A correction and apology
Doug Thompson April 8, 2008 - 10:49am.
One of the Floyd County Sheriff's Department investigators who worked closely with the Virginia State Police tactical teams said today that the three fatigue-clad state troopers I overheard bragging about scaring county residents and referring to local police officers as "Barney Fifes" were not members of the tactical teams.
All state troopers assigned to Floyd County during the weeklong search for Steven Dale Branscome, accused of shooting at Virginia State Trooper after a chase that ended in West Virginia, wore fatigues but not all were members of the force's tactical teams.
I have confirmed that the three officers I overheard were not members of the tactical teams.
My apologies to the tactical teams for incorrectly identifying the officers as members of their units. I'm glad to hear they were more professional than the officers I encountered on that day in the Blue Ridge Resturant.
Tact Team
Mr. Thompson.......thanks for your apology and I apologize for calling you a liberal aggitator. I get way too passionate about so many things. Maybe talk radio has made me that way. I'm glad the sheriff's deputy told you that as I had printed off a copy and was going to send it to my husband's boss. I didn't feel that was right for the Tact Team to do that in a town where they also were bringing business and being served. I grew up and went to school with my husband's boss so I wasn't a bit afraid to do that. And the reason I used an ID instead of my name is because my husband does not like for me to give my opinions on websites. And I surely wouldn't want him to take criticism or harrassments because of me. I have a wonderful Christian husband and am very fortunate. He was quite unhappy with me for leaving any comment because he knows how excited I can get. If I had known that I was supposed to use my real name I wouldn't have left a comment but I thought you were allowed to use an ID. Now I don't feel so bad having a picture of the mountains over my computer with your signature on it. Regards, still checkmate.
Many thanks
Checkmate:
Thanks for the apology but it wasn't necessary. You have every right to defend your husband and members of the tact team. We appreciated their work. I'm sorry that a few officers wandered off the reservation but I imagine that with that many in the county at one time the odds favored having some bad applies.
For the record, I'm not a "liberal agitator." I'm a "libertarian agitator." :)
Libertarian
The older I get the more I lean to a libertarian way of life. Too late, though. So, the dictionary sits beside my computer but I refuse to look at it until today. Yep, everybody spells agitator differently than I do but today I will spell it correctly after opening Webster's book. There are some bad apples in every group because we are all human. I'm sure I am a bad apple at least once a week and some would say more. And if I look deep into my heart I would probably call myself an agitator on occasions. And I would even bet there are some bad apples in the Sheriff's office even though it's hard to believe. The thing I worry about is the Task Force of the combined counties and law enforcement. I've seen Task Forces break up over minor disputes such as these. It's a little like the coal field strikes. The troopers there could not participate because they knew the folks would take it out on them after the others left. Very few people like a large number of law enforcement invading their towns. I would never had posted except someone sent me the website. I never even thought of you being in the Village Green. I had no idea what a Blue Ridge Muse was. And for some folks complaining about my ID, this will be my last posting even though most of the writings are quite interesting. Regards to all.
A reminder
Unfortunately, I just had to remove two comments because they failed to heed my warning that we would no longer allow people to throw out insults without using their full names. Checkmate has a legitimate reason for using a screen name because of her husband's professions. The two comments I had to remove tonight claimed no such reasons.
Our issue here was with a few state police officers who decided to insult our county sheriff's department and our home. That's the issue. If you want to throw brickbats, do so with your real names. If you don't follow our rules, your posts will be deleted and your IP address will be placed on our ban list.
This is my sandbox and when you play in it you play by my rules. If you can't follow those rules, please play somewhere else.
Thank you Doug for taking
Thank you Doug for taking quick action on this before it got out of hand like the last debate on this matter.
I appreciated the police presence in our county last week but I do not appreciate the hit and run attacks on you or others simply because you stood up for our county and our sheriff's department.
Let those who are critical have the guts to be so with their names. You were gracious enough to apologize for incorrectly identifying the rude officers as members of the tactical squad. The police officers wife recognized that and so do I. One of my cousins was an officer who participate in the hunt and he, like you, was shocked by the behavior of the troopers you encountered. I hope they are punished for their unprofessional behavior and I applaud you for filing a complaint.
Let's recognize the vast majority of officers who offered their assistance this past week but let's also make sure that the actions of a few does not demean the good work of the many.
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