Black and HIV-infected inmates being singled out and laid waste by Valley Fever
It looks like a fungus is doing its bit by helping to reduce California’s prison overcrowding.
RECEIVER ORDERS VULNERABLE INMATES OUT OF 2 CALIFORNIA PRISONS TO DEAL WITH FATAL INFECTINS
Associated Press
April 29, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The federal official who controls medical care in California prisons on Monday ordered thousands of high-risk inmates out of two Central Valley prisons in response to dozens of deaths due to Valley fever, which is caused by an airborne fungus.
Medical receiver J. Clark Kelso ordered the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to exclude black, Filipino and other medically risky inmates from Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons because those groups are more susceptible to the fungal infection, which originates in the region’s soil.
Aside from the racial minorities, high-risk inmates include those who are sick, infected with HIV, are undergoing chemotherapy or otherwise have a depressed immune system. In addition to the deaths, the fungus has hospitalized hundreds of inmates.
The order will affect about 40 percent of the more than 8,200 inmates at the two prisons, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the receiver’s office.
“The state of California has known since 2006 that segments of the inmate population were at a greater risk for contracting Valley fever, and mitigation efforts undertaken by CDCR to date have proven ineffective,” she said in an emailed statement. “As a result, the receiver has decided that immediate steps are necessary to prevent further loss of life.”
In response to the receiver’s order Monday, corrections department spokesman Jeffrey Callison said, “To implement this policy directive would be a big undertaking, and we’re reviewing it.”
The department had been focused on trying to minimize the spread of the dust that carries the spores that cause Valley fever.
“If there are ways to reduce or prevent Valley fever, period, regardless of who the inmates are, that would probably be the best thing all around,” Callison said.
Steps include controlling dust measures during construction, giving surgical masks to inmates and employees who request them, and providing education materials to employees and inmates. The corrections department is installing air filters and is considering measures to cover up dusty areas and screen out more dust from entering prison buildings.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT CHARGES ISRAEL WITH COMMITTING A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION BY IMPRISONING PALESTINIANS WHO KILL OR TRY TO KILL JEWS
In a videotaped speech, Jimmy Carter stressed that setting the Palestinian terrorists free is a necessary condition for peace
The international community applies a hypocritical double standard against Israel. Not imprisoning terrorists for killing or trying to kill Jews is akin to the U.S. not imprisoning (or executing) terrorists like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who, along with his brother, killed 3 Bostonians and tried to kill many more.
And the world, including the U.S., wants the Israelis to make suicidal concessions and negotiate a peace treaty with the Palestinians who have vowed to wipe the Jewish State off the map.
Then there is pious Jimmy Carter, who was probably our worst president ever and has deemed Israel an apartheid state, taking sides with the Palestinians for the umpteenth time while professing his love for the Jews.
ABBAS: PALESTINIANS WHO KILL JEWS CANNOT BE PUNISHED
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 29, 2013
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, hailed the world over as a "moderate," again insisted last week that Palestinian Arabs who murder Israeli Jews cannot be punished for their crimes.
Abbas was hosting a two-day "Freedom and Dignity" conference in Ramallah to mark the 11th anniversary of Israel's arrest of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas' own Fatah party who was convicted of directing numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Polls show that a vast majority of Palestinians want to elect Barghouti as their president, if he is every freed by Israel.
At the event, Abbas declared that whether or not Israel frees the thousands of jailed Palestinian terrorists will determine its true commitment to peace.
Many of the Palestinians jailed by Israel took part in attacks that killed innocent Jewish men, women and children. And most of the rest were captured while trying to do so.
According to Abbas, these killers and would-be killers must not be held accountable for their crimes. After all, they were only trying to kill Jews.
Even more shocking than Abbas' position on this matter is the support it receives from America and Europe.
The Freedom and Dignity conference was graced by the presence of Isabelle Durant, vice president of the European Parliament, who Palestinian media reported is making "immense efforts" to win the freedom of the jailed terrorists.
The international community applies a hypocritical double standard against Israel. Not imprisoning terrorists for killing or trying to kill Jews is akin to the U.S. not imprisoning (or executing) terrorists like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who, along with his brother, killed 3 Bostonians and tried to kill many more.
And the world, including the U.S., wants the Israelis to make suicidal concessions and negotiate a peace treaty with the Palestinians who have vowed to wipe the Jewish State off the map.
Then there is pious Jimmy Carter, who was probably our worst president ever and has deemed Israel an apartheid state, taking sides with the Palestinians for the umpteenth time while professing his love for the Jews.
ABBAS: PALESTINIANS WHO KILL JEWS CANNOT BE PUNISHED
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 29, 2013
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, hailed the world over as a "moderate," again insisted last week that Palestinian Arabs who murder Israeli Jews cannot be punished for their crimes.
Abbas was hosting a two-day "Freedom and Dignity" conference in Ramallah to mark the 11th anniversary of Israel's arrest of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas' own Fatah party who was convicted of directing numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Polls show that a vast majority of Palestinians want to elect Barghouti as their president, if he is every freed by Israel.
At the event, Abbas declared that whether or not Israel frees the thousands of jailed Palestinian terrorists will determine its true commitment to peace.
Many of the Palestinians jailed by Israel took part in attacks that killed innocent Jewish men, women and children. And most of the rest were captured while trying to do so.
According to Abbas, these killers and would-be killers must not be held accountable for their crimes. After all, they were only trying to kill Jews.
Even more shocking than Abbas' position on this matter is the support it receives from America and Europe.
The Freedom and Dignity conference was graced by the presence of Isabelle Durant, vice president of the European Parliament, who Palestinian media reported is making "immense efforts" to win the freedom of the jailed terrorists.
THE COLD BLOODED BRUTALITY AND CRUELTY OF THE MEXICAN CARTELS KNOWS NO BOUNDS
One thing I like about Borderland Beat is that it doesn’t hesitate to show pictures and videos of the brutal killings, beheadings and dismemberments perpetrated by members of one Mexican cartel against another. The videos are produced by the cartel members themselves and proudly distributed on the internet for all to see.
I just got through watching three videos. The first one was the torture and decapitation of Commander Bebe , a plaza boss for Los Zetas, at the hands of Gulf Cartel members. They first beat him with a two-by-four. Then they burned him several times with some electric charges, probably from a car battery. That caused him to scream in agony. Finally they cut off his head with a knife, proudly holding up the decapitated head in front of the camera. Borderland Beat describes the message left behind by the Gulf Cartel perpetrators: "This is what is going to happen to all the Zetas that are thinking of entering San Luis Potosi, we demonstrate it with work and not with narco banners. Attentive 'El T' C.D.G."
The next video was made by members of Los Aliados of Guadalajara decapitating and dismembering a Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) member. At the beginning of the video there is text warning: “This is what will happen to all that help El Mencho and his extortionists and kidnappers of CJNG.” The video, which runs for 12 minutes, shows an alive naked man hanging upside down from a tripod. First his head is cut off by one man who proudly holds up the head after the deed is done. Then a second man takes a hand saw and begins to dismember one arm, then the other arm, then one leg and finally the other until the torso drops to the floor. All the time this was going on, music was playing in the background and at one time the man holding the head seemed to be dancing a jig to the music.
The third video shows a young woman being decapitated with a knife by a Zeta. According to the Zetas she had betrayed them. The Zeta cutting off the woman’s head proudly holds it up in front of the camera, then a couple of minutes later he places it on her body. In the video one can hear someone screaming out of view of the camera. It is believed those were the screams of a child.
In the past I’ve watched several other videos on Borderland Beat of people being beheaded by cartel members. I remember one in which three men were beheaded, one with a chainsaw, another with a machete and the third with a hatchet. The man with the machete was having a particularly hard time and it seemed like it took him forever to complete the beheading. Then other men went about dismembering the three corpses with some hatchets.
I mention and describe these videos only to call attention to the cold blooded brutality and cruelty of Mexican cartel members. Here in the U.S. we hear and read about all the killings in Mexico but we are never made aware of the horrible nature of these killings. And unless we beef up our border security, we will be seeing these beheadings and dismemberments within our own country.
I just got through watching three videos. The first one was the torture and decapitation of Commander Bebe , a plaza boss for Los Zetas, at the hands of Gulf Cartel members. They first beat him with a two-by-four. Then they burned him several times with some electric charges, probably from a car battery. That caused him to scream in agony. Finally they cut off his head with a knife, proudly holding up the decapitated head in front of the camera. Borderland Beat describes the message left behind by the Gulf Cartel perpetrators: "This is what is going to happen to all the Zetas that are thinking of entering San Luis Potosi, we demonstrate it with work and not with narco banners. Attentive 'El T' C.D.G."
The next video was made by members of Los Aliados of Guadalajara decapitating and dismembering a Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) member. At the beginning of the video there is text warning: “This is what will happen to all that help El Mencho and his extortionists and kidnappers of CJNG.” The video, which runs for 12 minutes, shows an alive naked man hanging upside down from a tripod. First his head is cut off by one man who proudly holds up the head after the deed is done. Then a second man takes a hand saw and begins to dismember one arm, then the other arm, then one leg and finally the other until the torso drops to the floor. All the time this was going on, music was playing in the background and at one time the man holding the head seemed to be dancing a jig to the music.
The third video shows a young woman being decapitated with a knife by a Zeta. According to the Zetas she had betrayed them. The Zeta cutting off the woman’s head proudly holds it up in front of the camera, then a couple of minutes later he places it on her body. In the video one can hear someone screaming out of view of the camera. It is believed those were the screams of a child.
In the past I’ve watched several other videos on Borderland Beat of people being beheaded by cartel members. I remember one in which three men were beheaded, one with a chainsaw, another with a machete and the third with a hatchet. The man with the machete was having a particularly hard time and it seemed like it took him forever to complete the beheading. Then other men went about dismembering the three corpses with some hatchets.
I mention and describe these videos only to call attention to the cold blooded brutality and cruelty of Mexican cartel members. Here in the U.S. we hear and read about all the killings in Mexico but we are never made aware of the horrible nature of these killings. And unless we beef up our border security, we will be seeing these beheadings and dismemberments within our own country.
THE MYSTERIOUS ‘MISHA’
It looks like ‘Misha’ is just a devout fundamentalist Muslim, not an advocate of jihad.
ALLEGED BOSTON BOMBER’S ‘SVENGALI’ REVEALED
Mysterious 'Misha' turns up in Rhode Island
MCT Newswire
April 29, 2013
For days since the Boston Marathon bombings, people have been searching for the mysterious “Misha,” the friend with the thin red beard who supposedly tutored bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the ways of more pious Islam.
Also hot on his trail was the FBI, which wondered whether “Misha,” described by Tsarnaev family members as an Armenian who converted to Islam, could have known something about Tsarnaev and his brother’s alleged plans to plant homemade bombs at the marathon finish line on April 15.
It appears the mystery is over — solved by no less a heavyweight news organization than the New York Review of Books.
Acting on a tip from someone who knows the Tsarnaevs, writer Christian Caryl traveled to Rhode Island to interview the man: Mikhail Allakhverdov, 39, who is of Armenian-Ukrainian descent.
The FBI had beaten him to to it, having reportedly already interviewed the man described in news accounts all over the world.
“I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Allakhverdov told Caryl, who wrote a blog post for NYR..
Allakhverdov said he had known the elder Tsarnaev brother in Boston, where he lived until about three years ago, but had not had contact with him since.
“I’ve been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything. I wanted to show I haven’t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me. And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case,” he said.
Interest in “Misha” — a common nickname for Mikhail — began when several relatives of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, said the young man had seemed to fall under the influence of a man they could remember only as Misha. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police.
As outlined in a profile of the two bombing suspects in the Los Angeles Times, the two would talk for hours about religion. Tsarnaev’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said she and her son met Misha at the home of Armenian friends and she saw him as a positive influence on her son.
“We liked him a lot at first glance, and soon invited him home,” she said. “Misha had a talent to speak about things, especially Islam, in a manner that made you sit still and listen to him with an open mouth. And Tamerlan looked up to him the same way too. “
When he moved to another state — apparently Rhode Island — he visited only occasionally. “We were all very sorry that Misha was gone,” she said.
Tsarnaev’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni has painted Misha's influence on his nephew in less charitable terms, saying the young man’s father was resentful of the time his son spent with Misha and felt that he “took his brain away.”
“Anzor came in, with Misha sitting there, and said, ‘Who is this person, and why is he still here?’ And the mother said, ‘Back off, back off. He’s teaching your son important things, about life and goodness,'” Tsarni related.
But Tsarni said other family members didn’t see Tsarnaev’s growing religious devotion as positive. “From a young person with ambition and inspiration, he turned into something else.”
Allakhverdov’s family told Caryl that they formerly lived in the capital of the predominantly Muslim country of Azerbaijan but left in the early 1990s to escape growing persecution of Armenian Christians there. He confirmed that he had converted to Islam.
ALLEGED BOSTON BOMBER’S ‘SVENGALI’ REVEALED
Mysterious 'Misha' turns up in Rhode Island
MCT Newswire
April 29, 2013
For days since the Boston Marathon bombings, people have been searching for the mysterious “Misha,” the friend with the thin red beard who supposedly tutored bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the ways of more pious Islam.
Also hot on his trail was the FBI, which wondered whether “Misha,” described by Tsarnaev family members as an Armenian who converted to Islam, could have known something about Tsarnaev and his brother’s alleged plans to plant homemade bombs at the marathon finish line on April 15.
It appears the mystery is over — solved by no less a heavyweight news organization than the New York Review of Books.
Acting on a tip from someone who knows the Tsarnaevs, writer Christian Caryl traveled to Rhode Island to interview the man: Mikhail Allakhverdov, 39, who is of Armenian-Ukrainian descent.
The FBI had beaten him to to it, having reportedly already interviewed the man described in news accounts all over the world.
“I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Allakhverdov told Caryl, who wrote a blog post for NYR..
Allakhverdov said he had known the elder Tsarnaev brother in Boston, where he lived until about three years ago, but had not had contact with him since.
“I’ve been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything. I wanted to show I haven’t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me. And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case,” he said.
Interest in “Misha” — a common nickname for Mikhail — began when several relatives of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, said the young man had seemed to fall under the influence of a man they could remember only as Misha. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police.
As outlined in a profile of the two bombing suspects in the Los Angeles Times, the two would talk for hours about religion. Tsarnaev’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said she and her son met Misha at the home of Armenian friends and she saw him as a positive influence on her son.
“We liked him a lot at first glance, and soon invited him home,” she said. “Misha had a talent to speak about things, especially Islam, in a manner that made you sit still and listen to him with an open mouth. And Tamerlan looked up to him the same way too. “
When he moved to another state — apparently Rhode Island — he visited only occasionally. “We were all very sorry that Misha was gone,” she said.
Tsarnaev’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni has painted Misha's influence on his nephew in less charitable terms, saying the young man’s father was resentful of the time his son spent with Misha and felt that he “took his brain away.”
“Anzor came in, with Misha sitting there, and said, ‘Who is this person, and why is he still here?’ And the mother said, ‘Back off, back off. He’s teaching your son important things, about life and goodness,'” Tsarni related.
But Tsarni said other family members didn’t see Tsarnaev’s growing religious devotion as positive. “From a young person with ambition and inspiration, he turned into something else.”
Allakhverdov’s family told Caryl that they formerly lived in the capital of the predominantly Muslim country of Azerbaijan but left in the early 1990s to escape growing persecution of Armenian Christians there. He confirmed that he had converted to Islam.
LETTER TO THE PASSPORT OFFICE
The Unconventional Gazette
April 29, 2013
Dear Mrs., Ms. or Sir:
I'm in the process of renewing my passport and still cannot believe this. I ALREADY HAVE ONE!!!! How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a cable TV from them in 1987 (26 years ago), and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date. For Christ's sake, do you guys do this by hand? Ever heard of computers?
My birth date you have in my social security file. It's on EVERY income tax form I'vefiled for the past 30 years. It's on my Medicare health insurance card and my driver's license, it's on the last eight damned passports I've had, it's on every stupid customs declaration form I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane for the last 30 years. And it's on all those census forms that we have to do at election times. Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Maryanne, my father's name is Robert and I'm reasonably confident that neither name is likely to change between now and when I die.
Between you and me, I've had enough of this bureaucratic bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my #*&#%*& address. What is going on? You must have a gang of bureaucratic Neanderthal morons working there! Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? And "No," I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a damn whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!
Well, I have to go now because I have to go to the other end of the city and get another #*@&#^@*@ copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $100. Would it be so difficult to have all the services in the same area so I could get a new passport the same day? Nooooo, that would require planning and organization. And it would be too logical for the @&^*^%@% government. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off. Then, we have to find some asshole to confirm that it's really me in the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile.
Hey, you know why we can't smile? We're totally pissed off!
Signed /……………/
April 29, 2013
Dear Mrs., Ms. or Sir:
I'm in the process of renewing my passport and still cannot believe this. I ALREADY HAVE ONE!!!! How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a cable TV from them in 1987 (26 years ago), and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date. For Christ's sake, do you guys do this by hand? Ever heard of computers?
My birth date you have in my social security file. It's on EVERY income tax form I'vefiled for the past 30 years. It's on my Medicare health insurance card and my driver's license, it's on the last eight damned passports I've had, it's on every stupid customs declaration form I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane for the last 30 years. And it's on all those census forms that we have to do at election times. Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Maryanne, my father's name is Robert and I'm reasonably confident that neither name is likely to change between now and when I die.
Between you and me, I've had enough of this bureaucratic bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my #*&#%*& address. What is going on? You must have a gang of bureaucratic Neanderthal morons working there! Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? And "No," I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a damn whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!
Well, I have to go now because I have to go to the other end of the city and get another #*@&#^@*@ copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $100. Would it be so difficult to have all the services in the same area so I could get a new passport the same day? Nooooo, that would require planning and organization. And it would be too logical for the @&^*^%@% government. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off. Then, we have to find some asshole to confirm that it's really me in the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile.
