Comments on: Police Kill Army Reservist During Standoff

Soldier In Maryland Said To Be Upset Over Redeployment Fired At Cops While Barricaded In Home

[jn122736]

mikeyy53 said:

%u201Cso it's the cops fault the the reservist is dead...Let's see he barracades himself in the house, threatens to kill anyone that comes near him...After all that he stands on the porch and ends up dead after pointing a weapon at a deputy..He got what he wanted, to die.%u201D

I agree he got what he wanted but not necessarily what he deserved.
Evidently this young man was alone in the house and unless his parents asked the police to remove him they could have left him alone, perhaps long enough to get his mind straight.

They were preparing to use tear gas to force him out before he came out. The fact that he fired shots hitting a police car means he may have forced the issue anyway but we will never know now.
Too many times I have heard %u201C he pointed a gun at me%u201D as the excuse for killing the victim. It has been stretched so far now that they have even claimed %u201Cwe thought they were trying to find a gun%u201D as in the case of the recent shooting where 50 shots were fired into an automobile with an unknown number of passengers inside.

The saddest part of all is the terrible stress these soldiers are now under.
It is also sad that we never hear about the ones who object unless they do something drastic.
I suspect there are far more soldiers who feel about the Iraqi fiasco as most other Americans do but are pressured not to complain.

[allgood34]

Petesis,

Apparently you have never served in either law enforcement or the military. Tell me why it is you and many others feel someone can shoot at the police or the military but if either return fire and kill those who fired at them first they are wrong. I fully believe if a cop tells you to stop and you continue to run or if they say drop your weapon and you do not they should have the right to shoot. If you're not doing anything wrong why are you running? If you do not intend to shoot why are you refusing to drop your weapon? Why should the cop or the soldier wait until they are fired upon (which could be the end of their life) to take action against those who threaten harm against them? If the crook or the enemy is a good shot (or just a lucky one) the soldier or the cop is dead without a chance to do anything but say halt. That's total BS. Those who volunteer to protect our freedoms should be able to protect their own lives when threatened not only after the threat fires upon them. The soldier was wrong in this case. He said he would shoot if anyone came in the house and he opened fire on the police first. He was wrong the police had every right to return fire to protect themselves and others.

[allgood34]

Having served in Iraq myself I know how much it sucks over there. I don't know all the reasons behind this case but for me I wouldn't want to return to Iraq if I were still in. I believed in the war when it first kicked off and I was there as it did. As our government showed the world they had proof of stockpiles of WMD in Iraq that we were tracking by satalite along with other means. What happened to those stock piles? We invaded that country on lies our government fed us and the rest of the world. Being a soldier at the time of the war and knowing a lot of soldiers I can tell you most of those I have come in contact with do not support the war and do not believe in the reasons they are sent there. They go because it's their duty to do so. They do not speak out publicly on their thoughts of our leaders and their mission there because they cannot without putting their career in jeapordy. I do not condone this soldier's actions in any way but a small part of me can feel his pain.

[petesis]

mikeyy53
I stand by what I wrote. And as evidence I refer to the recent story in Raleigh about the cop that shoots the family dog and the recent shooting gallery in New York City. There have been many instances. Alot of cops like to shoot first and I suspect this guy did not have to die if they could have talked to him. But you nor I were there so we are both welcome to our own opinions. I retain mine. I have ears and eyes with which to form them.

[mikeyy53-2009]

Petesis,

so it's the cops fault the the reservist is dead...Let's see he barracades himself in the house, threatens to kill anyone that comes near him...After all that he stands on the porch and ends up dead after pointing a weapon at a deputy..He got what he wanted, to die. Petesis, neither you or I were there. The liberal media will not give you the truth. I used to work in that field, half the stuff is made up. Remember Y2K..thank you media.

An officer has 2 seconds to make a decision in a shoot off, is it me or him(or her)? Does the officer want to see his wife and kids at the end of their shift? you bet!! Do a ride along for a shift and see the *** they have to put up with. A vast majority of the officers are no different than you or I. Their are still some cowboys out there, they don't last long!

I am not a cop nor is any member of my family a cop. I have however gone on a ride along, its very interesting(especially Friday & Saturday Nights, cheap entermainment)

[mrvolleyba11]

Idiots, the president doesn't say how long they will serve in Iraq! That determination is made by each branch of service based on the mission!!!
Iraq is mostly ground troops so the Army is the one that determined how long they will be there and if/when their unit will return. And that's BS about Vietnam, they are a lot of people that volunteered and served multiple times in Vietnam! The ones who did only one tour were typically the drafted personnel.

