From: cescript@mtu.edu (Charles Scripter)
Subject: Re: Premeditated Murder - Part 2  (was Re: No charges filed in SWAT killing
Organization: Michigan Technological University
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 23:03:18 GMT

In article <4400220@iftccu.boeing.com>, bressler@iftccu.boeing.com
(Rick Bressler) writes:

> Yes, my idea is that you are an armchair critic, and an ignorant one at
> that.

Oh boy, guys!  My very own flame war!  Temper, temper Rick.  I was asking
for facts, and this wasn't intended as a flame.

> Yes he was trained.  The fact that there was one, fatal shot fired sort
> of shoots holes in your argument, now doesn't it?

No, it shot a hole in the woman who lived in the house.  You had stated that
the _department_ put this weapon in his hands.  This seemed to imply that
Tony was not a regular SWAT member, which was why I asked.

The fact that he fired one fatal shot to a non-combatant sort of shoots
holes in the argument that he was *well* trained.

> BTW, the mp5 is a three shot burst assault rifle, not a true machine
> gun.

OK, so either Tony's weapon misfired (only one, fatal, shot), or Tony
couldn't hold on target, as the MP5 fires 3 shot bursts.  (BTW I always
assumed that weapons that fire bursts were considered class III).

Since Tony's MP5 (assuming it functioned properly) fired 3 rounds, and only
one hit target, the other 2 shots must have been wild.  This seems like
it show a disregard  for the safety of the children in the room.  This
is why I asked whether a semi-auto carbine might be better.

> >> Bear in mind,
> >> Doctors and hospitals deal with life and death situations every day.
> >> They also kill about 160,000 people that wouldn't otherwise die every
> >> year.
> 
> >And doctors are held responsible if their methods were excessive,
> >or incompetant.  And I believe a doctor could be charged with
> >Negligent Homicide, were he sufficeintly incompetant.
> 
> Do the math fool, If we put 160,000 doctors in jail every year, how long [...]

Do the math, fool!  Are all these deaths due to different doctors?  Could
it be that the _same_ doctor could be responsible for multiple deaths?

> would we have doctors?  You said WHAT about doctors being held
> accountable?  Not very damn often!  Only when they do something REALLY
> obvious.

But wait!  You just said that these people wouldn't have died otherwise.
If this is a *verifiable* _fact_, then there is little doubt they can be
charged.  Otherwise you are simply spouting unsupported statistics.

> You have a blind faith in the medical system.

I have no blind faith in the medical system.  Similarly, I have no blind
faith in the police (an you are doing a fine job of reinforcing that lack
of faith).  Nor a blind faith in the government...

> You should apply some of
> your skepticism about the legal system to the medical system.  You
> probably should have more fear of your doctor than your local police.
> You stand a much better chance of being killed by your doctor.....

Nope, I was rather careful about selecting my doctor.  Now if *I* could
be as careful about my police department....

> Actually I'm beginning to believe that much of the problem with this
> thread is that people are equating all them out west states.

Huh?....

> This isn't California.

That's fine... I heard it was Washington.  Does it make a difference?  I
assume that both are part of the United States.

-- 
Charles Scripter   *   cescript@phy.mtu.edu
Dept of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931
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