by Bob Walsh
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced yesterday that the I. G. of the A.G. is going to do an in-depth investigation into the assertion that the Steele memo was the principle justification for the application to the FISA court, and that the warrant presentation to the FISA court was false and possibly even perjury.
Depending on how things go it could land some deep-state assholes in deep kimchi.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
MORE GUN CONTROL STUPIDITY PROPOSED IN CALIFORNIA
by Bob Walsh
There are ten new bills riding the tide of anti-gun psychopathy in the People's Republic of California.
These proposals are varied. One would expand the already asinine definition of "assault rifles" to include damn near anything that scares anybody who doesn't like guns. One would expand gun violence restraining orders even further. Another would prohibit anybody who had EVER been convicted of MISDEMEANOR domestic violence from ever owning a firearm until mammals become extinct. Yet another would allow a person to place himself on a list of persons prohibited from owning firearms.
Couldn't they just not buy a gun? Maybe the legislature thinks the NRA has a goon squad that goes around and forces people to buy guns.
More reasons to seriously reconsider by choice of residence state.
There are ten new bills riding the tide of anti-gun psychopathy in the People's Republic of California.
These proposals are varied. One would expand the already asinine definition of "assault rifles" to include damn near anything that scares anybody who doesn't like guns. One would expand gun violence restraining orders even further. Another would prohibit anybody who had EVER been convicted of MISDEMEANOR domestic violence from ever owning a firearm until mammals become extinct. Yet another would allow a person to place himself on a list of persons prohibited from owning firearms.
Couldn't they just not buy a gun? Maybe the legislature thinks the NRA has a goon squad that goes around and forces people to buy guns.
More reasons to seriously reconsider by choice of residence state.
FURTHER MOVE TO DECRIMINALIZE JUVENILE CRIME IN CALIFORNIA
by Bob Walsh
A major blow was struck against the notion that juveniles can in fact be held liable for crimes was struck Monday by a strangely divided Supreme Court in the People's Republic of California.
By a 4-3 vote the court struck down ANY sentence of 50 years or greater for ANY person who committed ANY crime no mater how heinous if that person was smart enough or lucky enough to have committed that crime before their 18th birthday. Regular readers will no doubt recall that in 2012 SCOTUS struck down life without parole sentences for juveniles.
The two cases specifically under review were one sentence of 50 years to life and another of 58 years to life.
A major blow was struck against the notion that juveniles can in fact be held liable for crimes was struck Monday by a strangely divided Supreme Court in the People's Republic of California.
By a 4-3 vote the court struck down ANY sentence of 50 years or greater for ANY person who committed ANY crime no mater how heinous if that person was smart enough or lucky enough to have committed that crime before their 18th birthday. Regular readers will no doubt recall that in 2012 SCOTUS struck down life without parole sentences for juveniles.
The two cases specifically under review were one sentence of 50 years to life and another of 58 years to life.
OUR CHILDISH GUN DEBATE
When Marco Rubio is likened to shooter Nikolas Cruz, we’re not being serious.
By William McGurn
The Wall Street Journal
February 26, 2018
“Do you want to do nothing? Do you want to do nothing? Do you want to just do nothing? Just leave it the way it is?”
The words belong to Geraldo Rivera. He emoted them Thursday on the Fox News Channel during a live broadcast of Sean Hannity’s show from the Conservative Political Action Conference. In a perfect encapsulation of what the gun debate has become, Mr. Rivera was yelling at the crowd for booing his assertion that the National Rifle Association needed to back raising to 21 the age for purchasing an assault weapon—even though he’d just admitted “it won’t solve the problem.”
Still, the mini-drama on “Hannity” was nothing compared with the Two Minutes Hate on CNN the evening before. At a CNN-sponsored town hall held in Broward County, Fla.—home to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the latest school shooting occurred—the NRA’s Dana Loesch was greeted with shouts of “murderer” as she tried to argue her point of view.
The rest of the broadcast was just as elevated. A high-school junior who survived the shooting said that when he looks at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio it’s hard not to see shooter Nikolas Cruz. A freshman said she wanted to ask the NRA: “Was the blood of my classmates and my teachers worth your blood money?” Meanwhile, Sheriff Scott Israel pointed fingers at everyone but himself—this of course before America learned that as many as four of his deputies opted to stay safely outside the school rather than go inside to engage the killer.
In short, the public debate about how Congress ought to respond to this latest mass shooting is guided by two broad principles. Dubious on their own, they are even more witless when combined. The first is the idea that the most important thing is to “do something.” The second is that we ought to look to high-schoolers for the answer.
As goes CNN so goes the nation. The high-schoolers who survived Mr. Cruz’s Valentine’s Day massacre are taking to Twitter , TV and Tallahassee statehouse rallies to pressure politicians to “do something.” In response, some on the right, entirely missing the point, have accused them of being “actors” or “scripted” by the news media.
These teens do not need to be scripted. Their youth and earnestness makes it all but impossible for any adult to advance a counterargument without looking indifferent to the horror these kids have been through. If you don’t agree with what they want, they seem to suggest, you’re OK with mass shootings—as Mr. Rubio and Ms. Loesch found out the hard way.
Quick show of hands for those with children: How many of you look to your teens for political wisdom, whether it’s the daughter obsessing over her Snapchat streaks or the son who would spend his day eating Doritos and binge-gaming “Grand Theft Auto” if you let him?
This in no way diminishes the barbarity of what happened to the Parkland students. It is, however, to insist on the obvious: As terrible as their experiences were, the attack gives them no special insight into the complex array of public policies that might have prevented the slaughter.
Ditto for the “do nothing” accusation. Is it really so unreasonable to insist that those pushing specific legislation or regulations provide evidence that the something they want done will in fact produce the results they claim?
Even keeping the focus solely on school shootings, the challenge here is daunting: how to pick out potential school shooters from the thousands of young men who post ugly things on social media, have no fathers, or have an unhealthy fascination with guns—especially if they have no criminal records and haven’t been diagnosed as mentally ill. Are we confident government has the Solomonic wisdom to sort through the 8.4 million boys in high school and identify the ones who would shoot up a school?
Surely the facts invite skepticism. The FBI call center didn’t forward a January warning to its local Miami office. Sheriff Israel’s deputies answered nearly two dozen calls regarding Mr. Cruz before his rampage, and then hid outside the school when he went active. Some callers said they thought this kid would be a school shooter. Will a new law fix this?
It’s not just conservatives who have doubts. In an October 2016 article in GQ, the Guardian’s full-time gun-politics reporter conceded she was “shocked by how little evidence there was behind some of the most prominent gun control policies.” The year before, right after the San Bernardino killings, the Washington Post fact checker backed Mr. Rubio’s claim that gun laws would not have prevented any of the major shootings the nation had seen in recent years.
Maybe there are “common sense” gun restrictions that could do some good. But that would first require an honest debate. Instead, ours holds up teenagers on national TV who tell us they can’t distinguish between Marco Rubio and Nikolas Cruz.
By William McGurn
The Wall Street Journal
February 26, 2018
“Do you want to do nothing? Do you want to do nothing? Do you want to just do nothing? Just leave it the way it is?”
The words belong to Geraldo Rivera. He emoted them Thursday on the Fox News Channel during a live broadcast of Sean Hannity’s show from the Conservative Political Action Conference. In a perfect encapsulation of what the gun debate has become, Mr. Rivera was yelling at the crowd for booing his assertion that the National Rifle Association needed to back raising to 21 the age for purchasing an assault weapon—even though he’d just admitted “it won’t solve the problem.”
Still, the mini-drama on “Hannity” was nothing compared with the Two Minutes Hate on CNN the evening before. At a CNN-sponsored town hall held in Broward County, Fla.—home to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the latest school shooting occurred—the NRA’s Dana Loesch was greeted with shouts of “murderer” as she tried to argue her point of view.
The rest of the broadcast was just as elevated. A high-school junior who survived the shooting said that when he looks at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio it’s hard not to see shooter Nikolas Cruz. A freshman said she wanted to ask the NRA: “Was the blood of my classmates and my teachers worth your blood money?” Meanwhile, Sheriff Scott Israel pointed fingers at everyone but himself—this of course before America learned that as many as four of his deputies opted to stay safely outside the school rather than go inside to engage the killer.
In short, the public debate about how Congress ought to respond to this latest mass shooting is guided by two broad principles. Dubious on their own, they are even more witless when combined. The first is the idea that the most important thing is to “do something.” The second is that we ought to look to high-schoolers for the answer.
As goes CNN so goes the nation. The high-schoolers who survived Mr. Cruz’s Valentine’s Day massacre are taking to Twitter , TV and Tallahassee statehouse rallies to pressure politicians to “do something.” In response, some on the right, entirely missing the point, have accused them of being “actors” or “scripted” by the news media.
These teens do not need to be scripted. Their youth and earnestness makes it all but impossible for any adult to advance a counterargument without looking indifferent to the horror these kids have been through. If you don’t agree with what they want, they seem to suggest, you’re OK with mass shootings—as Mr. Rubio and Ms. Loesch found out the hard way.
Quick show of hands for those with children: How many of you look to your teens for political wisdom, whether it’s the daughter obsessing over her Snapchat streaks or the son who would spend his day eating Doritos and binge-gaming “Grand Theft Auto” if you let him?
This in no way diminishes the barbarity of what happened to the Parkland students. It is, however, to insist on the obvious: As terrible as their experiences were, the attack gives them no special insight into the complex array of public policies that might have prevented the slaughter.
Ditto for the “do nothing” accusation. Is it really so unreasonable to insist that those pushing specific legislation or regulations provide evidence that the something they want done will in fact produce the results they claim?
Even keeping the focus solely on school shootings, the challenge here is daunting: how to pick out potential school shooters from the thousands of young men who post ugly things on social media, have no fathers, or have an unhealthy fascination with guns—especially if they have no criminal records and haven’t been diagnosed as mentally ill. Are we confident government has the Solomonic wisdom to sort through the 8.4 million boys in high school and identify the ones who would shoot up a school?
Surely the facts invite skepticism. The FBI call center didn’t forward a January warning to its local Miami office. Sheriff Israel’s deputies answered nearly two dozen calls regarding Mr. Cruz before his rampage, and then hid outside the school when he went active. Some callers said they thought this kid would be a school shooter. Will a new law fix this?
It’s not just conservatives who have doubts. In an October 2016 article in GQ, the Guardian’s full-time gun-politics reporter conceded she was “shocked by how little evidence there was behind some of the most prominent gun control policies.” The year before, right after the San Bernardino killings, the Washington Post fact checker backed Mr. Rubio’s claim that gun laws would not have prevented any of the major shootings the nation had seen in recent years.
Maybe there are “common sense” gun restrictions that could do some good. But that would first require an honest debate. Instead, ours holds up teenagers on national TV who tell us they can’t distinguish between Marco Rubio and Nikolas Cruz.
TWO BAD COPS GET THEIR JUST DESERVES AS SEXUAL PREDATORS
Two LAPD officers plead no contest to sexually assaulting women while on duty, receive 25- year prison terms
By Matt Hamilton
Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2018
Two Los Angeles police officers pleaded no contest Monday to sexually assaulting multiple women, often preying on victims while one partner served as the lookout as the other carried out an attack in their unmarked police car.
In a downtown L.A. courtroom, Officers Luis Valenzuela and James C. Nichols entered their no-contest pleas to two counts each of forcible rape and two counts each of forcible oral copulation. The officers appeared in court in orange, jail-issued jumpsuits and were shackled at the waist.
"This hurts," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen said as he alluded to his own career in law enforcement and handed each man a 25-year term in state prison. The judge also ordered the officers to register as sex offenders.
If tried and convicted, the men had faced a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office had filed more than a dozen felony counts against the men in 2016, alleging they targeted four women from 2008 to 2011 by forcing them to have sex. Valenzuela was also accused of assaulting one woman with a gun. Most of those charges were dismissed as part of Monday's plea deal.
The victims were women ages 19 to 34 who were informants for drug investigators or had been recently arrested on suspicion of drug-related crimes. Some of the women said they feared arrest if they did not obey Nichols' and Valenzuela's orders. The Times does not generally identify victims of sexual violence.
"How dare they. They wore a badge to protect people and instead they terrorized them," Det. Carla Zuniga, one of the lead investigators in the case, said outside the courtroom. "They tarnished the public trust. People trust the police. Every time something like this happens, we have to walk into the community and say, 'No, that's not us.'"
Nichols, 46, and Valenzuela, 45, were put on unpaid leave from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2013 and had been relieved of duty. Monday's plea deal clears the way for their formal termination. They have been jailed since early 2016, when LAPD detectives arrested them on felony charges.
Stewart Powell, Nichols' defense attorney, said his client was "looking forward to his day in court" but accepted the plea so the case could close.
"It gives him a chance to get out and have a life after this case," Powell said.
Valenzuela's defense attorney, Bill Seki, said the plea deal allowed his client to one day reunite with his kids outside prison. Valenzuela, he said, was "pretty somber" before entering his plea.
"As the cases go, these times are tough for police officers," Seki added.
The Times first reported on the misconduct allegations in 2013, when detectives sought a search warrant to seize computers and phones, part of an exhaustive investigation that involved scouring the officers' work with drug informants in the Hollywood area.
Prosecutors sought to identify every possible woman who encountered the two.
"We do believe there may have been additional victims who chose not to cooperate with the investigation," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise.
The first woman to accuse Valenzuela and Nichols came forward three years earlier. She said that the officers picked her up in December 2008 for her work as an informant, where she'd score drugs and in exchange receive $40.
While in the back seat of the officers' Volkswagen Jetta, she testified at a 2017 court hearing, Nichols exposed himself and asked that she touch him. Then, he pushed her head into his lap, she said.
Another woman said that after she was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of dealing heroin, the officers transported her from Hollywood to the LAPD jail in Van Nuys. She testified that Nichols and Valenzuela took a detour and stopped in an alley.
Valenzuela informed her that there was a way she could stay out of jail, and he had sex with her in the back seat of the Jetta, she testified. Nichols waited outside the car.
"I was in a dark alleyway with a guy with a gun," she testified. "I didn't really feel like I had a choice."
She was subsequently released and did not have to post bail.
LAPD Sgt. Greg Bruce said at a 2016 court hearing that another woman had sex with the officers several times in a bid to "earn points" and have a drug case dropped.
"He told her if she had sex with him, it would count towards her working off her case," Bruce said on the witness stand.
The woman obeyed out of fear that she'd end up again behind bars.
"What's clear from all of the witnesses that the court heard is that these officers placed these women in a situation where they were extremely vulnerable," said Wise, the prosecutor. "They're in a situation where they don't have a choice. They have the threat of either going back to jail or somehow being penalized by these officers if they don't comply."
All four women who accused the men of forcing them to have sex filed civil lawsuits, and so far the city has agreed to pay a total of more than $1.8 million in settlements to three of the women.
The fourth woman's case is still pending.
The directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, called both officers' actions "disgusting" and said there was "zero tolerance" for officers who use their position to take advantage of others.
"We are sorry these women were let down and hope they are healing as best they can," the union leaders said in a statement.
Before the sentencing Monday, one of the victims stood before the judge and spoke of her difficult road to recovery. She said she was unable to trust others or feel safe.
Some of her worst panic attacks, she said, had two triggers: the sight of a police car or a Volkswagen Jetta.
__________
TWO LAPD OFFICERS SENTENCED FOR ON-DUTY RAPES
by Bob Walsh
Two LAPD officers have just changed their pleas to No Contest to sexually assaulting female informants on duty. They would take turns as lookout while the other was raping the informants.
James Christopher Nichols, 46, and Luis Gustavo Valenzuela, 45, were each immediately sentenced to 25 years. They are also required to register as sex offenders. They were scheduled for trial when they changed their pleas.
Both men had been partners in the Hollywood Division. They were facing multiple additional counts which could have got them life sentences if those charges had been fully pursued.
As I recall there is a special housing unit within the CA state prison system which houses almost exclusively former cops, fire fighters and other former good guys who proved to be not so good. I guess that makes it easier, cheaper and more effective to protect them from the general population.
By Matt Hamilton
Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2018
Two Los Angeles police officers pleaded no contest Monday to sexually assaulting multiple women, often preying on victims while one partner served as the lookout as the other carried out an attack in their unmarked police car.
In a downtown L.A. courtroom, Officers Luis Valenzuela and James C. Nichols entered their no-contest pleas to two counts each of forcible rape and two counts each of forcible oral copulation. The officers appeared in court in orange, jail-issued jumpsuits and were shackled at the waist.
"This hurts," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen said as he alluded to his own career in law enforcement and handed each man a 25-year term in state prison. The judge also ordered the officers to register as sex offenders.
If tried and convicted, the men had faced a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office had filed more than a dozen felony counts against the men in 2016, alleging they targeted four women from 2008 to 2011 by forcing them to have sex. Valenzuela was also accused of assaulting one woman with a gun. Most of those charges were dismissed as part of Monday's plea deal.
The victims were women ages 19 to 34 who were informants for drug investigators or had been recently arrested on suspicion of drug-related crimes. Some of the women said they feared arrest if they did not obey Nichols' and Valenzuela's orders. The Times does not generally identify victims of sexual violence.
"How dare they. They wore a badge to protect people and instead they terrorized them," Det. Carla Zuniga, one of the lead investigators in the case, said outside the courtroom. "They tarnished the public trust. People trust the police. Every time something like this happens, we have to walk into the community and say, 'No, that's not us.'"
Nichols, 46, and Valenzuela, 45, were put on unpaid leave from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2013 and had been relieved of duty. Monday's plea deal clears the way for their formal termination. They have been jailed since early 2016, when LAPD detectives arrested them on felony charges.
Stewart Powell, Nichols' defense attorney, said his client was "looking forward to his day in court" but accepted the plea so the case could close.
"It gives him a chance to get out and have a life after this case," Powell said.
Valenzuela's defense attorney, Bill Seki, said the plea deal allowed his client to one day reunite with his kids outside prison. Valenzuela, he said, was "pretty somber" before entering his plea.
"As the cases go, these times are tough for police officers," Seki added.
The Times first reported on the misconduct allegations in 2013, when detectives sought a search warrant to seize computers and phones, part of an exhaustive investigation that involved scouring the officers' work with drug informants in the Hollywood area.
Prosecutors sought to identify every possible woman who encountered the two.
"We do believe there may have been additional victims who chose not to cooperate with the investigation," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise.
The first woman to accuse Valenzuela and Nichols came forward three years earlier. She said that the officers picked her up in December 2008 for her work as an informant, where she'd score drugs and in exchange receive $40.
While in the back seat of the officers' Volkswagen Jetta, she testified at a 2017 court hearing, Nichols exposed himself and asked that she touch him. Then, he pushed her head into his lap, she said.
Another woman said that after she was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of dealing heroin, the officers transported her from Hollywood to the LAPD jail in Van Nuys. She testified that Nichols and Valenzuela took a detour and stopped in an alley.
