Originally published at: Cop's sniper rifle dropped off four story building onto sidewalk during St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York | Boing Boing
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It’s raining guns in New York City…
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are these supposed to be the good guys?
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It’s unlikely to achieve zero again though… It probably needed to be replaced.
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Yes, the same Buffalo PD that cracked a peaceful hippie’s head open a few years ago at a BLM protest and the cops got more upset it was caught on camera than the negligence of the cop who pushed him.
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Fixed that for Captain Rinaldo.
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“These weapons are not something like a handgun or something where you could just pick it up and the average person would know how to utilize it…”
Nobody could figure out “pull the trigger”.
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No one got maimed or killed by the falling rifle, so this particular event doesn’t get a Well Regulated™ seal of approval, but it does get an honorable mention.
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I don’t think that the marksman mic drop is quite the same triumphant gesture as the performing arts analog is.
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“These weapons are not something like a handgun or something where you could just pick it up and the average person would know how to utilize it…”
Ah… ok, so no big deal then?
And are there incidents where snipers have thwarted anything preemptively which would justify this macho fantasy as a necessary tactic?
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Dang, I remember the police throwing out only candy at parades as a kid. People today have it so much better!
“These weapons are not something like a handgun or something where you could just pick it up and the average person would know how to utilize it,” said Jeff Rinaldo, retired Buffalo Police captain.
LOL - what?
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If that was meant to be reassuring, it was most certainly not.
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Not so fast, there. They would first have to figure out the super-secret “bolt action” mechanism, taught only to Special Forces and police snipers.
My quick glance at the constitution makes it clear to me that when the Founders (praise be upon them) said the “right to keep and bear arms”, they also intended that to include the right to drop them.
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Huh? Even the lightest sniper rifle would only get blown off a roof at wind speeds that would blow the cop off the roof first.
There is so much wrong with their explanation of how this went down.
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Comforting to know that the police are always looking out for us… through their sniper scopes. 
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This is the same rifle that was apparently supposed to being wielded by a sniper in an “overwatch position” during a mass gathering? This is the one that’s being declared as not “pos[ing] any immediate risk to the public?” Was the cop just hanging out with the rifle having lunch or something, because I can’t help but feel if he’s on the roof with a rifle in any other way, he (and the above mentioned rifle) are the immediate risk to the public.
So “point towards thing you wish to make dead and pull trigger” isn’t the basic idea with this rifle? I mean, sure you may have to disengage the safety or something, but this isn’t exactly obscure information known only to a chosen few.
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One photo in the news piece clearly shows the rifle and tripod on the roof, at the edge, UNATTENDED.
The sniper is ten or fifteen feet away doing who knows what: taking a call, a break, a leak?
Leaving the weapon sitting there at the edge of the parapet is unsafe and was a threat to the public, regardless of the statements that there was no danger.
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It is the original “Point & Click” interface. Slightly refined with a probable hair-trigger. The length makes it a bit unwieldy but that never stopped someone from from doing much damage with a rifle.
The copologist quote squeaks of utter disdain and separation of reality regarding what non-cops can do. It’s amazing that non-cops can simultaneously be unable to operate a rifle and be highly dangerous, even deadly to police while handcuffed, pinned face down and medically unresponsive.
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It still would take class V hurricane winds to push a metal tube off a building. Let’s face it, somebody probably bumped it while reaching for their corned beef sandwich or green beer.
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