Recently, the City of Miami Police Department ran an e-mail forum (a question and answer exchange via email) with the topic being, "Community Policing."
One of the civilian email participants posed the following question: "I would like to know how it is possible for police officers to continually harass people and get away with it?"
From the "other side" (the law enforcement side) Lt. Milton, obviously a cop with a sense of humor replied:
"First of all, let me tell you this...it's not easy. In Miami , we average one cop for every 600 people. Only about 60% of those cops are on general duty (or what you might refer to as "patrol") where we do most of our harassing.
The rest are in non-harassing departments that do not allow them contact with the day to day innocents. And at any given moment, only one-fifth of the 60% patrollers are on duty and available for harassing people while the rest are off duty. So roughly, one cop is responsible for harassing about 5,000 residents.
When you toss in the commercial business, and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible for harassing 10,000 or more people a day.
Now, your average ten-hour shift runs 36,000 seconds long. This gives a cop one second to harass a person, and then only three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND then find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. To be honest, most cops are not up to this challenge day in and day out. It is just too tiring. What we do is utilize some tools to help us narrow down those people which we can realistically harass.
The tools available to us are as follows:
PHONE: People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus on a person for special harassment. "My neighbor is beating his wife" is a code phrase used often. This means we'll come out and give somebody some special harassment.
Another popular one is, "There's a guy breaking into a house." The harassment team is then put into action.
CARS: We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars with no insurance or no driver's licenses and the like. It's lots of fun when you pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious than running a red light. Sometimes you get to really heap the harassment on when you find they have drugs in the car, they are drunk, or have an outstanding warrant on file.
RUNNERS: Some people take off running just at the sight of a police officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a beagle on the scent of a bunny. When you catch them you can harass them for hours.
STATUTES: When we don't have PHONES or CARS and have nothing better to do, there are actually books that give us ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called "Statutes"; Criminal Codes, Motor Vehicle Codes, etc... They all spell out all sorts of things for which you can really mess with people.
After you read the statute, you can just drive around for awhile until you find someone violating one of these listed offenses and harass them. Just last week I saw a guy trying to steal a car. Well, there's this book we have that says that's not allowed. That meant I got permission to harass this guy. It is a really cool system that we have set up, and it works pretty well.
We seem to have a never-ending supply of folks to harass. And we get away with it. Why? Because for the good citizens who pay the tab, we try to keep the streets safe for them, and they pay us to "harass" some people.
Next time you are in my City, give me the old "single finger wave." That's another one of those codes. It means, "You can harass me." It's one of our favorites. "
EDITOR’S NOTE: A great big thanks to Trey for sending me this jewel. True or not, it makes a great rebuttal to those who think poorly of the police, and it does so in a rather humorous vein.
Friday, August 13, 2010
AWWWW, HE HAD HIS MARIJUANA COOKIE STOLEN AND NOW HE WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP
Medical marijuana for insomnia? Kookfornia’s medical pot law is one big joke, only it’s not funny.
MEDICAL POT USER RIPS CALIF. POLICE INVESTIGATION
The man had his credit card and a marijuana-infused brownie stolen at gunpoint outside a bar
By Jessica A. York
Vallejo Times Herald
August 12, 2010
VALLEJO, Calif. — A Vallejo man claims he is "the only detective on the case" of his stolen credit card and marijuana-infused brownie, reportedly taken at gunpoint outside a bar early Sunday morning.
The man, who asked that his name not be published, said he and two friends were held up by two armed assailants in a parking lot near the My Office bar on Sacramento Street at about 1:40 a.m.
Vallejo police arriving to retrieve information about the holdup allegedly required proof that the man was legally permitted to possess marijuana. He said he had willingly offered information to a 911 dispatcher that his medical marijuana edible, needed to counteract his insomnia, had been stolen.
"That's the whole reason why they treated me like a criminal, because of the marijuana," the man said. "I just felt like when the cops came out, they threatened to arrest everyone around me when we did nothing."
Vallejo police Lt. Abel Tenorio said he was unfamiliar with the details of the holdup investigation, but said asking for proof of eligibility to carry marijuana is standard procedure.
"Seeing as how it's not covered in the report, I don't know the circumstances of that," Tenorio said. "It looks to me that the officer focused on the robbery."
