A single dose of pentobarbital worked flawlessly in putting to death Kelly Renee Gissendaner for the 1997 murder of her husband
In February 1997, Gregory Owen stabbed Kelly Renee Gissendaner’s husband Douglas to death. Owen confessed and told investigators he finally gave in to repeated requests by Gissendaner for him kill her husband, despite his pleas that she get a divorce instead. Owen is serving a life sentence and will become eligible for parole in 2022. Kelly did not fare as well as her lover and was sentenced to death.
The Associated Press reports:
Various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court denied multiple last-ditch efforts to stop her execution Tuesday, and the parole board stood by its February decision to deny clemency. The board didn't give a reason for the denial, but said it had carefully considered her request for reconsideration.
Gissendaner was previously scheduled for execution Feb. 25, but that was delayed because of a threat of winter weather. Her execution was reset for March 2, but corrections officials postponed that execution "out of an abundance of caution" because the execution drug appeared "cloudy."
The execution was delayed because of a threat of winter weather? Now, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of an execution delay due to bad weather.
Gissendaner, 47, was executed in Georgia’s execution chamber at the state prison in Jackson and was pronounced dead today at 12:21 a.m. The single dose of pentobarbital worked flawlessly. Kelly sang Amazing Grace during the execution process and also appeared to sing another song before taking several deep breaths, then becoming still.
Gissendaner is the first woman Georgia has put to death in seven decades.
In response to worldwide protests, Douglas Gissendaner's family said in a statement Monday that “As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life.”
More than 100 people braved the rain outside the prison to protest the execution. I hope they got soaking wet!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
TEXAS PRODUCING ITS OWN EXECUTION DRUG
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is compounding its own pentobarbital and reportedly making it available to other death penalty states
A court filing in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma reveals Texas is compounding its own pentobarbital and has sold three vials of the lethal injection drug to at least one other death penalty state, Virginia.
According to the Houston Press:
“The matter came up in a Thursday court filing by attorneys for Richard Fairchild, an Oklahoma man scheduled to be executed for murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old child in 1993. In the filing, Fairchild's attorneys argue that Oklahoma prison officials should consider other lethal injection options besides midazolam, the drug used in the state's botched execution of Clayton Lockett last year.
As part of the filing, Fairchild's attorneys attached a purchase order from the Virginia Department of Corrections dated August 26, 2015. On the order, the supplier of three 50-milliliter packages of pentobarbital is listed as “TX Dept of Criminal Justice.”
What a brilliant move on the part of Texas. Several years ago, because of pressure from death penalty opponents, pharmaceutical manufacturers stopped selling drugs used in executions to prison systems. That forced states to turn to compounding pharmacies for their execution drugs. But when their identities were publicly revealed, the compounding pharmacies were condemned, harassed and even threatened with harm by a shitload of anti-death penalty zealots. Thus most compounding pharmacies are now refusing to make execution drugs for the states.
Problem solved! There is no reason why Texas and other states cannot hire licensed pharmacists to compound pentobarbital. There is no reason why Oklahoma could not hire its own licensed pharmacists to compound midazolam.
Last March, the American Pharmacists Association adopted a policy that discourages its members from providing death-penalty drugs:
The American Pharmacists Association discourages pharmacist participation in executions on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care.
That was followed up with a similar resolution by the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists:
While the pharmacy profession recognizes an individual practitioner’s right to determine whether to dispense a medication based upon his or her personal, ethical and religious beliefs, IACP discourages its members from participating in the preparation, dispensing, or distribution of compounded medications for use in legally authorized executions.
Those resolutions will make it even more difficult for states to find compounding pharmacies willing to supply then with lethal drugs, even in secret. But I am sure the states can find and hire licensed pharmacists willing to compound execution drugs if they are paid well.
For once Texas, not California, is a trend setter. Congratulations Texas and may the executions go on!
A court filing in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma reveals Texas is compounding its own pentobarbital and has sold three vials of the lethal injection drug to at least one other death penalty state, Virginia.
According to the Houston Press:
“The matter came up in a Thursday court filing by attorneys for Richard Fairchild, an Oklahoma man scheduled to be executed for murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old child in 1993. In the filing, Fairchild's attorneys argue that Oklahoma prison officials should consider other lethal injection options besides midazolam, the drug used in the state's botched execution of Clayton Lockett last year.
As part of the filing, Fairchild's attorneys attached a purchase order from the Virginia Department of Corrections dated August 26, 2015. On the order, the supplier of three 50-milliliter packages of pentobarbital is listed as “TX Dept of Criminal Justice.”
What a brilliant move on the part of Texas. Several years ago, because of pressure from death penalty opponents, pharmaceutical manufacturers stopped selling drugs used in executions to prison systems. That forced states to turn to compounding pharmacies for their execution drugs. But when their identities were publicly revealed, the compounding pharmacies were condemned, harassed and even threatened with harm by a shitload of anti-death penalty zealots. Thus most compounding pharmacies are now refusing to make execution drugs for the states.
Problem solved! There is no reason why Texas and other states cannot hire licensed pharmacists to compound pentobarbital. There is no reason why Oklahoma could not hire its own licensed pharmacists to compound midazolam.
Last March, the American Pharmacists Association adopted a policy that discourages its members from providing death-penalty drugs:
The American Pharmacists Association discourages pharmacist participation in executions on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the role of pharmacists as providers of health care.
That was followed up with a similar resolution by the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists:
While the pharmacy profession recognizes an individual practitioner’s right to determine whether to dispense a medication based upon his or her personal, ethical and religious beliefs, IACP discourages its members from participating in the preparation, dispensing, or distribution of compounded medications for use in legally authorized executions.
Those resolutions will make it even more difficult for states to find compounding pharmacies willing to supply then with lethal drugs, even in secret. But I am sure the states can find and hire licensed pharmacists willing to compound execution drugs if they are paid well.
For once Texas, not California, is a trend setter. Congratulations Texas and may the executions go on!
HOW THE HUMAN RACE APPEARED
The Unconventional Gazette
September 30, 2015
A Little girl asked her dad, "how did the human race appear"?
The daddy answered "God made Adam and Eve, and they had children, and so the human race appeared".
Two days later the little girl asked her mother the same question.
The mother answered "many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved".
The confused girl returned to her dad and said "Dad how is it possible that you said the Human Race was created by God, and Mother said that they developed from monkeys?"
The Dad answered, "Well dear, it is very simple, I told you about my side of the family, an your mother told you about hers.
September 30, 2015
A Little girl asked her dad, "how did the human race appear"?
The daddy answered "God made Adam and Eve, and they had children, and so the human race appeared".
Two days later the little girl asked her mother the same question.
The mother answered "many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved".
The confused girl returned to her dad and said "Dad how is it possible that you said the Human Race was created by God, and Mother said that they developed from monkeys?"
The Dad answered, "Well dear, it is very simple, I told you about my side of the family, an your mother told you about hers.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
WHY SOME COPS SHOULD NOT BE ISSUED A TASER
A Fairfax County, Virginia cop is caught on a cellphone video tasering a man who appears to be obeying his commands
Here we have another cellphone video of a cop going viral all over the internet. The video shows a Fairfax County police officer arresting a man and ordering him to place his hands on the hood of a police car. The man appears to comply when suddenly the cop tasers him, dropping the man to the ground. Nothing on the video indicates that the man was not obeying the orders or that he posed any kind of threat to the officer.
The man who shot the cellphone video told Fox 5: “He [the officer] told him to turn around. He turned around he complied. And boom he popped out his Taser and he shot at him.”
Other witnesses said they could see no reason for the cop to taser the man. All of them said the man did not try to run and complied with the cop’s commands.
It did not take long for the Chief of the Fairfax County Police to become aware of the video. He ordered Internal Affairs to investigate the incicent.
This is just one of several publicized incidents in which cops tasered people for no apparent reason. The Taser is issued to officers as an alternative to the use of deadly force. Non-lethal weapons are a good idea, but they do not give cops carte blanche to use them when it's not necessary.
During roll call at the beginning of each shift, the last instructions given should be: "Be safe and remember those cellphone cameras are watching your every move!"
Here we have another cellphone video of a cop going viral all over the internet. The video shows a Fairfax County police officer arresting a man and ordering him to place his hands on the hood of a police car. The man appears to comply when suddenly the cop tasers him, dropping the man to the ground. Nothing on the video indicates that the man was not obeying the orders or that he posed any kind of threat to the officer.
The man who shot the cellphone video told Fox 5: “He [the officer] told him to turn around. He turned around he complied. And boom he popped out his Taser and he shot at him.”
Other witnesses said they could see no reason for the cop to taser the man. All of them said the man did not try to run and complied with the cop’s commands.
It did not take long for the Chief of the Fairfax County Police to become aware of the video. He ordered Internal Affairs to investigate the incicent.
This is just one of several publicized incidents in which cops tasered people for no apparent reason. The Taser is issued to officers as an alternative to the use of deadly force. Non-lethal weapons are a good idea, but they do not give cops carte blanche to use them when it's not necessary.
During roll call at the beginning of each shift, the last instructions given should be: "Be safe and remember those cellphone cameras are watching your every move!"
OOPS, VIGILANTE SHOOTS VICTIM WHILE TRYING TO STOP CARJACKING
A witness to a Houston carjacking whips out his gun and fires at the crooks, accidentally shooting the victim in the head
Around 11 p.m. Saturday, a man left the inside of a gas station in northeast Houston and returned to his pickup truck. He was beaten over the head and carjacked. A witness saw what was happening, whipped out a gun, and fired at the two crooks. But oops, he shot the victim in the head. The vigilante beat feet before arrival of the cops. The unnamed victim is recovering in a hospital.
The cops found the pickup ditched about three blocks from the scene of the crime. The truck’s driver side window was shattered and there was blood inside the cab, leading the police to believe that at least one of the crooks was wounded by the vigilante.
The cops are looking for the two carjackers and also for the vigilante.
Yep, this is Texas alright. If this had happened out in California, there’d be no vigilante and them thar carjackers would not have had to ditch that stolen pickup truck.
Around 11 p.m. Saturday, a man left the inside of a gas station in northeast Houston and returned to his pickup truck. He was beaten over the head and carjacked. A witness saw what was happening, whipped out a gun, and fired at the two crooks. But oops, he shot the victim in the head. The vigilante beat feet before arrival of the cops. The unnamed victim is recovering in a hospital.
The cops found the pickup ditched about three blocks from the scene of the crime. The truck’s driver side window was shattered and there was blood inside the cab, leading the police to believe that at least one of the crooks was wounded by the vigilante.
The cops are looking for the two carjackers and also for the vigilante.
Yep, this is Texas alright. If this had happened out in California, there’d be no vigilante and them thar carjackers would not have had to ditch that stolen pickup truck.
WIFE OF DOLPHIN CORNERBACK MOUTHES OFF AT COPS, GETS BUSTED
When Miami-Dade cops ordered Miko Grimes out of a restricted area in the parking of Sun Life Stadium she yelled "Fuck you, cops. You can't tell me what to do"
There are two important lessons every parent should install in their kids. No. 1: Always do what the nice policeman tells you to do. No. 2: Never ever tell that nice policeman he can’t tell you what to do.
Apparently Miko Grimes, a Miami radio sports talk host and wife of Miami Dolphin cornerback Brent Grimes was never taught those lessons by her parents.
Before the start of Sundays Miami-Buffalo NFL game, Miami-Dade cops repeatedly ordered Miko out of a restricted area in the parking lot of Sun Life Stadium, she refused to do so (violation of Lesson No.1) and yelled at them "Fuck you, cops. You can't tell me what to do" (outspoken violation of Lesson No.2). At that point the cops attempted to arrest Miko.
According to the Associated Press, when an officer grabbed her arm, she became combative and had to be put in a bear hug and thrown to the ground so that she could be handcuffed. While on the ground she yelled a bunch of obscenities at the cops. And after they lifted Miko up, she head-butted one of the officers. She continued to be combative until one of the officers threatened to taser her.
Miko was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail, charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest with violence, and battery on a law enforcement officer. She was treated for minor injuries to her arms and knee. After a short stay in jail, Milo was released on bond.
The Dolphins didn’t fare any better than Miko. They got clobbered 41-14 by the Blls.
There are two important lessons every parent should install in their kids. No. 1: Always do what the nice policeman tells you to do. No. 2: Never ever tell that nice policeman he can’t tell you what to do.
Apparently Miko Grimes, a Miami radio sports talk host and wife of Miami Dolphin cornerback Brent Grimes was never taught those lessons by her parents.
Before the start of Sundays Miami-Buffalo NFL game, Miami-Dade cops repeatedly ordered Miko out of a restricted area in the parking lot of Sun Life Stadium, she refused to do so (violation of Lesson No.1) and yelled at them "Fuck you, cops. You can't tell me what to do" (outspoken violation of Lesson No.2). At that point the cops attempted to arrest Miko.
According to the Associated Press, when an officer grabbed her arm, she became combative and had to be put in a bear hug and thrown to the ground so that she could be handcuffed. While on the ground she yelled a bunch of obscenities at the cops. And after they lifted Miko up, she head-butted one of the officers. She continued to be combative until one of the officers threatened to taser her.
Miko was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail, charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest with violence, and battery on a law enforcement officer. She was treated for minor injuries to her arms and knee. After a short stay in jail, Milo was released on bond.
The Dolphins didn’t fare any better than Miko. They got clobbered 41-14 by the Blls.
Monday, September 28, 2015
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN PROVRES HIMSELF TO BE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT
While the shooting of Travon Martin was justified, Zimmerman’s behavior since then is incomprehensible
When George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, I was among his many supporters, but that has not been the case for some time.
Since Zimmerman shot Martin, he has had several run-ins with the police, none of which resulted in any charges being filed. But in his many tweets, Zimmerman proves himself to be a worthless piece of shit.
Trace Cowen refers to Zimmerman as a professional imbecile. That’s a gross insult to imbeciles. And when Cowen (below) thinks Zimmerman got away with murder, he is clearly wrong. The asshole was justified in shooting Martin because that thug was repeatedly pounding his head into the pavement.
Professional Imbecile George Zimmerman Retweets Graphic Photo of Trayvon Martin's Dead Body
By Trace William Cowen
Yahoo News
September 28, 2015
George Zimmerman, actual thug and current Confederate flag struggle painter, has somehow managed to amass 11,000 (presumably stupid, racist, or both) followers on Twitter since somehow being acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of unarmed black 17-year-old high school student Trayvon Martin. In an effort to maintain his personal brand, Zimmerman regularly tweets and/or retweets wildly idiotic statements on matters of race, politics, and his own storied history.
However, Zimmerman's most recent act of Zimmerdouchery is most likely his most appalling contribution to society yet. Though the tweet has now been deleted by Twitter officials, Zimmerman reportedly retweeted the following proclamation that he is a "one man army," an incendiary statement maddeningly paired with a gruesome photo of Trayvon Martin's corpse. New York Daily News got the screengrab, though we've chosen to omit a portion of the photograph:
Zimmerman's reaction to the removal of this tweet, not to mention its sickening display of murderous pride, has been just as preposterous as one would imagine. Thankfully, he also provided two phone numbers for "all media inquiries," which is definitely his way of telling everyone to please call him and offer their thoughts on his recent Twitter activity:
George Zimmerman@TherealGeorgeZ
All media inquiries can be directed to Ms. Micah Williams (360) 628-1467 or (931) 802-8913 or @SonusCarAudio
Of course, this guy remains astutely summarized in one simple word: trash.
When George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, I was among his many supporters, but that has not been the case for some time.
Since Zimmerman shot Martin, he has had several run-ins with the police, none of which resulted in any charges being filed. But in his many tweets, Zimmerman proves himself to be a worthless piece of shit.
Trace Cowen refers to Zimmerman as a professional imbecile. That’s a gross insult to imbeciles. And when Cowen (below) thinks Zimmerman got away with murder, he is clearly wrong. The asshole was justified in shooting Martin because that thug was repeatedly pounding his head into the pavement.
Professional Imbecile George Zimmerman Retweets Graphic Photo of Trayvon Martin's Dead Body
By Trace William Cowen
Yahoo News
September 28, 2015
George Zimmerman, actual thug and current Confederate flag struggle painter, has somehow managed to amass 11,000 (presumably stupid, racist, or both) followers on Twitter since somehow being acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of unarmed black 17-year-old high school student Trayvon Martin. In an effort to maintain his personal brand, Zimmerman regularly tweets and/or retweets wildly idiotic statements on matters of race, politics, and his own storied history.
However, Zimmerman's most recent act of Zimmerdouchery is most likely his most appalling contribution to society yet. Though the tweet has now been deleted by Twitter officials, Zimmerman reportedly retweeted the following proclamation that he is a "one man army," an incendiary statement maddeningly paired with a gruesome photo of Trayvon Martin's corpse. New York Daily News got the screengrab, though we've chosen to omit a portion of the photograph:
Zimmerman's reaction to the removal of this tweet, not to mention its sickening display of murderous pride, has been just as preposterous as one would imagine. Thankfully, he also provided two phone numbers for "all media inquiries," which is definitely his way of telling everyone to please call him and offer their thoughts on his recent Twitter activity:
George Zimmerman@TherealGeorgeZ
All media inquiries can be directed to Ms. Micah Williams (360) 628-1467 or (931) 802-8913 or @SonusCarAudio
Of course, this guy remains astutely summarized in one simple word: trash.
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: $500M TO TRAIN 5 ‘MODERATE’ SYRIAN REBELS
Not only did we fail to build a ‘moderate’ Syrian rebel force, but many of the weapons intended for this force were turned over to al-Qaeda affiliated groups
Congratulations are in order for the Obama Administration now that the results are in of its 2014 allocation of $500 million to train and equip a ‘moderate’ rebel force to do battle with ISIS.
When questioned Wednesday by the Senate armed services committee about how many rebels are on the ground fighting that have been trained with the $500 million allocation, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, answered “four or five.”
What a resounding success! That comes to a tenth of a billion dollars spent training and equipping each rebel.
