Star Member Ryan Fitzomething (136 posts)
Darren Wilson's Lack of Remorse
In 1988, I killed a man of color in the process of enforcing American law. An ensign in the Coast Guard, we were doing drug interdiction mostly. Some of the smugglers would runs, but, once we had them cornered, once they saw that our guns were drawn, they surrendered. Except for one time.
It was a small boat from Panama. Two men, both Hispanic, on board. We intercepted, they stopped their vessel immediately, but then decided to fight. (To this day, I can't fathom why: The cocaine they were transporting had an '88 street value of less than $60,000: Chump change!)
My CO ordeed myself and another man to "show," which was his code for going to the side of our ship with weapons visible. In this one case, the smugglers opened fire, one man's bullet missing my head by more than a foot, whereupon I shot him twice in the chest. My CO did the same to the other smuggler. They both dies shortly thereafter.
Here's the thing: I felt remorse. I lost sleep for a couple of weeks, even though the brass investigated and, in the parlance of TV cop shows, deemed it "a clean shoot."
Eventually, I expressed this to my CO, whom I knew had killed twice before. To my surprise, he told me that he, too, had felt regret about the actions we had taken that day. He said to me, "Son, you're not SUPPOSED to feel good about it."
And this brings me back to my headline: Darren Wilson has expressed not one iota of sorrow over his killing of a young man who didn't even have a weapon! He says he has slept soundly, no regrets, the whole "if I had to do it again" bullshit.
To me, this is evidence of psycopathy., and I hope Mr. Wilson never again has a job in any sector of law enforcement, though I strongly suspect that such hope will be dashed, if it hasn't already.
This guy knows how to rope-in the Proglodytes.
106 DU Wrecks as of this writing.
Then there was this:
Name removed Message auto-removed
Not to fear, this guy knows how to play DU:
Ryan Fitzomething (136 posts)
15. FOX Viewer, I Presume?
I'm new here, myself, but I suspect that you MAY be on the wrong website.
Response to Ryan Fitzomething (Reply #15)
Star Member uppityperson (90,283 posts)
16. astute analysis and welcome to DU.
^ Yep. That's all it takes to win Proglodyte approval.
I remember, when I was younger, I was always incredulous about fantasy stories wherein a sorcerer could, by simply speaking a few arcane words, overtake the minds of others. The Proglodytes have since proven to me that such things are not as fantastic as they once seemed.
sarge43 (19,060 posts)
22. Next time one of them starts up,
invite him/her to transfer and sign up as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. If motor mouth has a triple digit IQ, s/he will STFU. Hands down, one of the most dangerous ways to make minimum wage.
Welcome to DU.
Yes. Yes. We all saw the Kevin Costner movie.
And then William Whoreson chimes in:
WilliamPitt (57,556 posts)
55. Powerful story.
Thank you for sharing it, and for your service, and welcome to DU.
Ryan Fitzomething (136 posts)
56. Thank You, Sir!
Do you post to other websites? I've read a couple of your posts here (very good, by the way), but I seem to recall seeing the name William (or Will, maybe) Pitt in other places on the net.
Oh, he's goo-o-o-ood!
WilliamPitt (57,556 posts)
57. Thank you! I'm the lead writer for Truthout.org
but my stuff shows up other places as well.
Last one: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28122-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-cold-war
The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/44663
Cheers!
^ People claim narcissists are manipulative but I have always found that a little enterprise makes a narcissist easy to manipulate.
And then THIS happens:
Boatswain2PA (3 posts)
69. This story is a blatant LIE
I am not discussing the "lesson" the OP is trying to impart here, and I will not delve into the political spectrum here. However his story of being a Coast Guard Ensign in 1988 and killing a man (any man) during a drug interdiction patrol at that time frame is, I believe, not true.
I will give you many reasons why this story is a fabrication. I recently retired from the Coast Guard as a Senior Chief Boatswain Mate. I was an operator for almost all of that career, and attending their senior law enforcement school (sounds cool, but not really). I have also written about Coast Guard history, and am a paid author about Coast Guard history and operations.
First reason: The entire Coast Guard is a smaller force (about 35,000) than the New York City Police Department (about 45,500). If a New York cop shoots a suspect, every other cop in New York is going to know about it in just a few days. Now, maybe the office assistant for the undersecretary of janitorial services for the #th district of the New York Police Department won't know about it, but every COP on the beat is going to know about it. I was an operator for almost all of my career, and I damn well knew about every major Coast Guard law enforcement action during that career.
Second: Coast Guard Ensigns are typically brilliant idiots (meaning incredibly smart, but young and naive), and nobody gives them a gun unless there is a Chief right behind them making sure they don't hurt themselves. NOBODY would EVER have given an Ensign a gun (presumably a long gun) and told them to go to the side of the ship to "show" their weapon. This is NOT, and since the Civil War HAS not, been the role of an Ensign on any Coast Guard ship. If the OP had said he was a "gunner's mate", or "boatswain mate", then this story would have used at least the right character, but in this case, it is simply an imaginary actor.
