Friday, August 26, 2016
COCKS NOT GLOCKS
University of Texas students stage massive protest against guns on campus by waving dildos
On the first day of classes, University of Texas-Austin students staged a mass protest by waving dildos and by strapping the plastic dicks onto their backpacks. They were protesting a new state law that went into effect August 1 which requires public colleges and universities to allow concealed handgun license-holders to bring their weapons into public university buildings, classrooms, and dorms.
The protest was dubbed ‘Cocks Not Glocks.’
The new law has scared the supreme shit out of many UT professors, with one dean even resigning from the university. The student protesters were no doubt encouraged to act by the scared shitless faculty.
Jessica Jim, a recent UT graduate and protest organizer, said: “We are strapping gigantic swinging dildos to our backpacks. Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play.”
The plastic dicks were used to illustrate that sex toys are prohibited on campus, but guns are not.
Ana López, who helped organize the protest, said that dildo suppliers donated more than 4,000 of the plastic dicks to the group.
It comes as no surprise that this sort of left-wing nonsense occurred at the ‘Berkeley’ of Texas which is located in Austin, the state’s ‘San Francisco.’
Now, for you professors who believe that you are going to get shot for passing out a low grade, what makes you think that a student who is not carrying a gun won’t go home, get his Glock, and return to blow your idiot ass away.
And to you moms and dads, please note that Ms. Jim labels sexual intercourse as recreational play. Is your darling freshman daughter playing?
On the first day of classes, University of Texas-Austin students staged a mass protest by waving dildos and by strapping the plastic dicks onto their backpacks. They were protesting a new state law that went into effect August 1 which requires public colleges and universities to allow concealed handgun license-holders to bring their weapons into public university buildings, classrooms, and dorms.
The protest was dubbed ‘Cocks Not Glocks.’
The new law has scared the supreme shit out of many UT professors, with one dean even resigning from the university. The student protesters were no doubt encouraged to act by the scared shitless faculty.
Jessica Jim, a recent UT graduate and protest organizer, said: “We are strapping gigantic swinging dildos to our backpacks. Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play.”
The plastic dicks were used to illustrate that sex toys are prohibited on campus, but guns are not.
Ana López, who helped organize the protest, said that dildo suppliers donated more than 4,000 of the plastic dicks to the group.
It comes as no surprise that this sort of left-wing nonsense occurred at the ‘Berkeley’ of Texas which is located in Austin, the state’s ‘San Francisco.’
Now, for you professors who believe that you are going to get shot for passing out a low grade, what makes you think that a student who is not carrying a gun won’t go home, get his Glock, and return to blow your idiot ass away.
And to you moms and dads, please note that Ms. Jim labels sexual intercourse as recreational play. Is your darling freshman daughter playing?
SOME OF THE LATEST COURSES FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS TO CHOOSE
What kind of employment skills are provided to students taking these courses?
I have often harped about how once admired America’s colleges and Universities have become the laughing stock of the world by offering such worthless courses as Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc.
Now some of our institutions of higher education are offering some new courses for students to choose that, if and when they get employed following graduation, will make it even more difficult to pay off their student loans than students who graduate from MIT or Carnegie Mellon University.
From “College Campus Lunacy” by Walter Williams:
Adding to campus lunacy are classes such as "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame" at the University of South Carolina.
Cornell University's physical education department offers a class titled "Recreational Tree Climbing."
At Georgia State University, the English department offers a course called "Kayne vs. Everybody."
At Tufts University's Experimental College, one can take a class called "Demystifying the Hipster."
Skidmore College's sociology department offers "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media."
Frostburg State University's physics department offers "The Science of Harry Potter," where it examines some of the tale's magic.
Georgetown University offers "Philosophy and Star Trek," arguing that "Star Trek is very philosophical" and adding, "What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class?"
Miley Cyrus? Does that include instructions in how to maintain your fame and wealth while smoking dope and fucking women as well as men … by the shitload?
The Science of Harry Potter? Ah now, here is a course with some science in it … unfortunately it’s fictional science, not factual science.
I wonder how soon some of our colleges and universities will offer a really important degree in Pokemon Go Studies? At least that degree might help graduates to find where they’re going and doing it without bumping into each other.
I’m sure that the administrators and professors of colleges offering such nonsensical degrees and courses will swear that they are vital for students to succeed in today’s diverse and multi-cultural society.
I suppose it is important for folks of all racial, religious and ethnic groups to get along with each other so they can hold hands while singing Kumbaya. Oops, wait a minute … Jews are an exception. Today Jewish students are treated like Nazis on many campuses because they are identified with the state of Israel which has become the object of left-wing hatred.
We should hang our heads in shame when we compare our institutions of higher education with those in China, Japan and Europe.
Let me conclude by asking a few questions.
Leroy, what kind of job did you get with your degree in African-American Studies?
Butch, what kind of a job did you get with your degree in LGBT Studies?
Mom and Dad, is your kid enrolled in the Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus course, or one of these other idiotic courses now that you’ve blown a wad of your hard earned dollars for his or her college education?
I have often harped about how once admired America’s colleges and Universities have become the laughing stock of the world by offering such worthless courses as Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc.
Now some of our institutions of higher education are offering some new courses for students to choose that, if and when they get employed following graduation, will make it even more difficult to pay off their student loans than students who graduate from MIT or Carnegie Mellon University.
From “College Campus Lunacy” by Walter Williams:
Adding to campus lunacy are classes such as "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame" at the University of South Carolina.
Cornell University's physical education department offers a class titled "Recreational Tree Climbing."
At Georgia State University, the English department offers a course called "Kayne vs. Everybody."
At Tufts University's Experimental College, one can take a class called "Demystifying the Hipster."
Skidmore College's sociology department offers "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media."
Frostburg State University's physics department offers "The Science of Harry Potter," where it examines some of the tale's magic.
Georgetown University offers "Philosophy and Star Trek," arguing that "Star Trek is very philosophical" and adding, "What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class?"
Miley Cyrus? Does that include instructions in how to maintain your fame and wealth while smoking dope and fucking women as well as men … by the shitload?
The Science of Harry Potter? Ah now, here is a course with some science in it … unfortunately it’s fictional science, not factual science.
I wonder how soon some of our colleges and universities will offer a really important degree in Pokemon Go Studies? At least that degree might help graduates to find where they’re going and doing it without bumping into each other.
I’m sure that the administrators and professors of colleges offering such nonsensical degrees and courses will swear that they are vital for students to succeed in today’s diverse and multi-cultural society.
I suppose it is important for folks of all racial, religious and ethnic groups to get along with each other so they can hold hands while singing Kumbaya. Oops, wait a minute … Jews are an exception. Today Jewish students are treated like Nazis on many campuses because they are identified with the state of Israel which has become the object of left-wing hatred.
We should hang our heads in shame when we compare our institutions of higher education with those in China, Japan and Europe.
Let me conclude by asking a few questions.
Leroy, what kind of job did you get with your degree in African-American Studies?
Butch, what kind of a job did you get with your degree in LGBT Studies?
Mom and Dad, is your kid enrolled in the Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus course, or one of these other idiotic courses now that you’ve blown a wad of your hard earned dollars for his or her college education?
NAZI GOLD TRAIN DERAILED
By bob Walsh
The tale of the legendary, and now apparently mythical, Nazi Gold Train seems to have been derailed.
The local government spent a good deal of time and money digging with heavy equipment into a mountainside near Walbrzych, Poland over the last week. They found no train, no tunnel, and no signs that there had ever been any such.
It cost them about $37,000 to do the excavating. They are now filling the hole back in.
The tale of the legendary, and now apparently mythical, Nazi Gold Train seems to have been derailed.
The local government spent a good deal of time and money digging with heavy equipment into a mountainside near Walbrzych, Poland over the last week. They found no train, no tunnel, and no signs that there had ever been any such.
It cost them about $37,000 to do the excavating. They are now filling the hole back in.
COP ARRESTED IN GANG SWEEP
By Bob Walsh
An officer with the San Jose PD was arrested on Tuesday as part of a gang sweep conducted against local Vietnamese criminal gangs.
Officer Derrick Antonio is accused of funneling sensitive information to the gangs and was jailed on five felony charges.
The local cops served 33 search warrants that included houses and Vietnamese restaurants. The gangs are believed to have been dealing in bookmaking, drugs, gambling and extortion.
An officer with the San Jose PD was arrested on Tuesday as part of a gang sweep conducted against local Vietnamese criminal gangs.
Officer Derrick Antonio is accused of funneling sensitive information to the gangs and was jailed on five felony charges.
The local cops served 33 search warrants that included houses and Vietnamese restaurants. The gangs are believed to have been dealing in bookmaking, drugs, gambling and extortion.
ILLEGAL DRUS ARE FLOWING INTO CALIFORNIA’S MOST GUARDED PRISONS … AND KILLING DEATH ROW INMATES
By Paige St. John
Los Angeles Times
August 24, 2016
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- Condemned murderer Michael Jones was acting strangely and profusely sweating when guards escorted him in chains to the San Quentin medical unit that doubles as the psych ward on death row.
“Doggone, I don’t think you’re ever going to see me again,” he told a fellow inmate, Clifton Perry.
Hours later, Jones was dead.
Toxicology tests later found that he had toxic levels of methamphetamines in his blood.
The condemned inmates on California's death row are among the most closely monitored in the state. Death row’s 747 inmates spend most of their time locked down, isolated from the rest of the prison system under heavy guard with regular strip searches and checks every half-hour for signs of life.
Still, six death row inmates died between 2010 and 2015 with detectable levels of methamphetamines, heroin metabolites or other drugs in their system, according to Marin County coroner records.
Three of them had toxic levels of drugs, including one in whose intestines were found five snipped fingers of a latex glove, each packed with methamphetamine or marijuana. He had overdosed when they burst. A 70-year-old man among the three died of acute methamphetamine toxicity. He left a stash of marijuana in his cell.
State psychological reports and court files document at least eight non-fatal drug overdoses that required death row inmates to be hospitalized during this period.
Jones' death was reported as a suicide. In the psych ward, he attempted to strangle himself with an electrical cord. He was cut free by officers but died 10 minutes later. The coroner's report showed that Jones bore signs of chronic drug abuse.
State corrections officials declined to discuss the case or provide data on drugs found on death row — at first citing that investigation and then citing a wrongful death claim filed by Jones’ family. The department provided a statement saying the prison has thwarted past attempts by visitors to bring drugs into San Quentin.
“Drugs have considerable value inside prison and so some inmates have a very strong incentive to procure them," the statement said. "Regardless of the security level of the inmate, the presence of any contraband items is concerning to us.”
