Now, since I rarely do sports stories here, I need to tell you my qualifications to be commenting on NFL football.  I watched 10 minutes of a football game this season.  In a doctor’s waiting room, and it may have been a college game.  I don’t know.  I just looked it up to see whether the Super Bowl had been played yet this year.  It hasn’t.  In other words, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Nevertheless, let me tell you this:  The management of the Seahawks thinks that somehow they are going to take a wildly successful college football coach and turn him into a wildly successful NFL football coach.  For the sake of the team, I hope it works out for them.  But as a student of history, I have a story to tell.

Once upon a time, there was a college football coach named Dennis Erickson.  He was a great college coach, taking Idaho to the I-AA playoffs, turning Washington State University’s team from a mediocre team into a bowl team, and winning multiple national titles with the University of Miami.  Yeah, that Dennis Erickson.  So, some team called the Seattle Seahawks hired him, and he failed with them miserably.  Yup.  So, he went back to college football, took Oregon State University from being perennial losers and turning them into a bowl team, and one that could win into the future.  So another NFL team stole him away (the San Francisco 49ers) and, predictably, he did miserably again.

There’s a moral to this story.  A great college coach doesn’t necessarily make a great NFL coach.  And all too often, history tends to repeat itself if we don’t bother to learn it’s lessons.  I, for one, won’t be holding my breath.  But I will still wish Mr Carroll luck.

Not that I care.

Share via email

The original news articles appeared online in venues that allowed for readers to leave their comments. In many cases, readers noted that, since they had nothing to hide, then they would not mind being stopped and investigated as to whether or not they were guilty of a crime. I still believe that an officer should have good cause for stopping someone and asking them to prove that they are not criminals. While I would freely allow for any situation that preserves officer safety, provides for immediate public safety, or will help find a serious criminal quickly, I do have a problem with random (or not-so-random) fishing expeditions.

If you have such complete trust in being randomly questioned by law enforcement, I would like to remind you that we don’t live in Mayberry anymore. I tripped over the following article online, and I would like to share it with you. I haven’t done anything wrong, either. I simply fear those who might think so, and act before they ask questions. I would like to share this article with you here.

Americans Are Living (And Dying) In A Militarized Police State
By Dave Gibson
May 05, 2008
Today, police departments across the United States more closely resemble an occupying army than they do public servants responding to calls for help. Police officers can now be seen wearing helmets and body armor and carrying AR-15′s, just to deliver simple warrants. The militarization of our police departments not only gives the appearance of a military dictatorship but places the public at great risk.

No less than 70 percent of U.S. cities now have SWAT teams. In cities with a population of 50,000 or more, 90 percent have SWAT teams.

Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter Kraska told the Washington Post that SWAT teams are currently sent out 40,000 times a year in the U.S. During the 1980′s, SWAT teams were only used 3,000 times a year. Most of the time, SWAT teams are being sent out to simply serve warrants on non-violent drug offenders.

Many municipalities are using Homeland Security grants to even purchase large armored vehicles. The Pittsburgh Police Department now uses their 20-ton armored truck complete with rotating turret and gun ports to deliver many of their warrants. Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Barry Budd recently told the Associate Press: “We live on being prepared for ‘what if’.”

Our police departments now regularly receive free surplus equipment from the U.S. military, which they readily accept. The training being given at many police academies appears to be the type of tactics one would use in Baghdad, rather than Baltimore. It would seem that our police officers are being readied for war, with the American public as the enemy. In the last several years, there has been a transformation from community policing to pre-emptive assaults

On January 24, 2006, Dr. Salvatore Culosi was shot and killed outside his house by a Fairfax County SWAT officer. Police used the SWAT team to serve a documents search warrant, after Dr. Culosi came under suspicion for taking sports bets. The investigation began after Fairfax Detective David Baucom solicited a bet with Dr. Culosi at a local sports bar.

Dr. Culosi was standing outside his home while talking with Det. Baucom, when SWAT Officer Deval Bullock quickly approached with his gun drawn and fatally shot Dr. Culosi in the chest. Court documents report that Culosi never made any threatening movements and made no attempt to run as he watched the SWAT team move in around him.

Dr. Culosi had no history of violence nor any criminal history whatsoever. He operated two successful optometry clinics at Wal-Marts in Manassas and Warrenton, Va. His parents have filed a $12 million lawsuit against the county of Fairfax, Va.

On the night of January 17, 2008, a police SWAT team surrounded Ryan Frederick´s home in Chesapeake, Va. The police were there to serve a drug warrant based on a tip from a criminal informant.

As usual, 28 year-old Ryan Frederick had gone to sleep early in order to leave the house before dawn for his job with a soda distributor. He awoke to a commotion of screams and the distinct sound of someone breaking down his front door.

Frederick´s house had been broken into a few days earlier, being a slight man of only a little over 100 pounds, Frederick feared for his safety. After the break-in, he purchased a gun.

Understandably frightened, Frederick grabbed his gun and when he got to the front of his house, he saw a man trying to crawl through the bottom portion of his door. Terrified that the intruders had returned, he fired.

The man he shot was not an aggressive burglar, nor a drug-crazed murderer, he was Det. Jarrod Shivers. The police detective and military veteran died almost immediately. Frederick was charged with first-degree murder and now sits in a jail cell awaiting trial.

As for the marijuana-growing operation for which police were looking, nothing was found. Only a very small amount of marijuana was discovered on the Frederick property, only enough to charge him with misdemeanor possession. Frederick has admitted that he uses marijuana occasionally but has never been involved with producing nor selling the drug.

Ryan Frederick has no prior history of violence, nor any criminal history whatsoever. He took care of his grandmother until her death two years ago, had a full-time job, and recently became engaged. In his spare time, he worked in his yard and tended to his Koi pond…Not quite the drug kingpin type!