Third: The Coast Guard has reporting requirements for incidences, called Situation Reports (or SITREPS). Even back in 1988 a Commanding Officer would NEVER have fired a hostile shot unless it was immediately reported via SITREP. In about 1992 the Coast Guard added a LEREP (Law Enforcement Report) requirement for anything as small as an officer using more than "level 2" (defined as giving verbal commands" against a subject). These SITREPS were put together in reports from the Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement and distributed to the field as learning aids. There was NEVER a SITREP concerning a Coastie (let alone an Ensign) getting shot at by a Panamanian drug smuggler and returning lethal fire.
Fourth: The Coast Guard, even way back in 1988, required every single cutter, boat, or unit to account for each and every bullet expended. This was a requirement for far longer than what I remember, and comes from the NAVY, from which we get our ammunition from. This means that any ammunition fired operationally would HAVE to be reported as an operational expenditure. If someone wants to get conspiratorial (in the realm of the twin towers being brought down by our own government), then YES, it is theoretically possible to get an entire crew of a ship (because everyone will know when a round is fired) to agree to lie, including the "career" guys who were not involved in the shooting yet would lose their careers if it came out that they covered it up. However, remember, this is the incredibly small Coast Guard, and human nature is that "people talk". I, and every other senior person from 1988 onward, would have heard about this.
Fifth, his Commanding Officer would not have "killed twice before" unless his CO had perhaps been an ENS or LtJg during Operation Markettime during the Vietnam Conflict. Even then I do not believe any CO or XO of a patrol boat during Operation Markettime ever directly engaged the enemy and got a KIA, let alone TWO.
Lastly, the supposedly Lieutenant Commander Fitzomething has been in the Coast Guard for 30 years, and is soon making Commander and "getting his own boat". This also reeks of bull excrement. The very few Lieutenant Commander's the Coast Guard has who have been in for approaching 30 years are prior enlisted guys who went to OCS. These are guys who are subject matter specialists (naval engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, etc) who are the technocrats, NOT the ship-driving officer corps. For those who were Ensigns in 1988, most are now Captains (O-6), or AT LEAST Senior Commanders. If you want proof, look at the biography of ANY "Coast Guard Sector Commander", who are all O-6s.
Now, we are all wrong sometimes. And I am certainly an imperfect human being. So I will make (the supposedly) Lieutenant Commander Ryan Fitzomething a deal. You send me an email to Boatswain2PA@gmail with details of who you are, and I will ask some of my friends up in D17 (Alaska) if you are for real. If you are, I will come back on this board and publicly apologize, and I will send you a bottle of wine for you to share with your wife as my apologies for calling you a liar.
Ryan Fitzomething (136 posts)
74. I'm Flattered Than You Signed Up to DU Just For Me!
Less than 24 hours ago, at that.
Now, let me take a wild guess: If I provide you with all of my professional (scholastic, as well?) details, you will donate $5 million to the charity of my choice. Right?
No thanks, Trump Troll.
PS: This is my first and last communication to you. I go now to wash my hands.
mlb47driver (6 posts)
77. This story doesn't make sense.
You have stated that you are a LCDR, and making “full CDR†and “getting your own boatâ€. That means you would have been screened in 2014 for command of said “boatâ€.
Anyone can see who screens for command in the Coast Guard. From the 2014 Senior Command Screening Panel released last September(you can find this here: http://www.uscg.mil/announcements/alcgoff/099-14_ALCGOFF.txt), you can see that there were a whopping FIVE LCDR’s in the entire Coast Guard who screened for senior command afloat ("Senior Command" is defined as CDR or above, which you say you are making CDR and getting your own boat, so your name would be on this list).
FIVE of them. If you are telling the truth (making CDR and getting “your own boatâ€) you would be one of these FIVE LCDR’s who screened for senior command afloat this year.
You can cross reference their names in the Register of Coast Guard Officers (available here: http://www.uscg.mil/opm/Opm1/Opm1docs/2014%20Register%20FINAL%20print.pdf) to see when any officer in the Coast Guard received their commission. Looking at their names in the Register you can see that two of them received their commission in 1998, and the other three received their commission in 1999.
That was a full 10 years AFTER you claim to have been an Ensign and shot a man.
I am not going to call you a liar, because that would be rude, and might get me banned from this site. But anyone can look at the Coast Guard Register of Officers (linked above) and see that there is not LCDR in the entire Coast Guard who was an ensign in 1988.
uppityperson (90,283 posts)
79. Looks like his previous account is Flagged for Review due to a hidden post?
At least this one is not insulting.
Must. Protect. THE NARRATIVE!
PissedOffCoastie (22 posts)
82. You got caught
You are not an active duty LCDR. Face it, you got caught in a lie.
There is even a thread about you by real Coasties here: http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/415197802/m/1860094613001
For the record, the USCG Global Address List shows nobody stationed in Juneau as a LCDR, age 52 who was (supposedly) commissioned in 1985 who is well past mandatory high year tenure point of 6/2005 when he would have been forced put for failure to promote with his year group. You are a fake.
And from there the beating continues.
The poser has yet to supply his credentials and now its starting to haunt him in other threads.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025993534