The overdoses on death row mirror the larger problem with drugs in California’s prison system as a whole. From 2010 to 2015, 109 inmates died of overdoses, according to state figures.
California's prison drug trade is notoriously robust. The drug-related death rate in California prisons — 18 deaths per 100,000 inmates in 2013 — is seven times higher than prisons in the rest of the country, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and the state prison medical office.
Reports to the Legislature show that as many as 80% of inmates in some cell blocks tested positive for illegal substances in 2013. The same year, the state's prison watchdog, the independent Office of Inspector General, chastised corrections officials for making "very little or no effort" to trace the source of drugs when inmates overdose.
A San Quentin administrator in 2013 told a federal judge that a surge in psychiatric hospitalizations involving psychotic, homicidal and suicidal condemned prisoners was not proof of untreated mental illness but “a bad batch of meth.”
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton was visibly taken aback.
“When you say ‘a bad batch of drugs,’ you don't mean the drugs that you're prescribing, you mean the illegal drugs that were on (the) block; is that right?” he asked.
“That's right, your Honor,” said San Quentin Mental Health Director Eric Monthei.
Nevertheless, state corrections records show that in 2013 not a single visitor, volunteer or worker was caught trying smuggle drugs into San Quentin. Officials have not released information about drug cases beyond that one year.
A spokesman for the Marin County district attorney also said he could not recall any drug smuggling cases against San Quentin staff.
Prison drug-control efforts have focused on 11 prisons deemed to have the worst problems out of the 34 facilities in the system. The program employs drug-sniffing dogs and ion scanners to test swabs rubbed randomly on the hands of visitors and some staff. There are no such efforts on death row.
Death row inmates are strip searched regularly, including before and after leaving their cells to exercise, go to the law library or see visitors. Their cells are subject to random inspection and the state can order urine tests, though widespread drug testing efforts in 2013 were abandoned because few condemned inmates would comply.
By law, all condemned men are imprisoned at San Quentin, and by policy they are isolated from the rest of the population. The majority live on East Block, a long, granite structure that contains more than 500 cells stacked in tiers five high. The prisoners live in single cells and spend almost all of their time alone. Every half-hour, a guard walks by to check that the man inside is alive — a court-ordered protection against suicide. The doors are grated, so it is difficult to slip a sheet of paper through them.
Small groups of men are allowed to go out on tennis court-sized exercise yards under the watch of an armed guard standing overhead for a few hours, three days a week.
Except for chapel services twice a month, there are no other group activities. Condemned men are escorted individually, in chains, to prison hospital appointments or a special law library set aside for them.
Visits are tightly monitored. Visitors are allowed to bring in only handfuls of coins for the prisoners to use in vending machines. Before and after such contact, even with lawyers, the condemned are subject to strip searches.
Still, when discussing prison drug problems in the system overall, state officials primarily cite cases of visitors trying to smuggle in drugs. In one case, officials described how drugs were packed into soccer balls and thrown over the fence of minimum-security prisons.
But that explanation has met with skepticism from some lawmakers. "There can be only so many soccer balls," said Senate Public Safety Chairwoman Loni Hancock, (D-Berkeley), at a hearing last year.
Because of the high security on death row, some who have worked at San Quentin suspect that the drug trade is abetted by prison staff.
During his tenure as a death row psychologist, Patrick O’Reilly said in an interview that he discovered a psychiatric technician bartering alcohol and amphetamines for inmates’ prison-prescribed opiates.
Similarly, the inspector general's office reported that a death row officer in 2011 was accused of buying morphine from condemned inmates. The report states she paid with ramen noodles and candy.
Outside of death row, the trade takes place on an enormous scale. This spring, federal agents busted a Southern California prison narcotics ring in which a state drug counselor allegedly smuggled $1 million of meth and heroin sealed in potato chip bags to inmates in her treatment group.
The state prison guard union has long raised objections to vigorous screening of guards as they arrive and leave work, noting that the state would have to pay large amounts for the extra time that would add to each shift.
The union "supports the department's efforts to keep drugs out of prison," said spokeswoman Nichol Gomez. "Anyone who brings contraband inside prisons should be held accountable. ... The majority of correctional officers take their oath seriously. "
All of the men on San Quentin’s death row are there for murder. Many arrived on death row with long histories of drug addiction.
Most killed their victims during robberies or gang fights, but the population also includes psychopaths and serial killers. Until a psychiatric unit for the condemned was opened in 2014, severely mentally ill and psychotic inmates were housed with the rest of the condemned.
Former San Quentin Warden Jeannie Woodford, state prison director under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said extreme idleness and the cramped, ill-suited confines of death row complicate drug abuse.
“Idleness is such a problem and it leads people to self-medicate,” Woodford said.
Although guards are supposed to randomly search cells each shift as a curb against drugs, weapons and other contraband, one former San Quentin corrections officer said staffing issues have made it impossible for guards to do all the required checks.
Moreover, the amount of property that condemned inmates accumulate over decades of confinement clutters many cells.
"What is said and what is done are two different things," said Tony Cuellar, a former San Quentin officer.
In that environment, Cuellar said, officers "picked and chose" when to try to confront a condemned drug user.
Los Angeles Times
August 24, 2016
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- Condemned murderer Michael Jones was acting strangely and profusely sweating when guards escorted him in chains to the San Quentin medical unit that doubles as the psych ward on death row.
“Doggone, I don’t think you’re ever going to see me again,” he told a fellow inmate, Clifton Perry.
Hours later, Jones was dead.
Toxicology tests later found that he had toxic levels of methamphetamines in his blood.
The condemned inmates on California's death row are among the most closely monitored in the state. Death row’s 747 inmates spend most of their time locked down, isolated from the rest of the prison system under heavy guard with regular strip searches and checks every half-hour for signs of life.
Still, six death row inmates died between 2010 and 2015 with detectable levels of methamphetamines, heroin metabolites or other drugs in their system, according to Marin County coroner records.
Three of them had toxic levels of drugs, including one in whose intestines were found five snipped fingers of a latex glove, each packed with methamphetamine or marijuana. He had overdosed when they burst. A 70-year-old man among the three died of acute methamphetamine toxicity. He left a stash of marijuana in his cell.
State psychological reports and court files document at least eight non-fatal drug overdoses that required death row inmates to be hospitalized during this period.
Jones' death was reported as a suicide. In the psych ward, he attempted to strangle himself with an electrical cord. He was cut free by officers but died 10 minutes later. The coroner's report showed that Jones bore signs of chronic drug abuse.
State corrections officials declined to discuss the case or provide data on drugs found on death row — at first citing that investigation and then citing a wrongful death claim filed by Jones’ family. The department provided a statement saying the prison has thwarted past attempts by visitors to bring drugs into San Quentin.
“Drugs have considerable value inside prison and so some inmates have a very strong incentive to procure them," the statement said. "Regardless of the security level of the inmate, the presence of any contraband items is concerning to us.”
The overdoses on death row mirror the larger problem with drugs in California’s prison system as a whole. From 2010 to 2015, 109 inmates died of overdoses, according to state figures.
California's prison drug trade is notoriously robust. The drug-related death rate in California prisons — 18 deaths per 100,000 inmates in 2013 — is seven times higher than prisons in the rest of the country, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and the state prison medical office.
Reports to the Legislature show that as many as 80% of inmates in some cell blocks tested positive for illegal substances in 2013. The same year, the state's prison watchdog, the independent Office of Inspector General, chastised corrections officials for making "very little or no effort" to trace the source of drugs when inmates overdose.
A San Quentin administrator in 2013 told a federal judge that a surge in psychiatric hospitalizations involving psychotic, homicidal and suicidal condemned prisoners was not proof of untreated mental illness but “a bad batch of meth.”
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton was visibly taken aback.
“When you say ‘a bad batch of drugs,’ you don't mean the drugs that you're prescribing, you mean the illegal drugs that were on (the) block; is that right?” he asked.
“That's right, your Honor,” said San Quentin Mental Health Director Eric Monthei.
Nevertheless, state corrections records show that in 2013 not a single visitor, volunteer or worker was caught trying smuggle drugs into San Quentin. Officials have not released information about drug cases beyond that one year.
A spokesman for the Marin County district attorney also said he could not recall any drug smuggling cases against San Quentin staff.
Prison drug-control efforts have focused on 11 prisons deemed to have the worst problems out of the 34 facilities in the system. The program employs drug-sniffing dogs and ion scanners to test swabs rubbed randomly on the hands of visitors and some staff. There are no such efforts on death row.
Death row inmates are strip searched regularly, including before and after leaving their cells to exercise, go to the law library or see visitors. Their cells are subject to random inspection and the state can order urine tests, though widespread drug testing efforts in 2013 were abandoned because few condemned inmates would comply.
By law, all condemned men are imprisoned at San Quentin, and by policy they are isolated from the rest of the population. The majority live on East Block, a long, granite structure that contains more than 500 cells stacked in tiers five high. The prisoners live in single cells and spend almost all of their time alone. Every half-hour, a guard walks by to check that the man inside is alive — a court-ordered protection against suicide. The doors are grated, so it is difficult to slip a sheet of paper through them.
Small groups of men are allowed to go out on tennis court-sized exercise yards under the watch of an armed guard standing overhead for a few hours, three days a week.
Except for chapel services twice a month, there are no other group activities. Condemned men are escorted individually, in chains, to prison hospital appointments or a special law library set aside for them.
Visits are tightly monitored. Visitors are allowed to bring in only handfuls of coins for the prisoners to use in vending machines. Before and after such contact, even with lawyers, the condemned are subject to strip searches.
Still, when discussing prison drug problems in the system overall, state officials primarily cite cases of visitors trying to smuggle in drugs. In one case, officials described how drugs were packed into soccer balls and thrown over the fence of minimum-security prisons.
But that explanation has met with skepticism from some lawmakers. "There can be only so many soccer balls," said Senate Public Safety Chairwoman Loni Hancock, (D-Berkeley), at a hearing last year.
Because of the high security on death row, some who have worked at San Quentin suspect that the drug trade is abetted by prison staff.
During his tenure as a death row psychologist, Patrick O’Reilly said in an interview that he discovered a psychiatric technician bartering alcohol and amphetamines for inmates’ prison-prescribed opiates.
Similarly, the inspector general's office reported that a death row officer in 2011 was accused of buying morphine from condemned inmates. The report states she paid with ramen noodles and candy.
Outside of death row, the trade takes place on an enormous scale. This spring, federal agents busted a Southern California prison narcotics ring in which a state drug counselor allegedly smuggled $1 million of meth and heroin sealed in potato chip bags to inmates in her treatment group.
