Sunday, August 24, 2008

I first heard about this a few days ago, and at first

couldn't find anything on it(my search-fu sucks); happily, some other folks did find it. Having apparently hit a roadblock in the investigation of a double-murder, the OSBI sent out this letter
to everyone they could find a record of as buying a pistol similar to what ballistics indicates they're looking for. Basically "Please bring your gun in for testing. Or else." Or else?
The individuals who were "invited" to bring their guns in but didn't now will be included in the ongoing investigation, as well as people who were identified by former owners as having purchased that type of weapon recently, authorities said.

"We'll be checking on them," Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, told the newspaper.
Oh, lovely. In effect, they're saying "We don't have a court order, and we can't force you to do this, but if you don't we'll look for ways to mess with you." Which is just certain to produce cooperation, now isn't it?

Which all ignores that replacement barrels are easy to find, same for extractors, firing pins, etc. Assuming the bad guy, if wishing to play games and bring the piece in, doesn't mess with it to change the markings, which is overall simple enough to do. I'll also note the end bit:
"If you no longer have possession of the Glock .40, please call ' '. Please be prepared to provide the name, address and telephone number of the person now in possession of the gun."
Considering there is no legal requirement to keep such records of a private sale- or gift- that's not going to go over well, either.

I tend to give law enforcement a great deal of leeway(sometimes too much), but I have to say I'd be one of the people saying "If you have a warrant to seize and/or demand to test-fire my gun, please let me see it." Not out of any desire to make things difficult(find the bastards who did this, and I'll happily drive down to lend a hand on the rope), but because this just doesn't seem like a good way to keep this investigation going.

And I've got a fair amount of sympathy for the people investigating this. It's the kind of crime that makes your skin crawl and inspires people to work long and hard to find the bad guys. And causes them to curse and consider drinking when faced with things like this:
Investigators have been searching for a "person of interest" in the case since mid-June. Described as a 6-foot American Indian, about 35, with long black hair, he was seen driving a white Ford or Chevy single-cab pickup truck on County Line Road around the time of the shooting.

Indian activists have said they aren't surprised police haven't been able to find him.

"That could be any Indian in Oklahoma," said Brenda Golden, an activist originally from Weleetka.

Authorities say the description is all they have to go on.

"There’s nothing we can do about that," Brown said. "That’s exactly what the multiple witnesses told us. We asked them to get more specific, of course, and that’s the best they could do."

And why is this working with what they've got so bad?
Golden, who now lives in Oklahoma City, said the fear of police persecution is one reason the large Indian community isn't talking.

"We're not going to get treated fairly," she said shortly after the murders. "Automatically people are assuming that this Indian did something wrong just because he was in the vicinity."

Police stress the Indian is not a suspect.

"He was just seen in the area close to the time the girls were shot and killed," Brown said. "That is such a remote area that that stood out to us."

Of course the investigators are all racists; they're cops and(mostly)white, aren't they? Etc. ad bullcrap. I may be doing Golden a disservice, if so I'll say so, but this sounds exactly like what comes out of the mouths of 'civil rights' race warlord poverty pimps like Jackson and Sharpton, and it does no good.

So this is something of a mess all the way around, and barring someone coming forward with information or a break(brought about by lots of footwork), it'll keep hanging for a while. Maybe a long while. Which is bad on a number of fronts. Among others, the people who did this need to become better looking, as soon as possible.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While I realize that the OSBI is disparate for any leads to these murders, suggesting that ALL owners of Glock .40's report to have their firearms tested, tout suite, is more than a bit disturbing.   Furthermore, who in the hey, other than legal/innocent owners of same type firearm would seriously consider complying with this request to test anyway?   This is insane.