Clark Edward Squire, now known as Sundiata Acoli, who gunned down a N.J. state cop in 1973 was denied parole in 2011, but a state appeals court reversed the parole board’s decision
In 1973, Clark Edward Squire, now known as Sundiata Acoli, struggled with State Trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike. During the struggle, Acoli’s gun went off, wounding the officer. Acoli then grabbed the trooper’s gun and shot him twice in the head as he was lying on the ground.. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 24 to 30 years.
From the Associated Press:
According to court documents, Acoli's gun went off during a struggle with Foerster, who had responded as backup after another officer pulled over the car for a broken tail light. The state contended Chesimard shot Trooper James Harper, wounding him, then took Foerster's gun and shot him twice in the head with his own gun as he lay on the ground. Acoli has claimed he was grazed by a bullet and blacked out, and couldn't remember the exact sequence of events.
The cop killer now in his mid-70s, was denied parole in 1993, 2004 and 2011. He appealed the latest denial and on Monday a state appellate court reversed that decision.
Also from the Associated Press:
The appellate judges wrote Monday that the parole board ignored a prison psychologist's favorable report on Acoli and the fact that he had expressed remorse for the trooper's death and had had no disciplinary incidents in prison since 1996. They also faulted the board for giving too much weight to Acoli's past criminal record and an unspecified probation violation, which occurred several decades before the board's decision.
"Make no mistake, we are completely appalled by Acoli's senseless crimes, which left a member of the State Police dead and another injured, as well as one of Acoli's associates dead and the other injured," the judges wrote. "But Acoli has paid the penalty under the laws of this State for his crimes."
Obviously, the appellate judges were not appalled enough over the cold blooded killing of a police officer. The state attorney general’s office will appeal the ruling.
Acoli and his two companions were members of a black militant group. Trooper Foerster was white. The car in which the three were riding was pulled over for a broken taillight. President Obama and Al Sharpton would consider that a Driving While Black stop by a white cop.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
TEXAS JUDGES ORDER SEXUAL PREDATORS TO GIT OUTTA THE STATE
If you dangerous sex offenders leave Texas and never return, you can live on your own
In July 2005 Lloyd Wilson was busted in Fairfax, Virginia for abducting and raping a 16-year-old girl. He was convicted of rape, abduction and producing child pornography and is serving a 30 year prison sentence.
In May 2008, Melvin Cody Whipple was busted for fondling an 11-year-old boy. He was convicted of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child and given a one-to-15 year prison sentence.
Ordinarily one would say there is nothing unusual here, just two turds busted and sent to prison for the sexual abuse of children. But there is far more to this than that.
In 1999 a new Texas law went into effect that allowed convicted sex offenders, who had completed their maximum prison sentences and were classified as too dangerous to live freely in society, to be locked up for the remainder of their lives if necessary in a psychiatric hospital under a civil commitment.
In 2004, according to Mike Ward and Anita Hassan of the Houston Chronicle, Wilson, 44 at the time, had just finished serving a 12-year sentence for indecency with a child in Fort Worth and aggravated sexual assault of a child in Dallas, and Whipple, 58 at the time, was completing nine years in prison for aggravated kidnapping involving sexual intent and indecency with a child in Amarillo.
Both men were to remain in custody of the state under the civil commitment law. But both Wilson and Whipple appeared before different Montgomery County judges, Wilson before District Judge Putnam Reiter and Whipple before District Judge Lee Alworth. Each man was ordered to “leave the State of Texas within 72 hours of release” from prison and “not to visit or reside in the State of Texas.”
Wilson was ordered to live in Virginia and Whipple was ordered to move to Bluff, Utah.
Neither the authorities in Virginia nor Utah were ever notified by any authorities in Texas that the two dangerous sexual predators were going to take up residence in their respective states. And to top it off, exiling Wilson and Whipple was probably illegal because of a provision in the Texas constitution that prohibits the banishment of criminals to other states.
In July 2005 Lloyd Wilson was busted in Fairfax, Virginia for abducting and raping a 16-year-old girl. He was convicted of rape, abduction and producing child pornography and is serving a 30 year prison sentence.
In May 2008, Melvin Cody Whipple was busted for fondling an 11-year-old boy. He was convicted of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child and given a one-to-15 year prison sentence.
Ordinarily one would say there is nothing unusual here, just two turds busted and sent to prison for the sexual abuse of children. But there is far more to this than that.
In 1999 a new Texas law went into effect that allowed convicted sex offenders, who had completed their maximum prison sentences and were classified as too dangerous to live freely in society, to be locked up for the remainder of their lives if necessary in a psychiatric hospital under a civil commitment.
In 2004, according to Mike Ward and Anita Hassan of the Houston Chronicle, Wilson, 44 at the time, had just finished serving a 12-year sentence for indecency with a child in Fort Worth and aggravated sexual assault of a child in Dallas, and Whipple, 58 at the time, was completing nine years in prison for aggravated kidnapping involving sexual intent and indecency with a child in Amarillo.
Both men were to remain in custody of the state under the civil commitment law. But both Wilson and Whipple appeared before different Montgomery County judges, Wilson before District Judge Putnam Reiter and Whipple before District Judge Lee Alworth. Each man was ordered to “leave the State of Texas within 72 hours of release” from prison and “not to visit or reside in the State of Texas.”
Wilson was ordered to live in Virginia and Whipple was ordered to move to Bluff, Utah.
Neither the authorities in Virginia nor Utah were ever notified by any authorities in Texas that the two dangerous sexual predators were going to take up residence in their respective states. And to top it off, exiling Wilson and Whipple was probably illegal because of a provision in the Texas constitution that prohibits the banishment of criminals to other states.
GEORGIA WOMAN CLAIMED SHE MADE $99 MILLION IN WAGES, SOUGHT $94 MILLION TAX REFUND
Brigitte Jackson of Cobb County, Georgia must have thought that all those people who worked at the state’s Department of Revenue must have been dumped there off a turnip truck.
$94M TAX REFUND CLAIM LANDS GEORGIA WOMAN IN JAIL
By John Blosser
Newsmax
September 29, 2014
Georgia tax authorities think Brigitte Jackson followed an old adage: never steal anything small.
The Cobb County, Ga., woman was arrested when she got caught up in a sting while allegedly trying to cash a tax return check for over $94 million, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Authorities say Jackson said she had made $99 million in wages in the past year, and was claiming a return of $94,323,148. She actually was issued the check, although it was a phony and part of the sting. When she showed up to pick it up at a local grocery store, as per tax officials' instructions, she was arrested.
Police set up the sting after they went to her address, looking for her and her cousin Darrius White, currently on felony probation, who police say also claimed a $99 million income and allegedly filed a similar whopper of a tax return claim. When the address turned out to be old, authorities hatched their plan to write out a phony check and con Jackson into coming to the bank to cash the check.
"It doesn't matter if it's $94 or $94 million," special investigations chief Josh Waites told WSB-TV. "We're going to go after you and hold you accountable."
Georgia Department of Revenue financial fraud investigator Tamiko Harris said that Jackson and White kept calling the tax department to check on when their return would be arriving. In one of the calls, she was told to expect her tax return in seven to 10 business days, and replied excitedly, "Yay! Thank you so much! I'm so happy!"
She's less happy now, behind bars and facing five charges of attempted theft by taking and conspiracy to defraud the state. White has still not been located by the police, but will face the same charges when he is arrested, police said.
The phone calls were recorded and will be used in the prosecution of Jackson and White, Waites said.
Fraud detection manager Kendra Carroll told the Journal-Constitution that she also spoke to White, who impatiently kept calling in, trying to find out when his huge tax return would arrive.
$94M TAX REFUND CLAIM LANDS GEORGIA WOMAN IN JAIL
By John Blosser
Newsmax
September 29, 2014
Georgia tax authorities think Brigitte Jackson followed an old adage: never steal anything small.
The Cobb County, Ga., woman was arrested when she got caught up in a sting while allegedly trying to cash a tax return check for over $94 million, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Authorities say Jackson said she had made $99 million in wages in the past year, and was claiming a return of $94,323,148. She actually was issued the check, although it was a phony and part of the sting. When she showed up to pick it up at a local grocery store, as per tax officials' instructions, she was arrested.
Police set up the sting after they went to her address, looking for her and her cousin Darrius White, currently on felony probation, who police say also claimed a $99 million income and allegedly filed a similar whopper of a tax return claim. When the address turned out to be old, authorities hatched their plan to write out a phony check and con Jackson into coming to the bank to cash the check.
"It doesn't matter if it's $94 or $94 million," special investigations chief Josh Waites told WSB-TV. "We're going to go after you and hold you accountable."
Georgia Department of Revenue financial fraud investigator Tamiko Harris said that Jackson and White kept calling the tax department to check on when their return would be arriving. In one of the calls, she was told to expect her tax return in seven to 10 business days, and replied excitedly, "Yay! Thank you so much! I'm so happy!"
She's less happy now, behind bars and facing five charges of attempted theft by taking and conspiracy to defraud the state. White has still not been located by the police, but will face the same charges when he is arrested, police said.
The phone calls were recorded and will be used in the prosecution of Jackson and White, Waites said.
Fraud detection manager Kendra Carroll told the Journal-Constitution that she also spoke to White, who impatiently kept calling in, trying to find out when his huge tax return would arrive.
PUPPY KILLER GETS THREE YEARS
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 29, 2014
A really disgusting quasi-human who tortured a puppy to death in front of his four-year old daughter was just sentenced to two years in jail with an additional year in a residential treatment facility.
Alan Velete, 32, was on probation for ADW when he and his rugrat moved in with his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother in Redwood City last December. A four-month old terrier puppy by the name of Lucky quickly became the object of Velete’s anger when it did puppy-type things, like downloading used food onto the floor. Over a period of several weeks he beat the dog and sprayed household cleaner into its eyes. He also fed it human psych meds. His favorite move was to stuff the puppy into a duffel bag and hang it up in the shower. The dog did not like that would whimper and whine when this happened. This often happened in front of his daughter and girlfriend, both of who were too scared of Velete to call the cops. He eventually suffocated the puppy.
He pleaded Nolo. He got two years in jail, with credit for time served, and another year in a residential psych facility.
This is one very disturbed, dangerous ambulatory turd. I expect we will be hearing more from him down the road.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Only two years in a lockup? No justice for that puppy here!
Assault with a deadly weapon is still a felony in Kookfornia, isn’t it? Why didn’t they revoke his probation and ship his sorry ass off to prison with the new conviction stacked on top of the ADW conviction?
And, he does not belong in a psych facility. He’s no psycho! He’s just a low-down worthless mean bastard!
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 29, 2014
A really disgusting quasi-human who tortured a puppy to death in front of his four-year old daughter was just sentenced to two years in jail with an additional year in a residential treatment facility.
Alan Velete, 32, was on probation for ADW when he and his rugrat moved in with his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother in Redwood City last December. A four-month old terrier puppy by the name of Lucky quickly became the object of Velete’s anger when it did puppy-type things, like downloading used food onto the floor. Over a period of several weeks he beat the dog and sprayed household cleaner into its eyes. He also fed it human psych meds. His favorite move was to stuff the puppy into a duffel bag and hang it up in the shower. The dog did not like that would whimper and whine when this happened. This often happened in front of his daughter and girlfriend, both of who were too scared of Velete to call the cops. He eventually suffocated the puppy.
He pleaded Nolo. He got two years in jail, with credit for time served, and another year in a residential psych facility.
This is one very disturbed, dangerous ambulatory turd. I expect we will be hearing more from him down the road.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Only two years in a lockup? No justice for that puppy here!
Assault with a deadly weapon is still a felony in Kookfornia, isn’t it? Why didn’t they revoke his probation and ship his sorry ass off to prison with the new conviction stacked on top of the ADW conviction?
And, he does not belong in a psych facility. He’s no psycho! He’s just a low-down worthless mean bastard!
Monday, September 29, 2014
OBAMA COMPLAINS ABOUT BLACKS BEING ‘TARGETED’ BY COPS
In his address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on Saturday, Obama said that mistrust of police corrodes America
Addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner in Washington on Saturday, President Obama pointed to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as an exposing the mistrust by blacks of the police. He said that “gulf of mistrust” has a “corrosive effect” on all of America.
Obama said, "Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness." He complained that significant racial disparities remain in the enforcement of law, from drug sentencing to application of the death penalty, to pulling people over.
Obama said mistrust of the police harms the communities that need law enforcement the most and makes black people reluctant to cooperate with the police.
I think it was a stretch to say that the turmoil in Ferguson exposed the gulf of mistrust that exists between blacks and the police. What was there to expose when it is an open secret that blacks do not trust the police? And the president was being disingenuous in complaining about the racial disparities in the enforcement of law.
Obama complained about drug sentences. I must admit that the harsh penalties for sales of crack cocaine have resulted in long prison sentences mostly for blacks. But that is because blacks were the ones who cornered the market on crack cocaine.
The president talked about the disparities in the enforcement of law, but he conveniently overlooked the fact that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime, especially violent crime. All you have to do is watch the daily TV news. Blacks make up only 12 percent of the population, but on news broadcasts you see more blacks than whites getting busted. And they’re not getting busted because they’re black.
Obama complained about blacks being pulled over. He must have been talking about tactics such as stop-and-frisk. While that particular tactic has reduced the number of black-on-black shootings, it has also caused some collateral damage by inconveniencing and offending some law-abiding black citizens. Then there is the politically incorrect racial profiling cops do when they pull over someone, black or white, who looks out of place in a particular location. It’s a good, longtime police practice, but it carries with it the same collateral damage that stop-and-frisk does.
And, of course, Obama complained about the disparity in death sentences. It hasn’t been too many years ago that blacks were indeed sentenced to death when whites committing the same crimes were given lesser sentences. But that has not been the case for some time.
Trust is a two-way proposition. In dealing with black lawbreakers, the hatred of police comes across loud and clear. I recall an incident shortly after I became a Riverside Sheriff’s officer. I arrested a black man - for what I cannot remember - and he snapped at me, “The only reason you’re fucking with me is because I’m black.” That was then and this is now – nothing has really changed much.
While I am sure most blacks do not hate cops, there are a significant number that do, and those are the ones the police often have to deal with. So, those cops mistrust blacks just like blacks mistrust cops, and Obama’s complaints aren’t going to change that.
Addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner in Washington on Saturday, President Obama pointed to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as an exposing the mistrust by blacks of the police. He said that “gulf of mistrust” has a “corrosive effect” on all of America.
Obama said, "Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness." He complained that significant racial disparities remain in the enforcement of law, from drug sentencing to application of the death penalty, to pulling people over.
Obama said mistrust of the police harms the communities that need law enforcement the most and makes black people reluctant to cooperate with the police.
I think it was a stretch to say that the turmoil in Ferguson exposed the gulf of mistrust that exists between blacks and the police. What was there to expose when it is an open secret that blacks do not trust the police? And the president was being disingenuous in complaining about the racial disparities in the enforcement of law.
Obama complained about drug sentences. I must admit that the harsh penalties for sales of crack cocaine have resulted in long prison sentences mostly for blacks. But that is because blacks were the ones who cornered the market on crack cocaine.
The president talked about the disparities in the enforcement of law, but he conveniently overlooked the fact that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime, especially violent crime. All you have to do is watch the daily TV news. Blacks make up only 12 percent of the population, but on news broadcasts you see more blacks than whites getting busted. And they’re not getting busted because they’re black.
Obama complained about blacks being pulled over. He must have been talking about tactics such as stop-and-frisk. While that particular tactic has reduced the number of black-on-black shootings, it has also caused some collateral damage by inconveniencing and offending some law-abiding black citizens. Then there is the politically incorrect racial profiling cops do when they pull over someone, black or white, who looks out of place in a particular location. It’s a good, longtime police practice, but it carries with it the same collateral damage that stop-and-frisk does.
And, of course, Obama complained about the disparity in death sentences. It hasn’t been too many years ago that blacks were indeed sentenced to death when whites committing the same crimes were given lesser sentences. But that has not been the case for some time.
Trust is a two-way proposition. In dealing with black lawbreakers, the hatred of police comes across loud and clear. I recall an incident shortly after I became a Riverside Sheriff’s officer. I arrested a black man - for what I cannot remember - and he snapped at me, “The only reason you’re fucking with me is because I’m black.” That was then and this is now – nothing has really changed much.
While I am sure most blacks do not hate cops, there are a significant number that do, and those are the ones the police often have to deal with. So, those cops mistrust blacks just like blacks mistrust cops, and Obama’s complaints aren’t going to change that.
ABBAS SPEWED VENOM AT ISRAEL IN ADDRESS TO U.N.
In accusing Israel of committing genocide and war crimes, Abbas proved he is no ‘partner for peace’
In his address to the U.N. Friday, Mahmoud Abbas spewed vitriolic venom at Israel. He described Israel’s war against Hamas as a “genocidal crime.” He promised that, "We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to escape punishment."
Abbas said "Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people." He called the deaths of 460 Palestinian children in Gaza "a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world."
As for the peace negotiations, Abbas said Israel is offering Palestinians a future either in "isolated ghettos" or "at worst it will be a most abhorrent form of apartheid."
Abbas called for immediate Palestinian statehood, saying, "There is an occupation that must end now. There is a people that must be freed immediately. The hour of independence of the state of Palestine has arrived."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Abbas of waging "diplomatic terrorism" and making "false accusations." And even the Obama administration was angered by the speech. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "President Abbas' speech today included offensive characterizations that were deeply disappointing and which we reject. Such provocative statements are counterproductive and undermine efforts to create a positive atmosphere and restore trust between the parties."
By his venomous words, Abbas proved that he is not, and has never been a partner for peace. And those words should make it clear to President Obama why many Israelis are “ready to abandon the hard work of peace."
In his address to the U.N. Friday, Mahmoud Abbas spewed vitriolic venom at Israel. He described Israel’s war against Hamas as a “genocidal crime.” He promised that, "We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to escape punishment."
Abbas said "Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people." He called the deaths of 460 Palestinian children in Gaza "a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world."
As for the peace negotiations, Abbas said Israel is offering Palestinians a future either in "isolated ghettos" or "at worst it will be a most abhorrent form of apartheid."
