Saturday, January 11, 2014

MCSD Jail CERT = paramilitary?

Click to enlarge this image.
Take a look at this photo from the Facebook page of the McHenry County Sheriff's Office (Woodstock, Ill. for out-of-town readers.)

Its caption reads, "Serving McHenry County with Pride and Excellence since 1837- Pictured: Members of the McHenry County Correctional Facility CERT"

Now, somebody please tell me why the JAIL needs a CERT like this. By the way, CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The only place where the Jail CERT should be used is in the jail. And they certainly won't go in armed like that. What if inmates overpower them?

Think the magazine for the rifle held by the guy on the left will hold more than 7-10 rounds? Sure, law enforcement gets a pass on the rules jammed down the throats of the common citizen.

Ladd Everitt, director of communication for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (which is really an anti-gun group), said on The Diane Rehm Show (NPR) last week that no one needs to fear a standing army. The guy is nuts. Of course, we need to fear a standing army or an "army" at the sheriff's department or a police agency. But you have to understand that he likes Mayor Bloomburg, MAIG and Moms Demand Action.

If not "fear" them, then be highly suspicious of them, because they have been able to build up a large arsenal of heavy weapons that could easily be directed at the peaceful population.

A corrupt leader of a law-enforcement agency could turn them against civilians by giving them an order. How many deputies and cops are going to stand up straight and say, "That's an illegal order and I'm not going to follow it"?

A corrupt city, town, village mayor or president could order his police chief to do it. What's the chief going to do? Follow orders, or join the ranks of the banished and unemployed.

5 comments:

Notawannabee said...

Have you been back to Colorado and smoking some of that "new" medicine? This posting seems way off to me.

Big Daddy said...

Gus, maybe it's my computer or even my old eyes but I do not see the word "correctional" anywhere in that picture. I will admit that I do not know what is on their Facebook page as I refuse to go there. At least they are not wearing floppy (boonie) hats or wearing olive drab or sand colored bdu's like most of the wannabe posers do.
Gus, I gotta tell you. I very much doubt that if an order is given to the rank and file to confiscate firearms from citizens that that order will be obeyed. In the department in which I work, ninety five to ninety nine percent of the guys would refuse to obey that order. They support the right of citizens to possess firearms and the right to ccw. I could be wrong but I don't think so. At least not where I work.

One more thing Gus. Let's stop referring to acts of violence as "gun violence". There is no such thing. I've handled many,many homicides and probably thousands of shootings over the years and never,ever did I see a firearm commit an act of violence. I never saw a gun get up off of a table, walk over and shoot someone. It always required a human being who was committing an act of violence. Why is it that they never call an act of violence committed with a knife "knife violence"? I've seen many of those as well. Sorry for the rant but it's a real peeve of mine.

Gus said...

Big Daddy, thanks for your comment. I copied the photo caption in ¶2, which identifies the four as members of the Correctional Facility CERT.

Other officers had told me that they would refuse to confiscate lawfully-owned firearms. But all "the Government" has to do is declare the firearms to be unlawful, and what do you do when the Chief sends you out to confiscate the newly-unlawful firearms?

Big Daddy said...

I misspoke. The correct terminology would be too "work around that order" not "refuse it". It can and is done all the time. Here's an example. Seat belt missions. The City wanted us to enforce seat belt laws. Under the ruse of "traffic safety". What it really was about was increased revenue. It was never about traffic safety. One of the things they wanted us to do were seat belt missions. They wanted us to devote thirty minutes a day on a seat belt mission. It involved putting four cars at an intersection that had traffic control and inspecting those cars to see if the drivers/passengers had their seat belts on. Now I'm all for wearing your seat belt. I wear mine all the time. I think you are stupid not to. But I don't think it's the role of the government to harass people by placing Officers at intersections to catch unsuspecting drivers. So what I would do is have four Officers meet me at a location. I would tell them to bring their coffee as we would be there for thirty minutes. I would put them down on a seat belt mission. They would sit there doing nothing and at the end of thirty minutes resume their normal patrol activities. At the end of the day I would turn in my report which showed no seat belt violations observed.
You may disagree with what I did but IMHO the role of the police is to improve and protect the lives of the citizens not harass them or subject them to the whims of the politicians. We are policemen not revenue collectors. Anyway,that is what I mean by working around the order. One should never refuse an order. That is an offense that can get you fired. And my method can and is used in other areas and can and would be used if an order to confiscate firearms from citizens.
I don't really think people have to worry about local police, be it county, city or state when it comes to gun confiscation. I think that that threat comes from the feds. Obama has created a what amounts to his own national police department. They are the threat. Now keep in mind the old adage about the ten percent of any given organization. We have them too which means that there will be some of us whose critical thinking skills are lacking and will confiscate your gun or write you that ticket for some minor offense simply because the boss told them to. I apologize for them. But I do think they are the minority.

Gus said...

We have this mentality right here in McHenry County at the Sheriff's Department and certainly at the Police Departments of Crystal Lake and Woodstock.

The deputies and cops, and their supervisors, don't share your ingenuity and respect for citizens. They sit there and write the tickets.

The Woodstock PD could put its electronic-sign trailer out with "Buckle Up, Idiot" on it, but they don't.

Or maybe "Don't be caught dead, sitting on your seatbelt."