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In 2006, a man was shot in his vehicle by police near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Ave.

Why?

Police said that he was playing his radio too loud, and when they asked him to turn it down, he exchanged words with the officers, hit one of them, and the cops were forced to shoot and kill him.

That same year, the FBI launched an investigation into a spate of officer-involved shootings by Las Vegas Police. In the preceding 20 years, LVMPD officers were cleared of charges in 149 out of 150 fatal shooting investigations.

Shortly after the 2006 shooting, this was the police Captain’s account of the story:

“As soon as they made contact with the subject, he became belligerent and hostile and immediately started to drive away. As the vehicle pulled away [the officer is] dragged and he is now holding onto the car. He is driven the distance and the airbag deploys and knocks him out. The air bag then deployed and the officer during this 30-foot trip ended up being pulled into the car and was knocked unconscious as a result of the airbag deploying. The suspect put the car in reverse and started to pull back where his partner was standing behind the vehicle. And seeing his partner was unconscious and the subject was trying to move, he fired one shot striking the subject.”

After the driver was shot, the “unconscious” officer helped pull the driver out of the car.

How the local media could have accepted that account without bursting into laughter, I will never know, but I imagine they are simply used to it by now.

Fast forward to last night.

Traffic was extraordinarily heavy around the Wynn/Palazzo complex, but I had just assumed that it was a heavy weekend crowd.

When I got up this morning, local news provided an explanation for the backup.

At the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Spring Mountain Rd. … the driver of an SUV with California plates “exchanged words” with two bicycle officers.

The driver became belligerent, hit an officer with the SUV, and one of the two officers blasted 4 bullets through the rear window of the vehicle.

Nobody was hurt.

Here again, we have a similar story, although fortunately nobody died this time.

While the media is once again offering up the initial accounts as though they actually make sense, being the chronic skeptic that I am, this shooting once again seems a bit sketchy.

“The story is being well-covered by the mainstream local media, why bother addressing it”.

Well, I’ll tell you why: Because the mainstream media will just parrot whatever the LVMPD tells them, and that will pretty much be that.

The key to access in this town is not making waves. If you criticize Steve Wynn, Steve will not appear in your newspaper interview to call bloggers 30% accurate to a gushing editorial staff who take it as a referendum of their own continued relevance.

Were your reporter to ask Steve a sane followup such as “what are some specific examples of inaccuracy to which you take exception” … you’re finished as well.

Many times questions don’t get asked at all until bloggers hammer the point.  Were it not for a couple of Las Vegas bloggers getting harassed here in town, the story would have likely never seen the light of day.

So, here is the question that probably won’t be asked by anyone in the mainstream media unless enough 70% inaccurate folks ask, so I’ll go ahead and get the ball rolling:

First of all, I was not aware that “exchanging words” was a crime.

Second, if nobody was injured, is this not prima-facie evidence that a cop did not get “hit by an SUV”?

I’ve been hit by vehicles on several occasions. This was an occupational hazard of being a bicycle messenger. Each and every time, it hurt. On a couple of occasions, it hurt badly. Even when I was struck by compact cars, I was injured on some level.

That being said, I cannot imagine any scenario in which getting hit by an SUV would leave “no injuries”.

As the day has progressed, the police story has morphed into “the driver tried to run the officer over as they sped away”.

Here again, this makes little common-sense.

If you are “exchanging words” with a police officer from your vehicle, close to 100% of the time the officer will be next to your window. It is hard to run someone over when they are beside your car.

Next, if I got hit by an SUV as it “sped” away, there is no way in hell that I or anyone other than an action hero would be able to plant four bullets into the rear window. Shooting guns isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies. It’s hard to hit a moving target once, must less four times, much less after being struck by an SUV.

If four bullet holes were found in the front window of the SUV, then the story might make some sense. If someone were coming at you and trying to run you over, you would unload into the windshield as well.

The back window is another story.

How, on earth, do you make the case that your life was in danger when you repeatedly shoot the back window of a car you admit is moving away from you?

If the SUV is “speeding off”, then you are officially out of danger. At this point, you are no longer using deadly force as a self-defense measure. You are using it as a punitive measure. You are trying to kill someone for revenge or a perceived slight.

Obviously the driver will be apprehended in the near future (as he was).

There was also a passenger in the SUV. The passenger had no control over the actions of the driver. Shooting four bullets into a rear window risks killing the passenger.

Last but not least, you simply cannot discharge a gun on or near the Las Vegas Strip on a Friday night without risking killing other people who were not involved in the event.

Once again, I am concerned.

I am concerned that the PD and media will once again sit around and yank each other’s poles while pretending like the story above made sense. I am concerned that someone will once again get seriously hurt because of our out-of-control force.

Now, whenever I address situations such as this, I get a number of rather predictable replies. I rarely respond to people individually, so I will try to touch on some of the more common responses.

“Rex, you just don’t like cops.”

I have nothing against good cops, and everything against cops who abuse their authority. Public service is only admirable if you serve the public.

When those who enforce the law are corrupt or inept, there is no difference between governance and anarchy.

In some cases governance may be worse than anarchy as the ability of the individual to resist a protected class is eliminated.

Giving a protected class any benefit of the doubt over those they serve is an intellectual opiate reserved for the status-quo and the intellectually bankrupt. If you are not hyper-vigilant about the abuse of authority, then authority will be abused.

Never, ever, give anyone with power over you the “benefit of the doubt”. Never trust authority. Always do the opposite. The costs of being wrong are far less.

“Rex, cops risk their lives on the streets every day.”

We all risk our lives on the streets every day.

Of the most dangerous jobs in the USA, law enforcement is not even in the top 10.

The carpenters who build your house, the truck drivers who deliver your food, and the taxi drivers who drop you off at Caesars have far higher job fatality rates than do police officers.

As a matter of fact, farm workers are more than twice as likely to die on the job than are cops, and the mortality rate for firefighters is even lower than that of police.

The supposed danger of working in public safety is grossly overstated. Especially since 9/11.

There is no safer and more secure person in any given city than the cop who drives down the street. Face it, most of us are not allowed to protect ourselves with guns, nor may we forcefully restrain people who annoy us.

Criminals aren’t likely to rob a cop, and it never ceases to amaze me how safely and slowly people drive when a patrol car is within sight.

Not only that, but if any individual person gives you even the slightest bit if trouble, all it takes is a quick call on the radio to get 10 of your closest friends on the scene to pummel the guy who gave you lip.

When you are armed and with a partner, and 99.9% of the time you encounter people who are unarmed and alone, it doesn’t require any bravery or heroism. Most of us could only wish for that kind of personal security.

Being a good cop is a hard job. Being a bad cop is the easiest job in the world. You can do what you want and there is really nobody that can stop you.

Last month I tried to help a passed out guy with the assistance of the police, and I regret doing so. I had a negative cop experience in front of the Stratosphere earlier this year for the high crime of asking for directions. In my opinion, Las Vegas has the most poorly educated and least professional “law enforcement” agencies in the nation, and for that reason, incidents such as this both interest and concern me.

If you are a tourist that comes here with any frequency, you should be concerned as well. You really don’t have to do anything wrong. Helping a homeless guy and asking for directions are things that most of us would do.

Now if you will excuse me, I’m actually going to head out in a few minutes and take a drive of my own. I’ll be sure to keep my stereo at a reasonable level and my words to myself.

I didn’t opt for the bulletproof-glass option on the Porsche.

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