HOLY SMOKES COWBOY

HOLY SMOKES COWBOY

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Hold on just a minute there partner, let’s take a quick look-see at what’s been happening out there on the range, not where the buffalo roam, but where us citizens live our lives every day of the week. Zigging and zagging bullets on a daily basis isn’t quite what we-all had in mind when we left the safety of our folks hacienda…..at least I didn’t.

 

But since the August, 9^th shooting of that monster kid (Michael Brown, 6’-5”, 295 pounds) in Ferguson, Missouri, of this year there has been approximately 2,712 hours, if 3 people die by gunfire for any reason in the United States, gun battles, cop shootings, suicide, gang-banging wars, or by accident, that would mean that 8,136 people have died since the killing of Michael Brown.

 

If 7 people are shot, but don’t die, (wounded by gunfire) either accidentally or intentionally every hour, since the August 9^th incident in Ferguson, Missouri,18,984 people will probably be seeking medical assistance for the wound. Are you sober yet…..pard? It kind of makes that phrase “guns don’t kill people…..people kill people”, a bit hollow. Or to put it another way…..”A person with a stick won’t usually hurt another person unless he sharpens the point.”

 

And now I read about some local hair brained idiot in Austin, Texas letting off with more than 100 rounds of ammo in the downtown area, and tried to set the Mexican Consulate ablaze early Friday morning has died during an altercation with city police. Luckily the gunman, 49 year old Larry McQuilliams targeted buildings instead of people, kind of a novel approach to a shooter that was out of control.

 

CLEVELAND, OHIO…..IT DOESEN’T TAKE LONG TO BECOME CASUALITY

Sometimes the media stretches an incident to fit whatever criteria they figure will sell the most newspapers, or for people to listen, or watch violence on the streets of America. In the case of the shooting of 12 year old Tamir Rice there was no exaggeration, the little boy lasted less than four seconds in his altercation with two of Cleveland’s finest…..and I’m being kind with regards to how long it took for the one cop on the passenger’s side to open his door and drop the pint sized perpetrator.

 

Talk about a judge, jury and executioner, this cop really saved the taxpayers a load of money…..initially, there’s no doubt in my mind that there’ll be a lawsuit that’ll cost five or ten times the amount it would have cost to prosecute the pint sized perp for brandishing a pellet or BB gun.

 

The whole thing started out as a young cowboy, or in Cleveland, probably a street punk, was playing around with his pistol in a way that an innocent bystander thought was a bit over the top, because the bystander didn’t know for sure whether the gun was real or a fake. So he did the intelligent thing, he called 911 and reported “a kid playing around with a gun…..that didn’t look like a firearm, rather it looked fake…..but.

 

Now I got to tell you, “I watched the video of the shooting, and although there’s no sound, the officer on the passenger’s side say’s that “he told the kid three times to “show his hands”. I watched the video four different times, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how the cop could have said anything three times before the squad car rolled to a stop, the cop stepped out and shot the kid…..there just isn’t enough time.

 

The cop that shot the pint sized gunman is Timothy Loehmann, with less than a year’s active service with the Cleveland City cops. During his training at the Police Academy his pay was $10.50 an hour, and on March 3^rd, his 1^st day on the job, his pay shot up to $45,904.64 per year. Of course everybody knows that what is nice about working in the public sector is the benefits that come along with the increase in pay.

 

Right now Loehmann and the squad car driver, Frank Garmback, are on administrative fully paid leave, and probably sweating little bitty bullets…..especially Loehmann, there can be criminal charges for Loehmann and Garmback, or just Loehmann, only time will tell. But the incident can end both men’s careers in law enforcement, the pensions, health insurance, dental care, vacation time, sick days, and whatever other benefits are accorded city of Cleveland employees.

 

SO WHAT IS THE OBSESSION WITH GUNS…..REAL AND FAKE

I played cowboys and Indians, I played war, we had fake guns, usually hand crafted out of wood (my dad was a carpenter) and I can tell you we never gave a thought to being shot at by the police, and we weren’t menacing looking to anybody in our neighborhood, we were just a bunch of kids playing kids games.

 

I got to say that the Rice kid did look a bit menacing, pointing his fake pistol at people (walkers), buildings, and generally looking kind of aggressive. But after watching him for two or three minutes I figured out that Tamir Rice was exactly what he looked like, a young kid fiddling around with what appeared to be a gun.

 

I feel that I know exactly how those two cops, Garmback and Loehmann, were thinking as they drove up to the scene, “Oh hell, what is this kid about, damn what’ll we do, the report (911 call) says he was dangerous looking, we won’t be taking any chances. Any suspicious moves and he’ll get shot.”

 

And yes, a 12 year old boy got shot to death, and as far as I know he wasn’t breaking any laws of any kind, he was just being an adolescent who died before he had his first date, had an opportunity to excel at school work, play varsity sports…..and dream whatever dream he wanted to dream…..in was an innocent with a stupid fake gun.

 

So how can gun owners, everyday people, people with a job, a wife or husband, 2.5 kids, a cat, dog and a mortgage put up such a fuss when these shootings happen? I’ll tell you, for some it’s a phallic symbol, the big dog syndrome, for others it’s the thrill of a hunt because they never amounted to anything in the real world, and for others, they actually have the misguided opinion that they have a right to keep and bear arms. I hope that those people that I consider friends who have guns only have misguided opinions.

 

Our society, any society who kills more than 30,000 of its own citizens through suicide, accident or intentionally, and wounds another 59,000 can’t control itself. I do not like government telling me what to do, no matter the issue, but I got to tell you, we’re killing way too many of us.

 

In the final analysis, I could really care less how my friends feel about their precious gun rights, nor do I care about whether they like blacks, or figure that every white man should own one. Black people are targeted by law enforcement of that there is no doubt.

 

We need to corral guns, gun advocates, and those organizations and lobbing groups who stand to profit from gun ownership. Call it what it actually is, corporate greed, gun and ammo makers make gazillions every year and they’re leading us American citizens around by our short hairs which are connected to our purse strings. We need to use some common sense to police our police, and also our gun laws.

 

And don’t give me that crap about only criminals will own guns, and how tough a cop’s job is, only criminals having guns is a huge load, and if a cops job was so damned tough…..would somebody please tell me why it’s so hard to get into a policeman’s job…..come on people, wise up already.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!