~PARADE OF THE IDIOTS

OK... the British cops, I'm sure all dressed up like the Ninja warriors they imagine themselves to be, shoot a Brazilian mechanic and student in the war against terror. Twenty seven years old, described by his neighbors as "a quiet kid", never hurt a fly, 3 years in the country and a nice guy. Well, he walked out of the wrong building and was wearing a jacket on a summer day... hmmm, must be a terrorist.

As I walk out of my refrigerated office building in Bartow I leave behind me a whole bus full of freezing women in sweaters and jackets, all huddled in the air conditioning against the rigors of living through the summer heat in a technological age. Does this mean that they are all at risk? I mean... come on guys! This is good police work? I vote no.

This is something that I know about because I have been a bondsman for the last 20 years. In that role I have often had to go get guys who have skipped out.. estreated a bail is the technical jargon. I have to go get some jerk because he didn't go to court like he should have. Anyhow, I may have a fairly good idea where the miscreant is, and I have to go get the dog.

So there I am with my little band of brother bondsmen standing on the front stoop of some house in the projects, just about to kick the door in and rearrest the guy. Suddenly, I see my guy walking down the street from hovel next door. Yikes! Wrong house! Then I reflect on the liability associated with kicking in the wrong door. Hmmm.

Over and over and over the cops make that mistake. Here in Florida a couple of years ago a kid shot and killed a sheriff's deputy while the cop was trying to kick in his family's door, only to discover later that the cops were at the wrong door. Then the cops had the nerve to arrest the kid for murder. Only later did the defense attorney point out that the cops were morons and the kid was just protecting his family from a home invasion.

You see, the authorities figure that they can kick in any door they want to and if they screw up that a sorry is sufficient to wipe away the error. Well, taint so sports fans.

OK... now we've got a bunch of Keystone Kops in London shooting first and asking questions later... with egg of their faces. Oops. Tell the widow sorry, OK? And tell the guy's mother that it was all a big mistake and part of the "war on terror".

What a herd of maroons (as buggs bunny would say).

The Brits just learned a lesson that American doorkickers have had demonstrated to themselves over and over again: If you're gonna cut corners with due process and civil liberties you'd better be damned sure that you're right because there is NO MARGIN for error in civilian combat. The cops simply can not kill innocent civilians. Can't. The streets may often seem like a war zone but this IS NOT combat in the traditional sense. All these Al Quida thugs are just that... thugs, criminals, hoods. They're not soldiers and the streets of London look nothing like real combat, even if they are littered with the corpses of innocent civilians.

To think otherwise is to be more than stupid... it's bad police work and frankly, bad soldiering as well. These Keystone Kops are giving real soldiers a bad name.

Now there's gonna be a big ass investigation and the cops are gonna all lose their jobs because some bumbling moron of a group leader wanted to play Rambo and get out there and get tough with the rag heads... and all he succeeded in doing was make his unit look like the amateur dick heads that they are. For Christ's sake, they managed to shoot some kid from Brazil wearing a coat on a hot day. No bombs, no anarchist manifestos or crappy translations of a morally degerate creed of blood soaked Koran gibberish. Give me a break!

What a bunch of idiots.

Bob