What the Heck was I Thinking!?

Just as I was reading through the most recent post at Wizbang Blog (which, by the way has a great podcast available as well), I was about to post some comments myself about the need to quit with the moral relativism BS of "you did it before, so it’s okay that the terrorists are doing it now." crap. JayTea’s post Oh, Grow Up!.. hits it right on the nose. One comment he makes about the Muslims’ responsibilities particularly got my eye:

 

The obligation to address this falls first on Muslims. This mess is theirs, it’s their house that needs cleaning. They have to take a stand against those who they accuse of "hijacking" their faith and take it away from them.

How true that is. How rarely do we hear it said by anyone, especially Muslim "leaders."

 

Another of his comments is,

"We need to tell the non-extremist Muslims to get the hell out of the way and stay the hell out of the way while we do the dirty work they have not done themselves."

Bravo, JayTea! You have hit the nail on the head.

The Daily Page: Democrats for Worker Exploitation

Oh, the hypocricy of it! 

Thanks to the Captain’s Quarters Blog and Wizbang Blog for the pointers to this article that’s rich in left wing hypocricy and double talk.

You’d never hear them say that about a business that doesn’t support their attemtps to buy votes. 

In an article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com - Wrong Door ) Radley Balko and Joel Berger marshal some weak logic and bad math to scare people away from the police’s use of SWAT teams andother specialized police units. 

 

"Criminologist Peter Kraska estimates that the number of SWAT team "call-outs" soared past 40,000 in 2001 (the latest year for which figures are available) from about 3,000 in 1981."

That sounds pretty bad, except that that 25 year period coincides with the rise of extremely violent drug trafficking and the use of more and more powerful weapons and armor by the perpetrators.

 

In a later paragraph, they point out that,

 

"Since SWAT teams began proliferating in the late 1980s, at least 40 innocent people have been killed in botched raids."

Note the word proliferating - kind of makes you think these SWAT teams are some sort of weapon of mass destruction. Except that the statistic is 40 wrongful deaths in 25 YEARS! 40,000 SWAT teams have committed 40 wrongful deaths in 25 years. I think you’re more likely to die from just about anything else before this particular method. That’s a nearly 1 in 250,000,000 chance per year!

 

I saw the reference to this post on Instapundit. It makes me wonder why Mr. Reynolds views appear to support the contention of the article. The implication of the article, and Mr. Reynolds’ surrounding comments was that this was an epidemic that must be stopped, and that the officers and departments involved must be held strictly liable. I accept the proposal to make public officials liable in some capacity for their actions, although by having authorized police to use force on behalf of the state, officers must be protected from lawsuit and criminal charge abuse.

The thing to avoid is legislating by anecdote. The examples of innocent victims of this practice serve more to inflame the emotions than to inform legislators. You could have thousands of similar stories of police and others who are being callously murdered in the legitimate pursuit of law enforcement objectives.

I refer readers back to one of my earlier posts, this must be considered on the facts, not on the emotions.