Valenzuela informed her that there was a way she could stay out of jail, and he had sex with her in the back seat of the Jetta, she testified. Nichols waited outside the car.
"I was in a dark alleyway with a guy with a gun," she testified. "I didn't really feel like I had a choice."
She was subsequently released and did not have to post bail.
LAPD Sgt. Greg Bruce said at a 2016 court hearing that another woman had sex with the officers several times in a bid to "earn points" and have a drug case dropped.
"He told her if she had sex with him, it would count towards her working off her case," Bruce said on the witness stand.
The woman obeyed out of fear that she'd end up again behind bars.
"What's clear from all of the witnesses that the court heard is that these officers placed these women in a situation where they were extremely vulnerable," said Wise, the prosecutor. "They're in a situation where they don't have a choice. They have the threat of either going back to jail or somehow being penalized by these officers if they don't comply."
All four women who accused the men of forcing them to have sex filed civil lawsuits, and so far the city has agreed to pay a total of more than $1.8 million in settlements to three of the women.
The fourth woman's case is still pending.
The directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, called both officers' actions "disgusting" and said there was "zero tolerance" for officers who use their position to take advantage of others.
"We are sorry these women were let down and hope they are healing as best they can," the union leaders said in a statement.
Before the sentencing Monday, one of the victims stood before the judge and spoke of her difficult road to recovery. She said she was unable to trust others or feel safe.
Some of her worst panic attacks, she said, had two triggers: the sight of a police car or a Volkswagen Jetta.
__________
TWO LAPD OFFICERS SENTENCED FOR ON-DUTY RAPES
by Bob Walsh
Two LAPD officers have just changed their pleas to No Contest to sexually assaulting female informants on duty. They would take turns as lookout while the other was raping the informants.
James Christopher Nichols, 46, and Luis Gustavo Valenzuela, 45, were each immediately sentenced to 25 years. They are also required to register as sex offenders. They were scheduled for trial when they changed their pleas.
Both men had been partners in the Hollywood Division. They were facing multiple additional counts which could have got them life sentences if those charges had been fully pursued.
As I recall there is a special housing unit within the CA state prison system which houses almost exclusively former cops, fire fighters and other former good guys who proved to be not so good. I guess that makes it easier, cheaper and more effective to protect them from the general population.
KNOCKED OFF FOR SELLING KNOCK-OFFS TO A MEXICAN CARTEL
3 from Naples Italy, disappear after selling fake equipment to CJNG
By Chivis Martinez
Borderland Beat
February 26, 2018
January 31, 2018, via WhatsApp was the last time anyone heard from three Italian men from Naples. Family members report that 60-year-old Raffaele Russo, his 25-year-old son Antonio Russo and his 29-year-old nephew Vincenzo Cimmino, were in Tecalitlán, Jalisco, on that last day of January when they last spoke to the men.
In the conversation with relatives they relayed that they had been stopped by police that day.
WhatsApp to Russo’s son Daniele :
"Daniele, we were putting gasoline and stopped by the police, two police motorcycles and a police car ordered 'follow us' [...] now we are behind the motorcycles that said 'follow us' [...] and the car is behind us." That was the last communication from the men.
At that point the trio disappeared, along with the two white SUV’s they were aboard.
That is until this weekend, when Jalisco State Attorney General Raul Sanchez, conducted a news conference to announce that four municipal police officers in Tecalitlan, three men and a woman, “confessed” to “handling the Italians over to members of an organized crime group who operate in the municipality of 13 thousand people.
Although Sanchez did not name the group, it is CJNG that has control of the area.
It is a fact that any municipality that is a “narco plaza,’ is controlled by whichever cartel has dominance in the area. This includes city hall and municipal police. Police are used to pick up people and delivering them to the cartel in charge. Presumably that is what happened in this case.
Mayor Victor Diaz Contreras stated that this was an “isolated occurrence”.
The officers “confessed” to the abduction, and declared their orders came from the highest command of the Tecalitlán police department.
Sanchez says that both the mayor and police chief are under investigation. As of now, the Jalisco United force has taken over the police department. Sanchez also stated that Russo was using a false ID, passing himself off as Mexican when checking into hotels, under the name “Carlos Lopez’.
Authorities chastised the family of the missing men for giving them false information that impeded the investigation. They were projecting the men as simple tourist only in the region for the day. As it turns out they had been at a hotel for several days in nearby Ciudad Guzmán.
The family says they were told by authorities, that police from Tecatitlán, would have received a thousand pesos to deliver the Italians to organized crime. That amounts to 53 USD.
Records indicate that Raffele Russo was arrested three years ago in Campeche, for fraud and corruption, but there is no information as to the disposition of the case.
The men sell equipment and machinery.
Reports say the goods are “knock-offs” or counterfeit and the goods recently sold was construction tools and also counterfeit plant lights bearing the Bosch, the high end German manufacture. A family member says the good are manufactured in China.
It is reported knocked-off machinery and “Bosch” plant lights and generators had been sold to CJNG.
Family member concede that Russo has a criminal record but say “just for small things”. But he did spend three years in an Italian prison for organized crime.
However, Italian press reports indicate he is tied to the Italian Mafia and may be involved with money laundering. Some Mexican media are saying it is not about counterfeits goods, which they can get direct from China, but about drugs specifically Meth.
This was posted on El Universal; “The Russo family belongs to an Italian mafia gang called The Magliari, (the merchants)- Rafaelle spent three years in jail for fraud and at the time of his disappearance was selling fake Bosch machinery in Guadalajara. They suspect he sold fake machinery to the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.”
The Magliari are dedicated to counterfeiting and fraud.
By Chivis Martinez
Borderland Beat
February 26, 2018
January 31, 2018, via WhatsApp was the last time anyone heard from three Italian men from Naples. Family members report that 60-year-old Raffaele Russo, his 25-year-old son Antonio Russo and his 29-year-old nephew Vincenzo Cimmino, were in Tecalitlán, Jalisco, on that last day of January when they last spoke to the men.
In the conversation with relatives they relayed that they had been stopped by police that day.
WhatsApp to Russo’s son Daniele :
"Daniele, we were putting gasoline and stopped by the police, two police motorcycles and a police car ordered 'follow us' [...] now we are behind the motorcycles that said 'follow us' [...] and the car is behind us." That was the last communication from the men.
At that point the trio disappeared, along with the two white SUV’s they were aboard.
That is until this weekend, when Jalisco State Attorney General Raul Sanchez, conducted a news conference to announce that four municipal police officers in Tecalitlan, three men and a woman, “confessed” to “handling the Italians over to members of an organized crime group who operate in the municipality of 13 thousand people.
Although Sanchez did not name the group, it is CJNG that has control of the area.
It is a fact that any municipality that is a “narco plaza,’ is controlled by whichever cartel has dominance in the area. This includes city hall and municipal police. Police are used to pick up people and delivering them to the cartel in charge. Presumably that is what happened in this case.
Mayor Victor Diaz Contreras stated that this was an “isolated occurrence”.
The officers “confessed” to the abduction, and declared their orders came from the highest command of the Tecalitlán police department.
Sanchez says that both the mayor and police chief are under investigation. As of now, the Jalisco United force has taken over the police department. Sanchez also stated that Russo was using a false ID, passing himself off as Mexican when checking into hotels, under the name “Carlos Lopez’.
Authorities chastised the family of the missing men for giving them false information that impeded the investigation. They were projecting the men as simple tourist only in the region for the day. As it turns out they had been at a hotel for several days in nearby Ciudad Guzmán.
The family says they were told by authorities, that police from Tecatitlán, would have received a thousand pesos to deliver the Italians to organized crime. That amounts to 53 USD.
Records indicate that Raffele Russo was arrested three years ago in Campeche, for fraud and corruption, but there is no information as to the disposition of the case.
The men sell equipment and machinery.
Reports say the goods are “knock-offs” or counterfeit and the goods recently sold was construction tools and also counterfeit plant lights bearing the Bosch, the high end German manufacture. A family member says the good are manufactured in China.
It is reported knocked-off machinery and “Bosch” plant lights and generators had been sold to CJNG.
Family member concede that Russo has a criminal record but say “just for small things”. But he did spend three years in an Italian prison for organized crime.
However, Italian press reports indicate he is tied to the Italian Mafia and may be involved with money laundering. Some Mexican media are saying it is not about counterfeits goods, which they can get direct from China, but about drugs specifically Meth.
This was posted on El Universal; “The Russo family belongs to an Italian mafia gang called The Magliari, (the merchants)- Rafaelle spent three years in jail for fraud and at the time of his disappearance was selling fake Bosch machinery in Guadalajara. They suspect he sold fake machinery to the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.”
The Magliari are dedicated to counterfeiting and fraud.
THE FLYING PUBLIC IS MUCH SAFER NOW
TSA disclosed the following Airport Screening Results
2017 RESULTS FROM U.S. AIRPORTS FULL BODY SCANNING BY TSA
Terrorists Discovered - 0
Transvestites - 133
Hernias - 1,485
Hemorrhoid Cases - 3,172
Enlarged Prostates - 8,249
Balloons (heroin) in digestive tract - 274
Breast Implants - 859,350
Tampons – 47,294
Diamond ring inside vagina - 1
Penile Implants – 17,476
Lice in pubic area – 4,184
EDITOR’S NOTE: I really do not feel all that safe now. I wouldn’t want to sit near a passenger with lice.
2017 RESULTS FROM U.S. AIRPORTS FULL BODY SCANNING BY TSA
Terrorists Discovered - 0
Transvestites - 133
Hernias - 1,485
Hemorrhoid Cases - 3,172
Enlarged Prostates - 8,249
Balloons (heroin) in digestive tract - 274
Breast Implants - 859,350
Tampons – 47,294
Diamond ring inside vagina - 1
Penile Implants – 17,476
Lice in pubic area – 4,184
EDITOR’S NOTE: I really do not feel all that safe now. I wouldn’t want to sit near a passenger with lice.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
OFFICER TRACY SHERIDAN BEATS UP BOYFRIEND, ATTACKS RESPONDING COPS
Heather Locklear gets busted for beating the shit out of her boyfriend and attacking the officers who were trying to arrest her
Heather Locklear, who starred as Officer Tracy Sheridan alongside T. J. Hooker in the 1982-86 cop TV series by that name, was arrested Sunday night for felony domestic violence and 3 counts of misdemeanor battery on an officer.
The whoop de doo took place at Heather’s Thousand Oaks, California home. TMZ reports that:
According to the 911 call, Heather's brother came to her home and saw Heather and her boyfriend fighting. The brother called 911. We're told cops observed that the boyfriend had a visible mark.
Law enforcement sources tell us when cops tried putting Heather in custody she became combative, flailing, kicking and struck 3 deputies. Heather was cuffed and taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Heather, now 56, has a troubled past. She’s been a prescription drugs junkie and has been busted for DUI. In 2011, she and her then boyfriend engaged in a knock-down-drag-out brawl.
Heather must have learned how to beat the shit out of people while playing Officer Sheridan on the cop TV series, but now she could use some close supervision by Sgt. Hooker (William Shatner) or else it’s off to the funny farm with her.
Heather Locklear, who starred as Officer Tracy Sheridan alongside T. J. Hooker in the 1982-86 cop TV series by that name, was arrested Sunday night for felony domestic violence and 3 counts of misdemeanor battery on an officer.
The whoop de doo took place at Heather’s Thousand Oaks, California home. TMZ reports that:
According to the 911 call, Heather's brother came to her home and saw Heather and her boyfriend fighting. The brother called 911. We're told cops observed that the boyfriend had a visible mark.
Law enforcement sources tell us when cops tried putting Heather in custody she became combative, flailing, kicking and struck 3 deputies. Heather was cuffed and taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Heather, now 56, has a troubled past. She’s been a prescription drugs junkie and has been busted for DUI. In 2011, she and her then boyfriend engaged in a knock-down-drag-out brawl.
Heather must have learned how to beat the shit out of people while playing Officer Sheridan on the cop TV series, but now she could use some close supervision by Sgt. Hooker (William Shatner) or else it’s off to the funny farm with her.
FLINTLOCK MUSKETS NOW BANNED WEAPONS IN CALIFORNIA
by Bob Walsh
After a full nine months of planning a Revolutionary War Reenactment Festival planned for April in the Elk Grove Regional Park has been cancelled due to the fact that there would have been 13 dangerous military weapons (flintlock muskets) used during the reenactment.
The Historical Society asked the Cosumnes Community Services District board to grant them a waiver. The board refused, suggesting the reenactors use wooden sticks in place of actual dangerous firearms. The Historical Society suggested the Board go fuck themselves.
I'm sure they were actually somewhat more polite than I would have been.
After a full nine months of planning a Revolutionary War Reenactment Festival planned for April in the Elk Grove Regional Park has been cancelled due to the fact that there would have been 13 dangerous military weapons (flintlock muskets) used during the reenactment.
The Historical Society asked the Cosumnes Community Services District board to grant them a waiver. The board refused, suggesting the reenactors use wooden sticks in place of actual dangerous firearms. The Historical Society suggested the Board go fuck themselves.
I'm sure they were actually somewhat more polite than I would have been.
SCOTUS TO HEAR THE CASE OF THE FORGETFUL FELON
by Bob Walsh
Vernon Madison is a murderous turd. He killed a cop in Alabama in 1985. He was supposed to be scragged last month but his execution was put on hold pending review of this case. His shysters are arguing that he has had strokes and is suffering from dementia and that he is now unable to remember the murder or understand his execution. They therefore believe, or at least SAY they believe, this murderous ambulatory turd should NOT be executed.
There is apparently no question that he committed the crime for which he was convicted. He killed the officer when the cops responded to a domestic violence case involving Madison.
SCOTUS will hear the case this fall.
Vernon Madison is a murderous turd. He killed a cop in Alabama in 1985. He was supposed to be scragged last month but his execution was put on hold pending review of this case. His shysters are arguing that he has had strokes and is suffering from dementia and that he is now unable to remember the murder or understand his execution. They therefore believe, or at least SAY they believe, this murderous ambulatory turd should NOT be executed.
There is apparently no question that he committed the crime for which he was convicted. He killed the officer when the cops responded to a domestic violence case involving Madison.
SCOTUS will hear the case this fall.
SCOTUS MAY KILL PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS NEXT WEEK
by Bob Walsh
Next week SCOTUS is scheduled to hear the case of Janus vs. AFSCME, out of Illinois. This case will determine the future of what is commonly called Fair Share or Agency Fee. This is the process by which an public employee union can compel non-members to pay a substantial "fee" to the union for the costs of providing representation for them, but allegedly NOT including costs of political action. That, of course, is a lot of horsecrap and the unions mostly manage to bury a lot of overhead into their agency fees.
Some public employee unions, mostly those in the public safety sector, will I suspect do just fine. The association that represents the California Highway Patrol does NOT charge a fair-share fee and has a membership in the high 90% range. I do, however, fully suspect that a lot of members would bail on many of the more liberal, more mainstream associations like AFSCME.
In my experience members of those organization are actually much more conservative than the hierarchy of those organization and do not like what the organizations do with their money. In addition many of those organizations are not really democratic and their paid staff makes many of the determinations about the direction in which the organization moves. Such decisions IMHO SHOULD be made by the membership via their elected officials, not by paid staff.
In any event it will be REALLY INTERESTING to see which way SCOTUS goes.
Next week SCOTUS is scheduled to hear the case of Janus vs. AFSCME, out of Illinois. This case will determine the future of what is commonly called Fair Share or Agency Fee. This is the process by which an public employee union can compel non-members to pay a substantial "fee" to the union for the costs of providing representation for them, but allegedly NOT including costs of political action. That, of course, is a lot of horsecrap and the unions mostly manage to bury a lot of overhead into their agency fees.
Some public employee unions, mostly those in the public safety sector, will I suspect do just fine. The association that represents the California Highway Patrol does NOT charge a fair-share fee and has a membership in the high 90% range. I do, however, fully suspect that a lot of members would bail on many of the more liberal, more mainstream associations like AFSCME.
In my experience members of those organization are actually much more conservative than the hierarchy of those organization and do not like what the organizations do with their money. In addition many of those organizations are not really democratic and their paid staff makes many of the determinations about the direction in which the organization moves. Such decisions IMHO SHOULD be made by the membership via their elected officials, not by paid staff.
In any event it will be REALLY INTERESTING to see which way SCOTUS goes.
AMERICAN INDIANS STILL GETTING SCREWED
Tribes cut out of California pot market might grow their own
By Michael R. blood
Associated Press
February 25, 2018
LOS ANGELES -- American Indian tribes that say they have been cut out of California's legal marijuana market have raised the possibility of going their own way by establishing pot businesses outside the state-regulated system that is less than two months old.
The tribes floated the idea of setting up rival farms and sales shops on reservations after concluding that rules requiring them to be licensed by the state would strip them of authority over their own lands and their right to self-governance.
The possibility of the tribes breaking away from the state-run system is one more challenge for California as it attempts to transform its longstanding medicinal and illegal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry.
For tribes to participate in the state-run market, "they have to give up their rights to act as governments, with regard to cannabis," said Mark Levitan, a tribal attorney.
At issue are legally thorny questions about who governs whom, taxation and the intersection of state marijuana laws with tribes that the federal government recognizes as sovereign nations within the U.S.
Under regulations issued last year, California would retain full control over licensing. Tribes would have to follow state rules, including "submission to all enforcement," to obtain a license to grow or sell marijuana. Any application must include a waiver of "sovereign immunity," a sort of legal firewall that protects tribal interests.
Without state licenses, businesses cannot take part in the legal state pot market. California has over 100 federally recognized tribes, the most of any state, and estimates of the number either growing and selling pot or eager to do so varies, from a handful to over 20.
Unlike those that have prospered from casino gambling, some are in struggling rural areas and would welcome a new source of cash to improve schools and pave roads.
After long-running negotiations between tribes and state officials failed to produce an agreement before broad legal sales began Jan. 1, the California Native American Cannabis Association warned state officials that tribes "may engage in commercial cannabis activities through our own inherent sovereign authority."
If tribes choose to step away from California's market, "the state will have no jurisdiction to enforce its cannabis laws and regulations on tribal lands," the group said in a sharply worded letter to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's administration in December.
Tribes "just want to be able to do business in the state of California and elsewhere, just like anybody else," said Paul Chavez, former chairman of the Bishop Paiute tribe.
The dispute in California differs from another legal pot state, Washington, where seven tribes have marijuana compacts with the state and others are in negotiations or awaiting the governor's approval. The compacts allow tribal marijuana businesses to participate in the legal system, such as selling tribe-grown pot to retailers off the reservation.
In California, the tribes are circulating a proposal that calls for the governor to strike agreements with them. Those pacts would allow them to participate in the legal market, while the state would recognize a tribe's "exclusive authority" to regulate commercial marijuana activity on its lands.
Tribes are eager for a settlement, but reaching a deal in the Legislature could take the remainder of the year.
