South Bend Police Union Accuse Buttigieg of Focusing on Shooting for ‘Political Gain’
“Mayor Buttigieg’s comments and actions are driving a wedge between law enforcement officers and the community they took an oath to serve.”
The South Bend Police Union released a scathing statement against Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democrat presidential candidate, over his handling of a white cop shooting and killing a black man.
The union claimed that Buttigieg has exploited this incident for political gain, which has driven “a wedge between law enforcement officers and the community they took an oath to serve.”
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #36 released the letter after reports came out that “St. Joseph County Prosecutor Kenneth Cotter filed a petition asking a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate” the shooting. Buttigieg also promised “he would write the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and notify Cotter that he’d like an independent investigator appointed.”
The union expressed support for Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, the cop who shot and killed Eric Logan on June 16. Police reports state that “Logan was breaking into cars and approached O’Neill with a knife.”
The letter criticized Buttigieg for focusing on this one incident while ignoring other families of other shootings. They pointed out that “Buttigieg has yet to comment on the largest shooting in the recent history of South bend or on one juvenile killing another earlier in the week.” These actions have left “others ostracized” since he has not reached out to these families affected by these tragedies.
The majority of the comments on the Facebook picture support the South Bend police department.
It should not shock anyone that Buttigieg has concentrated on this shooting. It seems the police union is correct because as Mike wrote over the weekend, Buttigieg does not poll well with black voters. One poll from this month showed that almost half of black voters have not heard of him. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) told The Daily Beast that “Pete has a black problem” and does not “know of one black person out of Indiana who supports him.”
Black Lives Matters activists confronted Buttigieg over the weekend. Logan’s brother vented that people in the community have grown tired of Buttigieg allowing his “officers to do whatever they want to do” while Logan’s mother said that the mayor has “not done a damn thing about me or my son or none of these people out here.”
The union wrote that the department has increased “the accountability of officers” in the past several years. The department has also implemented “swift and firm” discipline on officers who violate their policies, which has led to an increase on “[T]he number of suspension days, officers terminated,” and resignations due to the policy changes. Other changes include the inability to reach higher ranks due to violations or move departments.
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A few years ago I had an interesting conversation with the police chief of a small community. He was clearly a very well educated man, very sharp. He had worked for years in a large city, and finally left for his current job. That is what all the South bend officers should do, get the hell out of the shit hole. It is a zero sum game.
A mayor who can’t be bothered to spend his time as mayor focusing on keeping his city out of the ditches because he wants a cushier, glitzier job, is accused of using events in his city for political gain??
I’ll be on my fainting couch.
Yes, how can they blame him, he has hardly even been in South Bend this year.
He is weary from not fixing all the potholes.
Presidentin’ is easier, doncha know?
A Dhimmi-crat kowtowing to the infantile, histrionic and irrational commands of a ginned-up and fact-averse Leftist mob — color me shocked.
They just want justice for the deceased. And by “justice” they mean “pay-back.”
Using one way or another, Democrats really, really want riots this summer. We all know who they will then blame.
The obama scam – like the Maddoff scam – only works once in a 100 years.
Sorry Butthead.
It’s always fun to watch when two or more of the Dems’ identity groups go at it.
Intersectionality!
Dispatch: “All units, we have a multi-car collision at the intersection of Rainbow Pride Parkway and Black Power Boulevard. Multiple injuries. Witnesses report it was a road rage incident.
South Bend PD: “I’m going on my lunch break. I’ll report to the scene of the incident after nature runs its course.”
At the battle of Midway the Hornet’s air wing performed dismally. The Commander of the Air Wing (then it was called an air group, which is why Naval aviation types still call the air wing commander CAG because it’s tradition and because CAW sounds stupid), CDR Stanhope Ring, had the tactical instincts of a nematode. Only LCDR John Waldron’s torpedo bombing squadron (VT-8) found the Japanese carriers. He knew where the carriers would be; Ring was taking the air group where the carriers were when last sighted hours earlier. With a final FU Waldron took his squadron on the correct heading but unfortunately without fighter cover and the dive bombers to take at least some of the Japanese AA gunners’ attention off them every single plane was shot down with no loss to the Japanese force.
