Robert Bates – A License To Purge 

Hi! Santiago here.

Has anyone seen the movie The Purge?

Wikipedia describes it as;

The Purge is a 2013 American social science fiction action horror film written and directed by James DeMonaco. It stars Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane and Max Burkholder.

The “New Founding Fathers of America”, which took over following an economic collapse and instituted totalitarian rule, has established one night a year -called “the Purge”- in which all crime is legal and all police, fire and medical emergency services are shut down for 12 hours, from 7 pm till 7 am. The purge has resulted in crime and unemployment rates plummeting to 1% and a strong economy. Although it is thought to be used as an act of catharsis for the U.S. populace, in reality, it is used as a method of artificial population control, as the people living in poor areas are usually the main targets.

Today’s events, and particularly what Tulsa, OK pay-to-play Bates did, caused me to think of The Purge.  Words can not express my disgust when looking at the events that led to this tragedy.  Sure, Eric Harris was illegally selling firearms to undercover wanna be cop Robert Bates, but the question remains as to how and why a 73-year old business man would be allowed to participate in undercover sting operations such as this.

Video footage left the public baffled as to how anybody could mistake a handgun for a taser. Yes again, another case involving guns and tasers and another case in which an officer killed an unarmed black man.

The answer to those questions would be clearly provided as it was recently discovered that Robert Bates had his firearms training and certification falsified. Meaning, Bates never took the required courses necessary to be able to understand proper use and safety methods in both a firearm and a taser.

As expected, the Tulsa Sheriff department spent the last week doing media interviews, stating that Bates took all of the required courses needed to participate with their local Sheriff’s department.

However I still maintain that Bates had no business being there at all. The Sheriff’s department feels that Bates had every right to be. Why is that? Well, lets examine what we know.  Bates has donated to the department over the years.

Being an outside spectator I have to question was the tax write off for those donations not good enough? Apparently not.  It’s my belief that Bates was paying the department through these donations so that he could in return receive a Sheriff approved hunting license.

We are talking about a man whose primary job is sitting on his behind filling out insurance claim forms, filling out insurance applications, selling policies, medicare supplements, and both long term and short term care insurance.

My question is how does a 73 year old man who worked briefly as a police officer back in the mid 1960’s come close to passing any certified courses to participate as a Sheriff’s reserve deputy? It’s  my understanding that not only are there requirements for use of firearms and tasers, but there are also physical fitness and health requirements.

Those are requirements I highly doubt Bates would have passed, and yet as we watch the video of the shooting where we hear Bates (while Eric is already subdued) yell out “Taser.” Then we hear the gun shot followed by the screams of Eric Harris.

My questions in light of the chain of events in that setting are as followed.

• How is it possible to mistake a hand gun for a taser if Bates was properly trained?
• Why would Bates  consider using a taser while Eric was completely subdued?
• Why would Bates consider drawing any type of weapon under those circumstances considering he would then be endangering his fellow officers.
• Was Bates sworn in by the Tulsa County Sheriff Department?
• Does the Police Union represent Bates?

Now we find out that Bates was never really trained.

Bates was given a license to kill for a fee, weather Tulsa admits to it or not. Why would any police department allow a 73 year old man participate in a situation like that? I can’t  think of any 73 year old Police officer patrolling the streets other than the Citizen’s programs and even then, they are unarmed.

Not to knock on the elderly at all– this is a public safety concern here.  A 73 year old man is not going to have the same timing & reflexes he once had as a young man. which is vital to being in law enforcement especially when conducting sting operations that involve guns and drugs.

A 73 year old man is not going to be as physically fit as needed to apprehend the type of suspects we have on the streets. Bates is a man who is nearly 10 years past retirement age, a man who clearly does not possess the needed attributes to be an active policeman.

At 73 you can bet Bates would be easily over powered by a suspect should that type of encounter surfaced. Bates and the Tulsa Sheriff Department likely have considered this as well, but for a small fee, things can always be over looked can’t they?

Considering what we know so far its obvious that Bates lacks experience, training and basic common sense. Sooner or later this was going to happen. You have a man who is well past his prime, very little training under his belt if any. The only option for him would be to use his gun.

Tulsa County Sheriff Department should also be held accountable here. They knew the risk but choose to accept gifts and look the other way. To the Sheriff Department that allowed this tragedy to take place, by now I am guessing they will soon enough realize that you get exactly what you pay for.