"Everyone agrees conceptually there should be an even playing field, a level playing field," said state Assemblyman Rob Bonta, a Democrat at the center of the negotiations in Sacramento.
In addition to the problems in Sacramento, tribes are facing uncertainty at the federal level.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the marijuana trade in states where the drug is legal, which also guided enforcement on tribal lands.
The shifting ground has put a chill over development plans - including in an isolated stretch of eastern San Diego County.
Nevada-based GB Sciences Inc. announced last year that it would build and manage a commercial cannabis company on tribal lands, nurturing plants, manufacturing products and distributing them across the state.
The tribe, the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, would get an ownership stake, jobs and 40 percent of the profits. GB Sciences would get income for its marijuana research and a foothold in the largest legal pot market in the U.S.
But the projected $8 million project is on hold, with the status of tribes in the pot market unclear.
Issues involving sovereignty touch a sensitive subject for tribes, and they see the predicament with marijuana as part of a history of exploitation.
The state rule "harkens back to the end of the 19th century ... when federal and state policies favored extermination or forced assimilation of California tribes," the tribal group wrote.
By Michael R. blood
Associated Press
February 25, 2018
LOS ANGELES -- American Indian tribes that say they have been cut out of California's legal marijuana market have raised the possibility of going their own way by establishing pot businesses outside the state-regulated system that is less than two months old.
The tribes floated the idea of setting up rival farms and sales shops on reservations after concluding that rules requiring them to be licensed by the state would strip them of authority over their own lands and their right to self-governance.
The possibility of the tribes breaking away from the state-run system is one more challenge for California as it attempts to transform its longstanding medicinal and illegal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry.
For tribes to participate in the state-run market, "they have to give up their rights to act as governments, with regard to cannabis," said Mark Levitan, a tribal attorney.
At issue are legally thorny questions about who governs whom, taxation and the intersection of state marijuana laws with tribes that the federal government recognizes as sovereign nations within the U.S.
Under regulations issued last year, California would retain full control over licensing. Tribes would have to follow state rules, including "submission to all enforcement," to obtain a license to grow or sell marijuana. Any application must include a waiver of "sovereign immunity," a sort of legal firewall that protects tribal interests.
Without state licenses, businesses cannot take part in the legal state pot market. California has over 100 federally recognized tribes, the most of any state, and estimates of the number either growing and selling pot or eager to do so varies, from a handful to over 20.
Unlike those that have prospered from casino gambling, some are in struggling rural areas and would welcome a new source of cash to improve schools and pave roads.
After long-running negotiations between tribes and state officials failed to produce an agreement before broad legal sales began Jan. 1, the California Native American Cannabis Association warned state officials that tribes "may engage in commercial cannabis activities through our own inherent sovereign authority."
If tribes choose to step away from California's market, "the state will have no jurisdiction to enforce its cannabis laws and regulations on tribal lands," the group said in a sharply worded letter to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's administration in December.
Tribes "just want to be able to do business in the state of California and elsewhere, just like anybody else," said Paul Chavez, former chairman of the Bishop Paiute tribe.
The dispute in California differs from another legal pot state, Washington, where seven tribes have marijuana compacts with the state and others are in negotiations or awaiting the governor's approval. The compacts allow tribal marijuana businesses to participate in the legal system, such as selling tribe-grown pot to retailers off the reservation.
In California, the tribes are circulating a proposal that calls for the governor to strike agreements with them. Those pacts would allow them to participate in the legal market, while the state would recognize a tribe's "exclusive authority" to regulate commercial marijuana activity on its lands.
Tribes are eager for a settlement, but reaching a deal in the Legislature could take the remainder of the year.
"Everyone agrees conceptually there should be an even playing field, a level playing field," said state Assemblyman Rob Bonta, a Democrat at the center of the negotiations in Sacramento.
In addition to the problems in Sacramento, tribes are facing uncertainty at the federal level.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the marijuana trade in states where the drug is legal, which also guided enforcement on tribal lands.
The shifting ground has put a chill over development plans - including in an isolated stretch of eastern San Diego County.
Nevada-based GB Sciences Inc. announced last year that it would build and manage a commercial cannabis company on tribal lands, nurturing plants, manufacturing products and distributing them across the state.
The tribe, the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, would get an ownership stake, jobs and 40 percent of the profits. GB Sciences would get income for its marijuana research and a foothold in the largest legal pot market in the U.S.
But the projected $8 million project is on hold, with the status of tribes in the pot market unclear.
Issues involving sovereignty touch a sensitive subject for tribes, and they see the predicament with marijuana as part of a history of exploitation.
The state rule "harkens back to the end of the 19th century ... when federal and state policies favored extermination or forced assimilation of California tribes," the tribal group wrote.
SIGNING UP PROSPECTIVE DEMOCRAT VOTERS
Voting registration drive makes inroads in unexpected territory: county jails
By Michael Livingston
Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2018
Several men in green "L.A. County Jail" jumpsuits stood behind bars and listened to Esther Lim speak about this year's elections.
"How many here didn't know they could vote?" Lim asked them. Some men came out of their cells or turned around as Lim explained their voting rights.
Later, in the day room of the Men's Central Jail downtown, a line of inmates eager to register had formed.
In one of the largest efforts aimed at registering eligible incarcerated individuals in Southern California, dozens of volunteers this month are going inside jails in Los Angeles and Orange counties as part of the American Civil Liberties Union's "Unlock the Vote" campaign to educate inmates about their rights.
In California, individuals awaiting trial, in jail for misdemeanors or probation violations or serving a county jail sentence for a low-level offense are eligible to vote. Those in state or federal prison or found to be mentally incompetent are ineligible.
The goal is to have thousands of inmates registered for the June 5 primary and Nov. 6 general elections. The last day to register for the primary is May 21 and for the general election is Oct. 22. Besides local bond measures and initiatives, races include that for L.A. County sheriff, with contenders seeking to unseat incumbent Jim McDonnell.
"You have a say in how that happens," Lim, who directs the jails project for the ACLU of Southern California, told the men.
After decades of laws that advanced felony disenfranchisement, many states— California, Colorado, Connecticut and New York — have begun to lift some restrictions.
Locally, the ACLU, politicians and community organizations are fighting the misconception that incarcerated Californians, who are disproportionately African American and Latino, are locked out of the voting process.
"[We're] opening up those avenues of education and engagement so they do participate and do share their voice," Lim said at a recent training session for volunteers.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this month approved a countywide initiative to promote voter education and registration for current and former offenders.
"No one should be denied their constitutional rights," Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-authored the plan. "I think voter registration efforts in the jails ought to be viewed as a significant piece to anti-recidivism and reentry."
Tim Kornegay shook hands with Ridley-Thomas after the motion passed. In 1995, Kornegay, 55, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for receiving stolen goods. While locked up, Kornegay said he "started seeing the impact of how not being knowledgeable" harmed him.
"I did my transformation into a better man in there, so when I came out I could be ready to serve," he said.
Since his release in 2015, Kornegay has been involved with L.A. Voice, a faith-based community organization, as a voter engagement organizer.
"Voting for us is critically important," Kornegay said.
"The day I got off probation, I registered to vote," said Tiffany Johnson, associate director and community organizer for A New Way of Life Reentry Project.
Registering herself and others to vote "made me feel for the first time in my life that I wanted to be a part of that process," said Johnson, who served 16 years for a second-degree murder conviction before her release in 2010.
The current L.A. County jail population is nearly 17,500 inmates, sheriff's officials said. According to Jeff Klein, manager of voter education and outreach the Los Angeles County registrar's office, more than 600 jail inmates registered to vote in 2016.
During the February drive so far, Lim said, 338 inmates from Men's Central Jail and Century Regional Detention Facility, the women's jail in Lynwood, have registered.
Many inmates listed their home address or an address on the outside on their application. Others were already registered to vote before their incarceration.
Voter registration in the jails gained momentum in 2016 after passage of Assembly Bill 2466, which clarified voting eligibility.
Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) opposed the measure and granting voting rights to inmates altogether, calling the efforts "a very specific political drive" so Democrats can stifle any political change in California.
"It dilutes the vote of the law-abiding citizen," Harper said.
Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said these efforts send the signal that "the consequences of a felony are being removed."
"Do your time and pay your debt, thoroughly," Patterson said. "Show a change of heart, a change of life for a substantial time," and then rights can be restored, he said.
During the recent registration at Men's Central Jail, inmates sat two at a time at silver octagon tables, under the watchful eye of sheriff's deputies.
Volunteers helped applicants complete voter registration forms and vote-by-mail-ballot applications. For their mailing address, applicants can use that of the jail or one outside. Homeless inmates are able to use cross streets of locations where they live.
Inmates lifted their hands to show the booking number on their white wristbands. The booking number is necessary so that if an inmate transfers to another facility, his ballot can still be mailed to him.
The voting process in jail is "very secure," Los Angeles sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Unland said.
Deputies receive a ballot box from the registrar's office and begin handing out ballots a day or two ahead of the election. Ballots are delivered to the registered inmates in their housing quarters, placed in a sealed envelope, and then handed back to the deputies. The deputies place the sealed votes in the ballot box, which is sent back to the registrar's office.
"It's a very interesting partnership, with two government entities working with the community to try and engage" with inmates, Lim said at the training session.
Deputies didn't interact during the application process but monitored the door as inmates entered and left the day room.
"I got the sticker. I'm a registered voter now," one inmate said, placing his Unlock the Vote sticker on his chest.
In all, volunteers helped to register more than 50 individuals.
Elizabeth Garcia-Bynum said three of the initial four inmates she helped were registering for the first time.
"Eleven for my first day is pretty good," she said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If they’ll vote, they will most likely vote for Democrat candidates. But even though they are registered, most of them will never bother to actually vote.
By Michael Livingston
Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2018
Several men in green "L.A. County Jail" jumpsuits stood behind bars and listened to Esther Lim speak about this year's elections.
"How many here didn't know they could vote?" Lim asked them. Some men came out of their cells or turned around as Lim explained their voting rights.
Later, in the day room of the Men's Central Jail downtown, a line of inmates eager to register had formed.
In one of the largest efforts aimed at registering eligible incarcerated individuals in Southern California, dozens of volunteers this month are going inside jails in Los Angeles and Orange counties as part of the American Civil Liberties Union's "Unlock the Vote" campaign to educate inmates about their rights.
In California, individuals awaiting trial, in jail for misdemeanors or probation violations or serving a county jail sentence for a low-level offense are eligible to vote. Those in state or federal prison or found to be mentally incompetent are ineligible.
The goal is to have thousands of inmates registered for the June 5 primary and Nov. 6 general elections. The last day to register for the primary is May 21 and for the general election is Oct. 22. Besides local bond measures and initiatives, races include that for L.A. County sheriff, with contenders seeking to unseat incumbent Jim McDonnell.
"You have a say in how that happens," Lim, who directs the jails project for the ACLU of Southern California, told the men.
After decades of laws that advanced felony disenfranchisement, many states— California, Colorado, Connecticut and New York — have begun to lift some restrictions.
Locally, the ACLU, politicians and community organizations are fighting the misconception that incarcerated Californians, who are disproportionately African American and Latino, are locked out of the voting process.
"[We're] opening up those avenues of education and engagement so they do participate and do share their voice," Lim said at a recent training session for volunteers.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this month approved a countywide initiative to promote voter education and registration for current and former offenders.
"No one should be denied their constitutional rights," Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-authored the plan. "I think voter registration efforts in the jails ought to be viewed as a significant piece to anti-recidivism and reentry."
Tim Kornegay shook hands with Ridley-Thomas after the motion passed. In 1995, Kornegay, 55, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for receiving stolen goods. While locked up, Kornegay said he "started seeing the impact of how not being knowledgeable" harmed him.
"I did my transformation into a better man in there, so when I came out I could be ready to serve," he said.
Since his release in 2015, Kornegay has been involved with L.A. Voice, a faith-based community organization, as a voter engagement organizer.
"Voting for us is critically important," Kornegay said.
"The day I got off probation, I registered to vote," said Tiffany Johnson, associate director and community organizer for A New Way of Life Reentry Project.
Registering herself and others to vote "made me feel for the first time in my life that I wanted to be a part of that process," said Johnson, who served 16 years for a second-degree murder conviction before her release in 2010.
The current L.A. County jail population is nearly 17,500 inmates, sheriff's officials said. According to Jeff Klein, manager of voter education and outreach the Los Angeles County registrar's office, more than 600 jail inmates registered to vote in 2016.
During the February drive so far, Lim said, 338 inmates from Men's Central Jail and Century Regional Detention Facility, the women's jail in Lynwood, have registered.
Many inmates listed their home address or an address on the outside on their application. Others were already registered to vote before their incarceration.
Voter registration in the jails gained momentum in 2016 after passage of Assembly Bill 2466, which clarified voting eligibility.
Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) opposed the measure and granting voting rights to inmates altogether, calling the efforts "a very specific political drive" so Democrats can stifle any political change in California.
"It dilutes the vote of the law-abiding citizen," Harper said.
Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said these efforts send the signal that "the consequences of a felony are being removed."
"Do your time and pay your debt, thoroughly," Patterson said. "Show a change of heart, a change of life for a substantial time," and then rights can be restored, he said.
During the recent registration at Men's Central Jail, inmates sat two at a time at silver octagon tables, under the watchful eye of sheriff's deputies.
Volunteers helped applicants complete voter registration forms and vote-by-mail-ballot applications. For their mailing address, applicants can use that of the jail or one outside. Homeless inmates are able to use cross streets of locations where they live.
Inmates lifted their hands to show the booking number on their white wristbands. The booking number is necessary so that if an inmate transfers to another facility, his ballot can still be mailed to him.
The voting process in jail is "very secure," Los Angeles sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Unland said.
Deputies receive a ballot box from the registrar's office and begin handing out ballots a day or two ahead of the election. Ballots are delivered to the registered inmates in their housing quarters, placed in a sealed envelope, and then handed back to the deputies. The deputies place the sealed votes in the ballot box, which is sent back to the registrar's office.
"It's a very interesting partnership, with two government entities working with the community to try and engage" with inmates, Lim said at the training session.
Deputies didn't interact during the application process but monitored the door as inmates entered and left the day room.
"I got the sticker. I'm a registered voter now," one inmate said, placing his Unlock the Vote sticker on his chest.
In all, volunteers helped to register more than 50 individuals.
Elizabeth Garcia-Bynum said three of the initial four inmates she helped were registering for the first time.
"Eleven for my first day is pretty good," she said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If they’ll vote, they will most likely vote for Democrat candidates. But even though they are registered, most of them will never bother to actually vote.
SEXUAL PREDATOR-IN-CHIEF’S WORLD FAMOUS BLOWJOB RECALLED AGAIN
Monica Lewinsky on How the #MeToo Movement Has Redefined the Clinton Scandal
By Maria Pasquini
People
February 25, 2018
Monica Lewinsky is speaking out about the power and impact of the #MeToo movement, revealing it has enabled people to see the “gross abuse of power” that transpired between her and then-President Bill Clinton over 20 years ago.
In a powerful new personal essay for Vanity Fair, the 44-year-old reflected on the scandal that followed after her sexual relationship with Clinton, now 71, was revealed in 1998, leading to his impeachment trial and eventual acquittal. At the start of the affair a few years prior, Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern.
Lewinsky wrote that the influx of women across industries speaking out against sexual harassment has enabled her — and the country — to view what happened through a different lens.
Still, Lewinsky — who has spoken before about being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the public-shaming she experienced at the time — revealed that she’s only just beginning to “consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern.” It’s a change she attributed to living in a post-Harvey Weinstein world.
“Until recently (thank you, Harvey Weinstein), historians hadn’t really had the perspective to fully process and acknowledge that year of shame and spectacle,” she wrote in Vanity Fair, adding that even though what occurred between herself and Clinton wasn’t sexual assault, “we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power.”
Lewinsky also went on to reveal that viewing her past trauma in a new light has been challenging.
“The reason this is difficult is that I’ve lived for such a long time in the House of Gaslight, clinging to my experiences as they unfolded in my 20s and railing against the untruths that painted me as an unstable stalker and Servicer in Chief,” she wrote in Vanity Fair.
“Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it’s very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement—not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity,” she added.
But because of the #MeToo movement, Lewinsky said, “I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
“I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot,” she continued.
Given the new conditions in which the country is able to view sexual misconduct, Lewinsky added in her Vanity Fair essay, “My hope, given the two dec¬ades that have passed, is that we are now at a stage where we can untangle the complexities and context (maybe even with a little compassion), which might help lead to an eventual healing—and a systemic transformation.”
The lengthy piece covered numerous topics related to the anniversary of the scandal, including an accidental run-in Lewinsky had with Kenneth Starr — the independent counsel who lead the investigation into the relationship now two decades ago — last December.
As recently as last November, several former top advisers to President Obama and the Clintons voiced their support for Lewinsky. During an interview with MSNBC, Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton who also worked for former President Clinton’s administration, said that she was sorry for everything Lewinsky had undergone.
“Monica Lewinsky was my intern and the relationship the president had with her was very inappropriate,” said Palmieri. “It was a consensual relationship, but he was the President of the United States and she was a 24-year-old intern — that is taking advantage of a power dynamic on a historic scale.”
(Lewinsky’s essay will be available in the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair, available on newsstands nationwide on March 6)
By Maria Pasquini
People
February 25, 2018
Monica Lewinsky is speaking out about the power and impact of the #MeToo movement, revealing it has enabled people to see the “gross abuse of power” that transpired between her and then-President Bill Clinton over 20 years ago.
In a powerful new personal essay for Vanity Fair, the 44-year-old reflected on the scandal that followed after her sexual relationship with Clinton, now 71, was revealed in 1998, leading to his impeachment trial and eventual acquittal. At the start of the affair a few years prior, Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern.
Lewinsky wrote that the influx of women across industries speaking out against sexual harassment has enabled her — and the country — to view what happened through a different lens.
Still, Lewinsky — who has spoken before about being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the public-shaming she experienced at the time — revealed that she’s only just beginning to “consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern.” It’s a change she attributed to living in a post-Harvey Weinstein world.
“Until recently (thank you, Harvey Weinstein), historians hadn’t really had the perspective to fully process and acknowledge that year of shame and spectacle,” she wrote in Vanity Fair, adding that even though what occurred between herself and Clinton wasn’t sexual assault, “we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power.”
Lewinsky also went on to reveal that viewing her past trauma in a new light has been challenging.
“The reason this is difficult is that I’ve lived for such a long time in the House of Gaslight, clinging to my experiences as they unfolded in my 20s and railing against the untruths that painted me as an unstable stalker and Servicer in Chief,” she wrote in Vanity Fair.
“Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it’s very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement—not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity,” she added.
But because of the #MeToo movement, Lewinsky said, “I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
“I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot,” she continued.