That isn’t all. Now we learn that many of the weapons intended for the ‘moderate’ rebel force were turned over to al-Qaeda affiliated groups.
But not to worry. Gen. Austin told the senate committee that we have another hundred million dollars “in the pipeline.” And there are reports that the Pentagon is willing to spend $600 million more. If the past is any indicator, with the added funding we will have a dozen rebels fighting ISIS, that is if the original five are still around. And al-Qaeda will get more of our weapons.
Again, congratulations to the Obama Administration for putting $500 million of our taxes to work so successfully.
Congratulations are in order for the Obama Administration now that the results are in of its 2014 allocation of $500 million to train and equip a ‘moderate’ rebel force to do battle with ISIS.
When questioned Wednesday by the Senate armed services committee about how many rebels are on the ground fighting that have been trained with the $500 million allocation, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of US Central Command, answered “four or five.”
What a resounding success! That comes to a tenth of a billion dollars spent training and equipping each rebel.
That isn’t all. Now we learn that many of the weapons intended for the ‘moderate’ rebel force were turned over to al-Qaeda affiliated groups.
But not to worry. Gen. Austin told the senate committee that we have another hundred million dollars “in the pipeline.” And there are reports that the Pentagon is willing to spend $600 million more. If the past is any indicator, with the added funding we will have a dozen rebels fighting ISIS, that is if the original five are still around. And al-Qaeda will get more of our weapons.
Again, congratulations to the Obama Administration for putting $500 million of our taxes to work so successfully.
MEXICO’S NOTORIOUS SICARIA BETRAYED BY BOYFRIEND
Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda aka 'La China', who was behind the murder of 170 people, was captured in Cabo San Lucas after being betrayed by her boyfriend
Borderland Beat
September 26, 2015
The reign of terror of Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda 'La China', one of the few women who has gained notoriety in the drug trafficking world, collapsed as she was about to board a plane to leave the state of Baja California Sur. She was betrayed by her boyfriend Hector Gomez Pedro Camarena 'El Chino', arrested last July.
Calderon Ojeda (responsible for the deaths of about 170 people) was in charge of "Los Damaso" special forces of the Sinaloa cartel, for a couple of years but became independent when she was demoted and decided to form her own criminal organization.
'La China' declared war on their former employers and partners, and tried to take control of La Paz and then Los Cabos. With "La China" as the boss, 'El Chino' took the role of second in command; Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran became chief of assassins; Rogelio 'Tyson' Franco was responsible for logistics, and Peter 'Peter' Cisneros was appointed head of sales of narcotics and to disposed the bodies of enemies.
After being sought for years, Calderon Ojeda, who became known for kidnapping victims and dismembering their bodies, was apprehended on Saturday 19. Since the capture of her boyfriend Pedro Héctor Gómez Camarena, the most feared woman was cornered by authorities, she was surrounded when she tried to flee from Baja California Sur from an aerodrome in Cabo San Lucas.
With a reputation forged in blood and gun fire, "the most powerful female drug trafficker in Mexico" could no longer escape. Her reign of terror fell from a betrayal of her boyfriend, who negotiated better terms with the authorities and deliver her on a silver platter. However, Secretary of Government of Baja California Sur, Alvaro de la Peña, said that they found Melissa "by sharing intelligence information."
Her capture was made "in a totally clean way, without guns, without any shot fire," he boasted.
In exchange for a reduced sentence, 'El Chino' not only gave his partner, he also revealed details of how the organization worked under her and revealed the location of the "secret cemetery", where they had hidden the bodies of their victims.
Security forces arrived to the unmarked graves of the contract killer, where they found two men and three women buried in the community of El Comitan, north of La Paz.
According to his statement, the gunman "did not remember the exact location of the graves", but stated that the responsibility to dig graves and bury the victims was at the hands of Silva Pedro Cisneros 'Peter' or 'El Chapo', to whom he described as: "50 years old, slim build, fair complexion, short hair and approximately 1.50 meters in height."
During questioning, he revealed that in the underworld he will also used the names of "Edgar Leonel Meraz Felix" and / or "Edgar Leonel Palacios", and even offered two addresses of safe houses of his accomplice, whom he identified as the “enterrador” ("gravedigger").
The first addresses was corresponding to the street of San Ramon and Santa Isabel in colonia Santa Fe and the second at Bahía de La Paz in colonia Fovissste de La Paz.
The criminal gave key information about criminal links and networks of 'La China' with the municipal and state police and said that even police agents are involved in the criminal organization.
And so "La China" was arrested, whom the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped on July 31 from a maximum security prison Altiplano, had great confidence and had put her in command of his henchmen, but the alliance finally broke.
Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda is in the process of being interrogated in Mexico City and next year she will stand trial for more than 150 murders she allegedly committed herself.
This article was translated from Proceso
Borderland Beat
September 26, 2015
The reign of terror of Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda 'La China', one of the few women who has gained notoriety in the drug trafficking world, collapsed as she was about to board a plane to leave the state of Baja California Sur. She was betrayed by her boyfriend Hector Gomez Pedro Camarena 'El Chino', arrested last July.
Calderon Ojeda (responsible for the deaths of about 170 people) was in charge of "Los Damaso" special forces of the Sinaloa cartel, for a couple of years but became independent when she was demoted and decided to form her own criminal organization.
'La China' declared war on their former employers and partners, and tried to take control of La Paz and then Los Cabos. With "La China" as the boss, 'El Chino' took the role of second in command; Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran became chief of assassins; Rogelio 'Tyson' Franco was responsible for logistics, and Peter 'Peter' Cisneros was appointed head of sales of narcotics and to disposed the bodies of enemies.
After being sought for years, Calderon Ojeda, who became known for kidnapping victims and dismembering their bodies, was apprehended on Saturday 19. Since the capture of her boyfriend Pedro Héctor Gómez Camarena, the most feared woman was cornered by authorities, she was surrounded when she tried to flee from Baja California Sur from an aerodrome in Cabo San Lucas.
With a reputation forged in blood and gun fire, "the most powerful female drug trafficker in Mexico" could no longer escape. Her reign of terror fell from a betrayal of her boyfriend, who negotiated better terms with the authorities and deliver her on a silver platter. However, Secretary of Government of Baja California Sur, Alvaro de la Peña, said that they found Melissa "by sharing intelligence information."
Her capture was made "in a totally clean way, without guns, without any shot fire," he boasted.
In exchange for a reduced sentence, 'El Chino' not only gave his partner, he also revealed details of how the organization worked under her and revealed the location of the "secret cemetery", where they had hidden the bodies of their victims.
Security forces arrived to the unmarked graves of the contract killer, where they found two men and three women buried in the community of El Comitan, north of La Paz.
According to his statement, the gunman "did not remember the exact location of the graves", but stated that the responsibility to dig graves and bury the victims was at the hands of Silva Pedro Cisneros 'Peter' or 'El Chapo', to whom he described as: "50 years old, slim build, fair complexion, short hair and approximately 1.50 meters in height."
During questioning, he revealed that in the underworld he will also used the names of "Edgar Leonel Meraz Felix" and / or "Edgar Leonel Palacios", and even offered two addresses of safe houses of his accomplice, whom he identified as the “enterrador” ("gravedigger").
The first addresses was corresponding to the street of San Ramon and Santa Isabel in colonia Santa Fe and the second at Bahía de La Paz in colonia Fovissste de La Paz.
The criminal gave key information about criminal links and networks of 'La China' with the municipal and state police and said that even police agents are involved in the criminal organization.
And so "La China" was arrested, whom the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped on July 31 from a maximum security prison Altiplano, had great confidence and had put her in command of his henchmen, but the alliance finally broke.
Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda is in the process of being interrogated in Mexico City and next year she will stand trial for more than 150 murders she allegedly committed herself.
This article was translated from Proceso
Sunday, September 27, 2015
DEATH PENALTY DISCUSSED
The death penalty opponents can't take a joke. This video clip has been banned in Australia.
HORRIFIED POPE CALLS PHILADELPHIA HUMANITY’S GREATEST SIN AGAINST GOD
The Onion
September 26, 2015
PHILADELPHIA—Visibly aghast as he took the pulpit at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia to deliver a sermon Saturday, a horrified Pope Francis reportedly referred to the city as a “blighted abomination, forsaken by Heaven” and “humanity’s greatest sin against God.”
“In my travels, I have seen countless examples of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man, the most utter wretchedness, and the vilest iniquity, but in this place and in these people I see a darkness blacker than all the world’s evils. God has fled this town,” said the ashen-faced pontiff, recoiling in disgust from the assembled crowd while describing the Philadelphia metro area as “the only corner of Creation where the light of the Lord does not shine.”
“The love of Christ falls upon us all, even the lowliest of the low—but not Philadelphia. Touch me not, for you are the unholiest of all that is unholy. I can offer no blessings here, where all that is, and all who are, are an affront to God.”
After concluding his prepared remarks, the pope reportedly led the congregation in a prayer for God to rain cleansing fire and brimstone over the city and then salt the smoldering Earth so that no wickedness could ever again arise in its place.
September 26, 2015
PHILADELPHIA—Visibly aghast as he took the pulpit at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia to deliver a sermon Saturday, a horrified Pope Francis reportedly referred to the city as a “blighted abomination, forsaken by Heaven” and “humanity’s greatest sin against God.”
“In my travels, I have seen countless examples of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man, the most utter wretchedness, and the vilest iniquity, but in this place and in these people I see a darkness blacker than all the world’s evils. God has fled this town,” said the ashen-faced pontiff, recoiling in disgust from the assembled crowd while describing the Philadelphia metro area as “the only corner of Creation where the light of the Lord does not shine.”
“The love of Christ falls upon us all, even the lowliest of the low—but not Philadelphia. Touch me not, for you are the unholiest of all that is unholy. I can offer no blessings here, where all that is, and all who are, are an affront to God.”
After concluding his prepared remarks, the pope reportedly led the congregation in a prayer for God to rain cleansing fire and brimstone over the city and then salt the smoldering Earth so that no wickedness could ever again arise in its place.
WHAT WAS THIS NEW JESEY COP THNKING?
A white Madison, N.J. cop stopped a black woman driver only because he was curious why she was in his town
Most racial profiling and ‘driving while black’ complaints turn out not to be sustainable, but here is one that’s for real. What in the hell was this dumb ass white cop thinking when he stopped a black woman driver only because he was curious why she was in his town, Madison, N.J.
That driver happened to be the wife of a player with the New York Jets. She recorded part of the stop and then rightfully complained on additional recordings about being stopped for ‘driving while black.’
If I were the chief of police in Madison, this cop would get at least three days off without pay for pulling that boner. And if there had been any prior sustainable complaints against him, I’d fire his dumb ass in a New York minute.
ANTONIO CROMARTIE’S WIFE FILMS ‘DRIVING WHILE BLACK’ COP STOP
By Brian Lewis
New York Post
September 25, 2015
Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie’s wife, Terricka, says she was pulled over Friday for “driving while black,” accusing New Jersey police of racial profiling in a string of posts on her Instagram account.
Terricka Cromartie recorded multiple videos Friday, both during the traffic stop — which apparently occurred in the town of Madison — and then afterward.
“So apparently you can’t be black, you can’t drive a nice car in Madison at 11 in the morning. I mean, who cares if you just came from the nail shop, you didn’t get a ticket, the police let you go and say have a nice day. Like that’s OK,’’ a clearly exasperated Terricka said in the post-stop video.
She also posted two videos from the stop — which elicited numerous comments from followers — with the following messages:
“Driving while Black… I’m thankful to be able to even make this message so many weren’t as luck. But how do you deal with a police office who is simply just harassing you.”
“When you get pulled over for driving Black in Madison.. Why are you in Madison??? What did I do officer. Roll your windows Down.. SmDH. FYI I was pulled over for no reason, just to ask me to roll my windows, and why am I in Madison. Like how you don’t know I live here. What am I doing in Madison is freaking 11:30a.m.”
Cromartie claims she asked the officer multiple times why she had been pulled over, and she has been stopped three to four times per month. She presumes it’s because she’s black.
A spokesman for Madison police gave NJ.com two different reasons for not addressing the incident when reached Friday.
“We haven’t even looked into it right now,” Acting Lt. John Miscia told the website. “We have no comment on it right now. I’m not at liberty to talk about it.”
Part of Cromartie’s dialogue with the officer that was captured on video.
Cromartie: “…roll my windows down in my car.”
Officer: “For safety reasons.”
Cromartie: “For safety. But I’m not authorized to do that, either.”
Officer: “You don’t have to, which I explained to you.”
Cromartie: “So now I have to tell you why I’m in Madison?”
Officer: “You don’t have to.”
Cromartie: “But why are you asking me why I’m in Madison?”
Officer: “Just curious.”
Cromartie: “You don’t have to be curious about why I’m in Madison.”
Officer: “OK. All right. Just hang tight, ma’am, for me. And I’ll be right back, all right?”
The officer presumably returns to his vehicle at this point in the footage. Cromarite claims in responses under her Instagram post she was not ticketed. Further details about the traffic stop — its genesis, the precise timing and whereabouts, or the outcome — were not clear.
Most racial profiling and ‘driving while black’ complaints turn out not to be sustainable, but here is one that’s for real. What in the hell was this dumb ass white cop thinking when he stopped a black woman driver only because he was curious why she was in his town, Madison, N.J.
That driver happened to be the wife of a player with the New York Jets. She recorded part of the stop and then rightfully complained on additional recordings about being stopped for ‘driving while black.’
If I were the chief of police in Madison, this cop would get at least three days off without pay for pulling that boner. And if there had been any prior sustainable complaints against him, I’d fire his dumb ass in a New York minute.
ANTONIO CROMARTIE’S WIFE FILMS ‘DRIVING WHILE BLACK’ COP STOP
By Brian Lewis
New York Post
September 25, 2015
Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie’s wife, Terricka, says she was pulled over Friday for “driving while black,” accusing New Jersey police of racial profiling in a string of posts on her Instagram account.
Terricka Cromartie recorded multiple videos Friday, both during the traffic stop — which apparently occurred in the town of Madison — and then afterward.
“So apparently you can’t be black, you can’t drive a nice car in Madison at 11 in the morning. I mean, who cares if you just came from the nail shop, you didn’t get a ticket, the police let you go and say have a nice day. Like that’s OK,’’ a clearly exasperated Terricka said in the post-stop video.
She also posted two videos from the stop — which elicited numerous comments from followers — with the following messages:
“Driving while Black… I’m thankful to be able to even make this message so many weren’t as luck. But how do you deal with a police office who is simply just harassing you.”
“When you get pulled over for driving Black in Madison.. Why are you in Madison??? What did I do officer. Roll your windows Down.. SmDH. FYI I was pulled over for no reason, just to ask me to roll my windows, and why am I in Madison. Like how you don’t know I live here. What am I doing in Madison is freaking 11:30a.m.”
Cromartie claims she asked the officer multiple times why she had been pulled over, and she has been stopped three to four times per month. She presumes it’s because she’s black.
A spokesman for Madison police gave NJ.com two different reasons for not addressing the incident when reached Friday.
“We haven’t even looked into it right now,” Acting Lt. John Miscia told the website. “We have no comment on it right now. I’m not at liberty to talk about it.”
Part of Cromartie’s dialogue with the officer that was captured on video.
Cromartie: “…roll my windows down in my car.”
Officer: “For safety reasons.”
Cromartie: “For safety. But I’m not authorized to do that, either.”
Officer: “You don’t have to, which I explained to you.”
Cromartie: “So now I have to tell you why I’m in Madison?”
Officer: “You don’t have to.”
Cromartie: “But why are you asking me why I’m in Madison?”
Officer: “Just curious.”
Cromartie: “You don’t have to be curious about why I’m in Madison.”
Officer: “OK. All right. Just hang tight, ma’am, for me. And I’ll be right back, all right?”
The officer presumably returns to his vehicle at this point in the footage. Cromarite claims in responses under her Instagram post she was not ticketed. Further details about the traffic stop — its genesis, the precise timing and whereabouts, or the outcome — were not clear.
ISRAEL IS SECURING ITS BORDERS AND OTHER NATIONS ARE TAKING NOTE
Before Israel started constructing its border security fences, the tiny nation was flooded with illegal immigrants and subjected to the infiltration of terrorists
When Israel started to construct its border security fences the, Europeans condemned and accused the tiny Jewish of setting up apartheid state, but now that they are being subjected to a flood of refugees from the war torn Middle East, they are singing a different tune.
Those in this country that have been calling for the sealing of our borders should take a good look at what the Israelis are doing to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and the infiltration of terrorists.
YES, NETANYAHU BUILT THE FENCE
During former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's term, the idea of building a border fence was tossed around, but no one recognized the threat posed by the porous borders • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, managed to halt the wave of infiltration
By Shlomo Cesana
Israel Hayom
September 25, 2015
"Where is the contractor in charge?" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked as he stood at the podium two weeks ago, during an event in the Arava region. When the contractor, who was sitting in the audience, rose to his feet and raised his hand, the prime minister promised to come back in three months' time. "Will you be finished by then?" he asked. At that point, the contractor became quite embarrassed. He nodded his head yes. "It's a deal," Netanyahu continued, signaling to his advisers that this was a deal that could not be broken.
And so, time and again, Netanyahu arrives by helicopter to yet another part of the border fence between Israel and Egypt. It usually involves an hour-long helicopter ride, in oppressive heat and humidity, but Netanyahu keeps coming, just as he did at the beginning of this month when he visited the first part of the border fence between Israel and Jordan.
"Israel is the only Western country that can be reached by foot from Africa. But thanks to the border fence, we are now a state that controls its borders," the prime minister says. "In a country that faces an endless list of threats, the border fence offers a solution to preventing infiltration and terrorism as well as smugglers (drugs, human trafficking) and illegal labor migrants."
There fence along the border with Sinai is currently 227 kilometers (141 miles) long and includes a host of obstacles and monitoring devices. It took two years and 1.5 billion shekels ($380 million) to complete this fence. Once it was completed, in 2012, workers began to quietly build an improved fence along the border with Syria, which has since been completed as well. Furthermore, two weeks ago, construction began on the first part of the fence along the Jordanian border -- a 30-kilometer (19-mile) section stretching from Eilat toward Kibbutz Yotvata at a cost of 280 million shekels ($71 million). Bulldozers kicked up dirt across from the Edom Mountains making it very hard to breathe. The terrain is different from the other borders and requires different engineering solutions due to flooding, the type of soil and the desire to preserve plant and wildlife.