At this point everybody is wondering, “What the hell is this guy talking about? The subject is “Mayor Pete” and his police/race problem.” All will become clear in a moment.
The Japanese at the time were the best carrier aviation force in the world. They proved at Pearl Harbor the Kido Butai proved they could launch all aircraft from all six carriers in under fifteen minutes and the entire group could immediately form up into a coordinated strike package and head out toward the target.
It took a single carrier close to an hour to launch the entire strike group. They couldn’t form up with the strike groups of other carriers, and mostly at this early stage of the war the strike package fell apart, with dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters arriving separately.
Which is how the dive bombers and torpedo bombers from Yorktown and enterprise attacked the Japanese carriers. I forget which was which, but one carrier’s dive bombers arrived over the target while the other carrier’s torpedo planes were attacking. To the Japanese it looked like a coordinated strike because they would never do anything any other way. But it was pure chance.
I know that the FOP and #BlackLivesMatter would never work together. But it sure looks like they are. They are both arriving over the target at the same time leaving “Mayor Pete” with no good options. If he sides with #BlackLivesMatter he loses independents and Republicans in the general election since they see the BLM crowd as the race baiting far-leftists that they are. But he can’t win the nomination (or the general election) without the black vote. Frankly I doubt if the higher ups are looking at this fiasco in South Bend and seeing anything like winning presidential material.
Which is fitting since his only qualifications seem to be 1) he’s gay and 2) he’s willing and eager to kiss his “husband” on national TV. But according to the NYT he’s not gay enough unless he’s willing to dress as a drag queen and march in the SF pride parade where vendors at the event sell leather fetish wear for toddlers.
The rest of he country sees a guy who is out of his depth as mayor of a small city with a population (2016) of 101,735.
The point is underscored by the uncoordinated anvil attack by the police and BLM and the black community of South Bend. It’s almost like they’re working together.
They are both arriving over the target at the same time leaving “Mayor Pete” with no good options.
Not even the courage of his convictions?
On the subject of the courage of one’s convictions, Godspeed, VT-8.
I was remiss in not mentioning the 77th anniversary (1942) of the Battle of Midway during 4-7 June. Unfortunately because those dates encompass the anniversary of the Normandy invasion (D-Day, 6 June 1944) Midway tends to get overlooked.
It’s too bad as I met many of these fine gents during my 20 years in the Navy and they deserve to have their heroics honored. Unfortunately there are even fewer Midway vets alive today than D-Day Vets. The third and final “lone survivor” of VT-8, Aviation Radioman 3rd Class Harry Ferrier (his rank at the time of the battle) died in 2016. He was also the last surviving member of VT-8 that went into battle.
I know ENS George Gay was the “lone survivor” of the aircrew of the 15 TBD Devastators that launched that morning from Hornet on what is know as the “Flight to Nowhere.” People think those were the only VT-8 aircraft that attacked the Japanese carriers on 4 June 1942. Lesser known is that VT-8 was one of the first squadrons to receive the Devastator’s replacement, the TBF Avenger, and a detachment of 6 Avengers deployed to Midway atoll before the battle. They attacked in company with four USAAF B-26 Marauders that had been modified to launch the MK 13 torpedo. All four of the Marauders were shot down along with five of the six Avengers.
