Saturday, November 27, 2010

PDX Car Bomb Plot Should Raise Questions

When Mohamed Osman Mohamud walked away from his car bomb to detonate it using a cell phone, what if a Portland police officer who was not in on the sting tried to act? Portland has been plagued with public outcry over police shootings and the atmosphere surrounding the the use of deadly force makes officers question themselves before they act. If an officer had reason to believe there was a threat I would hope he would act without restraint to protect the innocent lives. Unfortunately, the likes of Jessie Jackson and Police Chief Mike Reese create a real threat when they punish officers for taking action to protect the public.

Portland Police Chief Mike Reese fired Officer Ronald Frashour for the fatal shooting of a suicidal man who failed to follow police instructions. Although the man was later found to be unarmed, repeated requests to stand down, and the initial shooting of non lethal rounds also failed to stop the suspect. Aaron M. Campbell was killed and Rev. Jessie Jackson stepped into the media spotlight to further prosecute the Portland cop and make a national sensation of the situation.

Fast-forward to Friday night, during the November 26th Portland tree lighting ceremony and think about who you have running your Police department. The leadership will fire officers for using deadly force, and here you had a potential situation where an unarmed man had the intent to kill 1000's of innocent lives.

Fortunately this situation was all a sting, the explosives were fake, and the FBI had control of the situation. Remember Portland withdrew from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2005. God help us if we need to rely on Mayor Sam Adam's leadership or Police Chief Mike Reese for protection in any future attempt.

A big thanks to the FBI for catching this terrorist, but as for your fearless Portland leader, don't worry, he is on the Q-Patrol,


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