Disturbing information in the PD article today from the Andy Lopez case depositions

[Scott McKeown]

.I found a few things rather disturbing in the Press Democrat article today about the recently released depositions in the Andy Lopez shooting case.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4...details?page=0

This is not a criticism of any of our excellent law enforcement officers that put themselves in harm's way to protect the public while doing a very difficult job and who had nothing to do with this case. But it seems from the information in this article that something was wrong with this one guy.

While a "political correctness" test for officers is not the answer, nevertheless moving forward let us as a community support our law enforcement agencies avoiding hiring officers with this sort of apparent mentality (if indeed the PD article is correct). Otherwise, it can not only lead to incidences such as what happened with Andy Lopez and others across the country as we've seen recently, but it can also end up causing unfair backlash against the other law enforcement officers, the vast majority of which are good people with high professional standards.

From the Press Democrat article:

Gelhaus was grilled about his participation in the Arizona-based Gunsite Academy and his interest in its late founder, Jeff Cooper, who has been criticized for comments about Los Angeles being a “Third World country formerly occupied by Americans.”

Gelhaus also was questioned about a bumper sticker he removed from his car that played on the popular “coexist” sticker. In the place of religious symbols, the sticker featured crosshairs and a skull and crossbones.

Gelhaus denied it suggested racial intolerance, calling it personal commentary against radical Islam. He served in the National Guard in Iraq in 2005.

While we can't automatically ascribe the views of Jeff Cooper as necessarily also to be those of Deputy Gelhaus, nevertheless it raises some serious and disturbing questions. Why would one maintain any "interest" in such a person?

From MediaMatters about Jeff Cooper:

https://mediamatters.org/print/blog/...ammo-de/196901

While he was a high profile writer for Guns & Ammo, Cooper was also the publisher of a racial-slur-heavy newsletter popular in the gun rights community that frequently contained his bigoted observations. Among the lowlights published while he was also an employee of Guns & Ammo:

• "But the ragheads still insist that we infidels are the accursed of God, and they seek to flaunt this without any prospect for amelioration. We see these people complaining when they are 'profiled' while making every effort to make such profiling obvious. If a raghead does not wish to be identified as a raghead, there would seem to be no reason for him to speak like a raghead, act like a raghead, and dress like a raghead. The best way for him to avoid being identified as a raghead would be to stay back where he came from." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, October 2002)
  
• "Mr. Jefferson is quoted around the inside of his monument at Washington as standing foursquare and forever against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. As he declaimed, and as I hope we all agree, the State may justifiably control our actions − but never our thoughts. Sorry, Mr. Jefferson, but all men are not created equal. ('All ya gotta do is look.')" (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, October 2002)
  
• "Colonialism has a bad reputation in the modern context, but Colonial Africa was a far better place for both black and white before the colonists gave up." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, November 2000)
  
• "We reflect, in this period of racist agitation, that slavery has been the normal condition of mankind for most of history. What do you do with the losers? You either kill them outright or put them to work. If you pen them up you have to feed them, and you have enough trouble feeding yourself. Despite this a large number of semi−literate types in the States seem to think of slavery as a unique invention of the southern states of the US over a period of a few generations." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, July 2000)
  
• "Equality is biologically impossible, and liberty is only obtainable in homogeneous populations very thinly spread." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, December 1999)
  
• "It is interesting to infer that Bill Clinton invented slavery − for which he is being called upon to apologize. If we antedate Bill somewhat, we discover that the only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it. As Aristotle tells us, slavery is the normal condition of much of mankind, and has been a feature of all civilizations from the Bronze Age downward. Perhaps, while we are at it, we should apologize for gravity. That certainly causes a lot of trouble." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, June 1997)
  
• "For those who are proud of their lifetime shooting record, we learn of an old geezer, aged 96, who at the end of his life in the Transvaal boasted that he had taken 341 elephants, 187 lions, 40 kaffirs [a racial slur equivalent to the N-word in South Africa] and two Englishmen. It will take some doing to top that." (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, September 1996)
  
• "The decay of the late, great country of South Africa is beginning to become apparent. The name of the Transvaal has been officially changed to "Gauteng." (One of our friends has suggested that in view of this its inhabitants in the future should be referred to as Oranggautengs.)" (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, February 1995)

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[Shandi]

Very disturbing that the decision in this case represents "business as usual", in spite of evidence that would easily convict those viewed as "unequal". Our jails contain many who have been found guilty of a fraction of the crime committed by Gelhaus. In this situation, freedom may be just another word for "guilty, but judged innocent". Andy Lopez, on the other hand, was "innocent but judged guilty" for indirectly causing his own death.

.I found a few things rather disturbing in the Press Democrat article today about the recently released depositions in the Andy Lopez shooting case.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4138310-181/deputies-depositions-fill-in-details?page=0...