toy ak-47 courtesy amazon
Courtesy Amazon
Toy AK-47
Courtesy Amazon.com

Imagine this happened today. Then imagine one of these Rhodes scholars pointed a toy gun the wrong way and a cop had opened fire.

One day I was with four friends, the same crew I did drugs and rock ’n’ rolled with. We did everything together. We were young and believed we were invincible.

We drove to the local Toys R Us and bought toy Uzis and AK-47s. It was when you could still buy toy guns that looked like real ones. I can’t remember why we bought them. Really. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you; I honestly can’t remember why.

We were on the 101 Freeway, south of San Francisco. The four of us started waving the toy guns around like we were gangsters. I was behind the wheel, and right in front of us was a sheriff’s transport van driving some prisoners to their new home. I had a thought: How funny would it be if they thought we were criminals about to start some shit? Why not pass, pretend we don’t see them and see what happens?

We pulled up next to them, waved the goddamn toys and then sped up.

I laughed it off. We all did.

Then we noticed they were following us. And once again, we didn’t think anything of it.

We drove a few more miles, right up until their lights started flashing.

“Oh, fuck.”

We pulled into the far right lane and then started pulling over, when a voice said over the loudspeaker: “Go to the next exit, make a right and pull into the parking lot.”

As we turned off the exit, we saw cop cars in front of us. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were more cop cars. And then we were surrounded by cop cars with their doors open, cops with guns drawn and pointed at us.

“Get out of the car and put your hands in the air!”

We opened the car doors and stepped out as slow as molasses. We did not want to die in that parking lot.

“Put your hands in the air now!”

Well, fuck, I thought, how much higher can they go?

“Turn around, up against the car and place your hands on it!”

The cops grabbed the toy guns.

“Who owns the car?” one demanded.

“I do, sir.”

“Open the trunk. What are you doing with these?”

“We bought them for fun … for a party.” At that point, I’d have said anything. I thought we were about to go to prison. Images flashed through my head: strip searches, orange jumpsuits, a pile of blankets and a toothbrush, prison gangs.

“You know you could’ve gotten killed if you made the wrong move. Put them in the trunk when driving.”

The cops returned to their cars and drove off. My friends and I put the toys in the trunk.

I really wasn’t cool as shit. What I really was, was stupid as shit.

– Leslie dela Vega in Going to a Party, Going to Get Shot

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

115 COMMENTS

  1. It’s a good thing that she wasn’t black, they would have just shot her.

    “The shooting of John Crawford III occurred on August 5, 2014. Crawford was a 22-year-old African-American man shot and killed by a police officer in a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton, while he was holding a BB gun that was for sale in the store.[1][2][3][4][5] The shooting was captured on surveillance video and led to protests from groups including the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement.”

    • The fact that everyone knows who George Floyd is, but no clue who Joseph Hutcheson (white man killed by a black cop with knee on his neck and NEVER CHARGED) or Kelly Thomas is shows the extreme ignorance of REALITY and lack of research by the masses. Everyone knows who Mike Brown is, but not Gil Collar(the naked unarmed white teen killed by black cop who was never charged). They know Trayvon Martin but have never heard of Christopher Cervini(unarmed 17 year old white teen shot in the back by black neighborhood watchman who walked free). They know who Eric Garner is but no clue who Ethan Saylor(unarmed white kid with down syndrome choked and beat to death by police). They know who John Crawford is but not Douglas Zerby(unarmed white man killed by police for holding a water nozzle). Everyone knows Walter Scott but clueless about Jason Conoscenti(unarmed white man brutally shot in the back ON CAMERA police never charged….

      • Tucker Carlson made the point a few days ago that police in actuality kill more whites than blacks. On the other hand, the statistics are not in line with demographics; blacks are disproportionately represented in the statistics.

        • Blacks commit 50% of the murders, most blacks killed are by other black, police are 9 times more likely to be killed by a black than blacks are to be killed by police. All from the FBI crime stats. If blacks started to obey police instructions instead of fighting and running maybe things would change.

      • Same can be said for “mass shooters”.
        Everyone knows who Dylan Roof is, but nobody knows who Emanuel Kidega Samson is.
        Same exact thing.

        No Knock Raid:
        Everyone knows who Breonna Taylor is, but nobody knows Duncan Lemp.
        Same exact thing.

        The media has been able to push their political agenda for the left to the most extreme measures and now we have whats taking place in 2020. It WILL get worse. Much worse.

