More on Bean Bags

Looks like the Department of Homeland Security is responding that border officers also have plenty of lethal firepower available to them:

“When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol Agents deployed ‘less than lethal’ bean bags at the suspected aliens,” Hunter wrote. “At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol Agents,” striking Terry, Hunter wrote.

The question would be what are the protocols? To me, once the officers noticed that the suspects were carrying rifles, bean bags should have been off the table. No one carries a rifle unless they are anticipating trouble. At that point, they should have been ready to return rifle fire as soon as they announced police presence to the suspects. That they were not is either a problem with training or protocol. Simply saying they had lethal options available to them tells us nothing of what they were trained to do in this situation. That’s the question that needs to be answered.

Pay Toilets on Airlines

From my FlightAware newsletter, comes this amusing story. This took some planning, and a huge pair of brass balls. You can imagine the types of people who fly with millions of dollars in cash in their luggage. This guy is probably very lucky the police caught him first.

Federal Overreach on Tucson Shooter Prosecution

Jim Lindgren of the Volokh Conspiracy has some interesting observations on the matter, namely that they are trying to federally pin all victims on Loughner. This adds to what Dave Hardy was saying early after the shooting that prosecuting Loughner federally is a mistake, and that Arizona courts would have been the better venue to get a conviction.