Nothing wrong with whackers?

This week we will cover another aspect of the Whacker Defense Force (WDF). The defense of whackerism has many tentacles and each tentacle has it’s own line of attack as to why whackers and wannabes are not a bad thing for society.

This week we will examine the arguement that if it's not illegal it's ok. This arguement is often a rallying cry for those WDF members known as Sheeples. Sheeple are people who expect the law to be the sole judge of what is right or wrong. While we all do this to some extent, these individuals opt to let the law replace their own moral and ethical judgments.  They take the simplistic view of "If it’s against the law, it’s bad, if it’s not against the law, it’s good", thereby avoiding having to think for themselves.

Like the proverbial ostrich sticking it's head in the sand, these members of the WDF simply ignore the problem by refusing to believe that unless a specific law is being broken, that Whackers even exist. This has the unfortunate result where even if something is unethical or dangerous, but legal, that they will defend it regardless of the consequenses. They fail to understand that the more whackers are given what amounts to tacit approval of their actions, either by downplaying the issue, turning a blind eye, defending their actions as "harmless", etc the more it encourages their behavior. This perception is further bolstered when those who try to raise the red flags are attacked. Many times such behaviors are motivated by friendship, the individual's age, affiliations, etc rather than logical factors.

Now some will ask "If it's legal, how can it be bad?" People who ask this question are often supprised to learn that Drunk Driving was once legal until New York passed the first law in 1910, but even then many people, police included, dismissed drunk driving as unimportant and harmless. As a ressult enforcement was poor & consequenses rarely enforced. Likewise as recently as the late 1800s it was considered both socialy & legaly acceptable, and proper, for a man to "beat his woman" to keep her inline. Infact British common law once allowed a man to "chastise" his wife with "any reasonable instrument." Additionaly it wasn't until 1895 that a woman in the U.S. could divorce her husband on the grounds of abuse. Fortunately for us in the present, there were people who refused to blindly believe that legal= good & illegal= bad.

Now lighting abuse is a unique issue as it has its roots in power by deception. For example- An individual can mount perfectly legal amber lights on a vehicle, but by using clear lenses and carefully selected placement, they can make the vehicle apear to be a vehicle equiped with real emergency lighting, therby fooling the general public into thinking that the driver is a law enforcement officer. Now you may be asking "If they're not hurting anyone then what's the harm?". The harm comes in several forms. One form is the erosion of trust in legitimate emergency responders when the actions of whackers are atributed to them by mistake, since it is often difficult for ordinary citizens to differentiate between the two. Another risk is that of mistaken identity by hostile parties who are either seeking revenge against law enforcement or by interupting a crime in progress. This second senario can result in anything from simple vandalism to the parked vehicle to potentialy leathal force against the vehicle's occupants. To understand how this could occur imagine the following senario:

A college student buys a retired police car, does not repaint it from it's original police colors, and subsequently installs a push bumper, spotlights, and "emergency" lights in an effort to be more "intimidating" to other drivers. One night this individual and a friend drive to a local convenience store to buy some beer. Unfortunately for them at the same time they're parking infront of the store an armed robber is exiting. Now this robber is confronted with what appears to be an inservice police unit and following that line of thinking opens fire killing the passenger.

For those of you who think that a senario like this will never happen, it can and does, and even armed & trained law enforcement officers have been killed or wounded in this exact senario (minus the beer run). Another common senario- stopping for a disabled vehicle, has also resulted in the deaths of law enforcement officers. Another harm comes from the dilution of the message conveyed by emergency lighting either by over or unecessary use. The final of the more common harms is that of the magical shield falicy. In this senario the user fails to recognize that emergency warning lights are not a physical barrier that will protect them from harm, so consequently they may park in inappropriate locations, make sudden unexpected stops (such as on an expressway), or dissregard traffic control equipment any one of which can result in a collision and injuries or death.

In closing we'd ask that you step back from the herd and take an objective look at the issues surrounding whackers, wanabes, & impersonators. Do not be an osterich with your head in the sand hoping that the problem will go away on it's own.

We Spoke Too Soon....

