News at Eleven

Here in Houston there was a police chase which lasted almost an hour, crossed several freeways and ended in the suspect being shot dead, apparently after reaching for one of several weapons in the vehicle. Any confrontation which leads to a police officer shooting is tragic and results in considerable scrutiny from both the internal mechanisms of the Department and the news media.

The shooting death of a man who, from all accounts, might have been some kind of Federal agent makes yesterday’s twisted turn of events the stuff which Hollywood makes movies out of. There is nothing to confirm Roland Vincent Carnaby was actually working as an operative, “The CIA told KHOU that Carnaby was not an employee of the intelligence agency.”

I watch lots of movies and the CIA never admits that one of their folks is actually employed; they were fired for this that or the other, may have acted in a temporary capacity or some other form of plausible deniability which would sever any official link to a member caught in an unfortunate situation. What’s that line used in every Mission Impossible, “…in the event of capture the agency will disavow your employ; this tape will self destruct in five seconds.”

If you see smoke coming out of your computer in the next second or so I would seriously consider a quick exit, never mind turning off the lights as they are wired to six pounds of C4. Heck, just sit there and enjoy the last ride; you never had a chance the moment you sat down and activated the switch located in the seat cushion.

My remarks may appear callous and somewhat irreverent; call it twenty years of working the street as a cop if you like; but I guarantee I’m not the only one scratching my head wondering why an alleged agent of the federal government wouldn’t have simply shown the officer his identification upon being stopped in the first place or, if the situation required, sat quietly and let the cop write him a ticket, taken him to jail if need be to lend credence to his under cover character.

There was a line near the end of the Houston Chronicle article which sums up my thoughts, “I can't fathom any reason why he would be running from the police because he is the police,” There has to be a lot more to this than came out in the initial investigation; news at eleven.