New Job.

So I just got hired today by a local police department. After a year of applying and testing and being in the background process, a little town about two hours from where I live picked me up. I'm pretty excited, but will most likely not have a lot of time for blogging...

Cops and the Right to Self Defense

This is an article I wrote for the Oregonian, and they published it. You can read the whole article here

Police and the mentally ill: Cops have a right to self-defense
By James Wolfer

Portland Chief Mike Reese announced last week his desire to transform police training, saying that he wants to transform it from a " 'fear-based model' -- where officers are taught to think a motorist reaching toward a floorboard is going for a gun -- to one founded on 'competency and confidence' -- where a mentally ill man isn't treated like a bank robber."

First, I'd like to say how much respect I have for the new police chief. He sure has his work cut out for him in that revolving door that is the chief's position in the Portland Police Bureau. And while there is definitely room for improvement in police training with regard to the mentally ill, removing the "fear-based training" model altogether would be disastrous.

The police need to assume, for their own survival, that someone reaching might be reaching for a gun. Police deaths are up nationally. According to statistics available from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, officer deaths in 2009 were 42 percent higher than in 2008 across the board in the U.S., with 80 percent of those deaths resulting from gunfire. Statistics are not yet available for 2010, but it seems that almost every week an officer is killed somewhere in the country. Some of those shootings have happened here in the Northwest. How quickly we've forgotten the four officers assassinated in Lakewood, Wash., just last December. Even here in Portland, people, some of them mentally ill, have attempted to fight police with deadly weapons. While some are protesting the police "profiling" and killing of Otis Keane, many in the public fail to address the fact that Keane shot first. He shot an officer in the legs, twice, before being fatally shot by the other officers involved. Thankfully, the officer survived, but what would have happened if he had not? Would the public have been appeased? I doubt it. Most likely, there would still be protests against the police for killing their attacker.

The Portland Police Bureau could use more training in dealing with the mentally ill. But the Portland-area public also is in dire need of education on what happens when someone, mentally ill or not, tries to use deadly force against the police: the officers will defend themselves with deadly force. The police have a lawful right to self-defense, to survive an attack and go home to their family at the end of the day, regardless of the attacker's mental state.

James Wolfer lives in Southwest Portland.

No Cops Allowed

First, let me say how nice it was to just take a break from blogging. I started school in April, taking online classes for a Masters degree, and working full time at my 9-5 M-F job, and a weekend job. I've been busy! Needed a break from the bloggin'...just didn't have the energy to write.

This article caught my eye:

In mid-May, Portland police Officer James Crooker went to Southeast
Portland on a patrol call. With a few minutes to spare, he decided to get a
coffee. So, he popped into the Red & Black cafe on Southeast 12th Avenue near Oak
Street, bought a coffee and was heading out when a customer approached him,
saying she appreciates the hard job that police officers do every day in
Portland. One of the co-owners of the cafe, John Langley, has another
point of view. While the officer and customer were chatting, he walked up and
asked Crooker to leave, saying he felt uncomfortable having a uniformed officer
in the vegan cafe. The incident, which was brief, speaks volumes about the
tensions between Portland police and some members of the community who are more worried about police shootings than protection. Crooker said he was surprised to be shown the door but left immediately. He said this marked a first during his nine-year in law enforcement, two in Portland and seven in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "The places that I've been kicked out of before have been places like the methadone clinic," he said. "I've never been kicked out of a regular cafe." But the 36-year-old
officer, who was born and raised in Portland, said it's all part of working this
city's streets in a uniform. "We have a unique relationship with the community,"
he said. "You're there to protect them but on the other hand they don't know
what that involves. Being gracious is part of it." A former Marine who served in
Iraq, Crooker didn't take the incident to heart. "It was not personal," he said.
"He was being hostile to my uniform," he said. Langley, who did not raise his
voice during the encounter, agreed. "It's not about the police," Langley said.
"It's about what the police represent to many people who frequent the cafe. The
cafe draws vegans -- of course -- along with homeless people and animal-rights
and environmental activists who Langley said have been targets of police abuse
and harassment. But the cafe also draws customers like Cornelia Seigneur,
who blogged about the incident on her website. Seigneur, a freelancer for The Oregonian who
was enjoying lunch with her daughter on May 18 when Crooker came in, was the one
who approached him. "There have been some unfortunate situations recently,"
Seigneur said. "But overall the police are out there day in and day out
protecting us." She said she struck up a conversation with Crooker to show her
support for police, who she said saved the life of a friend after he was shot by
gang members. When Langley asked Crooker to leave, she was startled. "It was
shocking," Seigneur said. "Everyone deserves to have a coffee, and he was served
a coffee. It was humiliating." She said there were only about three other people
in the cafe and that no else seemed to notice the officer. But the incident has
fired a reaction, with dozens of comments pouring into Seigneur's website. It's
been so overwhelming that she took the blog post down but put it back up
Thursday afternoon. The cafe, too, has received a deluge of calls, with about
half supporting the cafe and the rest expressing anger. "We've received
threats," Langley said. "People have threatened to attack us and break our
windows." Still, he has no regrets. "I never expected a police officer to come
into the space," he said. "If it happened again, I wouldn't serve him."

