Monday, April 25, 2011

Pellet Plinker Charged

The fake-gun-wielding man shot nine times by cops as he waved an all-too-real looking pellet gun at a Bronx nightclub has been charged.
Mamadou Balde, 20, was hit with weapons and menacing complaints over the stunt Friday outside of the crowded Cocoa House hotspot in Highbridge.
Balde, who sources say is a wannabe Bloods gang member, was struck in the legs, arms, groin and foot after three cops fired 18 shots at him.

So take your pick on which is worse: 3 cops firing 18 times to drop one lunatic; 3 cops incapable of telling a pellet gun from the real deal; the NYPD continuing to go with the peashooter 9mm round* that, combined with the officer's horrid accuracy, cannot stop anything bigger than a bedbug.

*They're not changing to something more powerful anytime soon because nearly a quarter of today's "force" can barely handle the kick from a GLOCK wondernine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the police can't hit their target with a 9mm, then the bullets are traveling on to do collateral damage.

If you were that innocent, by-standing collateral, would you rather be hit with a 9mm or a .45?

Maybe departments should be rated on firearms accuracy and those with below requirements test results should be limited to .25 caliber sidearms.

Fits said...

That's pretty much some of the most convoluted logic I've heard in a while.

Part of the reason they miss is the fact that they know they must spray & pray to take a man down, since they're armed with ineffective sidearms. And since most cops don't like to practice because its expensive and many (all) departments won't pay for the target ammo, they suck at hitting what they're aiming at.

Add forces legislated into hiring small stature'd people into the mix, and you have the problems we see today.

So, they're going to miss. Done deal. Take it to the bank. Collateral damage for lots of reasons.

99.9% of all departments switched to mushrooming bullets because..um, they mushroom...and have less tendency to fly right through a target and impact what's behind, and also go from a smaller caliber to a real big one and create more damage along the way.

The NYPD was one of the very last because DUM-DUMS sounded too scary and the politicians didn't like scary so they made judgments predicated upon not only faulty information but emotional kneejerks as well. Just like they're doing with switching from the 9.

But saying that well, cops shouldn't use real guns because they suck at shooting, is in itself unimaginably stupid. And a very, very liberal manner in which to fix an ongoing and quite dangerous problem. Still-standing bad guys are just as, if not more prone to shooting up the neighborhood, and that's purposeful and not accidental.

Let's face it, society would save tens of thousands of lives a year by governing highway speeds down to as fast as a horse can run, but blaming everyone because some idiots can't drive is the sort of punishment that happens in kindergarten.

Teach them how to shoot and arm them with something good to shoot with...but...and its a big but...keep paying restitution to the local merchants and apartment owners for damaging their property.

There's lots more but its lunchtime here.

BobG said...

Sounds like the most dangerous place there was to be standing behind the idiot with the pellet gun.

Fits said...

That about sums it up, Bob.