The man said he tracked the purchases made on his credit card to businesses around his home. In fact, he said he willingly gave the suspects his card's PIN code just so he could track them. When he asked bank and gas station officials to share their surveillance footage of the people making the credit car purchases, however, he was told that only police officers were allowed access.
Tenorio said that four of the department's investigators are investigating two homicides — one reported the day before and the day of the holdup.
The man, who is not allowed to own a gun because of a recent marijuana possession charge, said he fears for his life.
"They only stole about $40 from me, but my point is if these people don't get off the street, they're going to end up shooting somebody, if they haven't already," the man said.
MEDICAL POT USER RIPS CALIF. POLICE INVESTIGATION
The man had his credit card and a marijuana-infused brownie stolen at gunpoint outside a bar
By Jessica A. York
Vallejo Times Herald
August 12, 2010
VALLEJO, Calif. — A Vallejo man claims he is "the only detective on the case" of his stolen credit card and marijuana-infused brownie, reportedly taken at gunpoint outside a bar early Sunday morning.
The man, who asked that his name not be published, said he and two friends were held up by two armed assailants in a parking lot near the My Office bar on Sacramento Street at about 1:40 a.m.
Vallejo police arriving to retrieve information about the holdup allegedly required proof that the man was legally permitted to possess marijuana. He said he had willingly offered information to a 911 dispatcher that his medical marijuana edible, needed to counteract his insomnia, had been stolen.
"That's the whole reason why they treated me like a criminal, because of the marijuana," the man said. "I just felt like when the cops came out, they threatened to arrest everyone around me when we did nothing."
Vallejo police Lt. Abel Tenorio said he was unfamiliar with the details of the holdup investigation, but said asking for proof of eligibility to carry marijuana is standard procedure.
"Seeing as how it's not covered in the report, I don't know the circumstances of that," Tenorio said. "It looks to me that the officer focused on the robbery."
The man said he tracked the purchases made on his credit card to businesses around his home. In fact, he said he willingly gave the suspects his card's PIN code just so he could track them. When he asked bank and gas station officials to share their surveillance footage of the people making the credit car purchases, however, he was told that only police officers were allowed access.
Tenorio said that four of the department's investigators are investigating two homicides — one reported the day before and the day of the holdup.
The man, who is not allowed to own a gun because of a recent marijuana possession charge, said he fears for his life.
"They only stole about $40 from me, but my point is if these people don't get off the street, they're going to end up shooting somebody, if they haven't already," the man said.
THE TOE GOT A PROPER BURIAL, BUT THE BODY WAS DUMPED AS MEDICAL WASTE
One Hair Balls reader, Lorena, commented: Although I can sympathize with the couple, why do they need to sue. Seriously? Another reason why this country is all messed up. Trying to get a quick buck here and there.
Ginger responded to Lorena by saying: Because the hospital provides a service and they have a responsibility to handle these kinds of situations. It's not like they put the wrong icing on a wedding cake. This couple was four months away from having a baby, the baby died - you don't send someone a toe instead to make the event more traumatic after you think you're getting closure during the burial. I'm sure they paid the hospital for all of those services. I would definitely have sued.
I'm with Ginger! While there are far too many frivolous make-a-quick-buck lawsuits, this ain't one of them.
RICHARD & AMY RAMOS: HOSPITAL GIVES THEM A BIG TOE INSTEAD OF A FETUS TO BURY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 12, 2010
Amy Ramos was five months pregnant when she had complications and her baby's heart stopped.
She and her husband Richard arranged to bury the fetus, telling the East Houston Medical Center to send it to Carter Funeral Home, where they had a service and burial on August 11.
And then: "About two hours after the burial service, [they] received a telephone call from the doctor stating that there was a mix-up and they were given a big toe instead of a fetus."
Talk about phone calls you don't want to get. Or make, for that matter.
The plastic container used in the burial was dug up, and indeed was found to contain a big toe and not a five-month-old fetus.
The Ramoses are suing. For, among other things, "failure to properly identify the remains of [a] five-month-old fetus."
Jay-sus: A big toe? How casually do you have to throw something in a container to mistake a big toe for a fetus?
The plaintiffs are asking for damages "aggregating more than $100,000."
The hospital and funeral home have not yet responded to the suit.
