God Save the Queens

The Orbit of Justice - God Save the Queens





I've got a buddy with a couple of friends on the NYPD.
He sent them this article from the Post (following my comments) covering the shooting.

I'm gonna post the article here cause I thought it was a pretty good write up without too much distorted political speculation.

I'm not gonna speculate too much myself on the specifics, knowing so few of the case details, but I will say this based on my own undercover work. I can very well understand how it happened.

I can even understand Bell panicking and assuming that the officer halting him was perhaps not even a real officer. When you hang around criminals, live around them and interact around them, maybe are one yourself, you develop a sense of trust no-one and assume nothing. The very same thing happens to undercover officers and deactivates, especially if you've been under a long time. Or around awhile.

You take nothing for granted, and in any situation like this don't assume anything about anyone or any group of people.

Bell could have assumed that the undercover was an unknown tag of the beefy guy (who was probably a part time pimp and bouncer both) and was fronting as a cop in order to lock the car down for a chump's ambush.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way defending Bell. Merely saying that knowing that kind of guy I know how they think. Personally I would have never tried to take a car from the front. That's asking for a skull chroming. But I don't know how experienced this Dick was or what approaches he had open. Or when he got there.

It is equally plausible that Bell believed the undercover was a real cop but chose to bolt anyway for other reasons. If he did hit the officer believing he was an officer then I've got little sympathy for his outcome. If he had no gun, he sure had an engine block, and I've seen those kill often enough.

I can also understand that the other cops, the plainclothes and the undercover Narc, having followed radio transmissions and suspecting it would be an all out gang war type shootout would have over-reacted and cut loose assuming all hell was breaking loose when they were simply caught in a cross fire they could not have anticipated.

Things like this happen because they are the eventual and inevitable result of the criminal lifestyle and because if you live around that kind of thing long enough, that feeling of trust no-one and no situation creeps into you. It had damned well better creep into you or your career and life will be correspondingly short.

I know the politicians will demand their pound of flesh, and some of it is justified. 50 fired is too excessive with rounds flying everywhere and innocents civilians probably meandering near enough to catch a stray. If I were involved and one of my rounds had ran wild and dropped some kid that would just about punch out my time clock, that's for sure.

I also know that Sharpton and others of his ilk will make every bit of fecal fodder they can for "demonstrational purposes."

But I wish that just for once that the Internals interrogating these guys were vets who had lived underground out on the streets for a few rather than pressed suits with knife blades to sharpen and career cranks to turn.

Sure, you need some kind of punishment. You've gotta fry a 'goat. You gotta bleed at least one neck.

Obviously this situation could have been handled with far better procedures which would have lessened the chances of catastrophe. But men are men and cops are cops and if men were perfect we wouldn't need cops anyway.

I just hope they don't hang these guys on the Cross of Public Recklessness. Cause in all probability, it wasn't. If you've never been there then you don't understand, but if you do understand, then you know it was a situation involving the fog of being under fire, and miscalculation and miscommunication, not recklessness and malice.

Sure, nobody wins.
But at least act like Nobody intended to lose either.
Because they didn't.

Things like this are the price you pay for trying to protect the innocent, and because the world is the way it is, you can be damned sure the innocent will get the sharp end of the stick, live, or die.




10 SECONDS OF HELL IN QUEENS

COP'S 'FRIENDLY FIRE' SPARKED BARRAGE THAT KILLED GROOM

By MURRAY WEISS

November 27, 2006 -- A doomed young groom was caught in the crossfire of an undercover cop, whose bullets went clear through his car, and confused officers who returned their own blistering barrage, sources told The Post last night.

The blaze of gunfire lasted just 10 seconds outside the seedy Kalua Cabaret strip club in South Jamaica early Saturday. But it ended the life of 23-year-old, unarmed Queens dad Sean Bell, who was set to marry his high-school sweetheart and the mother of his two young daughters hours after his bachelor party at the club.