Given the new conditions in which the country is able to view sexual misconduct, Lewinsky added in her Vanity Fair essay, “My hope, given the two dec¬ades that have passed, is that we are now at a stage where we can untangle the complexities and context (maybe even with a little compassion), which might help lead to an eventual healing—and a systemic transformation.”
The lengthy piece covered numerous topics related to the anniversary of the scandal, including an accidental run-in Lewinsky had with Kenneth Starr — the independent counsel who lead the investigation into the relationship now two decades ago — last December.
As recently as last November, several former top advisers to President Obama and the Clintons voiced their support for Lewinsky. During an interview with MSNBC, Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton who also worked for former President Clinton’s administration, said that she was sorry for everything Lewinsky had undergone.
“Monica Lewinsky was my intern and the relationship the president had with her was very inappropriate,” said Palmieri. “It was a consensual relationship, but he was the President of the United States and she was a 24-year-old intern — that is taking advantage of a power dynamic on a historic scale.”
(Lewinsky’s essay will be available in the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair, available on newsstands nationwide on March 6)
Monday, February 26, 2018
WHO OWNS THE BEACH?
by Bob Walsh
A really interesting legal action has been moving thru the courts with relation to Martins Beach, a very pretty spot near Half Moon Bay on the California Coast. Within the next few months it seems that SCOTUS will actually make the decision.
Nobody is apparently disputing the fact that gazillionair Vinod Khosla owns the beach and the surrounding property. The question is can he restrict access to his own property.
He bought the property ten years ago for a paltry $32.5 million. He shut off access eight years ago, citing maintenance and liability issues. The previous owners had permitted public access for about 70 years.
About four years ago a San Mateo County Judge said that Khosla should have obtained a permit from the California Costal Commission before closing off access. The CCC is a bunch of radical idiots who have been known to deny permits to people to rebuilt houses that have burned down in areas they claim control over. The state supreme court has denied a hearing on the issue.
Khosla has offered to open the land if the state pays $30 million for the easement.
It will be an interesting ruling no matter which way it goes.
A really interesting legal action has been moving thru the courts with relation to Martins Beach, a very pretty spot near Half Moon Bay on the California Coast. Within the next few months it seems that SCOTUS will actually make the decision.
Nobody is apparently disputing the fact that gazillionair Vinod Khosla owns the beach and the surrounding property. The question is can he restrict access to his own property.
He bought the property ten years ago for a paltry $32.5 million. He shut off access eight years ago, citing maintenance and liability issues. The previous owners had permitted public access for about 70 years.
About four years ago a San Mateo County Judge said that Khosla should have obtained a permit from the California Costal Commission before closing off access. The CCC is a bunch of radical idiots who have been known to deny permits to people to rebuilt houses that have burned down in areas they claim control over. The state supreme court has denied a hearing on the issue.
Khosla has offered to open the land if the state pays $30 million for the easement.
It will be an interesting ruling no matter which way it goes.
RADICAL BUT EFFECTIVE URBAN RENEWAL
by Bob Walsh
A notorious "drug house" in the Castro District of the People's Republic of San Francisco mysteriously caught fire and was badly damaged on Friday night. The house has been termed a "neighborhood nuisance and the owner has been casual about bringing it up to code. A court order recently slapped $1.7 million in fines and penalties against the owner. An appeal was dismissed about two months ago.
The structure was unoccupied at the time of the fire. The cause is "under investigation."
A notorious "drug house" in the Castro District of the People's Republic of San Francisco mysteriously caught fire and was badly damaged on Friday night. The house has been termed a "neighborhood nuisance and the owner has been casual about bringing it up to code. A court order recently slapped $1.7 million in fines and penalties against the owner. An appeal was dismissed about two months ago.
The structure was unoccupied at the time of the fire. The cause is "under investigation."
LAPIERRE DECLARES JEWS ARE PLOTTING TO DESTROY AMERICA’S FREEDOM
In NRA's Response to School Massacre: Dog-whistle anti-Semitism, a Star-spangled Protocols of Zion
By Bradley Burston
Haaretz
February 23, 2018
Longtime National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre Thursday addressed criticism of his organization following the Florida school massacre, and his combative defense included expressions of dog-whistle anti-Semitism reminiscent of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," with descriptions of a powerful plot to destroy America's freedom by "European-style Socialists" who he said had taken over the Democratic Party.
LaPierre vowed that the NRA intends to go far beyond its role as a gun lobby, to warn Americans that all of their individual freedoms are being destroyed by a condescending intellectual elite. "I promise you this - the NRA will not only speak out, the NRA will speak out louder and we will speak out stronger than ever before," with its own television station and expanded media operations to resist "the Socialist corruption of our government."
Again and again in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, LaPierre identified the enemies of the NRA, and of America, as Jews - from Karl Marx to Bernie Sanders, from Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor George Soros to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. LaPierre singled out Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York as one of the Democrats who are "liars to the core."
"History proves it. Every time, in every nation in which this political disease rises to power, its citizens are repressed, their freedoms are destroyed, and their firearms are banned and confiscated. It is all backed in this country by the social engineering, and the billions, of people like [philanthropists of Jewish lineage] George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and more."
LaPierre, who has led the NRA for three decades, outlined a vision of a vast conspiracy led by "European-style Socialists" who, he said, have turned the Democrats into a "party which is now infestedwith saboteurs" and which has infiltrated and taken over such bodies as the FBI, the U.S. intelligence community, the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.
Their goal? "Absolute control, in every corner of our government, is their ultimate dream. These intellectual elites, they think they're smarter than we are. They think they're smarter than the rest of us. And they think they're better than we are. They truly believe it, and you know it, the privileged and the powerful. They think they deserve to be in charge of every lever of power.
"But you know what? The United States Constitution makes it absolutely clear that they are not in charge. We, the People are in charge of this country!"
"As usual the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain - Saul Alinsky would have been proud," LaPierre said at the beginning of the speech, implicitly linking the vocal survivors of the shooting which killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, to Alinsky, the late community organizer and political activist who was the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Russia.
Some 40 percent of the Stoneman Douglas high school student body is said to be Jewish.
"The shameful politicization of tragedy - it's a classic strategy right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement," which, he went on to suggest, was the Democratic Party.
"During the last decade, the Obama decade, many of those leaders [older Democrats who worked with the NRA] have been forced out, and a tidal wave of new, European-style socialists seized control of the Democratic Party."
Democrats are "a party which is now infested with saboteurs, who don't believe in capitalism, don't believe in the Constitution, don't believe in our freedom, and don't believe in America as we know it," LaPierre declared, his speech interrupted by enthusiastic applause at nearly every sentence.
"President Trump's election, while crucial, can't turn away the wave of these new, European-style Socialists bearing down upon us." First on LaPierre's list - Bernie Sanders.
"They hide behind labels like 'Democrat,' 'left-wing,' and 'progressive,' to make their Socialist agenda more palatable. And that is terrifying.
"And that should terrify every citizen who values the American ideal in this country of individual liberty," he continued. "They've politicized the Department of Justice, they've weaponized the Internal Revenue Service, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], perhaps crippled the FBI and the intelligence community, and seized and embedded leadership in all of them to advance their agenda.
Many of the student survivors, seeking a ban on assault rifle sales and other gun safety measures, have sought to highlight and cut the ties between politicians and the powerful lobbying group.
LaPierre laid the blame for mass shootings not on the availability of assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, but on the "failure of school security, the failure family, the failures of America's mental health system, and the unbelievable failure of the FBI."
"It's a bizarre fact that jewelry stores all over this country are more important than our children, our banks, our airports, our NBA games, our NFL games, our office buildings, our movie stars, our politicians, are all more protected than our children at school."
"Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children?"
LaPierre suggested that background checks could be abused to violate privacy and destroy the foundations of America itself.
"This growing Socialist state dreams of manipulating schoolchildren to squeeze and squeeze information about their parents. They'll be asking your kids if mommy or daddy spanked them, or what mommy and daddy feed them for dinner, they'll want to know what TV shows you watch, what magazines or newspapers you read - and, oh yes, do mommy and daddy own a gun.
"And all that private information will be entered into that ultimate list, that cloud of data storage, that couldn't care less about due process and constitutional freedom, and your privacy as an American citizen - and then it's just a short hop to the systematic destruction of our most basic freedoms in this country.
"And you all know what they are, but let me say them: family, faith, individual responsibility and self-destiny, a free-market economy, patriotism, respect for our national flag and our national anthem, personal liberty, and justice for all."
As it is, LaPierre said, "On college campuses, the Communist Manifesto is one of the most frequently assigned texts. Karl Marx is the most assigned economist."
He reserved particular scorn for the words "Hollywood" and "Washington." In the nation's capital, he said, "no one speaks out, no one challenges authority, everyone keeps their mouth closed and their heads down, and that's exactly how Socialistic societies function."
"Anyone who attempts to resist is smeared into submission," he added. "Yep, you know it. Ah, yes, the Art of the Smear - we do live in the Socialistic age of the Art of the Smear. It doesn't have to be true. It just has to stick somewhere, anywhere. It's designed to degrade, to destroy, and it's all over the national media to serve their agenda, and is a movement that loves a smear - 'Racist,' 'Mysogynist,' 'Sexist,'
'xenophobe' and more."
According to LaPierre, for America's Socialists, "You name a group, and they'll find a way to turn them into victims. They keep their movement growing by finding someone to be offended by something, every minute of every day." Citing the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter and Antifa, he said they "agitate the offended, promote uncivil discourse, and ignore any sense of due process and fairness, to destroy their enemies."
"Evil walks among us," LaPierre said, "and God help us if we don't harden our schools and protect our kids."
EDITOR’S NOTE: I dropped my longtime membership in the NRA back in 1982 when LaPierre declared his opposition to a ban on teflon-coated cop killer bullets. I will not consider rejoining while that anti-Semitic asshole continues to head the NRA.
For those who are wondering what ‘dog-whistle anti-Semitism’ means, it’s like a dog whistle that only a dog can hear. Although LaPierre does not come right out and use the word ‘Jews’ as those plotting to destroy America’s freedom, the ant-Semitism comes out loud and clear when all those plotters he names are Jewish.
By Bradley Burston
Haaretz
February 23, 2018
Longtime National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre Thursday addressed criticism of his organization following the Florida school massacre, and his combative defense included expressions of dog-whistle anti-Semitism reminiscent of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," with descriptions of a powerful plot to destroy America's freedom by "European-style Socialists" who he said had taken over the Democratic Party.
LaPierre vowed that the NRA intends to go far beyond its role as a gun lobby, to warn Americans that all of their individual freedoms are being destroyed by a condescending intellectual elite. "I promise you this - the NRA will not only speak out, the NRA will speak out louder and we will speak out stronger than ever before," with its own television station and expanded media operations to resist "the Socialist corruption of our government."
Again and again in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, LaPierre identified the enemies of the NRA, and of America, as Jews - from Karl Marx to Bernie Sanders, from Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor George Soros to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. LaPierre singled out Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York as one of the Democrats who are "liars to the core."
"History proves it. Every time, in every nation in which this political disease rises to power, its citizens are repressed, their freedoms are destroyed, and their firearms are banned and confiscated. It is all backed in this country by the social engineering, and the billions, of people like [philanthropists of Jewish lineage] George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and more."
LaPierre, who has led the NRA for three decades, outlined a vision of a vast conspiracy led by "European-style Socialists" who, he said, have turned the Democrats into a "party which is now infestedwith saboteurs" and which has infiltrated and taken over such bodies as the FBI, the U.S. intelligence community, the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.
Their goal? "Absolute control, in every corner of our government, is their ultimate dream. These intellectual elites, they think they're smarter than we are. They think they're smarter than the rest of us. And they think they're better than we are. They truly believe it, and you know it, the privileged and the powerful. They think they deserve to be in charge of every lever of power.
"But you know what? The United States Constitution makes it absolutely clear that they are not in charge. We, the People are in charge of this country!"
"As usual the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain - Saul Alinsky would have been proud," LaPierre said at the beginning of the speech, implicitly linking the vocal survivors of the shooting which killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, to Alinsky, the late community organizer and political activist who was the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Russia.
Some 40 percent of the Stoneman Douglas high school student body is said to be Jewish.
"The shameful politicization of tragedy - it's a classic strategy right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement," which, he went on to suggest, was the Democratic Party.
"During the last decade, the Obama decade, many of those leaders [older Democrats who worked with the NRA] have been forced out, and a tidal wave of new, European-style socialists seized control of the Democratic Party."
Democrats are "a party which is now infested with saboteurs, who don't believe in capitalism, don't believe in the Constitution, don't believe in our freedom, and don't believe in America as we know it," LaPierre declared, his speech interrupted by enthusiastic applause at nearly every sentence.
"President Trump's election, while crucial, can't turn away the wave of these new, European-style Socialists bearing down upon us." First on LaPierre's list - Bernie Sanders.
"They hide behind labels like 'Democrat,' 'left-wing,' and 'progressive,' to make their Socialist agenda more palatable. And that is terrifying.
"And that should terrify every citizen who values the American ideal in this country of individual liberty," he continued. "They've politicized the Department of Justice, they've weaponized the Internal Revenue Service, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], perhaps crippled the FBI and the intelligence community, and seized and embedded leadership in all of them to advance their agenda.
Many of the student survivors, seeking a ban on assault rifle sales and other gun safety measures, have sought to highlight and cut the ties between politicians and the powerful lobbying group.
LaPierre laid the blame for mass shootings not on the availability of assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, but on the "failure of school security, the failure family, the failures of America's mental health system, and the unbelievable failure of the FBI."
"It's a bizarre fact that jewelry stores all over this country are more important than our children, our banks, our airports, our NBA games, our NFL games, our office buildings, our movie stars, our politicians, are all more protected than our children at school."
"Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children?"
LaPierre suggested that background checks could be abused to violate privacy and destroy the foundations of America itself.
"This growing Socialist state dreams of manipulating schoolchildren to squeeze and squeeze information about their parents. They'll be asking your kids if mommy or daddy spanked them, or what mommy and daddy feed them for dinner, they'll want to know what TV shows you watch, what magazines or newspapers you read - and, oh yes, do mommy and daddy own a gun.
"And all that private information will be entered into that ultimate list, that cloud of data storage, that couldn't care less about due process and constitutional freedom, and your privacy as an American citizen - and then it's just a short hop to the systematic destruction of our most basic freedoms in this country.
"And you all know what they are, but let me say them: family, faith, individual responsibility and self-destiny, a free-market economy, patriotism, respect for our national flag and our national anthem, personal liberty, and justice for all."
As it is, LaPierre said, "On college campuses, the Communist Manifesto is one of the most frequently assigned texts. Karl Marx is the most assigned economist."
He reserved particular scorn for the words "Hollywood" and "Washington." In the nation's capital, he said, "no one speaks out, no one challenges authority, everyone keeps their mouth closed and their heads down, and that's exactly how Socialistic societies function."
"Anyone who attempts to resist is smeared into submission," he added. "Yep, you know it. Ah, yes, the Art of the Smear - we do live in the Socialistic age of the Art of the Smear. It doesn't have to be true. It just has to stick somewhere, anywhere. It's designed to degrade, to destroy, and it's all over the national media to serve their agenda, and is a movement that loves a smear - 'Racist,' 'Mysogynist,' 'Sexist,'
'xenophobe' and more."
According to LaPierre, for America's Socialists, "You name a group, and they'll find a way to turn them into victims. They keep their movement growing by finding someone to be offended by something, every minute of every day." Citing the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter and Antifa, he said they "agitate the offended, promote uncivil discourse, and ignore any sense of due process and fairness, to destroy their enemies."
"Evil walks among us," LaPierre said, "and God help us if we don't harden our schools and protect our kids."
EDITOR’S NOTE: I dropped my longtime membership in the NRA back in 1982 when LaPierre declared his opposition to a ban on teflon-coated cop killer bullets. I will not consider rejoining while that anti-Semitic asshole continues to head the NRA.
For those who are wondering what ‘dog-whistle anti-Semitism’ means, it’s like a dog whistle that only a dog can hear. Although LaPierre does not come right out and use the word ‘Jews’ as those plotting to destroy America’s freedom, the ant-Semitism comes out loud and clear when all those plotters he names are Jewish.
SANCTUARY CITIY POLICY JEOPARDIZES LIVES OF OFFICERS
Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez didn’t seek Gov. Abbott’s body armor grant because of immigration policy
By Phil Prazan
KXAN
February 22, 2018
AUSTIN -- Travis County Sheriff’s Office deputies do not have rifle-resistance vests because Sheriff Sally Hernandez will not commit to hold all arrested undocumented immigrants for deportation.
In January, Governor Abbott announced the state would fund $23 million in grants to purchase 33,000 vests for more than 450 law enforcement departments. Every agency that applied for vests received them. Travis County did not apply for the grant because one condition from the governor’s office required the agency to “sign a letter confirming compliance with ICE detainer requests both now and during the grant term of at least one year,” according to Travis County Commissioner’s Court records.
The deadline to apply for the vests was Sept. 6, 2017, and Travis County officials were still thinking of applying days before the deadline.
On Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, county staff presented a grant summary sheet to the Commissioners Court. According to county documents, project manager Valerie Hollier planned on asking for a state grant of approximately $240,000, enough for more than 200 rifle-resistant vests.
“It is anticipated the number of fatal shootings will be reduced by equipping more officers with type III & IV body armor,” according to the recommendations.
However, county staff wrote to commissioners that the county wouldn’t apply and didn’t qualify because Sheriff Hernandez would not sign a letter committing to hold arrested undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Staff wrote Hernandez wanted to wait until the outcome of Senate Bill 4 was decided.
Lawmakers passed SB 4 in the spring of 2017. The law requires county sheriffs to honor ICE detainers or hold arrested people in jail until federal immigration officials pick them up for possible deportation. Opponents of the law sued the state and the case is currently awaiting a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Both sides are expected to take the case to the United States Supreme Court afterward.
According to county documents, “If SB 4 is upheld, the Sheriff has stated that she would sign the letter and the grant would be submitted.” However, if the law is struck down or no action is taken, then the sheriff will not sign the letter.
Signing the letter also gives Abbott’s office “sole discretion” over approving the grants. The required letter and certification are laid out on Abbott’s website.
However, the governor’s office can require agencies to honor ICE detainers whether SB 4 is upheld or not. In short, the grants are from the governor’s office and Abbott can decide what the requirements are to apply.
A spokesperson from the sheriff’s office says Hernandez is complying with SB 4 but has no plans on signing the letter. If SB 4 is struck down in the future, they will revert to their old policy and only hold people arrested for very violent crimes.
Hernandez’s office declined to make her available for an interview or add anything to the documents available to the public.
KXAN reached out to the four county commissioners and Judge Sarah Eckhart to comment for this story. A spokesperson for them declined. Judge Eckhart would also have to sign on to honoring all ICE detainers to receive state grant money.
Currently, Travis County deputies do have bulletproof vests to protect against low-caliber bullets. The Sheriff’s office confirms they are searching for other funding sources to pay for body armor.
