KEN: Christine in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Christine. You’re on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
CALLER: So good to be on the show, and I just wanted to say something that this… I’m gonna circle back to this shooting with the 26-year veteran officer. I have 23 years of experience in law enforcement, spent about 15 as a detective and either was on the road or as a school resource officer. There is no winner here in this incident. But this incident can’t be associated with everything else that’s going on.
This was clearly accidental. I mean, this wasn’t something where she woke up this morning and I said, “I’m gonna kill somebody today.” And my concern is that we’re losing sight of that, in the midst of everything going on. This was an accidental shooting. We even heard her call out, like we are trained many times, “Taser! Taser! Taser!” So you know that there was no malice, there was no aforethought, when this was done.
KEN: And I think another — and that’s such a great point, Christine. Another thing that stuck out to me — ’cause I’ve watched all available tape. She called, “Taser! Taser! Taser!” and you would do one click with the Taser, and she did one shot with the gun. If she would have fired three or four shots —
CALLER: Absolutely.
KEN: — then I think it would be —
CALLER: Absolutely.
CALLER: I agree 100%. I just hope the listeners are understanding that this is not a circumstance that’s the same as everything else that we’re trying to lump this one into. This was an accidental shooting. It is tragic that a 20-year, 26-year veteran officer accidentally did this. I mean, we are trained properly. We carry the Taser on one side. We carry the gun on the other side. We have muscle memory; we use that.
She was using that, but she grabbed the wrong tool, and that’s the bottom line here. We cops deal with a lot every day, and I appreciate the listeners out there when they say, “You don’t know what you’re walking up to when you walk up to a car at a traffic stop.” We don’t know. So it is a demanding and high-risk job for sure, and in this case, my heart goes out to everybody on this one. This was just a horrible, horrible accident.
KEN: Well, I’m so glad you called, Christine, and thank you for sharing your insights, because that… You’re right about nobody being a winner, and the heart does ache. It aches for a woman who is now being charged. This woman is being charged with a crime, and she spent her whole life in law enforcement. She made a mistake. But sadly, this template of race, it poisons everything.
And the irony is, I don’t see it coming from either side. I see the fuel of this race narrative is the news media. That is what is so shocking. In fact, there was just a Rasmussen survey that said over 60% don’t believe these incidents are race related. Sometimes it’s competence. Sometimes it’s overzealousness. Whatever it may be. But the majority of Americans do not look at things through the lens of race.
And that… You know, if you lead BLM, you do. If you work at any major news network, you do. And you know, I can’t help but wonder. Think of the pressure law enforcement is under now because they’re under a microscope. You know what I would like to see? I would like to see criminals put under the microscope.
You know, when people get a slap on the wrist for do something wrong or violent and then eight months later, they’re back in the community not caring about other people? If we could only put a microscope there. And the other part is, we keep losing police officers. Not just literally losing the lives… I believe I think Hannity said last night a hundred have lost their lives so far this year.
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