop.

  30. Arguments are like A-holes. For example:

    I’d argue that an inscription like that is indicative of a sense of gallows humor. Dealing with stressful scenarios with gallows humor is a healthy activity which has a long history in professions which deal with life and death. His gallows humor proves he has a healthy outlet for the stresses involved in his profession. People who don’t participate in gallows humor or are disturbed by it usually prove to have less-healthy coping mechanisms for the stresses involved and are more prone to mental breakdowns, outbursts, and deviant behavior. If a bombastic inscription is something he can look down at before going into a stressful situation and calms his nerves or boosts his confidence, or even distracts him from his fears, then he can go into the combat scenario with a healthier mental state and make better decisions.

    • LOL – or you can just save yourself the hassle of explaining all that in court and leave that particular AR15 in the safe.

  31. I begged a friend of mine not to engrave a pair of balance scales (like Justice holds up) on his AR, as it struck me as exploitable by a prosecutor (“vigilante taking justice into his own hands”). “Fortunately” he had to sell the AR for money before he could mess it up for someone else.

  34. I took off my “infidel” back plate a few months ago on my edc glock for just this very reason. If I ever did need to use it I would not want a court to use something like that against me.

    • I have checked and rechecked my dust covers, and I cannot find any inscriptions at all. How disappointing. My bud at the gun store tried to sell me a required inscription on my SBR, dropped it when I told him I bought the gun, I did not manufacture it. Got some silly-ass rules, there. But inscriptions other than my name, possibly, seem pretty dumb.

  35. It’s a little like police wearing wristbands on-duty that say “I am Darren Wilson”. Darren Wilson was in the right, but pretty needless and unprofessional to wear it on duty.

  36. This is an out of court statement to try and induce a settlement because of public outcry. If someone cuts you off and you say “I hope you get ass cancer” and that person does in fact get ass cancer, you are not the cause of it. My Punisher grips can’t pull the trigger, only I can.

  37. If any of you read Massad Ayoob, he has been warning about things like the inscription for years.
    His many years in Law Enforcement and being one of the top Legal Experts on firearms in the country, means he has seen it all.
    He has always said the ‘cute’ grips, funny sayings, reduced trigger pulls and night sights are things that the average shooting enthusiast will find harmless, and improvements to a fire arm, the prosecuting attorney will use them to paint the gun owner as a person eager to kill, and the modifications making it easier to kill. Of course, none of this is true but the non shooting public doesn’t see it that way. Here is a link to an informative artice. https://www.armedcitizensnetwork.org/gun-modifications

    • And up until now, none of those things had been used in court. This is just the prosecutor trying to sway a jury. The cop will either hang or go free based on whether or not he committed murder, not what he chose to have on an ejection port cover. Put whatever you want on your guns. Bad taste isn’t a crime. You had to have done something to find yourself in court in the first place.

    • I think it was Ayoob (and I’m too lazy to look it up) said something to the effect of…

      “I will be thoroughly investigated if a shoot him with an Albert Schweitzer commemorative 1911, with Red Cross approved slugs” or something like that. Don’t be stupid, the facts are sometimes secondary to your appearance of enthusiasm for killing. Get rid of the “we don’t call 911” sign on your house window, it really is not good to selling your story, even if it is the truth.

  40. Was his hands up saying, “Dont shoot?”

    The facts will come out. I have a feeling the person shot was doing a bit more than what is said.

    • Body cam footage actually does have him stating ‘Please don’t shoot me’ before Brailsford shot his 5x. The Mesa PD are refusing to release the footage though, even though it’s been requested. The attorneys in the case on both sides have viewed the footage. Mesa PD don’t want it released though because it won’t be good for their officer.

  41. Shooting a man 5 times who was not a threat is what got this officer in trouble. The inscription is just an extra nail for his coffin.

    Now if it was a less clear situation that definitely would NOT help him.