ENS Albert Earnest’s plane was so badly shot up he was sure he was going to have to ditch. He couldn’t even make it to the carriers; he had just gotten inside the defensive ring of escorting cruisers and destroyers (the Japanese pushed this out several miles as Japanese anti-aircraft doctrine, unlike the USN, did not rely on massed AA fire but rather the rudder to evade and the carriers needed room to maneuver). So Earnest picked out the nearest cruiser, launched his torpedo, then as his elevator cables had been shot out used his trim tabs to get a better nose-up attitude for putting it in the drink. Then he discovered he could gain altitude using the trim tabs alone. He didn’t know how long the wreck that earlier that morning had been a brand new plane would keep flying but if it wouldn’t take him and his crew all the way to Midway he at least wanted to be closer to Midway when he ditched than in the middle of what looked like the entire Japanese fleet.
Flying on instinct alone since the Japanese naval air force had shot out his instruments, he began to despair of ever finding the island until he saw a big black plume of smoke. He was probably the only guy fighting on the American side who was happy that the Japanese had bombed and set on fire a huge oil storage tank on Midway. He was somehow able to land all that flying wreckage. Unfortunately his turret gunner, Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class Manning had been killed, shot up so badly the Marines of the base defense force wouldn’t let ENS Earnest look at the body of his friend. So two VT-8 airmen survived along with ENS Gay.
The plane was so badly shot up nobody understood how it could still fly; Grumman insisted the Navy send it back so their engineers could examine it and make improvements.
My squadron, VF-111 the Sundowners, flew another Grumman product; the F-14 Tomcat. Grumman didn’t get the nickname “Iron Works” for nothing.
Meanwhile back on the Hornet VT-8’s skipper was frustrated and angry. I mentioned that the CAG, CDR Stanhope Ring had the tactical sense (and leadership qualities) of a nematode. His plan was to fly a westerly course, a direction Waldron knew the Japanese carrier force wasn’t (hence the “flight to nowhere” nickname) and Ring insisted the fighters stay high with the dive bombers. One of the two fighter squadron skippers agreed with Waldron that it was vital the torpedo bombers had at least some fighter cover but Ring wouldn’t budge on that or the heading he was going to lead the air group on. Mitscher, the CO of Hornet, backed Ring entirely.
So Waldron went to his ready room and briefed the pilots who were flying with him that morning. Since not all pilots were flying that first mission, since the plan was to reattack, they were also in the ready room so we know what Waldron said after he briefed his pilots on Ring’s plan of attack. He didn’t dwell on his sense of foreboding, but he didn’t hide it either.
“My greatest hope is that we encounter a favorable tactical situation, but if we don’t, and the worst comes to the worst, I want each of us to do his utmost to destroy our enemies. If there is only one plane left to make a final run-in, I want that man to go in and get a hit. May God be with us all. Good luck, happy landings and give ’em hell.”
Then they waited for the call. When the call came over the intercom, “Pilots, man your aircraft,” before leading them up to the flight deck Waldron said, “We will strike, regardless of the consequences.”
And Waldron was right both times. Everything he predicted came to pass. Nobody in VT-8 who launched that morning was under any illusions about their slim chances of survival. In fact, due to the depression era “economy measures this was the first and last time they would fly with the Devastator armed with a torpedo. They never had a chance to launch one; there first time was going to have to be in combat (all except ENS Gay would be destroyed before reaching launch point).
And it was really the Mk 13 that doomed all the torpedo bombers; Devastators, Marauders, and Avengers. It was a horrible weapon, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows just how bad the Mk 13/14/15 family of torpedoes the Bureau of Ordnance shipped out to American Naval combat forces.
In the case of the air-launched MK 13 it tended to veer left off course, it suffered chronic depth failures, the detonator had a nasty habit of arming in flight rather than in the water after launch where it was supposed to. But the most fatal problem for everyone who flew with it early in the war is that it had weak propellers prone to break since it couldn’t withstand the impact with the water if launched from an altitude above 50 ft or an IAS of more than 100 kts.
