Protect And Serve Vs. Duck And Cover

Generally speaking, I'm a law-and-order kind of guy. Law enforcement officers fill a necessary role in society, maintaining law and order (theoretically, at least). It's a thankless job. But at times it seems as if they go out of their way to make it harder on themselves than it needs to be. Case in point: while searching for that whacko who is targeting cops, LEOs are turning Southern California into a free-fire zone.

David Perdue was on his way to sneak in some surfing before work Thursday morning when police flagged him down. They asked who he was and where he was headed, then sent him on his way.

Seconds later, Perdue's attorney said, a Torrance police cruiser slammed into his pickup and officers opened fire; none of the bullets struck Perdue.

His pickup, police later explained, matched the description of the one belonging to Christopher Jordan Dorner — the ex-cop who has evaded authorities after allegedly killing three and wounding two more. But the pickups were different makes and colors. And Perdue looks nothing like Dorner: He's several inches shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter. And Perdue is white; Dorner is black...

A department spokesman said Saturday that the shooting is still under investigation. In a statement to The Times, the department said: "The circumstances of the incident known to the responding officers would have led a reasonable officer under normal circumstances — and these were far from normal circumstances — to believe that fellow officers were being shot at and that the vehicle traveling toward them posed a serious risk.

Let's review.

The truck was the wrong color.

The driver was the wrong color.

The truck and driver had, seconds earlier, been cleared by fellow officers.

And still a barrage of fire was unleashed upon the wrong-colored truck and the wrong-colored driver.

Thank goodness the cops out there are such poor shots.

Although the driver was injured in the resulting crash, at least he wasn't shot - unlike a pair of women whose only crime was delivering newspapers.

The incident involving Perdue was the second time police looking for the fugitive former LAPD officer opened fire on someone else...

In the first incident, LAPD officers opened fire on another pickup they feared was being driven by Dorner. The mother and daughter inside the truck were delivering Los Angeles Times newspapers. The older woman was shot twice in the back and the other was wounded by broken glass.

Two women instead of one man. Shot in the back...

They need to work on that "Protect and Serve" thing.