My Thoughts on Pepper Spray

How you feel about the Occupy movement is not important, because my comment here is not about the pros or cons of the movement nor whether or not they have a clear and coherent message like the 60s antiwar movement. My thoughts are centered around the recent pepper spray incident and the use of video and You Tube, without conclusion on the event itself.

If you have children, you can relate to this: Your child is exhibiting a behavior you want stopped. You tell the child to stop and he doesn’t. So you tell the child that if he doesn’t stop, you will swat his butt. He keeps it up, and you swat his butt. Simple, and honestly, most parents can relate – and most of us, when we were kids, had our butts swatted.

Now, add the new technology of cell phone or web cam videos, coupled with You Tube. If you recorded the entire incident leading up to the swat, that is one thing. Again, not drawing any conclusions, but putting facts out there. You can edit out whatever you want in a video when you post it to You Tube. And all you see is what is posted. If all that is posted is the child getting a swat, a conclusion by the video watcher may be very different than if the entire video was posted.

What the You Tube video and the television news is reporting of the pepper spray incident at UC Davis, graphically shows a line of “peaceful” students sitting on the ground, arms locked, being pepper sprayed by the campus police. Very disturbing video. Here is what isn’t shown, but video is available that does show it, but the media has chosen not to. Prior to the pepper spray incident, video shows the police telling (not yelling nor confronting) the students they had to move or they would be pepper sprayed. They were blocking the public from entrance to whatever building the protesters felt compelled to block. The protesters obviously didn’t move. So now, we are where the parent is when the child doesn’t stop misbehaving – the promised swat. In this case, the promised pepper spray.

Part of my job is to review police videos for an attorney. I can see firsthand how easy it would be to edit those videos to show whatever point of view someone would want to show. I am not a professional video editor, but I could easily edit any video.

Lastly, are these protesters really peaceful? If you had some people decide to camp out on your front yard to protest your lifestyle, and refused to move, yet were not violent, but blocking your access to your yard, what would you do? You would call the police and the occupiers would be arrested for trespass and DISTURBING THE PEACE! Are they being “peaceful” in their demonstration – just non-violent? There is a difference. But that’s me, and I was just thinking.

There I Was Again

THERE I WAS AGAIN

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF THE KILLEEN HILLBILLIES

“Grandpa,” excitedly shouted young Junior Jethro (Jared), as he came running into the parlor, “we got our tractor back and it’s in the trailer on the back of my momma’s truck!” So Grandpa Jedidiah (Frank) got up out of his chair with the dog, Ol’ Buff, jumping down to follow, and went to the door with Junior Jethro to admire the shiny green tractor with the yellow seat, in the trailer. “Mighty fine tractor, Grandson, are you going to drive it with your Daddy?” Grandpa Jedidiah asked.

“I am going to drive it, Grandpa. And when we’re done, we park it in the shed me and my daddy built in the backyard today” He was so proud.

“Pops”, Jethro (Scott) asked, “want to go with me to take the mower over to the other house?” I think I may need to mow there and also take that fridge out of the house and move it over to the big house and put it in the garage”.

“Son”, Grandpa Jedidiah, responded, “I will go with you. I went to the dump without you today, by the way. I had a truck load to get rid of”.

“Pops”, you could take a truck load to the dump every Saturday. I just don’t know where you get the stuff to take. Anyway, I’ll have a load next Saturday, so if you have anything, you can put it in my truck”. “I’m sure that by next Saturday I will have stuff to add to your load. I know I have that big tree branch that fell out of the pecan tree last week”, Grandpa replied.

We loaded up the truck with the young’ens and headed over to the other house to drop off the mower and load up the fridge. Everything went well, until we tried to load the fridge. We were using the hand dolly to load the fridge and as we pulled back on the dolly, the fridge tilted to the right and the doors flew open. The tire on the dolly was flat and needed to be aired up (what is it with me and flat tires) – and the fridge needed to be loaded from the opposite side so the doors would stay closed. About that time, the 4 young’ens came in and announced that they had to use the bathroom. Jethro explained that the water was still off and that they needed to wait until we got back to Mimi’s house… or the boys could go pee in the back yard. Junior Jethro was all for that until the other young’ens said they could wait. So back to Mimi’s house we went.