Abbas called for immediate Palestinian statehood, saying, "There is an occupation that must end now. There is a people that must be freed immediately. The hour of independence of the state of Palestine has arrived."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Abbas of waging "diplomatic terrorism" and making "false accusations." And even the Obama administration was angered by the speech. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "President Abbas' speech today included offensive characterizations that were deeply disappointing and which we reject. Such provocative statements are counterproductive and undermine efforts to create a positive atmosphere and restore trust between the parties."
By his venomous words, Abbas proved that he is not, and has never been a partner for peace. And those words should make it clear to President Obama why many Israelis are “ready to abandon the hard work of peace."
IT’S THE IDEOLOGY, STUPID
Former FBI agent Ali Soufan says we have been fighting an endless war with Islamist terrorist groups when we should be dealing with the ideology that drives those groups
Ali Soufan, CEO of The Soufan Group, is a former FBI agent who led the investigation into the attack on the USS Cole and investigated the circumstances surrounding 911. For years, Soufan has also tracked al-Qaeda. He believes we have been unsuccessful in destroying al-Qaeda and its affiliates because we have failed to deal with the ideology that is driving the Islamist groups.
Here is how Soufan answered a question by Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s ABC This Week:
RADDATZ: Ali Soufan, you've been quite critical of the approach to combating al Qaeda. You recently said that there was too much focus on Osama bin Laden and not on the bin Ladenism he spawned. What do you mean by that and what do you think we should be doing better?
SOUFAN: I think since 9/11, our tactics has been just tactics.
We have been, you know, dealing with al Qaeda, with the threat al Qaeda brings. We have been successful in diminishing some of the threat in the short term, but we never dealt with the ideology.
Today after trillions of dollars that's been spent, after thousands of lives around the world that have been lost, we have more people adhere to the ideology of Osama bin Laden in 2014 than we had in 2001. So that gives you an idea that the threat is not a group. The threat is in the ideology.
There are different groups, sometimes we call them ISIS, sometimes we call them al Qaeda, now people are calling Khorasan a new group. However, we never dealt with ideology, and that is a problem.
RADDATZ: How confident are you that we can beat them [ISIS]?
SOUFAN: Well, first, before I answer this question, we have to know our enemy. I mean, Sung Tzu said a long time ago, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win 100 times in 100 battles.
Look for example about the Khorasan group. Khorasan is a region in central Asia that includes part of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They refer -- al Qaeda refers to the leadership in northern Pakistan as Khorasan. So Khorasan is not a new affiliate. It's not a new group. It is simply al Qaeda as we know it and as we always knew it.
So first, we have to learn about our enemy. We have to identify the enemy. And if we don't do this with ISIS and if we don't target the incubating factors [the ideology] that are making ISIS popular among thousands of youth around the world, then I think we're going to have a lot of difficulties in dismantling it and defeating it.
Ali Soufan, CEO of The Soufan Group, is a former FBI agent who led the investigation into the attack on the USS Cole and investigated the circumstances surrounding 911. For years, Soufan has also tracked al-Qaeda. He believes we have been unsuccessful in destroying al-Qaeda and its affiliates because we have failed to deal with the ideology that is driving the Islamist groups.
Here is how Soufan answered a question by Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s ABC This Week:
RADDATZ: Ali Soufan, you've been quite critical of the approach to combating al Qaeda. You recently said that there was too much focus on Osama bin Laden and not on the bin Ladenism he spawned. What do you mean by that and what do you think we should be doing better?
SOUFAN: I think since 9/11, our tactics has been just tactics.
We have been, you know, dealing with al Qaeda, with the threat al Qaeda brings. We have been successful in diminishing some of the threat in the short term, but we never dealt with the ideology.
Today after trillions of dollars that's been spent, after thousands of lives around the world that have been lost, we have more people adhere to the ideology of Osama bin Laden in 2014 than we had in 2001. So that gives you an idea that the threat is not a group. The threat is in the ideology.
There are different groups, sometimes we call them ISIS, sometimes we call them al Qaeda, now people are calling Khorasan a new group. However, we never dealt with ideology, and that is a problem.
RADDATZ: How confident are you that we can beat them [ISIS]?
SOUFAN: Well, first, before I answer this question, we have to know our enemy. I mean, Sung Tzu said a long time ago, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win 100 times in 100 battles.
Look for example about the Khorasan group. Khorasan is a region in central Asia that includes part of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They refer -- al Qaeda refers to the leadership in northern Pakistan as Khorasan. So Khorasan is not a new affiliate. It's not a new group. It is simply al Qaeda as we know it and as we always knew it.
So first, we have to learn about our enemy. We have to identify the enemy. And if we don't do this with ISIS and if we don't target the incubating factors [the ideology] that are making ISIS popular among thousands of youth around the world, then I think we're going to have a lot of difficulties in dismantling it and defeating it.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
JUSTICE AGAINST ‘I AM DARREN WILSON’ BRACELETS
Holder’s Justice Department claims bracelets showing support for Officer Wilson that are being worn by Ferguson cops are provocative and aggravating the minority community
Ferguson cops have been wearing bracelets inscribed with “I am Darren Wilson” to show their support for the officer who is under heavy fire for shooting Michael Brown last month. Members of the minority community want Wilson arrested and charged with murder and have been outraged by the bracelets, complaining to the Justice Department about them.
Holder’s Justice Department promptly wrote Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson, informing him that he should order his cops to stop wearing the bracelets. From MailOnline:
In a letter to Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, the Justice Department said residents had told its investigators that officers policing protest sites on Tuesday in Ferguson were seen wearing 'I am Darren Wilson' bracelets. The letter said the bracelets had 'upset and agitated' people and 'reinforce the very us versus them' mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists.'
Jackson, who is barely hanging on to his job by a thin thread, is in no position to tell Justice to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
In a pitiful effort to keep his job, Jackson has been marching with the demonstrators and he has apologized to the black community for the length of time it took to remove Brown's body from the street and to Brown’s parents for the loss of their son. He will, no doubt, follow the Justice Department's directive to ban the bracelets.
Let’s face it, anything the Ferguson cops may do, no matter how trivial, that could possibly be construed as offensive to Michael Brown’s supporters, will lead to a rash of complaints and a kneejerk reaction from Justice. Banning those bracelets will not change that.
Ferguson cops have been wearing bracelets inscribed with “I am Darren Wilson” to show their support for the officer who is under heavy fire for shooting Michael Brown last month. Members of the minority community want Wilson arrested and charged with murder and have been outraged by the bracelets, complaining to the Justice Department about them.
Holder’s Justice Department promptly wrote Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson, informing him that he should order his cops to stop wearing the bracelets. From MailOnline:
In a letter to Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, the Justice Department said residents had told its investigators that officers policing protest sites on Tuesday in Ferguson were seen wearing 'I am Darren Wilson' bracelets. The letter said the bracelets had 'upset and agitated' people and 'reinforce the very us versus them' mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists.'
Jackson, who is barely hanging on to his job by a thin thread, is in no position to tell Justice to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
In a pitiful effort to keep his job, Jackson has been marching with the demonstrators and he has apologized to the black community for the length of time it took to remove Brown's body from the street and to Brown’s parents for the loss of their son. He will, no doubt, follow the Justice Department's directive to ban the bracelets.
Let’s face it, anything the Ferguson cops may do, no matter how trivial, that could possibly be construed as offensive to Michael Brown’s supporters, will lead to a rash of complaints and a kneejerk reaction from Justice. Banning those bracelets will not change that.
11-YEAR-OLD PISTOL PACKING GIRL SAVES MOTHER
When Jayda Milsap’s mother was being stabbed by her ex-boyfriend, the 11-year-old girl shot him twice, thereby saving her life
Despite a restraining order issue against him a week earlier, ex-boyfriend Leonardo Henry, 25, broke into Brandy Moreno’s Oklahoma City home at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning and repeatedly stabbed the mother of 11-year-old Jayda Milsap.
Unfortunately for Leonardo, but most fortunately for Brandy, the mother had taught Jayda how to fire a gun so she could protect herself if need be. Mama taught daughter well because Jayda grabbed the gun and shot Leonardo twice, thereby saving her life. The asshole fled from the home but was found by the cops a short distance away.
Moreno’s two children and Leonardo’s three kids were in the home when the stabbing and shooting took place. Brandy had filed the restraining order because she claimed Leonardo had been molesting the children in the middle of the night for several years.
Brandy was stabbed in the eye, neck and chest. Both she and Leonardo are being treated at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. The cops will snatch Leonardo out of the hospital as soon as they can and throw his sorry ass into jail.
Jayda’s rescue of her mother is one big Second Amendment success story.
Despite a restraining order issue against him a week earlier, ex-boyfriend Leonardo Henry, 25, broke into Brandy Moreno’s Oklahoma City home at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning and repeatedly stabbed the mother of 11-year-old Jayda Milsap.
Unfortunately for Leonardo, but most fortunately for Brandy, the mother had taught Jayda how to fire a gun so she could protect herself if need be. Mama taught daughter well because Jayda grabbed the gun and shot Leonardo twice, thereby saving her life. The asshole fled from the home but was found by the cops a short distance away.
Moreno’s two children and Leonardo’s three kids were in the home when the stabbing and shooting took place. Brandy had filed the restraining order because she claimed Leonardo had been molesting the children in the middle of the night for several years.
Brandy was stabbed in the eye, neck and chest. Both she and Leonardo are being treated at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. The cops will snatch Leonardo out of the hospital as soon as they can and throw his sorry ass into jail.
Jayda’s rescue of her mother is one big Second Amendment success story.
SMALL CHICAGO BUSINESSES MAY BE PROHIBITED FROM ASKING JOB APPLICANTS IF THEY HAVE AN ARREST RECORD
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing a city ordinance that will prohibit businesses with fewer than 15 employees from asking job applicants about their criminal histories
Generally speaking, I would say the proposed ordinance makes good sense. Too many ex-cons are are turned down due to their criminal histories. There are some types of businesses that should be able to inquire about a job applicant’s arrest record. In any event, there is nothing that will prevent a business from running background checks on job applicants.
CHICAGO ‘BAN THE BOX’ ORDINANCE HIDES FELONS FROM EMPLOYERS
Newsmax
September 27, 2014
Employers in Chicago will be banned from asking applicants about their criminal histories if Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed "ban the box" ordinance is passed.
The ordinance, to be proposed at the next city council meeting on Oct. 8, would prohibit companies with fewer than 15 employees to include questions about applicants' criminal histories on job applications, reports The Chicago Sun-Times.
Instead, companies could only conduct background checks when candidates are otherwise considered to be qualified for a job. Chicago's ordinance mirrors a state law for companies that takes effect on Jan. 1.
Several other states and communities across the country are also passing similar legislation, reports the National Employment Law Project, which is working to open job opportunities to former criminals.
"This is a common-sense move that will ensure consistent rules for businesses of all sizes and ensure people who have left prison and are trying to turn their life around can be evaluated on their abilities, said Alderman Walter Burnett.
He speaks from experience, because as a teen, he went to prison after robbing a savings and loan. Eventually he was pardoned and since became the first felon to win a seat on City Council.
Burnett said many private companies turned him down after he got out of prison, but Cook County, which along with City Hall and Illinois doesn't ask about criminal backgrounds gave him a job as a draftsman.
He'd learned the trade in prison and ended up working on road reconstruction projects.
Michael Negron, Emanuel's chief of policy, said there are more than 40,000 businesses in Chicago that would come under the ordinance.
Violations could reach $1,000 if companies are caught breaking the rules.
Some small business owners said they don't expect the ordinance to impact them, but Burnett he knows of some businesses that turn away ex-offenders based on what they answer on the applications.
“It’s something we’re trying to change,” he said. “Jobs are a crime-fighting tool.”
Generally speaking, I would say the proposed ordinance makes good sense. Too many ex-cons are are turned down due to their criminal histories. There are some types of businesses that should be able to inquire about a job applicant’s arrest record. In any event, there is nothing that will prevent a business from running background checks on job applicants.
CHICAGO ‘BAN THE BOX’ ORDINANCE HIDES FELONS FROM EMPLOYERS
Newsmax
September 27, 2014
Employers in Chicago will be banned from asking applicants about their criminal histories if Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed "ban the box" ordinance is passed.
The ordinance, to be proposed at the next city council meeting on Oct. 8, would prohibit companies with fewer than 15 employees to include questions about applicants' criminal histories on job applications, reports The Chicago Sun-Times.
Instead, companies could only conduct background checks when candidates are otherwise considered to be qualified for a job. Chicago's ordinance mirrors a state law for companies that takes effect on Jan. 1.
Several other states and communities across the country are also passing similar legislation, reports the National Employment Law Project, which is working to open job opportunities to former criminals.
"This is a common-sense move that will ensure consistent rules for businesses of all sizes and ensure people who have left prison and are trying to turn their life around can be evaluated on their abilities, said Alderman Walter Burnett.
He speaks from experience, because as a teen, he went to prison after robbing a savings and loan. Eventually he was pardoned and since became the first felon to win a seat on City Council.
Burnett said many private companies turned him down after he got out of prison, but Cook County, which along with City Hall and Illinois doesn't ask about criminal backgrounds gave him a job as a draftsman.
He'd learned the trade in prison and ended up working on road reconstruction projects.
Michael Negron, Emanuel's chief of policy, said there are more than 40,000 businesses in Chicago that would come under the ordinance.
Violations could reach $1,000 if companies are caught breaking the rules.
Some small business owners said they don't expect the ordinance to impact them, but Burnett he knows of some businesses that turn away ex-offenders based on what they answer on the applications.
“It’s something we’re trying to change,” he said. “Jobs are a crime-fighting tool.”
DO POLITICALLY CORRECT APPOINTMENTS EQUATE TO COMPETENCY?
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 23, 2014
The union representing the rank-and-file members of the San Francisco Fire Department have gotten together to call for the ouster of Joanne Hayes-White, the department chief.
The simmering unrest apparently boiled over during the Labor Day holiday weekend when fire fighters in the field sometimes had to wait for an HOUR for an ambulance to transport injured persons to the hospital. During the month of August there were 374 cases where it took the wagon more than 20 minutes to arrive. In nine cases the wait was over an hour.
The chief declined to comment, other than to say, ” I’m staying positive and professional.” (Presumably meaning she is still getting paid and still has her head up her ass.)
Former Mayor Gavin Newsom made a big splash with his politically correct appointments of Heather Fong to head the San Francisco Police Department and Hayes-White to head the fire department.
Ms. Hayes-White has been with the fire department since 1990 and is now 50, so she could retire if she was so inclined. She could probably do OK on the retirement package from her $320,000 annual salary.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 23, 2014
The union representing the rank-and-file members of the San Francisco Fire Department have gotten together to call for the ouster of Joanne Hayes-White, the department chief.
The simmering unrest apparently boiled over during the Labor Day holiday weekend when fire fighters in the field sometimes had to wait for an HOUR for an ambulance to transport injured persons to the hospital. During the month of August there were 374 cases where it took the wagon more than 20 minutes to arrive. In nine cases the wait was over an hour.
The chief declined to comment, other than to say, ” I’m staying positive and professional.” (Presumably meaning she is still getting paid and still has her head up her ass.)
Former Mayor Gavin Newsom made a big splash with his politically correct appointments of Heather Fong to head the San Francisco Police Department and Hayes-White to head the fire department.
Ms. Hayes-White has been with the fire department since 1990 and is now 50, so she could retire if she was so inclined. She could probably do OK on the retirement package from her $320,000 annual salary.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
FAR-LEFT TRASH IN FAR-LEFT N.Y. MAYOR’S ADMINISTRATION
The chief of staff to Bill de Blasio’s wife has been living since 2010 with a convicted killer who has also been convicted of drug trafficking
New York’s Sandinista-loving Mayor Bill de Blasio has no shame. In January De Blasio, who is now the subject of a cover up in the death of a ground hog he accidentally dropped on Ground Hog Day, appointed Rachael Noerdlinger, 43, as chief of staff to his wife, Chirlane McCray. In her position, Noerdlinger has been attending high-level meetings at NYPD.
When de Blasio appointed Noerdlinger, the mayor had to know that since 2010 she has been living with Hassaun McFarlan, 36, the son of a Harlem drug dealer. At age 15, McFarlan shot dead an 18-year-old youth in Harlem after a dispute over a goose-down jacket. He served seven years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Since then he has been arrested at least five times.
In 2003, McFarlan got busted for his part in an interstate crack-trafficking ring. He pled guilty to a bunch of drug charges and spent time in a Massachusetts prison until his release in 2007. Since then he has been busted at least three times, including an arrest for possession of marijuana. Last November, McFarlan got busted for nearly running over a New Jersey state trooper while driving Noerdlinger’s Mercedes-Benz.
All the time McFarlan has been cohabiting with Noerdlinger, he has been ranting against the police on social media, always referring to cops as pigs or fucking pigs. In one post he wrote, “I can’t come outside without the pigs fucking with me in the hood.” McFarlan had been a vocal critic of NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics, which put him in league with de Blasio.
Prior to her appointment by de Blasio, Rachael Noerdlinger worked as public relations adviser for Al Sharpton and his National Action Network. Sharpton has come to her defense by saying she should not have to answer for McFarlan’s behavior.
When you cohabit with trash (McFarlan), you too (Noerdlinger) are trash.
In this case, NYPD has good cause to be concerned about some pillow talk. McFarlan, the two-time prison inmate, is in a position to extract sensitive and classified NYPD information from Noerdlinger. Shame on Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for not having the balls to tell de Blasio that his wife’s chief of staff will not be allowed to attend any NYPD staff meetings.
New York’s Sandinista-loving Mayor Bill de Blasio has no shame. In January De Blasio, who is now the subject of a cover up in the death of a ground hog he accidentally dropped on Ground Hog Day, appointed Rachael Noerdlinger, 43, as chief of staff to his wife, Chirlane McCray. In her position, Noerdlinger has been attending high-level meetings at NYPD.
When de Blasio appointed Noerdlinger, the mayor had to know that since 2010 she has been living with Hassaun McFarlan, 36, the son of a Harlem drug dealer. At age 15, McFarlan shot dead an 18-year-old youth in Harlem after a dispute over a goose-down jacket. He served seven years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Since then he has been arrested at least five times.
In 2003, McFarlan got busted for his part in an interstate crack-trafficking ring. He pled guilty to a bunch of drug charges and spent time in a Massachusetts prison until his release in 2007. Since then he has been busted at least three times, including an arrest for possession of marijuana. Last November, McFarlan got busted for nearly running over a New Jersey state trooper while driving Noerdlinger’s Mercedes-Benz.