Ginger responded to Lorena by saying: Because the hospital provides a service and they have a responsibility to handle these kinds of situations. It's not like they put the wrong icing on a wedding cake. This couple was four months away from having a baby, the baby died - you don't send someone a toe instead to make the event more traumatic after you think you're getting closure during the burial. I'm sure they paid the hospital for all of those services. I would definitely have sued.
I'm with Ginger! While there are far too many frivolous make-a-quick-buck lawsuits, this ain't one of them.
RICHARD & AMY RAMOS: HOSPITAL GIVES THEM A BIG TOE INSTEAD OF A FETUS TO BURY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 12, 2010
Amy Ramos was five months pregnant when she had complications and her baby's heart stopped.
She and her husband Richard arranged to bury the fetus, telling the East Houston Medical Center to send it to Carter Funeral Home, where they had a service and burial on August 11.
And then: "About two hours after the burial service, [they] received a telephone call from the doctor stating that there was a mix-up and they were given a big toe instead of a fetus."
Talk about phone calls you don't want to get. Or make, for that matter.
The plastic container used in the burial was dug up, and indeed was found to contain a big toe and not a five-month-old fetus.
The Ramoses are suing. For, among other things, "failure to properly identify the remains of [a] five-month-old fetus."
Jay-sus: A big toe? How casually do you have to throw something in a container to mistake a big toe for a fetus?
The plaintiffs are asking for damages "aggregating more than $100,000."
The hospital and funeral home have not yet responded to the suit.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
THE RACE CARD OF BLAMING THE VICTIM
The killer never complained to his employer about racism. The murderer never complained to the EEOC or to any civil rights group that he was the victim of racism at his place of employment. Only three people – his girlfriend, her mother, and a former girlfriend - said he had complained of racism at his place of employment. Largely ignored was the fact that he was fired for stealing from his employer. The media is playing the shop-worn race card of blaming the victim for this horrible crime.
BLACK MURDERS EIGHT WHITES; MEDIA BLAMES WHITES
By Dennis Prager
Jewish World Review
August 10, 2010
The title of this column seems unbelievable, but it is in fact what happened in America this past week. And almost no one has noticed.
After 50 years of being inundated with stories of white racism, and being taught in college that in this white-dominated society, only a white can be a racist, the American public has been properly brainwashed into accepting the otherwise incredible: A black man murdered eight white people at his place of work because they were white, and the media story is about the murderer's alleged experiences of racism.
Here's the Associated Press Report from Aug. 7, four days after the murders. It was reprinted in The Washington Post and throughout America:
"To those closest to him, Omar Thornton was caring, quiet and soft-spoken ... But underneath, Thornton seethed with a sense of racial injustice for years that culminated in a shooting rampage Tuesday in which the Connecticut man killed eight and wounded two others at his job at Hartford Distributors in Manchester before killing himself.
"'I know what pushed him over the edge was all the racial stuff that was happening at work,' said his girlfriend, Kristi Hannah.
"'He always felt like he was being discriminated (against) because he was black,' said Jessica Anne Brocuglio, his former girlfriend. 'Basically they wouldn't give him pay raises. He never felt like they accepted him as a hard working person.'
"'Thornton changed jobs a few times because he was not getting raises, Brocuglio said."
The New York Times Aug. 3 headline read: "Troubles Preceded Connecticut Workplace Killing," and in the second paragraph, the Times reported:
"He might also have had cause to be angry: he had complained to his girlfriend of being racially harassed at work, the woman's mother said, and lamented that his grievances had gone unaddressed."
On Aug. 7, 2010, The Washington Post headline read, "Beer warehouse shooter long complained of racism."
Of course, Thornton was fired for stealing beer, and there was video proof of him doing so. But this fact — the one indisputable and most pertinent pre-murder fact — got lost within the larger context of Thornton's claims of being a victim of whites.
Those preoccupied with Thornton's charges of workplace racism might wish to reflect on this: Racist and other bigotry-based murderers always blame their victims. Medieval Christians who murdered Jews blamed the Jews for poisoning wells, baking Christian children's blood in their matzo or some other terrible crime. Whites who lynched blacks blamed those blacks for rape or some other crime. Nothing is new about the Thornton racist murders except that the society in which in it occurred concentrated on the racist's excuses rather than on his murders.