Hey, you know why we can't smile? We're totally pissed off!
Signed /……………/
Monday, April 29, 2013
BOSTON BOMBINGS MIRANDIZING CONTROVERSY
I’ve never cared for the Miranda Warning. We wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for the fact that there are some clucks in law enforcement – and that includes prosecutors – who in their eagerness to make a case and get a conviction, will disregard the Constitutional rights afforded a criminal defendant.
In the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, I hesitate to criticize the DOJ or the judge who came in to advise him of his rights. The courts have ruled there is only a small amount of time a suspect can be questioned in terrorism cases before the Miranda Warning must be given. The rulings made no exception for a suspect who is hospitalized.
What we are talking about here is the Public Safety Exception to the Miranda Warning. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested April 19 and was not mirandized until April 22. Whether we like it or not, his Miranda rights started the moment he was taken into custody and that public safety exception time limit had been well exceeded before he was advised of his rights.
Furthermore, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz does not think the public safety exception even applies in this case. According to HuffPost, Dershowitz said that the government made a huge mistake by waiting so long to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “There was never a basis for the public safety exception. As you know, when they announced it, the police had already announced that the public safety danger was over, they had arrested everybody.”
Some members of Congress have said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should have been declared an ‘enemy combatant’ so that Miranda would not apply in his case. However, some legal experts say we could not legally declare Dzhokhar Tsarnaev an enemy combatant because he is a U.S. citizen who planned and committed his act within the U.S. and was captured within the U.S. Had we captured any of the 9/11 terrorists, we would have declared them enemy combatants because they were foreign nationals who planned their attacks outside the U.S., probably in Saudi Arabia, and came to the U.S. from the Middle East to carry out their plans.
HOLDER DEFENDS MIRANDIZING BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT
By Todd Beamon
Newsmax
April 27, 2013
Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday defended the decision to read the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon terror bombings his Miranda rights.
Holder said the decision was “totally consistent with the laws that we have.”
He also pointed to the federal magistrate on the case.
“The decision to Mirandize was one that the magistrate made,” Holder told CNN as he arrived at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington.
Early on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler showed up at the hospital unannounced with a federal prosecutor and public defender while the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was being questioned by the FBI.
He was under interrogation for about 16 hours when Bowler read him his Miranda rights, according to news reports. The FBI thought it had 36 to 48 hours to question Tsarnaev under the pre-Miranda public-safety exemption.
The 19-year-old suspect was arrested four days after the April 15 blasts and was transferred on Friday to Federal Medical Center Devens, an all-male prison outside Boston.
Tsarnaev is being treated for gunshot wounds to the neck and leg sustained in a fierce shootout with police earlier on April 19 that killed his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan.
“We had a two-day period under where authorities questioned him under the public-safety exception,” Holder told CNN on Saturday, referring to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “Everything was done appropriately, and we got good leads.”
The attorney general also declined to comment on reports that Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which Tamerlan vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.
She also was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, the FBI might have had enough evidence to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.
In the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, I hesitate to criticize the DOJ or the judge who came in to advise him of his rights. The courts have ruled there is only a small amount of time a suspect can be questioned in terrorism cases before the Miranda Warning must be given. The rulings made no exception for a suspect who is hospitalized.
What we are talking about here is the Public Safety Exception to the Miranda Warning. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested April 19 and was not mirandized until April 22. Whether we like it or not, his Miranda rights started the moment he was taken into custody and that public safety exception time limit had been well exceeded before he was advised of his rights.
Furthermore, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz does not think the public safety exception even applies in this case. According to HuffPost, Dershowitz said that the government made a huge mistake by waiting so long to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “There was never a basis for the public safety exception. As you know, when they announced it, the police had already announced that the public safety danger was over, they had arrested everybody.”
Some members of Congress have said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should have been declared an ‘enemy combatant’ so that Miranda would not apply in his case. However, some legal experts say we could not legally declare Dzhokhar Tsarnaev an enemy combatant because he is a U.S. citizen who planned and committed his act within the U.S. and was captured within the U.S. Had we captured any of the 9/11 terrorists, we would have declared them enemy combatants because they were foreign nationals who planned their attacks outside the U.S., probably in Saudi Arabia, and came to the U.S. from the Middle East to carry out their plans.
HOLDER DEFENDS MIRANDIZING BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT
By Todd Beamon
Newsmax
April 27, 2013
Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday defended the decision to read the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon terror bombings his Miranda rights.
Holder said the decision was “totally consistent with the laws that we have.”
He also pointed to the federal magistrate on the case.
“The decision to Mirandize was one that the magistrate made,” Holder told CNN as he arrived at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington.
Early on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler showed up at the hospital unannounced with a federal prosecutor and public defender while the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was being questioned by the FBI.
He was under interrogation for about 16 hours when Bowler read him his Miranda rights, according to news reports. The FBI thought it had 36 to 48 hours to question Tsarnaev under the pre-Miranda public-safety exemption.
The 19-year-old suspect was arrested four days after the April 15 blasts and was transferred on Friday to Federal Medical Center Devens, an all-male prison outside Boston.
Tsarnaev is being treated for gunshot wounds to the neck and leg sustained in a fierce shootout with police earlier on April 19 that killed his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan.
“We had a two-day period under where authorities questioned him under the public-safety exception,” Holder told CNN on Saturday, referring to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “Everything was done appropriately, and we got good leads.”
The attorney general also declined to comment on reports that Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which Tamerlan vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.
She also was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, the FBI might have had enough evidence to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.
MT. EVEREST NOT EXACTLY THE BEST PLACE FOR A FISTFIGHT
This fight occurred on the Nepalese side of Everest. I’ve been to the Everest base camp in Tibet. In 2001, even after training hard for three months to withstand the high Tibetan altitudes, just hiking the short distance from the Rongbuk Monastery (elevation 16,498 feet) to the Mt. Everest mountaineer base camp (elevation 17,056 feet) left me exhausted and gasping for air. It is hard for me to fathom how those European climbers could have had a ‘fierce fight’ at the altitude where the fistfight occurred.
The last people any Everest climbers should ever get in a fight with are their Sherpas. Their lives depend on these highly skilled Himalayan mountaineering guides.
FISTICUFFS AT 7,000 METERS: SWISS AND ITALIAN EVEREST CLIMBERS GET INTO A FIGHT WITH THEIR SHERPAS AS THEY GET CLOSE TO SUMMIT
Fierce fight with their Sherpas happened at 7,000m, close to Camp 3 and the 8,848m summit
By Richard Shears
Mail Online
April 28, 2013
It was a crime scene that police admitted they were not even going to attempt to reach - because it was near the peak of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
Two European climbers were reported today to have been involved in a fierce fight with their Sherpas at 7,000m, close to Camp 3 and not far from the 8,848m summit.
According to unconfirmed reports, fists flew in the snow as Simboli Moro, an Italian climber, and Wool Stick, from Switzerland got into a punch-up with the guides.
Following the fierce fight, the European climbers were warned by radio from the climb organizers that they should return to base camp, which they reached late on Saturday afternoon.
But there they were told to remain because, said reports, they would cause further friction if they attempted to continue on their way back to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
‘We’ve warned them not to try to leave at this time because we fear further trouble,’ said Mr Ngima Nuru Sherpa, director of Choyu Treks, which helped organize the climb.
‘They cannot leave base camp until the Government of Nepal can ensure their security.’
The cause of the fight has still to be revealed, but the fact that the two Europeans have been warned to stay where they are for their own safety suggests that the animosity between them and their guides has not been calmed.
‘If the climbers are thrashed during the rest of their journey it will not give a positive message about this country,’ said Mr Sherpa.
‘It would bring disrepute to our country’s security and managerial system.’
Mr Sitaram Karki, Chief District Officer of the Solukhumbu region of Mt Everest, said today that he and his officers were deeply disturbed at hearing of the fight - and he suggested that it was the guides who had started it.
‘We’re committed to arresting those guilty of this incident and we will provide all necessary security to the foreigners,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately the area is out of our reach due to the distance.
‘But I can say that we have received the news that the foreigners were thrashed and as a result we are going to deploy our team immediately and hopefully we will be able to reach an area where we can talk to everybody.’
The last people any Everest climbers should ever get in a fight with are their Sherpas. Their lives depend on these highly skilled Himalayan mountaineering guides.
FISTICUFFS AT 7,000 METERS: SWISS AND ITALIAN EVEREST CLIMBERS GET INTO A FIGHT WITH THEIR SHERPAS AS THEY GET CLOSE TO SUMMIT
Fierce fight with their Sherpas happened at 7,000m, close to Camp 3 and the 8,848m summit
By Richard Shears
Mail Online
April 28, 2013
It was a crime scene that police admitted they were not even going to attempt to reach - because it was near the peak of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
Two European climbers were reported today to have been involved in a fierce fight with their Sherpas at 7,000m, close to Camp 3 and not far from the 8,848m summit.
According to unconfirmed reports, fists flew in the snow as Simboli Moro, an Italian climber, and Wool Stick, from Switzerland got into a punch-up with the guides.
Following the fierce fight, the European climbers were warned by radio from the climb organizers that they should return to base camp, which they reached late on Saturday afternoon.
But there they were told to remain because, said reports, they would cause further friction if they attempted to continue on their way back to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
‘We’ve warned them not to try to leave at this time because we fear further trouble,’ said Mr Ngima Nuru Sherpa, director of Choyu Treks, which helped organize the climb.
‘They cannot leave base camp until the Government of Nepal can ensure their security.’
The cause of the fight has still to be revealed, but the fact that the two Europeans have been warned to stay where they are for their own safety suggests that the animosity between them and their guides has not been calmed.
‘If the climbers are thrashed during the rest of their journey it will not give a positive message about this country,’ said Mr Sherpa.
‘It would bring disrepute to our country’s security and managerial system.’
Mr Sitaram Karki, Chief District Officer of the Solukhumbu region of Mt Everest, said today that he and his officers were deeply disturbed at hearing of the fight - and he suggested that it was the guides who had started it.
‘We’re committed to arresting those guilty of this incident and we will provide all necessary security to the foreigners,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately the area is out of our reach due to the distance.
‘But I can say that we have received the news that the foreigners were thrashed and as a result we are going to deploy our team immediately and hopefully we will be able to reach an area where we can talk to everybody.’
USDA ROLLS OUT NEW SCHOOL BRUNCH PROGRAM FOR WEALTHIER SCHOOL DISTRICTS
The Onion
April 26, 2013
WASHINGTON—Declaring that every affluent child in America has the right to a well-balanced brunch, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the launch of a $40 million school brunch program aimed at distributing brioche french toast and smoked salmon to the nation’s richest school districts.
“We found that 70 percent of students in wealthy communities were not receiving their recommended allowance of eggs Benedict and fresh-squeezed orange juice,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Friday. “Quite simply, we believe all children of privilege deserve a proper, well-composed brunch plate with complimentary jalapeno cornbread mini muffins and honey butter on the side. With this new program, we can finally begin to offer the superior culinary experience that until now has been sorely missing in school cafeterias from Greenwich, CT to Palo Alto, CA.”
Department officials said that if its brunch program proves successful, they remain open to the possibility of spending an additional $80 million annually to add live jazz music.
April 26, 2013
WASHINGTON—Declaring that every affluent child in America has the right to a well-balanced brunch, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the launch of a $40 million school brunch program aimed at distributing brioche french toast and smoked salmon to the nation’s richest school districts.
“We found that 70 percent of students in wealthy communities were not receiving their recommended allowance of eggs Benedict and fresh-squeezed orange juice,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Friday. “Quite simply, we believe all children of privilege deserve a proper, well-composed brunch plate with complimentary jalapeno cornbread mini muffins and honey butter on the side. With this new program, we can finally begin to offer the superior culinary experience that until now has been sorely missing in school cafeterias from Greenwich, CT to Palo Alto, CA.”
Department officials said that if its brunch program proves successful, they remain open to the possibility of spending an additional $80 million annually to add live jazz music.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
CALIFORNIA POLITICAL CARTOONIST MOCKS FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSION THAT KILLED 14 AND DEVASTATED A TEXAS TOWN
The first panel of a cartoon by Jack Ohman, The Sacramento Bee’s political cartoonist, depicts Texas Governor Rick Perry bragging that “Business Is Booming,” flanked by signs reading “Low Tax!” and “Low Regs!” The second panel reads “Boom” and shows a huge explosion behind Perry and his signs. The cartoon was published in Thursday’s edition of The Bee, a week after a fertilizer plant blew up in the small town of West, Texas.
The cartoon was a despicable cheap shot at Gov. Perry for daring to invite California businesses to relocate to Texas. Jack Ohman, the cartoonist, would be well advised not to ever set foot in the Lone Star State because some irate Texans are likely to kick the shit out of his sorry ass, without thinking twice.
Texans would not line their bird cages with The Sacramento Bee. Its editorial page editor tries to make Texas look like Bangladesh, saying that its industries operate under dangerous working conditions and blaming the explosion on a lack of regulations and the absence of safety inspections. He also accuses Gov. Perry of personally gambling with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations.
Gov. Perry is not gambling with the lives of families. It’s just that Texas’ businesses are not uber-regulated and its citizens and businesses are not uber-taxed like those in the former Golden State, now the Rusty Iron State.
Ohman and The Sacramento Bee are a sorry, low-down, no-class act. They capitalized on and made light of a tragic catastrophe that killed 14, injured more than 160 and devastated a small town in order to get back at Gov. Perry for trying to entice businesses away from California. You can’t get any lower than that!
TEXAS GOV. PERRY DEMANDS APOLOGY FOR EXPLOSION CARTOON
Associated Press
April 27, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he's disgusted a California newspaper ran a cartoon that depicts him boasting about booming business in Texas, then shows an explosion, a week after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people in a Texas town.
Perry said he wants an apology from the Sacramento Bee on behalf of the town.
The cartoon in Thursday's edition shows Perry crowing that "Business is Booming," flanked by signs saying "Low Tax!" and "'Low Regs!" It's a play on the Republican's often-repeated mantra that his state's low-regulation, business-friendly climate has its economy humming.
The next panel reads "Boom!" as a blast engulfs the area behind the governor and his signs.
An April 17 explosion in the town of West, which is outside Waco, left a crater more than 90 feet wide and is estimated to have caused more than $100 million in damage. The blast occurred moments after a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer plant.
Ten of the people killed were first responders who rushed to the nighttime blaze.
In a letter to the Bee's editor, Perry said it "was with extreme disgust and disappointment I viewed your recent cartoon."
"While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won't stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans," Perry wrote. "Additionally, publishing this on the very day our state and nation paused to honor and mourn those who died only compounds the pain and suffering of the many Texans who lost family and friends in this disaster."
President Barack Obama was among those who attended a memorial service for the explosion victims Thursday at Baylor University in Waco.
The Bee's editorial page editor, Stuart Leavenworth, responded Friday that the artist, Jack Ohman, "made a strong statement about Gov. Rick Perry's disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas a place where industries can thrive with few regulations."
"It is unfortunate that Gov. Perry, and some on the blogosphere, have attempted to interpret the cartoon as being disrespectful for the victims of this tragedy," Leavenworth said. "As Ohman has made clear on his blog, he has complete empathy for the victims and people living by the plant.
"What he finds offensive is a governor who would gamble with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations. Perry's letter is an attempt to distract people from that message."
Ohman defended his cartoon with an Internet post, noting that the fertilizer plant "had not been inspected by the state of Texas since 2006" and that many "Texas cities have little or no zoning, resulting in homes being permitted next to sparely inspected businesses that store explosive chemicals."
"My job, as I understand it, is to be provocative," Ohman wrote. "I provoke, you decide. I don't dictate, I put out my opinion along with everyone else. I sign my name. I own it. In my opinion, I could have gone further. Much further."
California has seen Perry's touting of his state's pro-business prowess firsthand. In February, a public-private Texas marketing firm ran radio ads featuring Perry denigrating California's taxes and regulation, and then Perry traveled there to recruit jobs. He made a similar trip — this time backed by a print-media ad buy — to Chicago this past week.
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, also a Republican, called for Ohman to be fired.
"I think it's reprehensible for a member of the media to sit in safety and mock such a profound tragedy regardless of any 'point' he is trying to make," Dewhurst said.
Perry, meanwhile, wrote that the newspaper "owes the community of West, Texas, an immediate apology for your detestable attempt at satire."
Ohman posted that he had received "varying levels of concern about the cartoon depicting Gov. Rick Perry's marketing of Texas' loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas," but that he would draw the cartoon again without thinking twice.
The cartoon was a despicable cheap shot at Gov. Perry for daring to invite California businesses to relocate to Texas. Jack Ohman, the cartoonist, would be well advised not to ever set foot in the Lone Star State because some irate Texans are likely to kick the shit out of his sorry ass, without thinking twice.
Texans would not line their bird cages with The Sacramento Bee. Its editorial page editor tries to make Texas look like Bangladesh, saying that its industries operate under dangerous working conditions and blaming the explosion on a lack of regulations and the absence of safety inspections. He also accuses Gov. Perry of personally gambling with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations.
Gov. Perry is not gambling with the lives of families. It’s just that Texas’ businesses are not uber-regulated and its citizens and businesses are not uber-taxed like those in the former Golden State, now the Rusty Iron State.
Ohman and The Sacramento Bee are a sorry, low-down, no-class act. They capitalized on and made light of a tragic catastrophe that killed 14, injured more than 160 and devastated a small town in order to get back at Gov. Perry for trying to entice businesses away from California. You can’t get any lower than that!
TEXAS GOV. PERRY DEMANDS APOLOGY FOR EXPLOSION CARTOON
Associated Press
April 27, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he's disgusted a California newspaper ran a cartoon that depicts him boasting about booming business in Texas, then shows an explosion, a week after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people in a Texas town.