The state prison guard union has long raised objections to vigorous screening of guards as they arrive and leave work, noting that the state would have to pay large amounts for the extra time that would add to each shift.
The union "supports the department's efforts to keep drugs out of prison," said spokeswoman Nichol Gomez. "Anyone who brings contraband inside prisons should be held accountable. ... The majority of correctional officers take their oath seriously. "
All of the men on San Quentin’s death row are there for murder. Many arrived on death row with long histories of drug addiction.
Most killed their victims during robberies or gang fights, but the population also includes psychopaths and serial killers. Until a psychiatric unit for the condemned was opened in 2014, severely mentally ill and psychotic inmates were housed with the rest of the condemned.
Former San Quentin Warden Jeannie Woodford, state prison director under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said extreme idleness and the cramped, ill-suited confines of death row complicate drug abuse.
“Idleness is such a problem and it leads people to self-medicate,” Woodford said.
Although guards are supposed to randomly search cells each shift as a curb against drugs, weapons and other contraband, one former San Quentin corrections officer said staffing issues have made it impossible for guards to do all the required checks.
Moreover, the amount of property that condemned inmates accumulate over decades of confinement clutters many cells.
"What is said and what is done are two different things," said Tony Cuellar, a former San Quentin officer.
In that environment, Cuellar said, officers "picked and chose" when to try to confront a condemned drug user.
MOST DNA TESTING IN HOUSTON HOME AND CAR BURGLARIES PUT ON HOLD
By Jace Karson
Click 2 Houston
August 23, 2016
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Channel 2 Investigates has discovered that evidence that could help solve burglaries in the county has been collected from crime scenes but never tested because the county crime lab put a hold on touch DNA testing of property crimes last year.
“Right now, we’re focusing our efforts on the most important crimes: the sex assaults. the homicides.
We’ll get back to property crimes soon and the opportunity arises,” Roger Kahn, the crime laboratory director of the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, said.
The county doesn’t have the manpower to stay caught up on touch DNA testing of property crimes.
There are 2,743 touch DNA samples from property crimes, mostly burglaries, sitting untested at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences’ Forensic Genetics Laboratory.
Kahn said the lab has not permanently stopped testing touch DNA, but has paused it so it can keep up with demand from major crimes.
Touch DNA is what is left behind whenever a human touches a surface. Only trace amounts are needed to test and make a match in a nationwide DNA database.
Touch DNA can be better than fingerprints because a fingerprint requires a print to be left behind, which requires a much larger surface than what is needed to process touch DNA.
The crime lab is processing some DNA from burglaries when certain samples come in, such as blood or a discarded cigarette believed to belong to the burglar. In these situations, Kahn says, there is a much higher probability that a match can be easily made.
A match with touch DNA can take days of testing because the DNA must be gathered from a piece of clothing that is much bigger than a drop of blood.
A single DNA test costs a minimum of $250, Kahn said.
He says it isn’t possible to test every sample that comes in from detectives in a property crime case. Sometimes investigators submit a dozen or more samples from one crime.
It is possible in the future, he says, that the crime lab will limit the number of touch DNA samples the lab will test from a single property crime.
That would allow the crime lab to test fewer samples from more individual crimes.
He does not believe the lab will limit sample numbers from sex assaults or capital murder cases.
“The sex assaults and homicides have to be job one, and any other crime against a person, including assaults and robbery,” he said.
Last year, the crime lab tested 2,750 samples. Individuals who had been convicted of crimes in the past were linked with the samples 550 times, Kahn said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The clearance rate for Houston burglaries is 6% and that for the county (Harris) is half that.
Click 2 Houston
August 23, 2016
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Channel 2 Investigates has discovered that evidence that could help solve burglaries in the county has been collected from crime scenes but never tested because the county crime lab put a hold on touch DNA testing of property crimes last year.
“Right now, we’re focusing our efforts on the most important crimes: the sex assaults. the homicides.
We’ll get back to property crimes soon and the opportunity arises,” Roger Kahn, the crime laboratory director of the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, said.
The county doesn’t have the manpower to stay caught up on touch DNA testing of property crimes.
There are 2,743 touch DNA samples from property crimes, mostly burglaries, sitting untested at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences’ Forensic Genetics Laboratory.
Kahn said the lab has not permanently stopped testing touch DNA, but has paused it so it can keep up with demand from major crimes.
Touch DNA is what is left behind whenever a human touches a surface. Only trace amounts are needed to test and make a match in a nationwide DNA database.
Touch DNA can be better than fingerprints because a fingerprint requires a print to be left behind, which requires a much larger surface than what is needed to process touch DNA.
The crime lab is processing some DNA from burglaries when certain samples come in, such as blood or a discarded cigarette believed to belong to the burglar. In these situations, Kahn says, there is a much higher probability that a match can be easily made.
A match with touch DNA can take days of testing because the DNA must be gathered from a piece of clothing that is much bigger than a drop of blood.
A single DNA test costs a minimum of $250, Kahn said.
He says it isn’t possible to test every sample that comes in from detectives in a property crime case. Sometimes investigators submit a dozen or more samples from one crime.
It is possible in the future, he says, that the crime lab will limit the number of touch DNA samples the lab will test from a single property crime.
That would allow the crime lab to test fewer samples from more individual crimes.
He does not believe the lab will limit sample numbers from sex assaults or capital murder cases.
“The sex assaults and homicides have to be job one, and any other crime against a person, including assaults and robbery,” he said.
Last year, the crime lab tested 2,750 samples. Individuals who had been convicted of crimes in the past were linked with the samples 550 times, Kahn said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The clearance rate for Houston burglaries is 6% and that for the county (Harris) is half that.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
ILLEGAL ALIEN MURDERER RACKED UP AFTER 23 YEARS ON THE LAM IN MEXICO
The ‘undocumented’ murderer fled to Mexico 23 years ago after raping, strangling and beating to death an 82-year-old woman in Humble, Texas
In August 1993, Mildred Stallones, an 82-year-old retired school teacher, was raped, strangled and beaten to death by an illegal alien murderer … oops, I should have said undocumented murderer … in her Humble, Texas home.
Alfredo Ramirez-Rojas, the rapist-killer, fled to Mexico where he stayed on the lam until he was arrested there three years ago. On Wednesday he was extradited from Mexico, but only after Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson promised not to seek the death penalty for Ramirez-Rojas.
I suppose life in prison for this scumbag is better than nothing at all.
In August 1993, Mildred Stallones, an 82-year-old retired school teacher, was raped, strangled and beaten to death by an illegal alien murderer … oops, I should have said undocumented murderer … in her Humble, Texas home.
Alfredo Ramirez-Rojas, the rapist-killer, fled to Mexico where he stayed on the lam until he was arrested there three years ago. On Wednesday he was extradited from Mexico, but only after Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson promised not to seek the death penalty for Ramirez-Rojas.
I suppose life in prison for this scumbag is better than nothing at all.
COCKFIGHTING IS ILLEGAL, BUT NOT IMMORAL
By Bob Walsh
Cockfighting is now illegal in all 50 states. (I think Oklahoma was the last holdout.) However, according to the Ninth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals it is not so immoral as to demand the deportation of illegal aliens discovered to be involved in the disgusting pseudo-sport.
Back in 2013 immigration determined that Agustin Ortega-Lopez, an illegal alien (I’m sorry, I mean undocumented democrat) should have his ass thrown out of the country due to his conviction for involvement in cockfighting. It should be noted that he wasn’t actually killing the roosters himself, merely providing transportation to the asswipes that watch the fights. I guess that is kind of like not being a rapist, merely holding the woman down while somebody else rapes her.
A panel of the Ninth Circuit voted 3-0 to overturn the immigration board so that Ortega-Lopez can continue to stay illegally in the country and work illegal jobs to support his citizen wife and three anchor babies.
EDITOR'S NOTE: They ought to deport the asswipes even if they are citizens. Such activities have only one place, and that is in hell!
Cockfighting is now illegal in all 50 states. (I think Oklahoma was the last holdout.) However, according to the Ninth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals it is not so immoral as to demand the deportation of illegal aliens discovered to be involved in the disgusting pseudo-sport.
Back in 2013 immigration determined that Agustin Ortega-Lopez, an illegal alien (I’m sorry, I mean undocumented democrat) should have his ass thrown out of the country due to his conviction for involvement in cockfighting. It should be noted that he wasn’t actually killing the roosters himself, merely providing transportation to the asswipes that watch the fights. I guess that is kind of like not being a rapist, merely holding the woman down while somebody else rapes her.
A panel of the Ninth Circuit voted 3-0 to overturn the immigration board so that Ortega-Lopez can continue to stay illegally in the country and work illegal jobs to support his citizen wife and three anchor babies.
EDITOR'S NOTE: They ought to deport the asswipes even if they are citizens. Such activities have only one place, and that is in hell!
PHILIPPINE WAR ON DRUGS
Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte says “I don’t give a shit” about the UN and threatens to leave the UN after human rights experts call for the killings of drug traffickers to stop - as the death toll rises to 1,500
By Alisha Buaya
Daily Mail
August 21, 2016
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organisation and invite China and others to form a new one.
Two UN human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.
About 1,500 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.
Duterte on Friday denied that the government was responsible and in a middle-of-the-night news conference in his home town, Davao, said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited UN experts to investigate themselves.
The news conference was broadcast by local media and the full version was posted on Facebook by GMA news.
'I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert,' he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.
He then launched an attack on the United Nations and its members - including by inference Manila's traditionally close ally, Washington - saying, it could not fulfill its own mandate but was 'worrying about the bones of criminals piling up'.
'I do not want to insult you. But maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations,' he said. 'Why do you have to listen to this stupid?'
Criticising the U.N. for not doing enough to address hunger and terrorism and for not being able to do anything about Syria and Iraq and allowing big powers to bomb villages and kill innocent civilians, he said he would invite China and African nations to form another global organisation.
'You now, United Nations, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you 10 (about you). I tell you, you are an inutile. Because if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killing.'
Asked about the possible consequences of his comments, he said: 'What is ... repercussions? I don't give a shit to them.'
He said the United Nations should have acted according to protocol by sending someone such as a rapporteur to talk to him.
'You do not just go out and give a shitting statement against a country,' he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Now that’s what I call a real war on drugs. Kudos to Duterte!
By Alisha Buaya
Daily Mail
August 21, 2016
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organisation and invite China and others to form a new one.
Two UN human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.
About 1,500 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.
Duterte on Friday denied that the government was responsible and in a middle-of-the-night news conference in his home town, Davao, said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited UN experts to investigate themselves.
