POLICE WORK DEADLY IN FATS CITY.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
The police dog sniffed the burglar out first. He was hiding behind some boxes inside an abandoned warehouse building. I drew my gun and took aim. ``Come out with your hands up,'' I yelled, my palms sweaty, my voice cracking from the tension. It was my big chance to be a hero, and I sounded more like Don Knotts Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show (a role which earned him five Emmy Awards), and as landlord than Clint Eastwood. I've always wanted to use that old shoot 'em-up cowboy line - ever since I was a kid watching Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a cowboy-hero, created in 1904 by Clarence E. Mulford and appearing in a series of popular stories and novels. corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most bad guys - then celebrate with a glass of milk. Unfortunately, my bad guy wasn't coming out with his hands up. He was rolling around on the ground, screaming at the police dog attacking him, and reaching into his waistband for what looked like a gun. I had a split second to make a decision. It was either me, the dog or him. I closed my eyes and fired. I hit the dog. Actually, I just grazed his ear - the bullet coming to rest between the eyes of the bad guy. A lucky shot. Score one for the good guys, though. Deputy Dawg Deputy Dawg was originally a Terrytoons cartoon character featured on the animated television series of the same name from 1959 through 1972. The cartoons were seven minutes long, and were packaged four at a time and shown as a half-hour program in syndication. McCarthy was alive, and the dog is expected to recover. My partner, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Councilman Mike Feuer, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He fired late, missed the bad guy and the dog, and is now among the dearly departed. That's what happens when you give a gun to a bleeding-heart liberal, and try to make him think and react like a street cop Street Cop is a Nintendo game, using the Power Pad, in which the character uses his billy club to apprehend criminals. The player has to step on the buttons corresponding to each of the cop's actions, such as moving, jumping and clubbing. . It just doesn't work. While he's contemplating moral choices, the other guy's shooting. I like this guy Feuer, though. Monday morning he did what a lot of politicians in this city should do more often. Get out of City Hall and hit the streets. Feuer traveled down to the Los Angeles Police Department's recruit training center in Inglewood to see firsthand what it was like to be a street cop facing possible deadly force An amount of force that is likely to cause either serious bodily injury or death to another person. Police officers may use deadly force in specific circumstances when they are trying to enforce the law. . The 5th District councilman figures that if he has to make public safety and litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. decisions concerning police shootings in this city, he should know what it's like to be a cop under stress, even if it's only for a few hours. Feuer, myself and a few other unsavory media types were invited by the LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. to try out the department's Firearms Training System, fondly known as FATS. It's one of those virtual reality machines that puts you right in the middle of the action to see if you have the right stuff. We didn't. None of us will be quitting our day jobs in the foreseeable future to become cops. Recruits who do want to join the force, though, are given two chances to pass the challenges FATS throws at them in a split second to make a justifiable shooting or hold fire. If they fail both times to make the right choices, they are immediately terminated from the force. That's how seriously the department takes possible police shooting incidents, said Sgt. Rick Dedmon, a 22-year veteran who runs the training program. ``We have to know up front that every officer knows when they can justifiably shoot and when they can't,'' Dedmon said. Going through the program as a rookie, the first thing that hits you is that it's too bad FATS isn't available to all the Monday morning quarterbacks Monday morning quarterback football spectator who, in hind-sight, points out where team went wrong. [Am. Sports and Folklore: Misc.] See : Criticism who think cops are trigger-happy in this city. They aren't. They're just damn cautious because they want to go home to their families at the end of the day, just like the rest of us. And the line in deadly force situations between going home or becoming a coroner's statistic is damn thin. FATS shows you that until you're actually thrown into a deadly force situation, the average person has absolutely no comprehension of how quickly life-and-death decisions have to be made. Feuer and a few of my colleagues didn't make theirs soon enough, and they're dead today - on paper, at least. The lesson was not lost on the councilman. ``FATS gave me a good feeling for the tenseness that police officers in deadly force situations are under and how quickly decisions must be made,'' he said. ``It's imperative that we give every police officer in this city the maximum amount of training we can to make these split-second, life-or-death decisions,'' Feuer said. ``So I'll be pushing for more training resources for LAPD in next year's budget.'' One other thing Feuer said he would be pushing for is getting his colleagues out of City Hall and in front of FATS for a little virtual reality of their own. MEMO: Dennis McCarthy's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . Sgt. Rick Dedmon helps Mike Feuer prepare for a rookie training exercise Monday. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News |
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