        • The Breonna Taylor raid was not a no knock entry. They had the authority to no knock but chose not to to use it. As Brandon Tatum points out, they did a no knock entry at the stash house and nobody got shot. They announced at Taylor’s residence at got shot at with Taylor dying in the crossfire

        • Of course the boot licker chimes in… I am all for not waiting to find out if something is a toy gun or a real one, but really? They announced it huh? Ok. You know it all huh? When they “announce” themselves, how much time is between the breach and flash bangs? Also, how is it that the one who was firing the shots lived but they killed the woman? Look, we can sit here and debate this whole thing if you really want, but wasn’t this all for SUSPECTED drugs anyways? That they “witnessed” being delivered in packages through the mail? I mean come the fuck on. They had ZERO evidence. Can’t even inspect the packages or “stop and frisk” the suspected package courier? Also, the whole thing is very well documented and proves the police had no intention of doing whatever you think should be protocall for a bullshit no knock warrant. That said, you really want to debate this? Everything I said still stands in the original comment about how similar cases go unnoticed because they don’t fit the agenda. Nice of you to chose the one that was probably the worst example to debate, because it should have never happened. Same with Duncan Lemps no knock raid. Want more examples?

        • Also, the tyrants involved in that no knock lied on the reports too. You clearly have no understanding of the case you are referring to. Walker had legal rights to his firearm, he acted in self defense because there was no answer after the breach from the battering ram that police lied about not using in their reports, shot an innocent unarmed resident 8 times, and guess what: no drugs at either location, and no actual ties to anything the tyrants suspected.

        • I just can’t let this stupid go. You need to look up the facts on that case tdiinva. Whatever you are saying is 100% false. Even fucken wikipedia has better information than the 100% inaccurate crap you listed.

          Expect opposition.

    • Hey remember just a few days ago when you said was Gerald Goines a white officer that killed unarmed black Texans? He’s black.
      Remember when you were shown multiple pictures of him, and you tripled down saying that his skin was darkened in photos and that he was of mixed race and could be considered white?
      Remember when you said that whites have been doing nothing but looking for ways to exploit blacks for their entire history, but then admitted that hundreds of thousands of whites fought and died to abolish slavery?

      You are incapable of seeing the truth, much less telling it. You have zero credibility.

      • This, right here. Nothing worse than a person who tries to sway the argument with spurious hyperbolic claims at every turn, of racism in particular without proof. That alone defines a person as contemptible. Funny thing, that Miner left the scene after proof of his deceptions & manipulations were exposed. I guess the line of thinking is, if he doesn’t acknowledge it, it never happened. Right?

      • Yep, the initial picture I saw, he did look white.
        But it’s no surprise he’s black, there are plenty of unfortunate minority members who externalize their self loathing.

        Oh what a surprise, Gerald is going to prison for killing a white couple, and there’s plenty of publicity about the case as well.
        The main stream media has not ignored the story of the black cop killing a white couple, there’s been many news stories focusing on the case.

        And a black police officer who shot the white woman, claiming that she ‘surprised’ him.
        Plenty of coverage of the black officer killing a white woman, and he was sent to prison so he got no free pass.

        Regarding the Civil War, I thought it wasn’t all about slavery? But we know it really was all about slavery.

        I, along with many other people, gladly acknowledge the sacrifice and contribution of the union soldiers and their families.

        But that doesn’t somehow erase the violence and treason of the hundreds of thousands of Confederate soldiers who fought to perpetuate the tragic sin of slavery.

        Say, I haven’t heard anybody mention Armaud Arbey around here lately… It seems once the full video revealed that the Lynch mob used their trucks to run down Arbey, actually hitting with the truck to cut off his escape it’s gotten very quiet in these parts.

        • There are stories, but they do not get the national coverage or spark the same outrage, even though they are the same thing. That’s the point being made. There is an agenda, and it is biased, and it continues to manipulate the weak willed, including yourself.

          “Black man killed by police” = outrage. Doesn’t matter why. Remove the word police and replace with man, same outrage. The officer or person who did it could be any race.
          “White man killed by police” = nothing. A couple quick page 10 style articles and it’s swept under the rug.

          The race baiting is getting VERY old.

      • Miner
        “Yep, the initial picture I saw, he did look white.”

        And now that’s 4 lies in a row. You were shown multiple photos and kept making up new stories every time, just like you are now.

        Again, you are incapable of seeing the truth. You lie constantly.

    • This kind of willful, repeated, bigoted blindness is why you have negative credibility and respect from me.

      Get bent(er) or straighten up. Your choice. But go away until you choose the latter.

