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malaise

(269,237 posts)
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 08:59 AM Apr 2015

Would someone on DU please explain to me how

donating vehicles and cash to a police department allows a 70 plus year old wealthy man to play cop and shoot a citizen dead.

Seriously something is fugging wrong with this Oklahoma story
Who sanctioned this crazy policy??

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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cali

(114,904 posts)
2. not only that but I read that he was a big campaign donor to the sheriff
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:01 AM
Apr 2015

Completely insane. should be illegal.

MineralMan

(146,339 posts)
3. Most volunteer cops don't carry guns.
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:09 AM
Apr 2015

This one certainly should not have been doing so.

Becoming a cop through donations makes no sense at all. Giving a wannabe cop a gun also makes no sense.

Someone's job should end. I nominate the guy who hired him and armed him.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
13. I'm not sure if that is true or not
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:46 AM
Apr 2015

A guy I work with is a volunteer for the sheriff's office and he most certainly does carry a gun, makes arrests, and does everything the full time officers do. He's a former full time LEO and has the same qualifications as the full time deputies.

MineralMan

(146,339 posts)
14. From what I've seen, the person in question in that incident
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 10:17 AM
Apr 2015

did not have those qualifications. None of the auxiliary cops around here carry firearms.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
17. Reserve and aux officers are two different things
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 10:44 AM
Apr 2015

The news outlet reported that he's a reserve officer.

The sheriff's office told the Tulsa World that it has more than 100 reserve deputies, who "have full powers and authority" of a deputy while on duty, and that it's not unusual for them to be on an assignment with units such as the Violent Crimes Task Force.

http://news.yahoo.com/video-released-showing-killing-black-oklahoma-suspect-202659435.html

marym625

(17,997 posts)
6. I watched The Last Word last night
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:13 AM
Apr 2015

And evidently, this is not unusual. Lawrence O'Donnell stated it happens all over the country and many of them have weapons.

brewens

(13,634 posts)
7. I work with a guy that would be all jazzed about getting to do that kind of thing. I mean just
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:37 AM
Apr 2015

out there armed and playing cop. He wouldn't probably be itching to be tazing or shooting someone but you never know. He's always been a wanna be cop and he's a real pain in the ass. He's never made the PD but is some kind of sheriffs auxilliary which is a glorified rent-a-cop thing for that county and he works for a local security company on the side.

One time he came into an after hours training session wearing his security boy costume and we knew he was just trying to impress this HR woman from our HQ. He claimed he had to work a shift at some event after we were done with the training and one of the gals popped off and said it was probably a bachelorette party! That got a good laugh. I would have loved to have challenged him and put $100 bucks on his not being able to show me any kind of proof he had hours with those guys that night. Not a chance.

He tells some people he's a police officer but I know he has never made a single dime as an actual cop on duty.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
10. Lots of police departments hire reserve officers
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 09:43 AM
Apr 2015

You don't have to donate anything to do so other than time, and you have to meet whatever the necessary qualifications are.

2naSalit

(86,875 posts)
15. So why was this
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 10:32 AM
Apr 2015

"volunteer" carrying a gun? A vigilante white supremacist (most likely) who pays to play cop.

That's what many of our previously laws and rules were supposed to prevent. And then again, it is Oklahoma.

MrMickeysMom

(20,453 posts)
16. Here… I'll let Tony Norman explain it to you...
Tue Apr 14, 2015, 10:37 AM
Apr 2015

This is his column from today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette…

Tony Norman: It’s crazy to let the rich play at policing
April 14, 2015

By Tony Norman / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In Tulsa, Okla., thousands of dollars in donations to the sheriff’s department earned Bob Bates — a 73-year-old “reserve sheriff” — a gun, a Taser and actual police powers, minus the burden of having to be competent.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2015/04/14/Tony-Norman-It-s-crazy-to-let-the-rich-play-at-policing/stories/201504140072
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