Meanwhile, back at Mimi’s house, Grandpa got the air compressor and we headed back over to the other house, this time with no young’ens. Jethro and I got the tires aired up on the dolly – the first dolly we had ever seen that weren’t hard rubber and actually needed airing up. But we got the fridge onto the dolly, with the doors staying shut, and we went out the door and to the trailer. The neighbors watched us loading the fridge and then after a few minutes called us over. Seems Gertrude, Gigi’s old friend (now at least 114 years old) was out watering her lawn and noticed two men stealing the fridge from nice Lil’ Valerie’s house, so she got together with the other neighbor and called Lil’ Val and told her some men were taking the fridge from her house. Lil’ Val assured them that it was Jethro and Jedidiah and all was okay. So the four of us stood on the neighbors porch laughing a bit while Gertrude told the story.

Fridge loaded, we headed back over to the big house to put the fridge in the garage. Jedidiah told Jethro he was now officially a growed up Pritchard because he now had a fridge in his garage, too. Jethro wondered why it had taken us over an hour just to move the fridge from one house to the other, and mused that we still had to load the mower back onto the trailer and take to back over to the big house and park it in the shed. So back over to the other house we went.

We parked the truck in the street by the curb and put the ramps down for the mower and Jethro was ready to load. This is a maneuver he has done countless times. Just before he started to move to the trailer, I saw in my mind’s eye the pending disaster that was about to take place. It all played out in slow motion. About three fourths the way up the ramp, front wheels on the trailer, the left ramp fell from its perch and Jethro was sitting on the mower, eyes as big as half dollars. Jedidiah was right behind the mower and was trying to keep the momentum going so the mower would get up onto the trailer. But the mower deck caught on the trailer and the mower stopped, and Jethro stood up and the motor stopped. The mower started tilting to the left and the other ramp then fell out from under the mower and there was only one place for it to go – DOWN – with Jethro riding in the saddle. There was nothing Jedidiah could do but jump back out of the way. BAM! The mower somehow landed on all four wheels and then a loud banging pop as the engine backfired as it shut down. Poor Gertrude – she watched the whole thing, mouth gaping open and eyes wide. “I’m good”, Jethro assured everyone. After a few “WHEW’s” we decided this time we were going to push the mower up the ramp and onto the trailer. And without further incident, we were on our way to the big house, by the way of Mimi’s. Jethro had to use the bathroom. Jedidiah was surprised that he still had to!

When we left for the big house, Junior Jethro wanted to go with us, so the three of us rode over. We unloaded the mower the same way we loaded it, pushing. Then Jethro and Junior Jethro took the mower to the backyard and parked it in the shed. Then Junior Jethro said, “Grandpa, you need to get a green tractor like mine.” I said that I did need one, but maybe I would get an orange one. He thought a minute, and then said “Yeh, you can get an orange one and I will have a green one”.

There I was again!

But That's Me, And I Was Just Thinking

Many years ago while on active duty we were deployed on a month long field exercise in Alaska called Brim Frost. I heard a term for the first, and only time actually – tightly disbursed. It was during those days that I came to understand George Carlin’s rants about the oxymoron. Is it a huge shrimp or a small jumbo? How about others like “original copy” , “partial cease-fire”, or the one I hated until one day when I heard the Major describe tightly disbursed, and “military intelligence” all of a sudden became my favorite oxymoron.

Over the years since then I have come to appreciate how right old George really was. I have seen some really stupid decisions made in the Army. But I digress … I am not talking about having everyone in a field exercise all located on the airfield instead of in the woods in the wilds of Alaska. I am thinking of some things I have seen more recently – even today.

In July 2005, four “home grown terrorists” set off a series of 4 bombs in the subways and in a double-decker bus in London. However, the “threat level” in The United States was not elevated following that attack. The airport security was not increased, nor was the color code changed. There was, however, a tightening of security on the Army fort just up the road that we all know and love. You didn’t notice any difference getting thru the instillation gates, but there was an immediate response …. Barricades went up in the commissary parking lot, blocking a third of the available parking, and you had to show your ID card to get into the store itself. Funny thing is that you could still drive right up to the front door of any of the schools on post where defenseless children were frolicking and learning, but you had to park way away from the front entrance of the commissary. (What does that say about what the Army brass thinks of the gate security? (I’m just saying.)