Perry said he wants an apology from the Sacramento Bee on behalf of the town.
The cartoon in Thursday's edition shows Perry crowing that "Business is Booming," flanked by signs saying "Low Tax!" and "'Low Regs!" It's a play on the Republican's often-repeated mantra that his state's low-regulation, business-friendly climate has its economy humming.
The next panel reads "Boom!" as a blast engulfs the area behind the governor and his signs.
An April 17 explosion in the town of West, which is outside Waco, left a crater more than 90 feet wide and is estimated to have caused more than $100 million in damage. The blast occurred moments after a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer plant.
Ten of the people killed were first responders who rushed to the nighttime blaze.
In a letter to the Bee's editor, Perry said it "was with extreme disgust and disappointment I viewed your recent cartoon."
"While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won't stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans," Perry wrote. "Additionally, publishing this on the very day our state and nation paused to honor and mourn those who died only compounds the pain and suffering of the many Texans who lost family and friends in this disaster."
President Barack Obama was among those who attended a memorial service for the explosion victims Thursday at Baylor University in Waco.
The Bee's editorial page editor, Stuart Leavenworth, responded Friday that the artist, Jack Ohman, "made a strong statement about Gov. Rick Perry's disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas a place where industries can thrive with few regulations."
"It is unfortunate that Gov. Perry, and some on the blogosphere, have attempted to interpret the cartoon as being disrespectful for the victims of this tragedy," Leavenworth said. "As Ohman has made clear on his blog, he has complete empathy for the victims and people living by the plant.
"What he finds offensive is a governor who would gamble with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations. Perry's letter is an attempt to distract people from that message."
Ohman defended his cartoon with an Internet post, noting that the fertilizer plant "had not been inspected by the state of Texas since 2006" and that many "Texas cities have little or no zoning, resulting in homes being permitted next to sparely inspected businesses that store explosive chemicals."
"My job, as I understand it, is to be provocative," Ohman wrote. "I provoke, you decide. I don't dictate, I put out my opinion along with everyone else. I sign my name. I own it. In my opinion, I could have gone further. Much further."
California has seen Perry's touting of his state's pro-business prowess firsthand. In February, a public-private Texas marketing firm ran radio ads featuring Perry denigrating California's taxes and regulation, and then Perry traveled there to recruit jobs. He made a similar trip — this time backed by a print-media ad buy — to Chicago this past week.
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, also a Republican, called for Ohman to be fired.
"I think it's reprehensible for a member of the media to sit in safety and mock such a profound tragedy regardless of any 'point' he is trying to make," Dewhurst said.
Perry, meanwhile, wrote that the newspaper "owes the community of West, Texas, an immediate apology for your detestable attempt at satire."
Ohman posted that he had received "varying levels of concern about the cartoon depicting Gov. Rick Perry's marketing of Texas' loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas," but that he would draw the cartoon again without thinking twice.
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO PROSECUTE HOLOCAUST PERPETRATORS
Hans Lipschis, a member of the SS Death’s Head Battalion, claims he was unaware of the wholesale slaughter at Auschwitz, saying he was just a cook. Yeah, right.
AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP GUARD, 93, FACES NEW TRIAL AS GERMANY MAKES DESPERATE BID TO JAIL 50 FORMER SS MEN BEFORE THEY DIE PEACEFULLY OF OLD AGE
Conviction of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 set precedent making it enough to have just served at extermination site
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
April 26, 2013
German prosecutors have started proceedings against a former Auschwitz death camp guard in a last ditch bid to bring 50 former SS men to trial before they die peacefully of old age.
Hans Lipschis, 93, is expected to be the first person brought to court after investigations were launched by German officials several weeks ago into the Auschwitz guards who escaped scot free after WW2.
Prosecutors in Stuttgart this week confirmed the criminal probe launched against him.
Lipschis, who was born in Lithuania in 1919 and was granted 'ethnic German' status in 1943, is accused of working at Auschwitz-Birkenau as a member of the S.S. from 1941 to 1945. He is suspected of participating in murder and genocide.
Lipschis’ name was added a few weeks ago to a list of wanted Nazi criminals published by Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's office in Israel.
Over 1.2 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland during the war.
A German newspaper tracked Lipschis down to a retirement home near Stuttgart where he denied the charges, claimed he knew nothing about the horrors committed at the extermination camp and said he was a 'cook for the entire time I was there.'
But paperwork has surfaced that shows he was a member of the SS–Totenkopf Sturmbann, or Death’s Head Battalion, which guarded the camp.
These were the men who also supervised the unloading of the trains which brought the doomed victims from all over Europe to Auschwitz.
In the past German prosecutors have relied on eyewitness testimony or paperwork when bringing murder charges against suspected war criminals.
But the conviction of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 in Munich set a new precedent whereby it was enough for people to have served at a site of mass extermination without specific acts being proved.
In 1956 Lipschis fled to the United States and lived in Chicago for 26 years, but was deported to Germany in 1983 after being identified by the U.S. as a Nazi war criminal.
Because of the precedent set in the Demjanjuk case, prosecutors are planning to put him on trial without any specific knowledge of what he did during his time there.
'It is almost certain that he will be the first to be brought to court,' stated the German newspaper Die Welt.
Kurt Schrimm, who heads the German office for investigating Nazi crimes, said the investigations had already led to information about numerous suspects, all of whom reside in Germany and are about 90 years old.
AUSCHWITZ DEATH CAMP GUARD, 93, FACES NEW TRIAL AS GERMANY MAKES DESPERATE BID TO JAIL 50 FORMER SS MEN BEFORE THEY DIE PEACEFULLY OF OLD AGE
Conviction of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 set precedent making it enough to have just served at extermination site
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
April 26, 2013
German prosecutors have started proceedings against a former Auschwitz death camp guard in a last ditch bid to bring 50 former SS men to trial before they die peacefully of old age.
Hans Lipschis, 93, is expected to be the first person brought to court after investigations were launched by German officials several weeks ago into the Auschwitz guards who escaped scot free after WW2.
Prosecutors in Stuttgart this week confirmed the criminal probe launched against him.
Lipschis, who was born in Lithuania in 1919 and was granted 'ethnic German' status in 1943, is accused of working at Auschwitz-Birkenau as a member of the S.S. from 1941 to 1945. He is suspected of participating in murder and genocide.
Lipschis’ name was added a few weeks ago to a list of wanted Nazi criminals published by Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's office in Israel.
Over 1.2 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland during the war.
A German newspaper tracked Lipschis down to a retirement home near Stuttgart where he denied the charges, claimed he knew nothing about the horrors committed at the extermination camp and said he was a 'cook for the entire time I was there.'
But paperwork has surfaced that shows he was a member of the SS–Totenkopf Sturmbann, or Death’s Head Battalion, which guarded the camp.
These were the men who also supervised the unloading of the trains which brought the doomed victims from all over Europe to Auschwitz.
In the past German prosecutors have relied on eyewitness testimony or paperwork when bringing murder charges against suspected war criminals.
But the conviction of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 in Munich set a new precedent whereby it was enough for people to have served at a site of mass extermination without specific acts being proved.
In 1956 Lipschis fled to the United States and lived in Chicago for 26 years, but was deported to Germany in 1983 after being identified by the U.S. as a Nazi war criminal.
Because of the precedent set in the Demjanjuk case, prosecutors are planning to put him on trial without any specific knowledge of what he did during his time there.
'It is almost certain that he will be the first to be brought to court,' stated the German newspaper Die Welt.
Kurt Schrimm, who heads the German office for investigating Nazi crimes, said the investigations had already led to information about numerous suspects, all of whom reside in Germany and are about 90 years old.
CHUTZPAH: FIRED ALCOHOLIC COP SUES FOR GETTING FIRED
Arresting officer: Servo was probably one of the top 10 most intoxicated people he had arrested in almost 15 years of drunken-driving investigations
This cop and his bottom-feeding lawyer have some nerve filing a lawsuit over his firing. The claimed disability notwithstanding, a police force can ill afford to keep drunken alcoholics on the job. This lawsuit defines the meaning of chutzpah.
FIRED OREGON OFFICER: ALCOHOLISM WAS A DISABILITY
By Steven DuBois
Associated Press
April 26, 2013
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A police officer fired for driving drunk in an unmarked police car while off-duty has filed a $6 million lawsuit against the city of Gresham, the police chief and others, alleging his rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lawsuit filed in Portland alleged the officer, Jason Servo, was suffering from alcoholism, a recognized disability under the act, and shouldn't have been dismissed.
The suit also alleged Servo was denied due process, and the police union failed to represent him adequately.
"Just as with any type of disability or disease, they should have made some kind of effort to accommodate that, or some kind of effort to work with him, and not simply sever all ties," said Shawn Kollie, one of Servo's attorneys.
Police Chief Craig Junginger was out of the office Friday. City spokeswoman Laura Shepard said officials would not discuss the case because their policy is to not talk about pending litigation.
Servo, 43, was arrested in January 2011 after he crashed into a ditch while off-duty. The lawsuit said that Servo, a detective who was the department's lead firearms instructor, had taken the police vehicle to a firearms training session in the nearby city of Troutdale. He later joined fellow officers for dinner and drinks.
"This was a common practice among (Gresham) officers and had become an inherent part of the culture," according to the lawsuit filed late Thursday.
Servo was alone when his vehicle veered into a ditch and he was not hurt. Though Servo refused to take breath or field sobriety tests, the Clackamas County sheriff's deputy who arrested him later testified before the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training that Servo was probably one of the top 10 most intoxicated people he had arrested in almost 15 years of drunken-driving investigations.
Two months after the accident, Servo pleaded guilty to drunken driving and entered a diversion program. He fulfilled the program's requirements and the DUI was dismissed.
Servo also voluntarily entered an in-patient program at a Serenity Lane drug-and-alcohol treatment center, where he was diagnosed as an alcoholic.
"There were times where I went home and I couldn't get crime scenes out of my head; I went to drinking for that and there are other officers that do the same thing," Servo said Friday, adding that he has now been sober for 818 days.
The lawsuit alleged the chief fired Servo to save money, ignoring the known disability of alcoholism.
"I know it sounds kind of like a conspiracy theorist's claim," Kollie said, "but we do believe there was a funding issue in the Gresham police department at the time."
It could not immediately be determined how common it is for alcoholics to claim their rights have been violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in a fact sheet, provides an example of how an alcoholic can justly be fired, and it's similar to the Servo case.
In its example, a federal police officer is involved in an accident for which he is charged with drunken driving. About a month later, he gets a termination notice stating that his conduct makes it inappropriate for him to continue. The officer says the arrest made him realize he is an alcoholic and that he is obtaining treatment. According to the EEOC, the employer may proceed with the firing.
The example, of course, is not precise because Servo's crash happened while he was off-duty.
"The ADA has provisions in it, across the board, to not require employers to subject other people to unreasonable risk to accommodate a disability," said Bob Joondeph, executive director with Disability Rights Oregon.
Joondeph said he couldn't comment on any specifics in the Servo case, but generally accommodations for an alcoholic might include letting the worker attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — not allowing them to drink on the job or drive drunk.
Separate from the lawsuit, Servo is appealing the standards-and-training agency's decision to strip him of his police certification.
Servo is currently working as a private investigator.
This cop and his bottom-feeding lawyer have some nerve filing a lawsuit over his firing. The claimed disability notwithstanding, a police force can ill afford to keep drunken alcoholics on the job. This lawsuit defines the meaning of chutzpah.
FIRED OREGON OFFICER: ALCOHOLISM WAS A DISABILITY
By Steven DuBois
Associated Press
April 26, 2013
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A police officer fired for driving drunk in an unmarked police car while off-duty has filed a $6 million lawsuit against the city of Gresham, the police chief and others, alleging his rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lawsuit filed in Portland alleged the officer, Jason Servo, was suffering from alcoholism, a recognized disability under the act, and shouldn't have been dismissed.
The suit also alleged Servo was denied due process, and the police union failed to represent him adequately.
"Just as with any type of disability or disease, they should have made some kind of effort to accommodate that, or some kind of effort to work with him, and not simply sever all ties," said Shawn Kollie, one of Servo's attorneys.
Police Chief Craig Junginger was out of the office Friday. City spokeswoman Laura Shepard said officials would not discuss the case because their policy is to not talk about pending litigation.
Servo, 43, was arrested in January 2011 after he crashed into a ditch while off-duty. The lawsuit said that Servo, a detective who was the department's lead firearms instructor, had taken the police vehicle to a firearms training session in the nearby city of Troutdale. He later joined fellow officers for dinner and drinks.
"This was a common practice among (Gresham) officers and had become an inherent part of the culture," according to the lawsuit filed late Thursday.
Servo was alone when his vehicle veered into a ditch and he was not hurt. Though Servo refused to take breath or field sobriety tests, the Clackamas County sheriff's deputy who arrested him later testified before the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training that Servo was probably one of the top 10 most intoxicated people he had arrested in almost 15 years of drunken-driving investigations.
Two months after the accident, Servo pleaded guilty to drunken driving and entered a diversion program. He fulfilled the program's requirements and the DUI was dismissed.
Servo also voluntarily entered an in-patient program at a Serenity Lane drug-and-alcohol treatment center, where he was diagnosed as an alcoholic.
"There were times where I went home and I couldn't get crime scenes out of my head; I went to drinking for that and there are other officers that do the same thing," Servo said Friday, adding that he has now been sober for 818 days.
The lawsuit alleged the chief fired Servo to save money, ignoring the known disability of alcoholism.
"I know it sounds kind of like a conspiracy theorist's claim," Kollie said, "but we do believe there was a funding issue in the Gresham police department at the time."
It could not immediately be determined how common it is for alcoholics to claim their rights have been violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in a fact sheet, provides an example of how an alcoholic can justly be fired, and it's similar to the Servo case.
In its example, a federal police officer is involved in an accident for which he is charged with drunken driving. About a month later, he gets a termination notice stating that his conduct makes it inappropriate for him to continue. The officer says the arrest made him realize he is an alcoholic and that he is obtaining treatment. According to the EEOC, the employer may proceed with the firing.
The example, of course, is not precise because Servo's crash happened while he was off-duty.
"The ADA has provisions in it, across the board, to not require employers to subject other people to unreasonable risk to accommodate a disability," said Bob Joondeph, executive director with Disability Rights Oregon.
Joondeph said he couldn't comment on any specifics in the Servo case, but generally accommodations for an alcoholic might include letting the worker attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — not allowing them to drink on the job or drive drunk.
Separate from the lawsuit, Servo is appealing the standards-and-training agency's decision to strip him of his police certification.
Servo is currently working as a private investigator.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
STRAW PURCHASE IN MISSISSIPPI LED TO DEATH OF CHICAGO COP
When a gun dealer is careless in the sale of a gun to a straw purchaser and that sale eventually leads to the death of a person at the hands of robbers, a lawsuit against the dealer is a righteous lawsuit.
PAWNSHOP SUED IN CHICAGO OFFICER’S DEATH
UPI
April 25, 2013
CHICAGO — The family of a slain Chicago police officer says it filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against a Mississippi pawn shop that sold the pistol used in the slaying.
Chicago police officer Thomas Wortham IV was an Iraqi war veteran gunned down in front of his parents' home in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood home three years ago, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The suit was filed in Mississippi where the Smith & Wesson handgun was sold at a pawn shop in an illegal straw purchase in May 2007, the Tribune said.
The handgun then was sold again illegally by a gun trafficker who supplied handguns to the Gangster Disciples street gang in Chicago, and ended up in the hands of four alleged gang members, the Tribune reported.
The four accosted Wortham outside his parents' home and tried to rob him of his new motorcycle.
The newspaper said Wortham pulled his own handgun and identified himself as a police officer. Wortham and his retired police officer father got into a gunfight with the four, and Wortham and one of his assailants were killed, the Tribune said.
The Smith & Wesson that is the target of the suit was found at the scene.
The suit says Ed's Pawn Shop and Salvage Yard failed to follow guidelines on how to detect a straw purchaser, the newspaper said.
In a straw purchase, a buyer without a criminal past buys a gun for someone else who would not pass a background check.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is assisting Wortham's family in the suit and announced it in Chicago.
PAWNSHOP SUED IN CHICAGO OFFICER’S DEATH
UPI
April 25, 2013
CHICAGO — The family of a slain Chicago police officer says it filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against a Mississippi pawn shop that sold the pistol used in the slaying.
Chicago police officer Thomas Wortham IV was an Iraqi war veteran gunned down in front of his parents' home in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood home three years ago, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The suit was filed in Mississippi where the Smith & Wesson handgun was sold at a pawn shop in an illegal straw purchase in May 2007, the Tribune said.
The handgun then was sold again illegally by a gun trafficker who supplied handguns to the Gangster Disciples street gang in Chicago, and ended up in the hands of four alleged gang members, the Tribune reported.
The four accosted Wortham outside his parents' home and tried to rob him of his new motorcycle.
The newspaper said Wortham pulled his own handgun and identified himself as a police officer. Wortham and his retired police officer father got into a gunfight with the four, and Wortham and one of his assailants were killed, the Tribune said.
The Smith & Wesson that is the target of the suit was found at the scene.
The suit says Ed's Pawn Shop and Salvage Yard failed to follow guidelines on how to detect a straw purchaser, the newspaper said.
In a straw purchase, a buyer without a criminal past buys a gun for someone else who would not pass a background check.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is assisting Wortham's family in the suit and announced it in Chicago.
PRISON THERAPIST TREATING SEX OFFENDERS HAS SEX WITH SEX OFFENDER SHE WAS TREATING
It seems that this therapist has a greater need for therapy than the sex offender she had sex with.
