Police officer on patrol

The story coming out of California is that a pro-Israel rally turned violent when a group of Palestine supporters approached a pro-Israel demonstration in Los Angeles Sunday and, well, predictably erudite discussion and debate on the situation in the Middle East ensued. The situation, ironically similar to what’s going on in the holy land at the moment, was at a flashpoint when a federal agent got involved and fired his weapon . . .

From news.yahoo.com:

The altercation Sunday evening grew out of a shouting match between the occupants of two vehicles that escalated when several people from one vehicle were assaulted by suspects in the other, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.

An officer of the Federal Protective Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who witnessed the assault intervened and fired his weapon, but no one was hit by gunfire or otherwise injured, Sheriff’s Sergeant Carmen Arballo said.

Predictably, the officer in question hasn’t been named.

A Federal Protective Service spokeswoman in Washington, Jacqueline Yost, said the officer fired one shot from his service weapon in an attempt to stop the four suspects as they were trying to flee the scene in a vehicle.

The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending a review of the incident by his agency, and an investigation by the Los Angeles sheriff’s office, Yost said.

Thus is revealed once more the double standard with defensive gun uses in California. A police officer fires a warning shot and, relatively speaking, no one bats an eye. But if a citizen uses a firearm for the same purpose, everyone loses their minds and it becomes an argument for the abolition of civilian owned firearms.

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50 COMMENTS

    • Yep, and they are spinning it too. More than likely was a negligent discharge when the person in question ran along with his finger on the trigger or was an aimed shot that missed the mark. I would make the guess that it was a ND as for now only one shot was fired.

      Too bad that all officers in the Peeplos Republik of Kalifornia are exempt from prosecution.

    • The Federal Protective Service is just another one of these little-known armed Federal ‘police’ forces. They are charged with the site security of Federal buildings, like Social Security Admin, Immigration, Federal Courhouses, etc. In practice, there’s only about 1,200 of them for the whole NATION! If you have had business in such a facility, you’ll note they’re universally staffed with an armed-guard or two at the entrance to scan and search entrants, NOT police officers.
      \
      Well, those otherwise private security officers are ‘supervised’ by the FPO’s, who travel around from site to site. They also have to stay on top of the surveillance gear, fire equipment, etc…from what I understand. So far as I know, they do go through FLETC, but they have no ‘police’ functions aside from what’s limited to a facility.

  2. Remember that reader survey that said a lot of us read this from work. It would be great if you would refrain from putting auto play ads and videos on the site.

  3. Does shooting generally cause people to cease their flight from a scene of violence?

  4. Was this a warning shot, or a miss? There’s a lot missing from this story… and it takes a lot of justification to legally open fire on someone fleeing ever since Tennessee v Garner.

  6. Funny … Historically a lot of immigrants to the US come here to get away from crap like this.

    And violent ethnic/religious/whatever street mobs, too, for that matter…

    • Religious fanatics are on my list of “stupid people doing stupid things in stupid places” list. And I include militant atheists on that list also. In fact, I avoid any group of people that gather together for any self promoted protest for anything. The only crowds I am willing to be a part of anymore are groups of people that gather to watch a concert, sporting event, or tourist attraction. Without that outside generated “event”, I have come to think of mobs of people as exactly that, a mob…… not to be trusted or be a part of or even be near to. When I see six people and one is obviously drunk, or angry, or agitated, or in any sort of conflict with the other 5, I’m already making my exit. You will never see me standing around in the crowd taking cell phone photos of street fights, car bombs, sword slinging ninjas, flash mobs or gay pride parades. I’m a BIG old fat white guy (6′-3″ at 305 lb), and if any of you see me at such an event gone bad, you can escape by following the hole I make in the crowd as I escape.

    • Yes, BREAKING NEWS! A SHOOTING OCCURRED! First time!,…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. since yesterday

  9. Nick

    I take it reading Orwell’s Animal Farm was not part of your high school English coursework?

  10. I feel sorry for the unnamed officer. It must be hell going through life without a name. If TTAG decides to have a “Name the Officer” contest, I’ll vote for “Barney Fife.”

    Please send me a SIG.

  11. He is an officer in LA and he only shot one shot for no reason? He must not fit in well with his department.

    • Actually, his gun probably jammed, and he could only get off one shot (gun he stole from a buy back thingy)

    • The officer was running around, looking for two Asian newspaper delivery women in an SUV, when BOOM! The gun just went off.

  12. Hate to ruin your journalistic integrity…but that’s not a federal officer up top…it’s a constable from the London Metropolitan Police…but hell, any pig will do right?

  13. So… I was reading about this incident and was wondering why the pro-Israel protestors didn’t defend themselves. Then I noticed that this took place in LA, gun control mission accomplished. Next up, there will be CA codes on cattle cars used for transport of “undesirables”…

    • I’m gonna go with they didn’t “defend” themselves because they were the aggressors:

      “A pro-Israel demonstration outside a federal building Sunday in Westwood turned physical after protesters ripped a Palestinian flag away from a passing vehicle and began stomping on it, according to media reports. People in the vehicle got out and tried to retrieve the flag at about 5:45 p.m. and that’s when the confrontation turned physical, KNBC-TV Channel 4 reported.”

  14. Since the damn things seem to off by themselves so often, maybe we should have an “irresponsible gun of the week”…

  15. I woulda stomped on that Palestinian flag too, then again I’ve torn down Mexican, Japanese, and most importantly Chinese, flags in my city when their being flown above the US flag or in stead of te American flag.

    I also continue to wonder why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, other than a good excuse for white people to get wasted, there is zero point to celebrate Mexicos independence.

    • Also, you would have worn yourself out in my neighborhood last Sunday, what with all the German flags people were waving out of their cars.

      Truth be told, though, what you’re claiming to have engaged in is criminal mischief, destruction of property and, most importantly, an insult to the very freedom our flag represents.

      And lest you cite the Flag Code, same does not have the force of law with regard to private individuals.
      In other words, while you (and I) might not like people flying a foreign flag, especially higher than the U.S. flag, there’s nothing we legally can or should do about.

      Engaging in vandalism, like you have, is no more than anti free speech thuggery and does nothing to honor our flag, our country and our constitution.

    • You do know that Cinco de Mayo does not celebrate Mexico’s Independence? Better to appear an idiot than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

  16. Woah, this happened 45 miles from my house and I first heard about it on TTAG. For the record, most of the DHS / Federal Officers are borderline retarded. I just returned from a Flagstaff / Phoenix college tour with my son. Flagstaff PD may have some job openings. This would be a great state if not for the politicians. And the crime. And traffic. And taxes.

  17. Was it a cap-pistol? If not, that bullet went somewhere! WTF! Does Biden train these guys?

  18. So he hit what he aimed at – the ground. HSLD SUPERIOR FEDERAL MARKSMANSHIP SKILLZ!!!!

  21. Alpo, here’s the the thing, I don’t care if tearing down is being a thug. As for my handle on here, it is a working title for a book myself and a buddy of mine who served as a Marine from 2000-2012, so I hope that explains that.

    Dave in VA, I thought we were done using facts to make a point? Or is that just the other side?

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