The customer that was thanking the Police Officer has a blog, and has started a movement not to boycott the place that didn't serve the officer, but to highlight places that do.
Her original blog post
&
Her facebook campaign

Police Officers put their lives on the line every day to protect their communities. We hear about the mistakes and the bad apples first and foremost. The more common stories of police officers helping people-stopping to help you change a flat, educating children on drug abuse, etc. are left out of the news. And that is sad, and only perpetuates the negative, false thinking that this cafe owner exhibited.

Police Officer Reinstated after ticketing mayor's son

An Update:

From Deserete News:

STOCKTON — Calling for Mayor Dan Rydalch's resignation, dozens of residents crammed into the Stockton fire station Thursday night, cheering the town council's unanimous vote to reinstate police Cpl. Josh Rowell.

"We need a mayor that can work with the town board, that the town board can trust, that has open communication. We need a mayor that the public can support," said Councilman Kendall Thomas at the council-called town meeting.

Rydalch is running for a second term as mayor this election season against Councilman Mark Whitney.

Rowell was fired last Tuesday by Rydalch after Rowell pulled over Rydalch's son and issued him a citation for driving without a license. Rowell was later told that he was being suspended instead.

One of five officers in the small town of 600 south of Tooele, Rowell had stopped 29-year-old Jared Rydalch outside a DUI checkpoint. Jared Rydalch was allegedly avoiding the roadblock and drove away from it; Rowell had been assigned to chase such cars.

Rydalch met with the town council before the meeting to address the incident with the four-member board for the first time, but did not come to the town meeting. He refuses to speak to the media at the advice of his attorney.

In a statement read at the meeting, Rydalch said he received numerous notices from residents — his son included — that officers were stopping drivers outside the planned checkpoint. Rydalch himself was pulled overthat evening.

"I was angry that the officers were exceeding the scope of the traffic checkpoint," his statement read. "This incident is not about my son, this is about an officer exceeding the proper scope of traffic checkpoints, subjecting the town to complaints for unconstitutional stops, and refusing

to cooperate with his supervisor."

If there was a Rydalch supporter at Thursday night's meeting, they did not speak up.

Tyler Rydlach, another son of the mayor, did not defend his father at the meeting, but did ask people to stop calling and harassing his parents.

Rowell's firing has garnered national attention and generated a media firestorm.

Residents at the meeting described Mayor Rydalch as a bully, butting heads with staff and running employees out of town.

"He tries to keep everyone in the dark. He doesn't want people to know that he's trying to run it this way," said Nando Meli, chair of the planning commission. "The thing is, the mayor has fired other people for instances and he's tried to run them out of town."

Residents complained that the mayor was conducting his own private investigation into Rowell's suspension; Meli said the mayor should be investigated.

"This is the kind of attitude and the things the mayor is known for," said Mark Woolley, a former town councilman. "He reacts, he doesn't think and he's supposed to represent our town and our community. And it seems to me more often then not he is representing himself and his interests."

Former town and court clerk Ellen Montague told the Deseret News Wednesday that Rydalch took away her duties, put her on paid leave and eventually asked her to resign. She sued Rydalch in 2006 for violating her civil rights.

