XBradTC

We’re quick to condemn the unjustifiable use of force by law enforcement officers. Aside from the obvious outrage at the death of Walter Scott, shot in the back by a police officer now charged with his murder, there are other cases where police officers use force that is difficult at best to justify.

However, police officers tend to face situations that are fraught with danger, or at least the very real possibility of danger.

On March 21, 2015, officers of the sleepy little Arizona town of Cottonwood, midway between Phoenix and Flagstaff, were called to the local Wal-Mart in response to a complaint that a family camping in the parking lot had attacked a store employee, pushing her to the ground.

Four Cottonwood officers rolled up to the parking lot to find the  members of the Gaver family, apparently itinerant street musicians from Idaho, standing by their dilapidated Chevy Suburban that served as their home.

As is normal, when the officers arrived, they intended to separate the family members and presumably make inquiries about the complaint. At that point, Peter Gaver, 55, objected, and very quickly a melee began, with the four officers outnumbered, and one officer quickly overwhelmed.

The brawl continued for several minutes.  By the time it was over, Cottonwood PD Sergeant Jeremy Daniels was shot in the leg, David Gaver was shot in the abdomen, and Enoch Gaver would lie dead in the parking lot.

Graphic video. The fatal encounter appears to take place at approximately the 3:10 mark.

Four more Cottonwood PD officers arrived to help bring the fight to an end. One Wal-Mart employee came to the assistance of the police, attempting to isolate and detain a Gaver family member. Other Wal-Mart employees rendered assistance to Sergeant Daniels.

The Gavers were apparently virtually immune to the spectrum of force. Tasers, batons, and pepper spray had little to no effect on them. Cottonwood PD Chief Jody Fanning, quoted in the Verde News:

“Had it not been for the Walmart employee (Eric Fields) helping the original four officers, they would have been overwhelmed,” Fanning said. “The weapons and tactics that we deployed, they didn’t work. When we shoot them with Tasers, they have been taught to roll on the ground and break the wires so the electricity stops.
“When they try the ASP police batons, it doesn’t bother them. They take multiple hits from the ASPs. They get pepper spayed, they don’t care. When they get punched, they don’t care. They just continue to go and go.”
Fanning also said, “Their mode to fight is to grab the officers’ eyes, ears and mouth and pull as hard as they can. That is where most of the officers’ injuries came from, ripping at their faces. They don’t do very much punching because that doesn’t work because of our vests, but ripping at our faces does.
“At no time, does the mother or father tell the children to stop and comply,” Fanning noted.

All eight responding officers suffered injuries, though with the exception of Sergeant Daniels, they  were thankfully minor.

The Cottonwood officers were remarkably restrained, not resorting to lethal force until Enoch Gaver attempted to seize Daniels’ pistol.

The shots were fired, with, presumably, Daniels shot first, then Enoch Gaver fatally shot by Officer Rick Hicks, and then David Gaver was shot, though I cannot tell by whom.

Both Sergeant Daniels and David Gaver are expected to fully recover from their injuries.

The Gaver family appears to not have had any significant encounters with the police before this incident. All five adult members and two juvenile family members face a wide array of felony charges, and are being held in lieu of bond. Interestingly, no felony murder charges are included. I’m no expert on Arizona law, but one would have thought that a death in the commission of a felony (such as aggravated assault or riot) would bring felony murder charges- that is, regardless of who killed the decedent, the defendant should have known felonious actions could likely result in a homicide, and thus are criminally liable for that death).

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Naval Aviation concentrated on the low level nuclear strike mission.  Navigation in the era before GPS was usually a matter of compass headings and stopwatch, backed up by visual orientation with local landmarks.

A couple of notes. First, back in 1960, there weren’t really any such things as “low level routes.” Pretty much all airspace was available for use. Note as well that the altitudes used were a good deal lower than allowed today. Next, do note that this is pretty much the best example of the Skyhawk paradigm around. Meticulous planning to the target, not one word about getting home.

Spill tipped me to this CBSA assessment of the future of air to air fighter combat. I’m dubious as to their ideas for the future, but the paper does give a very nice history of trends in the air to air arena.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Norwegian manufacturer of the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) has teamed with U.S. missile manufacturer Raytheon to pitch the anti-ship missile (ASM) to the Navy as the over-the-horizon (OTH) ASM for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), company officials told reporters in a briefing on Thursday.