    • The big difference is, they COMPLIED with lawfull orders. THAT is why they were not shot. It has nothing to do with skin color.

      • Brooks:
        Resisted arrest;
        Assaulted two police officers,
        Disarmed one police officer;
        Fired upon the other police officer;
        et al; …

        That can’t end well

    • “The shooting of John Crawford III occurred on August 5, 2014. Crawford was a 22-year-old African-American man shot and killed by a police officer in a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton, while he was holding a BB gun that was for sale in the store.[1][2][3][4][5] The shooting was captured on surveillance video and led to protests from groups including the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement.”

      Hey Whine49er, you’ve gone full blow retarded.
      Crawford was running around the Wal-Mart with a REALISTIC looking “toy” gun, and the employees considered him a theat, causing the LEO to be called.
      He continued running around while attempting to escape when he was shot and killed by the LEOs.
      Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
      Don’t go away mad Whiner49er, just go away.

        • Fun video, would be evidence of something if it included the previous 5 minutes so we could see if the claim of running around the store with the toy scaring everybody was factual or not. And that video sure looks like a 24/7 fixed camera, no reason for it to be clipped at this point unless in an attempt to deceive the viewer. So, Instead, we only see that the entire store is empty for some reason (like maybe some fool has been running around with a gun scaring everybody) except for doofus and a SWAT team. Your post proved nothing.

        • Why did Crawford remove the item from the packaging? Why was he walking around the Wal-Mart swinging it around?
          If he intended to purchase it, why not carry the item (WHILE PACKAGED) to the checkout.
          Again, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
          Sorry Whiner49er, the reality falls short of your leftard adjenda that LEOs are out shooting blacks for no reason.

        • Show me video of him running around the store pointing the gun at people.

          Nothing? No cell phone video no surveillance video? No bodycam video?

          That’s right, cause it didn’t happen. You made it up entirely out of your own delusions. He was standing there, talking on his phone, holding a toy gun. The video proves it.

          In conclusion, eat shit and die copsucker.

    • Because everyone knows you should always remove the BB gun from its packaging and wave it around pointing it at people your way to the till.

  2. If she had been black, she wouldn’t even need to have the gun in her hand, they would’ve just shot her like Tamir Rice.

    “The officers reported that upon their arrival, they both continuously yelled “show me your hands” through the open patrol car window. Loehmann further stated that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw: “I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out.”[11][12][13] In response, the officer shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso.[4][14] He died the following day.”

    • You seem very interested in this subject. Why don’t you log-off and go conduct some field study on it and report back to us in say….. 10-12mos? We’ll hold a spot for you. Have fun!

    • Pity the fool who sees everything as a racial issue. When it’s not they make up stuff to co firm their bias.

    • It is a well established statistical fact that an unarmed white is more likely to be shot by the police than an unarmed black. Given that blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes and therefore have more encounters with the police your claim is falsified .

        • I already covered that. Blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes. This week alone more blacks have killed in gang violence in Chicago than the number of unarmed blacks killed by police last year. These are not uncorrolated facts. The more encounters you have with police the higher the chance that you get shot. Whites. Asians and to large degree Hispanics don’t have a disproportionately smaller chance of encountering the police so they don’t get shot as much relative to their population size.

          Try again.

        • You completely disregarded what he said:

          “It is a well established statistical fact that an UNARMED white is more likely to be shot by the police than an UNARMED black. Given that blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes and therefore have more encounters with the police your claim is falsified.”

          The article you referenced was a total number, not just unarmed. Also from that article was this nugget:

          “Instead of using population, Cesario analyzed variables such as the race of the police officers, crime rates, and the racial demographics of locations where police shootings happened in 2015. From that, he derived that black and Latino victims of police killings were more likely to have been shot by black and Latino cops…”

          That pokes a big fat hole in the “racist whitey hunting down the blacks” narrative that the Left constantly pushes.

        • And you still have no reference. I don’t necessarily agree with Bloomberg but a quick Google search shows otherwise. Try again.

        • @ Dude: It does link to another updated site but don’t see where it breaks down armed and unarmed and race. It also states blacks are shot at a higher rate than whites.

          Look not trying to start a huge arguement but if you are going to make claims at least have links to back them up. I get tired of reading unsubstantiated BS hence my name.