Stockton Police Chief Heinz Kopp said Rowell, who has been in his current post less than 10 months, has issued 122 citations in that time and never had a formal complaint.

"The way the mayor handled the situation was uncalled for and unprofessional," he said.

The council voted to put Rowell back in his position, pay him back wages and remove the incident from his personnel record.

Rowell, a Tooele native whose wife is pregnant with the couple's first child, said he was grateful to be back in uniform. He refused to comment on the mayor.

The council, wanting to make sure their action is entirely legal, have asked the town's attorney to determine whether a third-party investigation is needed.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The Council has reinstated the Officer, given him back wages, and is investigating the Mayor.

This is what I saying in the last post. Everyone but the Mayor himself thinks the Mayor overstepped immensely. The officer did what he was supposed to; look for people avoiding traffic stops. The Mayor got all bent out of shape that the ticketed individual happened to be his son, and fired the officer himself. A mayor should NEVER be able to fire a a police officer and bypass the chief, unless he intends on firing the chief. This would be like the President firing a random FBI agent. Doesn't, and shouldn't, happen.

And again, the fact that the mayor was conducting his own investigation said volumes. I agree with the City Council and the people of the town: This Mayor should be fired immediately.

Police Officer Suspended for Ticketing Mayor's Son

From KSL.com:

STOCKTON -- A traffic stop involving a young officer and the son of a small-town mayor has the whole town talking. The mayor of Stockton tried to fire the officer for issuing his son a ticket.
Cpl. Joshua Rowell told KSL News he was just doing his job. He said he acted professionally when he wrote the driver a ticket and was shocked when he was suddenly asked to hand over his badge.
Rowell is a new member of the five-man Stockton police force. So, last Tuesday he didn't think twice about pulling over a driver in a small white car for avoiding a DUI stop.

"He didn't have a driver's license, so I issued him a citation for that," Rowell explained.
He didn't think twice, that is, until he handed the ticket to the court clerk.
"She looked at it and said, ‘Hey, you know you just gave the mayor's son a ticket?' And I said, ‘Oh, crap,'" Rowell said.
He said he had never met the driver, 29-year-old Jared Rydalch, before. He said Rydalch told him he was out looking for his dog, and asked him to tell the other officers to not pull him over again.
"I told him, ‘No. If I see you driving around again, I'm going to pull you over again,'" Rowell said.
Rowell said he knew there was trouble when, about 20 minutes later, he found the chief of police in the mayor's truck in a heated discussion. Then he said the mayor, Dan Rydalch, rolled down the window and demanded he get in his truck. When he refused, Rydalch abruptly fired him on the spot.
"He told me, ‘All right, I want your badge in the morning,'" Rowell said. "I tried to defend myself and say, ‘First of all, look, he was breaking the law. Second of all, I didn't know he was your son.'"
Shortly after the incident, Rowell was told he was suspended without pay, indefinitely.
"The mayor, I think, was wrong," said Stockton City Council member David Durtschi.
According to Durtschi, not only was Mayor Rydalch out of line, the council stands behind Cpl. Rowell. In fact, the town is so upset about the mayor's actions, many of the citizens are trying to change their write-in ballots for the upcoming election.
"I think the mayor did make a mistake," one Stockton resident told KSL News.
Another said, "I was very shocked, very shocked, because I thought it was a little extreme."
As for Rowell, he just wants the job he loves back.
"There's no more respectable position than a police officer, in my mind," Rowell said.
We tried repeatedly to get ahold of the mayor.
Another Stockton city council member, Kendall Thomas, told KSL News the mayor is conducting the investigation into any wrongdoing in the incident and has not consulted any of the council members. A special council meeting is scheduled for Thursday night to discuss the incident.

------------------------------------------

This is ridiculous. This mayor needs to be fired immediately. Notice above where it says that "The mayor is conducting the investigation into any wrongdoing in the incident and has not consulted any of the council members..."

WTF?! The mayor is conducting it? Can anyone say "conflict of interest"?

The mayor should be fired for, and charged with, Official Misconduct. Ridiculous. I grew up in a small town, and I thought the politics there were bad. But seriously.