The money for rifle-resistant vests came about after a deadly night in Dallas. Several Dallas police officers were killed in the line of duty while they protected a Black Lives Matter march in 2016. In the 2017 legislative session, state lawmakers unanimously approved Senate Bill 12, a $25 million program to help police departments pay for protective vests.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Austin/Travis County is the San Francisco of Texas. That should explain the above.
By Phil Prazan
KXAN
February 22, 2018
AUSTIN -- Travis County Sheriff’s Office deputies do not have rifle-resistance vests because Sheriff Sally Hernandez will not commit to hold all arrested undocumented immigrants for deportation.
In January, Governor Abbott announced the state would fund $23 million in grants to purchase 33,000 vests for more than 450 law enforcement departments. Every agency that applied for vests received them. Travis County did not apply for the grant because one condition from the governor’s office required the agency to “sign a letter confirming compliance with ICE detainer requests both now and during the grant term of at least one year,” according to Travis County Commissioner’s Court records.
The deadline to apply for the vests was Sept. 6, 2017, and Travis County officials were still thinking of applying days before the deadline.
On Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, county staff presented a grant summary sheet to the Commissioners Court. According to county documents, project manager Valerie Hollier planned on asking for a state grant of approximately $240,000, enough for more than 200 rifle-resistant vests.
“It is anticipated the number of fatal shootings will be reduced by equipping more officers with type III & IV body armor,” according to the recommendations.
However, county staff wrote to commissioners that the county wouldn’t apply and didn’t qualify because Sheriff Hernandez would not sign a letter committing to hold arrested undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Staff wrote Hernandez wanted to wait until the outcome of Senate Bill 4 was decided.
Lawmakers passed SB 4 in the spring of 2017. The law requires county sheriffs to honor ICE detainers or hold arrested people in jail until federal immigration officials pick them up for possible deportation. Opponents of the law sued the state and the case is currently awaiting a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Both sides are expected to take the case to the United States Supreme Court afterward.
According to county documents, “If SB 4 is upheld, the Sheriff has stated that she would sign the letter and the grant would be submitted.” However, if the law is struck down or no action is taken, then the sheriff will not sign the letter.
Signing the letter also gives Abbott’s office “sole discretion” over approving the grants. The required letter and certification are laid out on Abbott’s website.
However, the governor’s office can require agencies to honor ICE detainers whether SB 4 is upheld or not. In short, the grants are from the governor’s office and Abbott can decide what the requirements are to apply.
A spokesperson from the sheriff’s office says Hernandez is complying with SB 4 but has no plans on signing the letter. If SB 4 is struck down in the future, they will revert to their old policy and only hold people arrested for very violent crimes.
Hernandez’s office declined to make her available for an interview or add anything to the documents available to the public.
KXAN reached out to the four county commissioners and Judge Sarah Eckhart to comment for this story. A spokesperson for them declined. Judge Eckhart would also have to sign on to honoring all ICE detainers to receive state grant money.
Currently, Travis County deputies do have bulletproof vests to protect against low-caliber bullets. The Sheriff’s office confirms they are searching for other funding sources to pay for body armor.
The money for rifle-resistant vests came about after a deadly night in Dallas. Several Dallas police officers were killed in the line of duty while they protected a Black Lives Matter march in 2016. In the 2017 legislative session, state lawmakers unanimously approved Senate Bill 12, a $25 million program to help police departments pay for protective vests.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Austin/Travis County is the San Francisco of Texas. That should explain the above.
BEING A COP CAN BE A SHITTY JOB
Texas woman shits in pants to hide drugs during arrest, forcing officers to sift through her turds for the evidence
Associated Press
February 25, 2018
CORSICANA, Texas — Police say a Texas woman attempted to hide evidence during an arrest by defecating in her pants and using the feces to conceal drugs.
Officers in Corsicana, about 55 miles (88 kilometers ) south of Dallas, were investigating a report of a theft at a grocery store on Wednesday when they attempted to subdue a female suspect and take her into custody.
Police say they placed Shannen Martin in the back of a police cruiser where they say she intentionally defecated in her pants then hid a crack pipe, 2.3 grams of crack cocaine and a Valentine's Day card in her excrement.
Officers had to sift through the woman's feces to retrieve the evidence after Martin was booked on charges of tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance.
EDITOR’S NOTE: When I was working dope cases it was not unusual for dopers to hide their heroin inside a commode filled full of piss and shit, thinking we would refuse to search through that stinking, filthy mess.
Associated Press
February 25, 2018
CORSICANA, Texas — Police say a Texas woman attempted to hide evidence during an arrest by defecating in her pants and using the feces to conceal drugs.
Officers in Corsicana, about 55 miles (88 kilometers ) south of Dallas, were investigating a report of a theft at a grocery store on Wednesday when they attempted to subdue a female suspect and take her into custody.
Police say they placed Shannen Martin in the back of a police cruiser where they say she intentionally defecated in her pants then hid a crack pipe, 2.3 grams of crack cocaine and a Valentine's Day card in her excrement.
Officers had to sift through the woman's feces to retrieve the evidence after Martin was booked on charges of tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance.
EDITOR’S NOTE: When I was working dope cases it was not unusual for dopers to hide their heroin inside a commode filled full of piss and shit, thinking we would refuse to search through that stinking, filthy mess.
TRUMP IS SPITTING IN THE FACE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ….. GOOD FOR HIM!
Trump Accelerates US Embassy Transfer to Jerusalem
Israel Today
February 25, 2018
Much to the chagrin of the Palestinian Authority, US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he'd be accelerating the transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The US mission is slated to being moving in phases to its consular facility in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona starting in May.
The first stages of the move are expected to see Ambassador David Friedman and a small personal staff take up offices at the Arnona facility, officially granting it the status of "embassy."
Later, a full embassy annex will be added to the complex, with a new embassy facility to be built elsewhere in the city during the years to come.
Israeli government ministers called Trump's announcement and "Independence Day gift," given that the May transfer coincides with Israel's 70th anniversary celebrations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to extend a formal invitation to Trump to visit Israel at that time to both join the anniversary celebrations and oversee the embassy's initial transfer.
Unsurprisingly, Palestinian leaders were furious over the announcement.
Lead Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, who recently told US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to "shut up," issued the following overly-dramatic statement:
"The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and now to move its embassy on the eve of marking 70 years since the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of at least 418 Palestinian villages, and the forcible displacement of two-thirds of our people, shows the determination of the US administration to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people, as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."
__________
Hamas slams US Embassy move as 'declaration of war' against Muslims
Israel Hayom
February 25, 2018
Palestinians voiced outraged Friday following reports that the United States plans to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within months, saying the move threatens to destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, said, "Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation, and the U.S. administration must reconsider."
He also called on Muslims to unite against this "despicable decision."
Clashes erupted in Gaza and the West Bank earlier on Friday in a weekly protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on Jerusalem, which has also angered Arab political and religious leaders across the region and dismayed European allies.
Palestinians were particularly irked by Trump's Dec. 6, 2017 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because they envision east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Trump's declaration set the embassy relocation in motion, thereby contravening decades of policy by the international community.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator in peace talks that have been frozen since 2014, said the U.S. move showed a "determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."
Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said, "Trump and his team have disqualified the U.S. from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem."
A U.S. official on Friday said the United States was expected to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May. This would be shortly after Israel's 70th anniversary.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called the move "unacceptable."
"Any unilateral move will deprive everyone of legitimacy and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region," he said.
Abbas has rejected U.S.-led Middle East peace efforts as "impossible" since Washington's decision.
Abu Rudeineh said the only way to achieve peace, security and stability was to adopt Abbas' proposal – outlined in an address to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Tuesday – calling for an international conference to kick-start the peace process, including the establishment of a "multilateral mechanism" to oversee it.
Abbas remained in the U.S. for medical exams in Baltimore on Thursday, but headed back to the West Bank over the weekend, Abu Rudeineh said.
Ankara also condemned the move, which the Turkish Foreign Ministry called "highly worrisome."
A Turkish official said the U.S. plan to relocate the embassy "reveals that the U.S. insists on undermining the foundations of peace by disregarding international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem."
"Turkey will sustain its efforts, together with the vast majority of [the] international community, to safeguard the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," the official said.
A number of Israeli lawmakers also condemned the American decision. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said, "We all want to see Jerusalem recognized as the [Israeli] capital by the nations of the world. But the decision to unilaterally move the embassy will not help [attain] that goal, but will do the exact opposite. If we want all the embassies, not just the American [Embassy], to relocate to Jerusalem, we need to reach a peace agreement, end the occupation and determine agreed-upon and recognized borders."
Joint Arab List MK Yousef Jabareen said the decision was comparable to spitting "in the face of the international community, which in an absolute majority, voted against the Trump declaration."
"The embassy should remain in Tel Aviv, and there is no room for its transfer to Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem will be determined in a comprehensive peace agreement and with the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, as agreed upon by the international community," he said.
Israel Today
February 25, 2018
Much to the chagrin of the Palestinian Authority, US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he'd be accelerating the transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The US mission is slated to being moving in phases to its consular facility in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona starting in May.
The first stages of the move are expected to see Ambassador David Friedman and a small personal staff take up offices at the Arnona facility, officially granting it the status of "embassy."
Later, a full embassy annex will be added to the complex, with a new embassy facility to be built elsewhere in the city during the years to come.
Israeli government ministers called Trump's announcement and "Independence Day gift," given that the May transfer coincides with Israel's 70th anniversary celebrations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to extend a formal invitation to Trump to visit Israel at that time to both join the anniversary celebrations and oversee the embassy's initial transfer.
Unsurprisingly, Palestinian leaders were furious over the announcement.
Lead Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, who recently told US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to "shut up," issued the following overly-dramatic statement:
"The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and now to move its embassy on the eve of marking 70 years since the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of at least 418 Palestinian villages, and the forcible displacement of two-thirds of our people, shows the determination of the US administration to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people, as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."
__________
Hamas slams US Embassy move as 'declaration of war' against Muslims
Israel Hayom
February 25, 2018
Palestinians voiced outraged Friday following reports that the United States plans to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within months, saying the move threatens to destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, said, "Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation, and the U.S. administration must reconsider."
He also called on Muslims to unite against this "despicable decision."
Clashes erupted in Gaza and the West Bank earlier on Friday in a weekly protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on Jerusalem, which has also angered Arab political and religious leaders across the region and dismayed European allies.
Palestinians were particularly irked by Trump's Dec. 6, 2017 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because they envision east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Trump's declaration set the embassy relocation in motion, thereby contravening decades of policy by the international community.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator in peace talks that have been frozen since 2014, said the U.S. move showed a "determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."
Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said, "Trump and his team have disqualified the U.S. from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem."
A U.S. official on Friday said the United States was expected to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May. This would be shortly after Israel's 70th anniversary.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called the move "unacceptable."
"Any unilateral move will deprive everyone of legitimacy and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region," he said.
Abbas has rejected U.S.-led Middle East peace efforts as "impossible" since Washington's decision.
Abu Rudeineh said the only way to achieve peace, security and stability was to adopt Abbas' proposal – outlined in an address to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Tuesday – calling for an international conference to kick-start the peace process, including the establishment of a "multilateral mechanism" to oversee it.
Abbas remained in the U.S. for medical exams in Baltimore on Thursday, but headed back to the West Bank over the weekend, Abu Rudeineh said.
Ankara also condemned the move, which the Turkish Foreign Ministry called "highly worrisome."
A Turkish official said the U.S. plan to relocate the embassy "reveals that the U.S. insists on undermining the foundations of peace by disregarding international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem."
"Turkey will sustain its efforts, together with the vast majority of [the] international community, to safeguard the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," the official said.
A number of Israeli lawmakers also condemned the American decision. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said, "We all want to see Jerusalem recognized as the [Israeli] capital by the nations of the world. But the decision to unilaterally move the embassy will not help [attain] that goal, but will do the exact opposite. If we want all the embassies, not just the American [Embassy], to relocate to Jerusalem, we need to reach a peace agreement, end the occupation and determine agreed-upon and recognized borders."
Joint Arab List MK Yousef Jabareen said the decision was comparable to spitting "in the face of the international community, which in an absolute majority, voted against the Trump declaration."
"The embassy should remain in Tel Aviv, and there is no room for its transfer to Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem will be determined in a comprehensive peace agreement and with the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, as agreed upon by the international community," he said.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
PROTECTING HOUSTON-GALVESTON AREA SCHOOLCHILDREN FROM CRAZY SHOOTERS
Radical measures must be taken to make our schools safe because gun controls will not do so
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
February 24, 2018
In the wake of the Florida school massacre there have been shrill calls for stricter gun controls, including raising the age to 21 for the purchases of semi-automatic weapons and an outright ban on AR-15-type rifles. If Congress passes any of those measures it will only be feel-good legislation because that will no protect our schoolchildren from crazy shooters.
Right now there are over five million military-style rifles in the hands of American gun owners. Some of these gun owners are already crazy and there is no telling how many of them will turn into nutjobs. It is obvious that we cannot protect our school children from these crazies. Having an armed cop in every school will not prevent a shooter from killing students and teachers, although it could cut down on the carnage.
I’ve noticed that schools in the Houston-Galveston area have surrounded their campuses with fencing to keep intruders out. Wrought iron fencing is decorative but if it’s only 6-8 feet high, it will hardly keep out some nutjob determined to slaughter a bunch of schoolkids. So what can we do to protect our kids?
As I’ve said, armed cops on campus could cut down on the carnage, but those cops would have to be in the right place at the right time to incapacitate a shooter before he has a chance to open fire on any students. The same can be said about armed teachers.
Locked bullet-proof classroom doors are effective while classes are in session but won’t protect students when the hallways are crowded during class breaks and when the school cafeteria is filled. How then can we make sure our children are protected while in school?
There is a radical measure that can be taken to make our school safe. Security fencing is the answer. None of that wrought iron decorative fencing!
The school campus perimeter should be surrounded by a chain-link fence at least 12-feet high and topped off with razor wire. A double fence would be even better. Any access point must have a guard post with a metal detector. And for very large campuses, having someone patrol outside the fencing with a vehicle would not be a bad idea.
All that is expensive, but how much are our kids worth?
School boards spend millions of dollars building palatial-looking schools and such fencing would certainly detract from that. Looking at it from the outside, one might think they are seeing a prison. But that is the price we may have to pay to make sure no crazy shooter will gain access to a campus.
Instead of constructing palaces, school boards should put up no-frills buildings and they should stop using a different architectural design every time they plan for a new school. That way they would save tons of money which could be used for the fencing, guards and metal detectors.
I’m sure some of you will think I’m the one that’s nuts. But I do not propose letting a snarling bunch of Rottweilers or Dobermans run loose inside the double fencing. At least not yet.
Seriously though, security fencing with guarded access points appears to be the only real answer for the prevention of school shootings.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
February 24, 2018
In the wake of the Florida school massacre there have been shrill calls for stricter gun controls, including raising the age to 21 for the purchases of semi-automatic weapons and an outright ban on AR-15-type rifles. If Congress passes any of those measures it will only be feel-good legislation because that will no protect our schoolchildren from crazy shooters.
Right now there are over five million military-style rifles in the hands of American gun owners. Some of these gun owners are already crazy and there is no telling how many of them will turn into nutjobs. It is obvious that we cannot protect our school children from these crazies. Having an armed cop in every school will not prevent a shooter from killing students and teachers, although it could cut down on the carnage.
I’ve noticed that schools in the Houston-Galveston area have surrounded their campuses with fencing to keep intruders out. Wrought iron fencing is decorative but if it’s only 6-8 feet high, it will hardly keep out some nutjob determined to slaughter a bunch of schoolkids. So what can we do to protect our kids?
As I’ve said, armed cops on campus could cut down on the carnage, but those cops would have to be in the right place at the right time to incapacitate a shooter before he has a chance to open fire on any students. The same can be said about armed teachers.
Locked bullet-proof classroom doors are effective while classes are in session but won’t protect students when the hallways are crowded during class breaks and when the school cafeteria is filled. How then can we make sure our children are protected while in school?
There is a radical measure that can be taken to make our school safe. Security fencing is the answer. None of that wrought iron decorative fencing!
The school campus perimeter should be surrounded by a chain-link fence at least 12-feet high and topped off with razor wire. A double fence would be even better. Any access point must have a guard post with a metal detector. And for very large campuses, having someone patrol outside the fencing with a vehicle would not be a bad idea.
All that is expensive, but how much are our kids worth?
School boards spend millions of dollars building palatial-looking schools and such fencing would certainly detract from that. Looking at it from the outside, one might think they are seeing a prison. But that is the price we may have to pay to make sure no crazy shooter will gain access to a campus.
Instead of constructing palaces, school boards should put up no-frills buildings and they should stop using a different architectural design every time they plan for a new school. That way they would save tons of money which could be used for the fencing, guards and metal detectors.
I’m sure some of you will think I’m the one that’s nuts. But I do not propose letting a snarling bunch of Rottweilers or Dobermans run loose inside the double fencing. At least not yet.
Seriously though, security fencing with guarded access points appears to be the only real answer for the prevention of school shootings.
AMERICANS WIN GOLD MEDAL IN "WATCHING WATER FREEZE"
by Bob Walsh
The American Curling Team beat out Sweden by a score of 10-7 in that "riveting" sport that is pretty much akin to watching water freeze. Whoop de fucking do.
EDITOR'S NOTE: To me curling is more like watching a janitorial contest.
The American Curling Team beat out Sweden by a score of 10-7 in that "riveting" sport that is pretty much akin to watching water freeze. Whoop de fucking do.
EDITOR'S NOTE: To me curling is more like watching a janitorial contest.
A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN...KIND-OF MAYBE
by Bob Walsh
In most of the counties in the formerly great state of California the Sheriff is also the County Coroner. Only a few of the very largest counties maintain a completely separate Coroner-Medical Examiner.
Regular readers will remember I wrote recently about a fairly serious pissing contest in San Joaquin County where I live between the medical examiner and the Sheriff-Coroner. The medical examiners believe that the Sheriff has, on occasion, pissed in the Wheaties and they don't like it. The county has considered making the separation on their own, but creating a whole new department within county government has some administrative costs attached to it. The county squeezes the nickels until the buffalo shits, or at least want us poor tax payers to believe that.
It may be taken out of their hands. The California legislature has introduced a bill which, if passed into law, would REQUIRE that counties with a population of more than 500,000 (San Joaquin is a bit over 600,000) maintain a separate Coroner's Office. If passed in its current form SB 1303 would require this step be implemented not later than January 1 2019.
Personally I think this is a good idea and feel that the country can afford the money if it will being a greater degree of professionalism into the office. I happen to know Sheriff Moore a little bit and on a personal basis I like him. That being said some people whose opinion I respect have told me that some aspects of his job related to the coroner's duties are being handled in a questionable manner. That is not a good thing all things considered.