The Middle East is undergoing dramatic changes. The old world order that we knew for the last hundred years has collapsed before our eyes. Strong countries like Syria, Libya and Iraq have disintegrated. The Islamic State group has taken root and resisted the advances of an international coalition. The U.S.'s withdrawal from involvement in the region, coupled with Iran's efforts to fill the void, have increased the danger that Israel and moderate Muslims now face.
During former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's term, tens of thousands of people infiltrated Israel's borders, mostly from five African countries. Some were labor migrants, others refugees fleeing for their lives. The infiltrators settled in Tel Aviv, Eilat and Arad, but no efforts were made to properly absorb them.
During that time, the idea of building a fence had been tossed around, but nothing ever came of it. Olmert opposed building a fence, exclaiming that we "won't fence ourselves in to death." It seems that back then no one recognized the threat. When Netanyahu established his third coalition, he led and monitored the construction of the fence, and the wave of infiltration stopped almost entirely.
Nowadays, as refugees from Syria and Africa are knocking down Europe's gates, the "continent without borders" is considering adopting the Israeli model.
When asked why Israel, a country build by immigrants, is building fences and turning immigrants away, Netanyahu replied: "We can see what is happening today to countries that have lost control over their borders. The combination of cruel terrorism and human tragedy 360 degrees around us proves that we must ensure that our borders are secure and that is what we are doing."
"The sooner we get it done, the better we can duplicate our enormous success along the Egyptian border, where we were able to halt the illegal infiltration into Israel. That is an achievement that nearly no Western country, and soon no country at all, will be blessed with," he said.
"That doesn't mean," he continued, "that we don't take seriously the human tragedy all around us. Israel was the first to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of the fighting in Syria. But Israel is a small country. We don't have too much depth, neither geographically nor demographically. That is why we must control our borders."
When Israel started to construct its border security fences the, Europeans condemned and accused the tiny Jewish of setting up apartheid state, but now that they are being subjected to a flood of refugees from the war torn Middle East, they are singing a different tune.
Those in this country that have been calling for the sealing of our borders should take a good look at what the Israelis are doing to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and the infiltration of terrorists.
YES, NETANYAHU BUILT THE FENCE
During former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's term, the idea of building a border fence was tossed around, but no one recognized the threat posed by the porous borders • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, managed to halt the wave of infiltration
By Shlomo Cesana
Israel Hayom
September 25, 2015
"Where is the contractor in charge?" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked as he stood at the podium two weeks ago, during an event in the Arava region. When the contractor, who was sitting in the audience, rose to his feet and raised his hand, the prime minister promised to come back in three months' time. "Will you be finished by then?" he asked. At that point, the contractor became quite embarrassed. He nodded his head yes. "It's a deal," Netanyahu continued, signaling to his advisers that this was a deal that could not be broken.
And so, time and again, Netanyahu arrives by helicopter to yet another part of the border fence between Israel and Egypt. It usually involves an hour-long helicopter ride, in oppressive heat and humidity, but Netanyahu keeps coming, just as he did at the beginning of this month when he visited the first part of the border fence between Israel and Jordan.
"Israel is the only Western country that can be reached by foot from Africa. But thanks to the border fence, we are now a state that controls its borders," the prime minister says. "In a country that faces an endless list of threats, the border fence offers a solution to preventing infiltration and terrorism as well as smugglers (drugs, human trafficking) and illegal labor migrants."
There fence along the border with Sinai is currently 227 kilometers (141 miles) long and includes a host of obstacles and monitoring devices. It took two years and 1.5 billion shekels ($380 million) to complete this fence. Once it was completed, in 2012, workers began to quietly build an improved fence along the border with Syria, which has since been completed as well. Furthermore, two weeks ago, construction began on the first part of the fence along the Jordanian border -- a 30-kilometer (19-mile) section stretching from Eilat toward Kibbutz Yotvata at a cost of 280 million shekels ($71 million). Bulldozers kicked up dirt across from the Edom Mountains making it very hard to breathe. The terrain is different from the other borders and requires different engineering solutions due to flooding, the type of soil and the desire to preserve plant and wildlife.
The Middle East is undergoing dramatic changes. The old world order that we knew for the last hundred years has collapsed before our eyes. Strong countries like Syria, Libya and Iraq have disintegrated. The Islamic State group has taken root and resisted the advances of an international coalition. The U.S.'s withdrawal from involvement in the region, coupled with Iran's efforts to fill the void, have increased the danger that Israel and moderate Muslims now face.
During former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's term, tens of thousands of people infiltrated Israel's borders, mostly from five African countries. Some were labor migrants, others refugees fleeing for their lives. The infiltrators settled in Tel Aviv, Eilat and Arad, but no efforts were made to properly absorb them.
During that time, the idea of building a fence had been tossed around, but nothing ever came of it. Olmert opposed building a fence, exclaiming that we "won't fence ourselves in to death." It seems that back then no one recognized the threat. When Netanyahu established his third coalition, he led and monitored the construction of the fence, and the wave of infiltration stopped almost entirely.
Nowadays, as refugees from Syria and Africa are knocking down Europe's gates, the "continent without borders" is considering adopting the Israeli model.
When asked why Israel, a country build by immigrants, is building fences and turning immigrants away, Netanyahu replied: "We can see what is happening today to countries that have lost control over their borders. The combination of cruel terrorism and human tragedy 360 degrees around us proves that we must ensure that our borders are secure and that is what we are doing."
"The sooner we get it done, the better we can duplicate our enormous success along the Egyptian border, where we were able to halt the illegal infiltration into Israel. That is an achievement that nearly no Western country, and soon no country at all, will be blessed with," he said.
"That doesn't mean," he continued, "that we don't take seriously the human tragedy all around us. Israel was the first to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of the fighting in Syria. But Israel is a small country. We don't have too much depth, neither geographically nor demographically. That is why we must control our borders."
Saturday, September 26, 2015
NORTH CAROLINA JUSTICE GONE BERSERK
Two teenagers got busted for sexting naked selfies to themselves, something thousands of stupid teenagers do every day
When Cormega Copening and his girlfriend Brianna Denson were both 16, they sexted naked selfies to each other, something thousands of stupid teenagers do every day. No one else saw the genitalia explicit photos. The now 17-year-old Fayetteville, North Carolina teens were busted earlier this year on felonious porno-related charges.
Cormega, was the quarterback of the Jack Britt High School football team. He faced four charges of sexual exploitation of a minor for sending four naked selfies to Brianna and another charge for receiving one from her.
The Fayetteville Observer reports Cormega took a plea deal of one-year probation which requires that he must stay in school, take a class on making good decisions, complete 30 hours of community service, not use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs, not possess a cellphone and must submit to warrantless searches.
Cormega faced up to 10 years in prison had he been convicted on the felonious charges. And he would have had to register as a sex offender.
Brianna was originally charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. She was listed on the arrest warrant as both perpetrator and victim. She took a plea deal on July 21 and was sentenced to one-year of probation on a reduced misdemeanor charge.
Cumberland County Sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Swain justified the arrests by saying, “We seized his phone and while our investigators went through the phone they saw there were photos of himself and another person on the phone,” He reminded critics of the arrest that North Carolina law makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to send or receive sexually explicit photos. “Simple possession having it on your cell phone is a charge itself. And if you should send it out to another person, that is another charge.”
North Carolina handles anyone as an adult who has committed a crime after turning 16.
Apparently, the cops were conducting an unrelated investigation having to do with Cormega’s cellphone when they seized it. According to the Fayetteville Observer, there is no record of a search warrant being issued for Copening’s phone. I wonder why their lawyers did not try to have the cases thrown out of court on grounds of an illegal search?
The strangest twist in this case is that both were charged with exploitation of a minor when they themselves were minors.
Both teens will have their records cleared if they successfully complete their probation.
I think this is a case of justice gone berserk! Cormega and Brianna did not pass any of the photos to anyone else. They really did no harm to anyone, including themselves. This is 2015, not 1915. I strongly suspect they were sexually involved with each other before they ever sexted those explicit selfies.
Sgt. Swain gave a lame excuse for why these teens were busted and charged with felonies. Cops are given discretion on whether or not to make arrests in certain cases. In this case, they could have let Cormega and Brianna off with a stern warning.
Don’t the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney's Office have anything better to do than to ruin the lives of two stupid kids?
When Cormega Copening and his girlfriend Brianna Denson were both 16, they sexted naked selfies to each other, something thousands of stupid teenagers do every day. No one else saw the genitalia explicit photos. The now 17-year-old Fayetteville, North Carolina teens were busted earlier this year on felonious porno-related charges.
Cormega, was the quarterback of the Jack Britt High School football team. He faced four charges of sexual exploitation of a minor for sending four naked selfies to Brianna and another charge for receiving one from her.
The Fayetteville Observer reports Cormega took a plea deal of one-year probation which requires that he must stay in school, take a class on making good decisions, complete 30 hours of community service, not use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs, not possess a cellphone and must submit to warrantless searches.
Cormega faced up to 10 years in prison had he been convicted on the felonious charges. And he would have had to register as a sex offender.
Brianna was originally charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. She was listed on the arrest warrant as both perpetrator and victim. She took a plea deal on July 21 and was sentenced to one-year of probation on a reduced misdemeanor charge.
Cumberland County Sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Swain justified the arrests by saying, “We seized his phone and while our investigators went through the phone they saw there were photos of himself and another person on the phone,” He reminded critics of the arrest that North Carolina law makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to send or receive sexually explicit photos. “Simple possession having it on your cell phone is a charge itself. And if you should send it out to another person, that is another charge.”
North Carolina handles anyone as an adult who has committed a crime after turning 16.
Apparently, the cops were conducting an unrelated investigation having to do with Cormega’s cellphone when they seized it. According to the Fayetteville Observer, there is no record of a search warrant being issued for Copening’s phone. I wonder why their lawyers did not try to have the cases thrown out of court on grounds of an illegal search?
The strangest twist in this case is that both were charged with exploitation of a minor when they themselves were minors.
Both teens will have their records cleared if they successfully complete their probation.
I think this is a case of justice gone berserk! Cormega and Brianna did not pass any of the photos to anyone else. They really did no harm to anyone, including themselves. This is 2015, not 1915. I strongly suspect they were sexually involved with each other before they ever sexted those explicit selfies.
Sgt. Swain gave a lame excuse for why these teens were busted and charged with felonies. Cops are given discretion on whether or not to make arrests in certain cases. In this case, they could have let Cormega and Brianna off with a stern warning.
Don’t the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney's Office have anything better to do than to ruin the lives of two stupid kids?
POLICE PROGRAM AIMS TO PINPOINT THOSE MOST LIKELY TO COMMIT CRIMES
By John Eligon and Timothy Williams
The New York Times
September 24, 2015
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the request of his probation officer, Tyrone C. Brown came to a community auditorium here in June and sat alongside about 30 other mostly young black men with criminal records — men who were being watched closely by the police, just as he was.
He expected to hear an admonition from law enforcement officials to help end violence in the community. But Mr. Brown, 29, got more than he had bargained for. A police captain presented a slide show featuring mug shots of people they were cracking down on. Up popped a picture of Mr. Brown linking him to a criminal group that had been implicated in a homicide.
“I was disturbed,” said Mr. Brown, who acknowledges having been involved in crime but denied that he had ever been involved in a killing.
That discomfort was just the reaction the authorities were after.
Mr. Brown, whose criminal record includes drug and assault charges, is at the center of an experiment taking place in dozens of police departments across the country, one in which the authorities have turned to complex computer algorithms to try to pinpoint the people most likely to be involved in future violent crimes — as either predator or prey. The goal is to do all they can to prevent the crime from happening.
The strategy, known as predictive policing, combines elements of traditional policing, like increased attention to crime “hot spots” and close monitoring of recent parolees. But it often also uses other data, including information about friendships, social media activity and drug use, to identify “hot people” and aid the authorities in forecasting crime.
The program here has been named the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, or KC NoVA. And the message on that June night to Mr. Brown and the others was simple: The next time they, or anyone in their crews, commit a violent act, the police will come after everyone in the group for whatever offense they can make stick, no matter how petty.
Such was the case for Mario Glenn, a 28-year-old with a criminal history that includes drug trafficking and assault. After he attended a program meeting, called a call-in, last year, he was caught during a police sting to take down a group implicated in several homicides. Mr. Glenn robbed a confidential informer trying to buy a gun from him, the police said. He has been convicted, and prosecutors are now seeking the maximum 30-year prison sentence.
“We have a moral reason to do a better job at addressing violence in this community,” said Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor for Jackson County, which includes Kansas City. “I don’t know that this will work, but we need to try.”
The use of computer models by local law enforcement agencies to forecast crime is part of a larger trend by governments and corporations that are increasingly turning to predictive analytics and data mining in looking at behaviors. Typically financed by the federal government, the strategy is being used by dozens of police departments — including Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville — and district attorneys’ offices in Manhattan and Philadelphia.
At a time when many police departments are under fire for aggressive tactics, particularly in minority neighborhoods, advocates say predictive policing can help improve police-community relations by focusing on the people most likely to become involved in violent crime.
Civil liberties groups take a dim view of the strategy, questioning its legality and efficacy, and asserting that it may actually worsen the rapport between the police and civilians.
Ezekiel Edwards, the director of the Criminal Law Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said predictive policing tended to legitimize the profiling of racial minorities who live in poor, high-crime neighborhoods, and prompted officers to enforce laws selectively.
“Our concern is guilt by association,” Mr. Edwards said. “Because you live in a certain neighborhood or hang out with certain people, we are now going to be suspicious of you and treat you differently, not because you have committed a crime or because we have information that allows us to arrest you, but because our predictive tool shows us you might commit a crime at some point in the future.”
But researchers working with the police to develop the predictive algorithms say that they can come closer than traditional detective work to figuring out who is most apt to break the law. They say criminals commit violent crimes in fairly distinctive patterns and often have similar attributes. Those include previous arrests; unemployment; an unstable home life; friends and relatives who have been killed, are in prison or have gang ties; and problems with drugs or alcohol.
In Chicago, the police have developed a “heat list” of 400 people who are considered far more likely than the average person to be involved in violent crime. Factors in compiling that list included their criminal records, social circles and gang connections. Also a factor was whether they had been victims of an assault or a shooting.
“These are the people with the highest propensity for violence in the city of Chicago,” said Robert J. Tracy, chief of crime control strategies for the Chicago Police Department.
In the year since its program has been fully in place, Kansas City has had a significant decrease in homicides. The city had averaged 114 homicides a year over a four-and-a-half-decade period through 2013. And the number of murders hovered over 100 in the roughly five years before NoVA’s inception. But murders plummeted to 80 last year, a 20 percent drop from 2013. While assaults with guns also decreased last year, overall assaults increased.
Whether those changes were linked to NoVA is difficult to say, because fluctuations in crime are almost always a result of multiple factors. At the same time, a report released recently by the University of Missouri-Kansas City found that while crime decreased drastically early last year as NoVA was fully in place, the drop tapered off. It is too soon to determine if decreased crime will be a long-term trend, the report said.
In other places, the success of the algorithms has been spotty or difficult to assess.
John S. Hollywood, a senior operations researcher at the RAND Corporation, said that in the limited number of studies undertaken to measure the efficacy of predictive policing, the improvement in forecasting crimes had been only 5 or 10 percent better than regular policing methods.
The Memphis police force, a pioneer in predictive policing, has worked with the University of Memphis for about a decade to forecast crime by noting time and location of episodes and information about victims. Officers then flood those areas with marked and undercover police cars, and also increase traffic stops, the department said.
But violent crime has proved stubborn in Memphis, and the city continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the nation, according to F.B.I. data.
In Kansas City, NoVA officials gather about 30 to 40 patrol officers about once a quarter to discuss and examine intelligence gathered on the street — details not necessarily captured in official documents. The information often comes from informal conversations that officers have with people on the street about things like who is arguing and who might have committed a violent crime.
The authorities have identified about 930 people who belong to 57 criminal groups in the city, said Maj. Joe McHale, the project leader for NoVA, who also commands the Police Department’s violent crime division. And there are about 125 people whom the authorities consider central figures in those groups, he said. The Kansas City authorities say they hope that if their zero tolerance for violence message gets through to these influential figures, it will be passed on to others who listen to them.
One of those powerful individuals, according to the police, was Mr. Brown, who said he began selling drugs at 14 because he was raised in poverty by a crack-addicted single mother.
When he was first drawn into the program, said Mr. Brown, who most recently served jail time for robbery, his probation officer told him he had to go to the June meeting, which is known as a call-in.
Call-ins are central to the program. The authorities invite about 120 of the group leaders they have identified (25 to 40 usually show up) to hear from a range of officials, including the local and federal prosecutors, the police chief and the mayor.
During an August call-in, the speakers told the men that this was their last chance. Tammy Dickinson, the United States attorney for the Western District of Missouri, related the story of a man in the program who was given a 15-year prison sentence for being caught with a bullet in his pocket. Another man, she said, got 25 years for having recreational designer drugs known as bath salts and posting a photograph of himself with a gun on Facebook.
A week after the June call-in, a social worker called Mr. Brown into a meeting. He said his heart was thumping when he entered the room and saw several police officers waiting for him.
“We know that you are the head of this and of that,” Mr. Brown recalled the officers telling him. “If we can change you, you can change them.”
People who have gotten in trouble with the law often think they can keep getting away with minor offenses without serious consequences, said Mr. Brown, whose nickname, Bird, slang for a brick of cocaine, came from his drug dealing. But what resonated with him, he said, was the NoVA team saying that harsh penalties will be imposed for even petty slights once warnings have been given.
Mr. Brown has come to see some benefit in the program. NoVA officials have helped him find housing, he said, and pushed him to get a job — he now works as a delivery driver for Back Porch Bar-B-Q. The authorities connected him with a program to help him pay child support — he has four children ranging from 4 months to 7 years. And he works with young people to help keep them out of trouble.