THERAPIST RESIGNS FOLLOWING INAPPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SEX OFFENDER
Nicole Hensley
The Spokesman-Review
April 18, 2013
SPOKANE, Washington -- Airway Heights Corrections Center officials confirmed today that a female employee resigned because of an inappropriate relationship with a male sex offender.
The employee, a therapist in the Sex Offender Treatment Program, voluntarily resigned April 11 when corrections staff discovered an offender being victimized, corrections spokeswoman Risa Klemme said.
Employee guidelines do not allow relationships between offenders and staff, Klemme said, and the facility has zero tolerance for sexual harassment or inappropriate relations.
“Sometimes staff choose to ignore that and do things they shouldn’t,” Klemme said. “Nobody deserves to be sexually exploited or raped in prison.”
The Airway Heights Police Department is investigating the incident for criminal charges, Sgt. Robert Swan said Thursday. Officers were called to the prison at 4:10 p.m. on April 11 after the employee was confronted by her supervisors, he said.
Both agencies declined to release the former employee’s name or the nature of the inappropriate relations.
Swan said the employee would face a charge of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct if formal charges are filed. Washington state law describes that charge as perpetrator employed by a correctional agency having sexual intercourse with a resident of a prison.
There have been few incidents of inappropriate relations in recent years, Klemme added.
There are 19 staff members in the Sexual Offender Treatment Program including therapists and support staff. There are 108 offenders currently participating in the program, Klemme said.
The program manages sex offenders in prison as they undergo sexual deviancy treatment, according to the Washington Department of Corrections website.
Airway Heights Corrections Center is a medium-level custody facility for male offenders.
THERAPIST RESIGNS FOLLOWING INAPPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SEX OFFENDER
Nicole Hensley
The Spokesman-Review
April 18, 2013
SPOKANE, Washington -- Airway Heights Corrections Center officials confirmed today that a female employee resigned because of an inappropriate relationship with a male sex offender.
The employee, a therapist in the Sex Offender Treatment Program, voluntarily resigned April 11 when corrections staff discovered an offender being victimized, corrections spokeswoman Risa Klemme said.
Employee guidelines do not allow relationships between offenders and staff, Klemme said, and the facility has zero tolerance for sexual harassment or inappropriate relations.
“Sometimes staff choose to ignore that and do things they shouldn’t,” Klemme said. “Nobody deserves to be sexually exploited or raped in prison.”
The Airway Heights Police Department is investigating the incident for criminal charges, Sgt. Robert Swan said Thursday. Officers were called to the prison at 4:10 p.m. on April 11 after the employee was confronted by her supervisors, he said.
Both agencies declined to release the former employee’s name or the nature of the inappropriate relations.
Swan said the employee would face a charge of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct if formal charges are filed. Washington state law describes that charge as perpetrator employed by a correctional agency having sexual intercourse with a resident of a prison.
There have been few incidents of inappropriate relations in recent years, Klemme added.
There are 19 staff members in the Sexual Offender Treatment Program including therapists and support staff. There are 108 offenders currently participating in the program, Klemme said.
The program manages sex offenders in prison as they undergo sexual deviancy treatment, according to the Washington Department of Corrections website.
Airway Heights Corrections Center is a medium-level custody facility for male offenders.
HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICERS BEING OUTFITTED FOR TOTAL WAR
With all the ammunition it buys, DHS must be outfitting its agents to repel an invasion of the U.S. by the People’s Liberation Army of China.
HOMELAND SECURITY CHALLENGED IN HEARING ON BULLET BUYS
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 25, 2013
The Department of Homeland Security is being asked why it has 1,000 more bullets per person than the U.S. Army during a hearing held by House subcommittees on Thursday.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said that the Army uses about 350 rounds per soldier, while DHS goes through 1,300 to 1,600 rounds per officer, Fox News reported.
Chaffetz called the usage “inexplicable.”
Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., called the questions "conspiracy theories" and said they had no place in the committee room. But Republicans said their concerns were based on government waste.
Websites and circulated emails have claimed the bullet-buys were in preparation for civil unrest. Homeland Security has denied that, saying they were needed for training and for officers to have when doing their jobs.
“This is not about conspiracy theories, this is about good government," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said during Thursday’s hearing.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he thinks the bullets are being stockpiled and then being disposed of, given to nonfederal agencies or simply shot "indiscriminately,” Fox reported.
Issa said if that is true, "then shame on you."
HOMELAND SECURITY CHALLENGED IN HEARING ON BULLET BUYS
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 25, 2013
The Department of Homeland Security is being asked why it has 1,000 more bullets per person than the U.S. Army during a hearing held by House subcommittees on Thursday.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said that the Army uses about 350 rounds per soldier, while DHS goes through 1,300 to 1,600 rounds per officer, Fox News reported.
Chaffetz called the usage “inexplicable.”
Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., called the questions "conspiracy theories" and said they had no place in the committee room. But Republicans said their concerns were based on government waste.
Websites and circulated emails have claimed the bullet-buys were in preparation for civil unrest. Homeland Security has denied that, saying they were needed for training and for officers to have when doing their jobs.
“This is not about conspiracy theories, this is about good government," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said during Thursday’s hearing.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he thinks the bullets are being stockpiled and then being disposed of, given to nonfederal agencies or simply shot "indiscriminately,” Fox reported.
Issa said if that is true, "then shame on you."
CONVICTED ROBBER SUES CITY OF OAKLAND BECAUSE COP SHOT HIM
Step 1, commit armed robbery. Step 2, flee from cops. Step 3, get shot by cop. Step 4, get sent to prison, Step 5, sue city for cop shooting you
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 26, 2013
Tony Ray Jones, 25, got his first armed robbery beef at age 14. In January he was sentenced to prison for another armed robbery in Oakland that occurred in February of 2012. He was seen fleeing by a cop who pursued the vehicle he was in and stopped it.
Jones fled with a gun in his hand. The cop shot him (admittedly in the back). As it turned out, he had dropped the gun just before being shot, which the cop could not easily see under the circumstances. He is now suing the city for $10 million. His lawyer is still asserting that his client is innocent, even though the cops snagged a letter mailed by Jones from jail asking a friend to eliminate witnesses against him.
Jones is a cousin to the late and lamented Oscar Grant III who was shot and killed by a BART police officer in Oakland on New Year’s Day in 2009.
Jones was sentenced to 15 years. The money will buy him lots of skittles in the slammer, assuming he wins his case.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 26, 2013
Tony Ray Jones, 25, got his first armed robbery beef at age 14. In January he was sentenced to prison for another armed robbery in Oakland that occurred in February of 2012. He was seen fleeing by a cop who pursued the vehicle he was in and stopped it.
Jones fled with a gun in his hand. The cop shot him (admittedly in the back). As it turned out, he had dropped the gun just before being shot, which the cop could not easily see under the circumstances. He is now suing the city for $10 million. His lawyer is still asserting that his client is innocent, even though the cops snagged a letter mailed by Jones from jail asking a friend to eliminate witnesses against him.
Jones is a cousin to the late and lamented Oscar Grant III who was shot and killed by a BART police officer in Oakland on New Year’s Day in 2009.
Jones was sentenced to 15 years. The money will buy him lots of skittles in the slammer, assuming he wins his case.
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT MEN LIE MORE THAN WOMEN?
At least when it comes to cars they do.
MEN LIE ABOUT THEIR CARS!
Car Pro News
April 24, 2013
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
A woman runs out of the house one morning, late for work. As she whips open the driver’s side door, she notices a scar/dent/ding on the front fender.
She stops what she’s doing, dashes back into the house, and asks her husband what happened to the car. He replies, “I don’t know. I just noticed it myself. Someone must’ve hit me in the parking lot the other day.”
Is he telling the truth?
There’s a good possibility the answer is no.
We know that because the folks at Insure.com recently polled 1,000 married adults — half men, half women. During the survey, respondents were asked a series of questions about when, if ever, they’d lied to their spouses about speeding tickets, insurance payments, accidents, and other issues related to the family car(s).
Once the data was tabulated, it painted a not so very flattering picture of America’s husbands. Here are some of the results*:
Have you ever dinged the family car and put the blame on someone else?
Husbands: 42% said yes
Wives: 27% said yes
Have you ever gotten a traffic ticket and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 34% said yes
Wives: 16% said yes
Have you ever had a car accident and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 31%
Wives: 17%
Have you ever forgotten to pay your car insurance note and avoided telling your spouse about it?
Husbands: 23%
Wives: 15%
Have you ever driven without auto insurance and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 21%
Wives: 9%
So, men, if your wife says she doesn’t know anything about an accident that’s mysteriously appeared on your insurance report, chances are, she’s telling the truth. Women, we can’t necessarily say the same of your husbands.
MEN LIE ABOUT THEIR CARS!
Car Pro News
April 24, 2013
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
A woman runs out of the house one morning, late for work. As she whips open the driver’s side door, she notices a scar/dent/ding on the front fender.
She stops what she’s doing, dashes back into the house, and asks her husband what happened to the car. He replies, “I don’t know. I just noticed it myself. Someone must’ve hit me in the parking lot the other day.”
Is he telling the truth?
There’s a good possibility the answer is no.
We know that because the folks at Insure.com recently polled 1,000 married adults — half men, half women. During the survey, respondents were asked a series of questions about when, if ever, they’d lied to their spouses about speeding tickets, insurance payments, accidents, and other issues related to the family car(s).
Once the data was tabulated, it painted a not so very flattering picture of America’s husbands. Here are some of the results*:
Have you ever dinged the family car and put the blame on someone else?
Husbands: 42% said yes
Wives: 27% said yes
Have you ever gotten a traffic ticket and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 34% said yes
Wives: 16% said yes
Have you ever had a car accident and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 31%
Wives: 17%
Have you ever forgotten to pay your car insurance note and avoided telling your spouse about it?
Husbands: 23%
Wives: 15%
Have you ever driven without auto insurance and not told your husband/wife?
Husbands: 21%
Wives: 9%
So, men, if your wife says she doesn’t know anything about an accident that’s mysteriously appeared on your insurance report, chances are, she’s telling the truth. Women, we can’t necessarily say the same of your husbands.
Friday, April 26, 2013
RUSSELL LARSEN’S TOMBSTONE
The Unconventional Gazette
April 26, 2013
Here are the five rules for men to follow for a happy life that Russell J. Larsen had inscribed on his headstone in Logan, Utah.
He died not knowing that he would win the "Coolest Headstone" contest.
FIVE RULES FOR MEN TO FOLLOW FOR A HAPPY LIFE:
1. It's important to have a woman who helps at home, cooks from time to time, cleans up, and has a job.
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust, and doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed, and likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very important that these four women do not know each other or you could end up dead like me.
April 26, 2013
Here are the five rules for men to follow for a happy life that Russell J. Larsen had inscribed on his headstone in Logan, Utah.
He died not knowing that he would win the "Coolest Headstone" contest.
FIVE RULES FOR MEN TO FOLLOW FOR A HAPPY LIFE:
1. It's important to have a woman who helps at home, cooks from time to time, cleans up, and has a job.
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust, and doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed, and likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very important that these four women do not know each other or you could end up dead like me.
WHY NOT HEROIN, COCAINE, METH, POT?
If cops need to train using drunken volunteers to observe signs of intoxication, why not also train using volunteers to observe signs of being high on heroin, cocaine, meth and pot? In my opinion, the training conducted by the Suffolk County police is a waste of officers’ time and taxpayer’s money.
On the other hand, retired state police lieutenant Trey Rusk wrote: “The State of Texas has been doing this for years. As a TABC district supervisor, I was asked to provide seized alcoholic beverages to police academies within the district. I attended a Nastagmus Gaze Test class where civilian volunteers were given alcoholic beverages so the officers could use the techniques learned. There was also a group that did not drink and they were put in the test group so the officers could perform the tests on a sober person and see the difference. Nothing new here, except Texas did it bigger and better!”
DRUNK VOLUNTEERS HELP POLICE TRAIN IN SUFFOLK COUNTY
by Josh Einiger
WABC
April 24, 2013
GREAT RIVER, N.Y. -- With boating season on the horizon, there was a special training session on Long Island.
Suffolk County officers who patrol the water were taught how to spot drunken boaters, and it had them actually interacting with drunken volunteers.
The volunteers were paid to get plastered.
Three Suffolk County workers and one spouse were plied by Suffolk County Police with drink after drink after drink.
"Oh my God, I'm so drunk. It's not funny," a female volunteer said.
"We actually intentionally dose volunteers, uh, alcohol," said Officer Charles Boyle, Suffolk County Police Department.
It's all to get them above the legal limit of .08% to display the physiological signs cops can use as probable cause for an arrest.
"We really need the real live intoxicated people so we can do the standardized field sobriety testing in a real life atmosphere," Boyle said.
With the summer boating season fast approaching, Suffolk County leaders are placing extra emphasis on this kind of training, as they plan stepped up enforcement on the water.
The emphasis comes in the wake of a spate of drunken boating incidents last summer, one of them fatal.
While the drinkers were partying, Marine Patrolmen, Coast Guard officers and other cops were studying them.
Then in the police academy gymnasium they put their knowledge to work.
They had to guess the drinkers' blood alcohol content before getting an official reading.
Police hope this extra knowledge will help keep people safer on the water, and it also was a great lesson for Chris Kelly, who was still blowing a .12, before he realized he was too drunk to drive.
"I shouldn't be driving home, I should either be arrested, or, should I be locked up and taken to jail," said Chris Kelly, a volunteer.
On the other hand, retired state police lieutenant Trey Rusk wrote: “The State of Texas has been doing this for years. As a TABC district supervisor, I was asked to provide seized alcoholic beverages to police academies within the district. I attended a Nastagmus Gaze Test class where civilian volunteers were given alcoholic beverages so the officers could use the techniques learned. There was also a group that did not drink and they were put in the test group so the officers could perform the tests on a sober person and see the difference. Nothing new here, except Texas did it bigger and better!”
DRUNK VOLUNTEERS HELP POLICE TRAIN IN SUFFOLK COUNTY
by Josh Einiger
WABC
April 24, 2013
GREAT RIVER, N.Y. -- With boating season on the horizon, there was a special training session on Long Island.
Suffolk County officers who patrol the water were taught how to spot drunken boaters, and it had them actually interacting with drunken volunteers.
The volunteers were paid to get plastered.
Three Suffolk County workers and one spouse were plied by Suffolk County Police with drink after drink after drink.
"Oh my God, I'm so drunk. It's not funny," a female volunteer said.
"We actually intentionally dose volunteers, uh, alcohol," said Officer Charles Boyle, Suffolk County Police Department.
It's all to get them above the legal limit of .08% to display the physiological signs cops can use as probable cause for an arrest.
"We really need the real live intoxicated people so we can do the standardized field sobriety testing in a real life atmosphere," Boyle said.
With the summer boating season fast approaching, Suffolk County leaders are placing extra emphasis on this kind of training, as they plan stepped up enforcement on the water.
The emphasis comes in the wake of a spate of drunken boating incidents last summer, one of them fatal.
While the drinkers were partying, Marine Patrolmen, Coast Guard officers and other cops were studying them.
Then in the police academy gymnasium they put their knowledge to work.
They had to guess the drinkers' blood alcohol content before getting an official reading.
Police hope this extra knowledge will help keep people safer on the water, and it also was a great lesson for Chris Kelly, who was still blowing a .12, before he realized he was too drunk to drive.
"I shouldn't be driving home, I should either be arrested, or, should I be locked up and taken to jail," said Chris Kelly, a volunteer.
SYMBOLISM WITH LITTLE IMPACT
GE’s loan business had nothing to lose because its withdrawal from gun financing affected fewer than 75 stores.
GE CAPITAL STOPS LENDING TO GUN SHOPS
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 25, 2013
GE Capital has stopped financing gun purchases.
GE Capital is the second large company to get out of the firearms business, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cerberus Capital Management announced days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, that killed 26, that it was trying to sell Freedom Group Inc., maker of Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and H&R guns.
GE Capital spokesman Russell Wilkerson told the Journal the company’s decision was based on "industry changes, new legislation and tragic events."
Sandy Hook is not far from GE’s Fairfield, Conn. headquarters, and several employees have children who attend, the Journal notes. The father of the shooter, Adam Lanza, is a GE executive.
Despite the size of GE Capital, its departure from the gun financing business will have little impact on the market, the Journal notes. Few gun buyers finance their purchases, anyway. Shop owners said the financing option did get some customers to buy more accessories.
And GE’s action affects fewer than 75 stores. It continues to do business with retailers such as Wal-Mart which sell guns as part of their business.
GE entered the gun financing business in 2006 and stopped taking new customers two years later. The businesses affected by the new ban were those grandfathered in by GE in 2008.
Some smaller companies are already filling the gap left by GE Capital. Gun Financing focuses on younger men with credit issues who want high-end rifles for sport shooting. Law Enforcement Finance caters to police officers.
GE CAPITAL STOPS LENDING TO GUN SHOPS
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 25, 2013
GE Capital has stopped financing gun purchases.
GE Capital is the second large company to get out of the firearms business, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cerberus Capital Management announced days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, that killed 26, that it was trying to sell Freedom Group Inc., maker of Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and H&R guns.
GE Capital spokesman Russell Wilkerson told the Journal the company’s decision was based on "industry changes, new legislation and tragic events."
Sandy Hook is not far from GE’s Fairfield, Conn. headquarters, and several employees have children who attend, the Journal notes. The father of the shooter, Adam Lanza, is a GE executive.
Despite the size of GE Capital, its departure from the gun financing business will have little impact on the market, the Journal notes. Few gun buyers finance their purchases, anyway. Shop owners said the financing option did get some customers to buy more accessories.
And GE’s action affects fewer than 75 stores. It continues to do business with retailers such as Wal-Mart which sell guns as part of their business.
GE entered the gun financing business in 2006 and stopped taking new customers two years later. The businesses affected by the new ban were those grandfathered in by GE in 2008.