All the time McFarlan has been cohabiting with Noerdlinger, he has been ranting against the police on social media, always referring to cops as pigs or fucking pigs. In one post he wrote, “I can’t come outside without the pigs fucking with me in the hood.” McFarlan had been a vocal critic of NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics, which put him in league with de Blasio.
Prior to her appointment by de Blasio, Rachael Noerdlinger worked as public relations adviser for Al Sharpton and his National Action Network. Sharpton has come to her defense by saying she should not have to answer for McFarlan’s behavior.
When you cohabit with trash (McFarlan), you too (Noerdlinger) are trash.
In this case, NYPD has good cause to be concerned about some pillow talk. McFarlan, the two-time prison inmate, is in a position to extract sensitive and classified NYPD information from Noerdlinger. Shame on Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for not having the balls to tell de Blasio that his wife’s chief of staff will not be allowed to attend any NYPD staff meetings.
ANIMALISITC COP RESIGNS, VICTIM AWARDED $1.5 MILLION
Cellphone video of freeway beating ends cop’s career and enriches his victim
Most of you will recall last July’s cellphone video that showed a CHP officer repeatedly punching a downed woman in the face on the shoulder of the 10 Freeway in Los Aneles. The officer, Daniel Andrew, was referred to as an ‘animalistic cop.’
According to the Associated Press, CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow has confirmed that Andrew has agreed to resign and his victim, Marlene Pinnock, has agreed to accept a $1.5 million settlement.
Farrow said that Andrew "has elected to resign." – Translation: I fired his ass. Andrew’s law enforcement career did not last long. He became a CHP officer in 2012. He could still face criminal charges.
Court documents describe the incident:
Andrew had just pulled Pinnock from oncoming traffic and she resisted by pushing him after multiple drivers called 911 to report her walking barefoot along the side of the freeway. Andrew then straddled her on the ground as Pinnock resisted by "kicking her legs, grabbing the officer's uniform and twisting her body. Andrew "struck her in the upper torso and head several times with a closed right fist.”
Most of the award will be placed in a special needs trust for Pincock because she is bipolar. She had been off her medication for several months prior to the incident.
Following release of the video, a number of cops defended Andrew’s actions. God save us from those idiots!
Most of you will recall last July’s cellphone video that showed a CHP officer repeatedly punching a downed woman in the face on the shoulder of the 10 Freeway in Los Aneles. The officer, Daniel Andrew, was referred to as an ‘animalistic cop.’
According to the Associated Press, CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow has confirmed that Andrew has agreed to resign and his victim, Marlene Pinnock, has agreed to accept a $1.5 million settlement.
Farrow said that Andrew "has elected to resign." – Translation: I fired his ass. Andrew’s law enforcement career did not last long. He became a CHP officer in 2012. He could still face criminal charges.
Court documents describe the incident:
Andrew had just pulled Pinnock from oncoming traffic and she resisted by pushing him after multiple drivers called 911 to report her walking barefoot along the side of the freeway. Andrew then straddled her on the ground as Pinnock resisted by "kicking her legs, grabbing the officer's uniform and twisting her body. Andrew "struck her in the upper torso and head several times with a closed right fist.”
Most of the award will be placed in a special needs trust for Pincock because she is bipolar. She had been off her medication for several months prior to the incident.
Following release of the video, a number of cops defended Andrew’s actions. God save us from those idiots!
WHY I WARN PEOPLE TO STAY OUT OF MEXICO
Aside from getting caught up in the Mexican cartel wars, Americans are tantalizing targets for kidnappers who don’t hesitate to murder their victims
Whenever someone tells me they are thinking about visiting Mexico, I tell them to forget it and find some Caribbean island beach resort instead. And as one commentator to this report said: Don't go to Mexico. If your work requires it, find another job.
BROWNSVILLE RESIDENTS KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO, ONE KILLED AFTER BEATING
by Elizabeth Espinosa
KGBT 4
September 25, 2014
A Brownsville resident is dead after a group of armed men kidnapped him, along with another victim in Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas.
Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said Eric Candanosa and Carlos Vela Moreno were driving aling a highway in Tamaulipas transporting vehicles Wednesday evening.
Moreno said that the vehicles they were driving overheated, forcing them to stop.
At this time, a group of six or seven armed men in two vehicles approached the pair and kidnapped both the Brownsville residents.
The group of armed men took them to an isolated wooded area, where they began to beat the men with 2x4s.
According to the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department, one of the armed men said, “This is the guy,” referring to 38-year-old Candanosa.
Moreno said the group began to beat Candanosa.
Officials said the pair was then taken to a hospital in Progreso after the beating.
Since both men are United States citizens a Mexican ambulance rushed the men to the Los Indios Bridge to meet with paramedics from the U.S.
The Cameron County Sheriff’s Office was called to the bridge around 8:30 p.m. in reference to the assault.
Sheriff Lucio told Action 4 News that Candanosa was dead by the time he arrived at the bridge.
Authorities said they are not sure if the Brownsville residents were transporting anything else at the time of the incident.
Moreno told the sheriff’s department that he isn’t sure why the group of armed men kidnapped them.
An autopsy, ordered by Justice of the Peace Eloy Cano in Harlingen, will be performed Thursday to find out more on Candanosa’s death.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In 1995, Judge Camo issued an arrest warrant for disorderly conduct against shock jock Howard Stern. It seems as though Howard, who has been a judge on America’s Got Talent since 2012, pissed off the Harlingen judge for mocking fans of the slain Tejano singer Selena. According to Time (April 12, 1995):
Soon after Selena was gunned down in Corpus Christi last month, Stern played her music to the sound of gunfire and said: "Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul . . . Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth."
Disorderly conduct for dissing Spanish people over the air? It looks as though they make up the law in Harlingen as they go along.
Whenever someone tells me they are thinking about visiting Mexico, I tell them to forget it and find some Caribbean island beach resort instead. And as one commentator to this report said: Don't go to Mexico. If your work requires it, find another job.
BROWNSVILLE RESIDENTS KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO, ONE KILLED AFTER BEATING
by Elizabeth Espinosa
KGBT 4
September 25, 2014
A Brownsville resident is dead after a group of armed men kidnapped him, along with another victim in Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas.
Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said Eric Candanosa and Carlos Vela Moreno were driving aling a highway in Tamaulipas transporting vehicles Wednesday evening.
Moreno said that the vehicles they were driving overheated, forcing them to stop.
At this time, a group of six or seven armed men in two vehicles approached the pair and kidnapped both the Brownsville residents.
The group of armed men took them to an isolated wooded area, where they began to beat the men with 2x4s.
According to the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department, one of the armed men said, “This is the guy,” referring to 38-year-old Candanosa.
Moreno said the group began to beat Candanosa.
Officials said the pair was then taken to a hospital in Progreso after the beating.
Since both men are United States citizens a Mexican ambulance rushed the men to the Los Indios Bridge to meet with paramedics from the U.S.
The Cameron County Sheriff’s Office was called to the bridge around 8:30 p.m. in reference to the assault.
Sheriff Lucio told Action 4 News that Candanosa was dead by the time he arrived at the bridge.
Authorities said they are not sure if the Brownsville residents were transporting anything else at the time of the incident.
Moreno told the sheriff’s department that he isn’t sure why the group of armed men kidnapped them.
An autopsy, ordered by Justice of the Peace Eloy Cano in Harlingen, will be performed Thursday to find out more on Candanosa’s death.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In 1995, Judge Camo issued an arrest warrant for disorderly conduct against shock jock Howard Stern. It seems as though Howard, who has been a judge on America’s Got Talent since 2012, pissed off the Harlingen judge for mocking fans of the slain Tejano singer Selena. According to Time (April 12, 1995):
Soon after Selena was gunned down in Corpus Christi last month, Stern played her music to the sound of gunfire and said: "Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul . . . Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth."
Disorderly conduct for dissing Spanish people over the air? It looks as though they make up the law in Harlingen as they go along.
LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE X 3
DNA nails 74-year-old triple murderer for killings he commited back in the 1980s
By Boeb Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 25, 2014
A superannuated slimeball was sentenced in LA today to three terms of life without parole for murders committed back in the 1980s. His victims were cocaine addicts.
Samuel Little, 74, was tied to the crimes by DNA matches. He was extradited from Kentucky in 2012 on a drug beef and then charged with the murders. The jury only took 2 hours to convict his sorry ass.
I wonder if he will be eligible for early release on the basis that he is aged and may soon become infirm and a burden to the taxpayers? I hope not, but you never know.
By Boeb Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 25, 2014
A superannuated slimeball was sentenced in LA today to three terms of life without parole for murders committed back in the 1980s. His victims were cocaine addicts.
Samuel Little, 74, was tied to the crimes by DNA matches. He was extradited from Kentucky in 2012 on a drug beef and then charged with the murders. The jury only took 2 hours to convict his sorry ass.
I wonder if he will be eligible for early release on the basis that he is aged and may soon become infirm and a burden to the taxpayers? I hope not, but you never know.
Friday, September 26, 2014
COP PANICKED WHEN DRIVER REACHED FOR HIS LICENSE
After a driver got out of his car as ordered, he was told to produce his driver license, but when he reaches back into the car to get the license, a S.C. State Trooper shot at the unarmed man four times, striking him once in the hip
On September 4 in Columbia, S.C., State Trooper Sean Groubert, 31, spotted Levar Jones, 35, driving while not wearing a seatbelt. He pulled Jones over at a gas station and ordered him out of his car. What followed is captured on the patrol car’s dash cam. As Jones got out of his car, the trooper asked him for his driver license. Jones turned around and reached back into the car to retrieve his license. At this point Groubert opens fire, getting off at least four shots and striking the unarmed man once in the hip.
Groubert was fired on September 19 because it was determined that the shooting was not justified. On Wednesday the former trooper was charged with the felony of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney argues the shooting was justified because at that moment, Groubert perceived Jones reaching back into the car as an imminent threat to his life.
Jones was treated at a hospital and is recovering at home. It’s a good thing Groubert was not a better shooter. You can expect a big lawsuit in this case.
Compounding this incident is the fact that here we have another shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop.
Immediately after getting shot, Jones yelled, "What did I do? . . . I just got my license, you said get my license." I think I can answer what Jones did. He scared the supreme shit out of the trooper when he reached back into the car. At that moment, Groubert panicked, pure and simple.
With so many cops getting shot and with the recent ambush shooting of two Pennsylvania State Troopers outside their barracks, I suspect that many cops are very apprehensive as they go about their daily duties. But does that justify what happened in Columbia at that gas station? To be honest, I have a hard time answering that question.
On September 4 in Columbia, S.C., State Trooper Sean Groubert, 31, spotted Levar Jones, 35, driving while not wearing a seatbelt. He pulled Jones over at a gas station and ordered him out of his car. What followed is captured on the patrol car’s dash cam. As Jones got out of his car, the trooper asked him for his driver license. Jones turned around and reached back into the car to retrieve his license. At this point Groubert opens fire, getting off at least four shots and striking the unarmed man once in the hip.
Groubert was fired on September 19 because it was determined that the shooting was not justified. On Wednesday the former trooper was charged with the felony of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney argues the shooting was justified because at that moment, Groubert perceived Jones reaching back into the car as an imminent threat to his life.
Jones was treated at a hospital and is recovering at home. It’s a good thing Groubert was not a better shooter. You can expect a big lawsuit in this case.
Compounding this incident is the fact that here we have another shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop.
Immediately after getting shot, Jones yelled, "What did I do? . . . I just got my license, you said get my license." I think I can answer what Jones did. He scared the supreme shit out of the trooper when he reached back into the car. At that moment, Groubert panicked, pure and simple.
With so many cops getting shot and with the recent ambush shooting of two Pennsylvania State Troopers outside their barracks, I suspect that many cops are very apprehensive as they go about their daily duties. But does that justify what happened in Columbia at that gas station? To be honest, I have a hard time answering that question.
JUSTICE INVESTIGATING SHOOTING OF BLACK MAN WITH AIR RIFLE BY WHITE COPS
John Crawford III was shot dead by cops in an Ohio Walmart when he did not drop an air rifle he was holding
On August 5, cops in Beavercreek, Ohio arrived at a Walmart in response to a 911 call of a man walking up and down the aisles of the store with a rifle in hand. When they arrived they spotted John Crawford III, 22, standing in an aisle holding what appeared to be a rifle. When he failed to drop the rifle, which turned out to be an air rifle, he was shot dead.
On Wednesday, a special Greene County grand jury refused to indict the officers involved in the shooting. Crawford’s family immediately called for a Justice Department investigation to determine if race was a factor in the shooting.
The family said it was “incomprehensible” that the grand jury failed to indict the cops. The family released a statement which said, “The Crawford family is extremely disappointed, disgusted and confused. They are heartbroken that justice was not done in the tragic death of their only son.”
Eric Holder must have heard them loud and clear because the Justice Department announced that it had begun a thorough investigation to determine if Crawford’s civil rights had been violated.
Since an air rifle can look like the real McCoy, I believe the officers were justified in shooting Crawford when he did not drop the gun. And you can bet that had Crawford been white, Holder’s Justice Department would never have started any investigation into this shooting.
On August 5, cops in Beavercreek, Ohio arrived at a Walmart in response to a 911 call of a man walking up and down the aisles of the store with a rifle in hand. When they arrived they spotted John Crawford III, 22, standing in an aisle holding what appeared to be a rifle. When he failed to drop the rifle, which turned out to be an air rifle, he was shot dead.
On Wednesday, a special Greene County grand jury refused to indict the officers involved in the shooting. Crawford’s family immediately called for a Justice Department investigation to determine if race was a factor in the shooting.
The family said it was “incomprehensible” that the grand jury failed to indict the cops. The family released a statement which said, “The Crawford family is extremely disappointed, disgusted and confused. They are heartbroken that justice was not done in the tragic death of their only son.”
Eric Holder must have heard them loud and clear because the Justice Department announced that it had begun a thorough investigation to determine if Crawford’s civil rights had been violated.
Since an air rifle can look like the real McCoy, I believe the officers were justified in shooting Crawford when he did not drop the gun. And you can bet that had Crawford been white, Holder’s Justice Department would never have started any investigation into this shooting.
TWO AUSTRALIAN COPS STABBED BY YOUNG MUSLIM TERRORIST
Two Australian counter-terrorism cops were stabbed by Numan Haider in front of the Endeavour Hills police station before one of them killed the Muslim youth with a single shot
According to the Australian Associated Press:
Numan Haider, 18, a Muslim youth of Narre Warren, came to police attention three months ago because of extremist postings he made on social media. His passport was cancelled a week ago after his rhetoric escalated. He was seen at a Melbourne shopping center with an ISIS flag. Police said he made no specific threats. Police arranged to meet him on Tuesday night. Uncomfortable about meeting two counter-terrorism officers in the Endeavour Hills police station foyer, he wanted to talk in the parking lot. Police say after a hand shake, he attacked the officers with a large knife. A federal officer was stabbed in the neck, wrist, stomach and head. A Victoria officer was stabbed twice in the forearm. That officer killed Haider with a single shot. Another knife was found on his body. The officers required surgery and both are in stable condition.
There are those who believe that Haider planned to behead the officers and display their severed heads on social media.
Some Muslims declared that the police murdered Haider. Imam Sheikh Ustadh Mohammed Junaid Thorne said:
“Unfortunately, our young brother went alone to meet with these ‘ambiguous’ policemen, the violators of his privacy, and it is still unknown the details of what happened then. What we are sure of though is that he was murdered in cold blood right in front of a police station, in front of a place that is supposed to be providing security and comfort to our youth.”
Endeavour Hills is a suburb of Melbourne. My friend Dorina Lisson, the ardent anti-death penalty crusader, lives there. Here is what Dorina wrote:
I live in the suburb of Endeavour Hills, and the shocking incident has completely shaken all the residents of my beautiful quiet suburb. Many are now afraid to go on their daily walk in the many parks and gardens. At this time, the two police officers are recovering in hospital. To my disbelief, the Islamic Council has publicly cursed the police for shooting dead the Muslim man who started stabbing the two police officers with a large knife, intending to behead them, then posting the beheadings on social media for all the world to see. Muslims are causing headaches for police, in this once peaceful low-crime rate of a nation. May God help us all.
It looks like Australia is having some serious problems with its Muslim community. Perhaps it is time for our friends from down under to reconsider their ban on the death penalty.
According to the Australian Associated Press:
Numan Haider, 18, a Muslim youth of Narre Warren, came to police attention three months ago because of extremist postings he made on social media. His passport was cancelled a week ago after his rhetoric escalated. He was seen at a Melbourne shopping center with an ISIS flag. Police said he made no specific threats. Police arranged to meet him on Tuesday night. Uncomfortable about meeting two counter-terrorism officers in the Endeavour Hills police station foyer, he wanted to talk in the parking lot. Police say after a hand shake, he attacked the officers with a large knife. A federal officer was stabbed in the neck, wrist, stomach and head. A Victoria officer was stabbed twice in the forearm. That officer killed Haider with a single shot. Another knife was found on his body. The officers required surgery and both are in stable condition.
There are those who believe that Haider planned to behead the officers and display their severed heads on social media.
Some Muslims declared that the police murdered Haider. Imam Sheikh Ustadh Mohammed Junaid Thorne said:
“Unfortunately, our young brother went alone to meet with these ‘ambiguous’ policemen, the violators of his privacy, and it is still unknown the details of what happened then. What we are sure of though is that he was murdered in cold blood right in front of a police station, in front of a place that is supposed to be providing security and comfort to our youth.”
Endeavour Hills is a suburb of Melbourne. My friend Dorina Lisson, the ardent anti-death penalty crusader, lives there. Here is what Dorina wrote:
I live in the suburb of Endeavour Hills, and the shocking incident has completely shaken all the residents of my beautiful quiet suburb. Many are now afraid to go on their daily walk in the many parks and gardens. At this time, the two police officers are recovering in hospital. To my disbelief, the Islamic Council has publicly cursed the police for shooting dead the Muslim man who started stabbing the two police officers with a large knife, intending to behead them, then posting the beheadings on social media for all the world to see. Muslims are causing headaches for police, in this once peaceful low-crime rate of a nation. May God help us all.