Dramatic new details of the deadly mayhem include the undercover cop at one point climbing onto the hood of Bell's car - his gun drawn and his police shield around his neck - screaming, "Police! Turn off your car! Let me see your hands!" said sources who talked to some of the cops involved in the shooting.

When Bell then tried to run down the plainclothes officer - twice - the cop began shooting, with some of his 11 bullets piercing the rear window of the man's Nissan Altima, the sources said.
This left the cop's backup unit - which was just arriving on the scene amid shattering glass and the undercover's shouts of "He's got a gun!" - thinking they were being fired upon from inside the vehicle. That's when they returned fire with another 39 bullets. One 12-year veteran, a narcotics detective, pumped 31 bullets, authorities said.

The sources recounted step-by-step how quickly things spiraled out of control after a dispute inside the club involving one of Bell's associates.

According to the sources, two undercovers were at the strip joint as part of the NYPD's new Club Enforcement Initiative. The program was started after the July slaying of 18-year-old Jennifer Moore of New Jersey, who partied at a Chelsea club before being abducted, raped and killed in a Weehawken hotel.

The undercovers, who usually worked in Manhattan, were on the last night of their two-month Queens job to try to nail the Kalua and other clubs on such violations as drugs and underage prostitution.

Inside the club, one of the plainclothes cops sat next to a woman he thought was a hooker and might proposition him, the sources said.

Suddenly, a burly man approached them and told the woman that he had heard she had gotten into a fight with a group of guys earlier in the club. It was unclear what it was over.

The man said, " 'Don't worry, baby, I got you covered,' and he takes her hand, and he rubs it across [the gun in] his waistband," a source said. "Then he tells her, 'That's what I'm here for.' "
It's unclear how the man smuggled his weapon past the metal detector outside the club. He likely was a regular who knew the bouncer at the door and may have worked there part time, helping with security, the sources said.

The undercover then went outside the club and radioed his backup to tell them there was a man inside with a gun. It was around 3:30 a.m.

While the undercover was outside, the suspect came out along with the girl and others, since it was around closing time.

The undercover watched as an argument erupted between Bell's group, which included three male pals and the beefy man with the gun, and four other men - with the woman in the middle of them, the sources said.

The woman was overheard saying to the men arguing with Bell's pals, "I'm not doing you all. I'll do one or two, but not all," according to the sources.

Around the same time, the undercover said he heard Bell's friend Joseph Guzman tell his buddies, "Yo, get my gun! Get my gun! Let's get my gun from the car! Yeah, we're gonna f- - - him up!" the sources said.

The undercover, thinking there was about to be a drive-by shooting in front of the club involving Bell's group, followed Guzman, Bell and two others to their car.
"It's getting hot! Something's going to happen! Something's going down!" the undercover radioed to his backup.

He hurried to the front of Bell's Altima, which was parked on the side of nearby Liverpool Street, and jumped in front of it.

That's when the undercover put his right leg up on the hood of the Altima and began screaming that he was a cop, the sources said.

The cop was leaning over the hood of the car to try to see the hands of the people inside and make sure they didn't have any guns, they said. But Bell floored the gas pedal and headed for the cop, the sources said, striking him and badly cutting his knee.

One of the Altima's passengers - who possibly had a gun - jumped out of the back of the car, the sources said.

Around the same time, an unmarked Toyota Camry driven by a plainclothes police lieutenant and another cop behind him pulled up, but overshot Bell's car. A police van with an officer and the narcotics detective then managed to block Bell's car in.

Bell's Altima first struck the police van in the driver's desperate bid to escape, then backed up and struck the roll-down metal doors of a commercial building behind him. He then revved his car again toward the undercover - which prompted the cop to scream, "He's got a gun!" and start firing, according to the sources, with the bullets passing through Bell's car.

"The undercover thought they had more than one gun. He thought they would do anything to get away. He was yelling, 'Let me see your hands!' " one source said.

The other cops, thinking they were under attack, started firing at the car, too.
At one point, the detective thought his gun had jammed and so reloaded his magazine and emptied the clip again at the car, firing 31 bullets.