In most of the counties in the formerly great state of California the Sheriff is also the County Coroner. Only a few of the very largest counties maintain a completely separate Coroner-Medical Examiner.
Regular readers will remember I wrote recently about a fairly serious pissing contest in San Joaquin County where I live between the medical examiner and the Sheriff-Coroner. The medical examiners believe that the Sheriff has, on occasion, pissed in the Wheaties and they don't like it. The county has considered making the separation on their own, but creating a whole new department within county government has some administrative costs attached to it. The county squeezes the nickels until the buffalo shits, or at least want us poor tax payers to believe that.
It may be taken out of their hands. The California legislature has introduced a bill which, if passed into law, would REQUIRE that counties with a population of more than 500,000 (San Joaquin is a bit over 600,000) maintain a separate Coroner's Office. If passed in its current form SB 1303 would require this step be implemented not later than January 1 2019.
Personally I think this is a good idea and feel that the country can afford the money if it will being a greater degree of professionalism into the office. I happen to know Sheriff Moore a little bit and on a personal basis I like him. That being said some people whose opinion I respect have told me that some aspects of his job related to the coroner's duties are being handled in a questionable manner. That is not a good thing all things considered.
CORAL SPRINGS POLICE CLAIM THREE ADDITIONAL DEPUTIES JOINED SCOT PETERSON IN REFUSING TO ENTER THE SCHOOL
Four sheriff’s deputies hid during Florida school shooting
By Ruth Brown
New York Post
February 23, 2018
Four armed officers and years of warnings did nothing to stop Nikolas Cruz from massacring 17 people at a high school.
Not one but four sheriff’s deputies hid behind cars instead of storming Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Fla., during Wednesday’s school shooting, police claimed Friday — as newly released records revealed the Broward County Sheriff’s Office had received at least 18 calls about the troubled teen over the past decade.
Sources from Coral Springs, Fla., Police Department tell CNN that when its officers arrived on the scene Wednesday, they were shocked to find three Broward County Sheriff’s deputies behind their cars with weapons drawn.
The school’s armed resource officer, Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, was also outside. He resigned on Thursday after his failure to act was publicly revealed.
The Coral Springs cops entered the building to engage the shooter on their own, before other Broward County deputies arrived, two of whom joined the police inside, the sources said.
It was unclear whether the shooter was still inside at the time, CNN reported.
Coral Springs City Manager Mike Goodrum confronted Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel during a vigil for victims the next day, saying students could have been dying in the school while the deputies held back.
The next day, Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi wrote in an internal e-mail that “another agency has given the impression that it had provided the majority of the rescue efforts.”
“Please know that this issue will be addressed, and the truth will come out in time,” he wrote.
In an official statement Friday, the police department said only that “any actions or inactions that negatively affected the response will be investigated.”
News of the deputies’ apparent inaction came after the sheriff’s office released records showing how many times it had received alarming reports about Cruz, 19, over the years — including two that specifically warned he was a potential school shooter.
The records show that a neighbor called in February 2016 to report that Cruz “planned to shoot up the school” and had posted photos to Instagram of himself posing with guns.
The information was passed on to Peterson, but it was not clear what, if anything, he did with it.
Another person phoned the sheriff’s office in November last year to say the teen was stockpiling guns and knives and warn that “he could be a school shooter in the making,” the records show.
But the caller was told to contact the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office instead because Cruz had moved out of Broward, according to the records.
In September 2016, a peer counselor told Peterson that Cruz had tried to kill himself by drinking gasoline, was cutting himself, possessed hate symbols and expressed a desire to buy a gun “for hunting.”
This time, Peterson did make a report, but a mental-health worker determined Cruz didn’t meet the state’s criteria for involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility, the records show.
Cruz stayed at the school for another five months before he was transferred out.
President Trump sharply criticized Peterson on Friday.
“He trained his whole life. When it came time to get in there and do something, he didn’t have the courage or something happened, but he certainly did a poor job — there’s no question about that,” Trump told a reporter.
Video, meanwhile, emerged of Peterson touting the value of resource officers like himself during a 2015 school-board meeting.
“We are crime prevention. An audit report will never show how much we prevent,” he tells the board members, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Peterson also brags of chasing four people through a school with his gun after the cafeteria alarm went off, and recalls responding to a report of an armed man wearing a ski mask
“So I ran, put some shorts on, ran out with my firearm, while I’m running to the school, I’m contacting Coconut Creek police, we set up a perimeter,” he said.
It turned out the miscreant was an 18-year-old senior with a paintball gun.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Not the proudest day for law enforcement.
__________
MORE (POSSIBLE) PROBLEMS FROM FLORIDA SHOOTING
by Bob Walsh
Assuming the media is to be believed (always a dangerous prospect) at least two more Broward County Sheriff's Deputies are under investigation for slow-dragging their response to the active shooting incident that just occurred there.
When you take the oath and put on the gun and the badge the rules change for you. You are EXPECTED to go into harms way to protect others. The state gives peace officers a great deal of power and authority, and expects a great deal back from them in return. While I admit going with a pistol up against a man with a rifle is not the best move in the world generally speaking sometimes that is the job. In addition I doubt very much any of those school corridors were 100 yards long so we are not talking about a suicide mission.
The modern doctrine for dealing with an active shooter is pretty simple. You go in RIGHT NOW with whatever force you have available. You don't hang out to direct traffic. You don't even stop to render aid. You locate and engage the shooter. Most of the time when that is done the shooter surrenders or self-rehabilitates. It is dangerous, but it is not insanely dangerous. That's the job. If you can't do it you should hand in the badge and the gun and get a job at the library. They need good people too.
By Ruth Brown
New York Post
February 23, 2018
Four armed officers and years of warnings did nothing to stop Nikolas Cruz from massacring 17 people at a high school.
Not one but four sheriff’s deputies hid behind cars instead of storming Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Fla., during Wednesday’s school shooting, police claimed Friday — as newly released records revealed the Broward County Sheriff’s Office had received at least 18 calls about the troubled teen over the past decade.
Sources from Coral Springs, Fla., Police Department tell CNN that when its officers arrived on the scene Wednesday, they were shocked to find three Broward County Sheriff’s deputies behind their cars with weapons drawn.
The school’s armed resource officer, Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, was also outside. He resigned on Thursday after his failure to act was publicly revealed.
The Coral Springs cops entered the building to engage the shooter on their own, before other Broward County deputies arrived, two of whom joined the police inside, the sources said.
It was unclear whether the shooter was still inside at the time, CNN reported.
Coral Springs City Manager Mike Goodrum confronted Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel during a vigil for victims the next day, saying students could have been dying in the school while the deputies held back.
The next day, Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi wrote in an internal e-mail that “another agency has given the impression that it had provided the majority of the rescue efforts.”
“Please know that this issue will be addressed, and the truth will come out in time,” he wrote.
In an official statement Friday, the police department said only that “any actions or inactions that negatively affected the response will be investigated.”
News of the deputies’ apparent inaction came after the sheriff’s office released records showing how many times it had received alarming reports about Cruz, 19, over the years — including two that specifically warned he was a potential school shooter.
The records show that a neighbor called in February 2016 to report that Cruz “planned to shoot up the school” and had posted photos to Instagram of himself posing with guns.
The information was passed on to Peterson, but it was not clear what, if anything, he did with it.
Another person phoned the sheriff’s office in November last year to say the teen was stockpiling guns and knives and warn that “he could be a school shooter in the making,” the records show.
But the caller was told to contact the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office instead because Cruz had moved out of Broward, according to the records.
In September 2016, a peer counselor told Peterson that Cruz had tried to kill himself by drinking gasoline, was cutting himself, possessed hate symbols and expressed a desire to buy a gun “for hunting.”
This time, Peterson did make a report, but a mental-health worker determined Cruz didn’t meet the state’s criteria for involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility, the records show.
Cruz stayed at the school for another five months before he was transferred out.
President Trump sharply criticized Peterson on Friday.
“He trained his whole life. When it came time to get in there and do something, he didn’t have the courage or something happened, but he certainly did a poor job — there’s no question about that,” Trump told a reporter.
Video, meanwhile, emerged of Peterson touting the value of resource officers like himself during a 2015 school-board meeting.
“We are crime prevention. An audit report will never show how much we prevent,” he tells the board members, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Peterson also brags of chasing four people through a school with his gun after the cafeteria alarm went off, and recalls responding to a report of an armed man wearing a ski mask
“So I ran, put some shorts on, ran out with my firearm, while I’m running to the school, I’m contacting Coconut Creek police, we set up a perimeter,” he said.
It turned out the miscreant was an 18-year-old senior with a paintball gun.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Not the proudest day for law enforcement.
__________
MORE (POSSIBLE) PROBLEMS FROM FLORIDA SHOOTING
by Bob Walsh
Assuming the media is to be believed (always a dangerous prospect) at least two more Broward County Sheriff's Deputies are under investigation for slow-dragging their response to the active shooting incident that just occurred there.
When you take the oath and put on the gun and the badge the rules change for you. You are EXPECTED to go into harms way to protect others. The state gives peace officers a great deal of power and authority, and expects a great deal back from them in return. While I admit going with a pistol up against a man with a rifle is not the best move in the world generally speaking sometimes that is the job. In addition I doubt very much any of those school corridors were 100 yards long so we are not talking about a suicide mission.
The modern doctrine for dealing with an active shooter is pretty simple. You go in RIGHT NOW with whatever force you have available. You don't hang out to direct traffic. You don't even stop to render aid. You locate and engage the shooter. Most of the time when that is done the shooter surrenders or self-rehabilitates. It is dangerous, but it is not insanely dangerous. That's the job. If you can't do it you should hand in the badge and the gun and get a job at the library. They need good people too.
OKLAHOMA PISTOL-PACKING MOTHER AND DAUGHTER SHOOT SHOTGUN-WIELDING LIQUOR STORE ROBBER
Liquor store clerks shoot armed robbery suspect, fight over gun
by Jessica Remer and Angelica Brown
8 ABC Tulsa
February 23, 2018
TULSA, Okla. -- The owner of Forest Acres Liquor Store has released graphic surveillance video showing a violent run-in with an armed robber.
Tulsa police responded to the store near 12th and Memorial just after 6 p.m. Thursday after the clerk called 911, saying they shot the suspect multiple times. The suspect was gone by the time officers arrived, but he later showed up at a local hospital.
Police have identified the suspect as Tyrone Lee and believe he's connected to 10 other robberies in the area. They say Lee walked into the liquor store Thursday evening with a shotgun, demanding money.
Surveillance video shows the suspect behind the counter before walking out of the camera's view. The owner and her daughter both grab their guns, and when the suspect returns, the owner opens fire.
The suspect again appears to leave but comes back, prompting more gunfire. Video shows the owner's daughter shoot him at close range. Even after being shot multiple times, the suspect fights with the owner for her gun, pistol-whipping her.
Video shows the man chasing the women around the counter before they leave the store.
The owner suffered a gash to the head, which required staples. Both she and her daughter declined an interview but gave us permission to share the video. The owner's son said their guns saved their lives.
"We're not going to be victims," said Justin Christen.
The suspect remains in critical condition at the hospital.
The liquor store was back open Friday.
EDITOR’S NOE: If this had happened in California, them gals would probably have been charged with attempted murder because they shot poor ole Tyrone more than one time.
And Black Lives Matter would have screamed about white chicks trying to kill a young black man.
Rev. Moses Washington of the Second Antioch African Baptist Church said Tyrone was a good boy just trying to support his dear mother and his seven brothers and sisters.
by Jessica Remer and Angelica Brown
8 ABC Tulsa
February 23, 2018
TULSA, Okla. -- The owner of Forest Acres Liquor Store has released graphic surveillance video showing a violent run-in with an armed robber.
Tulsa police responded to the store near 12th and Memorial just after 6 p.m. Thursday after the clerk called 911, saying they shot the suspect multiple times. The suspect was gone by the time officers arrived, but he later showed up at a local hospital.
Police have identified the suspect as Tyrone Lee and believe he's connected to 10 other robberies in the area. They say Lee walked into the liquor store Thursday evening with a shotgun, demanding money.
Surveillance video shows the suspect behind the counter before walking out of the camera's view. The owner and her daughter both grab their guns, and when the suspect returns, the owner opens fire.
The suspect again appears to leave but comes back, prompting more gunfire. Video shows the owner's daughter shoot him at close range. Even after being shot multiple times, the suspect fights with the owner for her gun, pistol-whipping her.
Video shows the man chasing the women around the counter before they leave the store.
The owner suffered a gash to the head, which required staples. Both she and her daughter declined an interview but gave us permission to share the video. The owner's son said their guns saved their lives.
"We're not going to be victims," said Justin Christen.
The suspect remains in critical condition at the hospital.
The liquor store was back open Friday.
EDITOR’S NOE: If this had happened in California, them gals would probably have been charged with attempted murder because they shot poor ole Tyrone more than one time.
And Black Lives Matter would have screamed about white chicks trying to kill a young black man.
Rev. Moses Washington of the Second Antioch African Baptist Church said Tyrone was a good boy just trying to support his dear mother and his seven brothers and sisters.
AND AWAY HE GOES
Despite Long Odds, Drivers Still Attempt to Outrun Police Pursuits
By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
February 22, 2018
LOS ANGELES — For a few moments Tuesday night, it looked like a pickup driver had finally done what so many other car chase suspects could not: elude police during a high-speed pursuit.
With officers on his tail, the driver veered his truck off the roadway and into a Metro subway tunnel in Boyle Heights, disappearing from view of helicopters broadcasting the chase. Metro officials shut down the Gold Line as officers went into the tunnel and checked the subway station at Soto Street.
It turned out not to be a perfect getaway. The suspect was captured, but his passenger managed to get away, at least so far.
Televised car chases have long been a source of fascination in Southern California, even though the vast majority end the same way, with drivers eventually being stopped and arrested. Sometimes, they simply give up or run out of gas. Other times, police use spike strips or the “pit” maneuver to spin the vehicle and stop it.
Yet watching these chases involves a certain faith that maybe, just maybe, the driver will outrun the cops.
Against the odds, some do get away. A Los Angeles Times analysis found that the Los Angeles Police Department reported making arrests in 82 percent of chases from 2006 to 2014, well above the state average of 68 percent. More recent data were not immediately available.
“People are always going to try and get away, but it is pretty hard to escape,” said Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles police captain and pursuit training expert.
In November, three suspects thought to be involved in an armed robbery of a Laguna Niguel wireless store managed to escape police after a lengthy pursuit from Orange County to Pasadena, where they jumped out of their vehicle at the Paseo Colorado mall. They have yet to be caught.
A Los Angeles County civil grand jury report studied 421 police pursuits in the county that were reported to the California Highway Patrol in a 12-month period beginning October 2015. The report found that suspects were immediately apprehended in 67 percent of the chases, leaving 139 pursuits that did not end in an arrest. Fifty-nine involved vehicles that escaped, and 47 ended because police abandoned the pursuit, usually for safety reasons.
The report concluded that some pursuits caused “unnecessary bystander injuries and deaths” and that law enforcement officers need better training to reduce the risk of crashes during high-speed pursuits.
The Times analysis showed that LAPD pursuits injure bystanders at more than twice the rate of police chases in the rest of California. From 2006 to 2014, 334 bystanders were injured — one for every 10 LAPD pursuits, according to the review of pursuit data reported to the CHP.
Both the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have tightened their policies on pursuits, pushing away from chasing nonviolent offenders or suspects whose behavior at the wheel becomes so dangerous it is likely to lead to injury to pedestrians or other motorists.
Meyer predicted that police pursuit escapes will be more difficult in coming years.
“Some of the technology coming along will really make it much harder to escape. We are talking drones launched from police cars to track the getaway car,” he said.
Over the years, pursuit suspects have tried to evade police by driving into parking garages or into Los Angeles International Airport, where there are flight restrictions for news choppers, or by simply bailing out of cars and running onto freeway medians.
Eighteen months ago, one particularly resourceful car thief, after an hourlong pursuit, headed into the hills above Whittier. With the stolen Honda Accord still moving, he climbed out of the driver’s window and jumped while the car continued to coast down the tree-lined road.
But the action Tuesday night was something new.
It began when Ralph Lopez Jr., 26, of Los Angeles allegedly stole a truck in Huntington Park. Police from that city gave chase. At one point, Lopez slammed into a yellow cab, sending two passengers to the hospital. Later, he drove on a sidewalk before driving into a subway tunnel. At that moment, there was concern that the truck could hit a train inside the tunnel. But Metro quickly shut off service, and it turned out there were no trains in the short tunnel, which runs through a portion of Boyle Heights.
“The tunnel — it was a first for us in a pursuit,” said Huntington Park Police Lt. Al Martinez. “We don’t like firsts.”
Police eventually arrested Lopez but are still looking for his passenger.
Videos of the truck’s descent into the subway made the rounds on social media Wednesday. But Meyer worries it could have another effect.
“People are going to copycat what this guy did and end up getting hit by a train,” he said.
By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
February 22, 2018
LOS ANGELES — For a few moments Tuesday night, it looked like a pickup driver had finally done what so many other car chase suspects could not: elude police during a high-speed pursuit.
With officers on his tail, the driver veered his truck off the roadway and into a Metro subway tunnel in Boyle Heights, disappearing from view of helicopters broadcasting the chase. Metro officials shut down the Gold Line as officers went into the tunnel and checked the subway station at Soto Street.
It turned out not to be a perfect getaway. The suspect was captured, but his passenger managed to get away, at least so far.
Televised car chases have long been a source of fascination in Southern California, even though the vast majority end the same way, with drivers eventually being stopped and arrested. Sometimes, they simply give up or run out of gas. Other times, police use spike strips or the “pit” maneuver to spin the vehicle and stop it.
Yet watching these chases involves a certain faith that maybe, just maybe, the driver will outrun the cops.
Against the odds, some do get away. A Los Angeles Times analysis found that the Los Angeles Police Department reported making arrests in 82 percent of chases from 2006 to 2014, well above the state average of 68 percent. More recent data were not immediately available.
“People are always going to try and get away, but it is pretty hard to escape,” said Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles police captain and pursuit training expert.
In November, three suspects thought to be involved in an armed robbery of a Laguna Niguel wireless store managed to escape police after a lengthy pursuit from Orange County to Pasadena, where they jumped out of their vehicle at the Paseo Colorado mall. They have yet to be caught.
A Los Angeles County civil grand jury report studied 421 police pursuits in the county that were reported to the California Highway Patrol in a 12-month period beginning October 2015. The report found that suspects were immediately apprehended in 67 percent of the chases, leaving 139 pursuits that did not end in an arrest. Fifty-nine involved vehicles that escaped, and 47 ended because police abandoned the pursuit, usually for safety reasons.
The report concluded that some pursuits caused “unnecessary bystander injuries and deaths” and that law enforcement officers need better training to reduce the risk of crashes during high-speed pursuits.