The agreement comes as the Navy surface warfare directorate is working through the requirements for a longer range anti-ship missile to include onboard the LCS and the modified LCS frigate design with a request for proposal (RfP) for the capability expected in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016.

The NSM — or a derivative — could also compete for the Navy’s Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Increment 2 multi-platform competition as a follow on to the Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). LRASM is in a sole source negotiation with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) for OASuW Increment 1.

via Raytheon and Kongsberg Team to Pitch Stealthy Norwegian Strike Missile for LCS – USNI News.

We’re a fan of the NSM. Plus, there’s a great video of it in action.

I’m going to take an unpopular position here. No. Just no.

Claiming the Obama administration turned its back on them, 41 Americans stranded in war-torn Yemen filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the State Department and Defense Department for not evacuating them — as fighting intensifies and U.S. allies launch airstrikes. 

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks to compel the government to use “all resources” possible to rescue the stranded Americans. The plaintiffs range in age from just a few weeks old to senior citizens. 

First, the Constitution stops at the water’s edge. That is, these Americans (many of whom are likely dual citizens of Yemen) are in Yemen, not the US. They presumably arrived in Yemen of their own free will, and not at the order of the US government. And it isn’t as if the US State Department hasn’t been warning for months for US citizens to leave.

Second, much as your local police force has no legal requirement to protect you, nor does the US government have an obligation to rescue you from poor choices, particularly the poor choice of ever being in Yemen in the first place, let alone staying during a civil war.

Finally, the remedy sought from the court is quite clearly beyond the court’s authority to grant. The President is the sole Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. I looked pretty closely at both Article II and Article III and don’t see where any court has the authority to tell the President where or how to employ the forces of the United States, nor an Article I power to compel the  US to enter a war, which any such non-combatant evacuation might easily lead to.

We don’t think anyone can rightly accuse us of being staunch defenders of the Obama administration foreign policy. But in this case, it appears that the President has decided to keep the US involvment at a minimum, and allow the Saudis and their coalition partners to bear the brunt of the burden. In this case, that appears to be the proper course of action.  Nor is the President likely to be in a hurry to see US troops on the ground in Yemen to effect an evacuation. Nor am I. It’s not as though the collapse of Yemen was some wholly unforeseeable black swan event. These people had plenty of time to contact the US embassy before it was evacuated and make arrangements for repatriation then. We ask you, how many US troops should have their lives placed at risk to remedy the poor choices of those in Yemen?

More than 6,000 Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen participating in a major exercise in the Philippines won’t be enjoying the local nightlife.

U.S. Pacific Command is strictly limiting liberty for troops participating in the Balikatan exercise alongside 5,000 Filipino troops.

via Limited liberty for troops in Philippines exercise.

Marine General Chuck Krulak coined the term “Strategic Corporal” a few years ago to describe the geopolitical impact even a very junior servicemember could have in a theater of operations.

In this case, the impact of a (Lance) Corporal who allegedly murdered a transgendered Filipino prostitute last year has not quite ruptured a renewed cooperative relationship between the Philippines and the US.* The local population still has very little goodwill to the average US troop.

The poor prospects for decent liberty for US troops is a direct consequence of that, and a small price to pay for showing the Philippine people the US can be a trusted partner, and not an overlord.

*One of the very few instances where the Obama foreign policy has improved the relationship between American and an allied nation.

The Germanwings suicidal/homicidal depressed and narcissistic pilot is providing the impetus to speed up development of remote and robotic ways to control an airplane. Already pilots spend very little time controlling an airplane manually. Boeing pilots work twice as hard as Airbus pilots. Does that make the Airbus pilots lazy? Or the Boeing pilots overworked?

In a recent survey of airline pilots, those operating Boeing 777s reported that they spent just seven minutes manually piloting their planes in a typical flight. Pilots operating Airbus planes spent half that time.

via FuturePundit: Airline Pilots Manually Fly Airplanes For 3.5-7 Minutes Per Flight.

Here’s the thing with autopilots. First, they are far more than just autopilots- they are complex flight management systems (or FMS)  that control the aircraft and its navigation.

And the reason pilots let the FMS do the flying is twofold. First, the FMS tends to actually fly the plane better, more precisely. Second, it frees the crew to concentrate their attention on all the other things that have to be done to get you safely to your destination.

As our friend Art on FB quipped, pot smoking is legal in Washington now.