Still, Mr. Brown is hardly in the clear. Domestic assault charges are pending against him after his girlfriend accused him of choking her and hitting her head against a door last year, according to court documents.
Shaking loose from past misdeeds can be challenging, Major McHale said.
“Sometimes you can’t get away from things that you’ve done,” he said, “even though you turned a new leaf.”
The New York Times
September 24, 2015
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the request of his probation officer, Tyrone C. Brown came to a community auditorium here in June and sat alongside about 30 other mostly young black men with criminal records — men who were being watched closely by the police, just as he was.
He expected to hear an admonition from law enforcement officials to help end violence in the community. But Mr. Brown, 29, got more than he had bargained for. A police captain presented a slide show featuring mug shots of people they were cracking down on. Up popped a picture of Mr. Brown linking him to a criminal group that had been implicated in a homicide.
“I was disturbed,” said Mr. Brown, who acknowledges having been involved in crime but denied that he had ever been involved in a killing.
That discomfort was just the reaction the authorities were after.
Mr. Brown, whose criminal record includes drug and assault charges, is at the center of an experiment taking place in dozens of police departments across the country, one in which the authorities have turned to complex computer algorithms to try to pinpoint the people most likely to be involved in future violent crimes — as either predator or prey. The goal is to do all they can to prevent the crime from happening.
The strategy, known as predictive policing, combines elements of traditional policing, like increased attention to crime “hot spots” and close monitoring of recent parolees. But it often also uses other data, including information about friendships, social media activity and drug use, to identify “hot people” and aid the authorities in forecasting crime.
The program here has been named the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, or KC NoVA. And the message on that June night to Mr. Brown and the others was simple: The next time they, or anyone in their crews, commit a violent act, the police will come after everyone in the group for whatever offense they can make stick, no matter how petty.
Such was the case for Mario Glenn, a 28-year-old with a criminal history that includes drug trafficking and assault. After he attended a program meeting, called a call-in, last year, he was caught during a police sting to take down a group implicated in several homicides. Mr. Glenn robbed a confidential informer trying to buy a gun from him, the police said. He has been convicted, and prosecutors are now seeking the maximum 30-year prison sentence.
“We have a moral reason to do a better job at addressing violence in this community,” said Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor for Jackson County, which includes Kansas City. “I don’t know that this will work, but we need to try.”
The use of computer models by local law enforcement agencies to forecast crime is part of a larger trend by governments and corporations that are increasingly turning to predictive analytics and data mining in looking at behaviors. Typically financed by the federal government, the strategy is being used by dozens of police departments — including Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville — and district attorneys’ offices in Manhattan and Philadelphia.
At a time when many police departments are under fire for aggressive tactics, particularly in minority neighborhoods, advocates say predictive policing can help improve police-community relations by focusing on the people most likely to become involved in violent crime.
Civil liberties groups take a dim view of the strategy, questioning its legality and efficacy, and asserting that it may actually worsen the rapport between the police and civilians.
Ezekiel Edwards, the director of the Criminal Law Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said predictive policing tended to legitimize the profiling of racial minorities who live in poor, high-crime neighborhoods, and prompted officers to enforce laws selectively.
“Our concern is guilt by association,” Mr. Edwards said. “Because you live in a certain neighborhood or hang out with certain people, we are now going to be suspicious of you and treat you differently, not because you have committed a crime or because we have information that allows us to arrest you, but because our predictive tool shows us you might commit a crime at some point in the future.”
But researchers working with the police to develop the predictive algorithms say that they can come closer than traditional detective work to figuring out who is most apt to break the law. They say criminals commit violent crimes in fairly distinctive patterns and often have similar attributes. Those include previous arrests; unemployment; an unstable home life; friends and relatives who have been killed, are in prison or have gang ties; and problems with drugs or alcohol.
In Chicago, the police have developed a “heat list” of 400 people who are considered far more likely than the average person to be involved in violent crime. Factors in compiling that list included their criminal records, social circles and gang connections. Also a factor was whether they had been victims of an assault or a shooting.
“These are the people with the highest propensity for violence in the city of Chicago,” said Robert J. Tracy, chief of crime control strategies for the Chicago Police Department.
In the year since its program has been fully in place, Kansas City has had a significant decrease in homicides. The city had averaged 114 homicides a year over a four-and-a-half-decade period through 2013. And the number of murders hovered over 100 in the roughly five years before NoVA’s inception. But murders plummeted to 80 last year, a 20 percent drop from 2013. While assaults with guns also decreased last year, overall assaults increased.
Whether those changes were linked to NoVA is difficult to say, because fluctuations in crime are almost always a result of multiple factors. At the same time, a report released recently by the University of Missouri-Kansas City found that while crime decreased drastically early last year as NoVA was fully in place, the drop tapered off. It is too soon to determine if decreased crime will be a long-term trend, the report said.
In other places, the success of the algorithms has been spotty or difficult to assess.
John S. Hollywood, a senior operations researcher at the RAND Corporation, said that in the limited number of studies undertaken to measure the efficacy of predictive policing, the improvement in forecasting crimes had been only 5 or 10 percent better than regular policing methods.
The Memphis police force, a pioneer in predictive policing, has worked with the University of Memphis for about a decade to forecast crime by noting time and location of episodes and information about victims. Officers then flood those areas with marked and undercover police cars, and also increase traffic stops, the department said.
But violent crime has proved stubborn in Memphis, and the city continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the nation, according to F.B.I. data.
In Kansas City, NoVA officials gather about 30 to 40 patrol officers about once a quarter to discuss and examine intelligence gathered on the street — details not necessarily captured in official documents. The information often comes from informal conversations that officers have with people on the street about things like who is arguing and who might have committed a violent crime.
The authorities have identified about 930 people who belong to 57 criminal groups in the city, said Maj. Joe McHale, the project leader for NoVA, who also commands the Police Department’s violent crime division. And there are about 125 people whom the authorities consider central figures in those groups, he said. The Kansas City authorities say they hope that if their zero tolerance for violence message gets through to these influential figures, it will be passed on to others who listen to them.
One of those powerful individuals, according to the police, was Mr. Brown, who said he began selling drugs at 14 because he was raised in poverty by a crack-addicted single mother.
When he was first drawn into the program, said Mr. Brown, who most recently served jail time for robbery, his probation officer told him he had to go to the June meeting, which is known as a call-in.
Call-ins are central to the program. The authorities invite about 120 of the group leaders they have identified (25 to 40 usually show up) to hear from a range of officials, including the local and federal prosecutors, the police chief and the mayor.
During an August call-in, the speakers told the men that this was their last chance. Tammy Dickinson, the United States attorney for the Western District of Missouri, related the story of a man in the program who was given a 15-year prison sentence for being caught with a bullet in his pocket. Another man, she said, got 25 years for having recreational designer drugs known as bath salts and posting a photograph of himself with a gun on Facebook.
A week after the June call-in, a social worker called Mr. Brown into a meeting. He said his heart was thumping when he entered the room and saw several police officers waiting for him.
“We know that you are the head of this and of that,” Mr. Brown recalled the officers telling him. “If we can change you, you can change them.”
People who have gotten in trouble with the law often think they can keep getting away with minor offenses without serious consequences, said Mr. Brown, whose nickname, Bird, slang for a brick of cocaine, came from his drug dealing. But what resonated with him, he said, was the NoVA team saying that harsh penalties will be imposed for even petty slights once warnings have been given.
Mr. Brown has come to see some benefit in the program. NoVA officials have helped him find housing, he said, and pushed him to get a job — he now works as a delivery driver for Back Porch Bar-B-Q. The authorities connected him with a program to help him pay child support — he has four children ranging from 4 months to 7 years. And he works with young people to help keep them out of trouble.
Still, Mr. Brown is hardly in the clear. Domestic assault charges are pending against him after his girlfriend accused him of choking her and hitting her head against a door last year, according to court documents.
Shaking loose from past misdeeds can be challenging, Major McHale said.
“Sometimes you can’t get away from things that you’ve done,” he said, “even though you turned a new leaf.”
Friday, September 25, 2015
COP HELPS BIKER WITH FROZEN CARBURETOR
The Unconventional Gazette
September 25, 2015
People often complain about the police, but you rarely hear about the positive things they do, such as this incident involving a biker and a frozen carburetor.
Last January on a bitterly cold winter's day, a North Dakota State Trooper on patrol came upon a motorcyclist who was stalled by the roadside. The biker was swathed in heavy protective clothing and wearing a full-face helmet to protect the face from the cold weather.
"What's the matter?" asked the Trooper.
"Carburetor's frozen," was the terse reply.
"Pee on it. That'll thaw it out."
"I can't," said the biker.
"OK, watch me closely and I'll show you." The Trooper unzipped and promptly warmed the carburetor as promised. Moments later the bike started and the rider drove off, waving.
A few days later, the local State Troopers' office received a note of thanks from the father of the motorcyclist.
It began: "On behalf of my daughter Jill..."
September 25, 2015
People often complain about the police, but you rarely hear about the positive things they do, such as this incident involving a biker and a frozen carburetor.
Last January on a bitterly cold winter's day, a North Dakota State Trooper on patrol came upon a motorcyclist who was stalled by the roadside. The biker was swathed in heavy protective clothing and wearing a full-face helmet to protect the face from the cold weather.
"What's the matter?" asked the Trooper.
"Carburetor's frozen," was the terse reply.
"Pee on it. That'll thaw it out."
"I can't," said the biker.
"OK, watch me closely and I'll show you." The Trooper unzipped and promptly warmed the carburetor as promised. Moments later the bike started and the rider drove off, waving.
A few days later, the local State Troopers' office received a note of thanks from the father of the motorcyclist.
It began: "On behalf of my daughter Jill..."
OBAMA ‘SMILES LIKE A SPLIT WATERMELON’
While covering the Pope’s visit to the U.S., Matt Frei, Europe editor for Britain’s Channel 4 News, got the attention of the PC police when he said Obama “smiles like a split watermelon”
When will the Brits ever learn that they lost the American Revolution and that ever since we’ve been making our own rules, and they are far different from Europe’s. For instance, here it is verboten to mention watermelons in any sentence or paragraph in which an African-American is also mentioned because watermelons are considered to be a symbol of racism. There is no such rule in Europe.
Matt Frei is the Europe editor for Britain’s Channel 4 News. When Matt was making his Wednesday evening report on the papal visit to the U.S. he described President Obama as “smiling like a split watermelon” when he met the pope.
Here is what Frei said:
“And rarely have they received a guest who was so universally popular. In fact, as he smiled like a split watermelon, the President may have reflected on the fact that it is his guest who now wears the global mantle of hope and change.”
That got the swift attention of the PC police. Frei was subjected to an uber-barrage of criticism on social media.
Frei responded on Twitter by saying: “I apologize to those upset by my description of President Obama’s smile on tonight’s program. It was intended as an entirely innocent phrase that apparently has a history I simply wasn’t aware of. Honestly, no offense intended.”
Honestly? Matt, come on, don’t lie to us. Your bio on the Channel 4 website states: “Prior to his appointment as Europe Editor for Channel 4 News, Frei was the Washington Correspondent for two years and has reported on the Americas on everything from business and culture to US foreign policy and its view of the world.” He previously anchored the BBC World News America bulletin and was also Washington Correspondent.
So, don’t’ tell us that after spending a number of years in the U.S., you were not aware that watermelons and African-Americans don’t mix in print or on the air.
Apparently no Republicans were offended by Matt’s description of our president.
But here is something that should offend Republicans, Democrats and all Americans. Piers Morgan, a British left-wing TV personality who has been operating in the U.S. for a number of years, apparently never learned that you do not stick your thumb in the eye of a gracious host, which is exactly what he did. Commenting in a Daily Mail article on the Pope’s address to congress, Morgan wrote:
“America doesn’t have to be a country driven by gun-toting, blood-thirsty, planet-destroying bigots.”
I do not have any idea of where Morgan has been hanging out, but that’s not the America I live in. It’s time we send this ungrateful, insulting Brit packing!
Blood-thirsty? I am sure the asshole was referring to the death penalty. Morgan has been an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.
As for Obama’s smile, rather than a split watermelon, to me it’s more like Alfred E. Neuman’s smile on the cover of Mad magazine. No offense intended, Alfred!
When will the Brits ever learn that they lost the American Revolution and that ever since we’ve been making our own rules, and they are far different from Europe’s. For instance, here it is verboten to mention watermelons in any sentence or paragraph in which an African-American is also mentioned because watermelons are considered to be a symbol of racism. There is no such rule in Europe.
Matt Frei is the Europe editor for Britain’s Channel 4 News. When Matt was making his Wednesday evening report on the papal visit to the U.S. he described President Obama as “smiling like a split watermelon” when he met the pope.
Here is what Frei said:
“And rarely have they received a guest who was so universally popular. In fact, as he smiled like a split watermelon, the President may have reflected on the fact that it is his guest who now wears the global mantle of hope and change.”
That got the swift attention of the PC police. Frei was subjected to an uber-barrage of criticism on social media.
Frei responded on Twitter by saying: “I apologize to those upset by my description of President Obama’s smile on tonight’s program. It was intended as an entirely innocent phrase that apparently has a history I simply wasn’t aware of. Honestly, no offense intended.”
Honestly? Matt, come on, don’t lie to us. Your bio on the Channel 4 website states: “Prior to his appointment as Europe Editor for Channel 4 News, Frei was the Washington Correspondent for two years and has reported on the Americas on everything from business and culture to US foreign policy and its view of the world.” He previously anchored the BBC World News America bulletin and was also Washington Correspondent.
So, don’t’ tell us that after spending a number of years in the U.S., you were not aware that watermelons and African-Americans don’t mix in print or on the air.
Apparently no Republicans were offended by Matt’s description of our president.
But here is something that should offend Republicans, Democrats and all Americans. Piers Morgan, a British left-wing TV personality who has been operating in the U.S. for a number of years, apparently never learned that you do not stick your thumb in the eye of a gracious host, which is exactly what he did. Commenting in a Daily Mail article on the Pope’s address to congress, Morgan wrote:
“America doesn’t have to be a country driven by gun-toting, blood-thirsty, planet-destroying bigots.”
I do not have any idea of where Morgan has been hanging out, but that’s not the America I live in. It’s time we send this ungrateful, insulting Brit packing!
Blood-thirsty? I am sure the asshole was referring to the death penalty. Morgan has been an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.
As for Obama’s smile, rather than a split watermelon, to me it’s more like Alfred E. Neuman’s smile on the cover of Mad magazine. No offense intended, Alfred!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
MILE HUCKABEE INFURIATED OVER PAPEL VISIT GUEST LIST
Obama reportedly invited some Catholic Church tenets-defying guests to the Pope’s welcoming ceremony
Obama’s guest list for the Pope’s welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House reportedly included a pro-abortion nun, a gay marriage Episcopal bishop, a transgender woman and a Catholic schoolteacher fired for marrying her girlfriend.
Mike Huckabee says that guest list “is as classy as hosting an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an open bar. “
But Huckabee got it wrong when he wrote: “Last month, Kentucky jailed a Christian county clerk for simply following the law and her religious convictions.” While Kim Davis followed her religious convictions, she did not follow the law.
And while he supports gay marriage, I do not think you can blame Obama for the laws which give gay couples the right to marry. His appointments of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan did not change the conservative-liberal makeup of SCOTUS.
Anyway, what’s the big deal? Obama’s LGBT invitees were just four out of 11,000 and they were not introduced to the Pope. But here is Mike’s article:
PRESIDENT OBAMA INSULTS MORE THAN JUST THE POPE
By Mike Huckabee | September 22, 2015
Even though Osama Bin Laden murdered thousands of Americans, the Obama Administration respected his dead body under Muslim tradition. Out of diplomatic respect, President Obama has bowed to a Saudi King and a Japanese Emperor. He’s even worn turbans, ethnic robes, and Japanese kimonos.
Yet Obama shows total disrespect to millions of Americans by transforming Pope Francis' White House visit into a politicized cattle call for gay and pro-abortion activists. Why does Obama support other cultures and countries yet scorns millions of believers in Christ at home? Why does Obama go to extremes to accommodate Muslim terrorists but shows nothing but disdain for Christians?
The Catholic Church is unapologetically pro-life. As the Pope has said, “Human life is always sacred...not as a matter of faith, but of reason and science!” The Catholic Church is also pro-marriage. When the issue emerged in his native Argentina, Pope Francis blasted same-sex marriage as a "destructive pretension against the plan of God."
Why then does the Obama White House invite crude critics of the Catholic Church and its teachings to welcome the Pope to America for the first time?
It's all petty, partisan politics. Exploiting the Pope for cheap political points at the expense of millions of Americans and Catholics around the world is a shameless new low for this Administration. This classless stunt is disrespectful and disgraceful.
A White House invitation for this event would be a tremendous honor for countless Americans. From Seattle to Saratoga, Birmingham to Boston, long lines of Americans would form to greet the leader of the Catholic Church.
But instead of extending this special honor to an American Catholic who would cherish it forever, Obama chose to advance his agenda, appease his base, and deliver a crass political message, even if it meant indecency.
Welcoming a pro-life, pro-marriage leader at the White House with a crowd of abortion and gay rights activists is as classy as hosting an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an open bar. President Obama should be ashamed of himself.
But it runs much deeper. As the head of the Catholic League said, this White House is "the least friendly administration to religion in history.” In fact, this administration supports the criminalization of Christianity in America. Last month, Kentucky jailed a Christian county clerk for simply following the law and her religious convictions. Our tax dollars still bankroll Planned Parenthood, which harvests human organs and performs 320,000 abortions per year. The assault against life, traditional marriage, and Christianity is a daily battle.
I welcome the Pope to America and offer my apologies to him that our President will not offer him the warm, respectful welcome he deserves.
I am not a Catholic, but as a Christian and as an American, I believe the Pope deserves much better. And so do the American people.
