Wrong Side of the Tracks

In more ways than one. Here's what happened in my town some months ago. A guy takes his 9-year old son away from his mother, in violation of a court order. Oh, should also mention this small fact: he abducted the boy at gunpoint.

This man then took his son to his house, and resisted all attempts by the police to let the boy go peacefully. Remember, this man is armed. During a 20-hour standoff, the guy becomes more and more hostile, and drunk, and verbally threatens to shoot the police. Finally, he comes out, waving his gun in the air.

Put yourself in the shoes of a policeman on the scene. What would you do at this point? If you're sane and don't have a death wish, you pop the guy with as many rounds as it takes to kill him, to ensure that innocents don't die as well. This is exactly what happened.

Well, that should have been that, except for the sadness that the guy's boy will carry for the rest of his life: his dad was such a loser that he couldn't even die with dignity; his demons got the better of him. What a waste of a life.

Now, according to this story in the WaPo,

Alexandria Police Chief Charles E. Samarra has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the fatal police shooting of Lewis Barber...The request comes after the police department's Internal Affairs Division presented a report to the Alexandria Human Rights Commission recently that clears two officers involved in the shooting of Barber, who had abducted his son at gunpoint. The commission voted 13 to 1 to accept the internal police investigation.

Truly, we live in soft, hyper-sensitive times. Where the police and the criminals they stop are equally guilty. Actually, the police are the only ones presumed guilty. Perps are presumed innocent under our Constitution, but, of course, police don't quite have the same rights.

Let's review the bidding. Drunk moke waving a gun at police, after having kidnapped a child, is killed. Police internal investigation clears the officers involved in the shooting of wrongdoing. The investigation is vetted by some do-gooder police overlords, who also clear the officers. But now, the chief wants to have the Feds on the case, just in case his own officers are all lying scumbags, as is the civilian review board.

So, our sensitive police chief, not having much better to do (been down in the projects, lately, chief?), just has to waste more taxpayer dollars on a totally unnecessary investigation. No one wants cops who blow innocents away. But all citizens should likewise demand that the police pay full attention to what should be their sole priority: stopping bad guys.

Which very much include drunks who kidnap children and hold them at gunpoint. Real fathers don't do that. And real police chiefs don't second, and triple-guess their officers. Perhaps the Alexandria chief should find work more suitable to his mentality. Like social worker.

1 Comments:

WebJedi said...: Sir, maybe you are uninformed of the facts, but your characterization of this case does not, in my opinion, reflect the reality of the situation.

I attended the Alexandria Human Rights Commission's hearing on this incident. I watched the police presentation. I had a personal conversation with the Chief of Police. With all due respect, please allow me to enlighten you.

First, you stated that Mr. Barber was "a loser". Lewis Barber was actually well revered in his community, and was, in fact a real hero. Among other things, he once stopped a killer drunken driver and held him for police - on his bicycle. His son is autistic and by all accounts his father attended to his needs with every resource he had. He was also a Little League coach and for many neighborhood kids a major source of positive influence. Lewis Barber was not a loser, sir.

But don't take my word for it, visit http://justiceforlew.org/ and you will see how many people revered him.

Second, Mr. Barber was originally upset because is wife had secretly made plans to abduct his child to Florida, where they now both reside, with her new boyfriend. She obtained an ex parte (accused not present) protective order called a TRO (temporary restraining order). This did several things:

1) It barred Mr. Barber from any contact with his son (and wife) for up to one year.

2) Gave possession of the family vehicle to his wife (and the house, but she chose to go elsewhere and let him stay).

3) Immediately made it illegal to possess firearms - he was a Civil War re-enactor, and his guns were confiscated by the police upon serving TRO. When he was shot, Mr. Barber was holding a single-action revolver the police had missed.

Effectively, Lewis had been tried in a secret court and severe penalties had been levied against him based solely on the claims of his wife - which turned out to be false, sir.

On this point: In my conversation with the Chief of Police he volunteered to me that Mrs. Barber had testified Mr. Barber had shot at her several months ago. As you know, that part of Alexandria his densely populated. After the killing the police did a check to see if any such incident had been reported. None was found. In the words of the Chief, "If he had discharged a firearm, we would have known about it." The Chief believed she lied, and I believe the Chief.

So, as several people at the HRC hearing attitude (including the Chief) I would be quite upset if someone took my son away, took my antique guns, and my car without any ability to speak for myself in court. However, I personally would wait for my day in court and present many witnesses to testify on my behalf and I'm sure I would get joint custody and clear most of it up (although the issuance of the TRO stays on your record).

But that wasn't the end of it.

He learned thru a friend that his wife was planning to abduct the child to Florida where she had a new lover. Hence, he would have no recourse thru the courts at all.

This man, understandably, went and got some alcohol to drown his sorrows. Unfortunately it impaired his judgment and he decided to go and take his son at all costs. He did not initially pull the gun on his wife, he tried to get her to let him go back to the house, but they had a "struggle" for the child. So he went to his car, got out his one remaining gun - a replica single action revolver, and pointed the gun at his wife. She ran away and left the child there. Mr. Barber got his son into 'her' truck and they went back to the house.

Of course the police eventually showed up, and they brought a SWAT team with fully automatic H&K MP5 machine guns, a sniper, who they positioned on a house across the street, and an armored vehicle. I believe the standoff lasted 20 hours or so. Several times Mr. Barber offered to release the boy to either his "special needs caregiver" (I don't know what that means or who it was), or the pastor of his church. The police, for "safety reasons", would not allow either of these people to go to the porch to take the child. So there's your "soft, hypersensitive times" coming out in police behavior.

Mr. Barber knew he was going to die, and he wrote what basically was a will several hours into the standoff. What ended the standoff was the police sent a robot (a robot? and who is "soft" again?) to deliver a bullhorn to Mr. Barber. According to their presentation this was a ploy to draw him out since they knew the robot could not climb the stairs and get onto the porch. He had been drinking during this time and had lost all sense at this point. So he came out to get the bullhorn, revolver in hand and was shot - once in the face, and then, after dropping his gun, twice in the body. He never pointed a gun at a police officer.

Additionally, the police developed a plan to use non-lethal force (a bean-bag gun, doesn't sound impressive, but it will knock you several feet on your $%@). The plan called for the following steps:

1) Use of a flash grenade to draw his attention and confuse him.

2) Fire the bean bag gun at him from behind after attention was drawn by the flash grenade.

3) A back-up team with the MP5s who were to follow the non-lethal team and fire if the non-lethal tactic failed.

This plan was not carried out.

The lethal team jumped in front of the non-lethal team and yelled orders at him to drop his weapon. The flash grenade was not thrown until after Barber was shot, and the bean-bag gun was never fired. When the lethal team approached engaged him he had his back to them and the non-lethal team, if it were in the right place, could have safely used the bean-bag gun. Instead they yelled at him, and of course he turned around. That is when he was shot the first time. He then dropped the gun and stumbled back towards the porch, at which time another officer shot his twice in the side. He used a short burst from his MP5. His gun was on full auto at the time. We know this because both shots went thru the same leaf on a tree.

So that is how Lewis Barber died. If you think the police did a great job, Mr. Barber was treated perfectly fairly, and was a loser then you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think maybe you might look at the situation a little differently now. I am not going to opine on who is to blame or the whys of the situation, but I will say this:

Lewis Barber was an everyday guy. He did not have a history of violence or alcohol abuse. He was a loving father and husband. He lived in Alexandria, paid his taxes, rode his bike to work, and coached Little League. When something like this happens to someone like that, something is very, very wrong.; 9:25 PM

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