Well, Donna Clark/Fred Cross is not out of our lives yet. I received the E-mail below at 01:07 Friday night and was worried a bit until I realized who it was from. Like the previous letters we have received on this issue, it remains nameless and switches between first and third person perspectives several times through the letter. Law 101, any attorney will tell you that to begin a case, you don’t harass the defendant with semi-anonymous threatening E-mails.

After reading it I had to laugh, who wouldn’t? While we can’t directly blame Fred for this due to the lack of names in the emails, we can assume he has either a direct involvement with, or is a knowing participant in, the sending of these harassing letters. For the Fred/Donna fan club, I have reviewed my web site with an attorney and we know what we are doing.

We found that the email was sent from the E-mail address policeposers.loses.suit@gmail.com. While checking out the firegeezer’s blog, we found that someone had made similar legal threats under the user name firegeezer.loses.suit@gmail.com. Well, what a coincidence. Now ladies and gentleman, on to our main presentation:

Welcome to the big wide world of lawsuits and "big houses", becuase you, my man, have just met yours! It seems you just do not know when to quit, do you? Well maybe a litigation suit against you will help in shutting you down.

This, of course, will be in accordance with a certain weblog and forum you have created on your website regarding a couple of certain individuals and a Department, a LEGAL DEPARTMENT, i might add in whom you will be meeting a representing attorney for as of very soon.

As one may recall, you had been forewarned regarding prompt removal of this particular content on your website and so, since you have refused to cooperate, a FEDERAL Judge just may force you to remove the content, as well as possibly issuing a warrant for your arrest since most internet content is considered a communication device, thus is considered FEDERAL.

Representation of the individuals and the Department as mentioned on your website, the very individuals and Department you talk trash about as well as believe other trash you hear about without even knowing the individual or the Department you so liberously slander, has reviewed several posts you and/or your collegues have made and is ready to run a litigation suit against you, your website, the Registrar organization that represents you (Domains by Proxy,Inc) and any and all other individuals and organizations that may be found to be involved with the unneccessary harrassment, defamation of character, libel, slander and whatever other charges may be found to further enhance prosecution of those involved. Now you may believe in "empty threats of civil litigations" all you must but maybe this litigation that you and others involved will be facing will shed new light on your "want" to defame those you have not met or known and have no knowledge about other than what you may be "told".

It has been found that 'at least' 90 percent of the trash that is mentioned on your website about this individual and the Department is just that, TRASH. Trash you cannot prove nor win in a civil and/or criminal prosecution challenge. If you will check Arizona State Records, you will indeed see that the Department IS legal and that the people you recieve your false information from is unreliable, but instead, you would rather believe what you hear instead of checking FACTS. YOUR loss, OUR gain!

In closing, we would like to thank you for your latest addition (the email) on the weblog on your site regarding this individual and the Department as it will help even more in the further enhancing of the civil and/or criminal litigation suit that will be brought against you and it may be YOU that will be seeing "the big house" for your undue harrassment. In the end it will be the Department having the last laugh so display THIS one on your website so that everyone can see what a crock you are and what a real fraud you are.

Whackers in disguise.

This week we will cover a very controversial, yet growing problem in the volunteer emergency services sector. There apears to be a growing number of whackers, wannabes, & impersonators joining legitimate fire & EMS departments to justify their POV Emergency lighting. Most worrisome are those members who both drive police style vehicles and add police equipment in an atempt to make them apear to be inservice law enforcement vehicles. Some examples of the equipment added to these vehicles are:

• Push bumpers
• Spot lights
• Multiple antennas
• Black-out tint
• Thin Blue Line stickers or plates
• Police Interceptor badges
• Emergency lights with clear lenses
• Laptops

Unless the member is also a law enforcement officer, why do they need such equipment? We have been watching and have noticed this is a growing trend for those who own police style vehicles and have run out of options for impersonation. They will join a volunteer fire or EMS department for the sole purpose of gaining a light permit to legaly allow them to posess emergency lights. These members then either contribute nothing to the department or do only the bare minimum required. The actions of these members taints the public image of volunteer agencies as a whole. When the public sees these vehicles driving around they either believe they are police vehicles, and so atribute any bad acts to police officers in general, or realize that they are POVs and lose respect for the profesionalism of volunteer services. In many areas the use of emergency lighting by legitimate responders is already viewed negatively, and so having whackers, wannabes, & impersonators riding the coat tails of the volunteer community does nothing to help this image.