Bell was killed, Guzman critically injured, and a third friend, Trent Benefield, was shot. They are expected to live.

Benefield later told a friend from his hospital bed that he and his buddies didn't know the undercovers were cops.

He told investigators, "I got into the car, and there was all this shooting."

It was unclear when the other four men who were originally fighting with Bell and his pals fled the scene. They were spotted leaving in a black SUV.

Bell had been arrested three times in the past: twice for drugs and one on a gun rap in a case that was sealed. Guzman has been busted nine times, including for armed robbery. He spent two stretches in state prison in the '90s. Benefield has a sealed record as a juvenile for gun possession and robbery.

Some marijuana was later found near the Altima, and investigators believe that it may have been tossed out by the group before the gunfire. Two bullet casings also were recovered from the Altima, although cops said they do not believe they were from a police gun.

The shooting of Bell, who was black, has ignited racial tensions in the city - even though the cops involved included two blacks, a Hispanic and two whites.

The five cops who fired shots were put on administrative duty. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was the first time that any of the officers were involved in a shooting.

Detectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said the cops were justified in firing off a total of 50 bullets at unarmed men because Bell was using his car as a lethal weapon.
"Once the threat ended, so did the shooting."

A source told The Post: "They [the cops] feel completely sad about what happened. They made a decision, and they're going to live with it."

Mayor Bloomberg spoke to Bell's fiancée Saturday after the shooting, sources said.

Additional reporting by Stephanie Gaskell
murray.weiss@nypost.com

Shadows on a Moonless Midnight

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Shadows on a Moonless Midnight





The article below was inspired by an article I read by Josh Manchester whose blog is the Adventures of Chester. I have been reading this blog for some time and endorse it.

My article discusses in brief ideas I have been developing for years, as well as conversations over time with some of my friends regarding these matters.

I suggest reading Josh Manchester's Article as well.


Jack.


One of the main and most persistent problems of this entire conflict has been the general failure by the public, as well as by many in the military and Intelligence communities to recognize the links between criminal activity directly associated with terrorism, overall terrorist strategy (on a regional and global basis), terrorist propaganda efforts (both directed towards their own potential recruits and used as a vehicle to suppress or depress opposition efforts - psychological and political attacks against the War Efforts in Iraq for instance), and the art of infiltration.

Terrorism, and terrorist recruitment is an underground, undercover, and clandestine effort. Propaganda efforts aimed at new recruitment is a clandestine operation and effort. Yet the United States fights our own propaganda war in an open and overt manner, completely losing all potential advantages of waging a covert propaganda war.

The US is also terrible at infiltration, dis and miscommunications, and undercover penetration of terrorist cells and the criminal organizations and rogue regimes that support and enhance their operations. Why? In my opinion for no better reason than a psychological resistance to the idea of adopting the operational methodologies of the enemy. Yet that is exactly how we should be operating, as the enemy does.

Obviously our goals differ, as would the methods by which we would seek to achieve both our war and peace objectives, but we could learn much and should learn much from the techniques of the enemy. This is a guerilla and Indian war. This is not a war against states with hierarchical organizational structures, though many rogue regimes assist terrorist aims, and many other nations, such as China and Russia and France indirectly assist those aims as well.

We should have a long time ago developed our own shadow forces; Forces, Teams, and Organizations (be they military, law enforcement, undercover, infiltration, or intelligence) that operate as mirror images of terrorist cells. These would be counter terrorist teams but their job would be to operate exactly like terrorist cells. I intend to write a more detailed paper about how these forces should be constructed, the benefits to be derived from the proper development of such forces, and how they would operate, for the B Reader, but suffice it to say for the moment that their operational purposes would include deep infiltration, intelligence gathering and construction (that is they could construct intelligence operations built upon anticipations and projections they make based upon the fact that they are mimicking real world terrorist cells), undercover work, covert and background psychological operations and propaganda warfare, and recruitment of operatives and agents in Islamic territories and organizations.