It looks like Australia is having some serious problems with its Muslim community. Perhaps it is time for our friends from down under to reconsider their ban on the death penalty.
TED CRUZ DEFENDS REMARKS THAT GOT HIM BOOTED OFF STAGE
The Texas senator says that as a Christian he felt compelled to speak out in defense of Israel and the Jews
Hezbollah supporters at the In Defense of Christians conference were incensed over Cruz’s audacity to speak out in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.
CRUZ: NOT SORRY I SPOKE UP FOR ISRAEL
By Andrea Billups
Newsmax
September 25, 2014
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says he's not sorry he spoke out in favor of Israel and the Jewish people at a Sept. 10 conference where he was shouted down and forced to leave the stage, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
He said he felt it important to honor his commitment to speak, especially about the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, even as he was met with boos as he went after Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al- Assad.
“Look, I anticipated that there were one or two radical speakers who I didn’t expect would be happy with what I was saying,” Cruz told World magazine of his speech at the In Defense of Christians conference, held in Washington, D.C.
“What I didn’t understand was that a significant minority of the attendees there reflected the same bitter hatred towards Israel and the Jews," he said. "That surprised me. It disappointed me, but at the end of the day, we are called as Christians and Americans to speak the truth. That is what I endeavored to do.”
Others argued that Cruz intentionally provoked attendees, even as he knew that there were Hezbollah supporters at the event, Buzzfeed reported, noting he was only told about who would be there the night before he was slated to speak. Those people booed him so loud that he left the stage.
According to coverage of the event by breitbart.com, Cruz minced no words in his criticism of those who would put down Israel.
"Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East," Cruz spoke out.
"Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, that we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences," he continued. "But we shouldn't try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate and murder is murder."
As he spoke, people in the crowd pushed back, shouting "Stop it. Stop it," Breitbart noted.
Cruz, however. defended his convictions. "Before I arrived, a news story broke that a couple of the speakers who had been at the event were prominent supporters of Hezbollah,” Cruz told the Free Beacon. “There were some in the office who advocated that we should cancel, that I should simply not go, but I didn’t think that would be the right thing to do.”
“I didn’t want to not go and to not do what I could to shine the light on the persecution of Christians, which is absolutely unspeakable,” he said. “Secondly, I didn’t want to cede the discussion to the extremes.”
The senator said despite the rancor, many have come to him and let him know that they appreciated his candor. He pushed aside criticism, including from journalists, some of whom said the flap over his remarks detracted from helping Christians who were suffering in Muslim nations.
"What I find interesting is almost to a person,almost to a person, the people writing those columns have never or virtually never spoken of persecuted Christians in any other context," he told the Free Beacon.
Hezbollah supporters at the In Defense of Christians conference were incensed over Cruz’s audacity to speak out in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.
CRUZ: NOT SORRY I SPOKE UP FOR ISRAEL
By Andrea Billups
Newsmax
September 25, 2014
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says he's not sorry he spoke out in favor of Israel and the Jewish people at a Sept. 10 conference where he was shouted down and forced to leave the stage, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
He said he felt it important to honor his commitment to speak, especially about the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, even as he was met with boos as he went after Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al- Assad.
“Look, I anticipated that there were one or two radical speakers who I didn’t expect would be happy with what I was saying,” Cruz told World magazine of his speech at the In Defense of Christians conference, held in Washington, D.C.
“What I didn’t understand was that a significant minority of the attendees there reflected the same bitter hatred towards Israel and the Jews," he said. "That surprised me. It disappointed me, but at the end of the day, we are called as Christians and Americans to speak the truth. That is what I endeavored to do.”
Others argued that Cruz intentionally provoked attendees, even as he knew that there were Hezbollah supporters at the event, Buzzfeed reported, noting he was only told about who would be there the night before he was slated to speak. Those people booed him so loud that he left the stage.
According to coverage of the event by breitbart.com, Cruz minced no words in his criticism of those who would put down Israel.
"Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East," Cruz spoke out.
"Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, that we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences," he continued. "But we shouldn't try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate and murder is murder."
As he spoke, people in the crowd pushed back, shouting "Stop it. Stop it," Breitbart noted.
Cruz, however. defended his convictions. "Before I arrived, a news story broke that a couple of the speakers who had been at the event were prominent supporters of Hezbollah,” Cruz told the Free Beacon. “There were some in the office who advocated that we should cancel, that I should simply not go, but I didn’t think that would be the right thing to do.”
“I didn’t want to not go and to not do what I could to shine the light on the persecution of Christians, which is absolutely unspeakable,” he said. “Secondly, I didn’t want to cede the discussion to the extremes.”
The senator said despite the rancor, many have come to him and let him know that they appreciated his candor. He pushed aside criticism, including from journalists, some of whom said the flap over his remarks detracted from helping Christians who were suffering in Muslim nations.
"What I find interesting is almost to a person,almost to a person, the people writing those columns have never or virtually never spoken of persecuted Christians in any other context," he told the Free Beacon.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
OBAMA COULD NOT RESIST SLAMMING ISRAELIS IN HIS ADDRESS TO THE U.N.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama inadvertently unmasked his intense dislike for the Israelis
While condemning the rockets fired by Hamas at “innocent Israelis,” he also condemned Israel for "the lives of so many Palestinian children taken from us in Gaza" during his address Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. Then he went on to say:
"The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace."
While he tried to clean up his clearly anti-Israeli statement by adding, “"This is worthy of reflection within Israel," he unmasked his intense dislike for the Israelis. It seems obvious that in Obama’s mind it is far more damnable to take the lives of Palestinian children used as human shields by Hamas than to fire deadly rockets at innocent Israelis.
It never occurred to our Netanyahu-hating president that the Israelis have good reasons for abandoning the ‘peace’ he and Secretary of State John Kerry have tried to broker. They know the Palestinians have vowed to destroy the Jewish State and would merely use any negotiated peace agreement as a stepping stone toward achieving that goal.
While condemning the rockets fired by Hamas at “innocent Israelis,” he also condemned Israel for "the lives of so many Palestinian children taken from us in Gaza" during his address Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. Then he went on to say:
"The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace."
While he tried to clean up his clearly anti-Israeli statement by adding, “"This is worthy of reflection within Israel," he unmasked his intense dislike for the Israelis. It seems obvious that in Obama’s mind it is far more damnable to take the lives of Palestinian children used as human shields by Hamas than to fire deadly rockets at innocent Israelis.
It never occurred to our Netanyahu-hating president that the Israelis have good reasons for abandoning the ‘peace’ he and Secretary of State John Kerry have tried to broker. They know the Palestinians have vowed to destroy the Jewish State and would merely use any negotiated peace agreement as a stepping stone toward achieving that goal.
TONY STEWART CLEARED OF RUNNING DOWN POTHEAD
A grand jury cleared the NASCAR driver of any criminal charges in the on-track death of Kevin Ward Jr.
The cars of Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart collided August 9 during a race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in upstate New York. Ward’s car was pushed against the wall and came to a stop. Ward got out of the disabled car and ran onto the track to confront Stewart as he came around. Wham, he got smacked by Stewart’s car and croaked.
An Ontario County Grand Jury on Wednesday cleared Stewart of any criminal charges in the incident.
Toxicology tests from the autopsy showed that at the time he was struck by Stewart's car, Kevin Ward was under the influence of marijuana to the extent that it would impair his judgment.
Ah yes, for Kevin Ward pot was less dangerous than alcohol. It only caused him to run onto a track while the race was still going on and jump in front of Tony Stewart’s speeding car.
Could this be a harbinger of things to come in the states of Colorado and Washington? With the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, those two states could experience a rash of car crashes caused by potheads driving with their judgment impaired.
The cars of Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart collided August 9 during a race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in upstate New York. Ward’s car was pushed against the wall and came to a stop. Ward got out of the disabled car and ran onto the track to confront Stewart as he came around. Wham, he got smacked by Stewart’s car and croaked.
An Ontario County Grand Jury on Wednesday cleared Stewart of any criminal charges in the incident.
Toxicology tests from the autopsy showed that at the time he was struck by Stewart's car, Kevin Ward was under the influence of marijuana to the extent that it would impair his judgment.
Ah yes, for Kevin Ward pot was less dangerous than alcohol. It only caused him to run onto a track while the race was still going on and jump in front of Tony Stewart’s speeding car.
Could this be a harbinger of things to come in the states of Colorado and Washington? With the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, those two states could experience a rash of car crashes caused by potheads driving with their judgment impaired.
DISAPPOINTING STEREOTYPING BY A GOOD FRIEND
I also posted SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY UNCOVERD on PACOVILLA Corrections blog. To my surprise, my friend Greg ‘Gadfly’ Doyle made the following comment:
You have to admit, these days “the Jews” in this country for the most part are socialists.
Here is how I responded to Greg’s comment:
Whoa there Greg! You’ve just touched a raw nerve in my body. Where do you get that “Jews in this country for the most part are socialists”? I take strong exception to and am disappointed in your stereotyping! It is true that most Jews in this country are liberals, but for the most part those liberal Jews are capitalists, not socialists.
You have fallen into the trap of characterizing Jews on the basis of some prominent liberal Jews that have been in the public spotlight. I can assure you that most Jews, while liberal, abhor socialism. I’ll grant you there were a lot of sorry-ass Jewish communists during the McCarthy era, but they faded as quickly from the scene as Joe McCarthy himself.
You might want to ask, who are these liberal Jews. Let me answer that for you. They are college and university graduates that have been indoctrinated by the prevalent far-left professors in our institutions of higher education. But it’s not just the majority of Jewish graduates, it’s the majority of all college and university graduates that are liberals, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.
There is also another reason why many Jews tend to be liberals. Jews have been victims of persecution throughout history. And people that have been victims of persecution, whether Jewish or otherwise, tend to be liberal because much of such persecution came from conservative elements wherever it occurred.
While I know that you are definitely not anti-Semitic, your statement could easily be construed as being anti-Semitic.
You have to admit, these days “the Jews” in this country for the most part are socialists.
Here is how I responded to Greg’s comment:
Whoa there Greg! You’ve just touched a raw nerve in my body. Where do you get that “Jews in this country for the most part are socialists”? I take strong exception to and am disappointed in your stereotyping! It is true that most Jews in this country are liberals, but for the most part those liberal Jews are capitalists, not socialists.
You have fallen into the trap of characterizing Jews on the basis of some prominent liberal Jews that have been in the public spotlight. I can assure you that most Jews, while liberal, abhor socialism. I’ll grant you there were a lot of sorry-ass Jewish communists during the McCarthy era, but they faded as quickly from the scene as Joe McCarthy himself.
You might want to ask, who are these liberal Jews. Let me answer that for you. They are college and university graduates that have been indoctrinated by the prevalent far-left professors in our institutions of higher education. But it’s not just the majority of Jewish graduates, it’s the majority of all college and university graduates that are liberals, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.
There is also another reason why many Jews tend to be liberals. Jews have been victims of persecution throughout history. And people that have been victims of persecution, whether Jewish or otherwise, tend to be liberal because much of such persecution came from conservative elements wherever it occurred.
While I know that you are definitely not anti-Semitic, your statement could easily be construed as being anti-Semitic.
BLAME-IT-ON-BUSH DEMOCRATS DEFEND OBAMA’S DISRESPECTFUL ‘LATTE SALUTE’
There just isn’t any way one can defend the disrespectful salute Obama gave the Marines as he stepped off his helicopter Tuesday. Obama could have easily placed the coffee cup in his left hand and then given the proper salute. When George W. gave his awkward salute, he did it with the right hand while attempting to cradle Barney, the first family’s pet Scottish Terrier, against his chest with his left hand. Even though Democrats criticized Bush for it, while the salute may have been awkward, it was a proper salute and in no way disrespectful.
OBAMA’S DEFENDERS: BUT BUSH SALUTED WHILE HOLDING BARNEY THE DOG
By Sandy Fitzgerald
Newsmax
September 24, 2014
While controversy is brewing over President Barack Obama's "Latte Salute," arguments are starting over whether it compares to his predecessor's awkward dog-holding salute.
Back in 2001, then-President George W. Bush was roundly criticized for saluting officers while holding his Scottish terrier, Barney, reports Time magazine.
"The dodge didn't last 10 minutes, and ended up revealing a lot more about liberals' lack of appreciation for military culture than it did to excuse Obama's conduct," complained Breitbart's John Hayward in an opinion piece. "For starters, you don't have to know anything about military protocol to see that holding a live animal is rather different than strolling past the Marines with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in your hands."
Further, he said Bush rendered his salute correctly and was "clearly making a real effort to show proper respect."
However, reports Reuters, there is a difference in opinion over whether presidents should return military salutes at all.
President Ronald Reagan started the tradition in 1981, and military aides advised him that returning officers' salutes went against military protocol. Until then, other leaders, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, did not return salutes, although Eisenhower had been a five-star general.
But after consulting with Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert Barrow, the two ultimately decided that as chief of the armed forces, the president was entitled to give salutes.
As the arguments about Obama's coffee-cup tribute continue to heat up, Bush's defenders say that he was correct to salute officers while holding his dog in his left arm, as his right hand was still free.
OBAMA’S DEFENDERS: BUT BUSH SALUTED WHILE HOLDING BARNEY THE DOG
By Sandy Fitzgerald
Newsmax
September 24, 2014
While controversy is brewing over President Barack Obama's "Latte Salute," arguments are starting over whether it compares to his predecessor's awkward dog-holding salute.
Back in 2001, then-President George W. Bush was roundly criticized for saluting officers while holding his Scottish terrier, Barney, reports Time magazine.
"The dodge didn't last 10 minutes, and ended up revealing a lot more about liberals' lack of appreciation for military culture than it did to excuse Obama's conduct," complained Breitbart's John Hayward in an opinion piece. "For starters, you don't have to know anything about military protocol to see that holding a live animal is rather different than strolling past the Marines with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in your hands."
Further, he said Bush rendered his salute correctly and was "clearly making a real effort to show proper respect."
However, reports Reuters, there is a difference in opinion over whether presidents should return military salutes at all.
President Ronald Reagan started the tradition in 1981, and military aides advised him that returning officers' salutes went against military protocol. Until then, other leaders, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, did not return salutes, although Eisenhower had been a five-star general.
But after consulting with Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert Barrow, the two ultimately decided that as chief of the armed forces, the president was entitled to give salutes.
As the arguments about Obama's coffee-cup tribute continue to heat up, Bush's defenders say that he was correct to salute officers while holding his dog in his left arm, as his right hand was still free.
DANIELE WATTS, THE ROSA PARKS OF PUBLIC SEX, WENT PUBLIC WITH HER RACIAL GRIEVANCES AND THE MEDIA CARRIED THE BALL FROM THERE
The 'Django Unchained' actress cried racial foul because she was briefly detained by LAPD officers for having sex in public and the medial milked her racial grievance for all it’s worth
LAPD Sgt. Jim Parker and the two junior officers who responded to a complaint that a couple were having sex in public are being investigated by Internal Affairs for “biased policing, conduct unbecoming (language, media), unlawful detention, unauthorized use of force (related to the alleged injury to Watts' arm), negligence of duty, failure to notify supervisor of misconduct, complete thorough investigation, etc.” despite evidence to the contrary and a call by civil rights activists for Watts to apologize.
Parker says that he and the two junior officers are being deprived of due process by being investigated without formal charges and accuses LAPD of “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks." Parker complains they are being investigated, and they'll have this racial bias charge on their file for the rest of their careers,"
DANIELE WATTS AND THE ALLURE OF RACIAL VICTIMHOOD
How many more sad, confused stories like the Django Unchained actress's will the media try to cast as the next wave of the civil rights movement?
By Jack Dunphy
PJ Media
September 22, 2014
Among the frustrations of this punditry business is one we might call Writer’s Groundhog Day Syndrome. Those who suffer with this affliction experience the sensation of writing the same column over and over and over again, until every last nuance of a given topic has been addressed to exhaustion. And then, owing to events of the day, you write it yet again.
I once discussed this syndrome with my friend Heather Mac Donald, who way back in 2001 wrote “The Myth of Racial Profiling” for the Spring edition of City Journal, the Manhattan Institute’s quarterly. In the intervening years she has revisited the topic time and time again in pieces that appeared in City Journal, the New York Times, the New York Post, and elsewhere, in each instance presenting some new evidence and fresh arguments, but all the while making the identical assertion: racial profiling is, yes, a myth.
I, too, have taken up this battle, confronting the myth several times over the years here at PJ Media and at National Review Online (see here and here for just two of many examples), yet, in the face of the tireless determination of those who in one way or another profit from it, and the childlike credulity and political bias of those in the media who propagate it, the myth lives on.
So, for as long as the myth persists, those of us who would see it buried churn out column after column in the hope of finding the silver bullet that will at long last send it to its waiting grave.
But perhaps it is not we who will have the myth undone, but its purveyors.
Consider: It was just two weeks ago that I presented the story of Keith Jones, the Oakland firefighter who cried racism after an encounter with officers from that city’s police department. Jones, 43, and his sons, ages 12 and 9, had parked their car at an Oakland fire station while attending a Raiders game nearby, and when they returned to retrieve the car they found the station unattended with its front door open. Jones left his sons in front while he went inside to assess the situation. An Oakland police officer, responding to the report of a possible burglary, confronted them, behaving exactly as he should have under the circumstances. The entire encounter lasted less than five minutes, with the worst of it over in less than two. In the end, the parties went on their separate ways amicably and with mutual good wishes.
But then Mr. Jones fell under the allure of victimhood, appealing to an overly credulous television reporter who unquestioningly presented a story fraught with the fear of being gunned down by a police officer who was not only nervous but motivated by bias. In his desire the play the victim, Mr. Jones mischaracterized the officer’s prudent behavior and ascribed it to racial animus. Both Mr. Jones and the reporter must have been saddened to see the police release the video that revealed both of them to be fools. The officer is still waiting for the apology he is owed.
Failing to heed this cautionary tale was one Daniele Watts, an actress whose name was familiar to almost no one until she, too, surrendered to the allure of victimhood. On the afternoon of Sept. 11, as Watts would tell it, she and her boyfriend, Brian Lucas, were set upon and harassed without cause by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. We must insert at this point the information that Watts is black and Lucas is white, facts that in an ideal world would be meaningless but in the present case are relevant.