Obama’s guest list for the Pope’s welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House reportedly included a pro-abortion nun, a gay marriage Episcopal bishop, a transgender woman and a Catholic schoolteacher fired for marrying her girlfriend.
Mike Huckabee says that guest list “is as classy as hosting an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an open bar. “
But Huckabee got it wrong when he wrote: “Last month, Kentucky jailed a Christian county clerk for simply following the law and her religious convictions.” While Kim Davis followed her religious convictions, she did not follow the law.
And while he supports gay marriage, I do not think you can blame Obama for the laws which give gay couples the right to marry. His appointments of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan did not change the conservative-liberal makeup of SCOTUS.
Anyway, what’s the big deal? Obama’s LGBT invitees were just four out of 11,000 and they were not introduced to the Pope. But here is Mike’s article:
PRESIDENT OBAMA INSULTS MORE THAN JUST THE POPE
By Mike Huckabee | September 22, 2015
Even though Osama Bin Laden murdered thousands of Americans, the Obama Administration respected his dead body under Muslim tradition. Out of diplomatic respect, President Obama has bowed to a Saudi King and a Japanese Emperor. He’s even worn turbans, ethnic robes, and Japanese kimonos.
Yet Obama shows total disrespect to millions of Americans by transforming Pope Francis' White House visit into a politicized cattle call for gay and pro-abortion activists. Why does Obama support other cultures and countries yet scorns millions of believers in Christ at home? Why does Obama go to extremes to accommodate Muslim terrorists but shows nothing but disdain for Christians?
The Catholic Church is unapologetically pro-life. As the Pope has said, “Human life is always sacred...not as a matter of faith, but of reason and science!” The Catholic Church is also pro-marriage. When the issue emerged in his native Argentina, Pope Francis blasted same-sex marriage as a "destructive pretension against the plan of God."
Why then does the Obama White House invite crude critics of the Catholic Church and its teachings to welcome the Pope to America for the first time?
It's all petty, partisan politics. Exploiting the Pope for cheap political points at the expense of millions of Americans and Catholics around the world is a shameless new low for this Administration. This classless stunt is disrespectful and disgraceful.
A White House invitation for this event would be a tremendous honor for countless Americans. From Seattle to Saratoga, Birmingham to Boston, long lines of Americans would form to greet the leader of the Catholic Church.
But instead of extending this special honor to an American Catholic who would cherish it forever, Obama chose to advance his agenda, appease his base, and deliver a crass political message, even if it meant indecency.
Welcoming a pro-life, pro-marriage leader at the White House with a crowd of abortion and gay rights activists is as classy as hosting an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an open bar. President Obama should be ashamed of himself.
But it runs much deeper. As the head of the Catholic League said, this White House is "the least friendly administration to religion in history.” In fact, this administration supports the criminalization of Christianity in America. Last month, Kentucky jailed a Christian county clerk for simply following the law and her religious convictions. Our tax dollars still bankroll Planned Parenthood, which harvests human organs and performs 320,000 abortions per year. The assault against life, traditional marriage, and Christianity is a daily battle.
I welcome the Pope to America and offer my apologies to him that our President will not offer him the warm, respectful welcome he deserves.
I am not a Catholic, but as a Christian and as an American, I believe the Pope deserves much better. And so do the American people.
LAPD CHIEF FAULTS SECOND OFFICER IN ‘HORRIFIC’ ARREST CAUGHT ON TAPE
By Kate Mather
Los Angeles Times
September 22, 2015
In October, a Los Angeles police officer was caught on video kicking and hitting a man as he lay face-down on a South L.A. sidewalk.
Officer Richard Garcia's actions immediately drew concerns from police officials — one called the footage "horrific" — and prompted prosecutors to take the rare step of charging the officer with assault.
But a report made public Tuesday shows LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has also faulted the actions of other officers involved in Clinton Alford's arrest, including a second officer who the chief said used unreasonable force when he kicked Alford and stood on his feet.
The civilian commission that oversees the LAPD sided with Beck on Tuesday and found that Garcia and the second officer violated the department's force policies during the Oct. 16 arrest. Beck said he had viewed the video of the incident and concluded "that the force used was not reasonable, given Alford's limited and unapparent resistance," according to the report.
The names of the four officers who arrested Alford were redacted from the document, which was made public as a result of a request by The Times. Garcia, 35, was publicly identified in April when the district attorney's office charged him with assault under the color of authority. He has pleaded not guilty.
An LAPD spokesman declined to comment on the Police Commission's decision, saying it may trigger disciplinary proceedings that are kept private under state law.
Caree Harper, Alford's attorney, said actions should have been taken against the officers sooner, given what was seen on the video. She said her client wants the officers fired.
"What takes the chief almost a year to come up with a conclusion that could have been made instantaneously is beyond me," she said.
Robert Rico, who is representing Garcia in his criminal case, said he wasn't surprised by the Police Commission's ruling. He said he believed the board lost its credibility this year after its controversial decision to fault a police officer who fatally shot Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man, during a struggle over the officer's gun.
"I do not give that Police Commission any credence," Rico said. "In order for them to have come to that decision, they had to have ignored all the facts and all the other officer statements that said Mr. Alford was continuing to resist."
Beck's report outlines a narrative from the officers, who said Alford resisted their efforts to detain him and struggled even after he was handcuffed. Sources who saw the video have told The Times that Alford was not resisting the officers.
One source said Tuesday that the officers' comments were being further investigated as a result of the discrepancy. The recording, which was captured by a security camera on a nearby building, has not been made public.
It is now up to Beck to decide whether to discipline the officers, who could receive more training, face suspensions or lose their jobs. None have returned to work since the arrest, an LAPD spokesman said Tuesday.
Alford, now 23, previously told The Times that he was riding his bicycle along Avalon Boulevard near 55th Street when a car pulled up and a man yelled at him to stop — but did not identify himself as a police officer. Someone grabbed the back of the bike, Alford said, so he jumped off and ran.
Beck said in his report that the officers approached Alford at the request of a detective who was looking for potential robbery suspects in the neighborhoods covered by LAPD's Newton Division. The report said Alford matched the description of the suspect but did not include that description.
After a short chase, two police officers caught up to Alford. One swung a baton and missed, the report said, and Alford went to the ground.
Two of the officers grabbed Alford and pressed against him to help handcuff him, according to Beck's report, but those officers later got up and walked away. A third officer kicked Alford's legs, then stood on his feet to "prevent the suspect's escape," the report said.
The fourth officer, Garcia, kicked Alford in the shoulder, then punched him in the head "in an effort to cause Alford discomfort," according to the report. He then elbowed Alford in the head and later slapped his forehead "to get his attention."
Garcia told investigators he thought Alford — who was by then handcuffed — was trying to reach into his shorts, possibly for a weapon. The officer kneed him in the side and back, the report said.
Later, Alford was carried to the patrol car. Beck raised concerns with how the officers moved him, writing in the report that police "must always remain cognizant of the potential for injury to the suspect and the perception of the public."
There was also an allegation that one of the officers spat on or toward Alford while he was on the ground, the report said. Beck said that allegation, "as well as the actions of any of the other officers" would be addressed in one of at least two personnel complaints initiated in response to the incident.
The second personnel complaint involves a sergeant who responded to the scene and let two of the officers watch the security camera footage of the incident. One of them recorded the video on his cellphone.
Los Angeles Times
September 22, 2015
In October, a Los Angeles police officer was caught on video kicking and hitting a man as he lay face-down on a South L.A. sidewalk.
Officer Richard Garcia's actions immediately drew concerns from police officials — one called the footage "horrific" — and prompted prosecutors to take the rare step of charging the officer with assault.
But a report made public Tuesday shows LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has also faulted the actions of other officers involved in Clinton Alford's arrest, including a second officer who the chief said used unreasonable force when he kicked Alford and stood on his feet.
The civilian commission that oversees the LAPD sided with Beck on Tuesday and found that Garcia and the second officer violated the department's force policies during the Oct. 16 arrest. Beck said he had viewed the video of the incident and concluded "that the force used was not reasonable, given Alford's limited and unapparent resistance," according to the report.
The names of the four officers who arrested Alford were redacted from the document, which was made public as a result of a request by The Times. Garcia, 35, was publicly identified in April when the district attorney's office charged him with assault under the color of authority. He has pleaded not guilty.
An LAPD spokesman declined to comment on the Police Commission's decision, saying it may trigger disciplinary proceedings that are kept private under state law.
Caree Harper, Alford's attorney, said actions should have been taken against the officers sooner, given what was seen on the video. She said her client wants the officers fired.
"What takes the chief almost a year to come up with a conclusion that could have been made instantaneously is beyond me," she said.
Robert Rico, who is representing Garcia in his criminal case, said he wasn't surprised by the Police Commission's ruling. He said he believed the board lost its credibility this year after its controversial decision to fault a police officer who fatally shot Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man, during a struggle over the officer's gun.
"I do not give that Police Commission any credence," Rico said. "In order for them to have come to that decision, they had to have ignored all the facts and all the other officer statements that said Mr. Alford was continuing to resist."
Beck's report outlines a narrative from the officers, who said Alford resisted their efforts to detain him and struggled even after he was handcuffed. Sources who saw the video have told The Times that Alford was not resisting the officers.
One source said Tuesday that the officers' comments were being further investigated as a result of the discrepancy. The recording, which was captured by a security camera on a nearby building, has not been made public.
It is now up to Beck to decide whether to discipline the officers, who could receive more training, face suspensions or lose their jobs. None have returned to work since the arrest, an LAPD spokesman said Tuesday.
Alford, now 23, previously told The Times that he was riding his bicycle along Avalon Boulevard near 55th Street when a car pulled up and a man yelled at him to stop — but did not identify himself as a police officer. Someone grabbed the back of the bike, Alford said, so he jumped off and ran.
Beck said in his report that the officers approached Alford at the request of a detective who was looking for potential robbery suspects in the neighborhoods covered by LAPD's Newton Division. The report said Alford matched the description of the suspect but did not include that description.
After a short chase, two police officers caught up to Alford. One swung a baton and missed, the report said, and Alford went to the ground.
Two of the officers grabbed Alford and pressed against him to help handcuff him, according to Beck's report, but those officers later got up and walked away. A third officer kicked Alford's legs, then stood on his feet to "prevent the suspect's escape," the report said.
The fourth officer, Garcia, kicked Alford in the shoulder, then punched him in the head "in an effort to cause Alford discomfort," according to the report. He then elbowed Alford in the head and later slapped his forehead "to get his attention."
Garcia told investigators he thought Alford — who was by then handcuffed — was trying to reach into his shorts, possibly for a weapon. The officer kneed him in the side and back, the report said.
Later, Alford was carried to the patrol car. Beck raised concerns with how the officers moved him, writing in the report that police "must always remain cognizant of the potential for injury to the suspect and the perception of the public."
There was also an allegation that one of the officers spat on or toward Alford while he was on the ground, the report said. Beck said that allegation, "as well as the actions of any of the other officers" would be addressed in one of at least two personnel complaints initiated in response to the incident.
The second personnel complaint involves a sergeant who responded to the scene and let two of the officers watch the security camera footage of the incident. One of them recorded the video on his cellphone.
THE THREE KICK RULE
The Unconventional Gazette
September 23, 2015
A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural northern Minnesota . He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field.
As the lawyer climbed over the fence to claim his bird, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."
The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here."
The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial attorneys in New England and, if you don't let me retrieve that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes here in northern Minnesota . We settle small disagreements like this with the 'Three Kick Rule.'"
The lawyer asked, "What is the 'Three Kick Rule'?"
The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up."
The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and, being the person he was, decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees!
His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.
The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and remaining strength and very slowly managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah, I give up. You win. You can have the duck."
September 23, 2015
A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural northern Minnesota . He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field.
As the lawyer climbed over the fence to claim his bird, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."
The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here."
The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial attorneys in New England and, if you don't let me retrieve that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes here in northern Minnesota . We settle small disagreements like this with the 'Three Kick Rule.'"
The lawyer asked, "What is the 'Three Kick Rule'?"
The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up."
The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and, being the person he was, decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees!
His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.
The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and remaining strength and very slowly managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah, I give up. You win. You can have the duck."
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
JUSTICE OR ELSE
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan will hold a Justice or Else rally at the nation’s capital on October 10, the 20th anniversary of his Million Man March
Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam’s hatemongering leader, will hold a rally at the nation’s capital on October 10, the 20th anniversary of his Million Man March. Recent and past police killings of blacks are a key inspiration for the march. Farrakhan has named the rally ‘Justice or Else’. An organizing rally was held Saturday outside Mosque 11 in Boston.
It should be noted that the organizing rally was well attended by members of Black Lives Matter.
According to the Bay State Banner, “Justice or Else organizers decry police brutality and killings of unarmed blacks, disproportionate levels of minorities in jail, the treatment of Hispanic and Latino immigrants in America, an education system that does not sufficiently serve minority youth, injustices against Native Americans, and poverty and unemployment.”
Mass imprisonment, school-to-prison, lost history, police brutality and economic action are among the subjects which will be covered during the rally. Justice or else will call for government to create widespread reforms or face the ‘or else’ of economic and political pressure.
Here is the Banner’s report on three of those subjects:
Mass imprisonment
Black men represent a disproportionally high segment of the prison population, while increasingly high percentages of black women are entering the criminal justice system.
“If you are not inspired and motivated to pursue change, it [mass incarceration] is going to destroy us, ultimately wiping us out. What’s happening in the United States of America’s penal system is inhumane,” said Reverend J. George M. Walters-Sleyon, one of the rally speakers.
Walters-Sleyon said these mass incarcerations break down and impoverish communities.
“Black families are in jeopardy right now. Mothers are being taken away from their homes. Fathers are being taken away from their homes,” said Lanise Frazier of Black Lives Matter. Frazier is a case manager for black and Latino youth involved with the criminal justice system.
“Today black incarceration is defining black lives,” she said.
Incarceration imposes a lasting quality of life burden as criminal records follow the released, said Walters-Sleyon. These records prevent them from opportunities such as securing loans for business or home ownership and thus from economic, political and social mobility, he said
“These people are a development of an economic underclass in America. … They are locked in a marginalized, impoverished condition.”
School-to-prison
The Justice or Else movement protests the “school-to-prison pipeline” — their term for practices in the public school system that put minority children on the path to incarceration. Across the nation, black students are suspended and expelled from public schools at a much higher rate compared to their peers.
“When they’re expelled frompublic schools where do they go? Into the criminal justice system,” said Walters-Sleyon.
An entire generation is at risk, he said.
Police brutality
Recent and past police killings of blacks are a key inspiration for the march.
“We’re going to tell the government that we love our children the same way white folks love their children, and we will not allow any racist confederate crack-head police officer to control and harass and gun down an innocent black boy that hasn’t had time to reach his potential,” said [NOI student minister] Nuri Muhammad.
Justice or Else, like Al Sharpton’s “No justice, No Peace” slogan, is a provocative term, and while the rally organizers claim the ‘or else’ refers to economic and political pressure, it is an open invitation for those blacks so inclined, to resort to violence.
Farrakhan is one of America’s most prominent hatemongers and has been referred to as the "Black Hitler". He is well known for spewing out a steady stream of hatred against whites and particularly against Jews. While his Million Man March created a shitload of publicity, it accomplished little if anything. I predict the same for Justice or Else. Blacks failed to generate any economic and political pressure 20 years ago and they won’t do it now.
However, one thing Farrakhan’s rally will accomplish is to further divide us.
Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam’s hatemongering leader, will hold a rally at the nation’s capital on October 10, the 20th anniversary of his Million Man March. Recent and past police killings of blacks are a key inspiration for the march. Farrakhan has named the rally ‘Justice or Else’. An organizing rally was held Saturday outside Mosque 11 in Boston.
It should be noted that the organizing rally was well attended by members of Black Lives Matter.
According to the Bay State Banner, “Justice or Else organizers decry police brutality and killings of unarmed blacks, disproportionate levels of minorities in jail, the treatment of Hispanic and Latino immigrants in America, an education system that does not sufficiently serve minority youth, injustices against Native Americans, and poverty and unemployment.”
Mass imprisonment, school-to-prison, lost history, police brutality and economic action are among the subjects which will be covered during the rally. Justice or else will call for government to create widespread reforms or face the ‘or else’ of economic and political pressure.
Here is the Banner’s report on three of those subjects:
Mass imprisonment
Black men represent a disproportionally high segment of the prison population, while increasingly high percentages of black women are entering the criminal justice system.
“If you are not inspired and motivated to pursue change, it [mass incarceration] is going to destroy us, ultimately wiping us out. What’s happening in the United States of America’s penal system is inhumane,” said Reverend J. George M. Walters-Sleyon, one of the rally speakers.
Walters-Sleyon said these mass incarcerations break down and impoverish communities.
“Black families are in jeopardy right now. Mothers are being taken away from their homes. Fathers are being taken away from their homes,” said Lanise Frazier of Black Lives Matter. Frazier is a case manager for black and Latino youth involved with the criminal justice system.
“Today black incarceration is defining black lives,” she said.
Incarceration imposes a lasting quality of life burden as criminal records follow the released, said Walters-Sleyon. These records prevent them from opportunities such as securing loans for business or home ownership and thus from economic, political and social mobility, he said
“These people are a development of an economic underclass in America. … They are locked in a marginalized, impoverished condition.”
School-to-prison
The Justice or Else movement protests the “school-to-prison pipeline” — their term for practices in the public school system that put minority children on the path to incarceration. Across the nation, black students are suspended and expelled from public schools at a much higher rate compared to their peers.
“When they’re expelled frompublic schools where do they go? Into the criminal justice system,” said Walters-Sleyon.
An entire generation is at risk, he said.
Police brutality
Recent and past police killings of blacks are a key inspiration for the march.
“We’re going to tell the government that we love our children the same way white folks love their children, and we will not allow any racist confederate crack-head police officer to control and harass and gun down an innocent black boy that hasn’t had time to reach his potential,” said [NOI student minister] Nuri Muhammad.
Justice or Else, like Al Sharpton’s “No justice, No Peace” slogan, is a provocative term, and while the rally organizers claim the ‘or else’ refers to economic and political pressure, it is an open invitation for those blacks so inclined, to resort to violence.