Some smaller companies are already filling the gap left by GE Capital. Gun Financing focuses on younger men with credit issues who want high-end rifles for sport shooting. Law Enforcement Finance caters to police officers.
TEACHER DISRUPTED BY NRA T-SHIRT (UPDATE)
Arrest and suspension of eighth-grade student shows that our education system suffers from the presence of too many educated idiot educators
The sight of a T-shirt displaying the NRA logo and a rifle with pistol grip and detachable magazine disrupted only the mind of a teacher and was not ‘disrupting the educational process’ as school officials claim. However, the actions of the teacher and school officials ended up disrupting an entire school, if not the entire school district.
STUDENT RETURNS TO SCHOOL WEARING SAME NRA SHIRT THAT LED TO SUSPENSION, ARREST
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 24, 2013
An eighth-grader who was suspended from school and led away in handcuffs by police after an argument with a teacher over his NRA T-shirt returned to school this week – wearing that same shirt that started all the fuss.
Other students in Logan, W.Va., wore NRA T-shirts to school Monday in solidarity with 14-year-old Jared Marcum.
Jared said he wore the shirt because he wanted to make a stand for the Second Amendment. When a teacher told him during lunch to take it off or wear it inside out, he said he tried to engage him in debate. He has told media outlets that he was not aggressive.
The T-shirt featured a hunting rifle and a logo for the National Rifle Association with the words, “Protect Your Right.”
The school’s dress code states that clothing cannot display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages, or sexually suggestive phrases or advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, or drug products. It doesn’t mention the NRA or images of guns.
"My belief is that if the teacher could have applied some common sense and say, 'I think that violates the dress code. Let me check with the dress code,'" Jared’s lawyer Ben White told ABCNews.com.
White said he has requested a copy of the video surveillance camera that likely captured the original confrontation and that a civil suit is planned.
ABC reports that Logan City Police Chief E.K. Harper said the teen wasn’t arrested for wearing the T-shirt, but "disrupting the school process."
"His conduct in school almost incited a riot," Harper told ABC.
Jared’s lawyer denies that, saying that video evidence will show that students did get onto lunchroom tables as the teen was being taken from the building by officers, “Kids jumped up, clapping. Teachers said to get off and be quiet, and they did."
The sight of a T-shirt displaying the NRA logo and a rifle with pistol grip and detachable magazine disrupted only the mind of a teacher and was not ‘disrupting the educational process’ as school officials claim. However, the actions of the teacher and school officials ended up disrupting an entire school, if not the entire school district.
STUDENT RETURNS TO SCHOOL WEARING SAME NRA SHIRT THAT LED TO SUSPENSION, ARREST
By Greg Richter
Newsmax
April 24, 2013
An eighth-grader who was suspended from school and led away in handcuffs by police after an argument with a teacher over his NRA T-shirt returned to school this week – wearing that same shirt that started all the fuss.
Other students in Logan, W.Va., wore NRA T-shirts to school Monday in solidarity with 14-year-old Jared Marcum.
Jared said he wore the shirt because he wanted to make a stand for the Second Amendment. When a teacher told him during lunch to take it off or wear it inside out, he said he tried to engage him in debate. He has told media outlets that he was not aggressive.
The T-shirt featured a hunting rifle and a logo for the National Rifle Association with the words, “Protect Your Right.”
The school’s dress code states that clothing cannot display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages, or sexually suggestive phrases or advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, or drug products. It doesn’t mention the NRA or images of guns.
"My belief is that if the teacher could have applied some common sense and say, 'I think that violates the dress code. Let me check with the dress code,'" Jared’s lawyer Ben White told ABCNews.com.
White said he has requested a copy of the video surveillance camera that likely captured the original confrontation and that a civil suit is planned.
ABC reports that Logan City Police Chief E.K. Harper said the teen wasn’t arrested for wearing the T-shirt, but "disrupting the school process."
"His conduct in school almost incited a riot," Harper told ABC.
Jared’s lawyer denies that, saying that video evidence will show that students did get onto lunchroom tables as the teen was being taken from the building by officers, “Kids jumped up, clapping. Teachers said to get off and be quiet, and they did."
AL SHARPTON PROBABLY WON’T SHOW UP IN HOUSTON
Poor Otis Morris is locked up because Houston’s white racist cops are too dumb to figure out that the only way a 48-year-old man can defend himself against his dangerous 79-year-old unarmed mother is by slashing her in the face, head and chest. ‘The devil made me do it’ probably would have been a more believable excuse. I don’t think Otis can count on Al Sharpton to lead any protests on his behalf.
OTIS MORRIS SLASHES HIS 79-YEAR-OLD MOTHER, CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE, COPS SAY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 25, 2013
We guess if you're accused of slashing your 79-year-old mother in the face, head and chest, you need to come up with some excuse.
We might not have gone with "self-defense," but then again we don't think we'd ever find ourselves facing allegations of attacking our granny. (Then again, she's been gone for years.)
Otis Morris, 48, decided to tell cops he pulled out a blade and went to work on his mother all in self-defense. A little investigation made the cops leery, and Morris has been charged with injury to eldery causing serious bodily injury.
He and his mother, Delores Morris, got into an argument at their home in the 5800 block of Heron Street Wednesday afternoon, police say.
"At some point, Morris slashed his mother several times with a blade, causing her injuries," police say. She is in Ben Taub General Hospital in serious condition.
He told cops he had been acting in self-defense, but after they lowered their raised eyebrows and unrolled their eyes they decided, as HPD elegantly puts it, that "evidence from the scene determined Otis Morris' statements were not consistent with the injuries his mother sustained."
OTIS MORRIS SLASHES HIS 79-YEAR-OLD MOTHER, CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE, COPS SAY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 25, 2013
We guess if you're accused of slashing your 79-year-old mother in the face, head and chest, you need to come up with some excuse.
We might not have gone with "self-defense," but then again we don't think we'd ever find ourselves facing allegations of attacking our granny. (Then again, she's been gone for years.)
Otis Morris, 48, decided to tell cops he pulled out a blade and went to work on his mother all in self-defense. A little investigation made the cops leery, and Morris has been charged with injury to eldery causing serious bodily injury.
He and his mother, Delores Morris, got into an argument at their home in the 5800 block of Heron Street Wednesday afternoon, police say.
"At some point, Morris slashed his mother several times with a blade, causing her injuries," police say. She is in Ben Taub General Hospital in serious condition.
He told cops he had been acting in self-defense, but after they lowered their raised eyebrows and unrolled their eyes they decided, as HPD elegantly puts it, that "evidence from the scene determined Otis Morris' statements were not consistent with the injuries his mother sustained."
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH NOT REALLY SURE WHY THEY’RE PICKETING ALLAN ARBUS’ FUNERAL
The Onion
April 25, 2013
LOS ANGELES—Picketing outside a cemetery in Los Angeles today, members of the Westboro Baptist Church confirmed to reporters that they actually aren’t entirely sure why they chose to protest the funeral of television actor Allan Arbus.
“Wait, who is this guy again? Some sort of TV star?” said church member Jill Holland while trying to find any real reason whatsoever why the death of Arbus, a fashion-photographer-turned-actor best known for his role as Dr. Freedman in the popular sitcom M*A*S*H, was God’s way of punishing America for its moral decay and cultural decadence. “As far as I know, he wasn’t gay or bisexual, or the victim of a high-profile mass shooting or terror attack, or an American soldier killed in combat or anything like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re just holding ‘God Hates Fags’ signs outside the funeral of some 95-year-old man who used to be on television for a while.”
At press time, church members had overheard that Arbus was of Jewish descent and said, “Okay, well, that’s something.”
April 25, 2013
LOS ANGELES—Picketing outside a cemetery in Los Angeles today, members of the Westboro Baptist Church confirmed to reporters that they actually aren’t entirely sure why they chose to protest the funeral of television actor Allan Arbus.
“Wait, who is this guy again? Some sort of TV star?” said church member Jill Holland while trying to find any real reason whatsoever why the death of Arbus, a fashion-photographer-turned-actor best known for his role as Dr. Freedman in the popular sitcom M*A*S*H, was God’s way of punishing America for its moral decay and cultural decadence. “As far as I know, he wasn’t gay or bisexual, or the victim of a high-profile mass shooting or terror attack, or an American soldier killed in combat or anything like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re just holding ‘God Hates Fags’ signs outside the funeral of some 95-year-old man who used to be on television for a while.”
At press time, church members had overheard that Arbus was of Jewish descent and said, “Okay, well, that’s something.”
Thursday, April 25, 2013
BLACK GUERILA FAMILY PRISON INMATE FATHERED FIVE CHILDREN WITH FOUR FEMALE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS
13 female correctional officers, seven inmates and five others with gang ties have been charged with plotting to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into the Baltimore jail and other corrections facilities
“Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein told the Washington Post. They sure were, in more ways than one!
State Senator Lisa A. Gladden (D-Baltimore), who works as a public defender in Baltimore when the legislature is not in session, said the large percentage of female correctional officers at the detention center contributed to the problem. “A lot of times, they become smitten with the inmates. [The inmates] talk really sweet and say really nice things, and the CO’s fall for them. You need to have a bunch of rough, ugly men.”
I wonder what the feminists think about those four female correctional officers getting knocked up by the same prison inmate, one of them twice? Although they would rather die than admit it, them uppity feminists have gotta think he’s a real stud and many will fantasize getting laid by him.
25 BGF, INCLUDING 13 FEMALE STAFF MOLES, INDICTED
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 23, 2013
Twenty-five members and associates of the Black Guerilla Family, including 13 female Corrections Officers, were indicted today in Baltimore, MD on federal charges of racketeering as well as smuggling contraband into prison.
Ten men and 15 women were arrested for actions principally attached to the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC), though other facilities were involved. The Correctional Officers are allegedly to have interfered with investigations, smuggled cell phones, and arranged favored treatment for BGF members.
The principle actor, Tavon White, a prisoner within BCDC, has had long-term sexual relationships with four of the female correctional officers, all four of whom became pregnant, one twice, as a result.
The indictments were the result of the Maryland Prison Task Force, an interagency group that has been looking into BCDC for two years.
“Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein told the Washington Post. They sure were, in more ways than one!
State Senator Lisa A. Gladden (D-Baltimore), who works as a public defender in Baltimore when the legislature is not in session, said the large percentage of female correctional officers at the detention center contributed to the problem. “A lot of times, they become smitten with the inmates. [The inmates] talk really sweet and say really nice things, and the CO’s fall for them. You need to have a bunch of rough, ugly men.”
I wonder what the feminists think about those four female correctional officers getting knocked up by the same prison inmate, one of them twice? Although they would rather die than admit it, them uppity feminists have gotta think he’s a real stud and many will fantasize getting laid by him.
25 BGF, INCLUDING 13 FEMALE STAFF MOLES, INDICTED
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 23, 2013
Twenty-five members and associates of the Black Guerilla Family, including 13 female Corrections Officers, were indicted today in Baltimore, MD on federal charges of racketeering as well as smuggling contraband into prison.
Ten men and 15 women were arrested for actions principally attached to the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC), though other facilities were involved. The Correctional Officers are allegedly to have interfered with investigations, smuggled cell phones, and arranged favored treatment for BGF members.
The principle actor, Tavon White, a prisoner within BCDC, has had long-term sexual relationships with four of the female correctional officers, all four of whom became pregnant, one twice, as a result.
The indictments were the result of the Maryland Prison Task Force, an interagency group that has been looking into BCDC for two years.
ONLY ROUGH, UGLY MEN NEED APPLY
By Ima Schmuck
The Unconventional Gazette
April 24, 2013
BALTIMORE, Maryland -- 13 female correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were charged Tuesday with allowing gang members of the Black Guerilla Family to smuggle drugs and cell phones into the prison. One inmate gang leader fathered five children with four of the arrested correctional officers. That probably explains why Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein told the Washington Post that “Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates.”
State Senator Lisa A. Gladden, D-Baltimore, told the Post that the large percentage of female correctional officers at the detention center contributed to the problem. “A lot of times, they become smitten with the inmates. [The inmates] talk really sweet and say really nice things, and the CO’s fall for them. You need to have a bunch of rough, ugly men.”
Gloria Steinem, a leading American feminist, told The Unconventional Gazette, that the indictments of Maryland women correctional officers was a sexist plot on the part of old guard remnants in the U.S. Justice department. “Does anyone really believe that women would be so foolish as to let a convict impregnate them?” asked Steinem. “Of course not! I hereby call on Congress to investigate the Justice Department for singling out and besmirching the reputation of women correctional officers.” She also accused Sen. Gladden of betraying the women’s movement.
Terry O'Neill, president of the 550,000 member National Organization for Women (NOW), was incensed that the Justice Department publicized the indictment of hard working women prison guards on spurious charges of sexual misconduct brought on by a lying bunch of no good rotten male convicts. “These false charges are a plot to set back the hard won victories of NOW over the past 40 years.” She added, “I won’t dignify Sen. Gladden’s sexist remarks with a response.”
Gloria Allred, the prominent civil rights attorney, told The Unconventional Gazette that she will represent the 13 female correctional officer pro bono. “These poor women did not ask me to represent them ….. I am doing this on my own. Remember, these women are innocent until proven guilty. I intend to show that the government entrapped these women. Why did it take more than two years of investigations to bring this case to fruition? Because the government set out from the start to screw these poor women.”
Rabbi Elchonon Lisbon of Congregation Ohel Levi Yitzchak / Bais Lubavitch told The Baltimore Sun: “I am not surprised at these indictments. Women have no business working in prisons or as police officers. A woman’s place is in the bedroom and the kitchen. A woman’s job is to serve her husband and to bear and raise their children ….. not to go out and do the work of men.”
Howie Katz, a blogger on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, told The Unconventional Gazette that he was once excoriated by dozens of women correctional officers, and a few male officers, for questioning the use of women as police patrol officers [Are Women Really Suitable For Police Patrol Work? / PACOVILLA Corrections blog / October 9, 2010]. “Only fellow blogger Bob Walsh had the courage to face that hysterical female onslaught by defending what I said. Now, with the arrest of these 13 women, I feel vindicated.”
The Unconventional Gazette
April 24, 2013
BALTIMORE, Maryland -- 13 female correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were charged Tuesday with allowing gang members of the Black Guerilla Family to smuggle drugs and cell phones into the prison. One inmate gang leader fathered five children with four of the arrested correctional officers. That probably explains why Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein told the Washington Post that “Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates.”
State Senator Lisa A. Gladden, D-Baltimore, told the Post that the large percentage of female correctional officers at the detention center contributed to the problem. “A lot of times, they become smitten with the inmates. [The inmates] talk really sweet and say really nice things, and the CO’s fall for them. You need to have a bunch of rough, ugly men.”
Gloria Steinem, a leading American feminist, told The Unconventional Gazette, that the indictments of Maryland women correctional officers was a sexist plot on the part of old guard remnants in the U.S. Justice department. “Does anyone really believe that women would be so foolish as to let a convict impregnate them?” asked Steinem. “Of course not! I hereby call on Congress to investigate the Justice Department for singling out and besmirching the reputation of women correctional officers.” She also accused Sen. Gladden of betraying the women’s movement.
Terry O'Neill, president of the 550,000 member National Organization for Women (NOW), was incensed that the Justice Department publicized the indictment of hard working women prison guards on spurious charges of sexual misconduct brought on by a lying bunch of no good rotten male convicts. “These false charges are a plot to set back the hard won victories of NOW over the past 40 years.” She added, “I won’t dignify Sen. Gladden’s sexist remarks with a response.”
Gloria Allred, the prominent civil rights attorney, told The Unconventional Gazette that she will represent the 13 female correctional officer pro bono. “These poor women did not ask me to represent them ….. I am doing this on my own. Remember, these women are innocent until proven guilty. I intend to show that the government entrapped these women. Why did it take more than two years of investigations to bring this case to fruition? Because the government set out from the start to screw these poor women.”
Rabbi Elchonon Lisbon of Congregation Ohel Levi Yitzchak / Bais Lubavitch told The Baltimore Sun: “I am not surprised at these indictments. Women have no business working in prisons or as police officers. A woman’s place is in the bedroom and the kitchen. A woman’s job is to serve her husband and to bear and raise their children ….. not to go out and do the work of men.”
Howie Katz, a blogger on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, told The Unconventional Gazette that he was once excoriated by dozens of women correctional officers, and a few male officers, for questioning the use of women as police patrol officers [Are Women Really Suitable For Police Patrol Work? / PACOVILLA Corrections blog / October 9, 2010]. “Only fellow blogger Bob Walsh had the courage to face that hysterical female onslaught by defending what I said. Now, with the arrest of these 13 women, I feel vindicated.”
PHOENIX POLICE SHOOTINGS SHOW WHY CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE INSTANT RESORT TO LETHAL FORCE
Why LA Police Chief Charlie Beck’s claim that LAPD officers ‘are never trained to shoot to kill’ is a pure load of politically correct crap. An officer’s life may depend on his shot or shots striking center mass of the person posing an immediate threat to life or limb, and that requires shoot to kill training at the police academy.
OFFICER-INVOLVE SHOOTINGS A SPLIT-SECOND DECISION
By Donna Rossi
CBS 5
April 23, 2013
PHOENIX -- There were at least four officer-involved shootings in and around the greater Phoenix metro area over the past weekend. Each ended in officers shooting and killing someone.
Thousands of police officers go their entire careers never having to pull the trigger in the line of duty. It is not something they ever want to do. But it is something they train for.
Each officer-involved shooting is unique. No two are the same, according to retired Phoenix police Lt. Rob Robinson. The 27-year police veteran now works as a consultant and expert witness in police involved shootings.
Sometimes he works defending officers; other times he represents surviving family members of the person shot and killed by officers.