        • McCrystal troll;

          Blacks commit approximately 50% of all murders. (See FBI UCR). If you use that as a proxy for all criminal behavior than blacks are 4x more like to commit crimes than their proportion of the population. That’s probably the floor since more people are willing to knock off the local bodega than kill someone . So according to your study blacks are only 2.9x more like to get shot by the police. That means blacks are less likely to be shot by the police than the rest of the population. It is a necessary condition to encounter the police in the performance of their duties to be shot by them.

        • TheBSonTTAG,
          Do the work. DUDE posted the Washington times article, which includes the real raw data they used, as well as the methodology. Download the .CSV file, open it up in a spreadsheet, and sort the data.
          You’ll find that what TDINVA wrote is accurate. Unarmed whites are shot twice as much as unarmed blacks. If you include Hispanics and Asians, that’s even higher.
          For more narrative destroying fun, look at the state by state breakdown.

        • Would I be correct in saying the yearly toll in Chicago would exceed the deaths in all mass shooting incidents over the last decade?

        • You would be correct if you said that the number of dead and wounded in Chicago since 9-11 exceeds the combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

      • That’s completely false. This is the definitive study. Done by a black man. Its about even when it comes to use of deadly force.

        https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/empirical_analysis_tables_figures.pdf

        You have to love economists. Utility Maximizers. Ha.

        On the most extreme use of force – oficer-involved shootings – we find no racial diferences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account.

        We argue that the patterns in the data are consistent with a model in which police ocers are utility maximizers, a fraction of which have a preference for discrimination, who incur relatively high expected costs of ocer-involved shootings.

    • Hey Miner Vagina, 6% percent of the population commits almost 50% of the homicides. Why is that?

      • He could say it is cultural but it would be racist for us to intervene like colonial imperialists.

      • You say 6% of the population commit 50% of the homicide, but what is your point?

        Are you suggesting that because some black males commit homicide, all black males should be deprived of their civil liberties and due process?

        Interesting concept…

        • If 6% of the population commits homicide far in excess of one would expect based on straight proportionality than it stands to reason that the cops would stop that same 6% more. Not because they have decided “well, we are going to harass this racial group more” but because that group is committing more crime.

          You seem to be under the impression that the police should get up, go on the highway and stop every fifth car randomly. That’s not how it works. The police interact with people more when people break the law.

        • I think you see the point and don’t want to address it. Much easier to just blame whitey.

    • 86 other people, including “kids” the same age as Tamir, were shot for brandishing toy guns that year. Have you cared to make a case about any of those? Nope… only the one that fits the agenda, right?

      • False equivalence, 12-year-old TAmir never brandished any weapon.

        Can you think of a situation where a 12-year-old white boy was shot to death for having an airsoft pistol?

        • He reached for the gun in his waistband. Probably scared and trying to get rid of it, but still, reached for it when told to put his hands up. Officer only fired two shots, and I am sure they were hard shots to fire but in that split second, would you wait for the “brandishing” or consider reaching enough of a threat? If my life is on the line: kid, women, adult… doesn’t matter. Don’t reach. And yes, plenty of white people. 86 total, so I am sure there are some white races in there, right? I am sure you can google up some within 2014, or any year for that matter, that are not black if it makes you feel better. But here is proof Tamir reached for it: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/video-shows-cleveland-officers-shooting-boy-holding-toy-gun/#x
          Also plenty of proof it was brandished. Do you even know the cases you comment on, or do you and tdiinva just spout of some random shit?

        • Do you think you would hear about it in the national media if there was?

          Doubt it.

          Have you heard of Antonio Arce? Two years older. But then again maybe white 12 year olds are less likely to be playing with replica handguns in high-crime areas.

  3. I remember growing up in the 50’s and playing toy guns. Good guys and bad guys. We got toy guns for Xmas and we played with them. We never had any issues with the police because I believe they were smart enough to know these poor neighborhood kids can’t have guns. We had cap guns and daisy air rifles with a pin through the top of the barrel. We would put dirt in the barrel and shoot dirt. Never hurt anyone. It was good fun.
    Today is a new age and everyone is skeptical. But their was a time when playing guns was fun. I can’t believe America has changed so much. Most of my buddies that played guns, also played baseball, football, stick ball, hop scooch and other cheap games. Most of us went on to join the military. Some went to Nam and never came back alive.

    • Living and growing up in a small town, I remember us taking our 22’s and walking down the street and after a couple of miles going rabbit hunting. Nothing ever said.

    • I grew up in the 50s and had cap guns, a small rifle that shot a cork attached to a string. I also made a cannon on wheels from a piece of water pipe that would shoot a marble. Never had even one problem with enforcement or neighbors. The difference now is, so many are afraid, or so they say, of things that they call enforcement over, many times, nothing of any consequence.