Farrakhan is one of America’s most prominent hatemongers and has been referred to as the "Black Hitler". He is well known for spewing out a steady stream of hatred against whites and particularly against Jews. While his Million Man March created a shitload of publicity, it accomplished little if anything. I predict the same for Justice or Else. Blacks failed to generate any economic and political pressure 20 years ago and they won’t do it now.
However, one thing Farrakhan’s rally will accomplish is to further divide us.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
CANDIDATE FOR WORST WOMAN DRIVER OF THE YEAR
Spooked by a spider, Angela Kipp of Syracuse, Indiana leaped from her moving Dodge Avenger, leaving her 9-year old son in the back seat
On Friday afternoon, Angela Kipp, 35, was backing out of her Syracuse, Indiana driveway when she spotted a spider on her shoulder. The itsy bitsy spider so spooked her that she bailed out of the moving Dodge Avenger. Besides leaving a moving vehicle, there was another slight problem. Her 9-year-old son was in the back seat.
God bless Angela’s 9-year-old boy. The kid climbed over the back of the front seat in an attempt to apply the brake. Apparently, the boy had not yet taken a driver education course, because he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. By putting the pedal to the metal, he crashed into a school bus that happened to be driving by. Fortunately, there were no students aboard the bus. The Avenger was totaled.
When deputies from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the scene, they found the boy lying beside the wreckage of his mother’s car. He was transported to a hospital with minor head injuries.
Now tell me that Angela is not a candidate for Worst Woman Driver of the Year.
On Friday afternoon, Angela Kipp, 35, was backing out of her Syracuse, Indiana driveway when she spotted a spider on her shoulder. The itsy bitsy spider so spooked her that she bailed out of the moving Dodge Avenger. Besides leaving a moving vehicle, there was another slight problem. Her 9-year-old son was in the back seat.
God bless Angela’s 9-year-old boy. The kid climbed over the back of the front seat in an attempt to apply the brake. Apparently, the boy had not yet taken a driver education course, because he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. By putting the pedal to the metal, he crashed into a school bus that happened to be driving by. Fortunately, there were no students aboard the bus. The Avenger was totaled.
When deputies from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the scene, they found the boy lying beside the wreckage of his mother’s car. He was transported to a hospital with minor head injuries.
Now tell me that Angela is not a candidate for Worst Woman Driver of the Year.
MAJORITY OF POT OFFENDERS STILL BEING JAILED, CHARGED DESPITE LENIENCY PROGRAM
By Meagan Flynn
Houston Press
September 21, 2015
In October 2014, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson launched the First Chance Intervention Program to give first-time marijuana offenders a break. Instead of spending time in jail and picking up a drug charge, they could do community service or take an eight-hour class. At the time, Anderson said the new initiative was intended to help people avoid losing employment or housing because of a simple class B misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
But of the 1,959 people who were offered the program since its start, 80 percent of them were offered First Chance after they had already been charged and booked into the jail, which in turn negates some of the central goals of the program: avoiding a criminal charge and jail time. And even though the charge would be dismissed if the person accepted the program, it still stays on his or her record for at least one year.
“Law enforcement is denying it to them—they’re arresting them and charging them,” said Jason Miller, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' Houston Chapter, which recently uncovered this problem. “Then when it gets to the DA, the DA says, ‘Well, this person is eligible. We’re going to offer it to them in court.’”
Jeff McShan, a spokesman for Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said there are two reasons this is happening. The first is that only the Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff’s Office were participating in the program pre-charge; for all other Harris County agencies, the program called for offering it in court instead. As of September 14, five other agencies have signed on to offer the program the way it was intended, and come October, McShan promised many more will be participating.
But still, even just within HPD and HSCO, first-time marijuana offenders were only being offered the program before the charge 60 percent of the time. This happens, McShan said, because individual arresting officers were just choosing not to participate. “They were either not comfortable with the program at first or didn’t know about it for some reason,” McShan said.
McShan could not provide specific reasons for why officers might deny an eligible person the diversion program. According to HSCO policy guidelines, an onsite supervisor can choose to deny the program to eligible offenders "when deemed appropriate." Or, in other words, when an officer doesn't want to. "It basically gives full discretion to police to go ahead and charge someone," Miller said, "even if the point of the program is to not charge them."
But to address the education problem, at least, McShan said they put together a training video that will be played during officers’ roll calls. They’re expecting better officer awareness to solve the post-charge problem. At some point, McShan said the DA’s Office is considering expanding the program for low-level, first-time shoplifters. They'd also like to see officers using portable fingerprinting machines at the site of the arrest so that they don’t even need to bring the person to jail at all, as long as they agree to the program. "Maybe it wakes you up, maybe it doesn’t," he said. "But hopefully we can get it off people's records."
Despite the large amount of First Chance Intervention participants who picked up the charge, the DA's Office was still pleased with the 81 percent success rate among those who completed the program, McShan said. That success rate, however, doesn't account for any people who lost housing or jobs within the year that the charge stayed on their record. In reality, only 351 people avoided charges and jail time.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tough shit! Fuck ’en! If they want to avoid jail time, all they have to do is obey the law. The possession of marijuana is against the law! What part of that do those who decry the jailing of pot users not understand? So, if they do not smoke pot, they won’t have to worry about being jailed. Now, it can’t get any simpler than that.
Houston Press
September 21, 2015
In October 2014, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson launched the First Chance Intervention Program to give first-time marijuana offenders a break. Instead of spending time in jail and picking up a drug charge, they could do community service or take an eight-hour class. At the time, Anderson said the new initiative was intended to help people avoid losing employment or housing because of a simple class B misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
But of the 1,959 people who were offered the program since its start, 80 percent of them were offered First Chance after they had already been charged and booked into the jail, which in turn negates some of the central goals of the program: avoiding a criminal charge and jail time. And even though the charge would be dismissed if the person accepted the program, it still stays on his or her record for at least one year.
“Law enforcement is denying it to them—they’re arresting them and charging them,” said Jason Miller, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' Houston Chapter, which recently uncovered this problem. “Then when it gets to the DA, the DA says, ‘Well, this person is eligible. We’re going to offer it to them in court.’”
Jeff McShan, a spokesman for Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said there are two reasons this is happening. The first is that only the Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff’s Office were participating in the program pre-charge; for all other Harris County agencies, the program called for offering it in court instead. As of September 14, five other agencies have signed on to offer the program the way it was intended, and come October, McShan promised many more will be participating.
But still, even just within HPD and HSCO, first-time marijuana offenders were only being offered the program before the charge 60 percent of the time. This happens, McShan said, because individual arresting officers were just choosing not to participate. “They were either not comfortable with the program at first or didn’t know about it for some reason,” McShan said.
McShan could not provide specific reasons for why officers might deny an eligible person the diversion program. According to HSCO policy guidelines, an onsite supervisor can choose to deny the program to eligible offenders "when deemed appropriate." Or, in other words, when an officer doesn't want to. "It basically gives full discretion to police to go ahead and charge someone," Miller said, "even if the point of the program is to not charge them."
But to address the education problem, at least, McShan said they put together a training video that will be played during officers’ roll calls. They’re expecting better officer awareness to solve the post-charge problem. At some point, McShan said the DA’s Office is considering expanding the program for low-level, first-time shoplifters. They'd also like to see officers using portable fingerprinting machines at the site of the arrest so that they don’t even need to bring the person to jail at all, as long as they agree to the program. "Maybe it wakes you up, maybe it doesn’t," he said. "But hopefully we can get it off people's records."
Despite the large amount of First Chance Intervention participants who picked up the charge, the DA's Office was still pleased with the 81 percent success rate among those who completed the program, McShan said. That success rate, however, doesn't account for any people who lost housing or jobs within the year that the charge stayed on their record. In reality, only 351 people avoided charges and jail time.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tough shit! Fuck ’en! If they want to avoid jail time, all they have to do is obey the law. The possession of marijuana is against the law! What part of that do those who decry the jailing of pot users not understand? So, if they do not smoke pot, they won’t have to worry about being jailed. Now, it can’t get any simpler than that.
Monday, September 21, 2015
FALLEN HERO’S REPUTATION NOW FALLING
Court records reveal that Deputy Darren Goforth had a mistress of 15 months in his patrol car when he was assassinated
Court records that have been leaked to the Houston Chronicle and ABC 13 reveal that when Deputy Darren Goforth was assassinated on August 28, his mistress of 15 months was in his patrol car. In addition, several witnesses to the murder reported seeing a woman crying over the fallen deputy’s body.
The unnamed woman is one of the main witnesses to the assassination. She was given a polygraph examination.
Goforth was the married father of two. Before the court records were leaked, his wife Kathleen had described her husband as a “good” and “fiercely loyal” man.
Family friend Robert Partin told ABC 13: "I'm shocked by the question and by the allegation. As his good friend, I adamantly believe that's a lie. There's nothing farther from the truth. I will do everything in my power to keep his image from being tainted."
Since the witness in the patrol car was never mentioned by the Sheriff’s Department, one can only surmise that they tried to cover up the embarrassing relationship. If Goforth did have a mistress, that does not make him a bad man, but one would have to question his loyalty.
Let me add that it is not unusual for married cops to have girlfriends on the side. Women are attracted to uniforms and they know how to get a rise out of a cop’s dick. I don’t know if they still call them that, but some years ago a cop’s girlfriend was referred to as his “squeeze”. The only thing unusual here is that Goforth had his squeeze with him in his patrol car and I’m sure she was not taking part in an official ride-along program.
Mistress or not, Deputy Goforth is no less a hero!
Court records that have been leaked to the Houston Chronicle and ABC 13 reveal that when Deputy Darren Goforth was assassinated on August 28, his mistress of 15 months was in his patrol car. In addition, several witnesses to the murder reported seeing a woman crying over the fallen deputy’s body.
The unnamed woman is one of the main witnesses to the assassination. She was given a polygraph examination.
Goforth was the married father of two. Before the court records were leaked, his wife Kathleen had described her husband as a “good” and “fiercely loyal” man.
Family friend Robert Partin told ABC 13: "I'm shocked by the question and by the allegation. As his good friend, I adamantly believe that's a lie. There's nothing farther from the truth. I will do everything in my power to keep his image from being tainted."
Since the witness in the patrol car was never mentioned by the Sheriff’s Department, one can only surmise that they tried to cover up the embarrassing relationship. If Goforth did have a mistress, that does not make him a bad man, but one would have to question his loyalty.
Let me add that it is not unusual for married cops to have girlfriends on the side. Women are attracted to uniforms and they know how to get a rise out of a cop’s dick. I don’t know if they still call them that, but some years ago a cop’s girlfriend was referred to as his “squeeze”. The only thing unusual here is that Goforth had his squeeze with him in his patrol car and I’m sure she was not taking part in an official ride-along program.
Mistress or not, Deputy Goforth is no less a hero!
EL CHAPO’S EMBARRASSING ESCAPE CLEANUP
The former chief of Mexico’s federal prisons and 12 other prison officials have reportedly been arrested because of El Chapo’s escape
It was bound to happen. Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s escape from Altiplano Prison No. 1 last July was a humongous embarrassment to the Mexican government. Heads were bound to roll, and they have.
Immediately after El Chapo’s escape, federal prisons chief Celina Oseguera Parra was fired. Then seven officials were taken into custody, including two from the federal police and two from the National Security Agency. Four of the seven were later released and the remaining three were charged with failing to activate the “Code Red”, delaying notification of the escape, and not following protocols.
Now the hammer has fallen on some high ranking officials. Although the Attorney General’s office is being secretive, sources from within that office have told Reforma that there have been 13 arrests made in connection withEl Chapo’s escape, including the arrest of Celina Oseguera Parra. Also reportedly arrested were:
Valentin Cardenas Lerma, a former prison director of Altiplano Prison No. 1.
Leonor García García, former legal director of the Altiplano No. 1.
Custodial chief Roberto Cruz Bernal.
Chief of security Miguel Ángel Flores Mirafuentes.
Herminio González Albarrán, in charge of monitoring.
Reyes Mora Carrillo, one of the top 3 federal police working at the prison.
And prison workers Jaime Galindo Hernández, Oswaldo Gastón Veytia Rodríguez and Agustín Jiménez Molina, Miguel Ángel Cortes Carrillo, Erick Sorcia Martínez, Arturo Hernández Hernández.
According to Refprma, all of those arrested are being held in Altiplano Prison No. 1, the very same prison from which El Chapo escaped.
In the meantime, despite an intensive international manhunt and pictures posted on social media by his son showing his father enjoying the good life, El Chapo remains at large.
It was bound to happen. Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s escape from Altiplano Prison No. 1 last July was a humongous embarrassment to the Mexican government. Heads were bound to roll, and they have.
Immediately after El Chapo’s escape, federal prisons chief Celina Oseguera Parra was fired. Then seven officials were taken into custody, including two from the federal police and two from the National Security Agency. Four of the seven were later released and the remaining three were charged with failing to activate the “Code Red”, delaying notification of the escape, and not following protocols.
Now the hammer has fallen on some high ranking officials. Although the Attorney General’s office is being secretive, sources from within that office have told Reforma that there have been 13 arrests made in connection withEl Chapo’s escape, including the arrest of Celina Oseguera Parra. Also reportedly arrested were:
Valentin Cardenas Lerma, a former prison director of Altiplano Prison No. 1.
Leonor García García, former legal director of the Altiplano No. 1.
Custodial chief Roberto Cruz Bernal.
Chief of security Miguel Ángel Flores Mirafuentes.
Herminio González Albarrán, in charge of monitoring.
Reyes Mora Carrillo, one of the top 3 federal police working at the prison.
And prison workers Jaime Galindo Hernández, Oswaldo Gastón Veytia Rodríguez and Agustín Jiménez Molina, Miguel Ángel Cortes Carrillo, Erick Sorcia Martínez, Arturo Hernández Hernández.
According to Refprma, all of those arrested are being held in Altiplano Prison No. 1, the very same prison from which El Chapo escaped.
In the meantime, despite an intensive international manhunt and pictures posted on social media by his son showing his father enjoying the good life, El Chapo remains at large.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
‘RIGHT. THAT’S A CLOCK, AND I’M THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND’
Sarah Palin says Ahmed Mohamed was asking to be arrested for making a clock that looked like a bomb and blasts Obama for inviting the wrongfully arrested schoolboy to the White House
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you know that ninth-grader Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was arrested Wednesday for bringing a homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. His English teacher thought it was a bomb and called the cops.
Since then all kinds of celebrities have come to Ahmed’s defense. President Obama has invited Ahmed to the White House. Obama tweeted: “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” Ahmed accepted the invitation.
Ahmed also received invitations from MIT, Google, Facebook and Space Camp. But not everyone was impressed, especially not Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol. Here is what Palin said Friday on her Facebook page:
“Yep, believing that's a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history. Right. That's a clock, and I'm the Queen of England.”
“By the way, President Obama's practice of jumping in cases prematurely to interject himself as the cool savior, wanting so badly to attach himself to the issue-of-the-day, got old years ago.”
“Remember him accusing police officers doing their job as ‘acting stupid’; claiming if he had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin; claiming he needed to know who was a fault in an industrial accident so he'd ‘know who's ass to kick’; etc., etc. Those actions are about as presidential as his selfie stick.”
Thursday on her blog, Bristol slammed Obama for egging on racial tension by inviting Ahmed to the White House and compared this incident to other incidents in which students were suspended even though they were apparently innocent. Bristol wrote:
“This is the kind of stuff Obama needs to STAY out of. This encourages more racial strife that is already going on with the 'Black Lives Matter' crowd and encourages victimhood. The police made a mistake, clearly. But why put more people against them? Why egg it on? Childish games like this from our president have divided our country. Even more today than when he was elected."
“Friends, consider the kids disciplined and/or kicked out of school for bringing squirt guns to school or taking bites out of a pop tart until it resembled (to some politically correct yahoo) a gun. Or the student out deer hunting with his dad early one morning who forgot he had a box of ammo in his truck when he parked in the school's lot later that day.”
“Whereas Ahmed Muhammad, an evidently obstinate-answering student bringing in a homemade "clock" that obviously could be seen by conscientious teachers as a dangerous wired-up bomb-looking contraption (teachers who are told "if you see something, say something!") gets invited to the White House.”
In his Wednesday press briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest all but said that Ahmed was singled out because he was a Muslim. Here is what Earnest said:
“The fact is that America's best teachers in our schools, in our best schools at least, nurture the intellectual curiosity of all our students. In this instance, it's clear that at least some of Ahmed's teachers failed him. That's too bad ... This episode is a good illustration of how pernicious stereotypes can prevent even good-hearted people who have dedicated their lives to educating young people from doing the good work they set out to do.”
Everyone is coming to Ahmed’s defense. Well and good. But what about the teacher who called the cops? Hardly anyone has come to her defense and many have ridiculed the poor woman for thinking the clock was a bomb.
I have to side with the teacher for calling the cops. Teachers all across the country have been instructed to be on the lookout for anything that might put their students in harm's way and Ahmed’s clock certainly could be mistaken for a bomb. It even fooled the cops. The teacher and the cops cannot be faulted for erring on the side of caution.
OK, so Ahmed brought his homemade clock to school and was wrongfully arrested. Call me a skeptic, but I can’t help but wonder if the ninth-grader didn't bring the device to school knowing that it could be mistaken for a bomb.
Instead of being ridiculed, Ahmed’s English teacher should be commended. Why doesn’t Obama invite her to the White House?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you know that ninth-grader Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was arrested Wednesday for bringing a homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. His English teacher thought it was a bomb and called the cops.
Since then all kinds of celebrities have come to Ahmed’s defense. President Obama has invited Ahmed to the White House. Obama tweeted: “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” Ahmed accepted the invitation.
Ahmed also received invitations from MIT, Google, Facebook and Space Camp. But not everyone was impressed, especially not Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol. Here is what Palin said Friday on her Facebook page:
“Yep, believing that's a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history. Right. That's a clock, and I'm the Queen of England.”