Now some people will jump to the conclusion that because we are commenting on the abuse of emergency lights by members of volunteer fire & EMS departments that joined those agencies with ulterior motives, that we are bashing all volunteer responders who use emrgency lights. This is not true. We here at Policeposers.com have no problem with the responsible use of emergency lighting by legitimate volunteer responders. In fact many of the members of this site are active emergency personel who use emergency lights, either on department vehicles or POVs, on a daily bassis. As such we have come to rely on those lights to help keep us safe while performing our duties and do not wish to see their message diluted by inappropriate use.

The end of Donna Clark and the BCVFD?

Sorry for the delayed update, I was a little busy on the home front. This week we bring you two stories brought to us by Firegeezer.com regarding our friend Donna Clark.

Bye-Bye Donna !

Donna’s Pumper Parked At eBay

If you are keeping up with the Donna saga, both of the Firegeezer stories are well worth reading. Enjoy and be safe!

Hate Mail, The Return.

This week we finish up our hate mail bag. The below comes from a PM (Private Message) I received on a very pro-whacker web site. Believe it or not, some people and web sites think abusing lights is an “expression” protected by the USA First Amendment dealing with Free Speech. The below PM came from a user who was made about my opinion on lighting abuse which I made clear in a thread on that web site.

What do you have against amber light users? You never hear about amber light users in the news and more to the point you never hear about them period. Since the guy had a nice and sharp setup, you go and verbally rape him over it because he has something you are jealous of. The guy did nothing to you and was very professional about his setup and explained with great restraint on why he used it. REACT has been using lights long before you were probably born little man and will continue to use them no matter how much you run to your little [censored] bath house web site and crack on others behind closed doors.

I like how you added his photos to your little flikr wannabe album. Whats ironic is you crack on people being wannabes and then have a wannabe photo album picking on those who can’t respond. I bet that takes some major balls big boy. Same goes for your bath house forum with your little club of people who have nothing better to do than rag on others without giving them the chance to respond. I bet you sleep nice at night because you think your immune from the furry you pathetic excuse of an existence of picking on the defenseless. It takes real men hiding behind computer screens to pick on someone who puts their dedication out for all to see. Also takes a real man to make others get into your high security forums ran like some nazi dictator who got picked on too much in school and is unleashing his hatred now. With the effort you put into picking on others you probably have no life and get jealous of other so you pick on them and make yourself feel powerful in front of your pathetic excuse of friends you have in your little club forum. Some people are way too occupied with forcing their moral opinion on others like a religious zealot. Put your free time into something more constructive than dedicating it to picking on others 24/7. [censored] baby!

Like a lot of hate mail we get, this was obviously emotionally driven. We find that whackers and wannabes will get offended and respond with very emotional and sometimes violent logic to counter the facts and opinions stated by our members. Just mentioning Policeposers.com will anger some and get the blood boiling in others due to the whacker and wannabe mindset that they are right and we are wrong, always. Most whackers and wannabes are too far gone or not mature enough to snap out of their phase. It is and has always been our goal to educate the public on these types and to prevent them from being victims of fraud and deceit that whackers and wannabes are so good at.

Our forums are not locked down to everyone as people have spouted off in various venues. We invite anyone to come to our forums and share opinions, thoughts, ideas, or general discussion you might have. Our forums deal with more than “picking on whackers” as most think. Stop in, you might find something interesting that you like.

Over the next few weeks we will be doing some changes to the site. As these changes are made, we will announce them with the weekly updates. Thank you for making us possible!

Special Update, Legal Notice!

This week we bring you an update on a "legal notice" we have received. For starters we only figured out who they were talking about by the name of the email sender, BCVFD. With the bad grammar, spelling errors (we aren't perfect either) and general direction of the letter we figured it was sent by someone trying to sound like a lawyer. Folks, this is not what to do if you are unhappy with the content on our web site. With fake legal notices, the sender loses any credibility and border on impersonation of an attorney. If you feel something is a mistake or needs to be changed, let us know so we can talk about it civilly. If you are mad about something that hasn't changed, email us anyways as we need a good laugh. Anyways, here is the email, enjoy!

hyderbad2@frontiernet.net

RE: Legal Notice

To Whom it May Concern,

Unfortunately, you and/or your website may be facing criminal and/or civil charges here shortly due to the fact of some material that was sent to you containing alot of false accusations and pure harrassing content. We, at this time, will not disclose the material, the individual(s) involved in the article nor any other pertinent information that may be related to this article.

