Sunday, October 25, 2009

Will cops ever live down the donut meme?


I'm sure readers are aware of memes that take on a life of their own, becoming folklore and accepted truth even when they're not. Such a meme is the story that cops like donuts, and can usually be found in or near a donut store.

The New York Post reported today:

The NYPD's entire fleet of Highway Patrol officers was pulled from their posts and rushed to a Bronx firing range yesterday because of a malfunction discovered with their shotguns, sources said.

The snafu was discovered during a training session at the Rodman's Neck range when NYPD weapon experts found "intermittent" problems with the firing pin that prevented the gun from discharging.

All 75 Mossberg 590A1 shotguns had to be turned in for the older Ithaca 37s.

Officers then had to be recertified to use those guns before they could return to their posts.

Precinct squad cars were sent in shifts to make up for their absence, though the NYPD insisted there was no lapse in patrols.


(Thanks to George M. for e-mailing the link to the story.)

It didn't take very long for a reader to comment:

"They found jelly donut pieces in all the actions."



Ouch! One can't help but laugh, though . . .



Peter

5 comments:

LabRat said...

Given that Albuquerque PD really, truly, absolutely not an urban legend, sent a police helicopter on a donut run...

I'm thinking "never".

Anonymous said...

True story:

Some years ago my daughter was in a serious auto accident while driving home. Fortunately, she was fine, but very shaken as:

a) She'd only had her license a few months at that point and
b) Her car, an old Saab given to her by a friend was totaled.

The accident occurred in front of a local 7-11. As it happens, there were two Fairfax County, Virginia, patrol cars, each with two officers in the parking lot of the 7-11. They witnessed the accident and were able to vouch for the fact that my daughter was not at fault.

It was all i could do to not run inside and buy them all a case of Twinkies.....

Jim March said...

People who know a lot more about shotguns than I do are blaming this on the abnormal, heavy-as-hell trigger springs and apparently a weird DOUBLE ACTION trigger conversion the department ordered.

Allegedly, the department was trying to make the shotty triggers work like their Glock DAO triggers, complete with the massive "New York Plus" trigger springs retrofit they ordered from Glock.

This seems at least possible to me. It's a fact the department ordered heavier springs in their Glocks, but Glocks are designed with adjustable trigger pulls. Mossberg shotties ain't. If those morons tried to do with the shotties what they did with their Glocks...oh crap.

Anonymous said...

How could that even be attempted, Jim? The 590A1 is a pump-action!!

Antibubba

Jim March said...

It's not a TRUE double action trigger of course...they simply faked it. Yeah, that was my reaction. What?!?

Google the term "590DA". I'm not kidding. There's references on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossberg_500

...and more in this forum post:

http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=2804

---
The 590DA fires with a long, deliberate stroke of the trigger for each shot. This new, innovative design provides a faster, easier transition from service sidearm to shotgun, as it requires no substantial change to the widely accepted DAO firing procedures of today's most advanced service revolvers and DAO pistols.
---

Very little is known outside of law enforcement circles, since nobody else would be stupid enough...