[petesis]

Cops are becoming more and more trigger happy in this country. It seems they shoot first and hope for the best in having their butts covered by their comrades, This guy was a pretty good shot and he could have killed people if he had wanted to. I was not there. But it seems lately more and more the cops come out and someone gets shot.

[mrvolleyba11]

Additionally they don't keep you in a data base forever or mark you as willing because you served. You hear about people saying they served their 4 years and got out to be called up but you really don't know the facts in regards to this either (thanks to our great press). individuals have an active duty commitment any where from 2-6 years and then they have an inactive commitment where they are subject to recall. This inactive commitment can very based on the active duty time served. example: 4 years active and 4-years inactive, or 2 active and 6 inactive.
Don't buy every word you read in the press, they are a business to make money and write their stories accordingly (to increase $$$). It the little parts that they don't mention or leave out that tells the whole story!

[mrvolleyba11]

I shudder to think what the situation would be if Kerry was in charge! He married money and has been sitting in congress for over 2 decades and can not produce one significant piece of legislation that he is responsible for! and this is a man that said he had all the answers!!! I guess he is keeping then to himself for a 2008 run???

[mrvolleyba11]

Contrary to what everybody in here is saying (and on TV) NOT everybody believes IRAQ is wrong! There are 100's of thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen who have and are proudly serving in IRAQ or will soon be in IRAQ. When you count the American deaths with the total number of service men and women who have been there the odds of you getting killed are actually very low, there are probably some areas in American cities that are more dangerous than Iraq but you don't hear the press mention that. All we hear every day is death, this many or that many killed so of course it sounds bad. But the majority of the deaths are Iraqi civilians, they are the ones living this nightmare and if we leave with these current conditions what do you think this country would be like in 6 months, a year???
And get off the Bush never served ***! Bush was a fighter pilot in a reserve unit that did not deploy during the Vietnam War; there were 100's of units that did not deploy (active duty, reserve, and guard units). Bush had NO control over his units deploying or not deploying you idiots. And as far as never fighting in a war, neither Did Clinton (who was busy smoking pot at the time), Reagan, or Carter. The last president's whom actually fought in combat were Bush Sr (Shot down in WWII) and Ford (May he rest in peace).

[creeper00]

Vietnam vets will tell you that for most of them the only thing that got them through it was the knowledge that if they survived for a year they were out of that hellhole. Today's troops have an open-ended committment to spend however long in Iraq the president deems necessary.

I can't imagine what it's like to have NO idea when you'll get out of there for good. Talk about living your life in limbo...

[michaeld361]

Looks like President "ChuckleNuts" has no qualm about killing off Americans at the hands of Terrorists. In my 56 years of existance, this person who is in office is the worse and deadlist president I have ever seen! If he were to just disappear today...it wouldn't bother me in the least! The only bad thing that would come of this would be Cheney as President (talk about the blind leading the blind). I can only hope that he is held accountable for his dumb *** actions in this war he started. And you can't forget his sidekicks...Cheney, Rice....and of course Rumsfield! Bush has screwed over this country and its people long enough. What a dip ***!

[bluestardad]

maybe just wanted college money and went in to get it then this NUTJOB Ruler we have now started war with someone that was not threat to us.

[nothappyatall]

"His dad told me that he didn't want to go to war," Matthews said. "He had already been out there and didn't want to go again."

Well MAYBE he shoulda thought of that scenario BEFORE he signed up dontcha think! Once you sign up they have you for life in their database as one WILLING to go to any callups they choose, even after you serve your contract time out they can still call you up.
No doubt we will see many more of these instances when the battle scarred troops eventually come home- the psychosis, stress syndrome etc.

[rharrin1]

Just another example to prove what most troops think of trying to serve democracy to people that do not want it.

He would have pulled a bush but didn't have anybody to pull strings for him.

[cantshutup]

This is tragic...Look at what bush's policies are doing to us...I would be freaking out too, being sent back into that hell by a leader whom IF he had actually had the decency to serve his country would not be someone you'd want guarding your back...I hope the whole lot of them are impeached or even better, the same fate as Sadahm...