You will find out in due time, once our attorneys are finished reviewing the offenses and completing thier "discovery" process, what the material on your site is, hence the criminal and/or civil actions will begin.

Please be on the alert for our attorneys processing through the Courts of your State, information on those responsible of sending you the offensive material as shown in the archives of your website. Once the Courts have been contacted, you will recieve a Court Summons to provide the information of the person or persons involved of sending you the offensive information shown in the archives on your website. You will also be summoned as to why you elected to show such content of the individual and thier affiliated Department without first researching the credentials of the Department instead of taking somebody at thier word in saying the individual or Department is "fraudulent". The individual mentioned in one of the articles in the archives of your site was freed of any and all charges and was discovered to be an ACTUAL part of the Department. Now, the individual, as well as thier affiliated Department, has elected to file criminal and/or civil matters against all of those involved, including any websites that "ran" the stories about them. Please note that under law, websites ARE responsible for the content they provide, whether fraudulent or true, whether or not they have a disclaimer.

We have already summoned Network Solutions, Inc of Scottsdale< Arizona, the State in which we are from, for your registrant information and they will be, by summons of our State Court, forced to reveal your registrant information. From this point on, the civil and/or criminal actions against you and others involved will presume.

Thank you for your time,

The Department you wrote about regarding a certain individual that we had to help us become "legal".

I have been in contact with other web sites who have ran into Fred's legal tactics and this is the norm for him to trick people into hushing up about his past and the story of the BCVFD.

Flashy Lights or Storm Spotting, what ranks first to the Weather Whacker?

With the start of the weather chasing season, come the weather whackers. In the Midwest, people adorn amber lights and “Skywarn” decals all over their vehicle and head out to play weather spotter. For some, the weather spotting is a good hobby that helps out the weather service. Like volunteers of other professions, these people spend their own time helping to better the community and to keep strangers safe.

Then there are others who get into it for the thrill and flashy lights. These weather whackers as they are called are easy to spot as they will spend more money on their lights and Skywarn decals than on communication or meteorological equipment. A lot of times they will run their lights for no reason (middle of a parking lot, way off the side of the road, ect.) and stop in the middle of traffic to update the weather net without regard for their fellow motorists. These whackers will also mount most of their warning lights facing forward when warning lighting should be utilized towards the rear to warn upcoming traffic.

Unlike other fields where emergency and warning lighting are used, it is strictly optional for weather spotters. Some occupations don’t have a choice of where they stop so lights are tools that help make their job safer. Wreckers might have to move a disabled vehicle from the roadway or a construction vehicle might have to close a lane of traffic to conduct their work. Weather spotters have FULL control of where they stop at. A lot of spotters have used parking lots and side roads to stop their vehicle to give a net update. Just as anyone stopping to look at a road map or use their cell phone safely on the side of the road, a full array of amber lights does nothing for the person. If anything, the amber lighting used by some spotters might generate traffic congestion or general confusion depending on how much the spotter is obstructing traffic.

To wrap up this year’s weather whacker article, we have researched and could not find any rules from the National Weather Service or state laws regarding weather spotters/chasers using lights. In reality, some Skywarn/Spotter groups discourage people using lights on their POV’s.

Who defends a whacker?

This question has been asked of me several times. The answer is a simple one that we will explain. Whackers are defended by anyone who they befriend or con into liking them. Most time whackers can con people into thinking they are there to better the world with their lighting abuse. People on the internet can be naive and will take any unreasonable excuse a whacker gives for lighting abuse at face value and leave it at that without verification.

We have been seeing a rash of fellow lighting enthusiasts sticking up for whackers without knowing what the true reason behind the whacker’s lighting abuse. With groups of lighting enthusiasts now joining together on web sites around the world, talking negative about other lighting users, whether they are legal or illegal, is frowned upon. Some even get offended if they hear anything spoken that is negative.