  42. Yep, this is how it works, and this is why you say nothing after a DGU. A dozen lawyers will argue for months about the meaning of your words, actions you took, your mannerisms, and everything between and beyond. They will twist it until they make you look like Charles Manson’s twin brother, then they will sell it to a bunch of jurors like some corporate giant selling soda pop, and finally, if and only if it supports their career goal of adding another conviction to their portfolio, they may bring out real evidence.

    • Not shooting people while on the ground and keeping dumb language off my firearm has always been my best defense.

    • What about what you say before a dgu? Is there a record of you going to web sites and proclaiming things like “Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

      In the info age our whole lives will be laid bare in a legal proceeding.

  43. You have the right to remain silent…Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…including dumb shit inscribed on your firearm.

    I take it this cop wasn’t one of the bright ones.

  44. FYI if your staring down the barrel of an ar15 the inscription is 100%accurate. YOUR FUCKED. And you probably shouldn’t breath hard bc you might get shot

  45. FYI if your staring down the barrel of an ar15 the inscription is 100%accurate. YOUR FUCKED. And you probably shouldn’t breath hard bc you might get shot sorry but that’s cold hard truth

    • In a perfect world, that would be the judge’s closing statement. As to what the outcome of the case would be I can’t say.

  47. Shyster lawyers will use every hook and crook available to make a defendant look bad in a wrongful death case or a police type shooting. They tried to obfuscate George Zimmerman’s injuries and to portray him as a racist. They will argue, if the judge permits the inflammatory language, that you carried the Model 29 because you wanted to emulate Dirty Harry, or that the “Punisher” icon on your gun proves that you’ll jump at any excuse to shoot some poor, innocent choirboy who was coming at you with a knife or ball bat. If you use hollow point ammo you are intent on killing. If you use hardball you are seeking to inflict maximum pain, and there’s always the old song about how you should have just winged him instead of shooting for center of mass.

  48. The point to argue on this is who is fucked? Maybe the owner of the weapon because if that dust cover is open, a court case will follow because today’s society seems to side with the thugs.

  49. “That statement tells me this is a person who’s enthusiastic about killing people,” Marc Victor, lawyer for Sweet and her late husband, argued. “That’s what that inscription means.”

    I don’t even know the details about this case. This just seems to me a desperate sort of argument to make. If the inscription read “Born to kill” well maybe then…

  50. It’s like arguing people with those silly “piss-on car-maker xyz” stickers have a secret intent and desire to publicly urinate and expose themselves to children.

    • If it was on a cop car, and that particular cop happened to pull over that make and model vehicle displayed on the sticker and cite the driver, then that driver could absolutely argue personal bias and have a case. This is not considerably different.

      Cops should not be decorating their work guns, especially not with highly offensive and controversial things that can easily be twisted and/or taken out of context. Full freaking stop.

      • Fully agree on the lack of professionalism. Bad idea. Although I think a judge would probably not typically hear your case about a window sticker on a cop car. It was a sort of joking analogy really. But seriously… What an oracle or world-class profiler this attorney must be to link a douschey, vulgar inscription with having an intent to kill. I’m not even saying the guy didn’t perhaps kill in cold blood, but I suspect much of the jury will not buy this conjecture.

  51. Some comments posted here are more insane than the anti gun people.
    Like squirrles on espresso!!

  53. EXACTLY why I’ve always thought such designs on your guns and gear stuff was a BAD idea.

    Just like that garbage R.I.P. ammo.

    Stuff like that is a prosecutor’s dream.

  54. I think most of you are way over thinking it. Regardless if the officer is innocent, guilty or used bad judgement in putting a vulgar saying on a firearm that is used in a public capacity to serve and protect the public, the saying is very true. When that dust cover goes down and shit comes out of it and you are on the other end you are FUCKED.

  56. Could it be the engraved message wasn’t meant to be a comment on his intentions, but rather a reminder?? Imagine being in a gunfight, your mag is now empty and you look at the chamber and see nothing?? At that point,…… “you’re fucked!”

