“Warrior Cop” Displays A Troubling “Skill-Set” In Tampa Theater

Mandeville, LA  – The shooting of a Tampa man armed with only a smart phone raises questions about the rise of the standing army of police officers whose belligerence in the line of duty is growing with their rap-sheet.

A “Warrior Cop” Displays A Troubling “Skill-Set” In Tampa Theater

©2014 Mike Church

Two and a half years ago a lot of people were asking why there was no one armed with a concealed-carry-weapon in that Aurora Colorado theater, shot up by madman James Holmes (1). Today people are asking why a retired cop was armed in a Tampa FL theater and why he would shoot the movie-goer behind him(2) for sending text messages? To make matters worse, if that’s possible, the victim was texting his 3 year old daughter who will now grow up without a father.

It is not the “paranoid, radical” who should be ringing the alarm bell at the rise of the de facto standing army the warrior cop staffs, it is the Patriot, recognizing the imperialism of the warrior cop who fears for the liberty of his homeland and his home.

My dander was raised when I learned that the shooter/cop helped establish the Tampa “tactical response team” commonly known as a “SWAT” team(3). These para-military groups have proliferated alongside our appetite for never-ending undeclared wars overseas. Until recently, the peaceful hamlet of Covington Louisiana fielded a SWAT Team I surmise was to respond, with lethal force, should a Who Dat make a cash wager on the Seahawks/Saints game.

Seriously, in author Radley Balko’s book “Rise of The Warrior Cop,”(4) the shooter at the Tampa theater fits that description. In Balko’s book you will find dozens of violent incidents perpetrated by the “warrior cop”. One South Carolina man made the mistake of hosting a poker game at his home which ended when warrior cops, in full military gear broke down his door without warning, and shot him while his friends dove for cover.

“Indeed, that’s exactly what happened to seventy-two-year-old Aaron Awtry in 2010. Awtry was hosting a poker tournament in his Greenville, South Carolina, home when police began breaking down the door with a battering ram. Awtry had begun carrying a gun after being robbed. Thinking he was about to be robbed again, he fired through the door, wounding Deputy Matthew May in both arms. The other officers opened fire into the building. Miraculously, only Awtry was hit. As he fell back into a hallway, other players reporting him asking, “Why didn’t you tell me it was the cops?” The raid team claimed they knocked and announced several times before putting ram to door, but other players said they heard no knock or announcement.”

The public is mortified to even mention this buildup of the hometown police state as if similar buildups in Berlin & St Petersburg happened overnight. Mention this and you will be called a paranoid, radical.

However, it is not the “paranoid, radical” who should be ringing the alarm bell at the rise of the de facto standing army the warrior cop staffs, it is the Patriot, recognizing the imperialism of the warrior cop who fears for the liberty of his homeland and his home.

NOTES

1.  http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html

2. http://abcnews.go.com/US/texting-triggers-fatal-movie-theater-shooting/story?id=21517988

3. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/09/covington_mayor_presents_budge.html

4. http://www.salon.com/2013/07/07/%E2%80%9Cwhy_did_you_shoot_me_i_was_reading_a_book_the_new_warrior_cop_is_out_of_control/

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

See Full Bio