Whackers have also tried to shove themselves into the group of legal emergency/warning lighting users duck behind this group when someone questions or even asks about their lighting abuse. In this instance the whacker will try their hardest to relate to the legitimate lighting users comparing similarities of lights used, specifications of the lights, anything they can think of. For this you will find whackers will gain a vast understanding of makes, models, and uses of lighting devices sometimes rivaling the knowledge of legitimate dealers. This does not include installation knowledge a lot of time as whackers will buy the lighting for the flashy affect and neglect the fact on how to install it properly.

The defense of whackers also stems from society’s push to be politically correct in everything we say and do. Due to this, web sites and opinions such what we have here are a sore subject and often ignored and pass by when the issue is brought up. Also the PC movement has made people more sensitive and when they see someone being confronted, they automatically take the side of the confronted person without a second thought. A lot of online message boards take a dark look at anyone who questions someone’s lighting intentions but on the flip side people who commit lighting abuse are openly embraced.

Hopefully this gives insight to the defense of whackers and lighting abuse in general.

More from our mail bag

This was actually a series of PM's I received on a popular security forum. I pieced them together to make them into one unit. I also corrected some errors that were so bad that it was hard to understand where the author was going.

I was referred to your site through your posts here on the forums. To be honest your web site disgusts me. I am a proud security officer with over 10 years in the force and I find your web site offensive. Your web site does nothing but trash the professional security profession and does more damage for us than good. You do not say one thing positive about security and even claimed you worked in it for some five year. Are you ashamed of your time in security? Does it bother you so bad you have to pick on it because you got out of it and now am better than us? The fact is mr tough guy is this world wouldn’t exist without security. I read on your page where you try to make the legit hard working security officers out to be cop wannabes. This is in the eye of the be holder but is a larger problem built up by web sites like yours than it actually is. All of the officers I work with are hardworking guys and some want to be cops some day. The guys I work with are a lot better than the scum that most police departments hire now days. If it weren’t for security the cops would be all corrupt and you would be at there mercy. As you might know, security has been around longer than cops have and will probably be around longer than the cops will be. Its no surprise that cops are outnumbered by security almost 25 to 1. That is because there is more of a demand and want for us and not the jack booted thugs who stomp down doors of the innocent to steal their money because they can.

It’s funny you don’t post stories of cop corruption and only post stories of security officers screwing up. I can go and find 10 or more stories dealing with police corruption compared to a single story about a security brother messing up or being framed for something. I tried and can’t find anything about police corruption on your web site. Do you even care or you just trying to smear us? You don’t hear anything on security officers busting down doors to steal or going 100mph code3 to help a brother out because they stubbed their toe like the cops do all the time. I know, I have saw it when cops abuse their lights to gather up on some poor shmoe who was minding his own business and out him in the hospital for giving some crooked cop a dirty look. I hope some security officer who reads your web site will meet you in person and show how much of a wannabe they are.

Since a staff member had a nice response, I'll post it in response in this case.

Security personnel are a necessary part of society. They just need to understand that their function is to stand watch, act as guards, deter crime as a physical presence who will be vigilant and report violations to the authorities. For the most part, it is a boring job that takes little talent, skill or education to complete. Thus, it will never hold much professional status or prestige. Those who "know their role" are not the subject of this site.

Sorry, but it is what it is. There are exceptions, such as those who guard high profile things like nuclear power plants, military installations and international mercenary-type activities among others. But that is the minority of the industry. These people have passed more stringent background investigations, pre-employment testing and ongoing training than the guy locking up a school after hours, or the man in a golf cart chasing off skaters from a shopping center.

Security personnel are not vested with any investigatory or arrest powers beyond what you and I have as private citizens or as the delegates of the property owners they serve. For that reason, they should not be portraying themselves as special operations teams, governmental agents, police officers, or anyone else vested by law in making arrests, serving warrants, issuing citations and other functions publicly reserved for LE. This includes displaying near-facsimile badges, patches, other uniform items, vehicle markings and warning devices that would lend the public to think they are a branch of actual law enforcement.

The topics we deal with here involve individuals whose interest in the industry stems from it's quazi-official nature and authority. For them it's as close to being a real cop as they'll get, or it offers much more freedom than actual LE employment. The latter are the ones who own more lights, weapons, armor and communications devices than necessary, often more than any police agency would ever issue or authorize. Their exploits make for our material on this site.