Mexico City puts Police on Diet

From the Associated Press:

Mexico City Puts 1,300 Overweight Officers on Diet

MEXICO CITY --
Some Mexico City cops are taking a bite out of more than crime. The Mexican capital is putting its 1,300 of its heaviest police officers on a diet, concerned about rapidly expanding waistlines in the force.

At least 70 percent of the 70,000-member force is overweight, said Nora Frias, the city's Public Safety deputy secretary for citizen participation. The diet program will start with the officers with the most serious weight-related health problems.

"We can't tell them, 'Don't eat sandwiches and tacos,'" Frias said. "What we can tell them is if you eat one sandwich today, if you eat three tacos today, then balance it with some vegetables."
She said officers will be given blood and cholesterol tests to determine a personalized diet plan for each.

Mexico is quickly catching up with the United States as one of the world's fattest countries, according to the Mexican government. Nearly half of Mexico's 110 million people are overweight, and the number of fat children has climbed 8 percent a year over the last decade.
---------------------------------------------

I just thought this was funny. That's all.

Three men try to burgerlize off-duty cop's home, get shot

Score one for 2nd Amendment rights!

From the Miami Herald:

The three people who wandered into a Miami Lakes neighborhood with plans for a home invasion early Monday morning were not greeted by a frightened homeowner, but a police officer prepared to fight back.

That's the scene that unfolded at 4:30 a.m. Friday when three robbers tried to break into the home of a Bay Harbor Islands police officer and his wife, said Lt. Nancy Perez, a Miami-Dade police spokeswoman.

The off-duty police officer fired at the three intruders, possibly injuring one of them.
In investigating the attempted home invasion, Perez said detectives learned that a man had sought treatment for gunshot wounds at Memorial Hospital Miramar, which is in nearby Broward just north of Miami Lakes.

Gore Vidal's anti-police essay

I wouldn't normally pay any attention to this sort of vitriol. But Gore Vidal is known as one of America's "great novelists" and he is putting this disjointed, hate-filled, ignorant essay out there for all to read. And the problem is, people agree with him! Since this whole Gates/Crowley police thing, there has been a rash of anti-police rhetoric across the blogosphere, and recent news backs it up (three police officers in one day were killed in the US this weekend, and a border patrol agent was killed last week)...in fact, while crime is down as compared to the '90s, police slayings are up quite a bit.

This attitude is pervasive in our culture. It used to be that no matter how criminal you were, killing a cop was something hardly even thought about. Now even bloggers [in poor taste] joke about it, as was seen here by one comment: "...My philosophy in dealing with the police is simple: stay out of my way and I will stay out of your way. But if you step on my toes, better hope you kissed your wife buh-bye when you left for work that day because I don't put up with any shit from anyone. Especially a cop." I was floored by this comment. I mean, talk about crossing the line.

Here are some excerpts from Vidal's essay, America The Great ... Police State:

...Every municipality is complaining about local police forces run wild. And no one does anything about it. And our masters are armed to the teeth and would seem more likely to fire at us instead of at the troublemakers. I can’t think of any civilized country that would allow this, from the look of these bulky guardians of the peace, to whom no right-minded person would allow even a slingshot to be given.

So, we are a weirdly militarized citizenry governed by the worst elements in the United States, and something is bound to blow up, as I have felt for some time now. In my wanderings around the U.S., I talk to people without money, without power, ordinary voters, as well as nowadays, people maimed by war, or time, or life or whatever, and I am convinced more and more that this is a vicious country in which the police are allowed to run amok, absolutely independent of anyone, and that is why from time to time they are allowed to get away with murder. One surprisingly knew that a wrinkle has been discovered in the seamless surface of our troubled state. Policemen are seldom tried for their crimes, or indeed, held responsible for what they do, which disturbs the peace and causes distress among the orderly.