The Times analysis showed that LAPD pursuits injure bystanders at more than twice the rate of police chases in the rest of California. From 2006 to 2014, 334 bystanders were injured — one for every 10 LAPD pursuits, according to the review of pursuit data reported to the CHP.
Both the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have tightened their policies on pursuits, pushing away from chasing nonviolent offenders or suspects whose behavior at the wheel becomes so dangerous it is likely to lead to injury to pedestrians or other motorists.
Meyer predicted that police pursuit escapes will be more difficult in coming years.
“Some of the technology coming along will really make it much harder to escape. We are talking drones launched from police cars to track the getaway car,” he said.
Over the years, pursuit suspects have tried to evade police by driving into parking garages or into Los Angeles International Airport, where there are flight restrictions for news choppers, or by simply bailing out of cars and running onto freeway medians.
Eighteen months ago, one particularly resourceful car thief, after an hourlong pursuit, headed into the hills above Whittier. With the stolen Honda Accord still moving, he climbed out of the driver’s window and jumped while the car continued to coast down the tree-lined road.
But the action Tuesday night was something new.
It began when Ralph Lopez Jr., 26, of Los Angeles allegedly stole a truck in Huntington Park. Police from that city gave chase. At one point, Lopez slammed into a yellow cab, sending two passengers to the hospital. Later, he drove on a sidewalk before driving into a subway tunnel. At that moment, there was concern that the truck could hit a train inside the tunnel. But Metro quickly shut off service, and it turned out there were no trains in the short tunnel, which runs through a portion of Boyle Heights.
“The tunnel — it was a first for us in a pursuit,” said Huntington Park Police Lt. Al Martinez. “We don’t like firsts.”
Police eventually arrested Lopez but are still looking for his passenger.
Videos of the truck’s descent into the subway made the rounds on social media Wednesday. But Meyer worries it could have another effect.
“People are going to copycat what this guy did and end up getting hit by a train,” he said.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (NIOSH) STUDY ON POLICE INJURIES
Law Enforcement Officers Three Times More Likely to Be Injured Than Other Workers
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2018
An estimated 669,100 law enforcement officers were treated in emergency departments across the nation for nonfatal injuries between 2003 and 2014, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Law enforcement officers have historically high rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries. The new research shows that officers are three times more likely to sustain a nonfatal injury than all other U.S. workers.
The study, Nonfatal Injuries to Law Enforcement Officers: A Rise in Assaults, which is the first to examine nonfatal injuries among officers on a national scale, was published online this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It is also the first to capture nonfatal injuries sustained from assaults and unintentional injuries such as accidental falls or motor vehicle crashes.
“Studies based on evidence are an important feature of public health and this principle extends to studying the law enforcement community and their work,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The safety and health of both police and citizens depend on understanding how policing tactics impact officer and citizen injuries.”
The study researchers, whose aim was to provide national estimates and trends of nonfatal injuries to law enforcement officers from 2003 – 2014, found the following:
__The law enforcement officer nonfatal injury trend increased across the 12-year period studied; this is in contrast with the trend for all other U.S. workers which significantly decreased
__Assault-related injury rates significantly increased almost 10 percent annually from 2003 to 2011.
__The three leading reasons for on-duty injuries were assaults and violent acts (36%), bodily reactions & exertion from running or other repetitive motions (15%), and transportation incidents (14%).
The study used nonfatal injury data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System – Occupational Supplement (NEISS-Work). Data were obtained for injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments from 2003-2014.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2018
An estimated 669,100 law enforcement officers were treated in emergency departments across the nation for nonfatal injuries between 2003 and 2014, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Law enforcement officers have historically high rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries. The new research shows that officers are three times more likely to sustain a nonfatal injury than all other U.S. workers.
The study, Nonfatal Injuries to Law Enforcement Officers: A Rise in Assaults, which is the first to examine nonfatal injuries among officers on a national scale, was published online this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It is also the first to capture nonfatal injuries sustained from assaults and unintentional injuries such as accidental falls or motor vehicle crashes.
“Studies based on evidence are an important feature of public health and this principle extends to studying the law enforcement community and their work,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The safety and health of both police and citizens depend on understanding how policing tactics impact officer and citizen injuries.”
The study researchers, whose aim was to provide national estimates and trends of nonfatal injuries to law enforcement officers from 2003 – 2014, found the following:
__The law enforcement officer nonfatal injury trend increased across the 12-year period studied; this is in contrast with the trend for all other U.S. workers which significantly decreased
__Assault-related injury rates significantly increased almost 10 percent annually from 2003 to 2011.
__The three leading reasons for on-duty injuries were assaults and violent acts (36%), bodily reactions & exertion from running or other repetitive motions (15%), and transportation incidents (14%).
The study used nonfatal injury data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System – Occupational Supplement (NEISS-Work). Data were obtained for injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments from 2003-2014.
RELIGION AND METH A BAD MIX, LEAVING YOUNG WOMAN IN A WORLD OF DARKNESS
Woman, 20, blinded after she gouged out her own eyes in front of a church when she was high on meth and heard voices telling her that she had to 'sacrifice' them to get to heaven
By Keith Griffith
Daily Mail
February 23, 2018
Fresh details have emerged in the horror case of a woman who gouged her own eyes out in front of a church.
Kaylee Muthart, 20, had been using meth for about six months when she freaked out on February 6 in Anderson, South Carolina, her mother told People in a new interview published on Thursday.
Katy Tompkins, mother to Kaylee and six other children, said she thinks Kaylee first started used meth unintentionally last year, when someone gave her marijuana laced with the drug.
Doctors believe that the meth she smoked earlier this month was also laced, with a chemical that caused her to hallucinate.
She thought the world was 'upside down' and heard voices that told her to 'sacrifice her eyes' in order to make it to heaven.
Just days before the incident, Kaylee had told her mother that she was ready to go into drug rehab.
‘The day before it happened, which was my birthday, I was getting ready to have her committed, just to get her off the streets and away from it,' said Tompkins. 'But I was too late.'
Parishioners at the South Main Chapel and Mercy Center heard Kaylee's screams and ran outside to find her holding an eyeball in her hand.
She fought them off as they tried to help, and by the time paramedics arrived she had gouged out the other eye.
A team of deputies finally managed to control Kaylee and she was airlifted to the trauma unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
'I can't even explain that feeling when I found out, it was horrifying. Complete terror,' Tompkins said of first hearing what her daughter had done. 'I was thankful she was alive, but I knew something was wrong with her.'
Kaylee remains hospitalized and doctors have cleaned and treated her orbital sockets to prevent infection.
Doctors recommend that she get prosthetic eyes to preserve her facial structure and keep bacteria out of the sockets.
Kaylee insists that she get aqua green prosthetics to match her natural eye color, her mother said.
Tompkins said that after Kaylee gets out of the hospital and learns how to live without sight, she wants to share her story with others and warn young people of the dangers of drug use.
'I don't know how I'm getting through it, but she has given me strength. It's weird to say, but she uplifts me right now and she's the one that can't see. That's just the kind of person she is,' Tompkins says. 'I'm thankful. It's a horrible thing, but I'm still thankful because God spared her life.'
The family has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a seeing eye dog for Kaylee.
By Keith Griffith
Daily Mail
February 23, 2018
Fresh details have emerged in the horror case of a woman who gouged her own eyes out in front of a church.
Kaylee Muthart, 20, had been using meth for about six months when she freaked out on February 6 in Anderson, South Carolina, her mother told People in a new interview published on Thursday.
Katy Tompkins, mother to Kaylee and six other children, said she thinks Kaylee first started used meth unintentionally last year, when someone gave her marijuana laced with the drug.
Doctors believe that the meth she smoked earlier this month was also laced, with a chemical that caused her to hallucinate.
She thought the world was 'upside down' and heard voices that told her to 'sacrifice her eyes' in order to make it to heaven.
Just days before the incident, Kaylee had told her mother that she was ready to go into drug rehab.
‘The day before it happened, which was my birthday, I was getting ready to have her committed, just to get her off the streets and away from it,' said Tompkins. 'But I was too late.'
Parishioners at the South Main Chapel and Mercy Center heard Kaylee's screams and ran outside to find her holding an eyeball in her hand.
She fought them off as they tried to help, and by the time paramedics arrived she had gouged out the other eye.
A team of deputies finally managed to control Kaylee and she was airlifted to the trauma unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital.
'I can't even explain that feeling when I found out, it was horrifying. Complete terror,' Tompkins said of first hearing what her daughter had done. 'I was thankful she was alive, but I knew something was wrong with her.'
Kaylee remains hospitalized and doctors have cleaned and treated her orbital sockets to prevent infection.
Doctors recommend that she get prosthetic eyes to preserve her facial structure and keep bacteria out of the sockets.
Kaylee insists that she get aqua green prosthetics to match her natural eye color, her mother said.
Tompkins said that after Kaylee gets out of the hospital and learns how to live without sight, she wants to share her story with others and warn young people of the dangers of drug use.
'I don't know how I'm getting through it, but she has given me strength. It's weird to say, but she uplifts me right now and she's the one that can't see. That's just the kind of person she is,' Tompkins says. 'I'm thankful. It's a horrible thing, but I'm still thankful because God spared her life.'
The family has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a seeing eye dog for Kaylee.
BROTHERS IN BLUE ….. BOO HOO
Bronx NYPD captain accused of helping an off-duty detective avoid DWI charges
By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
February 23, 2018
NEW YORK -- A Bronx NYPD captain accused of helping an off-duty detective avoid DWI charges turned himself in Wednesday, authorities said.
Capt. Naoki Yaguchi, a 13-year veteran, was indicted by a grand jury last week for official misconduct and obstructing governmental administration.
He was arraigned Wednesday in Bronx Criminal Court and released without bail. The Bronx District Attorney’s office said Yaguchi intervened when off-duty NYPD Detective Efrain Medina was involved in a two-car crash on Forhdam Road April 22.
Medina said he had a glass of wine at least two hours earlier, according to sources.
Authorities try to adhere to the two-hour rule, testing a suspect’s blood alcohol level no more than 120 minutes after the incident. Tests done after that threshold are considered less reliable.
Yaguchi, who was working that night as a duty captain, allegedly delayed Medina’s trip from the 46th Precinct stationhouse to the 45th Precinct stationhouse, where DWI suspects in the Bronx are given a Breathalyzer test. The delay prevented officers from taking a test that could provide an accurate reading of how much alcohol was in Medina's system, the DA said.
Roy Richter, head of the Captains Endowment Association, said the indictment is "completely without merit and is a perversion of the prosecutorial authority given to the Bronx District Attorney."
Yaguchi, he said, didn't start his shift until almost 90 minutes after the accident and that once the captain learned of the incident he ordered Medina taken to the precinct — then went there himself to oversee the investigation.
Yaguchi, 36, has been suspended without pay. He is the NYPD's first Japanese-American captain and was the executive officer — serving as second in command — at the 40th Precinct at the time of the accident.
Medina was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and pleaded to a violation.
By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
February 23, 2018
NEW YORK -- A Bronx NYPD captain accused of helping an off-duty detective avoid DWI charges turned himself in Wednesday, authorities said.
Capt. Naoki Yaguchi, a 13-year veteran, was indicted by a grand jury last week for official misconduct and obstructing governmental administration.
He was arraigned Wednesday in Bronx Criminal Court and released without bail. The Bronx District Attorney’s office said Yaguchi intervened when off-duty NYPD Detective Efrain Medina was involved in a two-car crash on Forhdam Road April 22.
Medina said he had a glass of wine at least two hours earlier, according to sources.
Authorities try to adhere to the two-hour rule, testing a suspect’s blood alcohol level no more than 120 minutes after the incident. Tests done after that threshold are considered less reliable.
Yaguchi, who was working that night as a duty captain, allegedly delayed Medina’s trip from the 46th Precinct stationhouse to the 45th Precinct stationhouse, where DWI suspects in the Bronx are given a Breathalyzer test. The delay prevented officers from taking a test that could provide an accurate reading of how much alcohol was in Medina's system, the DA said.
Roy Richter, head of the Captains Endowment Association, said the indictment is "completely without merit and is a perversion of the prosecutorial authority given to the Bronx District Attorney."
Yaguchi, he said, didn't start his shift until almost 90 minutes after the accident and that once the captain learned of the incident he ordered Medina taken to the precinct — then went there himself to oversee the investigation.
Yaguchi, 36, has been suspended without pay. He is the NYPD's first Japanese-American captain and was the executive officer — serving as second in command — at the 40th Precinct at the time of the accident.
Medina was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and pleaded to a violation.
A NEW FACIAL RECOGNITION COMPANY IS TOUTING A 99 PERCENT ACCURACY RATE. I CALL THAT BULLSHIT
African-Americans recognized as gorillas by one facial recognition system
BY Trey Rusk
Running Code 3
February 21, 1018
The website Nextgov posted an article today that stated the 99 percent statistic.
I wouldn't call that bullshit if I didn't have some experience with camera reading. I ran a license plate reader that could alert to stolen, wanted and amber alerts based on cameras mounted on a vehicle reading the plates. False or bad reads were not uncommon. I will say the technology is improving but 99 percent accuracy? I don't think so.
On February 18, 2018, The New York Times ran an article about facial recognition technology. It admits that facial recognition is improving by leaps and bounds. The 99 percent accuracy rate was for white men.
It turns out that there is up to a 35 percent false read rate on darker skinned black women. The article goes on to read that real world biases seep into artificial intelligence.
In modern artificial intelligence, data rules. A.I. software is only as smart as the data used to train it. If there are many more white men than black women in the system, it will be worse at identifying the black women.
One widely used facial-recognition data set was estimated to be more than 75 percent male and more than 80 percent white, according to another research study.
in 2015, for example, Google had to apologize after it's image recognition systems photo app labeled African Americans as "gorillas."
People a lot more educated about artificial intelligence than me predict that the biases in the facial recognition/artificial intelligence data systems need to be addressed now because the industry is growing.
I am writing about facial recognition technology because I predict that it will be introduced into the criminal justice system. I am not a fan of what I call junk science that may be capable of convicting innocent people.
The reason polygraphs are not admissible in court is that they may be only as reliable as the operator. That means in my opinion that the operator's prejudices and biases may be built into the outcome of a polygraph test.
Let's remember that some junk science that was used to convict people has already been thrown out. I'm referring to Bite Mark Technology and now questions are arising about the effectiveness of hypnosis.
I'm also wary of repeated interrogations. Investigators are looking for inconsistent statements that may have been made years apart. They have the video of the previous interview to rely on. The suspect only has their memory coupled with the nervousness of being interrogated by law enforcement.
If you think I'm wrong about memory, just ask yourself, have you ever walked down the hall to retrieve something and when you arrived, forgot what it was you were looking for?
Now try to remember the item sitting in a chair across the table from two detectives referring to you as a person of interest.
I rest my case.
BY Trey Rusk
Running Code 3
February 21, 1018
The website Nextgov posted an article today that stated the 99 percent statistic.
I wouldn't call that bullshit if I didn't have some experience with camera reading. I ran a license plate reader that could alert to stolen, wanted and amber alerts based on cameras mounted on a vehicle reading the plates. False or bad reads were not uncommon. I will say the technology is improving but 99 percent accuracy? I don't think so.
On February 18, 2018, The New York Times ran an article about facial recognition technology. It admits that facial recognition is improving by leaps and bounds. The 99 percent accuracy rate was for white men.
It turns out that there is up to a 35 percent false read rate on darker skinned black women. The article goes on to read that real world biases seep into artificial intelligence.
In modern artificial intelligence, data rules. A.I. software is only as smart as the data used to train it. If there are many more white men than black women in the system, it will be worse at identifying the black women.
One widely used facial-recognition data set was estimated to be more than 75 percent male and more than 80 percent white, according to another research study.
in 2015, for example, Google had to apologize after it's image recognition systems photo app labeled African Americans as "gorillas."
People a lot more educated about artificial intelligence than me predict that the biases in the facial recognition/artificial intelligence data systems need to be addressed now because the industry is growing.
I am writing about facial recognition technology because I predict that it will be introduced into the criminal justice system. I am not a fan of what I call junk science that may be capable of convicting innocent people.
The reason polygraphs are not admissible in court is that they may be only as reliable as the operator. That means in my opinion that the operator's prejudices and biases may be built into the outcome of a polygraph test.
Let's remember that some junk science that was used to convict people has already been thrown out. I'm referring to Bite Mark Technology and now questions are arising about the effectiveness of hypnosis.
I'm also wary of repeated interrogations. Investigators are looking for inconsistent statements that may have been made years apart. They have the video of the previous interview to rely on. The suspect only has their memory coupled with the nervousness of being interrogated by law enforcement.
If you think I'm wrong about memory, just ask yourself, have you ever walked down the hall to retrieve something and when you arrived, forgot what it was you were looking for?
Now try to remember the item sitting in a chair across the table from two detectives referring to you as a person of interest.
I rest my case.
ENGINEER TO BE EULOGIZED FOR SOLVING A MECHANICAL PROBLEM
A priest, a drunkard, and an engineer were led to the guillotine for their crimes. The executioner pulled the priest forward first and asked him if he wanted to be facing up or down when he met his face.
"Upward," said the priest. "I want to be looking toward heaven when I die."
The blade zoomed downward, but stopped just an inch short of the priest's throat. All assembled agreed that it was divine intervention, and let the priest go free.
The drunkard was pulled forward next, and decided to copy the priest, hoping he would get as lucky. Again the blade zoomed down but stopped just short of the drunkard's throat. So the authorities released him as well.
It was finally the engineer's turn.
He, like the others, decided to face upward. The blade slowly raised back into place. "Oh, hey, I think I know what the problem is." The engineer exclaimed. "That cable to the left appears to be catching the rope!"
May he rest in peace.
"Upward," said the priest. "I want to be looking toward heaven when I die."
The blade zoomed downward, but stopped just an inch short of the priest's throat. All assembled agreed that it was divine intervention, and let the priest go free.
The drunkard was pulled forward next, and decided to copy the priest, hoping he would get as lucky. Again the blade zoomed down but stopped just short of the drunkard's throat. So the authorities released him as well.
It was finally the engineer's turn.
He, like the others, decided to face upward. The blade slowly raised back into place. "Oh, hey, I think I know what the problem is." The engineer exclaimed. "That cable to the left appears to be catching the rope!"
May he rest in peace.
Friday, February 23, 2018
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT.
by Bob Walsh
Donald Trump announced yesterday that because of the sanctuary cities he is considering withdrawing all of ICE from California and letting things turn to shit (even more than they have already) until the state begs for them to come back.
If it wasn't for the fact that I live here I would seriously consider endorsing the idea. I wonder if Trump is just pissed off enough to do it?
Donald Trump announced yesterday that because of the sanctuary cities he is considering withdrawing all of ICE from California and letting things turn to shit (even more than they have already) until the state begs for them to come back.
If it wasn't for the fact that I live here I would seriously consider endorsing the idea. I wonder if Trump is just pissed off enough to do it?