Just as leading liberals would not ascribe Islamist motives — until there was no possibility of denying them — to recent Muslim attacks on Americans, the liberal media, i.e., almost all news media in America, does not brand these Connecticut murders for what they are: racist. That is why Thornton told the 9-1-1 operator, "I wish I could have gotten more of the people (i.e., whites)."
We are repeatedly told by liberal whites and blacks that America needs an honest dialogue on race. Needless to say, they don't mean it because the moment a white or black says anything critical of black behavior, he is labeled racist or Uncle Tom. So most non-liberal whites and blacks just keep quiet.
One result is this morally upside-down reporting of the murders in Connecticut.
Another example is the liberal narrative on blacks in prison — "there are more black men in prison than in college." Every decent American regards this fact as a major tragedy. But most Americans believe that the fault lies primarily with the black criminals, not with a racist society. Most Americans believe that blacks who mug, rape, rob or murder commit those crimes for the same reason whites do — they lack a sufficiently strong moral conscience.
But the dominant liberal narrative is that while white criminals are criminals, black criminals are largely victims.
Another example was the liberal narrative of the 1992 "Rodney King" riots in Los Angeles. It was perfectly expressed by the major newspaper of that city, the Los Angeles Times. During the riots, in which innocent Koreans, whites and others were beaten, maimed and killed, and innocent businesses burned to the ground, the daily special section on the riots in the Los Angeles Times was titled "Understanding the Rage." When blacks riot, whites are the reason. When a black murders eight whites in Connecticut, whites are the reason.
One terrible consequence of this liberal attitude toward black violent crime is that too many blacks come to believe that less is expected of them morally than from whites. And the truth is that most Americans on the left do expect less from blacks.
But saying any of this gets us nowhere because it is simply labeled racism. If you don't believe me, check leftist reactions to this column on the Internet.
Most liberal leaders want an honest dialogue about race as much as they want to honestly describe the murders in Connecticut.
BLACK MURDERS EIGHT WHITES; MEDIA BLAMES WHITES
By Dennis Prager
Jewish World Review
August 10, 2010
The title of this column seems unbelievable, but it is in fact what happened in America this past week. And almost no one has noticed.
After 50 years of being inundated with stories of white racism, and being taught in college that in this white-dominated society, only a white can be a racist, the American public has been properly brainwashed into accepting the otherwise incredible: A black man murdered eight white people at his place of work because they were white, and the media story is about the murderer's alleged experiences of racism.
Here's the Associated Press Report from Aug. 7, four days after the murders. It was reprinted in The Washington Post and throughout America:
"To those closest to him, Omar Thornton was caring, quiet and soft-spoken ... But underneath, Thornton seethed with a sense of racial injustice for years that culminated in a shooting rampage Tuesday in which the Connecticut man killed eight and wounded two others at his job at Hartford Distributors in Manchester before killing himself.
"'I know what pushed him over the edge was all the racial stuff that was happening at work,' said his girlfriend, Kristi Hannah.
"'He always felt like he was being discriminated (against) because he was black,' said Jessica Anne Brocuglio, his former girlfriend. 'Basically they wouldn't give him pay raises. He never felt like they accepted him as a hard working person.'
"'Thornton changed jobs a few times because he was not getting raises, Brocuglio said."
The New York Times Aug. 3 headline read: "Troubles Preceded Connecticut Workplace Killing," and in the second paragraph, the Times reported:
"He might also have had cause to be angry: he had complained to his girlfriend of being racially harassed at work, the woman's mother said, and lamented that his grievances had gone unaddressed."
On Aug. 7, 2010, The Washington Post headline read, "Beer warehouse shooter long complained of racism."
Of course, Thornton was fired for stealing beer, and there was video proof of him doing so. But this fact — the one indisputable and most pertinent pre-murder fact — got lost within the larger context of Thornton's claims of being a victim of whites.
Those preoccupied with Thornton's charges of workplace racism might wish to reflect on this: Racist and other bigotry-based murderers always blame their victims. Medieval Christians who murdered Jews blamed the Jews for poisoning wells, baking Christian children's blood in their matzo or some other terrible crime. Whites who lynched blacks blamed those blacks for rape or some other crime. Nothing is new about the Thornton racist murders except that the society in which in it occurred concentrated on the racist's excuses rather than on his murders.
