Humph!

I was again surfing over at the Geek's, and I see that Eddie Compass has resigned.

Good.

Resigning sure beats being fired.

"I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it's time to hand over the reins," Compass said at a news conference. "I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me."

Yeah, right.

With 26 years under his belt, he knows a couple of things if he hasn't been sleeping through the annual training that all Louisiana police officers have to go through every year. First, if it ain't against the law, it ain't none of your business. Yeah, you can help people, but you better not be doing any enforcement action unless a law has been violated, and you damn sure better know what that law is, when you take the action. Taking something from a citizen without permission is called robbery. That is a felony. Taking something from a business without permission is called theft. There are levels of theft, but any of them will get you fired.

Have I ever, in my twenty-five years of police work, confiscated a firearm? You betcha I have. More than a few of them. I've taken them from criminals and convicted felons. I charged them under the law and I took the firearm into evidence.

The officers that took firearms are guilty of one of a number of crimes (burglary, robbery, or theft) and could be prosecuted for those crimes. The officers who took other things could be charged under the same statutes.

Eddie Compass is already being sued. He is lucky he isn't being charged.