This is how a large cross section of our community is viewing last Tuesday’s chaos:
EPD at CR’s gun range
The out of control shoot out on the streets of Eureka still is something we find very troubling and alarming.
Examiner staff has been spending time out and about in the community, while holiday shopping and enjoying winter in Humboldt. This has brought us into contact with a broad cross section of the community. We feel we’re still right to be alarmed about the way in which the shooting came about, but we have to take a minute and reflect about the way this episode is playing out in the larger community across normally divisive political lines.
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If I were considering opening a new business in Eureka all these shootings would certainly make me wonder what sort of future business would have in such an environment. If I were a professional considering looking for a position in the area I’d have to wonder what the violence and lack of controls over the lawless elements in the city would mean about the actual quality of life in the city.
Sad, very sad.
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Yes, this is what liberalism and druggie culture run amok hath wrought. Count the grow stores, THEN count the bullets. Crime breeds crime. Lefties get the community they deserve.
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Ya, because we all know that there’s no crime in Texas or Nevada. Get out of your bubble much?
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Yet Chief Mills will probably get another free pass on the ineffective and dangerous police department which he has been in charge of these last few years. Maybe Austin Allison will finally be the councilmember to take Mills to task for Mills failed policies.
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Normally I tend to disagree with your views, however in this case 40 shots fired with one hit is an embarrassment. Geez, let’s encourage more tactical range training and not just a quarterly shoot at a stationary target. According to FBI statistics an American law enforcement officer fires nine shots on average in an engagement. The EPD was just above that and it’s totally unacceptable. I support rigorous range training at moving targets and support the one shot one kill mentality, not the spray and pray mentality.
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How about the no shots, no kills mentality?
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This guy’s pupils should have been fixed and dilated after round fired #3 tops! Hit the range boys.
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Hope this gets put up in the EPD break room
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sorry hard as I try I can’t find any humor about living in Murl Harpham’s “hell hole”
Sure wish Garr was still Chief
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Seems like EPD might be eating their own when this case is all said and done. If there’s any leaks at EPD, which it certainly seems like given the detail in the North Coast Journal article, I wonder if it’s coming from one of the Sergeants looking to promote? Maybe someone like that is working the investigation and would like to see Stephens get taken down a few notches by releasing info to the press showing Stephens bad leadership practices.
I seem to remember local media being a part of the EPD promotional process, maybe relationships were developed during that time with the failing candidates?
Whatever the motivations, I’m glad for that person/persons releasing information to the press so that we can at least FEEL like there’s transparency coming out in this case.
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One would expect a big shake up at the pd. Mills must be damn embarrassed about now.
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Until we get a new police chief, expect another promotion out of this.
Officer Linfoot, the only officer to shoot and kill Tommy McClain, testified he was scared. The jury agreed and held him, (read: taxpayer’s), accountable.
Undaunted from their recent losses in the McClain case, (Humboldt County’s first civil trial at its new federal courthouse), EPD returns to its unprofessional, deadly, terrified behavior.
If an officer starts at age 25, and retires at 55, he’ll get 90% of his ending salary at retirement, a $4 million windfall by the time he’s 85.
With only two years training at a junior college, that kind of retirement during desperate economic times lures every category of personality unsuited for the job.
Accurate numbers of civilian deaths nationwide are only now being demanded, estimated to be in the thousands.
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The EPD break room is a buzz of embarrassed snickers and “I’m sure glad I didn’t hit one of you guys.” “Nah, but I did here one go by my ear”. “It sounded like there were a least three of them because of all the gun fire, or I wouldn’t have emptied a whole clip.” “A lot of fun though, wasn’t it?”
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