Let’s hope the politicians in Illinois missed this story. The brain surgeons in charge of the Fairfax County, Virginia County Police have decided to trade in their buckshot for beanbags. What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure if someone tips of Big Brain Brandon up in Chicago that this would be a policy he would enthusiastically champion!
Let’s face it: Any Every time police try kinder, gentler policing, criminals cheer enthusiastically from the sidelines.
It’s true: police administrators in Fairfax County, VA have stripped patrol officers of their shotguns. Instead of sending officers out with 00 Buckshot or rifle slugs to put down violent offenders threatening innocent life, their “lucky” beat cops are deploying with bean bags. Some might even get nothing for surrendering their tried and true, fight-stopping shotguns.
From the Fairfax County Police Department News:
Fairfax, VA– In the Spring of 2023, FCPD’s Law Enforcement Training unit took another step forward in its less-lethal options in policing by transitioning and equipping all the department’s patrol officers with less-lethal shotguns.
Prior to March, every police cruiser was equipped with a 12-gauge shotgun as a use-of-force option. In an effort to give officers, FCPD reviewed the data, discussed use-case issues, surveyed patrol districts, and determined that department more less-lethal options, shotguns could be better utilized in a less-lethal capacity. This new solution provides officers with an additional option they can use when faced with less-lethal use situations.
In the months it took to safely make this transition across the department, FCPD took 800 shotguns out of circulation and has now put 630 less-lethal beanbag shotguns into use.
So they took 800 shotguns out of circulation and replaced them with 630 “cornhole” shotguns firing bean bags? That’s not “transitioning and equipping all of the department’s patrol officers with less-lethal shotguns.” Unless they’re cutting the number of patrol officers by 170, which in today’s world isn’t out of the question.
Because, Lord forbid, shotguns be lethal to bad people with evil in their hearts!
The new less-lethal shotguns are similar in weight, size, and appearance to the original patrol shotgun but look very different. These shotguns are now outfitted with a bright orange stock, fore-end, and large “Less Lethal” lettering on the stock (see picture). This color change will provide officers with an awareness that the shotguns are equipped with a less-lethal beanbag projectile.
Wait until one of the officers is sighting down his or her “less lethal” shotgun when a bad guy pulls up a fully lethal firearm.
Officers, who were all required to go through training on the use of the less-lethal shotgun before being allowed to use it, are taught the appropriate targeted areas for deployment to help eliminate major injuries.
“Appropriate targeted areas”? Is that like Joe Biden telling cops they should shoot for the arm or the leg to stop bad guys trying to kill people?
Former VP Joe Biden’s suggestion that cops should “shoot someone in the leg” if they’re coming at them is insulting and demonstrates his incompetence & inability to understand the grave dangers cops face as they protect the public and themselves from violent, heartless criminals. pic.twitter.com/7faAJjCoyZ
— Detectives’ Endowment Association (@NYCPDDEA) October 16, 2020
The good news for the woke social justice warriors in Fairfax County, Virginia is that their icky police will be employing “less lethal” tools against potentially lethal threats. That might make them feel better, but for the rest of us, it just means putting cops needlessly at further risk.
After all, it’s not like crime is on the rise there in Fairfax County. From the Fairfax Times:
At two months into the new year, crimes against person and crimes against property in Fairfax County are on track to outpace 2022.
The two types of crime are those against persons and those against property. Crimes against a person include assault offenses, homicide, human trafficking, kidnapping, and sex offenses. Crimes against property cover a broader range of offenses, including arson, bribery, burglary, vandalism, embezzlement, fraud, and theft.
In 2022, there were 936 crimes against person cases across the county compared to 1,187 as of Feb. 15. This trend parallels crimes against property, totaling 2,952 for 2022 compared to 3,176 as of Feb. 15, according to data provided by the Fairfax County Police Department.
This data builds on an upward trend in which crimes against person and crimes against property jumped by 10.5 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively, from 2021 to 2022.
Maybe insteal of pistols cops should carry sicial workers. That would work.
Since the Illinois State Police can NOT be trusted I would say this is a bit too much for them. Perhaps pink water guns with they/them pronouns are more appropriate. This is where you say the abusive agency should just be abolished but given the IL Republicans are Uniparty Democrat gun control enablers via HB2722 there seems to be no chance they’ll take a little more interest in their own constituents who happen to be Illinois residents and support us over an overly arrogant anti-citizen agency. So yes, this ONE BILL causes a problem. Kind of like that other ONE BILL called the Protect Illinois Communities Act. Things have turned a corner and any Republican that votes for HB2722 should NOT get re-elected. What difference does it make? The GOP is super-minority anyway – in large part, because they ask for it. Ask Governor Bailey how that “merrieage is uh man and uh wumon” Neanderthal views work statewide. How many voters are scared away with that flat-earth society backward mentality? TONS! I’m not one of the Republican apologists that say they won’t “throw their vote away” on a third party or independent candidate. That is EXACTLY what the Democrats tell you. Again, UNIPARTY. The silver lining is we live in a state where the GOP controls nothing statewide anyway so we have the gift of voting how we feel and to vote out the lousy Republicans. If any voter who actually values the 2A votes for a gun control enabler Republican as the old saying goes, people get the government they deserve, and the boot licker Republicans will have the green light to screw you over yet some more. HINT: Voting against the “assault weapon” ban but for HB2722 to further fund and empower the ISP is like voting against giving a drunk kid the keys to the car then turning around later and handing that same drunk kid a gas card. SAME THING It is what it is
That AR platform rifle needs to go. Police have no business wielding ‘weapons of war’. If the citizenry cannot possess such an item, then the police need to give theirs up, too. I fear for my safety with agencies like ISP in control of ARs, that they will use to murder civilians they deem to be a threat to society when the time comes.
Everything you said is correct. I wonder how many of these “back the blue” conformists on the political right have noticed a topic you mentioned, that if the citizenry can’t have something then the police need to give it up too. Take an everyday obvious and it’s any police officer, using a phone while driving. IF it’s sooooo dangerous how can a cop possibly have the arrogance to cite someone for using a phone then turn around and do it themselves? Here’s a little way to test one of these “back the blue” people that actually function like a Democrat because they value the government over the people. Do they even have basic self-awareness? Ask one of them if they think police should be able to use a phone while driving. If they say cops are exempt, then there you go. If they highlight what was obvious to anyone on the right the notion of “rules for thee, not for me” like Pritzker locking you down while his family vacationed in FL. Again, if it’s sooooo dangerous, why don’t they live by their own rules? Because none of it was ever about safety.
We can see where this is going. Look at the poster child. In all fairness I have used beanbags and 37mm less-than-lethal munitions in my career. When deployed properly, with lethal cover operators, the munitions can be effective. I suspect improper training and expectations will ruin this deployment. Wait until the pocket cop lets loose with that 12ga beanbag and the second round cuts through a suspects eye because the recoil controlled the shooter.