      • I had a CO2 BB pistol, when the CO2 cartridge was empty my brother took it and filled it with a mixture of fertilizer and sugar he mixed up (ended up graduating in chemistry) and stuck a cherry bomb fuze in it, was a pretty good impression of a pipe bomb, probably approximated a 1/4 stick of dynamite, really had some power. Great times. He didn’t come back from ‘Nam, died right on 50 years ago this month.

        • shit. sounds like he would have been a fun uncle.
          i hate when siblings go missing.
          bittersweet remembrances.

    • Jim Hutter:
      “I remember growing up in the 50’s and playing toy guns.”

      In our neighborhood we were playing “army” in the immediate post-war era of the late 1940s and into the early 1950s. We couldn’t get genuine pot metal cap pistols before the war was over and had to settle for wood or paper mache. Later on, some of our neighborhood “battles” were also waged with water pistols made out of steel stampings by Daisy. Can’t recall ever even seeing a cop while any of it was going on.

  4. As a child of the Sixties, we played with cap guns, BB guns and pellet guns. Out in public! Even as a child, I knew the difference between pointing them at each other and pointing them at a police car driving by! Never put any eyes out either, though there were many bruises.

    • Right! How many times did we hear, “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye!”

      Maybe we just got lucky, but nobody lost an eye!

      • one of the two sevonovitch brothers lost an eye in a bb gun battle.
        i have a cpd friend who is blind in one eye from a paintball. not sure how he got on the force…
        my one buddies daughter stared down a paintball gun barrel. she set it off, no idea how she retained her sight. very fortunate.
        we used to have dart fights until i stuck one in a kids forehead. when his grandma yanked it out it sam peckinpawed for a second. just saw him at a high school reunion, little chicken pock lookin’ scar still.

    • Yep I had a quite realistic Mattell 38. And a toy machine gun. That’d get my 9 year old azz killed now. Even in my Leave it to Beaver neighborhood I grew up in. Reality sux…

    • True of the 70’s kids as well. But then, we weren’t dipshit’s pointing them at anyone, except each other who were playing the game. Especially not LEO’s, like these in the story.

      Way back then, we had 2 officers who patrolled the neighborhoods around a friends house during the day shift. Once upon a time out of the blue, they pulled up skidding to a stop, lights flashing, & the wailer going one fine summer day. They hopped out, positioned behind the doors of the patrol car & presented those cap guns so we could clearly see them. We giggled furiously at the ludicrous spectacle of such tiny toys in their giant seeming hands. Then everyone opened up. 😀

      They used to stop by and play with us for a few minutes every other week or so. Lost track of them after my friends family moved out to Texas, never to be seen again. Not much call to go back to the neighborhood, no kids there to play with, so we drifted away & lost contact with the officers.

  6. Just checked out that website and found this gem:
    Racism Is a National Security Problem
    https://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/racism-is-a-national-security-problem/341065/

    “As an African American, I see racism through a personal and emotional prism, but as a foreign affairs specialist I also see it as a national security vulnerability for the United States.”

    This is similar to what I have previously stated on here. The only problem is the author is oblivious to the actual problem. It isn’t that “racism” is a national security issue, it’s that Leftism is a national security issue. Our foreign adversaries have discovered how easy it is to manipulate the woke crowd. The Left is the weak link.

    “IRA Facebook groups mimicked genuine social organizations and included, among others, purported Black social justice groups such as “Black Matters US,” “Blacktivist” and “Don’t Shoot Us,” with the latter having more than 250,000 followers. Its largest Instagram account, @blackstagram_, had more than 300,000 followers and 28 million interactions. Even media outlets and high-profile Americans re-tweeted postings made from IRA Twitter accounts and sometimes attributed them to the reactions of real people, further demonstrating the reach of the Russian campaign.”

  7. “..when you could still buy toy guns that looked like real ones”

    Did Umarex go out of business?

  8. When I was a kid we had our cap pistols. We didn’t think of them as “guns”, we thought of them as cap pistols. They were sized for a child. We’d play around and run around and nobody thought anything bad about it. We’d argue if it still counted when we ran out of caps and yelled “BANG! BANG!” instead. The cap guns were soft metal and plastic parts. The metal of the six shooters deformed with many firings, it could not stand being struck by its own hammer.

    Hard to imagine the toys of that era, so distant now, being thought of by anyone as a real firearm.