The couple had enjoyed a public display of affection in a parked car near the CBS studios in North Hollywood when, again in Watts’s telling, a sergeant from the LAPD had the effrontery to accost them and demand their identification. So violated, so insulted, so outraged were Watts and Lucas that they took to Twitter and Facebook to exult in their status as the LAPD’s Victims of the Day. Soon the couple were on CNN and several other media outlets recounting their horrific experience under the crushing boot of the police.
And then, as in the case of Mr. Jones the firefighter, a funny thing happened: the truth came out. The sergeant involved, Jim Parker, was carrying a digital tape recorder which captured the incident from start to finish. And Sgt. Parker took the unusual but welcome step of publicly defending himself, going to far as to appear on KFI Radio’s John and Ken Show on Sept. 15.
It seems that the pair’s amorous activities were noticed by people in a nearby office building, people who were so Victorian as to call the police to report the spectacle. The couple’s coupling had concluded by the time Sgt. Parker arrived to find Watts on the sidewalk talking on her cellphone. As Sgt. Parker’s tape reveals, Watts soon went, if not completely berserk, very nearly so, invoking the racial issue and informing Sgt. Parker of a fact few cops outside certain parts of Los Angeles ever contend with. “I have a publicist,” she announced.
“Uh oh,” she must have expected the sergeant to say, “a publicist you say! Off you go, then!”
But that’s not what he said. He asked to see her identification, a request that sent her even farther over the edge. While on the phone with her “daddy,” she laments the fact that she “can’t make out with my boyfriend in front of my f***ing studio without having the cops called on me!”
Given what Sgt. Parker learned from the person who called the police, Miss Watts’s definition of “make out” is a far more expansive one than is generally used. According to the sergeant, he was told that Watts and Lucas where engaged in sexual congress in Lucas’s silver Mercedes, with her straddling him while his feet extended from the open door onto the curb. Ridiculous, you say? The celebrity gossip website TMZ has the photos.
When Watts first went public with her accusations, local members of the racial grievance industry were quick to accept her account. Now, with her story discredited, some of her early supporters are demanding an apology. On Friday, Watts issued a statement (through her publicist, of course) saying she will not apologize. “It is a constitutional right that we do not have to present ID to any member of law enforcement unless we are being charged with a crime,” she said.
The point is a debatable one, but anyone wishing to educate himself on the applicable law can do no better than read an explanation of the matter by retired Los Angeles deputy district attorney Richard J. Chrystie, long regarded here in L.A. as the expert of experts on questions of reasonable suspicion and probable cause. The piece appears on radio host Larry Elder’s website; it’s a quick read, but it provides all you need to know before drawing a conclusion about whether Sgt. Parker was within the law when asking for Watts’s identification.
For her part, Watts is unchastened by the experience. Indeed she has placed herself on a pedestal as some sort of civil rights heroine. Here is part of what she told CNN:
I feel that part of my role as a public figure is to raise awareness and be strong enough to say and do the things that maybe people who don’t have the advantages that I have, aren’t strong enough or don’t have the know-how or don’t have the awareness to do, so because I’m aware of the history of our country, I went to college, I’ve studied the law, I’ve studied, you know, these sort of situations, for me standing up for that constitutional right was a gift and a blessing that I have the opportunity to do that because now there’s some kid going through the same thing that doesn’t have the same opportunity to talk to the news the way that I do, and that kid can watch this and go, “You know what? I don’t have to be afraid of police officers anymore because I live in a country that says that we’re free.”
How moving. Yes, someday schoolchildren may learn of Miss Watts in history class. And perhaps a statue of her can be erected at the scene of her encounter with Sgt. Parker. “There she is, Daniele Watts,” passersby will say, “the Rosa Parks of public sex.”
(Jack Dunphy is the pseudonym of a police officer in Southern California.)
LAPD Sgt. Jim Parker and the two junior officers who responded to a complaint that a couple were having sex in public are being investigated by Internal Affairs for “biased policing, conduct unbecoming (language, media), unlawful detention, unauthorized use of force (related to the alleged injury to Watts' arm), negligence of duty, failure to notify supervisor of misconduct, complete thorough investigation, etc.” despite evidence to the contrary and a call by civil rights activists for Watts to apologize.
Parker says that he and the two junior officers are being deprived of due process by being investigated without formal charges and accuses LAPD of “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks." Parker complains they are being investigated, and they'll have this racial bias charge on their file for the rest of their careers,"
DANIELE WATTS AND THE ALLURE OF RACIAL VICTIMHOOD
How many more sad, confused stories like the Django Unchained actress's will the media try to cast as the next wave of the civil rights movement?
By Jack Dunphy
PJ Media
September 22, 2014
Among the frustrations of this punditry business is one we might call Writer’s Groundhog Day Syndrome. Those who suffer with this affliction experience the sensation of writing the same column over and over and over again, until every last nuance of a given topic has been addressed to exhaustion. And then, owing to events of the day, you write it yet again.
I once discussed this syndrome with my friend Heather Mac Donald, who way back in 2001 wrote “The Myth of Racial Profiling” for the Spring edition of City Journal, the Manhattan Institute’s quarterly. In the intervening years she has revisited the topic time and time again in pieces that appeared in City Journal, the New York Times, the New York Post, and elsewhere, in each instance presenting some new evidence and fresh arguments, but all the while making the identical assertion: racial profiling is, yes, a myth.
I, too, have taken up this battle, confronting the myth several times over the years here at PJ Media and at National Review Online (see here and here for just two of many examples), yet, in the face of the tireless determination of those who in one way or another profit from it, and the childlike credulity and political bias of those in the media who propagate it, the myth lives on.
So, for as long as the myth persists, those of us who would see it buried churn out column after column in the hope of finding the silver bullet that will at long last send it to its waiting grave.
But perhaps it is not we who will have the myth undone, but its purveyors.
Consider: It was just two weeks ago that I presented the story of Keith Jones, the Oakland firefighter who cried racism after an encounter with officers from that city’s police department. Jones, 43, and his sons, ages 12 and 9, had parked their car at an Oakland fire station while attending a Raiders game nearby, and when they returned to retrieve the car they found the station unattended with its front door open. Jones left his sons in front while he went inside to assess the situation. An Oakland police officer, responding to the report of a possible burglary, confronted them, behaving exactly as he should have under the circumstances. The entire encounter lasted less than five minutes, with the worst of it over in less than two. In the end, the parties went on their separate ways amicably and with mutual good wishes.
But then Mr. Jones fell under the allure of victimhood, appealing to an overly credulous television reporter who unquestioningly presented a story fraught with the fear of being gunned down by a police officer who was not only nervous but motivated by bias. In his desire the play the victim, Mr. Jones mischaracterized the officer’s prudent behavior and ascribed it to racial animus. Both Mr. Jones and the reporter must have been saddened to see the police release the video that revealed both of them to be fools. The officer is still waiting for the apology he is owed.
Failing to heed this cautionary tale was one Daniele Watts, an actress whose name was familiar to almost no one until she, too, surrendered to the allure of victimhood. On the afternoon of Sept. 11, as Watts would tell it, she and her boyfriend, Brian Lucas, were set upon and harassed without cause by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. We must insert at this point the information that Watts is black and Lucas is white, facts that in an ideal world would be meaningless but in the present case are relevant.
The couple had enjoyed a public display of affection in a parked car near the CBS studios in North Hollywood when, again in Watts’s telling, a sergeant from the LAPD had the effrontery to accost them and demand their identification. So violated, so insulted, so outraged were Watts and Lucas that they took to Twitter and Facebook to exult in their status as the LAPD’s Victims of the Day. Soon the couple were on CNN and several other media outlets recounting their horrific experience under the crushing boot of the police.
And then, as in the case of Mr. Jones the firefighter, a funny thing happened: the truth came out. The sergeant involved, Jim Parker, was carrying a digital tape recorder which captured the incident from start to finish. And Sgt. Parker took the unusual but welcome step of publicly defending himself, going to far as to appear on KFI Radio’s John and Ken Show on Sept. 15.
It seems that the pair’s amorous activities were noticed by people in a nearby office building, people who were so Victorian as to call the police to report the spectacle. The couple’s coupling had concluded by the time Sgt. Parker arrived to find Watts on the sidewalk talking on her cellphone. As Sgt. Parker’s tape reveals, Watts soon went, if not completely berserk, very nearly so, invoking the racial issue and informing Sgt. Parker of a fact few cops outside certain parts of Los Angeles ever contend with. “I have a publicist,” she announced.
“Uh oh,” she must have expected the sergeant to say, “a publicist you say! Off you go, then!”
But that’s not what he said. He asked to see her identification, a request that sent her even farther over the edge. While on the phone with her “daddy,” she laments the fact that she “can’t make out with my boyfriend in front of my f***ing studio without having the cops called on me!”
Given what Sgt. Parker learned from the person who called the police, Miss Watts’s definition of “make out” is a far more expansive one than is generally used. According to the sergeant, he was told that Watts and Lucas where engaged in sexual congress in Lucas’s silver Mercedes, with her straddling him while his feet extended from the open door onto the curb. Ridiculous, you say? The celebrity gossip website TMZ has the photos.
When Watts first went public with her accusations, local members of the racial grievance industry were quick to accept her account. Now, with her story discredited, some of her early supporters are demanding an apology. On Friday, Watts issued a statement (through her publicist, of course) saying she will not apologize. “It is a constitutional right that we do not have to present ID to any member of law enforcement unless we are being charged with a crime,” she said.
The point is a debatable one, but anyone wishing to educate himself on the applicable law can do no better than read an explanation of the matter by retired Los Angeles deputy district attorney Richard J. Chrystie, long regarded here in L.A. as the expert of experts on questions of reasonable suspicion and probable cause. The piece appears on radio host Larry Elder’s website; it’s a quick read, but it provides all you need to know before drawing a conclusion about whether Sgt. Parker was within the law when asking for Watts’s identification.
For her part, Watts is unchastened by the experience. Indeed she has placed herself on a pedestal as some sort of civil rights heroine. Here is part of what she told CNN:
I feel that part of my role as a public figure is to raise awareness and be strong enough to say and do the things that maybe people who don’t have the advantages that I have, aren’t strong enough or don’t have the know-how or don’t have the awareness to do, so because I’m aware of the history of our country, I went to college, I’ve studied the law, I’ve studied, you know, these sort of situations, for me standing up for that constitutional right was a gift and a blessing that I have the opportunity to do that because now there’s some kid going through the same thing that doesn’t have the same opportunity to talk to the news the way that I do, and that kid can watch this and go, “You know what? I don’t have to be afraid of police officers anymore because I live in a country that says that we’re free.”
How moving. Yes, someday schoolchildren may learn of Miss Watts in history class. And perhaps a statue of her can be erected at the scene of her encounter with Sgt. Parker. “There she is, Daniele Watts,” passersby will say, “the Rosa Parks of public sex.”
(Jack Dunphy is the pseudonym of a police officer in Southern California.)
CIGARETTES AND TAMPONS
The Unconventional Gazette
September 24, 2014
Tom walks into a pharmacy and wanders up & down the aisles.
The sales girl notices him and asks him if she can help him.
Tom answers that he is looking for a box of tampons for his wife.
She directs him down the correct aisle.
A few minutes later, Tom deposits a huge bag of cotton balls and a ball of string on the counter.
Confused, she says, 'Sir, I thought you were looking for some tampons for your wife?’
Tom answers, 'You see, it's like this. Yesterday, I sent my wife to the store to get me a carton of cigarettes, and she came back with a tin of tobacco and some rolling papers; cause it's sooo-ooo--oo- ooo much cheaper. So, I figure if I have to roll my own .......... so does she.’
NOTE: Tom is now in the Intensive Care unit of St. Elizabeth Hospital, no visitors allowed.
September 24, 2014
Tom walks into a pharmacy and wanders up & down the aisles.
The sales girl notices him and asks him if she can help him.
Tom answers that he is looking for a box of tampons for his wife.
She directs him down the correct aisle.
A few minutes later, Tom deposits a huge bag of cotton balls and a ball of string on the counter.
Confused, she says, 'Sir, I thought you were looking for some tampons for your wife?’
Tom answers, 'You see, it's like this. Yesterday, I sent my wife to the store to get me a carton of cigarettes, and she came back with a tin of tobacco and some rolling papers; cause it's sooo-ooo--oo- ooo much cheaper. So, I figure if I have to roll my own .......... so does she.’
NOTE: Tom is now in the Intensive Care unit of St. Elizabeth Hospital, no visitors allowed.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
OBAMA CATERING TO MUSLIMS OPOSED TO ISIS WITH PHONY CLAIM THAT THE ISLAMIC STATE IS NOT ISLAMIC
Unless the president is a complete idiot, which he is not, he has to be aware that ISIS is an Islamic movement
Obama’s recent declaration that "ISIL is not Islamic" is as phony as a nine dollar bill. It is nothing more than Pablum fed to anti-ISIS Muslims in order to garner their support. Every knowledgeable person knows that the leaders and followers of ISIS are the most fundamental of fundamental Muslims – true believers in the dictates of the Quran and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad - and for sure, President Obama damn well knows it too.
While the dictates of the Quran and the teachings of The Prophet belie the oft repeated apologist slogan of "Islam is a religion of peace," it is important to remember this from Dennis Prager's op-ed:
None of this justifies bigotry against Muslims. There are hundreds of millions of non-Islamist Muslims (an Islamist is a Muslim who seeks to impose Shariah on others), including many "cultural" or secular Muslims. And individual Muslims are risking their lives every day to provide the intelligence needed to forestall terror attacks in America and elsewhere.
“NOT ISLAMIC”?
By Dennis Prager
Town Hall.com
September 23, 2014
President Obama declared in his recent address to the nation that "ISIL is not Islamic."
But how does he know? On what basis did the president of the United States declare the a group of Muslims that calls itself "Islamic State" "not Islamic"?
Has he studied Islam and Islamic history and concluded that ISIL, Boko Haram, al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba (the group that slaughtered 166 people in Mumbai, most especially guests at the Taj Hotel,and which tortured to death a rabbi and his wife), the various Palestinian terrorist groups (all of which have been Muslim, even though there are many Christian Palestinians), and the Muslim terror groups in Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere are also all "not Islamic"?
Has he concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood, which won Egypt's most open election ever, is "not Islamic?"
And what about Saudi Arabia? Is that country "not Islamic," too?
Oh, and what about Iran? Also "not Islamic"?
Isn't that a lot of Muslims, Muslim groups, and even nations — all of whom claim Islam as their religion — to dismiss as "not Islamic"?
To be fair, these baseless generalizations about what is and what is not Islamic started with his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who regularly announced that "Islam is a religion of peace." And it is equally unlikely that his assertion came from a study of Islam and Islamic history.
The fact is that a study of Islamic history could not lead any fair-minded individual to conclude that all these Muslims and Islamic groups are "not Islamic." Neither Islamic history, which, from its origins, offered vast numbers of people a choice between Islam and death, nor Islam as reflected in its greatest works, would lead one to draw that conclusion.
Killing "unbelievers" has been part of — of course not all of — Islam since its inception. Within 10 years of Muhammad's death Muslims had conquered and violently converted whole peoples from Iran to Egypt and from Yemen to Syria. Muslims have offered conquered people death or conversion since that time.
The Hindu Kush, the vast, 500-mile long, 150-mile wide mountain range stretching from Afghanistan to Pakistan, was populated by Hindus until the Muslim invasions beginning around the year 1000. The Persian name Hindu Kush was proudly given by Muslims. It means "Hindu-killer." At least 60 million Hindus were killed by Muslims during the thousand years of Muslim rule. Though virtually unknown, it may be the greatest mass murder in history next to Mao's.
The groups named above are following some dictates of the Quran.
A few of many such examples:
"I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" (8:12).
"When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful." (9:5)
"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth." (9:29).
There is also a different admonition in the Quran: "In matters of faith there shall be no compulsion" (2:256).
So a Muslim can also cite the Quran if he wishes to allow non-Muslims to live in peace.
The problem is that Muslim theological tradition, affirmed by many scholars, holds that later revelation to Muhammad supersedes prior revelation (a doctrine known as "abrogation"). And the Quranic verses ordering Muslims to fight and slay non-believers came after those admonishing Muslims to live with non-believers in peace and without religious compulsion.
The problem is that Muslim history, in keeping with the doctrine of abrogation, has far more often practiced the violent admonitions.
The problem is that more than 600 years after Muhammad, Ibn Khaldun, the greatest Muslim writer who ever lived, explained why Islam is the superior religion in the most highly regarded Muslim work ever written, "Muqaddimah," or "Introduction to History":
"In the Muslim community, the holy war is religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force."
In other words, Ibn Khaldun boasts, whereas no other religion commands converting the world through force, Islam does. Was Ibn Khaldun also "not Islamic"? And so much for the president's other claim that "no religion condones the killing of innocents."
None of this justifies bigotry against Muslims. There are hundreds of millions of non-Islamist Muslims (an Islamist is a Muslim who seeks to impose Shariah on others), including many "cultural" or secular Muslims. And individual Muslims are risking their lives every day to provide the intelligence needed to forestall terror attacks in America and elsewhere.
It is only a call to clarity amidst the falsehoods coming from the president, the secretary of state, and especially the universities.
As the courageous Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born woman who leads a worldwide effort on behalf of Muslim women and for reforming Islam, asked in a speech at Yale University this month: If Islam is a religion of peace, why is there a sword on the Saudi flag?
If the president feels he has to obfuscate for the sake of gaining Muslim allies, so be it. But the rest of us don't have to make believe what he said is true.
Obama’s recent declaration that "ISIL is not Islamic" is as phony as a nine dollar bill. It is nothing more than Pablum fed to anti-ISIS Muslims in order to garner their support. Every knowledgeable person knows that the leaders and followers of ISIS are the most fundamental of fundamental Muslims – true believers in the dictates of the Quran and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad - and for sure, President Obama damn well knows it too.
While the dictates of the Quran and the teachings of The Prophet belie the oft repeated apologist slogan of "Islam is a religion of peace," it is important to remember this from Dennis Prager's op-ed:
None of this justifies bigotry against Muslims. There are hundreds of millions of non-Islamist Muslims (an Islamist is a Muslim who seeks to impose Shariah on others), including many "cultural" or secular Muslims. And individual Muslims are risking their lives every day to provide the intelligence needed to forestall terror attacks in America and elsewhere.