"Anytime you have an officer-involved shooting, it's based upon the perception of the officer. Whether he feels that he is in substantial risk of harm to himself, to another, to a third person, and he has to process that information as the attack, if it is an attack, is occurring," Robinson said.
On April 19, three Phoenix officers opened fire and killed a suspect who pretended to point a weapon at them. The next day, different Phoenix officers confronted a suspect who did point a gun at them. He, too, was shot and killed. Each time an officer shoots, the decision is made in a split second.
"The average person can move their hand from their side to a 90-degree angle across their chest in about 12 one-hundredths of a second. A police officer reacting to that would take approximately a second and a half to be able to draw his weapon and be able to stop the attack," Robinson said.
The decision, according to Robinson, is based on officer perception - what the officer hears, sees and perceives.
In another incident from Saturday, four Phoenix officers were dealing with a suspect who raised a wooden object at them. One of the four officers shot and killed the suspect.
"You could have an officer and put him in the same situation twice over different periods of time and the reaction may be completely different," said Robinson.
People often criticize police for shooting at a person's chest, which is likely more fatal than shooting for a limb.
"If you get a sight picture on somebody's arm, let's say, or hand that's holding a weapon and you go to fire, a person can move their hand out of range much quicker than the officer can pull the trigger," Robinson said.
Officers are trained to stop the threat.
"A Taser, it doesn't always stop an attack. Studies have proven over the years that a Taser doesn't work on some people. It works on other people. If you have the justification to use deadly force, you're authorized to fire your weapon to stop the attack," Robinson said.
Officer-involved shootings are investigated by homicide detectives and also separately by internal affairs specialists. The findings are also reviewed by the county attorney's office. Robinson said that officers have checks and balances to assure officers involved in shootings are following the law.
OFFICER-INVOLVE SHOOTINGS A SPLIT-SECOND DECISION
By Donna Rossi
CBS 5
April 23, 2013
PHOENIX -- There were at least four officer-involved shootings in and around the greater Phoenix metro area over the past weekend. Each ended in officers shooting and killing someone.
Thousands of police officers go their entire careers never having to pull the trigger in the line of duty. It is not something they ever want to do. But it is something they train for.
Each officer-involved shooting is unique. No two are the same, according to retired Phoenix police Lt. Rob Robinson. The 27-year police veteran now works as a consultant and expert witness in police involved shootings.
Sometimes he works defending officers; other times he represents surviving family members of the person shot and killed by officers.
"Anytime you have an officer-involved shooting, it's based upon the perception of the officer. Whether he feels that he is in substantial risk of harm to himself, to another, to a third person, and he has to process that information as the attack, if it is an attack, is occurring," Robinson said.
On April 19, three Phoenix officers opened fire and killed a suspect who pretended to point a weapon at them. The next day, different Phoenix officers confronted a suspect who did point a gun at them. He, too, was shot and killed. Each time an officer shoots, the decision is made in a split second.
"The average person can move their hand from their side to a 90-degree angle across their chest in about 12 one-hundredths of a second. A police officer reacting to that would take approximately a second and a half to be able to draw his weapon and be able to stop the attack," Robinson said.
The decision, according to Robinson, is based on officer perception - what the officer hears, sees and perceives.
In another incident from Saturday, four Phoenix officers were dealing with a suspect who raised a wooden object at them. One of the four officers shot and killed the suspect.
"You could have an officer and put him in the same situation twice over different periods of time and the reaction may be completely different," said Robinson.
People often criticize police for shooting at a person's chest, which is likely more fatal than shooting for a limb.
"If you get a sight picture on somebody's arm, let's say, or hand that's holding a weapon and you go to fire, a person can move their hand out of range much quicker than the officer can pull the trigger," Robinson said.
Officers are trained to stop the threat.
"A Taser, it doesn't always stop an attack. Studies have proven over the years that a Taser doesn't work on some people. It works on other people. If you have the justification to use deadly force, you're authorized to fire your weapon to stop the attack," Robinson said.
Officer-involved shootings are investigated by homicide detectives and also separately by internal affairs specialists. The findings are also reviewed by the county attorney's office. Robinson said that officers have checks and balances to assure officers involved in shootings are following the law.
ACLU APOPLECTIC OVER LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL TO BRING BACK THE GAS CHAMBER
Don’t anyone hold your breath waiting for the Democrat controlled California legislature to pass any Republican sponsored death penalty legislation.
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS, DISTRICT ATTORNEYS PUSH FOR STREAMLINED DEATH PENALTY
By Michael Gardner
U-T San Diego
April 23, 2013
SACRAMENTO — La Mesa Sen. Joel Anderson is carrying separate measures to speed up death penalty reviews, including what will likely be a controversial proposal to bring back the gas chamber.
“Removing unnecessary impediments to carrying out the punishment meted out by judges and juries will ensure timely justice,” the Republican said in a statement.
“It is clear that the death penalty needs reforming when condemned inmates are often living longer on death row than their victims did their entire lives,” Anderson added.
The gas chamber provisions tucked into Senate Bill 779 drew a sharp rebuke from the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The associate director, Norma Chavez-Peterson, called it “a dangerous and extreme proposal that is out of touch with the values of the people of California.”
She said the trend nationally and worldwide is to eliminate capital punishment, including five states that have passed legislation repealing the death penalty.
“SB 779 is a tone-deaf piece of legislation that needs to be defeated,” Chavez-Peterson said.
However, California voters in November 2012 defeated an ACLU-backed initiative that would have replaced the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The vote on Proposition 34 was 52 percent to 48 percent.
Anderson did not immediately respond to the ACLU’s critique.
His legislation has been endorsed by the California District Attorneys Association.
Carl Adams, its president and the district attorney of Sutter County, said prosecutors want to “ensure that the promise of swift and certain justice in the form of the death penalty is kept.”
California has not carried out a death penalty for some time. One of the reasons is that it has had trouble complying with restrictions over the use of lethal injections.
In addition to Senate Bill 779, Anderson’s Senate Constitutional Amendment 13 would allow appellate courts to hear death penalty appeals. Currently those cases go straight to the state Supreme Court.
Both measures are scheduled to be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee Tuesday.
The constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds vote to send it to the ballot. That will be a challenge for Anderson in a Legislature controlled by Democrats. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has also shown little inclination to support death penalty legislation over the years.
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS, DISTRICT ATTORNEYS PUSH FOR STREAMLINED DEATH PENALTY
By Michael Gardner
U-T San Diego
April 23, 2013
SACRAMENTO — La Mesa Sen. Joel Anderson is carrying separate measures to speed up death penalty reviews, including what will likely be a controversial proposal to bring back the gas chamber.
“Removing unnecessary impediments to carrying out the punishment meted out by judges and juries will ensure timely justice,” the Republican said in a statement.
“It is clear that the death penalty needs reforming when condemned inmates are often living longer on death row than their victims did their entire lives,” Anderson added.
The gas chamber provisions tucked into Senate Bill 779 drew a sharp rebuke from the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The associate director, Norma Chavez-Peterson, called it “a dangerous and extreme proposal that is out of touch with the values of the people of California.”
She said the trend nationally and worldwide is to eliminate capital punishment, including five states that have passed legislation repealing the death penalty.
“SB 779 is a tone-deaf piece of legislation that needs to be defeated,” Chavez-Peterson said.
However, California voters in November 2012 defeated an ACLU-backed initiative that would have replaced the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The vote on Proposition 34 was 52 percent to 48 percent.
Anderson did not immediately respond to the ACLU’s critique.
His legislation has been endorsed by the California District Attorneys Association.
Carl Adams, its president and the district attorney of Sutter County, said prosecutors want to “ensure that the promise of swift and certain justice in the form of the death penalty is kept.”
California has not carried out a death penalty for some time. One of the reasons is that it has had trouble complying with restrictions over the use of lethal injections.
In addition to Senate Bill 779, Anderson’s Senate Constitutional Amendment 13 would allow appellate courts to hear death penalty appeals. Currently those cases go straight to the state Supreme Court.
Both measures are scheduled to be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee Tuesday.
The constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds vote to send it to the ballot. That will be a challenge for Anderson in a Legislature controlled by Democrats. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has also shown little inclination to support death penalty legislation over the years.
TEACHER DISRUPTED BY NRA T-SHIRT
Arrest and suspension of eighth-grade student shows that our education system suffers from the presence of too many educated idiot educators
The sight of a T-shirt displaying the NRA logo and a rifle with pistol grip and detachable magazine disrupted only the mind of a teacher and was not ‘disrupting the educational process’ as school officials claim. However, the actions of the teacher and school officials ended up disrupting an entire school, if not the entire school district.
WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOL, TEEN CLASH OVER NRA SHIRT
Associated Press
April 22, 2013
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia teenager returned to class Monday wearing the same National Rifle Association T-shirt that led to his suspension and arrest after he refused a teacher’s order last week to remove it.
Other students across Logan County wore similar shirts, which display the NRA logo and a hunting rifle, to school in a show of support for 14-year-old Jared Marcum, said his lawyer Ben White.
White said school officials told him on Monday that Marcum’s one-day suspension was appropriate because the Logan Middle School eighth-grader was being disruptive. White disputed that position, saying Marcum was exercising his free speech rights and did not disrupt anything.
“Their version is that the suspension was for disrupting the educational process, not the shirt,” White said in a telephone interview.
“I don’t see how he materially disrupted the educational process,” he said.
Logan County Schools Superintendent Wilma Zigmond didn’t immediately return a telephone message Monday
Marcum’s stepfather, Allen Larieris, said Sunday that the teen was waiting in line in the school cafeteria last Thursday when a teacher ordered him to remove the T-shirt or turn it inside out.
White said Marcum was expressing his support for the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms by wearing the shirt, which he said did not violate the school’s dress code.
“We at this point believe that Jared acted as mature as a 14-year-old child can act with the pressure that was put on him,” White said.
Logan County Schools’ dress code, which is posted on the school system’s website, prohibits clothing and accessories that display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.
Logan police arrested Marcum, 14, after he was sent to the school office and again refused to remove the shirt. Marcum has said that he was arrested on charges of disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer, though White said Monday that the Logan County prosecutor’s office is reviewing the case to decide whether to proceed.
In West Virginia criminal cases involving juveniles, police file charges that they would want pursued. The prosecutor’s office then decides whether to file a petition asking a judge or magistrate to allow the case to proceed, said Brian Lanham, deputy director of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute.
The sight of a T-shirt displaying the NRA logo and a rifle with pistol grip and detachable magazine disrupted only the mind of a teacher and was not ‘disrupting the educational process’ as school officials claim. However, the actions of the teacher and school officials ended up disrupting an entire school, if not the entire school district.
WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOL, TEEN CLASH OVER NRA SHIRT
Associated Press
April 22, 2013
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia teenager returned to class Monday wearing the same National Rifle Association T-shirt that led to his suspension and arrest after he refused a teacher’s order last week to remove it.
Other students across Logan County wore similar shirts, which display the NRA logo and a hunting rifle, to school in a show of support for 14-year-old Jared Marcum, said his lawyer Ben White.
White said school officials told him on Monday that Marcum’s one-day suspension was appropriate because the Logan Middle School eighth-grader was being disruptive. White disputed that position, saying Marcum was exercising his free speech rights and did not disrupt anything.
“Their version is that the suspension was for disrupting the educational process, not the shirt,” White said in a telephone interview.
“I don’t see how he materially disrupted the educational process,” he said.
Logan County Schools Superintendent Wilma Zigmond didn’t immediately return a telephone message Monday
Marcum’s stepfather, Allen Larieris, said Sunday that the teen was waiting in line in the school cafeteria last Thursday when a teacher ordered him to remove the T-shirt or turn it inside out.
White said Marcum was expressing his support for the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms by wearing the shirt, which he said did not violate the school’s dress code.
“We at this point believe that Jared acted as mature as a 14-year-old child can act with the pressure that was put on him,” White said.
Logan County Schools’ dress code, which is posted on the school system’s website, prohibits clothing and accessories that display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.
Logan police arrested Marcum, 14, after he was sent to the school office and again refused to remove the shirt. Marcum has said that he was arrested on charges of disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer, though White said Monday that the Logan County prosecutor’s office is reviewing the case to decide whether to proceed.
In West Virginia criminal cases involving juveniles, police file charges that they would want pursued. The prosecutor’s office then decides whether to file a petition asking a judge or magistrate to allow the case to proceed, said Brian Lanham, deputy director of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute.
SIGN AT A HOUSTON GUN SHOW
The Unconventional Gazette
April 24, 2013
A reader reports that recently he went to a Gun Sow at the Reliant Center. There were many vendors. It looked like people were buying mostly handguns. Some were buying AR-15s. Thousands of people attended the all-day show. Hundreds signed up and joined the NRA.
There were lots of signs. One vendor displayed the best sign our reader said he saw ….. it read:
"IF YOU VOTED FOR OBAMA, WE DO NOT WANT YOUR BUSINESS.
YOU'RE TOO DAMN STUPID TO HAVE A FIREARM!"
April 24, 2013
A reader reports that recently he went to a Gun Sow at the Reliant Center. There were many vendors. It looked like people were buying mostly handguns. Some were buying AR-15s. Thousands of people attended the all-day show. Hundreds signed up and joined the NRA.
There were lots of signs. One vendor displayed the best sign our reader said he saw ….. it read:
"IF YOU VOTED FOR OBAMA, WE DO NOT WANT YOUR BUSINESS.
YOU'RE TOO DAMN STUPID TO HAVE A FIREARM!"
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
LOAD OF POLITICALLY CORRECT HORSE MANURE
Police Chief Charlie Beck claims LAPD officers are never trained to ‘shoot to kill’
In an op-ed piece published in The Government Center Gazette (April 19), Chief Beck wrote:
“Every day when Los Angeles Police officers pin on their badges and prepare to protect and to serve, they’re reminded of what they learned as Academy recruits: a reverence for human life. Los Angeles Police Department officers are never trained to 'shoot to kill,' only to stop a deadly threat in order to keep the community and themselves safe. This isn’t a rhetorical turn-of-phrase or semantic contrivance, but a real world reality: taking a life — anyone’s life — is never our intent. It’s a tragedy when it occurs for everyone involved and for the City of Los Angeles.”
It is true that when L.A. cops pin on their badges and report for duty they have no intention of taking anyone’s life. And it is a tragedy whenever an officer takes someone’s life, both for the family of the deceased as well as for the officer himself.
It is also true that cops everywhere, not just in L.A., have “a reverence for human life,” including their own lives. So when Chief Beck says that officers are never trained to shoot to kill, he is unloading a heap of politically correct horse manure.
An officer is prohibited from using deadly force unless he fears for his own life of the life of someone else. During firearms training officers are not taught to shoot a gun out of an adversary’s hand or to shoot him in the leg. They are trained to double-tap shoot at ‘center mass’ and that means shoot to kill any way you cut it. In order to stop a deadly threat, as Chief Beck puts it, you usually have to kill the person who has the means and looks like he is about to carry out that threat to kill or seriously injure you, or someone else.
The public has been watching too many TV shows and movies where the good guy shoots the gun out of the bad guy’s hand or where the good guy gets the living shit beat out of him by a big bad guy, only to win by a knockout in the end. But that’s not the way it happens in real life. If an officer merely wounds someone pointing a gun at him he could very well end up dead. And when an officer tries to duke it out with a big bad guy he’s going to end up in the hospital, if not the morgue. If he’s about to be sent into dreamland or beyond,, an officer is justified in using deadly force against someone who is unarmed.
People need to know that when they threaten an officer’s life or limb, they are likely to get killed. So Charlie, please spare us that load of politically correct crap about your officers never being trained to shoot to kill. For the sake of your officers, just be thankful that they are trained to shoot to kill!
In an op-ed piece published in The Government Center Gazette (April 19), Chief Beck wrote:
“Every day when Los Angeles Police officers pin on their badges and prepare to protect and to serve, they’re reminded of what they learned as Academy recruits: a reverence for human life. Los Angeles Police Department officers are never trained to 'shoot to kill,' only to stop a deadly threat in order to keep the community and themselves safe. This isn’t a rhetorical turn-of-phrase or semantic contrivance, but a real world reality: taking a life — anyone’s life — is never our intent. It’s a tragedy when it occurs for everyone involved and for the City of Los Angeles.”
It is true that when L.A. cops pin on their badges and report for duty they have no intention of taking anyone’s life. And it is a tragedy whenever an officer takes someone’s life, both for the family of the deceased as well as for the officer himself.
It is also true that cops everywhere, not just in L.A., have “a reverence for human life,” including their own lives. So when Chief Beck says that officers are never trained to shoot to kill, he is unloading a heap of politically correct horse manure.
An officer is prohibited from using deadly force unless he fears for his own life of the life of someone else. During firearms training officers are not taught to shoot a gun out of an adversary’s hand or to shoot him in the leg. They are trained to double-tap shoot at ‘center mass’ and that means shoot to kill any way you cut it. In order to stop a deadly threat, as Chief Beck puts it, you usually have to kill the person who has the means and looks like he is about to carry out that threat to kill or seriously injure you, or someone else.
The public has been watching too many TV shows and movies where the good guy shoots the gun out of the bad guy’s hand or where the good guy gets the living shit beat out of him by a big bad guy, only to win by a knockout in the end. But that’s not the way it happens in real life. If an officer merely wounds someone pointing a gun at him he could very well end up dead. And when an officer tries to duke it out with a big bad guy he’s going to end up in the hospital, if not the morgue. If he’s about to be sent into dreamland or beyond,, an officer is justified in using deadly force against someone who is unarmed.
People need to know that when they threaten an officer’s life or limb, they are likely to get killed. So Charlie, please spare us that load of politically correct crap about your officers never being trained to shoot to kill. For the sake of your officers, just be thankful that they are trained to shoot to kill!