Just as leading liberals would not ascribe Islamist motives — until there was no possibility of denying them — to recent Muslim attacks on Americans, the liberal media, i.e., almost all news media in America, does not brand these Connecticut murders for what they are: racist. That is why Thornton told the 9-1-1 operator, "I wish I could have gotten more of the people (i.e., whites)."
We are repeatedly told by liberal whites and blacks that America needs an honest dialogue on race. Needless to say, they don't mean it because the moment a white or black says anything critical of black behavior, he is labeled racist or Uncle Tom. So most non-liberal whites and blacks just keep quiet.
One result is this morally upside-down reporting of the murders in Connecticut.
Another example is the liberal narrative on blacks in prison — "there are more black men in prison than in college." Every decent American regards this fact as a major tragedy. But most Americans believe that the fault lies primarily with the black criminals, not with a racist society. Most Americans believe that blacks who mug, rape, rob or murder commit those crimes for the same reason whites do — they lack a sufficiently strong moral conscience.
But the dominant liberal narrative is that while white criminals are criminals, black criminals are largely victims.
Another example was the liberal narrative of the 1992 "Rodney King" riots in Los Angeles. It was perfectly expressed by the major newspaper of that city, the Los Angeles Times. During the riots, in which innocent Koreans, whites and others were beaten, maimed and killed, and innocent businesses burned to the ground, the daily special section on the riots in the Los Angeles Times was titled "Understanding the Rage." When blacks riot, whites are the reason. When a black murders eight whites in Connecticut, whites are the reason.
One terrible consequence of this liberal attitude toward black violent crime is that too many blacks come to believe that less is expected of them morally than from whites. And the truth is that most Americans on the left do expect less from blacks.
But saying any of this gets us nowhere because it is simply labeled racism. If you don't believe me, check leftist reactions to this column on the Internet.
Most liberal leaders want an honest dialogue about race as much as they want to honestly describe the murders in Connecticut.
IT'S TOO DANGEROUS TO TRAVEL IN PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES
This was sent to me by a good friend in England. Congressman Ted Poe used to be a state district judge in Houston. By clicking on the following link you will hear him tell it like it is.
YouTube - DON'T TRAVEL IN AMERICA--IT'S TOO DANGEROUS 7-19-2010
YouTube - DON'T TRAVEL IN AMERICA--IT'S TOO DANGEROUS 7-19-2010
KOOKFORNIA CONVENTION ACROSS THE BAY FROM SAN FRANSICKO
I am guessing that the convention center in San Fransicko wasn’t large enough.
CANNABIS CUPCAKE, ANYONE?
NBC Bay Area
August 9, 2010
A convention on cannabis, the first ever in the South Bay, brought thousands of people to the San Jose Convention Center over the weekend.
HempCon 2010 featured vendors and informational booths on everything from medical marijuana's benefits to growing options.
There was information about medical marijuana, places set up to explain the current laws and booths aimed at pushing Prop 19 -- the November ballot issue to legalize pot for recreational purposes. Visitors could also learn about pot clubs in the Bay Area, growing weed at home and what equipment is needed to start an indoor farm.
There was even legal help available and also a table set up for people who wanted to become licensed, ID-carrying medical marijuana patients.
There were also dozens of cannabis products up for sale. Cannabis biscotti, anyone? That is just one of the tasty food items up for grabs this weekend. Products like cannabis honey, cupcakes and caramel corn were hot sellers for anyone with a cannabis card.
The concession stands also featured something called Hemp Ale, from Humboldt County, of course.
There was one thing you couldn't do at HempCon: Smoke pot. The director of the event asked the city for permission to set up a self-medication tent inside but they city said no. So any smoking -- cigarette or otherwise -- couldn't take place closer than 25 feet from the convention hall.
If voters pass Prop 19 in November, legal wrangling is sure to follow but cannabis could become quite a cash crop for the state.
As they say in television, stay tuned.
CANNABIS CUPCAKE, ANYONE?
NBC Bay Area
August 9, 2010
A convention on cannabis, the first ever in the South Bay, brought thousands of people to the San Jose Convention Center over the weekend.
HempCon 2010 featured vendors and informational booths on everything from medical marijuana's benefits to growing options.