“NOT ISLAMIC”?
By Dennis Prager
Town Hall.com
September 23, 2014
President Obama declared in his recent address to the nation that "ISIL is not Islamic."
But how does he know? On what basis did the president of the United States declare the a group of Muslims that calls itself "Islamic State" "not Islamic"?
Has he studied Islam and Islamic history and concluded that ISIL, Boko Haram, al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba (the group that slaughtered 166 people in Mumbai, most especially guests at the Taj Hotel,and which tortured to death a rabbi and his wife), the various Palestinian terrorist groups (all of which have been Muslim, even though there are many Christian Palestinians), and the Muslim terror groups in Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere are also all "not Islamic"?
Has he concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood, which won Egypt's most open election ever, is "not Islamic?"
And what about Saudi Arabia? Is that country "not Islamic," too?
Oh, and what about Iran? Also "not Islamic"?
Isn't that a lot of Muslims, Muslim groups, and even nations — all of whom claim Islam as their religion — to dismiss as "not Islamic"?
To be fair, these baseless generalizations about what is and what is not Islamic started with his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who regularly announced that "Islam is a religion of peace." And it is equally unlikely that his assertion came from a study of Islam and Islamic history.
The fact is that a study of Islamic history could not lead any fair-minded individual to conclude that all these Muslims and Islamic groups are "not Islamic." Neither Islamic history, which, from its origins, offered vast numbers of people a choice between Islam and death, nor Islam as reflected in its greatest works, would lead one to draw that conclusion.
Killing "unbelievers" has been part of — of course not all of — Islam since its inception. Within 10 years of Muhammad's death Muslims had conquered and violently converted whole peoples from Iran to Egypt and from Yemen to Syria. Muslims have offered conquered people death or conversion since that time.
The Hindu Kush, the vast, 500-mile long, 150-mile wide mountain range stretching from Afghanistan to Pakistan, was populated by Hindus until the Muslim invasions beginning around the year 1000. The Persian name Hindu Kush was proudly given by Muslims. It means "Hindu-killer." At least 60 million Hindus were killed by Muslims during the thousand years of Muslim rule. Though virtually unknown, it may be the greatest mass murder in history next to Mao's.
The groups named above are following some dictates of the Quran.
A few of many such examples:
"I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" (8:12).
"When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful." (9:5)
"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth." (9:29).
There is also a different admonition in the Quran: "In matters of faith there shall be no compulsion" (2:256).
So a Muslim can also cite the Quran if he wishes to allow non-Muslims to live in peace.
The problem is that Muslim theological tradition, affirmed by many scholars, holds that later revelation to Muhammad supersedes prior revelation (a doctrine known as "abrogation"). And the Quranic verses ordering Muslims to fight and slay non-believers came after those admonishing Muslims to live with non-believers in peace and without religious compulsion.
The problem is that Muslim history, in keeping with the doctrine of abrogation, has far more often practiced the violent admonitions.
The problem is that more than 600 years after Muhammad, Ibn Khaldun, the greatest Muslim writer who ever lived, explained why Islam is the superior religion in the most highly regarded Muslim work ever written, "Muqaddimah," or "Introduction to History":
"In the Muslim community, the holy war is religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force."
In other words, Ibn Khaldun boasts, whereas no other religion commands converting the world through force, Islam does. Was Ibn Khaldun also "not Islamic"? And so much for the president's other claim that "no religion condones the killing of innocents."
None of this justifies bigotry against Muslims. There are hundreds of millions of non-Islamist Muslims (an Islamist is a Muslim who seeks to impose Shariah on others), including many "cultural" or secular Muslims. And individual Muslims are risking their lives every day to provide the intelligence needed to forestall terror attacks in America and elsewhere.
It is only a call to clarity amidst the falsehoods coming from the president, the secretary of state, and especially the universities.
As the courageous Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born woman who leads a worldwide effort on behalf of Muslim women and for reforming Islam, asked in a speech at Yale University this month: If Islam is a religion of peace, why is there a sword on the Saudi flag?
If the president feels he has to obfuscate for the sake of gaining Muslim allies, so be it. But the rest of us don't have to make believe what he said is true.
PALESTINIANS ACCUSE ISRAEL OF MURDERING MURDERERS OF THREE ISRAELI TEENS
Israeli troops find and kill Marwan Kawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha at their hideout in Hebron after searching since June for the killers of three Israeli teenage seminary students
The killers were celebrated as heroes for killing the three teens and are now considered martyrs because they were “murdered by the Zionists.”
ISRAELI FORCES KILL TWO HAMAS MEMBERS SUSPECTED IN KIDNAPPING, KILLING OF THREE TEENS
The Israeli army says troops were trying to arrest two Palestinians suspected of abducting and killing three Israeli teenagers when a firefight broke out, and the suspects were killed
By William Booth and Ruth Eglash
The Washington Post
September 23, 2014
HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli forces on Tuesday shot and killed two Hamas operatives suspected of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers in June.
The abduction of the three Jewish students in the West Bank — followed by the Israeli military’s mass arrests of Hamas members — was part of a cascade of events that eventually led to the 50-day war in Gaza, one of the bloodiest in years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the two suspects were surrounded by Israeli forces at a carpentry workshop in Hebron, where they had been hiding for a week. He said that there was an exchange of gunfire and that Marwan Kawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Aisha, 32, were killed as they emerged from the building.
A neighboring shopkeeper said Israeli special forces units arrived about 3 a.m. and began an assault on the building, which was charred with smoke from a raging fire. The merchant said one of the suspects was fatally shot in the street and the other found dead and burned in the basement.
“We went in understanding that they intended to fight, and they came out with guns blazing,” Lerner said.
The second man ran back inside the building, apparently wounded, and the Israelis threw in grenades, Lerner said, igniting a fire.
Brig. Gen. Avi Yedai, head of the Israeli military in the West Bank, told Israel Radio that the kidnappers had been given a chance to surrender.
Omar Kawasmeh, father of one of the dead men, complained that his son’s body was “covered with bullet wounds.” Asked whether his son was responsible for killing the three Jewish teens, he changed the subject and did not respond.
“Even if they are guilty of something, arrest them, don’t shoot them,” he said.
Kamel Hmeid, governor of Hebron, told Voice of Palestine radio that the two men had been “executed” by Israel.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the group “mourns the two martyrs . . . who were murdered by the Zionists.”
He said the deaths of the two Palestinians would not have occurred without help from Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, assistance that Hamas deplores as collaborating with the enemy.
Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were abducted June 12 while hitchhiking home from their religious schools in the West Bank.
After an 18-day search, their bodies were found buried under rubble in a field not far from where they were kidnapped. Israeli police say they probably were shot within minutes of being bundled into a stolen car.
One of the teenagers had managed to make a quick, furtive call to an emergency line, saying he had been kidnapped. The call was initially believed to be a prank.
After the kidnapping, Israeli forces conducted thousands of house-to-house searches and arrested more than 350 Palestinians, including top political leaders from Hamas and former Hamas prisoners who had been released in a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier.
Palestinians said they were being subjected to “collective punishment,” and they reacted with demonstrations and violent clashes. Several Palestinians, including teenagers, were killed by Israeli forces.
While Israeli forces searched for the missing students, police said, an Israeli eyeglass shop owner and two young relatives kidnapped Mohammad Abu Khieder, 17, from his East Jerusalem neighborhood, then beat and burned him alive in a revenge killing.
After the bodies of the Israeli teenagers were found, Saleh Arouri, a senior leader of Hamas, boasted at a conference in Turkey that the group’s military wing was behind the “heroic action.”
“It was an operation by your brothers from the al-Qassam Brigades,” Arouri said, adding that Hamas hoped to use the Israeli teens in a trade for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Another Hamas member, Hussam Kawasmeh, Marwan Kawasmeh’s uncle, was charged by the Israelis in September with organizing and funding the kidnapping.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the parents of the Israeli teens and later said: “Nothing can assuage their pain, and nothing can bring back their wonderful, dear boys. But I told them that justice has been done and that we had carried out the mission that we promised to them and all of Israel.”
Shmuel Cohen, grandfather of Shaar, told Israeli media that “this has a lot of meaning. The world needs to know that Jewish blood is not abandoned, and whoever harms a Jew has his blood on his hands.”
The killers were celebrated as heroes for killing the three teens and are now considered martyrs because they were “murdered by the Zionists.”
ISRAELI FORCES KILL TWO HAMAS MEMBERS SUSPECTED IN KIDNAPPING, KILLING OF THREE TEENS
The Israeli army says troops were trying to arrest two Palestinians suspected of abducting and killing three Israeli teenagers when a firefight broke out, and the suspects were killed
By William Booth and Ruth Eglash
The Washington Post
September 23, 2014
HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli forces on Tuesday shot and killed two Hamas operatives suspected of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers in June.
The abduction of the three Jewish students in the West Bank — followed by the Israeli military’s mass arrests of Hamas members — was part of a cascade of events that eventually led to the 50-day war in Gaza, one of the bloodiest in years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said the two suspects were surrounded by Israeli forces at a carpentry workshop in Hebron, where they had been hiding for a week. He said that there was an exchange of gunfire and that Marwan Kawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Aisha, 32, were killed as they emerged from the building.
A neighboring shopkeeper said Israeli special forces units arrived about 3 a.m. and began an assault on the building, which was charred with smoke from a raging fire. The merchant said one of the suspects was fatally shot in the street and the other found dead and burned in the basement.
“We went in understanding that they intended to fight, and they came out with guns blazing,” Lerner said.
The second man ran back inside the building, apparently wounded, and the Israelis threw in grenades, Lerner said, igniting a fire.
Brig. Gen. Avi Yedai, head of the Israeli military in the West Bank, told Israel Radio that the kidnappers had been given a chance to surrender.
Omar Kawasmeh, father of one of the dead men, complained that his son’s body was “covered with bullet wounds.” Asked whether his son was responsible for killing the three Jewish teens, he changed the subject and did not respond.
“Even if they are guilty of something, arrest them, don’t shoot them,” he said.
Kamel Hmeid, governor of Hebron, told Voice of Palestine radio that the two men had been “executed” by Israel.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the group “mourns the two martyrs . . . who were murdered by the Zionists.”
He said the deaths of the two Palestinians would not have occurred without help from Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, assistance that Hamas deplores as collaborating with the enemy.
Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were abducted June 12 while hitchhiking home from their religious schools in the West Bank.
After an 18-day search, their bodies were found buried under rubble in a field not far from where they were kidnapped. Israeli police say they probably were shot within minutes of being bundled into a stolen car.
One of the teenagers had managed to make a quick, furtive call to an emergency line, saying he had been kidnapped. The call was initially believed to be a prank.
After the kidnapping, Israeli forces conducted thousands of house-to-house searches and arrested more than 350 Palestinians, including top political leaders from Hamas and former Hamas prisoners who had been released in a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier.
Palestinians said they were being subjected to “collective punishment,” and they reacted with demonstrations and violent clashes. Several Palestinians, including teenagers, were killed by Israeli forces.
While Israeli forces searched for the missing students, police said, an Israeli eyeglass shop owner and two young relatives kidnapped Mohammad Abu Khieder, 17, from his East Jerusalem neighborhood, then beat and burned him alive in a revenge killing.
After the bodies of the Israeli teenagers were found, Saleh Arouri, a senior leader of Hamas, boasted at a conference in Turkey that the group’s military wing was behind the “heroic action.”
“It was an operation by your brothers from the al-Qassam Brigades,” Arouri said, adding that Hamas hoped to use the Israeli teens in a trade for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Another Hamas member, Hussam Kawasmeh, Marwan Kawasmeh’s uncle, was charged by the Israelis in September with organizing and funding the kidnapping.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the parents of the Israeli teens and later said: “Nothing can assuage their pain, and nothing can bring back their wonderful, dear boys. But I told them that justice has been done and that we had carried out the mission that we promised to them and all of Israel.”
Shmuel Cohen, grandfather of Shaar, told Israeli media that “this has a lot of meaning. The world needs to know that Jewish blood is not abandoned, and whoever harms a Jew has his blood on his hands.”
MEXICAN JOURNALISTS PAID FOR GVING ADVICE TO ‘LA TUTA’, LEADER OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CARTEL
A video shows two reporters getting paid with a wad of bills at the end of an interview with Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, but when they ask him for more money he angrily brushes them off
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Why should journalists be any different than Mexican government, military, and police officials, who from the lowest level to the highest ranks have long been known to accept hefty payoffs from the drug cartels.
TELEVISA REPORTER FIRED AFTER VIDEO CATCHES HIM AND ANOTHER REPORTER TAKING CASH FROM MEXICAN DRUG LORD
By Tim Johnson
McClatchy DC
September 23, 2014
MEXICO CITY — A choppy clandestine video that surfaced Monday is likely to reinforce the widespread impression that the country’s drug cartels have gained a solid foothold in the Mexican news media.
The video, displayed on the website of the MVS radio network, shows two prominent journalists in the troubled state of Michoacan meeting with the fugitive leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, and holding an animated friendly discussion with him. At the end, they accept a pile of bills.
One of the journalists, Eliseo Caballero Ramirez, was until midday the correspondent in Michoacan for the powerful Televisa network, the biggest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world.
Caballero told MVS radio host Carmen Aristegui that he was forced to attend the meeting with “La Tuta” against his will, an argument that a parade of political figures also have made after videos of their meetings with him have leaked to the public.
But the images of Caballero and another journalist, Jose Luis Diaz, accepting payoffs, then pleading for more, was too much for Televisa, which fired Caballero.
“Our audience can rest assured that there is no place in this organization for those who violate the trust and hurt the credibility that the public bestows on Televisa News every day,” a statement from the network said.
The video lasts about 25 minutes, and it is unclear when it was made. The two journalists are seated inside a sparsely furnished room. Across the table from them is Gomez, who wears a trademark blue baseball cap. Through much of the video, which appears to have been heavily edited and whose audio is often poor, the journalists offer Gomez tips on improving the image of the Knights Templar.
President Enrique Pena Nieto deployed troops to Michoacan early this year to regain control from the Knights Templar, considered one of Mexico’s biggest crime groups, with a niche in the manufacture of tons of methamphetamine. Gomez has eluded capture despite the presence of thousands of troops and federal police.
After Gomez complains in the video that he was losing a public relations battle with armed civilian militias fighting his group, Caballero responds: “I think you need a press strategy. . . . And to avoid them gaining more attention, send out messages, send email, send photos, send out whatever.”
Gomez responds that his group has been providing videos to the public.
“Who do you think is uploading everything? We are,” Gomez says.
The other journalist in the video, Jose Luis Diaz, owns the Esquema news agency in Michoacan, which feeds reports to domestic and global news outlets and maintains a web portal with a strong focus on crime news.
The conversation rolls around to an interview that Gomez gave to the MundoFox network, aired in Spanish last December in the United States. Caballero notes that the MundoFox correspondent was staying in his home.
MundoFox is a joint operation between the Colombian media giant RCN and a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, the holding company for Rupert Murdoch’s broadcast and entertainment properties after the breakup of the News Corp. The company sent a statement to MVS, which said it had not been aware that anyone helping arrange the Gomez interview had received payment from the crime group.
“If this is the case, it is disheartening to learn how the interview with La Tuta was secured. Noticias MundoFox had no knowledge of any payments being made to, or received by, anyone in conjunction with the interview,” the statement said. “Had we even suspected that payments were involved, there is no way the interview would have taken place or aired.”
At the end of the tape, Gomez splashes down a number of bills in front of each journalist. Diaz is heard to say: “Let me ask you this with all respect, give us a truck to get around in.” Caballero chimes in: “We need to buy cameras. Each one costs $6,000.”
Gomez brushes them off with some profanity, and they all get up.
At least half a dozen videos have been leaked of clandestine meetings between Gomez and a series of politicians, including the son of former Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo, the state’s former public security chief, and the mayors of the port of Lazaro Cardenas and the towns of Patzcuaro and Huetamo. A number of those figures have been detained while a criminal probe unfolds.
It did not mark Televisa’s first brush with scandal involving drug trafficking.
Police halted six vans emblazoned with the Televisa logo near the Nicaraguan border with Honduras in August 2012 and arrested 18 Mexicans after seizing some $9 million in cash hidden in the vehicles. The Mexicans were later given jail terms for money laundering, although the majority were sent to complete the jail terms in their home country.
Prosecutors in Nicaragua failed to prove the involvement of Televisa executives, and the network categorically denied that the vans belonged to the conglomerate. Yet an explanation of how Televisa documents came to be found in the vans and why they were registered in the company’s name has yet to emerge.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Why should journalists be any different than Mexican government, military, and police officials, who from the lowest level to the highest ranks have long been known to accept hefty payoffs from the drug cartels.
TELEVISA REPORTER FIRED AFTER VIDEO CATCHES HIM AND ANOTHER REPORTER TAKING CASH FROM MEXICAN DRUG LORD
By Tim Johnson
McClatchy DC
September 23, 2014
MEXICO CITY — A choppy clandestine video that surfaced Monday is likely to reinforce the widespread impression that the country’s drug cartels have gained a solid foothold in the Mexican news media.
The video, displayed on the website of the MVS radio network, shows two prominent journalists in the troubled state of Michoacan meeting with the fugitive leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, and holding an animated friendly discussion with him. At the end, they accept a pile of bills.
One of the journalists, Eliseo Caballero Ramirez, was until midday the correspondent in Michoacan for the powerful Televisa network, the biggest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world.
Caballero told MVS radio host Carmen Aristegui that he was forced to attend the meeting with “La Tuta” against his will, an argument that a parade of political figures also have made after videos of their meetings with him have leaked to the public.
But the images of Caballero and another journalist, Jose Luis Diaz, accepting payoffs, then pleading for more, was too much for Televisa, which fired Caballero.
“Our audience can rest assured that there is no place in this organization for those who violate the trust and hurt the credibility that the public bestows on Televisa News every day,” a statement from the network said.
The video lasts about 25 minutes, and it is unclear when it was made. The two journalists are seated inside a sparsely furnished room. Across the table from them is Gomez, who wears a trademark blue baseball cap. Through much of the video, which appears to have been heavily edited and whose audio is often poor, the journalists offer Gomez tips on improving the image of the Knights Templar.