KERRY PULLS A BIDEN IN TURKEY
In Israel on Monday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel left the impression that the Obama administration was trying to improve U.S. relations with Israel by telling Israeli officials that the U.S. is committed to preserving and improving the Jewish state's military edge in the Middle East.
But in Turkey on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry threw a wrench into U.S.-Israeli relations by comparing the Israeli military to terrorists. Did Kerry just make a Biden-gaffe while sucking up to the Turks, or does the Obama administration really see Jewish soldiers as terrorists?
KERRY COMPARES ISRAELI MILITARY TO TERRORISTS
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 23, 2013
While visiting Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry compared the deaths of nine Turkish nationals in the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid to those killed in the recent Boston Marathon bombing. By extension, Kerry was comparing the Israeli military to terrorists.
Speaking in Istanbul, Kerry said that after what Americans had gone through in Boston last week, "I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence, when something that happens when you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects the community; it affects the country."
The remark was made in the context of addressing the May 2010 Israeli interception of a Turkish-led flotilla attempting to break the maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Kerry said he could understand the pain and frustration of the families of those aboard the flotilla's lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, nine of whom lost their lives after violently attacking the Israeli boarding party.
While Kerry likely didn't intend to draw moral equivalence between Israel's action and the Boston bombing, his remarks are another indication of how little Washington understands about the region.
Every Turk and Arab with animosity toward Israel will understand what Kerry said as support for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's previous labeling of the Israeli raid as an act of piracy, and of Israel as a terrorist state. And that will only make rapprochement between the two sides more difficult.
At the urging of Kerry's boss, President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did apologize to Turkey earlier this month for "operational errors" that had possibly contributed to the deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara.
But, Israel has not apologized for the raid itself, which Jerusalem maintains was carried out in accordance with international law permitting the maritime blockade of territories with which a nation is at war. The UN itself later backed up Israel's version of events.
For Kerry to fail to address the legitimacy of the Israeli action, while comparing its aftermath with that of the a clear terrorist attack like the Boston bombing, is extremely problematic for Israel.
"It is never helpful when moral equivalence is made confusing terrorists with their victims," Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told The Times of Israel in response to Kerry's remarks.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Labor Party MK Nachman Shai as saying that Kerry had "completely distorted reality and turned white into black and black into white. How can he make such a comparison? In Boston, terrorists killed civilians. On the Mavi Marmara ship, terrorists were killed."
It is little wonder that Kerry's diplomatic mission to the region aimed at rapprochement between Israel and Turkey and jump-starting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has thus far failed to yield positive results.
But in Turkey on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry threw a wrench into U.S.-Israeli relations by comparing the Israeli military to terrorists. Did Kerry just make a Biden-gaffe while sucking up to the Turks, or does the Obama administration really see Jewish soldiers as terrorists?
KERRY COMPARES ISRAELI MILITARY TO TERRORISTS
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 23, 2013
While visiting Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry compared the deaths of nine Turkish nationals in the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid to those killed in the recent Boston Marathon bombing. By extension, Kerry was comparing the Israeli military to terrorists.
Speaking in Istanbul, Kerry said that after what Americans had gone through in Boston last week, "I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence, when something that happens when you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects the community; it affects the country."
The remark was made in the context of addressing the May 2010 Israeli interception of a Turkish-led flotilla attempting to break the maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Kerry said he could understand the pain and frustration of the families of those aboard the flotilla's lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, nine of whom lost their lives after violently attacking the Israeli boarding party.
While Kerry likely didn't intend to draw moral equivalence between Israel's action and the Boston bombing, his remarks are another indication of how little Washington understands about the region.
Every Turk and Arab with animosity toward Israel will understand what Kerry said as support for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's previous labeling of the Israeli raid as an act of piracy, and of Israel as a terrorist state. And that will only make rapprochement between the two sides more difficult.
At the urging of Kerry's boss, President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did apologize to Turkey earlier this month for "operational errors" that had possibly contributed to the deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara.
But, Israel has not apologized for the raid itself, which Jerusalem maintains was carried out in accordance with international law permitting the maritime blockade of territories with which a nation is at war. The UN itself later backed up Israel's version of events.
For Kerry to fail to address the legitimacy of the Israeli action, while comparing its aftermath with that of the a clear terrorist attack like the Boston bombing, is extremely problematic for Israel.
"It is never helpful when moral equivalence is made confusing terrorists with their victims," Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told The Times of Israel in response to Kerry's remarks.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Labor Party MK Nachman Shai as saying that Kerry had "completely distorted reality and turned white into black and black into white. How can he make such a comparison? In Boston, terrorists killed civilians. On the Mavi Marmara ship, terrorists were killed."
It is little wonder that Kerry's diplomatic mission to the region aimed at rapprochement between Israel and Turkey and jump-starting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has thus far failed to yield positive results.
STOLEN CELL PHONE RINGS FROM WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE
At the end the cops retrieved a shitty phone
What are the odds of a cell phone theft victim being in a police station to report the theft and hearing his phone ring from a nearby holding cell?
Here we have the old keister stash. One could say that at the end the cops retrieved a shitty phone.
POLICE FIND STOLEN CELL PHONE RINGING FROM PRISONER’S RECTUM
The victim of the stolen phone used a tracker app to make the phone ring, could hear it while standing in the police station
By Jamie Schram and Jessica Simeone
The New York Post
April 23, 2013
NEW YORK — An ex-con was busted for stealing an iPhone when it started ringing — while stashed up his butt in a holding cell at the West Village station house, sources told The Post yesterday.
Trent Patterson, 47, had initially been arrested for allegedly burglarizing the trendy Ted Baker clothing boutique in the Meatpacking District at around 5:50 a.m. Friday, along with four other suspects, the sources said.
A food vendor had spotted the five allegedly going in and out of the shop with armfuls of clothing and accessories. The vendor called cops, and all five suspects were quickly nabbed.
Then, as Patterson was in a holding cell at the Sixth Precinct station house, a 27-year-old man whose iPhone had been swiped used an app to track the device, according to the sources.
The victim, who was at the station house to report the theft, called his phone — and heard the ring coming from Patterson in a nearby cell.
When an officer confronted Patterson, the career criminal admitted he'd hidden the phone up his butt, the sources said.
Patterson was charged with criminal possession of stolen property for filching the ¬iPhone 5 and burglary for the clothing heist. He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond after his arraignment yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
What are the odds of a cell phone theft victim being in a police station to report the theft and hearing his phone ring from a nearby holding cell?
Here we have the old keister stash. One could say that at the end the cops retrieved a shitty phone.
POLICE FIND STOLEN CELL PHONE RINGING FROM PRISONER’S RECTUM
The victim of the stolen phone used a tracker app to make the phone ring, could hear it while standing in the police station
By Jamie Schram and Jessica Simeone
The New York Post
April 23, 2013
NEW YORK — An ex-con was busted for stealing an iPhone when it started ringing — while stashed up his butt in a holding cell at the West Village station house, sources told The Post yesterday.
Trent Patterson, 47, had initially been arrested for allegedly burglarizing the trendy Ted Baker clothing boutique in the Meatpacking District at around 5:50 a.m. Friday, along with four other suspects, the sources said.
A food vendor had spotted the five allegedly going in and out of the shop with armfuls of clothing and accessories. The vendor called cops, and all five suspects were quickly nabbed.
Then, as Patterson was in a holding cell at the Sixth Precinct station house, a 27-year-old man whose iPhone had been swiped used an app to track the device, according to the sources.
The victim, who was at the station house to report the theft, called his phone — and heard the ring coming from Patterson in a nearby cell.
When an officer confronted Patterson, the career criminal admitted he'd hidden the phone up his butt, the sources said.
Patterson was charged with criminal possession of stolen property for filching the ¬iPhone 5 and burglary for the clothing heist. He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond after his arraignment yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
24 MINUTES ON PAROLE, NOT A RECORD, BUT GOOD FOR AN HONORABLE MENTION
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 23, 2013
Graham Lackey, 46, is a convicted sex offender. He was released on parole on March 17 after conviction in 2011 for two counts of weenie waving, among other things. He has 37 convictions, 17 of which are sex related.
He hit the street in Langley, Canada on March 17 at 1:51 p.m. and at 2:15 was in a pub sucking up some suds with a buddy. He was arrested by an RCMP surveillance unit as he left the pub. He has since been sentenced to another five months in custody for violation of the terms of his parole.
The record that I am personally aware of was a guy at Quentin who got out the gate and got in a fistfight in the parking lot on the way to the bus stop. Somebody later figured he had been on parole about four minutes. That might not be a world’s record, but it is the best one that I am personally aware of. I know of another one, at Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI), who was sitting on the bench inside the fence waiting to be processed out and threatened a correctional officer coming in to go to work. He never got outside the fence though, so I guess that one doesn’t count.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 23, 2013
Graham Lackey, 46, is a convicted sex offender. He was released on parole on March 17 after conviction in 2011 for two counts of weenie waving, among other things. He has 37 convictions, 17 of which are sex related.
He hit the street in Langley, Canada on March 17 at 1:51 p.m. and at 2:15 was in a pub sucking up some suds with a buddy. He was arrested by an RCMP surveillance unit as he left the pub. He has since been sentenced to another five months in custody for violation of the terms of his parole.
The record that I am personally aware of was a guy at Quentin who got out the gate and got in a fistfight in the parking lot on the way to the bus stop. Somebody later figured he had been on parole about four minutes. That might not be a world’s record, but it is the best one that I am personally aware of. I know of another one, at Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI), who was sitting on the bench inside the fence waiting to be processed out and threatened a correctional officer coming in to go to work. He never got outside the fence though, so I guess that one doesn’t count.
LITTLE LAURA VISITS GRANDPA IN THE HOSPITAL
The Unconventional Gazette
April 23, 2013
Six-year-old Laura goes to the hospital with her mother to visit her Grandpa. When they get to the hospital, she runs ahead of her mother and bursts into her Grandpa's room.
"Grandpa, Grandpa," she says excitedly, "as soon as my mother comes into the room, make a noise like a frog!"
"What?" said her Grandpa.
"Make a noise like a frog because my mom said that as soon as you croak, we’re getting a new car and we're all going to Disney World!
April 23, 2013
Six-year-old Laura goes to the hospital with her mother to visit her Grandpa. When they get to the hospital, she runs ahead of her mother and bursts into her Grandpa's room.
"Grandpa, Grandpa," she says excitedly, "as soon as my mother comes into the room, make a noise like a frog!"
"What?" said her Grandpa.
"Make a noise like a frog because my mom said that as soon as you croak, we’re getting a new car and we're all going to Disney World!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
A NEW TURN IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL
Reports from inside Israel indicate the Israelis are still not sure if they can trust the Obama administration.
HAGEL: U.S. COMMITTED TO ISRAEL’S MILITARY EDGE
Associated Press
April 22, 2013
TEL AVIV, Israel — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured Israel on Monday that the Obama administration is committed to preserving and improving the Jewish state's military edge in the Middle East.
Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, also declared that it is Israel's right to decide for itself whether to attack Iran to stop it from building a nuclear bomb.
Those two messages appeared to form the foundation of Hagel's effort to improve U.S. relations with Israel, which have been strained in recent years by obstacles to reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and by the threat of an Iranian bomb.
Later, Hagel was flown in an Israeli Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over northern Israel to view the Golan Heights, an area along the Syrian border that Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The flight appeared to be aimed in part at impressing upon Hagel the narrow reaches of Israel and its vulnerability to troubled areas like Syria, which is in the midst of civil war.
An Israeli Defense Forces information packet provided to those who took the flight with Hagel noted that "the State of Nebraska is nine times the State of Israel." Hagel is a former two-term Republican senator from Nebraska.
At a joint news conference with Hagel prior to their flight, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, said security in the Golan Heights is one of Israel's chief worries about Syria's turmoil. He also appeared to refer to an Israeli military operation in response to a violation of what he termed an Israeli "red line" with regard to the Syrian conflict.
Yaalon said Israel has declared it will not "allow sophisticated weapons to be delivered or to be taken by rogue elements like Hezbollah and other rogue elements that are operating now in Syria. And we proved it; when they crossed these red lines we operated, we acted." He did not elaborate on what action Israel took.
In his appearance with Yaalon, Hagel was asked whether he believes it would be advisable for Israel to attack Iran on its own.
"That calculation has to be made by" Israel, he replied after noting, "Israel is a sovereign nation; every sovereign nation has a right to defend itself."
Hagel did not mention a concern that U.S. officials have voiced in the past, namely, that an Israeli strike would run the risk of igniting a wider war that could draw in the United States.
As evidence of Washington's commitment to preserving Israel's so-called qualitative military edge in the Mideast, Hagel said the United States will permit Israel to buy various new weapons, including U.S. missiles and advanced radars for its strike aircraft.
"We are committed to providing Israel with whatever support is necessary for Israel to maintain military superiority over any state or coalition of states and non-state actors," Hagel said.
Yaalon was asked about reports that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its struggle against rebel forces.
He did not specifically say whether Israel believes such weapons have been used, but he said that Syria must not cross the "red line" of allowing any chemical weapons to fall into the hands of what Yaalon called "rogue elements."
He said that "red line" has not yet been crossed, adding, "but we are ready to operate if any rogue element is going to put their hands [on chemical agents] or chemical agents are going to be delivered."
Hagel also was meeting Monday with Israeli President Shimon Peres, and on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
HAGEL: U.S. COMMITTED TO ISRAEL’S MILITARY EDGE
Associated Press
April 22, 2013
TEL AVIV, Israel — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured Israel on Monday that the Obama administration is committed to preserving and improving the Jewish state's military edge in the Middle East.
Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, also declared that it is Israel's right to decide for itself whether to attack Iran to stop it from building a nuclear bomb.
Those two messages appeared to form the foundation of Hagel's effort to improve U.S. relations with Israel, which have been strained in recent years by obstacles to reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and by the threat of an Iranian bomb.
Later, Hagel was flown in an Israeli Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over northern Israel to view the Golan Heights, an area along the Syrian border that Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The flight appeared to be aimed in part at impressing upon Hagel the narrow reaches of Israel and its vulnerability to troubled areas like Syria, which is in the midst of civil war.
An Israeli Defense Forces information packet provided to those who took the flight with Hagel noted that "the State of Nebraska is nine times the State of Israel." Hagel is a former two-term Republican senator from Nebraska.
At a joint news conference with Hagel prior to their flight, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, said security in the Golan Heights is one of Israel's chief worries about Syria's turmoil. He also appeared to refer to an Israeli military operation in response to a violation of what he termed an Israeli "red line" with regard to the Syrian conflict.
Yaalon said Israel has declared it will not "allow sophisticated weapons to be delivered or to be taken by rogue elements like Hezbollah and other rogue elements that are operating now in Syria. And we proved it; when they crossed these red lines we operated, we acted." He did not elaborate on what action Israel took.
In his appearance with Yaalon, Hagel was asked whether he believes it would be advisable for Israel to attack Iran on its own.
"That calculation has to be made by" Israel, he replied after noting, "Israel is a sovereign nation; every sovereign nation has a right to defend itself."
Hagel did not mention a concern that U.S. officials have voiced in the past, namely, that an Israeli strike would run the risk of igniting a wider war that could draw in the United States.
As evidence of Washington's commitment to preserving Israel's so-called qualitative military edge in the Mideast, Hagel said the United States will permit Israel to buy various new weapons, including U.S. missiles and advanced radars for its strike aircraft.
"We are committed to providing Israel with whatever support is necessary for Israel to maintain military superiority over any state or coalition of states and non-state actors," Hagel said.
Yaalon was asked about reports that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its struggle against rebel forces.
He did not specifically say whether Israel believes such weapons have been used, but he said that Syria must not cross the "red line" of allowing any chemical weapons to fall into the hands of what Yaalon called "rogue elements."
He said that "red line" has not yet been crossed, adding, "but we are ready to operate if any rogue element is going to put their hands [on chemical agents] or chemical agents are going to be delivered."
Hagel also was meeting Monday with Israeli President Shimon Peres, and on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
CELEBRATING ISRAEL’S 65TH INDEPENDENCE DAY WITH ‘WOOSH’, THE LATEST INVENTION IN 65 YEARS OF ISRAELI INNOVATION
‘Woosh’ will give people in all parts of the world access to clean drinking water.
ISRAEL AIMS TO BRING CLEAN WATER TO THE WORLD
By Yossi Aloni
Israel Today
April 22, 2013
Israel last week unveiled at the UN a unique new filtration system that will finally allow people in Africa and South America to access clean drinking water.
The presentation of the new system came during the Israeli delegation's celebration of Israel's 65th Independence Day at UN headquarters in New York City. Under the banner of "65 Years of Israeli Innovation," the event was attended by ambassadors from around the world, UN officials, journalists and leaders of the Jewish community in New York.
Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor told those gathered, "In just six decades, Israel has moved from harvesting apples to designing Apple computers; from planting trees in the desert to putting companies on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We are one of the only countries in the world that puts electric cars on the road, launches satellites into space, and wins Nobel Prizes for its scientists."
"After 65 years, Israel," Prosor continued, "has patented the perfect recipe for success: if you want stability, empower your people. If you want sustainability, engage every member of society. And if you want prosperity, invest in your greatest natural resources – your human resources."
At the height of the event, Prosor unveiled the innovative water technology known as "Woosh," developed by the Israeli company Odis.
For over a decade already Odis has been providing drinking water systems to UN forces deployed in parts of the world without adequate water infrastructure.
The Woosh will enable Odis to get more water to more of those who need it most. "This machine is the first-of its-kind," explained Prosor. "It can connect to the main water supply of any city — regardless of how toxic it is — and provide purified drinking water to anyone on the street."
The presentation of the new system was made in honor of the UN's International Year of Water Cooperation.