So, we are a weirdly militarized citizenry governed by the worst elements in the United States, and something is bound to blow up, as I have felt for some time now. In my wanderings around the U.S., I talk to people without money, without power, ordinary voters, as well as nowadays, people maimed by war, or time, or life or whatever, and I am convinced more and more that this is a vicious country in which the police are allowed to run amok, absolutely independent of anyone, and that is why from time to time they are allowed to get away with murder. One surprisingly knew that a wrinkle has been discovered in the seamless surface of our troubled state. Policemen are seldom tried for their crimes, or indeed, held responsible for what they do, which disturbs the peace and causes distress among the orderly...

...Anyway, the president has not done what he should have done, which is to have reminded us that the United Kingdom—a more livable nation than the United States, let me say with first-hand experience of both—has disarmed its police. There are no angry men wandering around carrying guns over there. This is a lesson to us, but we’ve armed practically every grange house in the United States because our regular guys just want to swagger around.

Let us accept the facts staring us in the face—that demonstrably we are no longer a republic. We are no longer governed by laws, only by armed men and force. This is just like the days of Billy the Kid. You have an armed man going down a dusty street and that is authority. And it has come to this for us...

And so Vidal goes, decrying police and wanting to disarm them, because they are all criminals in his mind, based upon some encounter he had in the '40s.

Not to mention that police corruption is at all-time lows, so much so that when an isolated incident does happen, it makes national headlines.

Not to mention that Police Officers are shot at as a part of their jobs.

But let's take away their guns and tasers. Let's send them out there like UN Peacekeepers without guns. Let them just ask criminals to be nice. I'm down. Let's do it. I'm sure those criminals, armed with uzis, shotguns, and knives, will be more than happy to oblige a uniformed, unarmed person. I'm sure crime will go down, and utopia will be the norm of the land again.

We'll start the unarmed policemen with Gore Vidal's hometown.

Why Crowley was wary of a screaming Gates

The general public don't realize that any call, "routine" or not, give suspicion to cops. Any call can turn deadly. Cops have died at the hands of pulled over motorists; officers have died at domestic disturbances, yes, even at the hands of the home's owner. Examples?

Sunday night, three officers responding to a domestic disturbance were talking to one of the residents when another began to shoot at the officers for no reason.

Three officers were hit. Only two survived.

Click here for the whole story.

Sgt. David Kinterknecht died answering a "routine" call. How was Sgt. Crowley to know that Gates wasn't armed? Or that his yelling wouldn't inspire a roomate to do the same? The police don't know, so when someone won't calm down, they are arrested to immediately diffuse a situation.

This weekend was bad for cops responding to routine calls:

In New York, NYPD Officer Rodney Lewis was shot responding to a domestic disturbance.

In Oklahoma, two sheriff's deputies were killed trying to serve an arrest warrant at a suspect's home.

All of you who judge Sgt. Crowley for diffusing a situation with an irate homeowner: You never know who is armed and may shoot the police for no reason at all, even from their own residence.

Professor Gates continues racist behavior. UPDATED

In my last post, I shared the situation as it happened, complete with the police report.

It is just getting worse. Obama has come out against the police, saying that the Police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates, while acknowledging that he "doesn't know all the facts" and that he "may be a little biased" because the professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., is a friend.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 ... that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."

So instead of letting the police do their job, he makes this into a national incident. Not only that, but he generalizes and stereotypes all police offices, especially white ones. Isn't that what is being thrown at the police here? Police around the country are understandably upset. Obama is playing to the "cops are bad" mentality. Why don't we just get rid of the police and see how we are then. Let society crumble under anarchy. See who gets "profiled" then.

And now Professor Gates, whose charges were dropped, is going to sue.

Attorney Charles Ogletree said Gates might sue the department and would bring forward witnesses who say they've had similar experiences with Crowley.

When asked for specific examples, Ogletree said only that they may come out in time depending on how the police department handles the situation moving forward.

Isn't procuring false witnesses a crime? But Ogletree is saying that they will bring "witnesses" when money is on the table. Witnesses get paid for their time. And suddenly, when money is to be had, these people will come forward? Sounds fishy to me. Some mature professor.

He can't handle that the police officer didn't let the celebrity get away with getting in the officer's face. He yelled "You don't know who you are messing with!" when the officers came to investigate the possible break in. And then injects race into this. If you look at pictures, there is a black officer, and the secondary officer was hispanic. But since the primary officer was white, Gates pulls the race card and tries to claim racism. Seems to me like Gates is the racist here.