THOUGHTS ON TAKING THE FIFTH
by Bob Walsh
David Kramer is a former State Department desk monkey and a road dog of that famous former war hero and current bitter elderly curmudgeon Senator John McCain. You might remember a few months ago when talking to congress about what has come to be known as the Steele Dossier he told the powers that be that he was in fact aware of the source(s) of that document, but refused to tell them. They subpoenaed his happy ass. He refused to appear, and took the Fifth. One wonders why.
Does that mean that his deposition in December was in fact false and now he does not want to cop to being a perjurer? It seems likely. Does he think he can stall until after the next election when the Dems may take over and perhaps bury things? Possibly. One thing for sure, the stench is getting worse all the time.
David Kramer is a former State Department desk monkey and a road dog of that famous former war hero and current bitter elderly curmudgeon Senator John McCain. You might remember a few months ago when talking to congress about what has come to be known as the Steele Dossier he told the powers that be that he was in fact aware of the source(s) of that document, but refused to tell them. They subpoenaed his happy ass. He refused to appear, and took the Fifth. One wonders why.
Does that mean that his deposition in December was in fact false and now he does not want to cop to being a perjurer? It seems likely. Does he think he can stall until after the next election when the Dems may take over and perhaps bury things? Possibly. One thing for sure, the stench is getting worse all the time.
‘HAVE FUN IN HELL, BITCH’ ….. WHY WOULD THIS BITCH TWEET THAT?
Lauren Duca, a Teen Vogue columnist, posted some vile tweets on the passing of Billy Graham
Although Billy Graham made some anti-Semitic remarks during a visit with then President Richard Nixon, I have always liked and respected him. Indeed, I put Billy Graham right up there with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lauren Duca, who will celebrate her 27th birthday Saturday, is a columnist for Teen Vogue. Apparently she does not hold the Rev. Graham in the same esteem that I do. Upon Graham’s death, Duca tweeted:
“The big news today is that Billy Graham was still alive this whole time. Anyway, have fun in hell, bitch.”
After getting battered by a shitstorm of social media comments condemning her irreverence of the dear departed evangelist, Duca responded with the following tweet:
“Respecting the dead only applies to people who weren’t evil pieces of shit while they were alive, thanks.”
Why would this bitch tweet that about Billy Graham? What could he have possibly done to Duca for her to publicly show such hateful disrespect for the deceased evangelist? It’s hard to believe this bitch is a columnist for a teen magazine.
Duca must have been looking in the mirror when she wrote ‘evil pieces of shit’ because that describes the bitch exactly.
Although Billy Graham made some anti-Semitic remarks during a visit with then President Richard Nixon, I have always liked and respected him. Indeed, I put Billy Graham right up there with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lauren Duca, who will celebrate her 27th birthday Saturday, is a columnist for Teen Vogue. Apparently she does not hold the Rev. Graham in the same esteem that I do. Upon Graham’s death, Duca tweeted:
“The big news today is that Billy Graham was still alive this whole time. Anyway, have fun in hell, bitch.”
After getting battered by a shitstorm of social media comments condemning her irreverence of the dear departed evangelist, Duca responded with the following tweet:
“Respecting the dead only applies to people who weren’t evil pieces of shit while they were alive, thanks.”
Why would this bitch tweet that about Billy Graham? What could he have possibly done to Duca for her to publicly show such hateful disrespect for the deceased evangelist? It’s hard to believe this bitch is a columnist for a teen magazine.
Duca must have been looking in the mirror when she wrote ‘evil pieces of shit’ because that describes the bitch exactly.
UBER EATS...HOT LEAD
by Bob Walsh
Uber Eats driver Robert Blivens, 36, is currently a guest of Fulton County, Georgia pending legal action. Blivens admits to shooting the customer, claiming self defense. He said the customer threatened to "fuck him up" and reached into his pocket. Blivens thought he was going for a gun and shot him.
Since the customer was at his front door and Blivens was in his car at the time the shots were fired there might be some difficulty with the self-defense claim. In addition Blivens fled the scene, though he did turn himself in later.
Uber Eats driver Robert Blivens, 36, is currently a guest of Fulton County, Georgia pending legal action. Blivens admits to shooting the customer, claiming self defense. He said the customer threatened to "fuck him up" and reached into his pocket. Blivens thought he was going for a gun and shot him.
Since the customer was at his front door and Blivens was in his car at the time the shots were fired there might be some difficulty with the self-defense claim. In addition Blivens fled the scene, though he did turn himself in later.
ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE LYNCH PARTY
by Bob Walsh
Until a few minutes before noon on Thursday Ton Mendoza was a state senator in the formerly great state of California, a democrap representing Artesia.
He was accused of sexual misconduct by six women, including four subordinates of his. An investigation determined that Mendoza was likely guilty as sin. As the senate was preparing action to expel him he decided to jump ship and resigned.
The last time the senate actually expelled anyone was 1905. Four senators were accused of taking bribes. No senator was willing to act as their defense attorney. All four were expelled.
Several other members of the CA legislature are current under investigation for various forms of sexual misconduct. So far all are screaming " I DIDN'T DO IT, and if I did I didn't mean to."
Until a few minutes before noon on Thursday Ton Mendoza was a state senator in the formerly great state of California, a democrap representing Artesia.
He was accused of sexual misconduct by six women, including four subordinates of his. An investigation determined that Mendoza was likely guilty as sin. As the senate was preparing action to expel him he decided to jump ship and resigned.
The last time the senate actually expelled anyone was 1905. Four senators were accused of taking bribes. No senator was willing to act as their defense attorney. All four were expelled.
Several other members of the CA legislature are current under investigation for various forms of sexual misconduct. So far all are screaming " I DIDN'T DO IT, and if I did I didn't mean to."
HEALTH CARE PROVIDER CHARGED IN JAIL DEATH
by Bob Walsh
The Milwaukee District Attorney has just charged Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. a Miami based corporation, with seven misdemeanor charges of falsifying health records relating to the death of Terrill Thomas, 38. The unfortunate Mr. Thomas was (allegedly) held in a cell without water for seven days.
Armor company records say they checked on him during this time, but surveillance film shows them walking right on by without checking on him at all. They appear to have fabricated vital sign readings.
Last week prosecutors filed criminal charges against three specific Armor employees. Armor is backpeddling away from this like crazy.
Thomas had "mental health issues" and had previously flooded his cell. He was in the slammer for shooting two people.
The Milwaukee District Attorney has just charged Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. a Miami based corporation, with seven misdemeanor charges of falsifying health records relating to the death of Terrill Thomas, 38. The unfortunate Mr. Thomas was (allegedly) held in a cell without water for seven days.
Armor company records say they checked on him during this time, but surveillance film shows them walking right on by without checking on him at all. They appear to have fabricated vital sign readings.
Last week prosecutors filed criminal charges against three specific Armor employees. Armor is backpeddling away from this like crazy.
Thomas had "mental health issues" and had previously flooded his cell. He was in the slammer for shooting two people.
32 YEARS, GONNA RETIRE, AIN’T ABOUT TO ENTER THAT SCHOOL BUILDING AND GET SHOT
As Gunman Rampaged Through Florida School, Armed Deputy ‘Never Went In’
By Alan Blinder and Patricia Mazzei
The New York Times
February 22, 2018
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The only armed sheriff’s deputy at a Florida high school where 17 people were killed took cover outside rather than charging into the building when the massacre began, the Broward County sheriff said on Thursday. The sheriff also acknowledged that his office received 23 calls related to the suspect going back a decade, including one last year that said he was collecting knives and guns, but may not have adequately followed up.
The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned on Thursday after being suspended without pay after Sheriff Scott Israel reviewed surveillance video.
“He never went in,” Sheriff Israel said in a news conference. He said the video showed Deputy Peterson doing “nothing.”
“There are no words,” said Sheriff Israel, who described himself as “devastated, sick to my stomach.”
Two other deputies were placed on restricted duty on Thursday because they may have mishandled tips called in to the sheriff’s office over the past two years warning that the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, appeared intent on becoming a school shooter, Sheriff Israel said.
The revelations added to a growing list of failures and missed signs by the authorities that might have helped prevent one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.
The F.B.I. received a tip last month from someone close to Mr. Cruz that he owned a gun and had talked of committing a school shooting, the bureau revealed last week, acknowledging that it had failed to investigate. The tip about Mr. Cruz appeared to be the second in four months, after another person told the bureau about an online comment apparently posted by Mr. Cruz that he wanted to become “a professional school shooter.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families, the state social services agency, looked into Mr. Cruz’s well-being in 2016 after he posted on social media that he was cutting himself, but investigators determined he was not at risk of harming himself or others. The Broward County Public Schools had disciplinary complaints on Mr. Cruz dating back to when he was in middle school, including a long history of fighting.
Sheriff Israel said he informed Deputy Peterson on Thursday that he was being suspended without pay and placed under internal investigation. At 12:37 p.m. on Thursday, sheriff’s office records show, Deputy Peterson, signed his retirement papers, which amounted to a resignation. He had been with the office for more than 32 years.
“The investigation will continue,” Sheriff Israel said.
The surveillance video, which was not released, showed Deputy Peterson remained outside the west side of the building for at least four minutes while the gunman was inside, according to Sheriff Israel. The shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School lasted less than six minutes. The video was corroborated by witness statements, Sheriff Israel said.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that an officer from the Coral Springs Police Department who responded to the shooting had seen Deputy Peterson in a Stoneman Douglas High parking lot. The deputy “was seeking cover behind a concrete column leading to a stairwell,” Officer Tim Burton said.
In the chaos immediately after the shooting, there were other missteps. A 20-minute delay in school surveillance video confused Coral Springs police officers trying to find the gunman, said Chief Tony Pustizzi. By then, the suspect had already left the building.
Chief Pustizzi called it a communications failure. The video system allows for real-time playback
“At first the guys are hearing, ‘Oh, he’s on the second floor.’ Well, it’s not true, ‘cause we have people on the second floor and the people are saying, ‘Well, he’s not on the second floor,’” Chief Pustizzi said, adding that, if anything, the officers were “more expeditious” as they moved through the school under the belief the gunman was still there.
Coral Springs police have said they were the first to respond to the shooting. Sheriff Israel, who defended his office’s response on Wednesday and said his own deputies had not hung back outside the building, said on Thursday that the Coral Springs officers acted “heroically.”
Samantha Fuentes, an 18-year-old senior at Stoneman Douglas High who was shot in both legs, said she never saw Deputy Peterson during the “30 minutes” that passed before SWAT officers arrived at the first-floor classroom in which she and other students had been taking a class.
“He is not someone who has much of a presence” in the school, she said.
Sheriff Israel, flanked by two of his top aides, appeared emotional Thursday during the news conference in which he described Deputy Peterson’s conduct. His eyes appeared to glisten, and his speech was sometimes halting.
The two other deputies placed on restricted duty pending an internal investigation were identified by the sheriff’s office as Edward Eason and Guntis Treijs.
In November 2017, a caller told the authorities that Mr. Cruz had been stockpiling guns and knives. In a summary of the call, the sheriff’s office said the caller, located in Massachusetts, worried that Mr. Cruz “will kill himself one day and believes he could be a school shooter in the making.” A deputy contacted the person who called, but no report was filed. The caller was referred to the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County, where the caller said Mr. Cruz lived.
In February 2016, the sheriff’s office received what it described as “thirdhand information” that Mr. Cruz “planned to shoot up the school” and had posted a picture on Instagram of a “juvenile with guns.” A deputy determined that Mr. Cruz had knives and a BB gun and forwarded the information to the school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas High. That was Deputy Peterson.
Some of the other calls reveal further details about Mr. Cruz’s troubled childhood. In November 2014, someone reported that a person fitting Mr. Cruz’s description shot a chicken with a possible BB gun. Mr. Cruz was found to own an airsoft rifle, which he admitted to using, but denied he shot chickens.
And in September 2016, a peer counselor at Stoneman Douglas High alerted the school resource officer — likely Deputy Peterson — that Mr. Cruz “possibly ingested gasoline” the week prior “in an attempt to commit suicide and is cutting himself.”
“Mental health counselor advised Cruz did not meet criteria for Baker Act,” the summary said, referring to the Florida law that allows the police to commit the mentally ill against their will.
Stoneman Douglas High initiated a “threat assessment” on Mr. Cruz after the counselor’s report. The Florida Department of Children of Families looked into whether Mr. Cruz was at risk of harming himself or others and concluded he was not because he was living with his mother, attending school and seeing a counselor.
__________
ANOTHER "CASUALTY" OF THE FLORIDA SHOOTING
by Bob Walsh
Deputy Scott Peterson, 54, the school resources officer at the Florida school that was shot up on Valentine's Day, is no longer employed. Peterson put in his retirement paperwork and resigned the same day he was notified he was under investigation regarding the shooting. Peterson did not enter the school when he became aware of the shooting.
Current police procedure and training indicates that, when dealing with an active shooting in this environment, whatever force is available should immediately enter and attempt to engage the bad guy rather than waiting for backup. He clearly screwed the pooch and deserves to be gone.
By Alan Blinder and Patricia Mazzei
The New York Times
February 22, 2018
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The only armed sheriff’s deputy at a Florida high school where 17 people were killed took cover outside rather than charging into the building when the massacre began, the Broward County sheriff said on Thursday. The sheriff also acknowledged that his office received 23 calls related to the suspect going back a decade, including one last year that said he was collecting knives and guns, but may not have adequately followed up.
The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned on Thursday after being suspended without pay after Sheriff Scott Israel reviewed surveillance video.
“He never went in,” Sheriff Israel said in a news conference. He said the video showed Deputy Peterson doing “nothing.”
“There are no words,” said Sheriff Israel, who described himself as “devastated, sick to my stomach.”
Two other deputies were placed on restricted duty on Thursday because they may have mishandled tips called in to the sheriff’s office over the past two years warning that the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, appeared intent on becoming a school shooter, Sheriff Israel said.
The revelations added to a growing list of failures and missed signs by the authorities that might have helped prevent one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.
The F.B.I. received a tip last month from someone close to Mr. Cruz that he owned a gun and had talked of committing a school shooting, the bureau revealed last week, acknowledging that it had failed to investigate. The tip about Mr. Cruz appeared to be the second in four months, after another person told the bureau about an online comment apparently posted by Mr. Cruz that he wanted to become “a professional school shooter.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families, the state social services agency, looked into Mr. Cruz’s well-being in 2016 after he posted on social media that he was cutting himself, but investigators determined he was not at risk of harming himself or others. The Broward County Public Schools had disciplinary complaints on Mr. Cruz dating back to when he was in middle school, including a long history of fighting.
Sheriff Israel said he informed Deputy Peterson on Thursday that he was being suspended without pay and placed under internal investigation. At 12:37 p.m. on Thursday, sheriff’s office records show, Deputy Peterson, signed his retirement papers, which amounted to a resignation. He had been with the office for more than 32 years.
“The investigation will continue,” Sheriff Israel said.
The surveillance video, which was not released, showed Deputy Peterson remained outside the west side of the building for at least four minutes while the gunman was inside, according to Sheriff Israel. The shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School lasted less than six minutes. The video was corroborated by witness statements, Sheriff Israel said.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that an officer from the Coral Springs Police Department who responded to the shooting had seen Deputy Peterson in a Stoneman Douglas High parking lot. The deputy “was seeking cover behind a concrete column leading to a stairwell,” Officer Tim Burton said.
In the chaos immediately after the shooting, there were other missteps. A 20-minute delay in school surveillance video confused Coral Springs police officers trying to find the gunman, said Chief Tony Pustizzi. By then, the suspect had already left the building.
Chief Pustizzi called it a communications failure. The video system allows for real-time playback
“At first the guys are hearing, ‘Oh, he’s on the second floor.’ Well, it’s not true, ‘cause we have people on the second floor and the people are saying, ‘Well, he’s not on the second floor,’” Chief Pustizzi said, adding that, if anything, the officers were “more expeditious” as they moved through the school under the belief the gunman was still there.
Coral Springs police have said they were the first to respond to the shooting. Sheriff Israel, who defended his office’s response on Wednesday and said his own deputies had not hung back outside the building, said on Thursday that the Coral Springs officers acted “heroically.”
Samantha Fuentes, an 18-year-old senior at Stoneman Douglas High who was shot in both legs, said she never saw Deputy Peterson during the “30 minutes” that passed before SWAT officers arrived at the first-floor classroom in which she and other students had been taking a class.
“He is not someone who has much of a presence” in the school, she said.
Sheriff Israel, flanked by two of his top aides, appeared emotional Thursday during the news conference in which he described Deputy Peterson’s conduct. His eyes appeared to glisten, and his speech was sometimes halting.
The two other deputies placed on restricted duty pending an internal investigation were identified by the sheriff’s office as Edward Eason and Guntis Treijs.
In November 2017, a caller told the authorities that Mr. Cruz had been stockpiling guns and knives. In a summary of the call, the sheriff’s office said the caller, located in Massachusetts, worried that Mr. Cruz “will kill himself one day and believes he could be a school shooter in the making.” A deputy contacted the person who called, but no report was filed. The caller was referred to the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County, where the caller said Mr. Cruz lived.
In February 2016, the sheriff’s office received what it described as “thirdhand information” that Mr. Cruz “planned to shoot up the school” and had posted a picture on Instagram of a “juvenile with guns.” A deputy determined that Mr. Cruz had knives and a BB gun and forwarded the information to the school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas High. That was Deputy Peterson.
Some of the other calls reveal further details about Mr. Cruz’s troubled childhood. In November 2014, someone reported that a person fitting Mr. Cruz’s description shot a chicken with a possible BB gun. Mr. Cruz was found to own an airsoft rifle, which he admitted to using, but denied he shot chickens.
And in September 2016, a peer counselor at Stoneman Douglas High alerted the school resource officer — likely Deputy Peterson — that Mr. Cruz “possibly ingested gasoline” the week prior “in an attempt to commit suicide and is cutting himself.”
“Mental health counselor advised Cruz did not meet criteria for Baker Act,” the summary said, referring to the Florida law that allows the police to commit the mentally ill against their will.
Stoneman Douglas High initiated a “threat assessment” on Mr. Cruz after the counselor’s report. The Florida Department of Children of Families looked into whether Mr. Cruz was at risk of harming himself or others and concluded he was not because he was living with his mother, attending school and seeing a counselor.
__________
ANOTHER "CASUALTY" OF THE FLORIDA SHOOTING
by Bob Walsh
Deputy Scott Peterson, 54, the school resources officer at the Florida school that was shot up on Valentine's Day, is no longer employed. Peterson put in his retirement paperwork and resigned the same day he was notified he was under investigation regarding the shooting. Peterson did not enter the school when he became aware of the shooting.
Current police procedure and training indicates that, when dealing with an active shooting in this environment, whatever force is available should immediately enter and attempt to engage the bad guy rather than waiting for backup. He clearly screwed the pooch and deserves to be gone.
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