  57. I’m no fan of rogue cops, however all that I’ve read about this shooting is pointing to suicide by cop! If you have cops surrounding you and you are being trailed by laser dots the one thing you don’t do is this, you don’t make a sudden move reaching for your waistband! That will get you killed, and that is what happened in this case, I feel for the loved ones of this man, however he alone is to blame….period!

  58. Maybe the fact he had to use his personal rifle on duty is indicative of meager funding at the department. Which is a condition that could cause inadequate training and management resources, which could result in an ill-prepared cop that makes mistakes?

    The inscription his personal rifle could have simply been a message to himself reflecting his situation caught between a rock and a hard place. Inadequate resources, management, training, yet expected to be perfect at life and death on the job.

    I hope his lawyers aren’t idiots.

  60. I personally think they’ve got the entire thing backwards. The inscription inside said dust cover, being unreadable until the ejection of a spent round, was meant for his eyes only. It served only to indicate his predicament after using his AR.

  61. Sadly we live in a world now where something that more than likely was meant to be something funny amongst him and his friends is being held as evidence. Which if it was inscribed on the weapon well before the incident how can they infer that that means he has the mindframe of wanting to kill people? Now if the dust cover had that man’s name and the rest on it then yeah I could see their argument being valid.

  62. Personally I like the one that says HOT BRASS! Oh, that sounds a bit suggestive for some reason… Sorry.

  63. I’m sorry but I don’t want to kill anyone and I think it’s a great inscription. Because it’s the truth you are F—Ed at that point. Dude just ate a bullet, well 5

  64. Inscripted on the officer’s gun, and I hate to use profanity, but it said, “you’re f*****,”’ Laney Sweet, Daniel Shaver’s wife said.

    1st Ammendment. .Freedom of Speach!
    Arizona Mesa P.D. allowed personals on duty and had “Zero” Regs. On what designs were inscribed on bullits or weapons more than likley

  66. It really bothers me the fact that this officer felt comfortable enough to think “this would be cool to add to my duty weapon” in the first place. Seems to be indicative of a larger problem within his dept and the kind of atmosphere that is being bred. To anyone with 2 working brain cells it’s horrendously bad judgement considering the nature of LE and the broken relationship and trust the public currently has with LEOs that is only getting worse. If the circumstances of this case that are being reported are true, this cop deserves to be found guilty. A badge is not a license to kill and be a hero in your own mind at someone else’s expense. Rogue cops do incredible damage to all the good ones who actually care about their communities and truly want to serve and protect citizens.

  67. If ? the weapon was cleared my he’s c.o.c. for while on duty, how was it cleared ?. Was it taken to a firing line were the cover would have been seen by the inspecter was it ? just , yea good looking gun you can use it while on duty

  68. Hey, remember this if you’re one of the zilliondy people who bought one of those replacement barrels with “Smile. Wait for flash” engraved on the crown. It’s all fun and games until the lawyers come out. 🙂

  69. Freedom of speech or not, that was not very smart at all. But as a retired cop, I certainly understand the sentiment!!!!!!!!!!!

  70. It may be bullshit but never forget juries are made up of people, and people react emotionally.

    One thing I can say FOR SURE is that even though he had the right to put any saying he wanted on his own rifle, right now that cop wishes like hell he didn’t put that “funny” saying on there.

  71. It’s not the inscription that got him in trouble. It’s the murder he committed! & they let him go w/o bond because he’s not a danger to the community? He killed someone on their knees!

  72. I could care less about the weapon. That is lawyer bullshit to turn things away from what was happening. Was the shooting good or not? Was the public or officer in imminent danger? That is all that matters, and any juror that doesn’t see that is an uneducated fool.

