We Need To Talk About Trayvon Martin Again.

How many of you, who are not in Law Enforcement have ever heard the phrase, "Force Continuum"?

Deathly silence.  As I expected.

In the Police Academy, you are taught that there is a, "Force Continuum", and it referes to the amount of force you HAVE used in any situation you might be involved in.  Not so much the amount of Force you WILL, or DID, or NEEDED to use in any situation to protect yourself or others, or affect an arrest.  Under Utah law?  You as a Peace Officer are entitled to use what ever force you felt necessary to make that arrest.

It starts at your mere, presence.  You're wearing the badge, so you are exerting SOME force over the folks you're interacting with, in that if they challenge you for ANY reason?  They are bucking authority.  Authority represented by YOU being there.

No matter why you're there.  But as I've said before, if the Cops show up?  YOU probably are the reason they are there.

It moves on to, what we called in the business, "The LAYING ON OF HANDS".  Meaning that if you didn't listen when I told to you to sit down, even in your own house, and you didn't?  I'm going to sit you down.  And make you cross your ankles and put your hands where I can see them.

The next step is totally up to you.  I don't want to go here, because it means a long report, and in some situations?  My wife made me leave my clothes in the garage, and I had to take my partner to the University Hospital to have her contacts removed since pouring mass quantities of bottled water in her eyes in the 7-11 parking lot did NOT get the pepper spray out of her eyes since the wind was blowing in her direction when the dog came at me.

We call it, "Less Than Lethal Defense".  Or, using, "TOOLS" to affect an arrest.

If you won't listen?  You get hit with a collapsible baton, or sprayed with, Pepper Spray.  And Pepper Spray sucks.

I never had to hit anyone with my baton.  Every time I took it out when someone was about to come at me, and snapped that sucker into place, and it sounded like a .12 Gauge being racked, and I told them, "I'm going to hit so hard I'll kill your whole family, M*****F*****!"  I seemed to get my point across.

One guy over in Taylorsville actually pissed himself when I did that to him.  Best $140 I EVER spent.

I was in the jail one night, when I heard a couple of young, SLC Cops talking and one of them said, "The guys I hit with the baton?  They don't seem to feel it until the next day.  When they're drunk?  The Baton doesn't work."  True story.

And by the way.  If you think Cops never talk that way, because you watch, "COPS"?  And you've never seen it?  Bullshit.  The Cops on, "COPS" don't talk that way because they are on, "COPS"!  When the camera's are not on?  We talk to crooks like you would talk to someone breaking into YOUR house.

The next step on the force continuum, is, deadly force.  Every time you shoot someone, it's deadly force.  You are trained at the Academy, to shoot to stop.  To stop the threat.  And that means, causing the most blood loss with your shot, so the guy trying to shoot you, can NO longer shoot at you!

You don't shoot them in the leg or the shoulder.  You shoot, "Center Body Mass" to bring this confrontation to a stop and go home to your family at the end of your shift.

And under Utah law, I could have done that with anyone resisting arrest.

In the Florida case?  Kind of seems like the guy who killed, Trayvon Martin could have too.  Even though the Police Dispatcher told him NOT to follow him.

In Utah, as a Cop?  I couldn't shoot at anyone who was trying to get AWAY from me.  Unless they were in Prison.

The guy who killed Treyvon Martin, is going to get off.  And it's because of Republicans.  They are SO afraid of Democrats messing with gun laws, that they pass the stupid, "Stand Your Ground Law".  Now, it's coming home to roost.

This law does NOT help the Cops.  It doesn't help home owners, who could already protect themselves from a home invasion or robbery.  It just lets ignorant, idiots out on the street, like the guy who's too dumb to be hired as a Cop, and runs the neighborhood watch in a GATED Community, "Shoot himself a NIGGER!"  And the racist motherfucker did!

Yeah, he needs to be in prison.  Will it ever happen?  No.

Could it happen in Utah?  OH HELL yeah!  Just wait.  Coming right up.