Hundreds mourn 3 slain Pittsburgh police officers Options

[dauss]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...I6_7cAD97EIO600

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Law enforcement officials from as far away as Georgia and Boston gathered Wednesday to pay tribute to three fellow officers killed in the line of duty over the weekend.

Allegheny County police officers led three riderless horses to Pittsburgh's City-County Building, where mourners from the region and a host of police and correction officials visited the bodies of Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo II.

The officers were shot to death Saturday morning while responding to an argument between a mother and her 22-year-old son, who is jailed on homicide charges.

R. Joseph Mason, a motor officer patrolman in Cobb County, Ga., north of Atlanta, drove up in a rental van with five fellow officers.

"We just don't wear uniforms in Cobb County. We wear them all over the country," he said. "And we wear the same uniforms. The band of brothers, the color blue sticks together."

Though he did not expect to meet the officers' families, he said, "There's thousands of people behind them, thousands of officers who love them and care about them."

Sgt. Joe Teahan, of the Boston Police Department, was one of 75 Boston officers and 25 from surrounding departments who will attend Thursday's memorial service. He said police officers are "pretty much a fraternity throughout the country."

"We're showing them that we got their backs," he said. "I think the families see the support from the number of guys here to let them know they're not alone. They know there are other guys out there, much like their husbands or fathers. ... We care."

Jane Bean, a retired counselor for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, made the trip from the suburb of South Park to pay her respects to the fallen officers. Her daughter and son-in-law are police officers in suburban Pittsburgh departments.

"You just admire and honor what they do," Bean said as she fought back tears. "It's time like this you realize how important they are."

Police say Richard Poplawski shot the officers when they arrived at his mother's house Saturday morning after she called 911 to ask them to remove him.

When officers arrived, Margaret Poplawski opened the door for them. She later told police that she didn't know that her son was standing behind her with a gun.

Sciullo was shot in the home and Mayhle on the front stoop. Both men were dead within seconds. Kelly was shot as he arrived to provide backup, prompting a four-hour siege and gun battle with police, authorities said.

Another officer, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.

Authorities said Poplawski was wearing a bulletproof vest and was armed with a variety of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle.

Poplawski sustained wounds to his legs and is being held under close observation at the Allegheny County Jail on criminal homicide, attempted homicide and other charges.

Friends have said Poplawski was upset and angry about losing his job a few months ago, feared that President Barack Obama would take away his gun rights and believed Jews controlled the news media. Internet rantings found on a white supremacist Web site indicate Poplawski was preoccupied with the idea that Obama was going to overturn the Second Amendment and that Jews were secretly running the country.

Poplawski's public defender asked a judge on Wednesday to impose a gag order to prevent police from talking about the case. Lisa Middleman said police have disclosed what Poplawski said to them and other information about the case.

A spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said prosecutors would remind police not to talk.

Josh Davis, a 27-year-old student from Pittsburgh, waited outside the City-County Building several hours before doors opened to the public. He shook hands with officers and thanked them for their service.

"They put their lives on the line," he said. "(They) go through hell for us."

[cmac]

i totally see the point of defending oneself with a gun from an assailant also with a gun. if i can agree to one thing i guess it is making the playing field equal. i just don't agree that guns should be as readily available to where people are breaking into houses and there are gunfights nightly.
i don't trust people enough for every individual person to handle them responsibly, and thus i think that the wiser decision is to try and limit the quantity of these weapons.
i realize completely limiting them from criminals or even generic citizens is never completely out of the question.