The news conference was broadcast by local media and the full version was posted on Facebook by GMA news.
'I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert,' he said, urging them to count not just the number of drug-related deaths but also the innocent lives lost to drugs.
He then launched an attack on the United Nations and its members - including by inference Manila's traditionally close ally, Washington - saying, it could not fulfill its own mandate but was 'worrying about the bones of criminals piling up'.
'I do not want to insult you. But maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations,' he said. 'Why do you have to listen to this stupid?'
Criticising the U.N. for not doing enough to address hunger and terrorism and for not being able to do anything about Syria and Iraq and allowing big powers to bomb villages and kill innocent civilians, he said he would invite China and African nations to form another global organisation.
'You now, United Nations, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you 10 (about you). I tell you, you are an inutile. Because if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killing.'
Asked about the possible consequences of his comments, he said: 'What is ... repercussions? I don't give a shit to them.'
He said the United Nations should have acted according to protocol by sending someone such as a rapporteur to talk to him.
'You do not just go out and give a shitting statement against a country,' he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Now that’s what I call a real war on drugs. Kudos to Duterte!
HUMA ABEDIN WORKED AT A RADICAL MUSLIM JOURNAL FOR A DOZEN YEARS
Huma Abedin, the closest confidante to the women’s rights candidate, published an article in 1996 which argued that sexually liberated women wearing revealing dresses are just asking to be raped
By Paul Sperry
New York Post
August 21, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s top campaign aide, and the woman who might be the future White House chief of staff to the first female US president, for a decade edited a radical Muslim publication that opposed women’s rights and blamed the US for 9/11.
One of Clinton’s biggest accomplishments listed on her campaign website is her support for the UN women’s conference in Bejing in 1995, when she famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Her speech has emerged as a focal point of her campaign, featured prominently in last month’s Morgan Freeman-narrated convention video introducing her as the Democratic nominee.
However, soon after that “historic and transformational” 1995 event, as Clinton recently described it, her top aide Huma Abedin published articles in a Saudi journal taking Clinton’s feminist platform apart, piece by piece. At the time, Abedin was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief. She was also working in the White House as an intern for then-first lady Clinton.
Headlined “Women’s Rights Are Islamic Rights,” a 1996 article argues that single moms, working moms and gay couples with children should not be recognized as families. It also states that more revealing dress ushered in by women’s liberation “directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.” In other words, sexually liberated women are just asking to be raped.
“A conjugal family established through a marriage contract between a man and a woman, and extended through procreation is the only definition of family a Muslim can accept,” the author, a Saudi official with the Muslim World League, asserted, while warning of “the dangers of alternative lifestyles.” (Abedin’s journal was founded and funded by the former head of the Muslim World League.)
“Pushing [mothers] out into the open labor market is a clear demonstration of a lack of respect of womanhood and motherhood,” it added.
In a separate January 1996 article, Abedin’s mother — who was the Muslim World League’s delegate to the UN conference — wrote that Clinton and other speakers were advancing a “very aggressive and radically feminist” agenda that was un-Islamic and wrong because it focused on empowering women.
“‘Empowerment’ of women does more harm than benefit the cause of women or their relations with men,” Saleha Mahmood Abedin maintained, while forcefully arguing in favor of Islamic laws that have been roundly criticized for oppressing women.
“By placing women in the ‘care and protection’ of men and by making women responsible for those under her charge,” she argued, “Islamic values generate a sense of compassion in human and family relations.”
“Among all systems of belief, Islam goes the farthest in restoring equality across gender,” she claimed. “Acknowledging the very central role women play in procreation, child-raising and homemaking, Islam places the economic responsibility of supporting the family primarily on the male members.”
She seemed to rationalize domestic abuse as a result of “the stress and frustrations that men encounter in their daily lives.” While denouncing such violence, she didn’t think it did much good to punish men for it.
She added in her 31-page treatise: “More men are victims of domestic violence than women . . . If we see the world through ‘men’s eyes’ we will find them suffering from many hardships and injustices.”
She opposed the UN conference widening the scope of the definition of the family to include “gay and lesbian ‘families.’ ”
Huma Abedin does not apologize for her mother’s views. “My mother was traveling around the world to these international women’s conferences talking about women’s empowerment, and it was normal,” she said in a recent profile in Vogue.
Huma continued to work for her mother’s journal through 2008. She is listed as “assistant editor” on the masthead of the 2002 issue in which her mother suggested the US was doomed to be attacked on 9/11 because of “sanctions” it leveled against Iraq and other “injustices” allegedly heaped on the Muslim world. Here is an excerpt:
“The spiral of violence having continued unabated worldwide, and widely seen to be allowed to continue, was building up intense anger and hostility within the pressure cooker that was kept on a vigorous flame while the lid was weighted down with various kinds of injustices and sanctions . . . It was a time bomb that had to explode and explode it did on September 11, changing in its wake the life and times of the very community and the people it aimed to serve.”
Huma Abedin is Clinton’s longest-serving and, by all accounts, most loyal aide. The devout, Saudi-raised Muslim started working for her in the White House, then followed her to the Senate and later the State Department. She’s now helping run Clinton’s presidential campaign as vice chair and may end up back in the White House.
The contradictions are hard to reconcile. The campaign is not talking, despite repeated requests for interviews.
Until now, these articles which Abedin helped edit and publish have remained under wraps. Perhaps Clinton was unaware she and her mother took such opposing views.
But that’s hard to believe. Her closest adviser served as an editor for that same Saudi propaganda organ for a dozen years. The same one that in 1999 published a book, edited by her mother, that justifies the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation under Islamic law, while claiming “man-made laws have in fact enslaved women.”
And in 2010, Huma Abedin arranged for then-Secretary of State Clinton to speak alongside Abedin’s hijab-wearing mother at an all-girls college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to a transcript of the speech, Clinton said Americans have to do a better job of getting past “the stereotypes and the mischaracterizations” of the oppressed Saudi woman. She also assured the audience of burqa-clad girls that not all American girls go “around in a bikini bathing suit.”
At no point in her long visit there, which included a question-and-answer session, did this so-called champion of women’s rights protest the human rights violations Saudi women suffer under the Shariah laws that Abedin’s mother actively promotes. Nothing about the laws barring women from driving or traveling anywhere without male “guardians.”
If fighting for women’s rights is one of Clinton’s greatest achievements, why has she retained as her closest adviser a woman who gave voice to harsh Islamist critiques of her Beijing platform?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Let me ponder this. Huma is married to a man who sexted his wienie to several women. Hillary is married to a man who cheated on her with many women. That leads me to believe there is more to the relationship between Hillary and Huma than a professional one. Hmmm, could Hillary become our first lesbian president?
By Paul Sperry
New York Post
August 21, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s top campaign aide, and the woman who might be the future White House chief of staff to the first female US president, for a decade edited a radical Muslim publication that opposed women’s rights and blamed the US for 9/11.
One of Clinton’s biggest accomplishments listed on her campaign website is her support for the UN women’s conference in Bejing in 1995, when she famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Her speech has emerged as a focal point of her campaign, featured prominently in last month’s Morgan Freeman-narrated convention video introducing her as the Democratic nominee.
However, soon after that “historic and transformational” 1995 event, as Clinton recently described it, her top aide Huma Abedin published articles in a Saudi journal taking Clinton’s feminist platform apart, piece by piece. At the time, Abedin was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief. She was also working in the White House as an intern for then-first lady Clinton.
Headlined “Women’s Rights Are Islamic Rights,” a 1996 article argues that single moms, working moms and gay couples with children should not be recognized as families. It also states that more revealing dress ushered in by women’s liberation “directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.” In other words, sexually liberated women are just asking to be raped.
“A conjugal family established through a marriage contract between a man and a woman, and extended through procreation is the only definition of family a Muslim can accept,” the author, a Saudi official with the Muslim World League, asserted, while warning of “the dangers of alternative lifestyles.” (Abedin’s journal was founded and funded by the former head of the Muslim World League.)
“Pushing [mothers] out into the open labor market is a clear demonstration of a lack of respect of womanhood and motherhood,” it added.
In a separate January 1996 article, Abedin’s mother — who was the Muslim World League’s delegate to the UN conference — wrote that Clinton and other speakers were advancing a “very aggressive and radically feminist” agenda that was un-Islamic and wrong because it focused on empowering women.
“‘Empowerment’ of women does more harm than benefit the cause of women or their relations with men,” Saleha Mahmood Abedin maintained, while forcefully arguing in favor of Islamic laws that have been roundly criticized for oppressing women.
“By placing women in the ‘care and protection’ of men and by making women responsible for those under her charge,” she argued, “Islamic values generate a sense of compassion in human and family relations.”
“Among all systems of belief, Islam goes the farthest in restoring equality across gender,” she claimed. “Acknowledging the very central role women play in procreation, child-raising and homemaking, Islam places the economic responsibility of supporting the family primarily on the male members.”
She seemed to rationalize domestic abuse as a result of “the stress and frustrations that men encounter in their daily lives.” While denouncing such violence, she didn’t think it did much good to punish men for it.
She added in her 31-page treatise: “More men are victims of domestic violence than women . . . If we see the world through ‘men’s eyes’ we will find them suffering from many hardships and injustices.”
She opposed the UN conference widening the scope of the definition of the family to include “gay and lesbian ‘families.’ ”
Huma Abedin does not apologize for her mother’s views. “My mother was traveling around the world to these international women’s conferences talking about women’s empowerment, and it was normal,” she said in a recent profile in Vogue.
Huma continued to work for her mother’s journal through 2008. She is listed as “assistant editor” on the masthead of the 2002 issue in which her mother suggested the US was doomed to be attacked on 9/11 because of “sanctions” it leveled against Iraq and other “injustices” allegedly heaped on the Muslim world. Here is an excerpt:
“The spiral of violence having continued unabated worldwide, and widely seen to be allowed to continue, was building up intense anger and hostility within the pressure cooker that was kept on a vigorous flame while the lid was weighted down with various kinds of injustices and sanctions . . . It was a time bomb that had to explode and explode it did on September 11, changing in its wake the life and times of the very community and the people it aimed to serve.”
Huma Abedin is Clinton’s longest-serving and, by all accounts, most loyal aide. The devout, Saudi-raised Muslim started working for her in the White House, then followed her to the Senate and later the State Department. She’s now helping run Clinton’s presidential campaign as vice chair and may end up back in the White House.
The contradictions are hard to reconcile. The campaign is not talking, despite repeated requests for interviews.