However, based solely on the word of an informant, police obtained a warrant and stormed into this man´s house in the dark of night. The information turned out to be false, a police officer and father of three is dead, and a decent young man´s life is now over.

When Ryan Frederick awoke to the sounds of his home being invaded, he did what many of us would do. He acted reasonably when he grabbed his gun to defend himself and fired at a man who he believed was breaking into his home to do him harm.

Had the police simply went to his home during the daytime and knocked on his door, they could have questioned Frederick and found their information to be groundless. A little traditional police work could have saved the life of a police officer and the Shivers and Frederick families would have remained whole.

The Ryan Frederick story is truly frightening because this same scenario could play itself out in your home or mine. In the age of militarized police departments, we are all in danger.

Here are a few more recent victims of our militarized police departments:

Cheryl Lynn Noel, a mom who was shot by police for picking up her legally registered handgun. She went for her gun to defend herself after a SWAT team in the middle of the night, broke into her Baltimore, MD home. Police stormed her house that night because they claim to have found marijuana seeds in the family’s trash can.

Rev. Acelyne Williams, 75 of Boston, died of a heart attack as a SWAT team broke into his home. Police actually had the wrong address.

92 year old Kathryn Johnston who was so fearful that she never left her home and would only open her door after friends who placed her groceries on the front porch had left, was killed by an Atlanta SWAT team last year. An erroneous tip from an informant was enough for the Atlanta Police Department to invade her home. Police have since admitted to lying to obtain a search warrant and to planting drugs in her home after killing her.

In 2006, a 52 member SWAT team stormed into a Denver home in search of a friendly small-stakes poker game. The same thing happened a few months later when SWAT and K-9 units barged in on a charity poker game in Baltimore.

When someone straps on body armor and large caliber weapons, their adrenalin levels begin to surge. As they arrive at the scene, those levels increase. When these now militarized police officers actually break into a dark home and begin shouting at terrified citizens, severe injury and death is likely to occur. It is beyond reason to employ these tactics on anyone other than hardened, violent criminals.

SWAT teams were created in the wake of the 1966 University of Texas sniper shooting spree by ex-marine Charles Whitman. Police did not have the firepower to reach Whitman, who was perched atop the 27-story clock tower. Civilians with hunting rifles came to the scene and joined with police in the effort to stop Whitman. Eventually, police officers and a well-armed citizen scaled the stairs of the tower and killed Whitman, but not before he killed 17 people and injured another 31. As a result of the incident, police departments began to assemble small teams of highly trained officers with equipment specific to sniper shootings, hostage situations, bank robberies, etc.

SWAT teams were designed to deal with very violent individuals who represent a clear and present threat to the public. However, they are now being used to execute warrants on non-violent offenders and even those who have no prior criminal history at all. Turning our neighborhood cops into shock troops will do nothing but erode public confidence in the police and endanger the lives of innocent Americans.

Recently, Boston´s new police commissioner William Fitchet announced that the department´s Street Crimes Unit will begin wearing military-style black uniforms, to instill a sense of “fear.” At last week´s city council meeting, police Sgt. John Delaney told council members that the black uniforms would send the message that officers were serious.

Did someone declare martial law?

Share via email

Hockey’s regular season is coming to an end. I have had some recent disappointments, as the seasons for my favoured teams have come to a premature end. In both cases, their seasons ended before the playoffs began.

I’ll start with the Portland Winterhawks, the Junior A team in my current community. I have enjoyed watching Western Hockey League games in many towns where I have lived over the years and I know full well that you take your chances in rooting for “your team” in any given year. these are all 16-to-20-year-old kids out there playing, about the highest level that kids of this age can attain. The kids are chosen for teams by being placed on a list by scouts for one or another team, often years before they turn 16. this makes it very possible that a team will have some great years at times and some not-so-great teams in other years. Despite the three Memorial Cup banners hanging from their rafters, this was a not-so-great year for the Winterhawks.

I have always gone to the Junior games rooting for the home team, that’s just what you do. But I’m really there just to watch a bunch of great kids play a great game. So I’m not really rooting against the visiting team. It’s just nice to enjoy the game featuring a bunch of guys hoping to make it to the pros someday.

All of that leads up to the fact that the home team Winterhawks only managed 11 wins this season and lost 19 of the last 21 games to end the season. That is unfortunate, but it did not keep me from attending games or following the team. At this level, for the fans, it’s not about who wins or loses, its about being at a game, seeing some action, eating junk food, singing along with the national anthems, and that kind of stuff. It’s about explaining to the people behind me (who have never been to a hockey game before) enough about what is going on so they can enjoy themselves. It’s about a night out and having fun.

I don’t have the same sentiments for the NHL team I follow, the Vancouver Canucks. Of course, attending one of their games is also a very enjoyable experience. But this is a group of well-paid professional players that I expect to win when I root for them. sadly, the team managed to lose seven of their last eight games and miss the playoffs for another year.

These Canucks started out the year looking so very good on paper. Yes, they suffered some injuries among their players, which didn’t assist them in living up to their potential this year. I do enjoy watching this group of players, but I feel right now that if this is the best performance that some of them can muster, then this is a good time for the team to make some needed trades.

In my mind, the junior version of this game is enjoyable whether the home team wins or loses.

The Canucks should have found it within themselves to win. They didn’t really try. It’s time to make some trades.

Besides, this isn’t the first time in recent history that my teams have forced me to choose a “backup” team to root for in the payoffs. So here it goes. Go Vancouver Giants! and Go Calgary Flames!

Gotta keep the season alive somehow.

Share via email