ISRAEL AIMS TO BRING CLEAN WATER TO THE WORLD
By Yossi Aloni
Israel Today
April 22, 2013
Israel last week unveiled at the UN a unique new filtration system that will finally allow people in Africa and South America to access clean drinking water.
The presentation of the new system came during the Israeli delegation's celebration of Israel's 65th Independence Day at UN headquarters in New York City. Under the banner of "65 Years of Israeli Innovation," the event was attended by ambassadors from around the world, UN officials, journalists and leaders of the Jewish community in New York.
Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor told those gathered, "In just six decades, Israel has moved from harvesting apples to designing Apple computers; from planting trees in the desert to putting companies on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We are one of the only countries in the world that puts electric cars on the road, launches satellites into space, and wins Nobel Prizes for its scientists."
"After 65 years, Israel," Prosor continued, "has patented the perfect recipe for success: if you want stability, empower your people. If you want sustainability, engage every member of society. And if you want prosperity, invest in your greatest natural resources – your human resources."
At the height of the event, Prosor unveiled the innovative water technology known as "Woosh," developed by the Israeli company Odis.
For over a decade already Odis has been providing drinking water systems to UN forces deployed in parts of the world without adequate water infrastructure.
The Woosh will enable Odis to get more water to more of those who need it most. "This machine is the first-of its-kind," explained Prosor. "It can connect to the main water supply of any city — regardless of how toxic it is — and provide purified drinking water to anyone on the street."
The presentation of the new system was made in honor of the UN's International Year of Water Cooperation.
FBI STING WEBSITE SNARES A TERRORIST
Another Muslim youth radicalized in America. We must avoid considering all American Muslims as potential jihadists. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country are hard-working law abiding citizens with no thought of waging jihad.
MAN DEPARTING FOR SYRIA ARRESTED ON TERROR CHARGES
AFP
April 21, 2013
CHICAGO – A man allegedly planning to engage in terrorism in Syria was arrested at a Chicago airport after months of surveillance, the FBI said.
There is "no connection between this case and the events that occurred over the last several days in Boston," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
Agents had been monitoring Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, for some time due to his friendship with a man who was arrested in September after a botched attempt to detonate a bomb outside a Chicago bar.
While Tounisi discussed that plot with his friend, Adel Daoud, a criminal complaint stated that he did not participate, in part because he correctly guessed that Daoud was working with an undercover agent.
Even after he was questioned following the arrest of his friend, Tounisi continued to search online about martyrdom operations and violent jihad, the charging papers said.
He eventually happened upon a website set up by the FBI to look like a recruiting page for the al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusrah and spent about three weeks making plans with an undercover agent.
Tounisi was arrested at 8:29 pm Friday while waiting at the gate to board a flight to Istanbul.
MAN DEPARTING FOR SYRIA ARRESTED ON TERROR CHARGES
AFP
April 21, 2013
CHICAGO – A man allegedly planning to engage in terrorism in Syria was arrested at a Chicago airport after months of surveillance, the FBI said.
There is "no connection between this case and the events that occurred over the last several days in Boston," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
Agents had been monitoring Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, for some time due to his friendship with a man who was arrested in September after a botched attempt to detonate a bomb outside a Chicago bar.
While Tounisi discussed that plot with his friend, Adel Daoud, a criminal complaint stated that he did not participate, in part because he correctly guessed that Daoud was working with an undercover agent.
Even after he was questioned following the arrest of his friend, Tounisi continued to search online about martyrdom operations and violent jihad, the charging papers said.
He eventually happened upon a website set up by the FBI to look like a recruiting page for the al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusrah and spent about three weeks making plans with an undercover agent.
Tounisi was arrested at 8:29 pm Friday while waiting at the gate to board a flight to Istanbul.
NO JUSTICE FOR ANIMALS HORRIBLY ABUSED BY SUB-HUMANS
I know that no judge likes to be overruled by an appellate court, but the acts of animal cruelty in this video were so horrid as to be unspeakable. The judge should have allowed the trial to proceed, disregarding the possibility that he might get overruled.
ASHLEY NICOLE RICHARDS AND BRENT JUSTICE: FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS VIDEOS OF CHOPPING DOG’S HEAD WITH MEAT CLEAVER IS ‘PROTECTED SPEECH’
We're fucking speechless
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 22, 2013
A federal judge has dismissed charges against a Houston couple who sold videos of them torturing animals -- including beating a dog with a meat cleaver and stepping on a cat's eye with a shoe heel -- on free speech grounds.
Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Justice still face charges of producing, selling, or transferring obscene matters for sale or distribution. The two had originally been charged in Harris County District Court, but those charges were dismissed in December when the two were indicted on federal charges.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake wrote in his order that, while "the acts depicted in animal crush videos are disturbing and horrid," it is still considered protected speech.
ASHLEY NICOLE RICHARDS AND BRENT JUSTICE: FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS VIDEOS OF CHOPPING DOG’S HEAD WITH MEAT CLEAVER IS ‘PROTECTED SPEECH’
We're fucking speechless
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 22, 2013
A federal judge has dismissed charges against a Houston couple who sold videos of them torturing animals -- including beating a dog with a meat cleaver and stepping on a cat's eye with a shoe heel -- on free speech grounds.
Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Justice still face charges of producing, selling, or transferring obscene matters for sale or distribution. The two had originally been charged in Harris County District Court, but those charges were dismissed in December when the two were indicted on federal charges.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake wrote in his order that, while "the acts depicted in animal crush videos are disturbing and horrid," it is still considered protected speech.
Monday, April 22, 2013
FUTURE AIR WARFARE WILL BE CONDUCTED FROM THE COMFORT AND SAFETY OF GAME CHAIRS
Will robo-soldiers from technologically advanced nations fight on future battlefields instead of human soldiers?
Israel is on the way to developing drones that will eliminate the use of piloted warplanes. Israel is also looking to develop small tactical satellites that warplanes could launch into the earth's orbit.
Is all of this leading up to a time when robo-soldiers from technologically advanced nations will be doing the fighting on the battlefield instead of human soldiers?
ISRAELI OFFICIAL SAYS DRONES COULD REPLACE PLANES
Associated Press
April 21, 2013
Israel's air force is on track to developing drones that within four to five decades would carry out nearly every battlefield operation executed today by piloted aircraft, a high-ranking Israeli officer told The Associated Press Sunday.
The officer, who works in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle intelligence, said Israel is speeding up research and development of such unmanned technologies for air, ground and naval forces.
"There is a process happening now of transferring tasks from manned to unmanned vehicles," the officer said, speaking anonymously because of the classified nature of his work. "This trend will continue to become stronger."
Isaac Ben-Israel, a former Israeli air force general, said however there was no way drones could entirely overtake manned airplanes. He said there are just some things drones can't do, like carry heavy payloads needed for major assaults on targets like underground bunkers.
"The direction is drones playing a bigger and bigger role in the air force," he said. "In a decade or two they should be able to carry out a third or half of all missions. But there are still certain things you cannot do without a piloted plane."
Israel is a pioneer in drone technology. Its military was the first to make widespread use of drones in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon and Israeli companies are considered world leaders and export unmanned aircraft to a number of armies, including U.S.-led forces that have used them in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unmanned aircraft have been a major part of Israel's arsenal in battling Gaza rocket launchers over the years. Drones were seen as crucial by giving soldiers eyes in the air, keeping watch over rooftops and alleyways in congested urban areas and notifying troops of threats or obstacles in their path. Israel insists its drones only perform surveillance missions but Palestinian witnesses have long claimed that Israeli drones fire missiles in Gaza.
The officer claimed Israel is second only to the United States in the range of unmanned aerial systems its produces. He said he was "aware" that American drones are capable of firing missiles, but refused to say whether Israeli drones could do the same.
The officer cited one technology recently unveiled: the unmanned Hermes 900 aircraft, developed by the Israeli military manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. and recently rolled out for Israeli military use.
It features double the performance capabilities of the previous generation of the same unmanned aircraft, the Hermes 450. It can carry up to 350 kilograms, features advanced systems of surveillance and reconnaissance and offers support to forces on the ground and at sea, according to a description of the technology on Elbit's website.
Israel is also looking to develop small tactical satellites that warplanes could launch into the earth's orbit, the officer said.
Unlike satellites in permanent orbit which are more easily monitored by other leading armies in the world, the tactical satellites Israel hopes to develop would be cheaper to build and less susceptible to interception because they would be launched during wartime and there would be less time for foreign armies to track their orbit, Israeli military officials said.
Israel is on the way to developing drones that will eliminate the use of piloted warplanes. Israel is also looking to develop small tactical satellites that warplanes could launch into the earth's orbit.
Is all of this leading up to a time when robo-soldiers from technologically advanced nations will be doing the fighting on the battlefield instead of human soldiers?
ISRAELI OFFICIAL SAYS DRONES COULD REPLACE PLANES
Associated Press
April 21, 2013
Israel's air force is on track to developing drones that within four to five decades would carry out nearly every battlefield operation executed today by piloted aircraft, a high-ranking Israeli officer told The Associated Press Sunday.
The officer, who works in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle intelligence, said Israel is speeding up research and development of such unmanned technologies for air, ground and naval forces.
"There is a process happening now of transferring tasks from manned to unmanned vehicles," the officer said, speaking anonymously because of the classified nature of his work. "This trend will continue to become stronger."
Isaac Ben-Israel, a former Israeli air force general, said however there was no way drones could entirely overtake manned airplanes. He said there are just some things drones can't do, like carry heavy payloads needed for major assaults on targets like underground bunkers.
"The direction is drones playing a bigger and bigger role in the air force," he said. "In a decade or two they should be able to carry out a third or half of all missions. But there are still certain things you cannot do without a piloted plane."
Israel is a pioneer in drone technology. Its military was the first to make widespread use of drones in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon and Israeli companies are considered world leaders and export unmanned aircraft to a number of armies, including U.S.-led forces that have used them in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unmanned aircraft have been a major part of Israel's arsenal in battling Gaza rocket launchers over the years. Drones were seen as crucial by giving soldiers eyes in the air, keeping watch over rooftops and alleyways in congested urban areas and notifying troops of threats or obstacles in their path. Israel insists its drones only perform surveillance missions but Palestinian witnesses have long claimed that Israeli drones fire missiles in Gaza.
The officer claimed Israel is second only to the United States in the range of unmanned aerial systems its produces. He said he was "aware" that American drones are capable of firing missiles, but refused to say whether Israeli drones could do the same.
The officer cited one technology recently unveiled: the unmanned Hermes 900 aircraft, developed by the Israeli military manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. and recently rolled out for Israeli military use.
It features double the performance capabilities of the previous generation of the same unmanned aircraft, the Hermes 450. It can carry up to 350 kilograms, features advanced systems of surveillance and reconnaissance and offers support to forces on the ground and at sea, according to a description of the technology on Elbit's website.
Israel is also looking to develop small tactical satellites that warplanes could launch into the earth's orbit, the officer said.
Unlike satellites in permanent orbit which are more easily monitored by other leading armies in the world, the tactical satellites Israel hopes to develop would be cheaper to build and less susceptible to interception because they would be launched during wartime and there would be less time for foreign armies to track their orbit, Israeli military officials said.
YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM IF ………
You have not registered to vote; you felt your vote didn't make a difference; in the next election you’re not voting
Ex-Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino gave this speech February 9 at Maryland's capitol grounds in Annapolis, for the Guns Across America Rally for the 2nd Amendment.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GUN CONTROL, THERE IS ONLY PEOPLE CONTROL
I never, ever arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime, who had that gun legally!
By Dan Bongino
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no such thing as Gun Control—don’t co-opt their language—there is only people control. And I can prove it to you.
I spent 16 years of my life with a badge on my chest— which proved as a target for some, unfortunately—I don’t remember ever having the conversation, during my years in the Secret Service, "Hey, listen, we’re taking the President to Boston, or Chicago… So, let’s disarm because they have really strict gun control laws."
[crowd laughter]
Now, why is that funny? The reason is, it’s funny because it’s funny! I never, in 15+ years of doing this, ever arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime, who had that gun legally! So, you have to ask yourself: “Why?” It is not about gun control! Do not co-opt the language! When they own the language, they own the argument. There is a reason they are doing this.
You know, folks, it may disappoint some here, but you know, I could have carried a gun, the entire time, anywhere in the United States, on planes, anywhere I chose. I didn’t. That was my choice. It may have been a foolish one, but it was my choice.
It was my choice. It was my God-given right to be able protect myself and my family. It was my right, not given to me by a piece of paper, only ensured by that piece of paper [the Constitution]. That is not up for debate!
The right to petition, the right to assemble—so beautifully on this day—the right to speech is not given to you by the Governor or the President of the United States! [applause] That is not his to give! And if it is not his to give, it is not his or hers or anyone else’s to take away! [applause] Anyone!
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in perilous times. You know, I’m just a man, my spirit’s been almost broken over this. This is our country. That flag represents something. Men and women have died horrible deaths—horrible deaths!—my uncle being one of them, shot in the back in Vietnam, to protect your very right, your liberty, your decision to be able to protect your family!
We live, unfortunately—and, Lord, it pains me to say this—but we live in a society of wolves! You do not fight back by creating more sheep! [applause]
These are tough times, folks. And I want to leave you with this thought. Our Revolution was one of the only revolutions in human history, where those who defeated our enemies and took power, created a document that dis-empowered them. Here, on this soil, in this country, in this collective group of people we call the beautiful United States.
It pains me to say this. I’m not a right-wing nut-job. I’m not a xenophobe. I’m not a misogynist. I’m just a man. I’m just a guy who wants to live, and let live. I don’t mind paying taxes for our military. I will give you my last dollar to fund our beautiful veterans who come home missing parts of their body, if they come home at all. [applause]
But ladies and gentlemen, to use your tax dollars to fund a government that every day, whittling more and more of your ability to live and let live is not what the people who died and bled for her meant this country to be! It is not what [the flag] represents. It is not a piece of fabric, it is not a tablecloth, that is an idea. An idea that is unique to this place, right now, right here.
Act. Do not talk. Action matters. This speech is meaningless without action.
If you here are not registered to vote, you are not part of the problem, you are the problem! [applause] And I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear that! If you didn't show up because it was chilly, or you felt your vote didn't make a difference, you’re the problem! If you are not out here today, finding some way in your sphere of influence to echo-chamber this message to 20 or 30 people, you’re the problem! And if in this next election, in 2014, you’re not volunteering, or you’re not talking, or you’re not registered, or you’re not voting, you’re the problem.
Action matters. Action changes the world. Talk is cheap. Your liberty is not.
Ex-Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino gave this speech February 9 at Maryland's capitol grounds in Annapolis, for the Guns Across America Rally for the 2nd Amendment.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GUN CONTROL, THERE IS ONLY PEOPLE CONTROL
I never, ever arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime, who had that gun legally!
By Dan Bongino
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no such thing as Gun Control—don’t co-opt their language—there is only people control. And I can prove it to you.
I spent 16 years of my life with a badge on my chest— which proved as a target for some, unfortunately—I don’t remember ever having the conversation, during my years in the Secret Service, "Hey, listen, we’re taking the President to Boston, or Chicago… So, let’s disarm because they have really strict gun control laws."
[crowd laughter]
Now, why is that funny? The reason is, it’s funny because it’s funny! I never, in 15+ years of doing this, ever arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime, who had that gun legally! So, you have to ask yourself: “Why?” It is not about gun control! Do not co-opt the language! When they own the language, they own the argument. There is a reason they are doing this.
You know, folks, it may disappoint some here, but you know, I could have carried a gun, the entire time, anywhere in the United States, on planes, anywhere I chose. I didn’t. That was my choice. It may have been a foolish one, but it was my choice.
It was my choice. It was my God-given right to be able protect myself and my family. It was my right, not given to me by a piece of paper, only ensured by that piece of paper [the Constitution]. That is not up for debate!
The right to petition, the right to assemble—so beautifully on this day—the right to speech is not given to you by the Governor or the President of the United States! [applause] That is not his to give! And if it is not his to give, it is not his or hers or anyone else’s to take away! [applause] Anyone!
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in perilous times. You know, I’m just a man, my spirit’s been almost broken over this. This is our country. That flag represents something. Men and women have died horrible deaths—horrible deaths!—my uncle being one of them, shot in the back in Vietnam, to protect your very right, your liberty, your decision to be able to protect your family!
We live, unfortunately—and, Lord, it pains me to say this—but we live in a society of wolves! You do not fight back by creating more sheep! [applause]
These are tough times, folks. And I want to leave you with this thought. Our Revolution was one of the only revolutions in human history, where those who defeated our enemies and took power, created a document that dis-empowered them. Here, on this soil, in this country, in this collective group of people we call the beautiful United States.
It pains me to say this. I’m not a right-wing nut-job. I’m not a xenophobe. I’m not a misogynist. I’m just a man. I’m just a guy who wants to live, and let live. I don’t mind paying taxes for our military. I will give you my last dollar to fund our beautiful veterans who come home missing parts of their body, if they come home at all. [applause]
But ladies and gentlemen, to use your tax dollars to fund a government that every day, whittling more and more of your ability to live and let live is not what the people who died and bled for her meant this country to be! It is not what [the flag] represents. It is not a piece of fabric, it is not a tablecloth, that is an idea. An idea that is unique to this place, right now, right here.
Act. Do not talk. Action matters. This speech is meaningless without action.
If you here are not registered to vote, you are not part of the problem, you are the problem! [applause] And I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear that! If you didn't show up because it was chilly, or you felt your vote didn't make a difference, you’re the problem! If you are not out here today, finding some way in your sphere of influence to echo-chamber this message to 20 or 30 people, you’re the problem! And if in this next election, in 2014, you’re not volunteering, or you’re not talking, or you’re not registered, or you’re not voting, you’re the problem.
Action matters. Action changes the world. Talk is cheap. Your liberty is not.
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