President Enrique Pena Nieto deployed troops to Michoacan early this year to regain control from the Knights Templar, considered one of Mexico’s biggest crime groups, with a niche in the manufacture of tons of methamphetamine. Gomez has eluded capture despite the presence of thousands of troops and federal police.
After Gomez complains in the video that he was losing a public relations battle with armed civilian militias fighting his group, Caballero responds: “I think you need a press strategy. . . . And to avoid them gaining more attention, send out messages, send email, send photos, send out whatever.”
Gomez responds that his group has been providing videos to the public.
“Who do you think is uploading everything? We are,” Gomez says.
The other journalist in the video, Jose Luis Diaz, owns the Esquema news agency in Michoacan, which feeds reports to domestic and global news outlets and maintains a web portal with a strong focus on crime news.
The conversation rolls around to an interview that Gomez gave to the MundoFox network, aired in Spanish last December in the United States. Caballero notes that the MundoFox correspondent was staying in his home.
MundoFox is a joint operation between the Colombian media giant RCN and a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, the holding company for Rupert Murdoch’s broadcast and entertainment properties after the breakup of the News Corp. The company sent a statement to MVS, which said it had not been aware that anyone helping arrange the Gomez interview had received payment from the crime group.
“If this is the case, it is disheartening to learn how the interview with La Tuta was secured. Noticias MundoFox had no knowledge of any payments being made to, or received by, anyone in conjunction with the interview,” the statement said. “Had we even suspected that payments were involved, there is no way the interview would have taken place or aired.”
At the end of the tape, Gomez splashes down a number of bills in front of each journalist. Diaz is heard to say: “Let me ask you this with all respect, give us a truck to get around in.” Caballero chimes in: “We need to buy cameras. Each one costs $6,000.”
Gomez brushes them off with some profanity, and they all get up.
At least half a dozen videos have been leaked of clandestine meetings between Gomez and a series of politicians, including the son of former Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo, the state’s former public security chief, and the mayors of the port of Lazaro Cardenas and the towns of Patzcuaro and Huetamo. A number of those figures have been detained while a criminal probe unfolds.
It did not mark Televisa’s first brush with scandal involving drug trafficking.
Police halted six vans emblazoned with the Televisa logo near the Nicaraguan border with Honduras in August 2012 and arrested 18 Mexicans after seizing some $9 million in cash hidden in the vehicles. The Mexicans were later given jail terms for money laundering, although the majority were sent to complete the jail terms in their home country.
Prosecutors in Nicaragua failed to prove the involvement of Televisa executives, and the network categorically denied that the vans belonged to the conglomerate. Yet an explanation of how Televisa documents came to be found in the vans and why they were registered in the company’s name has yet to emerge.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY UNCOVERED
ISIS released a 42-minute audio recording online late Sunday in which Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani uncovered Secretary of State John Kerry. In the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful, Al- Adnani described Kerry as the …
… uncircumcised old geezer.
No wonder ISIS is considered a threat. Their spies are everywhere. I suggest that whenever you take a leak, make sure nobody else is around.
Of course, like all spies, those ISIS spies don’t always get it right. In the same recording Al- Adnani repeatedly called Obama “the Mule of the Jews.” Actually Obama is the mule of the socialists, not the Jews.
… uncircumcised old geezer.
No wonder ISIS is considered a threat. Their spies are everywhere. I suggest that whenever you take a leak, make sure nobody else is around.
Of course, like all spies, those ISIS spies don’t always get it right. In the same recording Al- Adnani repeatedly called Obama “the Mule of the Jews.” Actually Obama is the mule of the socialists, not the Jews.
MAN BREAKS INTO COP SHOP THINKING IT WAS A SCHOOL
John Dettor wanted a warm place to sleep and ended up getting bedded down in a Vermont jail
According to WFFF-TV, John Dettor, 59,of Washington, D.C., happened to be in Shelburne, Vermont late last week when he looked for a school to break into so he would have a warm place to sleep. When he found what he thought was a school, he took a traffic cone and broke the glass of the Shelburne police station.
When John entered the station, the cops accommodated his desire for a warm place to sleep by bedding him down in jail. He is charged with suspicion of unlawful mischief.
Now before everyone starts labeling John an idiot, let me say that I have been all over the East and many of the cop shops there can pass for some of the older school buildings. I suspect he was a little liquored up, thus making it harder to distinguish a police station from a school building.
According to WFFF-TV, John Dettor, 59,of Washington, D.C., happened to be in Shelburne, Vermont late last week when he looked for a school to break into so he would have a warm place to sleep. When he found what he thought was a school, he took a traffic cone and broke the glass of the Shelburne police station.
When John entered the station, the cops accommodated his desire for a warm place to sleep by bedding him down in jail. He is charged with suspicion of unlawful mischief.
Now before everyone starts labeling John an idiot, let me say that I have been all over the East and many of the cop shops there can pass for some of the older school buildings. I suspect he was a little liquored up, thus making it harder to distinguish a police station from a school building.
NEW COLD WAR UNDERWAY
Eight Russian military jets encroach on U.S. and Canadian airspace
The new cold war began when Russia took over the Crimea and it looks like it’s heating up.
U.S. AND CANADA INTERCEPT EIGHT RUSSIAN MILITARY JETS OFF NORTH AMERICAN COASTLINE
By Paula Mejia
Newsweek
September 21, 2014
Earlier this week, U.S. and Canadian fighter jets deflected eight Russian military aircrafts nearing the North American coast.
Officials confirmed that on Wednesday night, two American F-22 fighter planes intercepted several Russian military aircraft -- two Mig-31 fighter jets, two Russian Bear long-range bombers and two refueling tankers -- about 55 miles off the western Alaska coastline. A pair of Canadian CF-18 fighter jets halted two other Russian bomber planes roughly 40 nautical miles off Canada’s coastline early Thursday morning, around 1:30 a.m.
The jets were intercepted after arriving in the Air Defense Identification Zone, which stretches 200 miles off the coast and requires identification from commercial flights upon entrance. The Russian jets didn’t penetrate the North American sovereign airspace, however.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) spokeswoman Maj. Beth Smith told The Los Angeles Times that the Russian planes were probably conducting “training exercises” off the western Alaska coast. But an official told CNN that the incident may have been related to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s recent stay in North America. Poroshenko spoke to Canadian officials on Wednesday and to U.S. President Barack Obama this past Thursday, presumably about the mounting skirmishes between Ukraine and pro-Russian militants.
NORAD has intercepted over 50 Russian fighter jets encroaching on U.S. and Canadian airspace in the past five years, according to Smith. The jets turned around and flew back to a Russian airbase after they were intercepted.
The new cold war began when Russia took over the Crimea and it looks like it’s heating up.
U.S. AND CANADA INTERCEPT EIGHT RUSSIAN MILITARY JETS OFF NORTH AMERICAN COASTLINE
By Paula Mejia
Newsweek
September 21, 2014
Earlier this week, U.S. and Canadian fighter jets deflected eight Russian military aircrafts nearing the North American coast.
Officials confirmed that on Wednesday night, two American F-22 fighter planes intercepted several Russian military aircraft -- two Mig-31 fighter jets, two Russian Bear long-range bombers and two refueling tankers -- about 55 miles off the western Alaska coastline. A pair of Canadian CF-18 fighter jets halted two other Russian bomber planes roughly 40 nautical miles off Canada’s coastline early Thursday morning, around 1:30 a.m.
The jets were intercepted after arriving in the Air Defense Identification Zone, which stretches 200 miles off the coast and requires identification from commercial flights upon entrance. The Russian jets didn’t penetrate the North American sovereign airspace, however.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) spokeswoman Maj. Beth Smith told The Los Angeles Times that the Russian planes were probably conducting “training exercises” off the western Alaska coast. But an official told CNN that the incident may have been related to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s recent stay in North America. Poroshenko spoke to Canadian officials on Wednesday and to U.S. President Barack Obama this past Thursday, presumably about the mounting skirmishes between Ukraine and pro-Russian militants.
NORAD has intercepted over 50 Russian fighter jets encroaching on U.S. and Canadian airspace in the past five years, according to Smith. The jets turned around and flew back to a Russian airbase after they were intercepted.
COURT RULES ILLINOIS CON MUST PAY FOR STAY AT HOTEL POKEY
Johnnie Melton’s accommodations at the state-owned Hotel Pokey in Logan County, Illinois did not come cheap.
APPELLATE COURT: INMATE MUST PAY $20K TOWARD HIS INCARCERATION
A ruling by the Fourth District Appellate Court concluded that Johnnie Melton, 49, of Chicago must pay state officials $19,925.89 for his prison time
By Carlos Sadovi
Chicago Tribune
September 21, 2014
A Chicago man currently serving time in state prison was ordered to pay $20,000 toward his incarceration after he obtained a legal settlement from his mother's death, according to an appellate court ruling.
The ruling by the Fourth District Appellate Court concluded that Johnnie Melton, 49, of the 200 block of North Karlov Avenue, must pay state officials $19,925.89.
The Sept. 4 unanimous ruling found that state officials were entitled to the money for his incarceration at the Logan Correctional Center between Oct. 28, 2011 and Jan. 8, 2013.
In Feb. of 2013, state officials filed a complaint against Melton. According to the suit, the state corrections officials argued that they had a right to be reimbursed for the "care, custody, treatment, or rehabilitation" of Melton from Oct. 28, 2011 to Jan. 8, 2013.
Officials argued that Melton had enough assets that he should reimburse the state for his time in prison.
Melton's defense argued that the funds came from a wrongful death lawsuit of his mother and that they should be exempt.
But a trial judge in 2013 ruled against Melton and allowed the state to garner the amount.
In his appeal of that order, Melton argued that he had not received enough warning that the state department of corrections was taking control of his assets. The appeals court ruling said he had ample time but also said, "the opportunity to conceal funds is heightened in the digital age, where assets can be transferred anywhere in the world at the click of a mouse."
The ruling found that the state had a right to garner his assets to reimburse the state for his incarceration.
According to the appellate court ruling, "The goal of requiring reimbursement seeks to shift the economic burden of incarceration from the public to the prisoner."
Court records show Melton had been convicted on drug-related charges three times since 2002. His last conviction was in 2010, when he was sentenced to nine years in prison. He is currently serving time in the Lincoln Correctional Center.
APPELLATE COURT: INMATE MUST PAY $20K TOWARD HIS INCARCERATION
A ruling by the Fourth District Appellate Court concluded that Johnnie Melton, 49, of Chicago must pay state officials $19,925.89 for his prison time
By Carlos Sadovi
Chicago Tribune
September 21, 2014
A Chicago man currently serving time in state prison was ordered to pay $20,000 toward his incarceration after he obtained a legal settlement from his mother's death, according to an appellate court ruling.
The ruling by the Fourth District Appellate Court concluded that Johnnie Melton, 49, of the 200 block of North Karlov Avenue, must pay state officials $19,925.89.
The Sept. 4 unanimous ruling found that state officials were entitled to the money for his incarceration at the Logan Correctional Center between Oct. 28, 2011 and Jan. 8, 2013.
In Feb. of 2013, state officials filed a complaint against Melton. According to the suit, the state corrections officials argued that they had a right to be reimbursed for the "care, custody, treatment, or rehabilitation" of Melton from Oct. 28, 2011 to Jan. 8, 2013.
Officials argued that Melton had enough assets that he should reimburse the state for his time in prison.
Melton's defense argued that the funds came from a wrongful death lawsuit of his mother and that they should be exempt.
But a trial judge in 2013 ruled against Melton and allowed the state to garner the amount.
In his appeal of that order, Melton argued that he had not received enough warning that the state department of corrections was taking control of his assets. The appeals court ruling said he had ample time but also said, "the opportunity to conceal funds is heightened in the digital age, where assets can be transferred anywhere in the world at the click of a mouse."
The ruling found that the state had a right to garner his assets to reimburse the state for his incarceration.
According to the appellate court ruling, "The goal of requiring reimbursement seeks to shift the economic burden of incarceration from the public to the prisoner."
Court records show Melton had been convicted on drug-related charges three times since 2002. His last conviction was in 2010, when he was sentenced to nine years in prison. He is currently serving time in the Lincoln Correctional Center.
PAROLEE JUST RELEASED FROM PRISON BRAGS ABOUT SHOOTING A SHORTY
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 22, 2014
A gangbanger parolee who bragged about shooting a nine-year old child is being held without bail in the gang-infested liberal shit hole of Chicago.
Derrick Allmon, 19, along with three other slimeballs, are charged with murder in the August 20 shooting death of Antonio Smith, 9, on East 71st Street. The boy was NOT collateral damage but was shot deliberately as a suspected lookout. Allmon and his road dogs were out looking to kill rival gang members. Young Antonio stopped six bullets.
Once Allmon got to a buddies house he pissed on his hands to try to remove or disguise the gun powder residue, then changed his shirt and went home to report in to his electronic monitoring program. He had to be home by 1700. The shooting happened at about 1600.
Allmon had just finished a three year stretch for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a gang member. He was paroled 19 days before the murder.
The weapon used has been recovered.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 22, 2014
A gangbanger parolee who bragged about shooting a nine-year old child is being held without bail in the gang-infested liberal shit hole of Chicago.
Derrick Allmon, 19, along with three other slimeballs, are charged with murder in the August 20 shooting death of Antonio Smith, 9, on East 71st Street. The boy was NOT collateral damage but was shot deliberately as a suspected lookout. Allmon and his road dogs were out looking to kill rival gang members. Young Antonio stopped six bullets.
Once Allmon got to a buddies house he pissed on his hands to try to remove or disguise the gun powder residue, then changed his shirt and went home to report in to his electronic monitoring program. He had to be home by 1700. The shooting happened at about 1600.
Allmon had just finished a three year stretch for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a gang member. He was paroled 19 days before the murder.
The weapon used has been recovered.
MONGOLIAN VENEREAL DISEASE
The Unconventional Gazette
September 22, 2014
While touring China, a man from Houston, Texas is very sexually active with a number of prostitutes and does not use a condom the entire time he is there.
A week after arriving back home in Houston, he wakes one morning to find his penis covered with bright green and purple spots. Horrified, he immediately rushes to Houston’s preeminent Medical Center to see a doctor.
The doctor, never having seen anything like this before, orders some tests and tells the man to return in two days for the results.
The man returns a couple of days later and the doctor says, "I've got bad news for you. You've contracted Mongolian VD. It's very rare and almost unheard of here in the US, and we know very little about it."
The man looks a little perplexed and says, "Well, give me a shot or something and fix me up, Doc."
The doctor answers, "I'm sorry, there's no known cure. We're going to have to amputate your penis."
The man screams in horror, "Noooo! Absolutely not! I want a second opinion!"
The doctor replies, "Well, it's your choice. Go ahead if you want, but surgery is your only option."
The next day, the man rushes to Houston’s Asia Town and seeks out a Chinese doctor, figuring that he'll know more about the disease.
The Chinese doctor examines his penis and proclaims, "Ah yes, Mongolian VD. Vewy ware disease."
The guy says to the doctor, "Yeah, yeah, I already know that, but what can we do? My American doctor wants to cut off my dick!"
The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs. "Stupid American docttah, always want opawate. Make more money dat way. No need amputate!"
"Oh, thank God!" the man exclaims.
"Yes," says the Chinese doctor. "Wait two week. Faw off by itself!"
September 22, 2014
While touring China, a man from Houston, Texas is very sexually active with a number of prostitutes and does not use a condom the entire time he is there.
A week after arriving back home in Houston, he wakes one morning to find his penis covered with bright green and purple spots. Horrified, he immediately rushes to Houston’s preeminent Medical Center to see a doctor.
The doctor, never having seen anything like this before, orders some tests and tells the man to return in two days for the results.
The man returns a couple of days later and the doctor says, "I've got bad news for you. You've contracted Mongolian VD. It's very rare and almost unheard of here in the US, and we know very little about it."
The man looks a little perplexed and says, "Well, give me a shot or something and fix me up, Doc."
The doctor answers, "I'm sorry, there's no known cure. We're going to have to amputate your penis."
The man screams in horror, "Noooo! Absolutely not! I want a second opinion!"
The doctor replies, "Well, it's your choice. Go ahead if you want, but surgery is your only option."
The next day, the man rushes to Houston’s Asia Town and seeks out a Chinese doctor, figuring that he'll know more about the disease.
The Chinese doctor examines his penis and proclaims, "Ah yes, Mongolian VD. Vewy ware disease."
The guy says to the doctor, "Yeah, yeah, I already know that, but what can we do? My American doctor wants to cut off my dick!"
The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs. "Stupid American docttah, always want opawate. Make more money dat way. No need amputate!"
"Oh, thank God!" the man exclaims.
"Yes," says the Chinese doctor. "Wait two week. Faw off by itself!"
Monday, September 22, 2014
RICK PERRY: ‘THIS MEANS WAR’
The governor is incensed at the Russians for grabbing The National Beer of Texas
The Unconventional Gazette
September 21, 2014
Pabst Brewing Company, which owns Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lone Star, Rainier, Ballantine IPA, Schlitz, Old Style, Stroh’s and Old Milwaukee beer brands is being acquired by Oasis Beverages, a Russian beer and soft drink company. Lone Star beer is known as The National Beer of Texas.
The Unconventional Gazette contacted Texas Governor Rick Perry to get his take on the sale of Pabst Brewing Company to the Russians.
TUG: Gov. Perry, how do you feel about the Russians taking over Lone Star beer?
PERRY: I’ll tell you how I feel. This means war! I have sent an urgent message to President Obama demanding that he do something about this, like threaten Putin with war. The Russians grabbing Lone Star beer is like the Russians grabbing a piece of Texas. We ain’t the Ukraine. Forget the border crisis. I’ve pulled our National Guard troops and the DPS away from the border and moved them to San Antonio to surround the Lone Star brewery to keep those damn Russians out.
TUG: But Governor, there is no Lone Star brewery in San Antonio. That brewery shut down years ago. Lone Star beer is now brewed by the Miller Brewing Company in Fort Worth. They’re brewing it under a contract with Pabst. The old brewery in San Antonio is now a museum.
