By Emerson Drake
12/31/10
There have been eight officer involved shootings in the last year and it seems to be just the beginning. Of the eight shootings, four have been fatal.It doesn't take much to set Modesto Officers off, from an imagined threat of being run over, to a spatula.
If our boys in blue decide they feel threatened or just want to join the clandestine "shooters" club they just start firing away without regard to bystander safety, like they did following their most recent high speed chase which would have been terminated if the shift commander could have been located (by the way, where was he?) as per MPD protocol.
What has been hidden in the aftermath is the story of the mother and daughter bystanders who had two shots put into their car door by the MPD.Our boys and girls in blue (not the actual color), instead of maintaining law and order are running around like drunken cowboys shooting up a town like it was the end of a trail drive.How long before innocent citizens die?
I used to think that when they hurt or killed the wrong person, things would settle down. But when a retired Gallo executive was bruised up and manhandled and nothing came of it, I started I to come to the realization that we had a group of people, armed and carrying guns, who were out of control.
I believe more than ever we made a mistake when chose Mike Hardin, someone who had come up inside the ranks steeped in our local MPD culture, including the handgun sales fiasco, to take the reins and lead the MPD from the culture of violence and bigotry that had been part of the Modesto Police Department's history.Instead of getting better, the situation deteriorated.
People continue to be shot and killed at an unbelievable rate.Instead of a real investigation done by the FBI, we are being treated to a sham.The MPD and City Council are more concerned about a meaningless piece of paper called an accreditation than they are about human life.Don't expect help from our local newspaper, they even changed their on-line headline to accommodate the howling of the Modesto Police Department when the MPD went on-line to protest the word "victim."
The time is now, you can stand up and be counted or you can wait until they shoot someone close to you.
It's time to call an/or visit your local City Council person and demand they stop the violence being perpetrated by the Modesto Police Department.