    This is one thing that I am saddened to see, the foolishness of toys made to appear real, even sized real. I do not get that at all, makes no sense to me, stupid stuff as obvious as a brick thru a plate glass window.

    Youngsters should have access to and training with real guns. Carefully and well structured and looked after to be safe and learn responsibility. Happened to us back then.

    Nowadays a parent would buy a kid a plastic AK or AR and paint the orange parts black for more realistic play. I mean I have seen that, and it floors me.

    My daughter was in Air Force JrROTC, High School. She loved it. Needed a drill rifle. I found one on eBay, one of the metal and hard cast rubber or plastic 1903 look-a-likes. From a distance it looks very real. I cleaned it up, used it was very dirty and scuffed from drill practice. Last thing I did before wrapping her present was paint the last several inches of the barrel bright orange.

    Just in case some fool would spot her practicing her drill moves, wanted lots of orange at the end of it.

    Because toys no longer look like toys, and many are now of real gun sizes too.

    Stupid.

    • So it’s the fault of the manufacturer if someone does something stupid with a realistic replica firearm and gets shot because of it?

      In all the large scale, recreational war gaming scenarios in which I’ve partaken, nobody has ever caught a bullet, even though our replicas are effectively indistinguishable from the real thing. Why? Because we’re not idiots

    • When I was a kid you could get realistic looking Thompsons, 1911s, Model 19s and about 1960 an M14. I had them all.

  9. Police training funds have repeatedly cut by DEMOCRATs. LEOs don’t even know how to handle their firearms because there is no range time. Many LEOs treat their firearms the same as their radios or handcuffs. Worse, due to DEMOCRAT cuts in training, many newbies don’t even know what are the laws they are to enforce. Look at the (12) worse crime level cities, in the USA, and they are all cities that have been DEMOCRAT controlled for decades. DEMOCRATs are supporting Felons instead of LEOs!

    That why now kids with toy guns get shot, but Felons with illegal REAL firearms are turned loose with a $100 bail. As example, Felons with stolen guns have been released numerous times in cities like Chicago, but DEMOCRATs don’t want legal gun ownership.

    • Maybe you should look at Police budgets in those cities, because reality is calling, it’s saying your full of crap. Police spending is UP, way up, in those cities. Training has increased in those cities, outcomes are not changing. Is it a cop problem, crime problem, culture problem, government problem? Probably.

      So throwing money at the problem isn’t the answer, and the thing your claiming that is not actually happening, so maybe the thing you’re claiming has happened should be tried, or something else, or this is just the reality.

      • Democrat mayor increases budget of his police chief buddy, who passes on largesse to his police training associates, while nobody actually does *anything* about crime control, cook the books and get reelected to increase all budgets, Democrats have been mastering this play for near a century with leading edge in NYC and Chicago crime bosses.

      • Budgets have certainly increased; but is that going into training better use of force or does it get spread out to bring in community activists and spend a certain amount of hours on diversity training?

    • Atlanta Police Department budget in 2009 was $172,494,444. For 2021 it’s $217,565,960, an increase of 5.9% over 2020.

      Police budgets are up nationwide.

      Crime is down nationwide.

      Gun ownership is up nationwide.

      A little searching about the interwebs is quick, easy and reveals a shit ton of facts. If you are not lazy that is.

  10. Off topic… Kind of! I saw this picture:

    https://www.mcclatchy-wires.com/incoming/aoerhj/picture243593077/alternates/LANDSCAPE_1140/NC_Deployment_COVID_25030.jpg

    in a news article, with a caption of:

    > A paratrooper assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina’s 82nd Airborne Division participates in rollover training on Thursday, May 14, 2020. The exercise is meant to simulate what can happen if a vehicle hits an improvised explosive device. Over the next month, the division will send over two thousand soldiers to the Middle East for a nine-month deployment.

    What the *heck* is that training rifle? I’m familiar with the deactivated ones, and blue/red ones, but I never saw one of the rubbery green ones before. I’m assuming it’s so nobody gets hurt by a hard object in the rollover training.

    If this isn’t nicknamed a “Gumby Gun”, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

  11. What do you mean? I cant turn my 12 year old loose in a major metropolitan area to point the same type of toy firearm at passersby?

  12. The Left wing Supreme Court (including Roberts) just ruled that an Executive Order can’t rescind an Executive Order. Well, an E.O. can’t remove the ones they like anyway. This sounds like yet another dangerous precedent. Who’s really in charge in this country, anyway?