“By the way, President Obama's practice of jumping in cases prematurely to interject himself as the cool savior, wanting so badly to attach himself to the issue-of-the-day, got old years ago.”
“Remember him accusing police officers doing their job as ‘acting stupid’; claiming if he had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin; claiming he needed to know who was a fault in an industrial accident so he'd ‘know who's ass to kick’; etc., etc. Those actions are about as presidential as his selfie stick.”
Thursday on her blog, Bristol slammed Obama for egging on racial tension by inviting Ahmed to the White House and compared this incident to other incidents in which students were suspended even though they were apparently innocent. Bristol wrote:
“This is the kind of stuff Obama needs to STAY out of. This encourages more racial strife that is already going on with the 'Black Lives Matter' crowd and encourages victimhood. The police made a mistake, clearly. But why put more people against them? Why egg it on? Childish games like this from our president have divided our country. Even more today than when he was elected."
“Friends, consider the kids disciplined and/or kicked out of school for bringing squirt guns to school or taking bites out of a pop tart until it resembled (to some politically correct yahoo) a gun. Or the student out deer hunting with his dad early one morning who forgot he had a box of ammo in his truck when he parked in the school's lot later that day.”
“Whereas Ahmed Muhammad, an evidently obstinate-answering student bringing in a homemade "clock" that obviously could be seen by conscientious teachers as a dangerous wired-up bomb-looking contraption (teachers who are told "if you see something, say something!") gets invited to the White House.”
In his Wednesday press briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest all but said that Ahmed was singled out because he was a Muslim. Here is what Earnest said:
“The fact is that America's best teachers in our schools, in our best schools at least, nurture the intellectual curiosity of all our students. In this instance, it's clear that at least some of Ahmed's teachers failed him. That's too bad ... This episode is a good illustration of how pernicious stereotypes can prevent even good-hearted people who have dedicated their lives to educating young people from doing the good work they set out to do.”
Everyone is coming to Ahmed’s defense. Well and good. But what about the teacher who called the cops? Hardly anyone has come to her defense and many have ridiculed the poor woman for thinking the clock was a bomb.
I have to side with the teacher for calling the cops. Teachers all across the country have been instructed to be on the lookout for anything that might put their students in harm's way and Ahmed’s clock certainly could be mistaken for a bomb. It even fooled the cops. The teacher and the cops cannot be faulted for erring on the side of caution.
OK, so Ahmed brought his homemade clock to school and was wrongfully arrested. Call me a skeptic, but I can’t help but wonder if the ninth-grader didn't bring the device to school knowing that it could be mistaken for a bomb.
Instead of being ridiculed, Ahmed’s English teacher should be commended. Why doesn’t Obama invite her to the White House?
DEPUTY SHOOTS AT WRONG-WAY DRIVER FROM HELICOPTER DURING CHASE
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies in a helicopter opened fire on a suspect involved in a dangerous wrong-way chase and car crash on the northbound 215 Freeway
By Rob McMillan , Amy Powell , Adrienne Bankert and Gabrielle Moreira
ABC7
September 19, 2015
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies in a helicopter opened fire on a suspect involved in a dangerous wrong-way chase and car crash on the northbound 215 Freeway Friday afternoon.
Two cars were involved in the crash near Palm Avenue. A man and a 13-year-old male were treated and released from the hospital. An adult female, believed to be the man's wife, remains hospitalized and is recovering from her injuries.
The suspect was wanted in connection to a prior home-invasion robbery in Fontana. Authorities recognized the suspect's beige Chevrolet Tahoe on Friday around 12:49 p.m. and attempted to conduct a traffic stop when a chase ensued.
The suspect led authorities on a chase through surface streets in Fontana and San Bernardino before he started driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of the 215 Freeway. At one point, the suspect sideswiped another car.
The suspect reached speeds as high as 100 mph, according to Deputy Olivia Bozek with the sheriff's department.
Deputies inside a sheriff's helicopter realized the suspect was a threat to the public's safety and began firing shots at his car. He then bailed out of the moving vehicle, which then crashed head-on into a blue Dodge Durango.
The suspect eventually collapsed on the side of the road not far from the crash and died. Authorities said the unidentified suspect was struck by gunfire but were not sure if his death was caused by the gunshot wound.
Police say an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
Some drivers questioned the police decision to shoot from the helicopter.
"That's dangerous. Like how did they know they were going to hit that car, you know?" said Clarice Tenny of Victorville.
"If a guy's fleeing, going the wrong way on the freeway, bad things are going to happen," said Richard Allinson, a visitor from Texas.
Jodi Miller of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said all deputy and tactical flight officers have been actively training from the air since the mid-80s, and this is the seventh shooting of its kind since 2001 in Apple Valley.
"Regarding training, all of our deputies/tactical flight officers qualify with the same weapons that they carry in the aircraft through and within department qualifications," said Miller in a statement to ABC7. "Additionally, they train from the air every 90 days at a minimum. This training is specific to deploying weaponry from the aircraft."
The northbound 215 Freeway remained shut down late Friday night and reopened Saturday around 7:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol Inland Division.
By Rob McMillan , Amy Powell , Adrienne Bankert and Gabrielle Moreira
ABC7
September 19, 2015
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies in a helicopter opened fire on a suspect involved in a dangerous wrong-way chase and car crash on the northbound 215 Freeway Friday afternoon.
Two cars were involved in the crash near Palm Avenue. A man and a 13-year-old male were treated and released from the hospital. An adult female, believed to be the man's wife, remains hospitalized and is recovering from her injuries.
The suspect was wanted in connection to a prior home-invasion robbery in Fontana. Authorities recognized the suspect's beige Chevrolet Tahoe on Friday around 12:49 p.m. and attempted to conduct a traffic stop when a chase ensued.
The suspect led authorities on a chase through surface streets in Fontana and San Bernardino before he started driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of the 215 Freeway. At one point, the suspect sideswiped another car.
The suspect reached speeds as high as 100 mph, according to Deputy Olivia Bozek with the sheriff's department.
Deputies inside a sheriff's helicopter realized the suspect was a threat to the public's safety and began firing shots at his car. He then bailed out of the moving vehicle, which then crashed head-on into a blue Dodge Durango.
The suspect eventually collapsed on the side of the road not far from the crash and died. Authorities said the unidentified suspect was struck by gunfire but were not sure if his death was caused by the gunshot wound.
Police say an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
Some drivers questioned the police decision to shoot from the helicopter.
"That's dangerous. Like how did they know they were going to hit that car, you know?" said Clarice Tenny of Victorville.
"If a guy's fleeing, going the wrong way on the freeway, bad things are going to happen," said Richard Allinson, a visitor from Texas.
Jodi Miller of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said all deputy and tactical flight officers have been actively training from the air since the mid-80s, and this is the seventh shooting of its kind since 2001 in Apple Valley.
"Regarding training, all of our deputies/tactical flight officers qualify with the same weapons that they carry in the aircraft through and within department qualifications," said Miller in a statement to ABC7. "Additionally, they train from the air every 90 days at a minimum. This training is specific to deploying weaponry from the aircraft."
The northbound 215 Freeway remained shut down late Friday night and reopened Saturday around 7:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol Inland Division.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
SHE SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE DIRTY LITTLE RAT BASTARD AT HOME
Drunk driving mom ratted out by her 7-year-old son
OFFICER: Mam, you’ve been driving erratically. You almost hit another car head on.
DRIVER: Oh, I’m sorry Sir. I didn’t mean to.
OFFICER: Mam, have you been drinking?
DRIVER: No Sir, I haven’t had a drop to drink.
Things went downhill from there when Audrey McColm’s 7-year-old son corrected her from the back seat of the car. "Yes, you have, Mom," said the dirty little rat.
This all happened Monday evening in Albany, Indiana when McColm, 25, nearly hit an off-duty officer head on. The cop followed her and observed that McColm left the roadway and nearly crashed a couple of times. He called for an on-duty cop who arrived after she pulled into a residential driveway. It was then that the little boy corrected his mother after she had denied drinking.
13 WTHR reports that McColm registered .23% BAC on a Breathalyzer test at the scene. That is nearly three times the legal limit for drivers.
McColm was jailed for drunk driving and neglect of a dependent.
According to the Randolph County Sheriff's Department, while she was being booked McColm told officers she wanted them to shoot her in the head. She was placed in a padded cell. After she sobered up, she was released on bail.
The moral of this story is don’t drink and drive, but if you do, leave your dirty little rat bastard son at home!
OFFICER: Mam, you’ve been driving erratically. You almost hit another car head on.
DRIVER: Oh, I’m sorry Sir. I didn’t mean to.
OFFICER: Mam, have you been drinking?
DRIVER: No Sir, I haven’t had a drop to drink.
Things went downhill from there when Audrey McColm’s 7-year-old son corrected her from the back seat of the car. "Yes, you have, Mom," said the dirty little rat.
This all happened Monday evening in Albany, Indiana when McColm, 25, nearly hit an off-duty officer head on. The cop followed her and observed that McColm left the roadway and nearly crashed a couple of times. He called for an on-duty cop who arrived after she pulled into a residential driveway. It was then that the little boy corrected his mother after she had denied drinking.
13 WTHR reports that McColm registered .23% BAC on a Breathalyzer test at the scene. That is nearly three times the legal limit for drivers.
McColm was jailed for drunk driving and neglect of a dependent.
According to the Randolph County Sheriff's Department, while she was being booked McColm told officers she wanted them to shoot her in the head. She was placed in a padded cell. After she sobered up, she was released on bail.
The moral of this story is don’t drink and drive, but if you do, leave your dirty little rat bastard son at home!
PAROLES OF THOSE WHO MURDER POLICE COLD FEED ATTACKS ON OFFICERS
By Craig Lally
Los Angeles Daily News
September 18, 2015
Those of us on the front lines of law enforcement have watched with growing concern as the 2009 federal court order to reduce the population of California’s prison system has stretched our already-overburdened parole system and led to rising crime rates.
Police officers were among the first to express dismay at the ruling and strongly opposed subsequent efforts to de-populate the prisons. We saw 2011’s AB 109 as a simple system for funneling prisoners to county jails and, ultimately, release, and we spoke out against Proposition 47 because we knew it would put many violent criminals back on our streets. Few heeded our warnings then, but the rising crime rates we now see in California are increasingly being tracked back to AB 109 and Proposition 47.
The determination to return incarcerated criminals to our streets has been further expanded by a 2008 Supreme Court ruling making it harder to deny parole to criminals serving life terms who are no longer considered dangerous, opening up a yet another avenue to reduce prison overcrowding. California freed a record 902 “lifers” in the past year, according to the Association for Deputy District Attorneys.
As police officers sworn to protect public safety, we have worked with what the system, the courts, the politicians and the people have given us. However, when a policy shift leads to the early parole of those who murder police, we must strongly protest. The cold-blooded murderer of a law enforcement officer is not just an attack on a human being; it is also a direct assault on law enforcement and on society itself. Allowing parole for anyone who murders an officer in cold blood sends a signal that helps feed attacks on the police like the recent murder of Texas Deputy Darren Goforth.
Two recent decisions to parole life-term-serving murderers of police officers are perversions of the effort to reduce our prison populations, and they must be stopped. First, the shocking news that the man who conspired in the murder of Los Angeles Detective Thomas Williams in 1985 had been deemed fit for parole came virtually out of nowhere. When his parole was denied last year, the panel said he would not be eligible for another parole hearing for three years. Despite these facts, a hearing panel of only two parole board members granted Voltaire Williams parole on Aug. 4.
Likewise, Jesus Cecena, who murdered San Diego Police Officer Archie Buggs in 1978, was granted parole on Aug. 28. In Cecena’s case, the release was related to his underage status when the brutal murder was committed. He was four months away from his 18th birthday.
It is inconceivable that in any rational system either man could be paroled. Detective Williams died protecting his son, taking eight bullets from a fusillade of automatic rifle fire. Officer Buggs was shot six times, the last time execution-style with a bullet to the head when the officer was already down.
These paroles should be stopped. The parole board has up to 120 days to consider whether to allow or stop a parole. Gov. Jerry Brown, who as attorney general in 2009 strongly protested the court order forcing our prisons to release felons, then has 30 days to overturn the parole board’s decision. As a final check on a system that has gone terribly wrong, we call on the governor to deny parole for Voltaire Williams and Jesus Cecena.
Craig Lally is president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Los Angeles Daily News
September 18, 2015
Those of us on the front lines of law enforcement have watched with growing concern as the 2009 federal court order to reduce the population of California’s prison system has stretched our already-overburdened parole system and led to rising crime rates.
Police officers were among the first to express dismay at the ruling and strongly opposed subsequent efforts to de-populate the prisons. We saw 2011’s AB 109 as a simple system for funneling prisoners to county jails and, ultimately, release, and we spoke out against Proposition 47 because we knew it would put many violent criminals back on our streets. Few heeded our warnings then, but the rising crime rates we now see in California are increasingly being tracked back to AB 109 and Proposition 47.
The determination to return incarcerated criminals to our streets has been further expanded by a 2008 Supreme Court ruling making it harder to deny parole to criminals serving life terms who are no longer considered dangerous, opening up a yet another avenue to reduce prison overcrowding. California freed a record 902 “lifers” in the past year, according to the Association for Deputy District Attorneys.
As police officers sworn to protect public safety, we have worked with what the system, the courts, the politicians and the people have given us. However, when a policy shift leads to the early parole of those who murder police, we must strongly protest. The cold-blooded murderer of a law enforcement officer is not just an attack on a human being; it is also a direct assault on law enforcement and on society itself. Allowing parole for anyone who murders an officer in cold blood sends a signal that helps feed attacks on the police like the recent murder of Texas Deputy Darren Goforth.
Two recent decisions to parole life-term-serving murderers of police officers are perversions of the effort to reduce our prison populations, and they must be stopped. First, the shocking news that the man who conspired in the murder of Los Angeles Detective Thomas Williams in 1985 had been deemed fit for parole came virtually out of nowhere. When his parole was denied last year, the panel said he would not be eligible for another parole hearing for three years. Despite these facts, a hearing panel of only two parole board members granted Voltaire Williams parole on Aug. 4.
Likewise, Jesus Cecena, who murdered San Diego Police Officer Archie Buggs in 1978, was granted parole on Aug. 28. In Cecena’s case, the release was related to his underage status when the brutal murder was committed. He was four months away from his 18th birthday.
It is inconceivable that in any rational system either man could be paroled. Detective Williams died protecting his son, taking eight bullets from a fusillade of automatic rifle fire. Officer Buggs was shot six times, the last time execution-style with a bullet to the head when the officer was already down.
These paroles should be stopped. The parole board has up to 120 days to consider whether to allow or stop a parole. Gov. Jerry Brown, who as attorney general in 2009 strongly protested the court order forcing our prisons to release felons, then has 30 days to overturn the parole board’s decision. As a final check on a system that has gone terribly wrong, we call on the governor to deny parole for Voltaire Williams and Jesus Cecena.
Craig Lally is president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
IS THERE A ‘WAR ON POLICE’? THE STATISTICS SAY NO
By Martin Kaste
NPR
September 17, 2015
The ambush-style murder of Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth at a gas station in suburban Houston on Aug. 29 has added new urgency to warnings about a growing "war on cops" in America. After the arrest of the suspect, an African-American man named Shannon J. Miles, the local district attorney called for more public support for law enforcement.
"It is time for the silent majority in this country to support law enforcement," said Devon Anderson, the Harris County DA. "There are a few bad apples in every profession. That does not mean there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement."
The notion of growing "warfare" against police stems in part from a statistical jump in the number of law officers murdered — "feloniously killed," in the jargon of the FBI's numbers.
In 2014, the year of the Ferguson protests and increased media attention on police misconduct, 51 officers were killed nationwide. That was a jump from the 27 killed in 2013 and many took it as a sign of greater danger for police.
Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina, calls that interpretation "nonsense."
"It's misleading to compare one year to another year," he says.
Stoughton has been collecting and analyzing these data going back decades. He says 2014 looked bad in comparison with 2013 mainly because 2013 was so good.
"2013 was the safest year for police officers, ever," he says. "The safest year in recorded history."
In fact, in the larger scheme of things, 2014 looks pretty normal. The number of murders of police was about the same as 2012, and actually a lot lower than 2011.
The long-term trend is even more encouraging: On average, only about half as many police are murdered every year now, as compared with the 1970s. Stoughton says some of that improvement is probably due to better training, better gear and radically improved trauma care for cops who are shot.
But he says the numbers suggest officers are also facing fewer attacks: The number of assaults on police has also fallen, though not as sharply.
Stoughton says he's not saying police work isn't dangerous — it certainly is. And he also admits we may be seeing a few more ambush killings — cops attacked just because they're cops.
But it's hard to isolate motives in these numbers, and any uptick is probably in the single digits.
"When we're talking about 780,000 state and local police officers who are interacting with people on 67 million occasions every year, the increase from five to eight, or five to 10 — statistically, it doesn't look significant," he says.
But statistical analysis is cold comfort to police officers after a colleague has been ambushed. Some officers have been understandably shaken.
In a video that made the rounds soon after the Texas deputy was killed, a Miami officer named Lydia Marquez records herself in her car.
"When I kiss my children in the morning before I go to work, I don't know if I'm going to be coming back at the end of the day," she says. "Especially nowadays."
Marquez ends her video defiantly, with the phrase that's become a rallying cry for many cops since Ferguson: "All lives matter. Everyone's life matters."
"All lives matter" may sound noble, but activists hear it as code for something else.
"The way that people use the phrase is in direct opposition to 'Black Lives Matter,' " says Daunasia Yancey, a prominent member of the Black Lives Matter movement in Boston.
"I think that this 'war on cops' rhetoric is just another way to protect police from accountability," she says. "What they're facing is not violence; it's accountability."
Soon after Goforth's murder, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick condemned what he called the "negative attitude" toward police. Accused of using the killing to shut down legitimate criticism of police, Patrick took aim at the media. On the public radio show Texas Standard, the host tried to ask him about all the recent videos showing police misconduct.
"Your type of interview has to stop," Patrick said.