    • 100% correct!! Bottom line!! Good shoot or bad shoot. That should be the only thing in question

  73. So now, all you have to do is have someone see you with a pellet gun, and when the police shout contradicting orders you can’t comply with, then shooting you is considered “in the line of duty”? Fully prosecuting this police officer would have helped maintain our 2nd amendment rights. Instead it appears the officer may get no time served, and being an armed citizen is the capital offense.

  74. There is one thing that was never brought out is that did her buy the fun our was it a gift to him from someone and they put the dust cover on. Its also probably the wrong choice to keep it on after out was approved to be used in service. We don’t have 100% of all the details and we can’t read the mind of the officer on this situation, but, until the court date we just have to wait and find out all the details.

  75. Remember guys this was a Bail Hearing. The cop in question is now free on $0.00 bail. That’s ZERO.

    Government favoring government killers at it’s finest.

    • Bail is not supposed to be a form of punishment. Bail is to guarantee your appearance. If the court is satisfied that you will appear, you can be released OR, “Own Recognizance”. Hard to imagine a cop skipping town in a case like this, especially if he is married and owns a house. However, if bail had been assessed, the police union would likely post his bond unless the merits of the prosecutor’s case too strong.

  77. I’ve taken the same tact on my vehicle too. I used to have NRA, Don’t Tread on me and Oathkeepers stickers on my truck until I went through a Border Patrol Checkpoint in Texas. The BPO spoke to me at my window and then walked around my truck. When he came back he said ” Oathkeeper huh, do you listen to that crazy Alex Jones?” i smiled and said “once in a while”. He said I was free to go but as I was driving away I say him read my license plate number to the guy in the shed… I was obviously someone who needed to be in their database. Took them all off.

  78. Just another Manitowoc County sheriff department, Chicago police department, Deposit police department! All the police are out of control all across this country. Shooting unarmed kids, fathers, mothers, children, grand children all people are unsafe! It worst then living in a city with gangs. All people in this country need to take a stand against all the bad cops all across the country! Their are more cops like Andrew Colborn, James Lenk Philip Brailsford murdering scumbags!!!!!!!This story said this calls for more training for officers, No amount of training is going to change a person from a scumbag to a good human being.Put these scum bag cop in general population prison and let it run its course!

  79. I’m going with the dust cover being a joke… Towards the guy to your right on the firing line… Hot brass on the neck and down the damn collar. Yea, you’re fucked, burns like a bandaid.

  82. While certainly unprofessional, the inscription is being taken out of context, IMHO. I take it to mean, if I am forced to use this weapon, the recipient of my actions is “F’d” because I’m accurate with this tool. 😉 If his lawyer is any good, he/she will express a similar argument.

  83. Question for the person that wrote the article. Why say the rifle was a assault weapon ? Was his AR 15 full auto,I doubt that it was. The fact he had your f’d on a rifle he used for work is not a good thing, but can you please stick to the facts.

  84. Well even police officers are held to the same standards as everyone else thats cool but in Ohio telling someone your going to kill them is a felony . I wonder how many people knew getting into a argument with a spouse or family member and using threating words can get you landed in jail and cost you your 2nd amendment rights forever . can,t happen think again it is a 4th degree felony in Ohio . actual threats make it a 3rd degree felony and actual contact can get you bumped up a charge of agravated assult . Even without actual contact you can become a felon think about it .

  85. I quit reading this ridiculous ignorant article when the author called it an assault rifle. AR stands for Armalite. Go back to school

  86. I don’t get it because if you have to use it on somebody the dust cover is doing nothing but telling the truth because once I pull the trigger the dust cover says the rest and if you think you get shot and you’re not going to be fucked then your a moron period plus I don’t think I’ve ever heard a cop not say the word fuck lol

