THE RULES OF A GUN FIGHTER: They operate in darkness…
HYANNIS – There are several basic rules for a trained gun fighter…
1. Bring a gun. Preferably bring at least two.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice.
3. Only hits count.
4. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
5. Keep shooting until the threat no longer exists.
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gun fight, bring a long gun and a friend.
7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
8. If you’re not shooting you should be reloading or running.
9. [There are many more rules and skills that need to be mastered, especially for municipal law enforcement, but the aforementioned are some of the very basic ones…]
~ Author unknown…
This morning, sometime after midnight, Barnstable Police received a call from the state police 911 system that some knucklehead was standing outside on a second story balcony waiving a gun around in the middle of a thickly settled family neighborhood.
The call was initially transmitted secretly to first responders over a mobile data terminal (MDT) inside their cruisers. Moments later other squad cars were given the details of the call over the patrol operations radio frequency.
Marked and unmarked police vehicles parked about a block away from the Yarmouth Road address. Officers, several with recent military experience, approached under darkness with long rifles or sidearms drawn.
The location, details, and circumstances of the call gave responding officers no reason to believe anything other than ‘this is for real.’ Highly trained officers were approaching and they were coming in cautious, but ‘heavy.’
When approaching a possible elevated armed threat with limited cover, good officers know darkness is their friend. Lights are used sparingly, or not at all, or to identify a target…
Barnstable patrol officers, along with plain-clothed SCU members, tactfully approached and entered the residence… The alleged threat was not located and the incident remains unfounded for the time being.
It’s doubtful HyTown officers consider this type of call anything else but routine. For them it’s typical and no big deal. For the rest of us it’s something we only see on TV in the comfort and safety of our living rooms. For us, it’s not typical, nor hardly routine.
One thing is certain… if some knucklehead waives a gun around in Hyannis, police are coming and they’re not playing. They’re bringing training, practice, experience, long guns, and plenty of friends. Untrained gunman, on the other hand, either die or wind up in a cage.
Only a crazed fool would dream to challenge that. Which is perhaps the precise profile police have in mind when they approach these types of calls.
HN Note: The following snapshots where taken with hardly any light at a safe distance from behind cover… The aperture was left open just long enough to suck in ambient light… but not too long… officers are blurred because they were moving or taking safe positions like they should. Under the circumstances the image quality is excellent. Usually HN uses artificial lighting when covering moving night shots. But in this case, artificial lighting would have put the officers in danger. Likewise, getting too close could also jeopardize the officer’s approach. Please do not attempt to photograph this type of late night scene without understanding how you may be interfering with the officer’s use of the condition of darkness when there normally isn’t foot traffic… sure, you’re usually within in your rights to be on a public way or sidewalk at any time of day, but courtesy and consideration for the officers’ safety is much more important. Also, getting too close to the above situation could have officers mistake you for the suspect. Again, some of the images below were virtually in pitch darkness… taken from a far off distance…
9/13/2014
Robert Bastille,
P.S. – Today's HyTown Vignette is brought to you by Simon & Garfunkel... [Press play]