Protecting one's self, family, and/or country is not cowardly, btw.

also agree to this. i see someone who has a gun in their home cocked and loaded as often times just "waiting for the day." "i wish someone would break into my home so i can unload on them."
call up the police now, before anything has occurred, and let them know that if anyone breaks into my house, i will kill them dead. i'm sure they'll want to have a bit of conversation. (perhaps a texas stereotype, but possibly you may be praised in texas for this)

And murdering someone with a knife or bare hands instead of a gun does not make one brave.

no, it doesn't. i never said that. murdering someone, to me, is cowardly. in any situation. it's a human life we're talking about.

i believe in playing the odds. the odds of someone breaking into your home, or attempting to murder your family are slim to none.
i'm not preparing for the rapture because i don't believe it is coming. i'm not preparing for someone breaking into my home because i don't believe it is coming.
i take proper precautions to ensure this, such as using he locks that are provided on my front door, locking my windows, and living in a considerably safe neighborhood. i don't walk down dark alleys at night. i'm not paranoid, but i have common sense. i have general faith in humanity, and a pretty positive outlook on life. awful people do exist in this world, but generally we are a pretty safe place.

if you have good intentions with your gun, great. take a course. use some responsibility. keep it locked up. away from children. this is awesome
but it's not counter strike. it's not a steven seagal movie. it's a real weapon, with the potential to very simply and easily take a human life, and i think that people don't often think of it this way.
my discussions pertaining to gun control are regarding these people. which, to me, are very common occurrences.

and yes, we've had this conversation before. at this point, gun control has become the driving topic of techsans. i'm proud to keep techsans up and running, by keeping the conversation flowing

This post has been edited by cmac: May 5 2009, 03:14 PM

[impala454]

i just don't agree that guns should be as readily available to where people are breaking into houses and there are gunfights nightly.

So, how do you go about implementing this?

i don't trust people enough for every individual person to handle them responsibly, and thus i think that the wiser decision is to try and limit the quantity of these weapons.

How does limiting the quantity ensure that only responsible people will handle them?

i see someone who has a gun in their home cocked and loaded as often times just "waiting for the day." "i wish someone would break into my home so i can unload on them."
call up the police now, before anything has occurred, and let them know that if anyone breaks into my house, i will kill them dead. i'm sure they'll want to have a bit of conversation. (perhaps a texas stereotype, but possibly you may be praised in texas for this)

You have a very skewed view of gun owners if this is what you really think.

no, it doesn't. i never said that. murdering someone, to me, is cowardly. in any situation. it's a human life we're talking about.

You said guns are cowardly but knives & fists aren't. So is this only dependent on the outcome of an encounter then?

i believe in playing the odds. the odds of someone breaking into your home, or attempting to murder your family are slim to none.
i'm not preparing for the rapture because i don't believe it is coming. i'm not preparing for someone breaking into my home because i don't believe it is coming.
i take proper precautions to ensure this, such as using he locks that are provided on my front door, locking my windows, and living in a considerably safe neighborhood. i don't walk down dark alleys at night. i'm not paranoid, but i have common sense.

Odds are pretty good that you won't get into a car wreck tomorrow either, so why bother wearing your seatbelt? Hell if the odds of someone breaking into your home are slim to none, why even bother locking the door or not going down an alley?

i have general faith in humanity,

No you don't, you think that humanity isn't responsible enough to own guns.

and a pretty positive outlook on life. awful people do exist in this world, but generally we are a pretty safe place.

If you're so positive and feel so safe the way things currently are, why are you so adamant about taking away people's guns?

if you have good intentions with your gun, great. take a course. use some responsibility. keep it locked up. away from children. this is awesome
but it's not counter strike. it's not a steven seagal movie. it's a real weapon, with the potential to very simply and easily take a human life, and i think that people don't often think of it this way.
my discussions pertaining to gun control are regarding these people. which, to me, are very common occurrences.

To you people who think this way are very common occurrences??? How many people do you know that own guns? Again I think you have a very skewed view of gun owners. IMHO you're probably the type that sees some story on the news about some kid who accidentally shot his friend with his dad's gun and then assume that's how everyone is. Look at the sheer numbers of weapons out there... a couple of quick searches says there's over 270 million civilian owned firearms in our country. If people were so commonly irresponsible with them as you seem to think, gun crime would be a lot worse.

and yes, we've had this conversation before. at this point, gun control has become the driving topic of techsans. i'm proud to keep techsans up and running, by keeping the conversation flowing

I don't know about the driving topic, but if you're enjoying singing your kumbaya around the campfire and "battling the evil hicks" by all means continue.