  87. Having any sort of customization feature on a weapon has nothing to do with a person’s actual intent to fire it, or under what circumstances it may be fired. Custom engraved parts for every type of firearm are widely available on the market, the most famous being an engraved muzzle that says, “Smile and Wait for the Flash”. Since ancient times men have been putting custom engraving their weapons, such as swords and axes. It has always been done. It is nothing more than a form of personalization similar to putting custom plates on one’s car. If the engraving was something specific like, “I’m going to kill people with this rifle”, then you could have a case. But, a universal non-specific social theme like “You’re F***ed” makes no specific threat or reveals a particular state of mind because it is ubiquitous and can often be seen on tee shirts and bumper stickers. If it were a civilian who had a dust cover that said, “Don’t Tread on Me” with a image of the Gadsden Flag and they shot a cop, the attorneys would be claiming he was a Sovereign Citizen Patriot who was predisposed to murder cops, but that would be likewise ridiculous. Point is that prosecutors will grab ahold of any little thing they can and people should be aware of that.

  88. Whats so vulgar about “you’re f*****”? Or do you not understand what quotation marks are for?

  89. Nope… they can say whatever they want. But not the other way around. Political correctness only applies to the white population. I am Hispanic but I say what I see. It is the truth it has become ridiculously one sided when it comes to the racial conversation.

  90. I’ve got one of these dust covers. On the outside it’s got a Spartan helmet with crossed swords and the words MOLON LABE. His department shouldn’t have let him wander around with that, much less you’re fucked.

  92. So this was news back in march of 2016….the officer was found not guilty Dec 7 of this year. Why drag something up that is this old? The officer was let go so the tactic you’re attempting to scare everyone with was obviously not used successfully in the court case.

    I’m so tired of all the gun websites I read always trying these scare tactics especially when when it is sloppy and obvious that the only point to the article is to rile people up.

    • Yes, it was a very bad shoot from the moral, public perspective. But sometimes it’s necessary for the enforcer class to plug someone to keep those fucking plebs in line.

    • Check out the video of this shoot and prepare yourself to either get sick or become enraged. It was basically a murder.

      • When it comes to shootings by police, 99.99% are “good” shoots, even if the same shoot by a citizen would be considered unjustified and prosecutable. The “thin blue line” protects its own

  94. The dustcover fits within an existing pattern. It serves to reinforce the pattern. That pattern was on full display during the released body cam footage of the officer killing the unarmed man.

    The dustcover ought not to serve as some sort of indictment on its own. But taken with everything else, it completes a portrait of the officer who should not have killed (executed) the scared, confused, unarmed drunk man.

  95. That’s a helluva idea. I think I’ll have professionally engraved on the my AK bolt the words: “Do you feel lucky punk”

  96. If anything, police should be held to a higher standard than that of the public…As it stands now, police can commit crimes with impunity because, in most situations, they investigate themselves…Behavior that would get an ordinary citizen charged, convicted and incarcerated is routinely ignored by “the powers that be” because police are considered to be “above the law” as the “law” is whatever they say it is, the Constitution be damned…
    Police officers are the only group that can murder someone by falsely claiming that “they feared for their lives”, have 48 to 72 hours to “get their stories straight”, and have a union lawyer and compliant prosecutor-steered “grand jury” absolve them of responsibility.
    Police demand immediate compliance (Israeli-style)–with two or three cops issuing and yelling out conflicting commands, it is easy to see how a person under police control could lose his life for merely attempting to follow conflicting directions.
    Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
    In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, its police tactics are very different.
    There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
    Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
    Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
    1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
    2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond= no job. You can bet that insurance companies would be more diligent in weeding out the “bad apples” than our present system…
    3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
    4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
    5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
    6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
    7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
    8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
    9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned from 48 to 72 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
    10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
    11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
    12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
    13 “Asset forfeiture” is a form of “legalized robbery under color of law” and must be abolished. We must return to Constitutional principles when it comes to “crimefighting”. The so-called “war on drugs” is actually a “war on the citizenry” and has had an extremely corrosive effect on the Constitutional principles that our country is (supposed to be) founded on.
    14. “No-knock” raids must be abolished as they put both police and (especially citizens) in harms way. Even the Nazis “knocked on the door” before gaining entry.
    15. SWAT teams must be reigned in on their “dynamic entry techniques”. Utilizing SWAT teams for routine situations is dangerous to both police and citizens. Smashing everything in sight “just because they can”, blaming it on an “adrenaline rush” must end. There is NEVER a reason for destroying property.
    16. The “21 foot rule” must be modified or abolished. American police training assumes that ANYONE that gets within 21 feet of a police officer and is deemed a threat, even a non-life-threatening situation is “fair game” for the use of lethal force. Persons with rakes, sticks, knives, or even their fists have been executed, even when non-lethal means would have been more appropriate. Police hide behind the “21 foot rule” in order to justify questionable police shootings. Their “excuse”, when brought before a prosecutor or grand jury is “that is the way they are trained”. THAT has to change. Police have a greater responsibility NOT to use deadly force against those that they could easily subdue by other means.
    Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
    A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
    That being said, I have no problem with police officers who do their job in a fair, conscientious manner…however, it is time to call to task those police officers who only “protect and serve” themselves.

