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czabe

Steve Czaban is a 25 year sports radio veteran, who hosts an afternoon drive show in Washington D.C. "Czabe" also writes and edits his own commentaries for www.czabe.com and other on-line and print publications. He can be reached at czabe@yahoo.com.

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17 Comments

  1. 1

    Mike

    And they took another 45 minutes to breach the room. I can understand some degree of caution on breaching the room – it may well have been booby trapped.

    Good thoughts Czabe but that’s the part I don’t agree with. Law enforcement simply must do better in these situations. Sorry. I realized that during the Virginia Tech massacre and all we got were videos of police hiding behind their cruisers talking on radios.

    When there is an active shooter the directive has to be to take this guy down. Immediately. If there is a school shooting they have to get in there at once with orders to shoot anyone they see with a gun. Multiple times. The same order should’ve been given on this guy as soon as they knew the room. Get in there. Now. Kill him.

    When I’ve argued this before I’ve heard….”you do it hero…..u don’t know police protocol etc”.

    Correct….I’m not in law enforcement…..but I’d think those who are accept that there are risks involved……and somewhere along the line there has been a shift to protecting themselves as much or even more than the public they serve.

    Reply
    1. 1.1

      boss hogg

      1000% agree – I’ve been saying this for a long time. The police are to “protect and serve”…but only after they put themselves first apparently. There have been countless examples throughout history in every small town. A friend of mine was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend…she called 911, 1 cop arrived and came into the apartment to break up the problem, saw the boyfriend pointing a gun at the girl, and the cop ran away rather than shoot the boyfriend. The girl died, the boyfriend then committed suicide. Cop gets off scott free with some paid leave for the trauma he had to witness.

      Reply
      1. 1.1.1

        Tick Tock

        Yup cop claims trauma and stress can’t do his job anymore and gets awarded a tax payer paid pension the rest of his life. by no means am I indicting the police, what these guys that work in the inner cities have to go thru and put up with on a daily basis they might as well be battling ISIS in Afghanistan. its truly become a war zone in America’s inner cities.

        Reply
        1. 1.1.1.1

          Ben

          Boss Hogg and Tick Tock provide exhibits one and two proving why police agencies struggle to find minimally qualified candidates. There are many other noble “heroic” professions available with better pay and benefits where the public universally approves. Who would want to join law enforcement these days with all the cop hating going on?

          Reply
          1. 1.1.1.1.1

            boss hogg

            Say what you will Ben…I don’t hate the police. I just want them to do their sworn duty to protect and serve. Too often they don’t. It’s not an easy job and not one I would ever want. But it’s a job with a duty to perform a certain expected way. It’s not acceptable to call be a helpless situation, call someone like police who are equipped and sworn to help but then don’t.

          2. 1.1.1.1.2

            boss hogg

            That should read “be in a helpless situation and then call someone like police who are well equipped and sworn to help…”

    2. 1.2

      keith kenyon

      dude.. shooting stopped after 11 min. if shooting started again i bet they would have busted in.. but fact is by the time they were there shooting about stopped.. why not take the cautious way in to save more innocent lives??? do you even know the facts of the story?

      Reply
  2. 2

    Max

    Great analysis of the events. The whole police/hotel security situation seems very strange. I never understood how there will be a school shooting and they take hours to clear the building. I know you can’t go in guns blazing but there has to be a better solution. They clear neighborhoods in Iraq faster and there is a much higher chance of boobytraps and multiple shooters in those situations.

    Reply
  3. 3

    Ben

    The public always wants answers right now but the final answers take forever in cases like this. Heck, they take forever in cases where only one person gets killed but multiple moving parts are involved. I’m sure the LVMPD would have loved to release nothing and wait for the final report before making a statement but that’s not tolerable. The “facts” constantly change because what we know today is oftentimes different than what we knew today or what we will know tomorrow.

    The liability take is spot on I think. There is huge potential liability even if everyone did everything they could in the best manner possible. Bottom line is people were murdered or maimed and someone must pay. It’s the way of the world.

    To Mike’s point about law enforcement needing to do better, we don’t even know that law enforcement DIDN’T do the best they possibly could have. Who are we to second guess what they did or didn’t do? Those answers hopefully will come after a thorough after action evaluation is conducted. These incidents are nasty SOBs and nobody should rush to judgment without having the facts. Unlike Mike, I do work in LE and I (unfortunately) have been to one of these dances. It sucked the biggest suck that ever sucked a suck.

    I can tell you, at least where I work, we are fully committed to doing everything within reason to stop the killing. I carry military style weaponry and armor of the highest order. I know how to use it. I am scared of nothing and will do everything humanly possible to keep a madman from hurting others. Most everyone I work with would do the same. Let’s wait until the final reports are done before criticizing anyone involved because I’m certain Vegas police have a similar mindset.