Until now, these articles which Abedin helped edit and publish have remained under wraps. Perhaps Clinton was unaware she and her mother took such opposing views.
But that’s hard to believe. Her closest adviser served as an editor for that same Saudi propaganda organ for a dozen years. The same one that in 1999 published a book, edited by her mother, that justifies the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation under Islamic law, while claiming “man-made laws have in fact enslaved women.”
And in 2010, Huma Abedin arranged for then-Secretary of State Clinton to speak alongside Abedin’s hijab-wearing mother at an all-girls college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to a transcript of the speech, Clinton said Americans have to do a better job of getting past “the stereotypes and the mischaracterizations” of the oppressed Saudi woman. She also assured the audience of burqa-clad girls that not all American girls go “around in a bikini bathing suit.”
At no point in her long visit there, which included a question-and-answer session, did this so-called champion of women’s rights protest the human rights violations Saudi women suffer under the Shariah laws that Abedin’s mother actively promotes. Nothing about the laws barring women from driving or traveling anywhere without male “guardians.”
If fighting for women’s rights is one of Clinton’s greatest achievements, why has she retained as her closest adviser a woman who gave voice to harsh Islamist critiques of her Beijing platform?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Let me ponder this. Huma is married to a man who sexted his wienie to several women. Hillary is married to a man who cheated on her with many women. That leads me to believe there is more to the relationship between Hillary and Huma than a professional one. Hmmm, could Hillary become our first lesbian president?
THE MUSLIM WORLD IS A PERMANENT REFUGEE CRISIS
It’s never going to stop unless we shut the door
By Daniel Greenfield
Front Page Magazine
May 25, 2016
Forget the Syrian Civil War for a moment. Even without the Sunnis and Shiites competing to give each other machete haircuts every sunny morning, there would still be a permanent Muslim refugee crisis.
The vast majority of civil wars over the last ten years have taken place in Muslim countries. Muslim countries are also some of the poorest in the world. And Muslim countries also have high birth rates.
Combine violence and poverty with a population boom and you get a permanent migration crisis.
No matter what happens in Syria or Libya next year, that permanent migration crisis isn’t going away.
The Muslim world is expanding unsustainably. In the Middle East and Asia, Muslims tend to underperform their non-Muslim neighbors both educationally and economically. Oil is the only asset that gave Muslims any advantage and in the age of fracking, its value is a lot shakier than it used to be.
The Muslim world had lost its old role as the intermediary between Asia and the West. And it has no economic function in the new world except to blackmail it by spreading violence and instability.
Muslim countries with lower literacy rates, especially for women, are never going to be economic winners at any trade that doesn’t come gushing out of the ground. Nor will unstable dictatorships ever be able to provide social mobility or access to the good life. At best they’ll hand out subsidies for bread.
The Muslim world has no prospects for getting any better. The Arab Spring was a Western delusion.
Growing populations divided along tribal and religious lines are competing for a limited amount of land, power and wealth. Countries without a future are set to double in size.
There are only two solutions; war or migration.
Either you fight and take what you want at home. Or you go abroad and take what you want there.
Let’s assume that the Iraq War had never happened. How would a religiously and ethnically divided Iraq have managed its growth from 13 million in the eighties to 30 million around the Iraq War to 76 million in 2050?
The answer is a bloody civil war followed by genocide, ethnic cleansing and migration.
What’s happening now would have happened anyway. It was already happening under Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad has one of the highest population densities in the world. And it has no future. The same is true across the region. The only real economic plan anyone here has is to get money from the West.
Plan A for getting money out of the West is creating a crisis that will force it to intervene. That can mean anything from starting a war to aiding terrorists that threaten the West. Muslim countries keep shooting themselves in the foot so that Westerners will rush over to kiss the booboo and make it better.
Plan B is to move to Europe.
And Plan B is a great plan. It’s the only real economic plan that works. At least until the West runs out of native and naïve Westerners who foot the bill for all the migrants, refugees and outright settlers.
For thousands of dollars, a Middle Eastern Muslim can pay to be smuggled into Europe. It’s a small investment with a big payoff. Even the lowest tier welfare benefits in Sweden are higher than the average salary in a typical Muslim migrant nation. And Muslim migrants are extremely attuned to the payoffs. It’s why they clamor to go to Germany or Sweden, not Greece or Slovakia. And it’s why they insist on big cities with an existing Muslim social welfare infrastructure, not some rural village.
A Muslim migrant is an investment for an entire extended family. Once the young men get their papers, family reunification begins. That doesn’t just mean every extended family member showing up and demanding their benefits. It also means that the family members will be selling access to Europe to anyone who can afford it. Don’t hike or raft your way to Europe. Mohammed or Ahmed will claim that you’re a family member. Or temporarily marry you so you can bring your whole extended family along.
Mohammed gets paid. So does Mo’s extended family which brokers these transactions. Human trafficking doesn’t just involve rafts. It’s about having the right family connections.
And all that is just the tip of a very big business iceberg.
Where do Muslim migrants come up with a smuggling fee that amounts to several years of salary for an average worker? Some come from wealthy families. Others are sponsored by crime networks and family groups that are out to move everything from drugs to weapons to large numbers of people into Europe.
Large loans will be repaid as the new migrants begin sending their new welfare benefits back home. Many will be officially unemployed even while unofficially making money through everything from slave labor to organized crime. European authorities will blame their failure to participate in the job market on racism rather than acknowledging that they exist within the confines of an alternate economy.
It’s not only individuals or families who can pursue Plan B. Turkey wants to join the European Union. It’s one solution for an Islamist populist economy built on piles of debt. The EU has a choice between dealing with the stream of migrants from Turkey moving to Europe. Or all of Turkey moving into Europe.
The West didn’t create this problem. Its interventions, however misguided, attempted to manage it.
Islamic violence is not a response to Western colonialism. Not only does it predate it, but as many foreign policy experts are so fond of pointing out, its greatest number of casualties are Muslims. The West did not create Muslim dysfunction. And it is not responsible for it. Instead the dysfunction of the Muslim world keeps dragging the West in. Every Western attempt to ameliorate it, from humanitarian aid to peacekeeping operations, only opens up the West to take the blame for Islamic dysfunction.
The permanent refugee crisis is a structural problem caused by the conditions of the Muslim world.
The West can’t solve the crisis at its source. Only Muslims can do that. And there are no easy answers. But the West can and should avoid being dragged down into the black hole of Muslim dysfunction.
Even Germany’s Merkel learned that the number of refugees is not a finite quantity that can be relieved with a charitable gesture. It’s the same escalating number of people that will show up if you start throwing bags of money out of an open window. And it’s a number that no country can absorb.
Muslim civil wars will continue even if the West never intervenes in them because their part of the world is fundamentally unstable. These conflicts will lead to the displacement of millions of people. But even without violence, economic opportunism alone will drive millions to the West. And those millions carry with them the dysfunction of their culture that will make them a burden and a threat.
If Muslims can’t reconcile their conflicts at home, what makes us think that they will reconcile them in Europe? Instead of resolving their problems through migration, they only export them to new shores. The same outbursts of Islamic violence, xenophobia, economic malaise and unsustainable growth follow them across seas and oceans, across continents and countries. Distance is no answer. Travel is no cure.
Solving Syria will solve nothing. The Muslim world is full of fault lines. It’s growing and it’s running out of room to grow. We can’t save Muslims from themselves. We can only save ourselves from their violence.
The permanent Muslim refugee crisis will never stop being our crisis unless we close the door.
By Daniel Greenfield
Front Page Magazine
May 25, 2016
Forget the Syrian Civil War for a moment. Even without the Sunnis and Shiites competing to give each other machete haircuts every sunny morning, there would still be a permanent Muslim refugee crisis.
The vast majority of civil wars over the last ten years have taken place in Muslim countries. Muslim countries are also some of the poorest in the world. And Muslim countries also have high birth rates.
Combine violence and poverty with a population boom and you get a permanent migration crisis.
No matter what happens in Syria or Libya next year, that permanent migration crisis isn’t going away.
The Muslim world is expanding unsustainably. In the Middle East and Asia, Muslims tend to underperform their non-Muslim neighbors both educationally and economically. Oil is the only asset that gave Muslims any advantage and in the age of fracking, its value is a lot shakier than it used to be.
The Muslim world had lost its old role as the intermediary between Asia and the West. And it has no economic function in the new world except to blackmail it by spreading violence and instability.
Muslim countries with lower literacy rates, especially for women, are never going to be economic winners at any trade that doesn’t come gushing out of the ground. Nor will unstable dictatorships ever be able to provide social mobility or access to the good life. At best they’ll hand out subsidies for bread.
The Muslim world has no prospects for getting any better. The Arab Spring was a Western delusion.
Growing populations divided along tribal and religious lines are competing for a limited amount of land, power and wealth. Countries without a future are set to double in size.
There are only two solutions; war or migration.
Either you fight and take what you want at home. Or you go abroad and take what you want there.
Let’s assume that the Iraq War had never happened. How would a religiously and ethnically divided Iraq have managed its growth from 13 million in the eighties to 30 million around the Iraq War to 76 million in 2050?
The answer is a bloody civil war followed by genocide, ethnic cleansing and migration.
What’s happening now would have happened anyway. It was already happening under Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad has one of the highest population densities in the world. And it has no future. The same is true across the region. The only real economic plan anyone here has is to get money from the West.
Plan A for getting money out of the West is creating a crisis that will force it to intervene. That can mean anything from starting a war to aiding terrorists that threaten the West. Muslim countries keep shooting themselves in the foot so that Westerners will rush over to kiss the booboo and make it better.
Plan B is to move to Europe.
And Plan B is a great plan. It’s the only real economic plan that works. At least until the West runs out of native and naïve Westerners who foot the bill for all the migrants, refugees and outright settlers.
For thousands of dollars, a Middle Eastern Muslim can pay to be smuggled into Europe. It’s a small investment with a big payoff. Even the lowest tier welfare benefits in Sweden are higher than the average salary in a typical Muslim migrant nation. And Muslim migrants are extremely attuned to the payoffs. It’s why they clamor to go to Germany or Sweden, not Greece or Slovakia. And it’s why they insist on big cities with an existing Muslim social welfare infrastructure, not some rural village.
A Muslim migrant is an investment for an entire extended family. Once the young men get their papers, family reunification begins. That doesn’t just mean every extended family member showing up and demanding their benefits. It also means that the family members will be selling access to Europe to anyone who can afford it. Don’t hike or raft your way to Europe. Mohammed or Ahmed will claim that you’re a family member. Or temporarily marry you so you can bring your whole extended family along.