  97. If you know the details of this case you will know that the suspect/victim was on his hands and knees crawling when shot and had been, prior to that, lying flat on his belly wearing only a T-shirt and flimsy nylon shorts. The 5 heavily armed cops had already seen his entire waist band and there was no gun. Also, the victims light cloths would not support the weight of a gun. there were several ways the cops in this situation could have used their superior numbers to apprehend the kneeling, begging, crawling man they shot to death for allegedly reaching for a gun he clearly did not have.
    Cops do get themselves into some dicy situations. This was not one of them. This shooting was, in my opinion, criminal and the product of a hyped-up coward with his “cool” gun.

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  99. This would seem common sense. He is an OFFICER. Sworn to serve and protect. He is not merely some citizen protecting himself with his home defense tool. Police Officers should avoid things like this that have a “stromtrooper” feel to them. It is not what we want from Police. Similar to Punisher skull stickers on cruisers. It is not the end of the world, but not a smart idea. It gives a very bad impression and muddies the waters needlessly.

    Overall, this story is tragic for everyone. Most of all, the victim. This officer doesn’t seem like some racist exterminator, but he is not the smartest guy I’ve seen and not the best trained. This situation was completely preventable. The victim made mistakes, but so did the shooter.

    • When you’re a 5’8″ aspiring male actor/model who got into the department through nepotism, you have to make sure everyone knows you’re not just some fuckin pleb.

    • Our department has very specific guidelines as to what is and is not acceptable in relation to what is put on vehicles and body armor. Skulls of any type are out, period. They do give the general public that we are purveyors of death, etc which we are not. Any type of profane or suggestive language is not allowed. We are there to help the public and the image of highly trained killers does not encourage the public to reach out to us for help. While we do wear tactical pants, external armor, and tactical boots, we do it out of necessity in a largely rural area where we are highly likely to be slogging through mud, across fields, and through woods, and pastures and the public understands and appreciates this. Departments should avoid things that would give the public any notion other than we are there to serve and protect. That’s what we are sworn to do.

  100. Regardless of what may or may not have been on the firearm, after watching the body cam footage, I am of the opinion that he murdered the man. The shooting was not justified. Proof being the overwhelming presence of officers who none of which found shooting the guy was called for at the time. I am not going to be on his jury so my opinion has no weight. But I do hope he does not get off with anything less than life.

  101. The inscription on the cop’s gun was irrelevant and was not admitted into evidence. Still, it’s not wise to open the door to a prosecutor who wants to make you look bad.

    Prosecutors will use every dirty trick in the book to get their conviction, including breaking the law. Not every prosecutor is a Mike Nifong, but too many are.

    Cops and prosecutors have that much in common.

  102. Brailsford was found not guilty , then Mesa PD rehired him, waited a month , then retired him with a medical claim of PTSD and a police pension !!

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