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The officers say they need to level the playing field to survive. And so, on a bright October day about a dozen Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies brought out their big guns at the local firing range.
Rifles crackled. Shell casings flew. Bullets sailed at 3,200 feet per second through paper targets set up a football field's length away.
The sharpshooters weren't training for a SWAT team. These were the deputies who patrol the streets and roads from the glittery Gold Coast to the swamps of the Everglades. Watch cops practice firing the big guns »
The fatal shooting in September of a Miami-Dade police officer by a man using an assault weapon put all South Florida police departments on edge. Two other officers were wounded by the gunfire.
"It's not nice we have to arm ourselves like the soldiers in Iraq," said Sgt. Laurie Pfeil, who supervises a sheriff's road patrol in Palm Beach County and is now certified to carry a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle on the job. It's the civilian version of the military's M-16 used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
"We are like soldiers. It is a war, " says Sgt Pfeil.
Across the country, at least 62 police officers have been gunned down this year -- a record pace, said Robert Tessaro, the associate director for law enforcement relations for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
As a result, the Brady organization supports police officers arming themselves with high-powered weapons "to protect themselves and their communities," he said.
"We're having more than one officer shot and killed a week. It's just outrageous that officers are being targeted," he said. "It's something I think all Americans should be outraged about."
Although the gun lobby disagrees, Tessaro lays the blame squarely on lawmakers who allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.
Cops are being trained on semiautomatic weapons, which fire a single shot at a time and are more accurate. Some semiautomatic weapons can fire with pinpoint accuracy from as far as 100 yards away. The magazines used by law enforcement typically carry 20 or 30 rounds, adding to the ability to better respond under fire.
Designed to shoot from the hip, fully automatic assault rifles such as the AK-47 can spray at a rate of up to 600 rounds a minute.
There's no doubt that urban street warfare, aided by a proliferation of cheap automatic weapons, has come even to Palm Beach County, once high society's vacation mecca and a retirement destination for northern snowbirds.
Assault weapons have been used to kill eight people and wound 25 here over the last two years. Authorities estimate there are about 160 gangs who boast around 7000 members.
"They don't have .38s anymore. They have AK-47s. ...They have automatic weapons now," said Sgt. Pfeil.
So the Palm Beach Sheriff's office, like many others across the county, is training and arming everyone on the force with semiautomatic assault weapons. Many officers say it's about time.
"It's different now. It's shootings on a weekly basis. Ten years ago, that just didn't happen," said Pfeil. "They don't get out and run from us anymore. They stop, and they're shooting at us."
Miami's police department also is in the process of arming every officer with an assault rifle.
"It's a little bit embarrassing that we're engaged in this, but what is the alternative?" said Miami police Chief John Timoney. He said gangs, in particular, are getting their hands on high-powered weapons with apparent ease.
"The streets of South Florida are being flooded by AK-47s and assault weapons from old Soviet bloc countries. It's driven the price down, making the availability greater," said Chief Timoney.
The Miami police department evidence room has seized AK-47s, AR-15s and an assortment of other automatic and semiautomatic weapons piled on shelves from floor to ceiling.
Chief Timoney says he started noticing an increase since the federal assault weapon ban lapsed in 2004. Since then, he says homicides in the city of Miami involving assault weapons have been up -- 18 percent last year and 20 percent this year.
The Miami Police Department said 15 of its 79 homicides last year involved assault weapons, up from the year before. So far this year, 12 of 60 killings have involved the high-powered arms.
Tessaro said he recently attended a conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Among the crime scene tape, squad cars, and other law enforcement gear offered for sale was the latest in high-powered assault weapons.
But it takes time and money to arm everyone. In the case of Palm Beach Sheriff's office, about one-third of its deputies carry assault weapons. It could take a year to get everyone equipped.
Some officers aren't waiting.
Palm Beach Sheriff's deputy Carl Martin bought his own AR-15 and passed the required training.
When his department offered him one of their weapons, he gave it up to someone else who was on the waiting list. "Because there's not enough to go around," he explained.
Story here
Honestly, what's so bad about "liberalism?" Instead of giving something that is "fair and ballanced," you just give them the complete opposite!
You know who's really bias in my opinion? EXTREME CONSERVATIVES! They can't stand anybody that thinks differently that them.
If they want to make an Oceania, stay the fuck away from America. We are all different. We stand on that. The true American is one that respects everyone's opinion. If anybody is a threat to the safety of this nation, it's them
His actual words were in regard to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He said, “You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”
He then went on to say, “We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”
The Associated Press dared to accuse dear Mr. Robertson, an honorable man of God, of calling for the death of a fellow human being.
Rightfully outraged by this horrendous stretch of truth, Robertson defended himself by saying, "I didn't say 'assassination.’ I said our special forces should ’take him out.' 'Take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping."
You're right, Patter. 'Taking out' could mean a lot of thing, and I suppose kidnapping isn't a crime or a sin. But that isn't the point. You also said, "if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." It pretty hard to misconstrue that. That means you think we should assassinate him. There's no way around it.
You can't blame the media when the remarks you made were caught on videotape. Maybe you should pray to God for a brain. Or ask your followers to "contribue" their hard earned money for one.
What is it that makes Americans think that their life is so hard? Do they live in constant fear of being killed for religous preferneces? In America our problems consist of, what to wear, which cd should i buy or does he like me? We have some terrible things that happen i.e. rapes, murders, kidnappings. but the majority of the world, what we call tragedy they call reality. Have you ever seen your parents drug out into the street and shot because they had not pledged their allegiance to the dictator? Are your parents teaching you to strap bombs to your chest at a young age so one day you can kill random people. Was your sister ever kidnapped and turned into a sex slave?
This is what dominates the american news, we see the horrors others call life. yet, we consider neve knowing your father to be painful. Whenever we are dealt a little bit of pressure we call it quits. your world comes crashing down when your boyfriend breaks up with you. These are tiny details. Even in South America if a woman is caught sleeping with another man it is not uncommon that the woman dissappears and never returns. You think your life is tough? Get over yourself. It isn't.
lately i've learned, my life is not hard. i've gone through some tough times, but nothing's really bad. i turn on the tv and all i see is death. everytime i hear of a couple losing a child, i almost cry, the thought of losing my own someday is more than i can bear. as americans we take everything in life for granted. freedom of speech. freedom of the press. we say what we want, whether it hurts someone else or not. take the media for instance. we think of ourselves first. we think we have it hard beacause once, long ago, we lost a friend. we neglect to see life through someone else's perspective. the little boy who's parent's were shot in front of him because they renounced the government. the little girl who was taken from her family because they couldn't pay their taxes. in reality our life is a bed of roses compared to other parts of the world. Zimbabwe, South Africa, Iraq, Iran etc.
in america we have something called the "American Dream." the rest of the world only knows survival. in america we crush all who get in our way of reaching our goal. it seems that "less fortunate" people than ourselves truly know how to be happy, even in their hellish existence. instead of an "american dream" they have something much more meaningful. Honour, Integrity, Brotherhood and most importantly Love. in modern day america love is just a myth passed on from our forefathers.
these are my thoughts regarding life, many of you will know that what i say is true. and the other's... well you'll see someday. the truth is out there, now which road will you chose?
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