Mohammed gets paid. So does Mo’s extended family which brokers these transactions. Human trafficking doesn’t just involve rafts. It’s about having the right family connections.
And all that is just the tip of a very big business iceberg.
Where do Muslim migrants come up with a smuggling fee that amounts to several years of salary for an average worker? Some come from wealthy families. Others are sponsored by crime networks and family groups that are out to move everything from drugs to weapons to large numbers of people into Europe.
Large loans will be repaid as the new migrants begin sending their new welfare benefits back home. Many will be officially unemployed even while unofficially making money through everything from slave labor to organized crime. European authorities will blame their failure to participate in the job market on racism rather than acknowledging that they exist within the confines of an alternate economy.
It’s not only individuals or families who can pursue Plan B. Turkey wants to join the European Union. It’s one solution for an Islamist populist economy built on piles of debt. The EU has a choice between dealing with the stream of migrants from Turkey moving to Europe. Or all of Turkey moving into Europe.
The West didn’t create this problem. Its interventions, however misguided, attempted to manage it.
Islamic violence is not a response to Western colonialism. Not only does it predate it, but as many foreign policy experts are so fond of pointing out, its greatest number of casualties are Muslims. The West did not create Muslim dysfunction. And it is not responsible for it. Instead the dysfunction of the Muslim world keeps dragging the West in. Every Western attempt to ameliorate it, from humanitarian aid to peacekeeping operations, only opens up the West to take the blame for Islamic dysfunction.
The permanent refugee crisis is a structural problem caused by the conditions of the Muslim world.
The West can’t solve the crisis at its source. Only Muslims can do that. And there are no easy answers. But the West can and should avoid being dragged down into the black hole of Muslim dysfunction.
Even Germany’s Merkel learned that the number of refugees is not a finite quantity that can be relieved with a charitable gesture. It’s the same escalating number of people that will show up if you start throwing bags of money out of an open window. And it’s a number that no country can absorb.
Muslim civil wars will continue even if the West never intervenes in them because their part of the world is fundamentally unstable. These conflicts will lead to the displacement of millions of people. But even without violence, economic opportunism alone will drive millions to the West. And those millions carry with them the dysfunction of their culture that will make them a burden and a threat.
If Muslims can’t reconcile their conflicts at home, what makes us think that they will reconcile them in Europe? Instead of resolving their problems through migration, they only export them to new shores. The same outbursts of Islamic violence, xenophobia, economic malaise and unsustainable growth follow them across seas and oceans, across continents and countries. Distance is no answer. Travel is no cure.
Solving Syria will solve nothing. The Muslim world is full of fault lines. It’s growing and it’s running out of room to grow. We can’t save Muslims from themselves. We can only save ourselves from their violence.
The permanent Muslim refugee crisis will never stop being our crisis unless we close the door.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
A FRIENDLY SUGGESTION FOR DONALD TRUMP
By Bob Walsh
Dear Mr. Trump,
Calling my home 2-3 times EVERY FUCKING DAY with a recorded message telling me how wonderful you are and how horrible Hillary is does not help your position, at least with me. You have clogged up my answering machine and woke my ass up when I wanted to sleep.
YOU ARE PISSING ME OFF!
Please knock it off. Once or twice a week is more than adequate to impress me with how fucking wonderful you are in compassion to Hillary. My lady-friend’s Collie would be a better president than Hillary so that is a pretty low bar, but still…
Please cool it with the phone calls. You are just making me angry.
Thanks.
Bob Walsh
Dear Mr. Trump,
Calling my home 2-3 times EVERY FUCKING DAY with a recorded message telling me how wonderful you are and how horrible Hillary is does not help your position, at least with me. You have clogged up my answering machine and woke my ass up when I wanted to sleep.
YOU ARE PISSING ME OFF!
Please knock it off. Once or twice a week is more than adequate to impress me with how fucking wonderful you are in compassion to Hillary. My lady-friend’s Collie would be a better president than Hillary so that is a pretty low bar, but still…
Please cool it with the phone calls. You are just making me angry.
Thanks.
Bob Walsh
207 TEXAS TEACHERS BUSTED FOR ENGAGING IN SEX WITH STUDENTS IN LAST 11 MONTHS
Channel 2 Investigates reviewed dozens of cases of teacher misconduct and found inappropriate teacher-student relationships in Texas at an all-time high
By Lauren Sweeney and Jace Larson
Click 2 Houston
August 21, 2016
HOUSTON -- The stories grab headlines and attention, whether it's the middle school teacher who gave a lap dance to a 15-year-old or the teacher at that same middle school who a few years later was impregnated by one of her students.
But the problem is not isolated to one campus or one district. It is a statewide concern, according to the Texas Education Agency.
State investigations into inappropriate teacher-student relationships are at an all-time high, with 207 cases opened in just the last 11 months. That number is way up from the 188 cases in all of the last school year.
The agency's director of investigations believes the actual number of relationships going on could be much higher.
"We believe there are unreported teacher-student relationships," said Doug Phillips, a former police officer who now oversees all teacher investigations at the agency.
According to Phillips, schools can make secret deals with teachers to keep the information out of the press.
"We know it's occurred where they have agreed not to report to us, if (the teachers) resign," he said.
The records kept by the state of where the incidents are happening are not broken down by district, campus or even type of school.
Phillips explained the agency only tracks by the educator, since that is who gets sanctions.
"We also think it could have a chilling effect, a more chilling effect, on school districts reporting these things," he said.
The investigations unit typically hears of cases in one of two ways: either an educator is arrested and the agency's database is notified when that teacher is fingerprinted, or a superintendent files what's known as a 249 report after an arrest or termination/resignation that resulted from misconduct.
Channel 2 Investigates reviewed dozens of 249 reports to provide a summary of where some of these incidents are happening.
Data obtained by Channel 2 investigates shows the teacher's name, status of investigation, date the investigation was opened and date closed and the case code for the type of misconduct.
Since 2011, this data shows more than 1,200 investigations into inappropriate relationships with students or minors. Only 144 teachers' licenses are listed as having been revoked.
According to the Texas Education Agency, many teachers agree to a temporary suspension, in what amounts to a plea bargain.
"It depends on the severity and nature of that relationship. Was it a sexual relationship? That's revoked, no question about it," Phillips said. "Was it a matter of texting but we can't prove there was any sort of relationship? It's very common for an educator to deny and for the victim to deny that anything happened, and it is not uncommon for parents to not cooperate at all."
A Houston-based educator is an example of how the second-chance system may go wrong. According to agency data and records, Brannon Watson was fired from the Houston Independent School District for inappropriately touching and making comments of a sexual nature in front of students. When the district fired him, the school found out that he'd been accused of something similar at his prior place of employment.
The agency suspended his license until 2014. In 2015, he was hired at CORE Academy, a Houston-based charter school. Halfway through that school year, the school fired him amid new allegations of sexual harassment.
An administrator for CORE Academy said in an email that the school had not been aware of Mr. Watson's past before hiring him, even though the agency claims those records are posted online.
Even if Watson had his license revoked, CORE Academy could have hired him because charter schools are not required to hire teachers with valid certificates.
According to Philips, it’s a loophole he hopes to see the Legislature close in the next session.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shit, in my day the women teachers were all stuffy and none of us boys ever got lucky.
By Lauren Sweeney and Jace Larson
Click 2 Houston
August 21, 2016
HOUSTON -- The stories grab headlines and attention, whether it's the middle school teacher who gave a lap dance to a 15-year-old or the teacher at that same middle school who a few years later was impregnated by one of her students.
But the problem is not isolated to one campus or one district. It is a statewide concern, according to the Texas Education Agency.
State investigations into inappropriate teacher-student relationships are at an all-time high, with 207 cases opened in just the last 11 months. That number is way up from the 188 cases in all of the last school year.
The agency's director of investigations believes the actual number of relationships going on could be much higher.
"We believe there are unreported teacher-student relationships," said Doug Phillips, a former police officer who now oversees all teacher investigations at the agency.
According to Phillips, schools can make secret deals with teachers to keep the information out of the press.
"We know it's occurred where they have agreed not to report to us, if (the teachers) resign," he said.
The records kept by the state of where the incidents are happening are not broken down by district, campus or even type of school.
Phillips explained the agency only tracks by the educator, since that is who gets sanctions.
"We also think it could have a chilling effect, a more chilling effect, on school districts reporting these things," he said.
The investigations unit typically hears of cases in one of two ways: either an educator is arrested and the agency's database is notified when that teacher is fingerprinted, or a superintendent files what's known as a 249 report after an arrest or termination/resignation that resulted from misconduct.
Channel 2 Investigates reviewed dozens of 249 reports to provide a summary of where some of these incidents are happening.
Data obtained by Channel 2 investigates shows the teacher's name, status of investigation, date the investigation was opened and date closed and the case code for the type of misconduct.
Since 2011, this data shows more than 1,200 investigations into inappropriate relationships with students or minors. Only 144 teachers' licenses are listed as having been revoked.
According to the Texas Education Agency, many teachers agree to a temporary suspension, in what amounts to a plea bargain.
"It depends on the severity and nature of that relationship. Was it a sexual relationship? That's revoked, no question about it," Phillips said. "Was it a matter of texting but we can't prove there was any sort of relationship? It's very common for an educator to deny and for the victim to deny that anything happened, and it is not uncommon for parents to not cooperate at all."
A Houston-based educator is an example of how the second-chance system may go wrong. According to agency data and records, Brannon Watson was fired from the Houston Independent School District for inappropriately touching and making comments of a sexual nature in front of students. When the district fired him, the school found out that he'd been accused of something similar at his prior place of employment.
The agency suspended his license until 2014. In 2015, he was hired at CORE Academy, a Houston-based charter school. Halfway through that school year, the school fired him amid new allegations of sexual harassment.
An administrator for CORE Academy said in an email that the school had not been aware of Mr. Watson's past before hiring him, even though the agency claims those records are posted online.
Even if Watson had his license revoked, CORE Academy could have hired him because charter schools are not required to hire teachers with valid certificates.
According to Philips, it’s a loophole he hopes to see the Legislature close in the next session.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shit, in my day the women teachers were all stuffy and none of us boys ever got lucky.
CANCER PATIENT BEATEN TO DEATH AT HOSPITAL
By Bob Walsh
Shannon Vincel, 46, a native of St. Louis, had traveled to Zion, Illinois for medical care. On Monday at about 9:30 p.m. she and one other patient were waiting for the hospital shuttle to pick them up when an unknown male came up on them from behind and beat Vincel to death with a blunt instrument.
There is no known suspect and no known motive. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America have offered a $25,000 reward and has increased security at their Zion location.
