Portland Police v. Protestors

Projecting power by pouncing and poking and prodding, the Portland Police push pretentious protestors to the pavement promising potential prosecution. Badaboom.

”A group of about 30 people gathered in Pioneer Courthouse Square in the afternoon, calling for the dismissal of Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman. Clad mostly in black with many wearing bandanas over their faces, they stepped into the intersection of Southwest Yamhill and Sixth Avenue, blocking cars, buses and a MAX train.

…It apparently was part of a promise by people to disrupt the city to show their outrage over the police response to an Inauguration Day rally and march downtown last Friday when officers in riot gear used tear gas and flash-bang and sting-ball grenades to get people to leave.

H/T Gateway Pundit

A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One

Police work can be incredibly stressful. Working the streets in a high crime area dealing with call after call, violent criminals,  hostile complainants, a hostile city administration and liberal courts breathing down your neck makes it worse. I wonder why I put up with it so long...

Four NYPD officers were murdered last year. So far in 2016, thirteen officers across the US have been shot to death and one killed via vehicular assault.

Therefore the results of a NYPD police union poll are not surprising:

The vast majority of NYPD officers who answered a new survey hate their jobs and believe they were a lot safer before Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took office, according to a new survey by the city’s police union.

The polling of more than 6,000 of the NYPD’s roughly 24,000 rank-and-file revealed a resounding lack of passion for the job, with cops on average rating morale at just 2.49 on a scale of 1 to 10.

“The results of this survey prove what we’ve been hearing time and time again from members over the past two years — the job is more difficult than ever, the dangers are greater, and morale is extremely low,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

The City's self-serving, nonsensical response is also not surprising. Story here.

Sam Colt Is Spinning In His Grave

One of the Better Colts

Back around 1975 I bought a Colt Government Series 80 .45 pistol for off duty.
It was a piece of crap and I got rid of it.

Fast forward thirty some odd years and I was again looking for a mod 1911 and was in Gander Mountain browsing their wares. I espied a stainless Colt .45; right next to it was a stainless Kimber Custom. I placed the two side by side and was amazed at the difference. Whoever did the finish work on the Colt had to be intoxicated. It was a mess. The Kimber was flawless and the action nice and tight.
They were the same price.
I bought the Kimber. Still enjoy shooting it.

So it is not without an "I was waiting for this" attitude that I read this today.

The American firm with the iconic name of Colt has declared bankruptcy. As Tiffany Kary of Bloomberg reports:

… the 179-year-old gunmaker that supplies M4 carbines and M16 rifles for the U.S. and foreign militaries, filed for bankruptcy amid delayed government sales and declining demand. The West Hartford, Connecticut-based firearms maker listed assets of as much as $500 million and debt of as much as $500 million in a Chapter 11 filing late Sunday in bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington Trust Company is listed as the biggest unsecured creditor with a $261 million claim.

It's not that I hated Colts, I really liked their revolvers. I always regretted never owning a Python.

When I joined the department I was issued a Colt Trooper Mk. III. I liked the gun and shot extremely well with it but we had too many problems with the Colts. My wing-man was attacked by a steel pipe wielding idiot and drew down on him. All he got was a *click* out of the Trooper. So he beat the guy over the head with the Colt. It worked fine then.

Shortly thereafter we transitioned to the S&W Mod. 10 (with the bull barrel).
I didn't care much for this handgun. I still shot well, I did not like the trigger pull.

In the early 90's we finally went to a semiautomatic handgun, the S&W 4506 in 45 caliber. It wasn't bad, but I just don't care for S&W semiautomatics.

In the late 70's I also had a semi-auto 9mm S&W mod. 59; I traded it in after only a few months.