In the wake of this, many people are coming to the support of Crowley, of all races and walks of life.

Numerous police officers, including African-Americans, have spoken up on Crowley's behalf and portrayed him as a good and fair officer. Crowley, who is white, had once been chosen by a black police officer to teach a police academy course on ways to avoid racial profiling.

Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said he "deeply regrets" the arrest but stands by the procedures his department followed.
"I trust [Crowley's] judgment implicitly. He is a stellar officer," Haas said.

And again:

"I believe that Sgt. [James] Crowley acted in a way that is consistent with his training at the department, and consistent with national standards of law enforcement protocol," Commissioner Robert Haas said, referring to the officer who made the July 16 arrest at the professor's home.

Crowley also said he is exercising caution and his previous actions clearly show he is not a racist.
In fact, Crowley taught a racial profiling course at the Lowell Police Academy, said Deborah Friedl, deputy superintendent of the police department.
Last year was his fifth year as a co-instructor of the course, Friedl said.
"He seems to be a highly regarded instructor at the academy. He consistently received high praise from students," she said.

Check out this video, in which an African-American female voices support for Sgt. Crowley and says "shame on" Gates for turning this into another racial statement.

But Gates continues to demand an apology from the police for daring to arrest him, when he's obviously famous and they "don't know who they are messing with!" I am so tired of celebrities thinking they are above the law. And I'm tired of minorities accusing white police officers of racism whenever they are arrested. It's getting ridiculous.

It's true there was racism here. But it was Sgt. Crowley; the racist behaviors came from Professor Gates and his supporters who jumped behind the black man against the "evil policeman"...racism is racism, even when directed at white men.

**UPDATE**

Obama has apologized for worsening the situation, and said he "hoped the controversy surrounding Gates' arrest provides Americans with "a teachable moment" on how they can improve "relations between police officers and minority communities."

Gates is still maintening that he was 100% faultless, and that he may still sue.

Gates' lawyer is still threatening suit, and that he'll find people that don't like Crowley, saying "I think you will be hearing much more complex and different perspective on him [Crowley] in the coming days and weeks," Ogletree said, alleging that Crowley "is well-known among people, particularly young people, for some of his police practices."

Harvard Professor plays race card, gets arrested UPDATED

From CNN

I've seen this on a few blogs, with different takes. Here's what CNN has to say about it, which to date has the most information available. It IS conflicting, but take a look:

Charles Ogletree, Gates' lawyer in this case, told CNN on Tuesday that Gates -- the director of Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research -- had returned from China on Thursday to his Cambridge home and discovered his front door jammed.

He opened his back door with his key and tried unsuccessfully from inside his home to open the front door. Eventually, Gates and his driver forced the door open from the outside, Ogletree said.
The professor was inside for several minutes when a police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, appeared at his steps and asked him to step outside, the lawyer said.

According to his lawyer, Gates told the officer he lived there and showed him his Massachusetts driver's license and Harvard University identification card. The officer followed him into his house and said he had received a report of a possible break-in, the lawyer said. Gates grew frustrated that the officer was continuing to question him in his home and asked for the officer's name and badge number, Ogletree said.

The police report offers a different account of the incident.
Gates refused to step outside to speak with the officer, the police report said, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" the report said.
"While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me," he said, according to the report.
The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police.

Gates followed the officer outside and continued to accuse him of racial bias, the report said. After Crowley warned the professor twice that he was becoming disorderly, the officer wrote he arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space."

You know, I'm a little conflicted here, but after reading a few articles and blog posts on this, I have to say I'm with the Police Officer on this. The Officer is required to follow up on calls of possible break ins, and many criminals will claim to be the owner. When the Officer asks for proof, the citizen should show proof, and leave it at that.

But following the officer outside, accusing him of things? That can quickly get under a cop's skin. And make him feel threatened, prompting a warning. If Gates didn't stop after getting warned, he deserved to get arrested.

Gates thought that he could harass an Officer just doing his job and get away with it because he played the race card and because he is famous.

**UPDATE: Here is the police report. As far as I can see, Gates is lucky charges were not pressed.