Bryan Keith Carnes supposedly ran a red light in the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 17, 2012 in Willis, Texas. For those of y'all not familiar with the geography of the Houston area, Willis is about 40 miles north of Houston on Interstate 45.
For reasons we shall never know, Mr. Carnes decided not to stop. He continued driving south on I-45 toward Houston. As he approached The Woodlands (about 25 miles north of Houston), the camper on Mr. Carnes' truck raised and a wheelchair was hoisted on a boom and allowed to bounce on the freeway. Somewhere near Woodlands Parkway a spike strip was laid out. As soon as Mr. Carnes' truck hit the strip the tires blew out and he crashed into the barricade.
Mr. Carnes was then shot to death by a Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy who fired three shots into the truck. The yet-unnamed officer claimed that Mr. Carnes told police to shoot him and that he reached under his seat as officers approached the truck.
Mr. Carnes was a father and a paraplegic. The wheelchair in the bed of the truck was his.
I'm sure the deputy who killed Mr. Carnes will claim that he thought Mr. Carnes was reaching for a weapon. But, strangely enough, the article makes no mention of whether any weapon was found in the truck. As there were no witnesses around, save law enforcement officers, we have no independent source to verify that Mr. Carnes told the officers to shoot him.
Mr. Carnes wasn't going anywhere. His truck couldn't be driven. He couldn't access his wheelchair. There was no need to shoot him. We know there wasn't a weapon (because you know damn well that if there were the police would have made one freaking big deal about it).
We don't know how fast Mr. Carnes was driving - but the police officers involved made no claim that it was a high speed chase (and, once again, you know damn well that if it had been a high speed chase the police would have made one freaking bid deal about it).
There was no need for the police to shoot and kill Bryan Carnes. But what you had were a bunch of armed officers with adrenaline coursing through their bodies. And the result is a dead father and a grieving family. Now where's the justice in that?
Showing posts with label Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Does this thing work?
Well of course the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department needed a drone. Law enforcement agencies are lined up like lemmings outside an Apple store to get their hands on the last must-have toy.
Nevermind those annoying little questions like, for instance, just what the hell do you need a drone for anyway? The people asking that just don't get it. And what fun is it for a SWAT unit to sit outside a building with their rifles at the ready when someone could be flying a remote controlled aircraft overhead?
Okay, forget for a second that the drone can't look inside the building it's flying over. Unless, that is, someone is holding hostages on the roof.
Not only are the use of drones a growing threat to our right to be left alone by the government, our safety may also be under attack - by the drones themselves.
It would seem there was a little snafu up in Montgomery County the other day. The sheriff, Tommy Gage, his command team and a SWAT unit were conducting a little demonstration of the effectiveness of their newtoy law enforcement tool. It was photo op day and the brass were out in force.
Unfortunately, things didn't end quite the way it had all been drawn up. You see, the drone, flying all of 18 feet off the ground, somehow managed to lose contact with the remote control unit. Oops. The drone, having lost its signal, then shut itself off. But the most delicious part of the exercise?
The drone crashed into the SWAT unit's special "Bearcat" armored vehicle. And the need for a law enforcement agency to have an armored vehicle is another subject for another day.
Thank god the officers were well-protected from their own devices.
I'm fairly certain that Mr. Gage would have only been too happy to talk to reporters after a "successful" photo op. He gets to look like he's really tough on crime and the public gets to see where their tax money goes. Now he just looks like a bumbling fool who wasted a fistful of dollars on a toy plane that doesn't work.
Nevermind those annoying little questions like, for instance, just what the hell do you need a drone for anyway? The people asking that just don't get it. And what fun is it for a SWAT unit to sit outside a building with their rifles at the ready when someone could be flying a remote controlled aircraft overhead?
Okay, forget for a second that the drone can't look inside the building it's flying over. Unless, that is, someone is holding hostages on the roof.
Not only are the use of drones a growing threat to our right to be left alone by the government, our safety may also be under attack - by the drones themselves.
It would seem there was a little snafu up in Montgomery County the other day. The sheriff, Tommy Gage, his command team and a SWAT unit were conducting a little demonstration of the effectiveness of their new
Unfortunately, things didn't end quite the way it had all been drawn up. You see, the drone, flying all of 18 feet off the ground, somehow managed to lose contact with the remote control unit. Oops. The drone, having lost its signal, then shut itself off. But the most delicious part of the exercise?
The drone crashed into the SWAT unit's special "Bearcat" armored vehicle. And the need for a law enforcement agency to have an armored vehicle is another subject for another day.
Thank god the officers were well-protected from their own devices.
Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Gage could not be reached for comment, nor could his chief deputy in charge of his drone program.
I'm fairly certain that Mr. Gage would have only been too happy to talk to reporters after a "successful" photo op. He gets to look like he's really tough on crime and the public gets to see where their tax money goes. Now he just looks like a bumbling fool who wasted a fistful of dollars on a toy plane that doesn't work.
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