"Yes, there are people in every profession who cross the line and should be fired," he continued. "Quit focusing on that small percentage of those in law enforcement who have made a mistake."
Edward Conlon, a retired New York police detective who writes about police work, says his former colleagues feel unfairly judged by the mistakes of a few. He says they haven't seen evidence of a "war on cops," but they do feel embattled when it comes to public opinion.
"The notion that there is an epidemic of violence by police is just a really hard thing to swallow," he says.
And he sees a parallel here. He thinks both sides are guilty of drawing dramatic conclusions from isolated cases.
"It's not even half right that cops are at war with black America, and it's not even half right that there's a war on cops, in any big or broad sense," Conlon says.
But there does seem to be at least one kind of war going on: a war of perceptions, driven by competing feelings of grievance.
NPR
September 17, 2015
The ambush-style murder of Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth at a gas station in suburban Houston on Aug. 29 has added new urgency to warnings about a growing "war on cops" in America. After the arrest of the suspect, an African-American man named Shannon J. Miles, the local district attorney called for more public support for law enforcement.
"It is time for the silent majority in this country to support law enforcement," said Devon Anderson, the Harris County DA. "There are a few bad apples in every profession. That does not mean there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement."
The notion of growing "warfare" against police stems in part from a statistical jump in the number of law officers murdered — "feloniously killed," in the jargon of the FBI's numbers.
In 2014, the year of the Ferguson protests and increased media attention on police misconduct, 51 officers were killed nationwide. That was a jump from the 27 killed in 2013 and many took it as a sign of greater danger for police.
Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina, calls that interpretation "nonsense."
"It's misleading to compare one year to another year," he says.
Stoughton has been collecting and analyzing these data going back decades. He says 2014 looked bad in comparison with 2013 mainly because 2013 was so good.
"2013 was the safest year for police officers, ever," he says. "The safest year in recorded history."
In fact, in the larger scheme of things, 2014 looks pretty normal. The number of murders of police was about the same as 2012, and actually a lot lower than 2011.
The long-term trend is even more encouraging: On average, only about half as many police are murdered every year now, as compared with the 1970s. Stoughton says some of that improvement is probably due to better training, better gear and radically improved trauma care for cops who are shot.
But he says the numbers suggest officers are also facing fewer attacks: The number of assaults on police has also fallen, though not as sharply.
Stoughton says he's not saying police work isn't dangerous — it certainly is. And he also admits we may be seeing a few more ambush killings — cops attacked just because they're cops.
But it's hard to isolate motives in these numbers, and any uptick is probably in the single digits.
"When we're talking about 780,000 state and local police officers who are interacting with people on 67 million occasions every year, the increase from five to eight, or five to 10 — statistically, it doesn't look significant," he says.
But statistical analysis is cold comfort to police officers after a colleague has been ambushed. Some officers have been understandably shaken.
In a video that made the rounds soon after the Texas deputy was killed, a Miami officer named Lydia Marquez records herself in her car.
"When I kiss my children in the morning before I go to work, I don't know if I'm going to be coming back at the end of the day," she says. "Especially nowadays."
Marquez ends her video defiantly, with the phrase that's become a rallying cry for many cops since Ferguson: "All lives matter. Everyone's life matters."
"All lives matter" may sound noble, but activists hear it as code for something else.
"The way that people use the phrase is in direct opposition to 'Black Lives Matter,' " says Daunasia Yancey, a prominent member of the Black Lives Matter movement in Boston.
"I think that this 'war on cops' rhetoric is just another way to protect police from accountability," she says. "What they're facing is not violence; it's accountability."
Soon after Goforth's murder, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick condemned what he called the "negative attitude" toward police. Accused of using the killing to shut down legitimate criticism of police, Patrick took aim at the media. On the public radio show Texas Standard, the host tried to ask him about all the recent videos showing police misconduct.
"Your type of interview has to stop," Patrick said.
"Yes, there are people in every profession who cross the line and should be fired," he continued. "Quit focusing on that small percentage of those in law enforcement who have made a mistake."
Edward Conlon, a retired New York police detective who writes about police work, says his former colleagues feel unfairly judged by the mistakes of a few. He says they haven't seen evidence of a "war on cops," but they do feel embattled when it comes to public opinion.
"The notion that there is an epidemic of violence by police is just a really hard thing to swallow," he says.
And he sees a parallel here. He thinks both sides are guilty of drawing dramatic conclusions from isolated cases.
"It's not even half right that cops are at war with black America, and it's not even half right that there's a war on cops, in any big or broad sense," Conlon says.
But there does seem to be at least one kind of war going on: a war of perceptions, driven by competing feelings of grievance.
IS THIS EVEN A PROBLEM?
Coyotes roam free in the People’s Republic of San Francisco
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 18, 2015
The natives of the Ingleside Terrace district in the People’s Republic of San Francisco may, or may not, have a problem depending on who you ask. They have more coyotes than some might like, and fewer cats than some might like.
The coyotes have been spotted with increasing regularity in the area. They are believed to have munched the occasional cat for lunch, including a few that were pets and probably more than a few feral cats.
It is against the law in SF to trap, kill or otherwise harass wild animals unless they post an immediate threat to humans. This policy worries some of the local nervous nellies, who picture them running off with small children in their jaws.
There is only one documented case of a coyote killing a human being in the entire United States since forever. That happened in L A when a few of them killed a 3-year old in 1981. It turns out the child’s parents had been feeding the coyotes. Maybe they forgot to put out the food dish that day? Tragic, but you can’t blame the coyote for the parent’s stupidity. In addition coyote bites of human beings are also very rare.
So far the only fix that everybody seems to approve of is the city putting up signs that say BE COYOTE AWARE in areas where the critters are believed to have taken up residence.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 18, 2015
The natives of the Ingleside Terrace district in the People’s Republic of San Francisco may, or may not, have a problem depending on who you ask. They have more coyotes than some might like, and fewer cats than some might like.
The coyotes have been spotted with increasing regularity in the area. They are believed to have munched the occasional cat for lunch, including a few that were pets and probably more than a few feral cats.
It is against the law in SF to trap, kill or otherwise harass wild animals unless they post an immediate threat to humans. This policy worries some of the local nervous nellies, who picture them running off with small children in their jaws.
There is only one documented case of a coyote killing a human being in the entire United States since forever. That happened in L A when a few of them killed a 3-year old in 1981. It turns out the child’s parents had been feeding the coyotes. Maybe they forgot to put out the food dish that day? Tragic, but you can’t blame the coyote for the parent’s stupidity. In addition coyote bites of human beings are also very rare.
So far the only fix that everybody seems to approve of is the city putting up signs that say BE COYOTE AWARE in areas where the critters are believed to have taken up residence.
Friday, September 18, 2015
BLACK EX-CON AMBUSHES WHITE TEXAS COP WITH POWERFUL WEAPON
The target of the ambush was the cop who put him behind bars
It’s been only three weeks since sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth was ambushed in Houston by a black man who pumped 15 bullets into the unsuspecting officer’s body. Now we have another black man ambushing a white cop in nearby Texas City and using a much more powerful weapon than a handgun.
Texas City police officer Salvador Chapa was going about his duties last weekend when the unsuspecting officer was ambushed by a black ex-con he had put behind bars.
What was the powerful weapon ex-convict Edward "Doc" Amey used in his ambush of a white cop? It was prayer!
When Amey spotted the cop who had put him behind bars, he walked up to Chapa and told him he wanted to pray for the police. The two of them then prayed together.
The encounter was caught on camera and the picture went viral on the internet.
Amey has an extensive criminal record, including six felonies. He was sentenced to prison three times. But several years ago he turned to God and turned his life around.
KHOU-TV quotes Amey as saying:
"I have not always been a friend to the police. I grew up selling drugs. I've been to prison three times. The last week-and-a-half God has really been giving me the urge to pray for police officers.”
Chapa said, "I arrested him several years ago on a gun charge and due to that, he ended up doing some time."
Wouldn’t it be great if all ambushes of cops turned out this way.
It’s been only three weeks since sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth was ambushed in Houston by a black man who pumped 15 bullets into the unsuspecting officer’s body. Now we have another black man ambushing a white cop in nearby Texas City and using a much more powerful weapon than a handgun.
Texas City police officer Salvador Chapa was going about his duties last weekend when the unsuspecting officer was ambushed by a black ex-con he had put behind bars.
What was the powerful weapon ex-convict Edward "Doc" Amey used in his ambush of a white cop? It was prayer!
When Amey spotted the cop who had put him behind bars, he walked up to Chapa and told him he wanted to pray for the police. The two of them then prayed together.
The encounter was caught on camera and the picture went viral on the internet.
Amey has an extensive criminal record, including six felonies. He was sentenced to prison three times. But several years ago he turned to God and turned his life around.
KHOU-TV quotes Amey as saying:
"I have not always been a friend to the police. I grew up selling drugs. I've been to prison three times. The last week-and-a-half God has really been giving me the urge to pray for police officers.”
Chapa said, "I arrested him several years ago on a gun charge and due to that, he ended up doing some time."
Wouldn’t it be great if all ambushes of cops turned out this way.
WHAT BILL BRATTON HAS TAUGHT AMERICAN POLICE
4 lessons for police officers to win back the public's trust
By Joe Domanick
Time
September 16, 2015
If Bill Bratton were to depart as Commissioner of the New York Police Department—as he hinted at this summer, then walked back—he would be ending an illustrious and controversial career as the most prominent American police reformer of the last quarter century. His leadership touches on valuable questions. How can American police chiefs win back the public’s trust, after the police shootings and violence of places like Ferguson, Mo., and New York City? And what lessons can police learn from his storied career?
It was Bratton’s spectacular success in dramatically lowering New York’s crime rate and transforming the dysfunctional cultures of the New York City Transit Police then NYPD in the early and middle ‘90s that brought him into the national spotlight. Since then, Bratton started the reformation of the LAPD and then the NYPD for a second time, in 2014.
That’s why it’s important—as the public questions police shootings and use of force, challenges the militarization of departments and requests use of dashboard and body cameras—to study Bratton’s career.
Lesson 1: When your cops are guilty, be transparent. Don’t own a bad story; take remedial action.
On May 1, 2006, more than 6,000 protestors peacefully assembled in a park near downtown Los Angeles. Suddenly, a few bottles and cans were thrown from the crowd. The LAPD’s mobile, often brutal Metro Division then plunged into the crowd. Clad in riot helmets and full military gear, the officers, wielding two-foot-long batons or surreal-looking rifles, fired off 240 rubber bullets into a crowd that included women wheeling baby strollers a dozen or more reporters. Their actions were met with an immediate roar of outrage.
Traditionally after such events, police chiefs close ranks, back the troops and restrict access to information. Bratton did the opposite. “This old policy that you need to ‘protect the department’ and sweep things under the rug—well, I grew up when it was all about [that attitude]. But I’ve never been part of that school.”
Engaging the furor head on, he described the incident as the worst he’d ever seen; met with critics, civil libertarians and reporters; demoted one commander and forced another into retirement; released a report highly critical of the event; and ordered the retraining of the entire Metro Division. Soon he was unanimously rehired by the Los Angeles Police Commission to a second five-year term as chief.
Lesson 2: Be prepared to change outdated or wrong-headed policy—even if you’ve introduced it.
As part of reducing crime in New York in the mid-90s, Bratton introduced the massive use of stop-and-frisk. It can be argued that tactic was needed to quickly change the high-crime, chaotic situation in New York. But it had to be used selectively, Bratton said. That didn’t happen.
By 2014, when Bratton returned to again lead the NYPD, New York was no longer the high-crime, out-of-control city of the early ‘90s. Nevertheless, the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices had grown so intense, heavy-handed and racially divisive that in 2011 New Yorkers stopped and frisked an astounding 685,000 people. In 2014, Bratton would reduce that number by almost 80% while crime declined. Forced to consider the consequences of a police a tactic he had initiated, Bratton was willing to pivot, and he did, removing a major irritant of police relations.
Lesson 3: Community policing is essential to building community trust.
How it’s implemented and maintained is essential to solving homicides, reducing racial animosity, building trust and policing legitimately in poor communities.
As former LAPD Deputy Chief Pat Gannon once told me: “The press gave Bratton credit for the successful implementation of community policing in L.A.— something many in the department couldn’t believe, because there was no department-wide blueprint on instituting community policing in LA.”
But Gannon believed the doubters had missed the point. Bratton thought each community different, and that community policing had to be developed by field captains to fit their specific divisions and neighborhoods—and, “as crime declined, community trust and confidence would grow, along with [grassroots] relationships and partnerships,” Gannon said. That’s what community policing is, and that’s exactly what happened in Los Angeles.
Lesson 4: For police chiefs: Grab the levers of power, show who’s in charge and demand that your command staff impress you, not the other way around.
A few days after Bratton became LAPD Chief in 2002, he announced a meeting of the LAPD’s entire command staff, told them what was wrong with the department, and the way it would be now.
He demanded that command staff submit a resume, a photo, and answer questions about their current positions. He wanted a “face with a biography in a book” that he could turn to when hearing about “who was good and who was bad.”
What he was telling them was that they now had to justify their existence and apply for their own job again. Soon he issued demotions and forced retirements, and promoted officers who’d impressed him over candidates next in line for a position. “Hey, we understand force in the LAPD,” said future LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “He demonstrated his authority–which in the LAPD we understand: that if you want to keep the crows away, you kill one and leave it on the fence.”
Bratton’s great achievement was lowering crime by changing the way police functioned from just responding to crimes after they happened, to preventing crimes before they occurred. But in the process he also introduced several of the biggest problems we face in policing today. He was the first wave of modern American police reform. The second—with the deaths of Michel Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York—has already started.
By Joe Domanick
Time
September 16, 2015
If Bill Bratton were to depart as Commissioner of the New York Police Department—as he hinted at this summer, then walked back—he would be ending an illustrious and controversial career as the most prominent American police reformer of the last quarter century. His leadership touches on valuable questions. How can American police chiefs win back the public’s trust, after the police shootings and violence of places like Ferguson, Mo., and New York City? And what lessons can police learn from his storied career?
It was Bratton’s spectacular success in dramatically lowering New York’s crime rate and transforming the dysfunctional cultures of the New York City Transit Police then NYPD in the early and middle ‘90s that brought him into the national spotlight. Since then, Bratton started the reformation of the LAPD and then the NYPD for a second time, in 2014.
That’s why it’s important—as the public questions police shootings and use of force, challenges the militarization of departments and requests use of dashboard and body cameras—to study Bratton’s career.
Lesson 1: When your cops are guilty, be transparent. Don’t own a bad story; take remedial action.
On May 1, 2006, more than 6,000 protestors peacefully assembled in a park near downtown Los Angeles. Suddenly, a few bottles and cans were thrown from the crowd. The LAPD’s mobile, often brutal Metro Division then plunged into the crowd. Clad in riot helmets and full military gear, the officers, wielding two-foot-long batons or surreal-looking rifles, fired off 240 rubber bullets into a crowd that included women wheeling baby strollers a dozen or more reporters. Their actions were met with an immediate roar of outrage.
Traditionally after such events, police chiefs close ranks, back the troops and restrict access to information. Bratton did the opposite. “This old policy that you need to ‘protect the department’ and sweep things under the rug—well, I grew up when it was all about [that attitude]. But I’ve never been part of that school.”
Engaging the furor head on, he described the incident as the worst he’d ever seen; met with critics, civil libertarians and reporters; demoted one commander and forced another into retirement; released a report highly critical of the event; and ordered the retraining of the entire Metro Division. Soon he was unanimously rehired by the Los Angeles Police Commission to a second five-year term as chief.
Lesson 2: Be prepared to change outdated or wrong-headed policy—even if you’ve introduced it.
As part of reducing crime in New York in the mid-90s, Bratton introduced the massive use of stop-and-frisk. It can be argued that tactic was needed to quickly change the high-crime, chaotic situation in New York. But it had to be used selectively, Bratton said. That didn’t happen.
By 2014, when Bratton returned to again lead the NYPD, New York was no longer the high-crime, out-of-control city of the early ‘90s. Nevertheless, the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices had grown so intense, heavy-handed and racially divisive that in 2011 New Yorkers stopped and frisked an astounding 685,000 people. In 2014, Bratton would reduce that number by almost 80% while crime declined. Forced to consider the consequences of a police a tactic he had initiated, Bratton was willing to pivot, and he did, removing a major irritant of police relations.
Lesson 3: Community policing is essential to building community trust.
How it’s implemented and maintained is essential to solving homicides, reducing racial animosity, building trust and policing legitimately in poor communities.
As former LAPD Deputy Chief Pat Gannon once told me: “The press gave Bratton credit for the successful implementation of community policing in L.A.— something many in the department couldn’t believe, because there was no department-wide blueprint on instituting community policing in LA.”
But Gannon believed the doubters had missed the point. Bratton thought each community different, and that community policing had to be developed by field captains to fit their specific divisions and neighborhoods—and, “as crime declined, community trust and confidence would grow, along with [grassroots] relationships and partnerships,” Gannon said. That’s what community policing is, and that’s exactly what happened in Los Angeles.
Lesson 4: For police chiefs: Grab the levers of power, show who’s in charge and demand that your command staff impress you, not the other way around.
A few days after Bratton became LAPD Chief in 2002, he announced a meeting of the LAPD’s entire command staff, told them what was wrong with the department, and the way it would be now.
He demanded that command staff submit a resume, a photo, and answer questions about their current positions. He wanted a “face with a biography in a book” that he could turn to when hearing about “who was good and who was bad.”
What he was telling them was that they now had to justify their existence and apply for their own job again. Soon he issued demotions and forced retirements, and promoted officers who’d impressed him over candidates next in line for a position. “Hey, we understand force in the LAPD,” said future LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “He demonstrated his authority–which in the LAPD we understand: that if you want to keep the crows away, you kill one and leave it on the fence.”
Bratton’s great achievement was lowering crime by changing the way police functioned from just responding to crimes after they happened, to preventing crimes before they occurred. But in the process he also introduced several of the biggest problems we face in policing today. He was the first wave of modern American police reform. The second—with the deaths of Michel Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York—has already started.
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