The Devastator by 1942 was woefully obsolete and wasn’t capable of much more speed than that anyway. But the Avenger and Marauder were capable of far greater performance. Later in the war after engineers from Cal Poly were brought in (the Navy took it away from BuOrd) to fix the problems Avengers would launch them from an altitude of 800 ft and an IAS of 260 kts (the Avenger had to dive to the launch point to reach that speed) which did wonders, along with F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair fighter escort, for aircrew survival.
But that was years too late to help these gentlemen at Midway. All were bound by the launch parameters of the early MK 13 and it made all of them clay pigeons for the IJN Zeros and AA gunners. Without fighter escort, without the diversion of a simultaneous dive bomber attack, they attacked without regard for the consequences. The attention of every anti-aircraft asset of the Kido Butai (the IJN mobile striking force) entirely on them. And as Waldron instructed all his pilots, when every other plane had been shot down the last one piloted by ENS Gay pressed the attack. He launched his unbelievably flawed torpedo (it’s criminal the United States would send men into combat with such a thing, and it’s criminal they weren’t ever allowed to practice launching them in training) at 800 yards from either the Kaga or Akagi, I forget which. Of course it missed. Gay pulled up, flew along the carrier’s flight deck form stem to stern, then tried to evade but was overwhelmed by Zeros and shot down. And got to witness what no other human being on earth would witness. An hour or so later Yorktown and Enterprise dive bombers pouring out of the sky and turning three out of four Japanese carriers into giant infernos, sealing their fate.
Somebody on Twitter mentioned that we should just make the week of 4-7 June Toxic Masculinity Week and commemorate Midway and Operation Overlord together every year. I second the motion.
I will not be remiss on 25 October, which will be the 75th anniversary of the Battle Off Samar, one of four distinct actions that together comprise the Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf. They’re lumped together because they all resulted from one single Japanese operation. The linked video was produced by a Brit who clearly and understandably is a huge fan of the Royal Navy and its legacy. But just as clearly he’s an admirer of the USN destroyer/destroyer escort crews and aviators who fought like tigers against overwhelming odds. To give you an idea of just how overwhelming the odds were, the combined displacement of all the ships that comprised Task Unit 77.4.3 (radio call sign Taffy 3, the name by which it is better known); six Casablanca escort carriers, three Fletcher destroyers, and four John C. Butler destroyer escorts, combined displaced just barely over 80,000 tons. The largest Battleship in the attacking Japanese force, the IJN Yamato (along with Musashi the largest battleships ever built) nearly matched that, displacing nearly 73,000 tons (full load) was just barely over 80,000 tons. And there were three other battleships, six heavy cruisers, tow light cruisers, and eleven destroyers with her.
Did I mention the odds Taffy 3 fought against were overwhelmingly agains them?
The video is produced by a Brit who clearly and understandably is a fan of the history and legacy of the Royal Navy. But he also seems to be awed by the nearly unbelievable courage and heroics the light escorting surface forces and the embarked aviators showed that day. I mention his nationality because he titles his video the Battle of Samar. That seems to be a Britishism because there was a land battle on Leyte of the same name ongoing at the same time so the naval battle is known by a slightly different name in American circles to distinguish it.
Stand by to be awed just like the producer/narrator of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AdcvDiA3lE
“The Battle of Samar – Odds? What are those?”
If you’re ever in San Diego there is a monument to Taffy 3 on the waterfront downtown on what is now known as Greatest Generation Walk. You’ll see it toward the end of the video. I recommend a visit. There’s another monument to Taffy 3 at Rosecrans National Cemetery. In the video you’ll see the USS Midway parked in the background. Not in the video but nearby is the “Unconditional Surrender” statue. It’s a giant statue of the iconic kiss of the Sailor kissing the nurse in NYC when the Japanese announced they were throwing in the towel.
You know the statue, especially with that title, drives the SJWs nuts so I like it.
I’ll mention it again this October. But I’ll probably save most of my ammo for October 2020. That will be close enough to election to remind everyone that too many have sacrificed too much to ever vote for a candidate from the “death to America” party.