PERRY: I didn’t know that. Are you sure it’s not brewed in San Antonio anymore? Damn it, now I’ve had the Guard and DPS surround a museum. Well, it really doesn’t matter … I’ll have the National Guard and DPS surround that brewery in Ft. Worth. The pride of Texas is at stake here. Hey Kathy [to Kathy Walt, his chief of staff], get ahold of Len [Major General William Smith] and get him to move those troops out of San Antone pronto and have them surround the Miller Brewing Company in Fort Worth. And get those DPS units moved too.
TUG: Governor, you know that President Obama has imposed sanctions against Russia for taking over the Crimea and for helping the rebels in Eastern Ukraine revolt. Once the sale to the Russians is completed, he could order a boycott of Lone Star beer.
PERRY: Hey, we’re talking about The National Beer of Texas. If it comes down to that, I don’t care whether the Russians, the Chinese or even the North Koreans own it. It’s still The National Beer of Texas. We have a saying down here: Don’t Mess With Texas. Do you hear that Mr. Obama? The president will be well advised to straighten this out and keep the Russians out. If he can’t do that, we should go to war and give Putin a good ass licking.
We managed to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin, and while he turned us down for an interview, he did release the following statement:
Kha , chto idiot Obamu postavil sanktsii protiv nas. Nu dva mozhet igrat' v etoy igre. YA ponimayu, chto sredi piva Oasis stanovitsya v Natsional'nyy Pivo Tekhas. Kha-kha , chto sdelayet Obamu poryadka tekhastsy v prekratit' pit' pivo . Eto sanktsii , vy znayete . A eto mozhet privesti k Shtat Tekhas , chtoby secete . Smotret' , my mozhem perekhitrit' Obamu s yego sanktsii . Kha-kha , vse te, Tekhas kto p'yet pivo budet byt' real'nym pissed-proch'.
Translation: Ha, that idiot Obama has put sanctions against us. Well two can play at that game. I understand that among the beers Oasis is getting The National Beer of Texas. Haha, that will make Obama order Texans to stop drinking beer. It’s the sanctions, you know. And that could cause the state of Texas to secede. See, we can outsmart Obama with his sanctions. Haha, all those Texas beer drinkers will be real pissed-off.
We also contacted country singer Willie Nelson who has long promoted Lone Star beer.
TUG: Willie, how do you feel about the Russians acquiring Lone Star beer?
NELSON: I’ll be damned, when did they do that? I sure as hell don’t like it. You know, next to smoking pot, drinking is my favorite pastime and Lone Star has been my favorite beer forever. Well, as long as the Russians keep making it the same way, I’ll keep drinking it … I’ll drink it together with toking up some pot … that’ll make me forget the Russians.
The Unconventional Gazette contacted a number of ordinary Texans, but we don’t dare print what they said. However, many expressed a strong desire to secede from the Union if Obama orders a boycott of Lone Star beer.
The Unconventional Gazette
September 21, 2014
Pabst Brewing Company, which owns Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lone Star, Rainier, Ballantine IPA, Schlitz, Old Style, Stroh’s and Old Milwaukee beer brands is being acquired by Oasis Beverages, a Russian beer and soft drink company. Lone Star beer is known as The National Beer of Texas.
The Unconventional Gazette contacted Texas Governor Rick Perry to get his take on the sale of Pabst Brewing Company to the Russians.
TUG: Gov. Perry, how do you feel about the Russians taking over Lone Star beer?
PERRY: I’ll tell you how I feel. This means war! I have sent an urgent message to President Obama demanding that he do something about this, like threaten Putin with war. The Russians grabbing Lone Star beer is like the Russians grabbing a piece of Texas. We ain’t the Ukraine. Forget the border crisis. I’ve pulled our National Guard troops and the DPS away from the border and moved them to San Antonio to surround the Lone Star brewery to keep those damn Russians out.
TUG: But Governor, there is no Lone Star brewery in San Antonio. That brewery shut down years ago. Lone Star beer is now brewed by the Miller Brewing Company in Fort Worth. They’re brewing it under a contract with Pabst. The old brewery in San Antonio is now a museum.
PERRY: I didn’t know that. Are you sure it’s not brewed in San Antonio anymore? Damn it, now I’ve had the Guard and DPS surround a museum. Well, it really doesn’t matter … I’ll have the National Guard and DPS surround that brewery in Ft. Worth. The pride of Texas is at stake here. Hey Kathy [to Kathy Walt, his chief of staff], get ahold of Len [Major General William Smith] and get him to move those troops out of San Antone pronto and have them surround the Miller Brewing Company in Fort Worth. And get those DPS units moved too.
TUG: Governor, you know that President Obama has imposed sanctions against Russia for taking over the Crimea and for helping the rebels in Eastern Ukraine revolt. Once the sale to the Russians is completed, he could order a boycott of Lone Star beer.
PERRY: Hey, we’re talking about The National Beer of Texas. If it comes down to that, I don’t care whether the Russians, the Chinese or even the North Koreans own it. It’s still The National Beer of Texas. We have a saying down here: Don’t Mess With Texas. Do you hear that Mr. Obama? The president will be well advised to straighten this out and keep the Russians out. If he can’t do that, we should go to war and give Putin a good ass licking.
We managed to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin, and while he turned us down for an interview, he did release the following statement:
Kha , chto idiot Obamu postavil sanktsii protiv nas. Nu dva mozhet igrat' v etoy igre. YA ponimayu, chto sredi piva Oasis stanovitsya v Natsional'nyy Pivo Tekhas. Kha-kha , chto sdelayet Obamu poryadka tekhastsy v prekratit' pit' pivo . Eto sanktsii , vy znayete . A eto mozhet privesti k Shtat Tekhas , chtoby secete . Smotret' , my mozhem perekhitrit' Obamu s yego sanktsii . Kha-kha , vse te, Tekhas kto p'yet pivo budet byt' real'nym pissed-proch'.
Translation: Ha, that idiot Obama has put sanctions against us. Well two can play at that game. I understand that among the beers Oasis is getting The National Beer of Texas. Haha, that will make Obama order Texans to stop drinking beer. It’s the sanctions, you know. And that could cause the state of Texas to secede. See, we can outsmart Obama with his sanctions. Haha, all those Texas beer drinkers will be real pissed-off.
We also contacted country singer Willie Nelson who has long promoted Lone Star beer.
TUG: Willie, how do you feel about the Russians acquiring Lone Star beer?
NELSON: I’ll be damned, when did they do that? I sure as hell don’t like it. You know, next to smoking pot, drinking is my favorite pastime and Lone Star has been my favorite beer forever. Well, as long as the Russians keep making it the same way, I’ll keep drinking it … I’ll drink it together with toking up some pot … that’ll make me forget the Russians.
The Unconventional Gazette contacted a number of ordinary Texans, but we don’t dare print what they said. However, many expressed a strong desire to secede from the Union if Obama orders a boycott of Lone Star beer.
FREE POT FOR VETERANS
Operation Grow4Vets handed out 400 bags of pot to military veterans in Denver
On Saturday, Operation Grow4Vets held the Denver Cannabis Giveaway during which its members handed out 400 bags of marijuana to military veterans.
Roger Martin, the founder of Operation Grow4Vets, told KDVR-TV, "We're really here to help them with their medical conditions. There's a wide variety of ailments. Anything that involves pain." Martin, himself a veteran, included post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among the ailments he claimed are being alleviated by pot.
Studies have shown that marijuana can cause paranoia. I would not want to be around a veteran with PTSD while he’s high on pot ... not unless I was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
‘Save 1,000 Vets’ is a project being started by Operation Grow4Vets that will provide 1,000 veterans with a free lifetime supply of pot.
It’s nice to know that potheads support our veterans. Of course, what they’re doing is spreading the use of pot and that will make the growers and distributors even wealthier.
On Saturday, Operation Grow4Vets held the Denver Cannabis Giveaway during which its members handed out 400 bags of marijuana to military veterans.
Roger Martin, the founder of Operation Grow4Vets, told KDVR-TV, "We're really here to help them with their medical conditions. There's a wide variety of ailments. Anything that involves pain." Martin, himself a veteran, included post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among the ailments he claimed are being alleviated by pot.
Studies have shown that marijuana can cause paranoia. I would not want to be around a veteran with PTSD while he’s high on pot ... not unless I was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
‘Save 1,000 Vets’ is a project being started by Operation Grow4Vets that will provide 1,000 veterans with a free lifetime supply of pot.
It’s nice to know that potheads support our veterans. Of course, what they’re doing is spreading the use of pot and that will make the growers and distributors even wealthier.
THE RIGHT HAND DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THE LEFT HAND IS DOING
The Justice Department is overseeing police agencies because of civil rights abuses while the Defense Department is supplying them with military weapons
In government there’s really nothing strange about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
I don’t have a problem with the Defense Department supplying military hardware to police agencies, even those overseen by Justice for alleged civil rights abuses. I do have a problem with heavy weapons given to small police agencies. It’s ridiculous when school district police are supplied with grenade launchers and 5-7 officer departments are supplied with heavy armored vehicles. But that’s our tax dollars at work.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CENSURES LOCAL POLICE AS PENTAGON HANDS OUT LETHAL WEAPONS
Associated Press
September 21, 2014
A Pentagon program that distributes military surplus gear to local law enforcement allows even departments that the Justice Department has censured for civil rights violations to apply for and get lethal weaponry.
That lack of communication between two Cabinet agencies adds to questions about a program under review in the aftermath of the militarized police response to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Pentagon, which provides the free surplus military equipment, says its consultation with the Justice Department will be looked at as the government reviews how to prevent high-powered weaponry from flowing to the untrustworthy.
The Justice Department has opened civil rights investigations into the practices of some 20 police departments in the past five years, with the Ferguson force the latest. The investigations sometimes end in negotiated settlements known as consent decrees that mandate reforms. Yet being flagged as problematic by Washington does not bar a police department from participating in the program.
"Given the fact that they're under a consent decree it would make sense that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice coordinate on any such requests, (but) that is currently not the state," said Jim Bueermann, who heads the nonprofit Police Foundation.
At a Senate hearing this month, Alan Estevez, a Defense Department official who oversees the program, acknowledged that consultation with the Justice Department was "lacking" and he said that would be reviewed. Under questioning, he acknowledged the Pentagon does not take federal civil rights investigations into account in shipping out weapons, but that could change.
"We need to do a better job there," he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department received multiple shipments, totaling some 1,680 M16 assault rifles, under the Pentagon program, even while the department was under the watch of a federal monitor and had been accused of poor practices, government records show. The LAPD entered into a court-supervised agreement with the Justice Department in 2001 after investigators accused it of a pattern of excessive force, false arrests and unreasonable searches.
In Warren, Ohio, the police department in 2012 reached a settlement with the Justice Department to resolve an investigation into a pattern of excessive force and illegal searches. The department, which expects to have nearly 70 officers soon, recently ordered 30 M16 rifles as part of the program, Police Chief Eric Merkel said.
"We don't have an issue here with brandishing firearms and shooting people. That's not the reason the Department of Justice came in here to begin with," Merkel said. "I think the public reasonably expects their police department to be armed with a level that at least matches what they might be coming up against."
A 2001 Justice Department memorandum of agreement with the Washington, D.C., police found a pattern of excessive force over the prior decade. Several years later, when the department remained under the oversight of an independent monitor, it received 500 assault rifles from the military, a spokeswoman said.
The Pentagon program was authorized by Congress in 1990 to help fight drugs, with terrorism-fighting a more recent objective.
The Defense Department views the program, which has handed out more than $5.1 billion in military property since it started, primarily as a way to get rid of equipment it no longer needs. Equipment, much of it nontactical gear such as sleeping bags and filing cabinets, is provided first-come, first-served. Law enforcement officials say the military gear can save lives and keep officers safe in dangerous situations such as standoffs with heavily armed suspects and natural disasters.
But images of police responding to Ferguson protesters with tear gas, armored vehicles and in riot gear raised new scrutiny about who was getting the equipment and whether law enforcement agencies were receiving proper training.
The Defense Logistics Agency, a Pentagon branch that reviews the applications, looks at the department's justification for its request and ensures that administrative requirements are met, DLA spokeswoman Michelle McCaskill said. The agency has denied 26 percent of requests during the current budget year, which ends this month. The agency says state coordinators play an important role in approving police departments from within their states.
"Bottom line is they just don't say 'we want it' and they get it. There is a vetting process," McCaskill said.
It's hard to determine exactly how much tactical equipment was received by a single police department because the federal government releases only aggregate totals by county.
In Los Angeles, where the consent decree formally concluded last year, Deputy Chief Michael Downing said the department's Police Commission is informed of such acquisitions and updated on operations where such tactical equipment is used. The commission is an independent civilian oversight board whose watchdog role was emphasized under the consent decree.
The M16s received by the LAPD were converted from fully automatic, three-round burst weapons to single action AR-15s and provided to patrol officers, Downing said.
Downing, who heads the department's counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said such equipment was critical given the threats faced especially in major urban areas. He said he wouldn't limit police departments under consent decrees from receiving gear.
"I'd just ask the hard questions and make sure before the equipment is even utilized that they have well thought out protocols, training and policies in place," he said.
Some also say a consent decree should have no bearing on a department's ability to receive tactical gear, especially since the problems that led to the federal review may be unrelated to weapon use. The bigger question is how the equipment's used, when and under what circumstances, said Chuck Wexler, head of the Police Executive Research Forum.
But to Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, it should not get to that point.
"One arm of the federal government is restricting the departments based on a history of constitutional violations, and the other arm is feeding them heavy weapons. That's absurd," he said.
In government there’s really nothing strange about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
I don’t have a problem with the Defense Department supplying military hardware to police agencies, even those overseen by Justice for alleged civil rights abuses. I do have a problem with heavy weapons given to small police agencies. It’s ridiculous when school district police are supplied with grenade launchers and 5-7 officer departments are supplied with heavy armored vehicles. But that’s our tax dollars at work.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CENSURES LOCAL POLICE AS PENTAGON HANDS OUT LETHAL WEAPONS
Associated Press
September 21, 2014
A Pentagon program that distributes military surplus gear to local law enforcement allows even departments that the Justice Department has censured for civil rights violations to apply for and get lethal weaponry.
That lack of communication between two Cabinet agencies adds to questions about a program under review in the aftermath of the militarized police response to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Pentagon, which provides the free surplus military equipment, says its consultation with the Justice Department will be looked at as the government reviews how to prevent high-powered weaponry from flowing to the untrustworthy.
The Justice Department has opened civil rights investigations into the practices of some 20 police departments in the past five years, with the Ferguson force the latest. The investigations sometimes end in negotiated settlements known as consent decrees that mandate reforms. Yet being flagged as problematic by Washington does not bar a police department from participating in the program.
"Given the fact that they're under a consent decree it would make sense that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice coordinate on any such requests, (but) that is currently not the state," said Jim Bueermann, who heads the nonprofit Police Foundation.
At a Senate hearing this month, Alan Estevez, a Defense Department official who oversees the program, acknowledged that consultation with the Justice Department was "lacking" and he said that would be reviewed. Under questioning, he acknowledged the Pentagon does not take federal civil rights investigations into account in shipping out weapons, but that could change.
"We need to do a better job there," he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department received multiple shipments, totaling some 1,680 M16 assault rifles, under the Pentagon program, even while the department was under the watch of a federal monitor and had been accused of poor practices, government records show. The LAPD entered into a court-supervised agreement with the Justice Department in 2001 after investigators accused it of a pattern of excessive force, false arrests and unreasonable searches.
In Warren, Ohio, the police department in 2012 reached a settlement with the Justice Department to resolve an investigation into a pattern of excessive force and illegal searches. The department, which expects to have nearly 70 officers soon, recently ordered 30 M16 rifles as part of the program, Police Chief Eric Merkel said.
"We don't have an issue here with brandishing firearms and shooting people. That's not the reason the Department of Justice came in here to begin with," Merkel said. "I think the public reasonably expects their police department to be armed with a level that at least matches what they might be coming up against."
A 2001 Justice Department memorandum of agreement with the Washington, D.C., police found a pattern of excessive force over the prior decade. Several years later, when the department remained under the oversight of an independent monitor, it received 500 assault rifles from the military, a spokeswoman said.
The Pentagon program was authorized by Congress in 1990 to help fight drugs, with terrorism-fighting a more recent objective.
The Defense Department views the program, which has handed out more than $5.1 billion in military property since it started, primarily as a way to get rid of equipment it no longer needs. Equipment, much of it nontactical gear such as sleeping bags and filing cabinets, is provided first-come, first-served. Law enforcement officials say the military gear can save lives and keep officers safe in dangerous situations such as standoffs with heavily armed suspects and natural disasters.
But images of police responding to Ferguson protesters with tear gas, armored vehicles and in riot gear raised new scrutiny about who was getting the equipment and whether law enforcement agencies were receiving proper training.
The Defense Logistics Agency, a Pentagon branch that reviews the applications, looks at the department's justification for its request and ensures that administrative requirements are met, DLA spokeswoman Michelle McCaskill said. The agency has denied 26 percent of requests during the current budget year, which ends this month. The agency says state coordinators play an important role in approving police departments from within their states.
"Bottom line is they just don't say 'we want it' and they get it. There is a vetting process," McCaskill said.
It's hard to determine exactly how much tactical equipment was received by a single police department because the federal government releases only aggregate totals by county.
In Los Angeles, where the consent decree formally concluded last year, Deputy Chief Michael Downing said the department's Police Commission is informed of such acquisitions and updated on operations where such tactical equipment is used. The commission is an independent civilian oversight board whose watchdog role was emphasized under the consent decree.
The M16s received by the LAPD were converted from fully automatic, three-round burst weapons to single action AR-15s and provided to patrol officers, Downing said.
Downing, who heads the department's counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said such equipment was critical given the threats faced especially in major urban areas. He said he wouldn't limit police departments under consent decrees from receiving gear.
"I'd just ask the hard questions and make sure before the equipment is even utilized that they have well thought out protocols, training and policies in place," he said.
Some also say a consent decree should have no bearing on a department's ability to receive tactical gear, especially since the problems that led to the federal review may be unrelated to weapon use. The bigger question is how the equipment's used, when and under what circumstances, said Chuck Wexler, head of the Police Executive Research Forum.
But to Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, it should not get to that point.
"One arm of the federal government is restricting the departments based on a history of constitutional violations, and the other arm is feeding them heavy weapons. That's absurd," he said.
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