Shannon Vincel, 46, a native of St. Louis, had traveled to Zion, Illinois for medical care. On Monday at about 9:30 p.m. she and one other patient were waiting for the hospital shuttle to pick them up when an unknown male came up on them from behind and beat Vincel to death with a blunt instrument.
There is no known suspect and no known motive. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America have offered a $25,000 reward and has increased security at their Zion location.
DEAD CRIMINALS CAN BE VERY VALUABLE
By Bob Walsh
The formerly great state of California just settled a wrongful death suit in federal court over the demise of Joseph Duran, 35.
Duran became a guest of the state in August of 2013 at Mule Creek State Prison. He died in custody a month later. He had mental health issues and assaulted a correctional officer his first day in custody. He regularly refused to take meds for fear of being poisoned. He breathed thru a stoma in his throat.
One day he decided to hold the food port hostage. That is a move inmates do to be a pain in the ass. They shove their arm thru the port and refuse to remove it, making it impossible to secure the food port and creating a security hazard for anybody who needs to pass by. When Duran refused to play nice he got blasted with OC spray. He subsequently died.
For some reason or other officials were unable to get in touch with his next of kin so his body was cremated and his ashes scattered. They did not know of his death until they were contacted by a Sacramento BEE reporter about his death about four months later. Allegedly it took the BEE reporter less than ten minutes to locate them in an internet search.
Allegedly the custody staff refused to allow medical staff to decontaminate Duran after exposure despite numerous requests to do so. A staff shrink was fired after the incident for leaking info to the BEE about the case. He is suing to get his job back under the whistleblower protection act.
In any event the state settled early in the legal proceedings for $750,000. A large part of Duran’s issues were mental health, allegedly caused in large part by his parents heavy drug use. Also some changes were made in procedure for dealing with OC spray and mentally ill inmates. They are also making changes in how they search for next-of-kin for death notifications. The family says that is what they really wanted, but they are of course very happy to take the money.
This is one of those instances where a lot of people were wrong (including the dead guy) and the taxpayers are footing the bill for it.
The formerly great state of California just settled a wrongful death suit in federal court over the demise of Joseph Duran, 35.
Duran became a guest of the state in August of 2013 at Mule Creek State Prison. He died in custody a month later. He had mental health issues and assaulted a correctional officer his first day in custody. He regularly refused to take meds for fear of being poisoned. He breathed thru a stoma in his throat.
One day he decided to hold the food port hostage. That is a move inmates do to be a pain in the ass. They shove their arm thru the port and refuse to remove it, making it impossible to secure the food port and creating a security hazard for anybody who needs to pass by. When Duran refused to play nice he got blasted with OC spray. He subsequently died.
For some reason or other officials were unable to get in touch with his next of kin so his body was cremated and his ashes scattered. They did not know of his death until they were contacted by a Sacramento BEE reporter about his death about four months later. Allegedly it took the BEE reporter less than ten minutes to locate them in an internet search.
Allegedly the custody staff refused to allow medical staff to decontaminate Duran after exposure despite numerous requests to do so. A staff shrink was fired after the incident for leaking info to the BEE about the case. He is suing to get his job back under the whistleblower protection act.
In any event the state settled early in the legal proceedings for $750,000. A large part of Duran’s issues were mental health, allegedly caused in large part by his parents heavy drug use. Also some changes were made in procedure for dealing with OC spray and mentally ill inmates. They are also making changes in how they search for next-of-kin for death notifications. The family says that is what they really wanted, but they are of course very happy to take the money.
This is one of those instances where a lot of people were wrong (including the dead guy) and the taxpayers are footing the bill for it.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
CALIFORNIA CRIME MEASURE TRIGGERS 52,000 FEWER ARRESTS
Prop. 47’s proponents point to the decline in arrests, but that’s happening because the police frequently ignore certain drug and property crimes because there may be little penalty if they are arrested
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
August 21, 2016
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A 2014 California voter-approved initiative that reduced penalties for certain drug and property crimes has led to the lowest arrest rate in state history as police frequently ignore those illegal activities, experts say.
Proposition 47 lowered criminal sentences by reducing them from felonies that can bring long prison sentences to misdemeanors that instead bring up to a year in jail.
Recent state Department of Justice statistics show the number of felony arrests plummeted 28.5 percent last year, while misdemeanor arrests rose about 9 percent over 2014. That resulted in 52,000 fewer arrests overall and the lowest arrest rate since record-keeping began in 1960.
"It's really driven by changes in drug and property arrests," said Public Policy Institute of California researcher Magnus Lofstrom, who studies the issue. "I think it's quite clear that Prop. 47 is the major contributor to the changes we've seen."
Last year's decline in arrests, with the fewest felony arrests since 1969, is part of a long-term decline dating to the 1980s that has been spurred by the law as well as crowded jails and fewer police, Lofstrom said.
It's too soon to say whether the changes are helping spur rising crime rates, though Lofstrom and other researchers are watching the relationship closely.
Law enforcement officials said drug offenders may now commonly be cited and released, or ignored because there may be little penalty if they are arrested. There were about 22,000 fewer drug arrests last year.
"The de facto decriminalization of drugs may have an impact," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, president of the California State Sheriffs' Association. "We do know that there's a lot less arrests being made, which means there are a lot more people on the streets using drugs."
Multiple courts reported an increase in failures to appear for misdemeanor arraignments since Proposition 47 passed, the Judicial Council of California found in a survey of 40 of the state's 58 county superior courts.
"If people aren't showing up in court, if they're not going to go to drug court, we're going to see what we're seeing, which is increased crime rates in our communities," said Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association.
State Department of Justice figures show violent crime jumped 10 percent last year over 2014. Property crimes also increased, including a nearly 12 percent increase in shoplifting and nearly 11 percent increase in thefts, two crimes affected by Proposition 47.
But participation in drug courts has rebounded as counties adapted to Proposition 47 by including it in sentences for those charged with misdemeanors or drug-related crimes such as stealing to support their addictions, said Santa Clara County Judge Stephen Manley.
"I think it's been a fairly dramatic response to getting treatment to the people that need it the most," said Manley, president of the California Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Mel Sargent, 66, and Caroline Sargent, 54, even married on the day they graduated from an 11-month drug court program in March. Sacramento County probation officers bought them wedding rings.
"Before it was always the 'war against drugs,'" Sargent said. "We got to see the other side, the more human side of the probation department and the judiciary."
The initiative has also led to fewer plea bargains, probably because suspects have less incentive to accept plea deals without the threat of a felony conviction or prison time, the Judicial Council found.
It reported that prosecutors also seem to be filing more charges for felony drug sales, identity theft and robbery now that drug possession, writing bad checks and check forgery were reduced to misdemeanors.
"Some DA's offices have tried to charge their way around Prop. 47, no question about it," said John Abrahams, co-chairman of the California Public Defenders Association's legislative committee.
But California District Attorneys Association chief executive Mark Zahner said law enforcement officials may now simply be targeting more serious criminals.
Lenore Anderson, who led the drive to pass Proposition 47, was pleased by reports that there may be an overall improvement in the justice system, even if the initiative is requiring some adjustment.
Law enforcement should accept that drug and property crimes still can bring appropriate punishment, while the changes leave more resources for serious felonies, said Anderson, president and executive director of the reform group Californians for Safety and Justice.
"My highest hope is that we start to really see some innovation that we haven't seen in the past," Anderson said.
For instance, this year's state budget includes $15 million for police to experiment with using case managers and diversion programs to help prostitutes and low-level drug dealers instead of putting them in jail.
Without help, "they're released in a short period of time and go right back to the same situation," said Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who pushed for the funding.
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
August 21, 2016
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A 2014 California voter-approved initiative that reduced penalties for certain drug and property crimes has led to the lowest arrest rate in state history as police frequently ignore those illegal activities, experts say.
Proposition 47 lowered criminal sentences by reducing them from felonies that can bring long prison sentences to misdemeanors that instead bring up to a year in jail.
Recent state Department of Justice statistics show the number of felony arrests plummeted 28.5 percent last year, while misdemeanor arrests rose about 9 percent over 2014. That resulted in 52,000 fewer arrests overall and the lowest arrest rate since record-keeping began in 1960.
"It's really driven by changes in drug and property arrests," said Public Policy Institute of California researcher Magnus Lofstrom, who studies the issue. "I think it's quite clear that Prop. 47 is the major contributor to the changes we've seen."
Last year's decline in arrests, with the fewest felony arrests since 1969, is part of a long-term decline dating to the 1980s that has been spurred by the law as well as crowded jails and fewer police, Lofstrom said.
It's too soon to say whether the changes are helping spur rising crime rates, though Lofstrom and other researchers are watching the relationship closely.
Law enforcement officials said drug offenders may now commonly be cited and released, or ignored because there may be little penalty if they are arrested. There were about 22,000 fewer drug arrests last year.
"The de facto decriminalization of drugs may have an impact," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, president of the California State Sheriffs' Association. "We do know that there's a lot less arrests being made, which means there are a lot more people on the streets using drugs."
Multiple courts reported an increase in failures to appear for misdemeanor arraignments since Proposition 47 passed, the Judicial Council of California found in a survey of 40 of the state's 58 county superior courts.
"If people aren't showing up in court, if they're not going to go to drug court, we're going to see what we're seeing, which is increased crime rates in our communities," said Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association.
State Department of Justice figures show violent crime jumped 10 percent last year over 2014. Property crimes also increased, including a nearly 12 percent increase in shoplifting and nearly 11 percent increase in thefts, two crimes affected by Proposition 47.
But participation in drug courts has rebounded as counties adapted to Proposition 47 by including it in sentences for those charged with misdemeanors or drug-related crimes such as stealing to support their addictions, said Santa Clara County Judge Stephen Manley.
"I think it's been a fairly dramatic response to getting treatment to the people that need it the most," said Manley, president of the California Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Mel Sargent, 66, and Caroline Sargent, 54, even married on the day they graduated from an 11-month drug court program in March. Sacramento County probation officers bought them wedding rings.
"Before it was always the 'war against drugs,'" Sargent said. "We got to see the other side, the more human side of the probation department and the judiciary."
The initiative has also led to fewer plea bargains, probably because suspects have less incentive to accept plea deals without the threat of a felony conviction or prison time, the Judicial Council found.
It reported that prosecutors also seem to be filing more charges for felony drug sales, identity theft and robbery now that drug possession, writing bad checks and check forgery were reduced to misdemeanors.
"Some DA's offices have tried to charge their way around Prop. 47, no question about it," said John Abrahams, co-chairman of the California Public Defenders Association's legislative committee.