After a few years, the barricades went away and parking was restored to those areas blocked and for several years now things were back to normal. Then Seals Team 6 killed Osama Bin Laden.

I had heard that security had been tightened since May 1^st , when Bin Laden was killed, but I hadn’t been on post until today. I breezed right thru the front gate with my Express Pass, the guards not even giving me much of a glance. But when I got to the commissary, the barricades were back and the parking lot was once again restricted. As I went into the commissary I had to show my ID card and I started laughing, thinking of that Major in Alaska and George Carlin – military intelligence. I could zip right thru the main gate, but had to show an ID card to get to the tomatoes. I don’t know, were they warned to protect the produce section? But that’s me, and I was just thinking

But That's Me, and I Was Just Thinking

Political pundits use words like “gutsy” to describe the President’s authorizing the raid on Bin Laden’s compound by Seals Team 6. As a soldier, I see things a little differently. I would expect no less from my Commander-in-Chief. The President, when presented with the over whelming evidence that Bin Laden was holed up in the compound, had the Constitutional responsibility and duty to act upon the intel.

There are a couple of things, though, that are troubling to me that are taking place. We have American war -fighters who are daily putting their lives on the line to protect ours, and we owe them no less than insuring that we provide them with the equipment and wherewithal to do their jobs. So, when I hear things being said and events being politicized, it upsets me.

You may remember the Jessica Lynch fiasco of a few years ago. The story was that she had been captured when the convoy she was in became lost and was attacked by Iraqi troops. Most of her team was killed during the attack and that she grabbed a weapon and fought to the bitter end and was captured. She was in a hospital in Baghdad and was rescued by an elite special ops team. However, as it turns out, some genius in the publicity department of the military decided that they needed a “feel good” event to bolster the American pride. And someone concocted the rescue of Specialist Jessica Lynch. Then brought in a crack team to bring her out. We all felt great, and the politicos began patting themselves on their backs. But like all ruses, the story began to unravel the truth came out. Had I been part of that Special Ops team, I would have been looking for that publicity mogul.

Now with OBL assuming room temperature, I see the politicos once again taking credit, and I also see things that are troubling to me.

First, the story keeps changing. First we had the feel good 40 minute firefight, a stealth Black Hawk helicopter going down and being blown in place on the way out. Then we learn, welllllllll – maybe it wasn’t a firefight after all. In fact, OBL was really unarmed, but the others in the compound were armed and part of the firefight. OBL’s wife was used as a shield and was killed – oops, it was his daughter and she was there to watch her father killed. No, it was his wife, after all, and she was shot in the leg and survived. Then it was, wellllll, actually, no one was armed, but there was a secret room with weapons ----- and the last one I heard today was that an AK-47 and a handgun were within the reach of OBL. I would rather not hear the details on how he was killed than to have a Hollywood production with alternate endings.

This was a special ops “kill” mission, as special ops missions are. You don’t send in the Seals to Mirandize the enemy.

Next, I hear that several computers and hard drives were captured and we cultivated a treasure-trove of intel. Why do I need to know that? Why alert all the other bad guys that we know a ton of stuff? That’s like announcing a surprise party for someone on Facebook.

And what about the picture? I would like to see it, but it isn’t necessary. Why did it take so long to decide not to show it and why agonize over a reason? He didn’t need a reason – he is the President. Then why was the CIA Chief, Leon Panetta, marched out to the press to announce that the photos would be released by 2 PM the next day, only to have an administration spokesman announce later that Pinetta never said that …. It isn’t like the video isn’t all over You Tube. This isn’t the 80s or 90s, you know. If I was Panetta and was being thrown under the bus like that, I tell the President to take his SecDef job and shove it. Then I would go work on Hillary’s primary campaign.

And now I hear that the CIC is going to meet with members of Seals Team 6 tomorrow. Why? These guys are stealth and their identities should never be known to anyone outside their immediate command. I only hope and pray that there are no cameras present because the minute these guy’s pictures go up on the internet, a huge target is painted on them and their families. No, this is a mistake and this is a precedent that should not be set.

There are many good things to be taken out of the operation last Sunday, so why do the politicos have to jump in once again and screw it all up. But that’s me, and I was just thinking.