    “The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the administration acted arbitrarily when it moved to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, failing to offer an adequate explanation for doing so.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-blocks-trump-cancellation-of-daca-immigration-program-11592489280

  13. This is fun!

    Charlotte, NC: In 2019 122 murders by guns.

    “Police Chief Kerr Putney has criticized judges granting bail to people charged with murder, denounced the rate of dismissed criminal charges by Mecklenburg County prosecutors and called for more investment in community groups, especially those that mentor young black men.”

    Of those charged with murder, 13 had previously been arrested for illegal carrying and were out on bail (or no bail) when they were arrested again for murder.

    In Charlotte, NC you stand a pretty good chance of being released after being arrested for carrying an illegal gun.

    No riots, no damage, just candle light vigils in some cases.

    So our culture now says don’t be a white cop killing a black man. OTOH, black on black is okay…..no outrage.
    The info here is from a newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer, the article elicited very little comment from the community so I guess the killing will go on, unabated.

    • “Charlotte, NC: In 2019 122 murders by guns”
      Wrong. Guns are inanimate objects incapable of committing murders. Make that 122 murders WITH guns.

  14. In Santa Rosa California a few years back a teenager was walking down the street with a realistic looking AK. his lacked the orange tip mandated by California law (it had broken off). A police officer pulls up, jumps out of his car with his pistol drawn, and orders the young man to put his hands in the air. The young man, whose back was to the officer, turned to see what the fuss was, why someone was yelling at him. the officer shot him dead.

    Tamir Rice (Cleveland as I recall) was at a bus stop with anm air soft glock. A man in an apartment across the street called 911, but did say that he thought the gun the kid was pointing in all directions was a toy. That message never made it to the police officers who pulled up, leaped from their car, and shot him dead. toy guns are hazardous to the health of our children.

    • “toy guns are hazardous to the health of our children.”

      Are you sh!tt!ng me? Those two “children” weren’t shot by toy guns or because of toy guns. They were shot by cops with real guns, no effective training and insufficient regard for human life.

    • 12 year olds shoot people in the ‘hood.

      If somebody points a realistic looking gun at you then you are not obligated to wait until he pulls the trigger to find out if it’s real. If you are worried it’s just a toy just depart the area. If it’s real just hope he missed.

      • Tamir didn’t pull the air soft, much less point it.

        The LEO claimed he saw him reach for it.

        • False. They just didn’t bump into him on the street. They responded to 911 call about some kid waving a pistol around.

          You don’t GAF about black lives. If you were, you be protesting gang violence. Now STFU racist.

        • tp, you are wrong, the officers testified that he looked like he was going to drawl the airsoft pistol. He never drew the pistol and never pointed it at the police officers:

          “The officers reported that upon their arrival, they both continuously yelled “show me your hands” through the open patrol car window. Loehmann further stated that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw: “I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out.”[11][12][13] In response, the officer shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso.[4][14] He died the following day.”

          tp, do you comprehend the written English language? Do you know what the word ‘brandishing‘ means?

          “I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out.”

          The 12-year-old had not drawn the weapon, much less pointed it at the officers, when they made the decision to shoot him.

          You know, you folks call me a troll when I post facts that conflict with your opinion. When you resort to name calling, it’s a clear indicator that your argument has no merit or validity.

        • Miner, see my above response with video evidence. You are wrong here. I mean, I won’t debate you on how much of an idiot tdiinva is, but the video shows him brandishing (why the call was made), then when the officers pull up he reaches for it. You don’t reach unless you want to get shot. That should be obvious to someone like you who frequents here. No amount of debating will ever win that scenario. If you are told show your hands, and the call was for having a gun in and out of the waistband…. c’mon… you want a pop-up book? Maybe you are thinking he had to brandish it at police, or point it at police? No. the body language in the video says all it needs to.

        • “Maybe you are thinking he had to brandish it at police, or point it at police? No. the body language in the video says all it needs to.”

          So the cops shot him, even though they had not seen him with a weapon in his hand, much less brandishing a weapon.

          You know, the police actually used to say things like ‘drop the gun!’ or ‘freeze and put down the weapon!’

          But they gave this 12-year-old less than two seconds to comply and then shot him, even though he had not touched a weapon, much less threatened a police officer with a weapon.

          No, I can’t agree that is justified.

          And I’m still looking for a situation where a white youth is shot for possessing an airsoft pistol.

        • I already provided you one. Here is another: Antonio Arce. So far, two people have found them so that just shows you are refusing to look.

          Also, the cop did see a gun, and the kid did reach for it. Did you refuse to watch the video too?