But California District Attorneys Association chief executive Mark Zahner said law enforcement officials may now simply be targeting more serious criminals.
Lenore Anderson, who led the drive to pass Proposition 47, was pleased by reports that there may be an overall improvement in the justice system, even if the initiative is requiring some adjustment.
Law enforcement should accept that drug and property crimes still can bring appropriate punishment, while the changes leave more resources for serious felonies, said Anderson, president and executive director of the reform group Californians for Safety and Justice.
"My highest hope is that we start to really see some innovation that we haven't seen in the past," Anderson said.
For instance, this year's state budget includes $15 million for police to experiment with using case managers and diversion programs to help prostitutes and low-level drug dealers instead of putting them in jail.
Without help, "they're released in a short period of time and go right back to the same situation," said Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who pushed for the funding.
FEDS DISCOVER ANOTHER 15,000 HILLARY EMAILS
By Bob Walsh
The FBI has announced today that they have “discovered” another 15,000 Hillary Clinton emails from the state department debacle. Will anything happen as a result? Unless there is a red-hot smoking gun, probably not. It is possible of course.
t is clear to anyone who isn’t mentally defective that the reason Hillary set up the non-secure and illegal personal server was to insulate her marginally legal or flat-out illegal activities from public or even official scrutiny. So far, lying like a big dog about it has worked for her so it is distinctly possible that it will continue to work.
If push comes to shove she can always pardon herself assuming she gets elected. She would, of course, do so strictly for the benefit of the people so she can continue her tireless work on their behalf without the meaningless and petty distractions of the public finding out how much of a criminal she really is.
In77 days we will determine whether or not or country will be led for the next four years by a well-meaning but possibly politically inept billionaire or a self-aggrandizing racketeer who has sold her office repeatedly for personal profit.
Damn, this shit is fucking scary.
The FBI has announced today that they have “discovered” another 15,000 Hillary Clinton emails from the state department debacle. Will anything happen as a result? Unless there is a red-hot smoking gun, probably not. It is possible of course.
t is clear to anyone who isn’t mentally defective that the reason Hillary set up the non-secure and illegal personal server was to insulate her marginally legal or flat-out illegal activities from public or even official scrutiny. So far, lying like a big dog about it has worked for her so it is distinctly possible that it will continue to work.
If push comes to shove she can always pardon herself assuming she gets elected. She would, of course, do so strictly for the benefit of the people so she can continue her tireless work on their behalf without the meaningless and petty distractions of the public finding out how much of a criminal she really is.
In77 days we will determine whether or not or country will be led for the next four years by a well-meaning but possibly politically inept billionaire or a self-aggrandizing racketeer who has sold her office repeatedly for personal profit.
Damn, this shit is fucking scary.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BARRY’S BATHROOM DECREE
By Bob Walsh
A federal judge in the great state of Texas has block the administrative order of the God-King, Emperor Barack I, to compel school districts to comply with his personal idea of fairness in who gets to use which shitter in public schools.
The temporary injunction was signed on Sunday by U. S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor. The basis of his ruling was the fact that federal law, known as Title IX is completely unambiguous and defines sex as “the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.”
The order, which applies nationwide, does not say anything about the policy regardingtransgender students per se. It merely but effectively addresses the feds not following their own rules when they change the rules.
The great state of Texas and 12 others sued the feds over the order.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Obama can take his LGBT bathroom directive and stick it up his ass! As I’ve said before, them with dicks use the boys’ restrooms, them without dicks use the girls’ restrooms. As for adults, here in Texas, them that has dicks are liable to get shot if they enter a women’s restroom.
A federal judge in the great state of Texas has block the administrative order of the God-King, Emperor Barack I, to compel school districts to comply with his personal idea of fairness in who gets to use which shitter in public schools.
The temporary injunction was signed on Sunday by U. S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor. The basis of his ruling was the fact that federal law, known as Title IX is completely unambiguous and defines sex as “the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.”
The order, which applies nationwide, does not say anything about the policy regardingtransgender students per se. It merely but effectively addresses the feds not following their own rules when they change the rules.
The great state of Texas and 12 others sued the feds over the order.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Obama can take his LGBT bathroom directive and stick it up his ass! As I’ve said before, them with dicks use the boys’ restrooms, them without dicks use the girls’ restrooms. As for adults, here in Texas, them that has dicks are liable to get shot if they enter a women’s restroom.
OBAMAS EPIC FAILURE TO CURB GUN VIOLENCE
Obama doesn’t understand that gun control could never be a panacea for the cultural pathology that leads to gun violence in poor black communities
By Nat Hentoff
Jewish World Review
August 22, 2016
While President Obama is playing golf on Martha's Vineyard, disinterred coffins are floating down the streets of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and more than 11,000 have been left homeless by the worst flooding to hit the state since Hurricane Katrina.
CNN's Don Lemon observed this week that while George W. Bush was criticized for only flying over the flood waters during Katrina's aftermath, Obama couldn't even be bothered to leave the golf course to comfort Americans in crisis.
Many have praised Obama's cool detachment as a sign of steady leadership. But it is more appropriate to characterize it as simply an indifference to the suffering of others. The truth of the matter is that Obama has been blithely watching coffins float by his entire presidency.
That is certainly the case when it comes to the civilian deaths -- which include many children -- caused by U.S. drone strikes in a half-dozen foreign countries. But even more pronounced, and morbidly ironic, is Obama's failure to fight the nationwide epidemic of inner-city gun violence epitomized by his own hometown of Chicago.
In December 2008, the president-elect was asked by an interviewer from the Chicago Tribune whether he would return to his adopted hometown, perhaps on his summer vacations.
"My Kennebunkport is on the South Side of Chicago," Obama responded, referring to George H.W. Bush's traditional vacation home in Maine. "Our friends are here. Our family is here. And so we are going to try to come back here as often as possible ... we're going to try to get back here at least once every six weeks or couple months."
Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii, not Chicago, turned out to be Obama's Kennebunkport. To the extent that he has visited Chicago at all, the infrequent visits have typically been overnight stays without his family.
In 2009, one local newspaper compared Obama's abandonment of Chicago to a guy who leaves his high school girlfriend behind when he moves on to college. The metaphor would be more fitting if the girlfriend had been left behind on life support, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
During the first full weekend of Obama's last presidential vacation on Martha's Vineyard, there were 52 shootings in Chicago, nine of them fatal. During the first three months of this year, shootings in Chicago had increased by 88 percent compared to the same time last year. According to statistics compiled by the Tribune, at least 1,206 children under the age of 17 have been shot since September 2011. At least 114 have been killed.
When viewed through the prism of unrealized potential, Obama's legacy will be that of a failed president. He possessed all of the skills to become a truly transformational leader, but couldn't live up to his true potential.
Frustrated by his inability to pass gun control legislation, Obama failed to launch a campaign against the root causes of the gun violence that has eaten away at the souls of poor black communities. He didn't understand that gun control could never be a panacea for the cultural pathology that leads to gun violence in the first place.
Obama failed to invest himself personally or embrace the grand gestures necessary to launch a movement against the culture of violence that has turned cities like Chicago into war zones. He lacked the vision or the will to do anything about it.
In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi sought to end bloody religious riots in India between Hindus and Muslims through the sheer will of his principles. He vowed to fast until the violence stopped. In a 2007 essay for Time, "Remembering Why Gandhi Starved Himself," Ishaan Tharoor described how "Gandhi broke his fast as weeping rioters laid their machetes at his feet."
Barack Obama, on the other hand, plays golf. And young black Americans continue to die on the streets of Chicago.
By Nat Hentoff
Jewish World Review
August 22, 2016
While President Obama is playing golf on Martha's Vineyard, disinterred coffins are floating down the streets of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and more than 11,000 have been left homeless by the worst flooding to hit the state since Hurricane Katrina.
CNN's Don Lemon observed this week that while George W. Bush was criticized for only flying over the flood waters during Katrina's aftermath, Obama couldn't even be bothered to leave the golf course to comfort Americans in crisis.
Many have praised Obama's cool detachment as a sign of steady leadership. But it is more appropriate to characterize it as simply an indifference to the suffering of others. The truth of the matter is that Obama has been blithely watching coffins float by his entire presidency.
That is certainly the case when it comes to the civilian deaths -- which include many children -- caused by U.S. drone strikes in a half-dozen foreign countries. But even more pronounced, and morbidly ironic, is Obama's failure to fight the nationwide epidemic of inner-city gun violence epitomized by his own hometown of Chicago.
In December 2008, the president-elect was asked by an interviewer from the Chicago Tribune whether he would return to his adopted hometown, perhaps on his summer vacations.
"My Kennebunkport is on the South Side of Chicago," Obama responded, referring to George H.W. Bush's traditional vacation home in Maine. "Our friends are here. Our family is here. And so we are going to try to come back here as often as possible ... we're going to try to get back here at least once every six weeks or couple months."
Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii, not Chicago, turned out to be Obama's Kennebunkport. To the extent that he has visited Chicago at all, the infrequent visits have typically been overnight stays without his family.
In 2009, one local newspaper compared Obama's abandonment of Chicago to a guy who leaves his high school girlfriend behind when he moves on to college. The metaphor would be more fitting if the girlfriend had been left behind on life support, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
During the first full weekend of Obama's last presidential vacation on Martha's Vineyard, there were 52 shootings in Chicago, nine of them fatal. During the first three months of this year, shootings in Chicago had increased by 88 percent compared to the same time last year. According to statistics compiled by the Tribune, at least 1,206 children under the age of 17 have been shot since September 2011. At least 114 have been killed.
When viewed through the prism of unrealized potential, Obama's legacy will be that of a failed president. He possessed all of the skills to become a truly transformational leader, but couldn't live up to his true potential.
Frustrated by his inability to pass gun control legislation, Obama failed to launch a campaign against the root causes of the gun violence that has eaten away at the souls of poor black communities. He didn't understand that gun control could never be a panacea for the cultural pathology that leads to gun violence in the first place.
Obama failed to invest himself personally or embrace the grand gestures necessary to launch a movement against the culture of violence that has turned cities like Chicago into war zones. He lacked the vision or the will to do anything about it.
In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi sought to end bloody religious riots in India between Hindus and Muslims through the sheer will of his principles. He vowed to fast until the violence stopped. In a 2007 essay for Time, "Remembering Why Gandhi Starved Himself," Ishaan Tharoor described how "Gandhi broke his fast as weeping rioters laid their machetes at his feet."
Barack Obama, on the other hand, plays golf. And young black Americans continue to die on the streets of Chicago.
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