For the second time in less than a year, the Tampa Bay area has been rocked by police shootings that have left two policemen killed. First Jeff Kocab and Dave Curtis in Tampa and now Jeff Yaslowitz and Tom Baitinger. It's shame that the Tampa Bay area has seen 4 of our brave men die within a year.

May we give our prayers and condolences to the two policemen and their families in this tragic time for them.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1147322.ece

What is going on with all of these police shootings? CNN reported today that 10 police officers have been shot within the last day including the St. Pete officers. Today in Miami they had a memorial & a funeral for two officers slain just this past Thursday serving a warrant in Liberty City. This is now 4 dead police officers in Florida in a matter of days! Condolences to them.

Obviously, we need more guns in society, in the hands of more people.

Maybe we should start issuing guns to all citizens when they turn 18... or maybe 16 or even 12.

Very sad indeed. :(

Florida is full of insane people and trash maybe? In Texas they had twice as many guns and I don't think there were as many shootings as here.

and now a Florida Senator is proposing a "Open Carry law" for guns in Florida! This is just a bad idea all the way around.

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/open-carry-law-under-consideration-01172011

Florida is full of insane people and trash maybe? In Texas they had twice as many guns and I don't think there were as many shootings as here.

Texas led the nation in law enforcement deaths last year (more than double Florida's number).

http://www.nleomf.org/assets/pdfs/reports/2010_Law_Enforcement_Fatalities_Report.pdf

Texas led the nation in law enforcement deaths last year (more than double Florida's number).

http://www.nleomf.org/assets/pdfs/reports/2010_Law_Enforcement_Fatalities_Report.pdf
Guess I was wrong unless there was an increase since when I lived there.

and now a Florida Senator is proposing a "Open Carry law" for guns in Florida! This is just a bad idea all the way around.

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/open-carry-law-under-consideration-01172011

It reflects teh NRA's influence on teh Legislature. Where's the need, really? It's not like a law like this would have prevented these deaths... Or, conversely, that the law would help prevent a Gabby Giffords like tragedy.

BTW - there's at least one fundraiser coming together (well outside of St. Petersburg) for the fallen officers:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193678537311818

Who would had thought that 28 days after St. Petersburg lost two officers, the city would lose another one? :ohno:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/st-petersburg-police-search-for-killer-as-they-mourn-another-fallen-officer/1153052

Here's to hoping the fucker who did it is waxed, not arrested.

Suspect arrested. Presser at 11.

A 16yr old kid... Un f-ing believable!

And yet he will be protected from death.

So much unanswered questions about the suspect. I've heard that he was praised for trying to prevent other teenagers from joining gangs yet he was missing school. He was quiet and kind but carried a gun with him on city streets? You have one side describing him as a teenager tring to make a difference and another side painting him as a trouble teenager caught up in criminal mischief and being influenced by the wrong people.

Frequent gun deaths, accidental and planned, are just the cost of doing business in a society that has 80million gun owners (legal) and probably more guns than the total population. Its just something I've come to expect hearing about, it doesn't surprise me or really affect me anymore. It just is.

I was reading the Times this morning. It seems that his family didn't even know he had a gun. This is getting crazier by the moment. :(

I was reading the Times this morning. It seems that his family didn't even know he had a gun. This is getting crazier by the moment. :(

I don't find it shocking at all that the parents of a 16 year old didn't know he was carrying a hand gun... It would be shocking if they did.

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/march/214347/St.-Pete-fallen-officers-could-get-part-of-4th-Street-North-named-after-them

Thursday, St. Pete City Council passed a resolution renaming that section of 4th Street as the "Sgt. Thomas Baitinger, Officer Jeffery Yaslowitz, and Officer David Crawford Memorial Highway". The state legislature is expected to pass the measure in the coming weeks.
Ouch, what a clumsy name for a road though. Anything to do with paperwork/mail/etc involving a street address will be a miserable experience.

They need to name it something a bit more practical like 'Fallen Heroes Boulevard'.



sidenote, This would also become the new world record for longest name of a road. The current record holder in Poland contains 65 letters and 72 characters, spaces included. This would shatter that record with a whopping 93 characters.

^^
wow!