When I saw the video that is the subject of this post, I thought it was a fake. It seemed impossible to me that anyone could remain so calm while a criminal is shooting at him during a high-speed chase. But that’s exactly what the video shows: An Oklahoma State trooper chasing a criminal at high speeds, with the criminal shooting at the trooper, who calmly reports it all to headquarters on the radio.

The car chase began on Saturday, April 2, when police in Sedona, Arizona, contacted the Oklahoma High Patrol (“OHP”) to be on the lookout for a car that Charles Carswell, an armed robbery suspect, was driving. When OHP troopers located Carswell, they attempted to stop him, but he fled. The troopers followed and Carswell began firing at them. Eventually, after several unsuccessful attempts to perform a “tactical vehicle intervention” (“TVI”), the troopers were able to stop Carswell.

At that point, Carswell grabbed a rifle and began firing at the officers in dead earnest. Eventually, the troopers were able to end the gun battle by killing Carswell.

The OHP posted the video on Facebook, along with a little explanation. I can’t embed the post, but here’s the explanation:

This is dash cam and body cam from the pursuit that ended on the Turner Turnpike on April 2. The suspect, Charles Carswell, led Trooper Brack Miller #950 on a pursuit and shot through his back windshield at Trooper Miller several times during the pursuit. Trooper Miller was able to successfully bring the pursuit to an end with a tactical vehicle intervention. Trooper Miller only suffered minor injuries.

This portion of the event depicts initial shots fired at troopers. There was return fire by troopers. As with any use of force, that portion is still under investigation.

And now, after all that explanation, here’s the video. What makes it so impressive is how completely calm Trooper Brack Miller is. As he relays information to headquarters, his voice is relaxed. He never gets louder or faster. The most he says when a shot comes near him is “Whoo! That was ugly.” This is obviously a man you want around in an emergency:

I’ve written a post about this video because it comes after leftists have spent years demonizing American law enforcement. Conservatives also haven’t been so thrilled when it comes to the FBI, which seems to be at war with ordinary Americans (especially the January 6 martyrs).

Still—and this is the important point—most of the roughly 700,000 full-time law enforcement officers in the United States are men and women who do the things most of us won’t do: Among other things, they break up fights, deal with drug and alcohol overdoses, help the sick and injured, pull people off train tracks, and engage in high-speed car chases with men more than willing to kill them.

Law enforcement officers are a barrier between civilization and chaos. They need to be held to account when they abuse their positions but, mostly, we should be grateful that they are willing to step up and do the job, especially when they do it with the grace Trooper Miller showed.

Source: American Thinker