Thanks for mentioning the Battle off Samar, possibly the second most under-heralded action of pure courage, skill, and self-sacrifice in the annals of US history. I say “second most” only because the “most” is surely some act of of incredible heroism and self-sacrifice that no one survived to report. Recommended reading: “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfischer.
It’s an excellent book. I have it on the end table next to me right now. His “Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal” and “The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945” are also excellent.
Regarding Neptune’s Inferno, most people aren’t aware that there are more dead Sailors off Guadalcanal then there ever were dead Marines on it. Iron Bottom Sound deserves its nickname.
“A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight” by Robert J. Mrazek is another good read.
I’m thinking of writing a book about the Solomon Islands campaign. Not the big fleet actions, but not a sideshow either. I’m thinking of calling it “Black Cats and Green Dragons.”
The Black Cats were night-flying PBY Catalinas, painted black to make them harder to spot. The Green Dragons were modified flush deck, four pipe destroyers built during WWI. They weren’t front line destroyers by any means but they still performed a number of vital functions. Some were relatively unmodified beyond radar installation, sonar suite, and improved ASW weapons (usually one torpedo launcher was remove so with the additional sensors/ASW weapons they didn’t have too much weigh topsides) and used in the Atlantic to escort convoys (beyond the scope of my envisioned naval epic). Others were heavily modified and used in a variety of specialty roles. While not front line destroyers they could still defend themselves. Conventional troop transports, cargo vessels, seaplane tenders, etc.
So the four pipers were modified into fast troop transports (APD) which had two of its four boilers remove to make room for troop compartment that could accommodate 120 Marine Raiders. They also delivered supplies to the Marines on Guadalcanal although you’d never know it to hear them b***h about how the Navy abandoned them. They were also modified into light seaplane tenders (AVD), mine layers (DM), and fast mine sweepers (DMS).
All these latter modifications required removing one or two boilers to accommodate specialty equipment and stores, so while I call them four pipers virtually none had four pipes. They had either three or two depending on how many boilers had been removed. Surprisingly, removing those boilers didn’t really hurt their speed rating.
They were nicknamed Green Dragons because that was the base paint applied to the hull and superstructure with mottled camouflage overlaid.
Geez.
“While not front line destroyers they could still defend themselves. Conventional troop transports, cargo vessels, seaplane tenders, etc., COULDN’T.”
For your viewing pleasure, your first Green Dragon. USS Crosby (APD-17),
https://66.media.tumblr.com/93d7fc933f8ac33ce79b95ddedd53ad0/tumblr_og1sfnZTQ31ugf4xso1_1280.jpg
Note the difference between the USS Crosby in all its WWII glory and an original flush deck four piper.
http://aagaines.com/inventory/0506914.jpg
The forward two boilers were removed and a troop compartment was constructed between the original superstructure and the remaining boilers/stacks. The torpedo tubes have been removed and replaced with Higgins landing craft on davits.
Arminius | June 26, 2019 at 2:39 pm
Ship power goes up as the cube of ship speed. Half power still equals 80% of top speed.
I think it’s cute than folks from South Bend think Pete gives a s**t about them. Stepping-stones are to be stepped on.
“And it was really the Mk 13 that doomed all the torpedo bombers; Devastators, Marauders, and Avengers. It was a horrible weapon, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows just how bad the Mk 13/14/15 family of torpedoes the Bureau of Ordnance shipped out to American Naval combat forces.”
The 14 sent to the submarines had three defects: ran 11 feet deeper than set; had a defective magnetic exploder (which everyone knew was defective since the British and Germans stopped using them; because our puny 500 lb warheads needed to explode beneath the keel, especially on warships, we kept using them); and finally a defective contact exploder which was too fragile to survive a 90 degree hit on the target, so our official instruction was to try for “glancing blows”.
The airlaunched version had all of those plus others.
Anyone who thinks the screwy DoD procurement system is a modern innovation needs to read history.