          Come on man, quit fucken around if you are gonna troll, at least do it right like I do to Grim Reaper. The refusal to accept proven evidence is just childish.

      • In the Crawford killing, the victim did not remove the BB gun from the packaging or point the gun at anyone. And the police shot him without ever giving him a meaningful opportunity to comply with their instructions:

        “Crawford picked up an un-packaged BB/pellet air rifle inside the store’s sporting goods section and continued shopping in the store. Another customer, Ronald Ritchie, called 9-1-1 claiming that Crawford had been pointing the gun at fellow customers.[10] Security camera footage showed that Crawford was talking on his cellphone and holding the BB gun as he shopped, but at no point did he aim the BB gun at anyone. After the security camera footage was released, Ritchie recanted his statement that led to the fatal shooting and stated, “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody”, while maintaining that Crawford was “waving it around”.[11]

        Two officers of the Beavercreek Police arrived at the Walmart shortly after their dispatcher informed them of a “subject with a gun” in the pet supplies area of the store. Sean Williams, one of the two police officers that arrived, shot Crawford in the arm and chest. Crawford was later pronounced dead at Dayton’s Miami Valley Hospital.[12]

        A second person, Angela Williams, died after suffering a heart attack while fleeing from the shooting. Her death was ruled a homicide (which legally means only that the death was as a direct result of the actions of another and does not imply guilt or responsibility on anyone’s part).[13]

        Police account Edit
        According to initial accounts from Officer Williams and the other officer involved, David Darkow, Crawford did not respond to verbal commands to drop the BB gun and lie on the ground, and eventually began to move as if trying to escape. Believing the BB gun was a real firearm, one of the officers fired two shots into Crawford’s torso and arm. He died of his injuries shortly afterwards.[14][15]

        Store video Edit
        The shooting was captured by the store’s security video camera.[16] Crawford was talking on his cell phone while holding the BB/Pellet air rifle when he was shot to death by Williams.[17] The video shows the officers fired immediately without giving any verbal commands and without giving Crawford any time to drop the BB gun even if he had heard them.[18]“

        Read that again, they shot him without warning, and yet no charges, amazing.

        “The video shows the officers fired immediately without giving any verbal commands and without giving Crawford any time to drop the BB gun even if he had heard them”

  15. Miner whiner is a troll. He hijacks the comments. This piece was about someone making a stupid decision with toy firearms and he immediately throws a derogatory race card down. Best bet is to ignore him and the others that hijack comments for divisive narrative building. There are several countries sponsoring and running large scale social media troll operations right now taking advantage of the current atmosphere, trying to further divide the US. While some aspects are sophisticated information operation campaigns, others are simplistic. Miner’s behavior smacks of it.

    BTW, dont show me bs articles from news rags,, or take one incident and inductively extrapolate that event across the board as proof of something. That is how the media creates the propaganda they create. If you want to sway my opinion show me the peer reviewed studies because the ones ive seen along with the UCR stats clearly do not support a narrative that black men are being targeted by police or are more likely to be killed by them. Its an issue the marxist BLM is using to further a marxist agenda.

  16. Want to understand what a leftard shill/tool Whiner49er REALLY is?
    Just go back and look at TTAG comment sections where he stopped responding because his BS was disproven or called out, he shuts down and moves to the next TTAG story comment section.
    When everyone has moved on (days and sometimes weeks later), he goes back and leaves lame ass rebuttals, knowing full well most here on TTAG calling out his BS will never see them.
    What a pathetic worm.

      • Plenty of TTAG comment sections from late ’19 and early ’20.
        You can search them.
        I called you on your “back comments” a few times this year, no response from you at all.

        • I like your term, ‘back comments‘.

          You see, I don’t post empty, rumor laden rants.

          I take the time to do the research, find the citations and provide direct quotes from the text. That usually takes slightly more time then the average attention span of most on this forum, which seems remarkably short.

  17. In the early 80’s I had a rad, black, full-auto Uzi water squirt gun. My friends and I would play with our toy guns in the park. Definitely a different time.

    • Same. Also in CA at the time. But usually when it’s a group of kids walking around and the toy guns looked like something out of hollywood, and we didn’t try to conceal them like gangbangers (probably what he saw his daddy do, or in a movie) it’s a little different. I also can’t recall every taking something like that, or even a BB gun, outside of the property I lived on or the apartment complex. Most squirt guns were also super soaker style, and I’m pretty sure my parents knew everything in my room and that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to act like a toy gun was a real one in public. I guess what I am getting at is: parenting. It helps.

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