    The bottom line is the world is a scary place. Czabe hit it on the head: There are crazy and/or mean people out there whom want to cause innocent people harm. It’s something we have to live with. New laws probably won’t change a dang thing. Doing nothing won’t change anything either. It is what it is. I’ll still go to Vegas and enjoy the hell out of it. Don’t ever let the madmen win.

    Reply
    1. 3.1

      CJinPA

      Points worth pondering.

      People demand details right away, before they are fully vetted, and then act surprised when some prove faulty. We STILL don’t know exactly how it went down, but people are rushing to blame the responders for not being heroic enough. The facts will come out. They always do on these things. Stop speculating.

      Reply
  4. 4

    Mike

    Thanks Ben….for your thoughtful comments…and yes your brave commitment to your profession.

    I have friends in LE…and they are professionals like you. It’s not the rank and file I have questions for of course…but the overall leadership and general direction of LE ….basically the increasing militarization of the police when dealing with the general public…often for small crimes, while these things continue to happen.

    Like Czabe I support the 2nd amendment….although I’d favor some more restrictions than him I’d guess. (The police I do know quietly favor more too).

    But if we are gonna have guns in this country, which as a whole I think is demonstrating we handle them rather poorly….the calculus has to change somewhere.

    There is more to come out….but you are still gonna have to convince me that taking 15 MINUTES to get into a hotel room after the police arrived where a known madman was strafing a crowd with automatic weapons is acceptable.

    And yes he’s a madman. His ‘motives’ are of zero interest to me. There is no explaining crazy……and if I didn’t know better I’d think the media’s obsession with it is a way to not talk about other things.

    Reply
  5. 5

    Clint

    Stop dancing around this and call him what he was: domestic terrorist.

    Reply
    1. 5.1

      Matt D.

      Ok Clint, he was a domestic terrorist… there… and everything’s fixed now?

      I honestly don’t know what dancing you think it going on or what you think giving him that particular label will accomplish.

      Reply
    2. 5.2

      CJinPA

      “terrorism” (noun): the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

      If you can tell us his political aims, you won’t be accused of posting an ill-informed comment that was apparently driven by….political aims.

      Reply
  6. 6

    Tim

    Ben…….first off thank you for doing a job that I think most Americans don’t even
    F’ ing come close to understanding or fully appreciate. Thank you and your fellow officers for risking their lives every single day dealing primarily with the scum of this country……….Thank you, thank you.

    Ding, ding, ding, Czabe, the lawyers will attempt to turn this tragedy into a complete shit show. This should be settled with mediation like several of the past attacks, the Pulse nightclub shooting was handled by mediators, so was the Connecticut shooting. So far and I admit things can come to light that will change my opinion how in the hell can you blame the Mandalay Bay for this? Casino security in Las Vegas is the best of the best. Granted, geared toward issues on the the gaming floor “NOT THE F’ING GUESTS BREAKING THE F’ing GLASS SO THEY CAN SHOOT ACROSS THE STREET AT 22,0000 PEOPLE WITH ATOMIC WEAPONS !!!!!! To give them credit I’m sure it has always been a concern, but what can we do with this? Maybe require the 10 inch acrylic shit used to make Shamu’s tank at Sea World to replace the windows? And have the democrats mandate it be bulletproof. That sounds F’ing reasonable! That won’t add to the cost of a already billion dollar resort. Once again how do we stop this? I’m sure they will check baggage more closely, as they should, watch guests closer, no more declining maid service.

    And as far as the actual event itself, my belief is the police had no idea where the shooting was coming from it the early first seconds. Understood yes? They may have spent to much time helping victims and you hear this in the police scanner recording, one officer telling them to focus on taking down the shooter (OR SHOOTERS!!! THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT THIS EVIL WAS!!!! WAS IT 1 MAN ON THE GROUND!?!? OR 10 MEN FROM THE 32ND FLOOR OF A CASINO!!!!)
    And as far as any criticism for them not getting into his room sooner? Imagine if the security guard hadn’t been shoot at and shoot? 10? 20? Police officers would have been at that F’ing door! And then what?!?!?! WE WERE LUCKY HE DID WHAT HE DID!! The reported 200 shoots fired down the hallway was why they didn’t rush that room! No police officer should be required to run to a door, down a hallway where evil just shoot 200 rounds let alone be there faster than what us idiots think they should! It is amazing they did what they did in the time they did it!! And the shooter stopped his shooting, they pulled back, understandable.

    Once again, thank you to the men and women in Law Enforcement in this country! A thousand thanks!

    Reply
    1. 6.1

      Ben

      Exactly! And thank you for the kind words (Mike too).

      Reply
  7. 7

    Ben

    And… here come the lawsuits. Sue everybody.

    Reply

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