To beat, to overwhelm, to corrupt, to undermine, and to eventually convert the populations of those who oppose us we must become like the enemy, we must operate in a fashion and mode that the enemy understands. We must become better terrorists than they. Not with the intentions of undertaking terrorist acts, but in understanding and anticipating terrorist actions and in understanding and anticipating the actions of those regimes which support terrorist activities.

Currently we are woefully inadequate at the arts of infiltration, of undercover operations (both against International Criminal Cartels and against Terrorist cells), of counter-recruitment and of turning terrorist operatives, and most especially at the propaganda wars. You can win a war against another military force by military action alone, but you cannot win a successful peace by military action alone. It takes a combination of cultural, military, social, religious, political, economic, law enforcement, intelligence, and propaganda-mission oriented efforts. We have been very successful militarily, but only moderately to minimally successful along the political, cultural, social, economic and intelligence spheres of operations. We are an utter failure and disgrace thus far at our efforts concerning the religious, law enforcement, and propaganda based aspects of our strategy. And I would go so far as to say this is primarily due to the fact that we have no real strategies, or only immaturely developed strategies to exploit these absolutely important aspects of infiltration and undercover warfare. For too long we have fought this war as a reactionary conflict, when we should have been fighting it as an anticipatory set of actions designed to overwhelm our enemies. Currently we either react to enemy attacks or attempt to thwart future or attempted enemy attacks. But we almost never preempt terrorist structures and actions in the same sense in which we attempted to preempt rogue regime support for those actions by invading Iraq. I am not against the War in Iraq, I think that if properly exploited Iraq would help to cripple Islamic fascism throughout the region, and by having a functional and effective base of operations for Western Ideals in that area help to eventually crush Islamic fascism on a global scale. In addition a successful Iraq could have beneficial effects upon other enemies, such as Iran, North Korea, and China. If it works it could help to stabilize the entire world over time giving us specific and unique leverage in that vital area of the world. However we must properly exploit Iraq both for the good of the Iraqi people we have helped to liberate and for our own national and international interests. And we are not properly exploiting Iraq because we are fighting a reactionary and police state war there when we should be fighting an Infiltration and Undercover/Clandestine war.

We cannot fight and win a war, which is based upon deception, disinformation, propaganda, recruitment, infiltration, and clandestine action, when we are unwilling to develop the types of forces and counterforces necessary to fight enemies who intuitively understand the types of warfare in which the world is immediately engaged.

The United States must become far better at deception, disinformation, miscommunication, propaganda, recruitment, deception, infiltration, undercover operation, and clandestine action than any enemy we are likely to encounter. We must operate as a state army, as a national security force, but we must infiltrate as if we were a small guerilla and terrorist force whose very survival depends not upon technological superiority but psychological strength and cunning and guile and craft.

The Soldier of the United States learned to fight and was formed in the crucible of the Indian War, of the guerilla fight, of the Swamp Fox. We must return to those roots, both tactically and strategically. Our governmental strategy, the course plotted in the Pentagon, the covert plan of our State Department must make allowance for and assume certain basic ideals and practices of operation, chief among these being the fact that being better at what the enemy does than they are is not a disgraceful manner of behavior, it is a necessary and even brilliant one. We must hunt as the wolf hunts. We will hunt for different reasons of course, and to a different end, but we must become even better than the wolf at tracking, at infiltration, at cover, at disguise, at camouflage, at stealth, at methodology, and at penetration. And when the War on Terror is finally over then historians will be able to look back and say, "the terrorists were good, but the Americans, by God, were like Shadows on a Moonless Midnight."

We can win a Midnight War; of course, we’ve done it before, but not if we insist on doing all our fighting at High Noon and in broad daylight.


© JWG, Jr. 2006


P.S:I also encourage everyone to read Eric Egland's broad, excellent and insightful article about redesign of War Plans and Tactics in Iraq. It echoes many of the discussions my buddies and I have been having on this very issue for years.

I think though that these recommendations could be well applied to the overall War on Terrorism, no matter the theatre of operation.

Six Steps to Victory