There was information about medical marijuana, places set up to explain the current laws and booths aimed at pushing Prop 19 -- the November ballot issue to legalize pot for recreational purposes. Visitors could also learn about pot clubs in the Bay Area, growing weed at home and what equipment is needed to start an indoor farm.
There was even legal help available and also a table set up for people who wanted to become licensed, ID-carrying medical marijuana patients.
There were also dozens of cannabis products up for sale. Cannabis biscotti, anyone? That is just one of the tasty food items up for grabs this weekend. Products like cannabis honey, cupcakes and caramel corn were hot sellers for anyone with a cannabis card.
The concession stands also featured something called Hemp Ale, from Humboldt County, of course.
There was one thing you couldn't do at HempCon: Smoke pot. The director of the event asked the city for permission to set up a self-medication tent inside but they city said no. So any smoking -- cigarette or otherwise -- couldn't take place closer than 25 feet from the convention hall.
If voters pass Prop 19 in November, legal wrangling is sure to follow but cannabis could become quite a cash crop for the state.
As they say in television, stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
From "And now for the important news …." by Argus Hamilton:
NBC dropped Keith Olbermann from Sunday Night Football Monday. Oprah's ratings are down, Letterman's are down and Olbermann lost a gig at which he truly excels. The only thing linked with Obama that's not going down right now is the unemployment rate.
NBC dropped Keith Olbermann from Sunday Night Football Monday. Oprah's ratings are down, Letterman's are down and Olbermann lost a gig at which he truly excels. The only thing linked with Obama that's not going down right now is the unemployment rate.
RELIGION OF PEACE?: ISLAMIC SCRIPTURES UNVEILED
How often do you hear that Islam is a religion of peace? That is what American Muslims claim. That is what President Bush claimed. That is what President Obama claims. That is what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claims. And that is what Christian and Jewish liberals claim when calling for religious tolerance. But history and scriptures from the Quran clearly show that Islam is NOT a religion of peace. And the scriptures also show that Muhammad considered those Muslims who would not wage Jihad to be HYPOCRITES.
By clicking on the following link, you will be able to read the Islamic scriptures which debunk that religion of peace crap. While the listing is quite long, it should serve as a real eye opener to those who have been hoodwinked into believing the Muslim apologists among us.
http://sites.google.com/site/islamicscripturesunveiled/Home/jihad-2
By clicking on the following link, you will be able to read the Islamic scriptures which debunk that religion of peace crap. While the listing is quite long, it should serve as a real eye opener to those who have been hoodwinked into believing the Muslim apologists among us.
http://sites.google.com/site/islamicscripturesunveiled/Home/jihad-2
BROKEN NEWS: FED UP AND THAT SPANISH VACATION
FED UP WITH THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS
Steve Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, finally got fed up. By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Slater left his job in an abrupt and most unusual manner.
As any of you airline passengers know, whenever a plane lands at an airport, there is a PA announcement by the flight crew instructing everyone to stay in their seats until the aircraft comes to a complete stop as it taxies to the terminal. And you also know that some passengers ignore that announcement and jump out of the seats to retrieve their luggage from the overhead compartments.
When Slater asked a woman who ignored the instructions to sit down, she told him to "fuck off." And then a piece of luggage the woman was pulling from the overhead compartment struck poor old Steve in the head. What happened next is described by Hair Balls:
__Slater -- in a moment of sheer inspiration -- went to the PA system, said "To the motherfucker who told me to fuck off, it's been a good 28 years!!"
__He grabbed two beers, pulled the lever to make the emergency chute deploy, and slid down into greatness.
Slater, who became an instant folk hero, was subsequently arrested. While out of a job and facing felony charges for activating the escape chute, he may be able to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame with some TV appearances. But then what?
Slater could be sentenced to prison for up to seven years but will almost certainly get probation. And when his fame fades, he will be broke and jobless. Slateer's abrupt outburst and exit from the plane can best be described this way: STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
MICHELLE’S SPANISH VACATION
The criticism of Mrs. Obama’s Spanish vacation put me off. While I agree that Michelle could have picked a less lavish vacation spot and would have been better served vacationing in the good old USA, I thought she and her young daughter had every right to take a vacation in Spain despite these tough economic times. I saw the criticism as nothing more than a cheap political attack on the Obama administration.
No matter where she would have vacationed, Mrs. Obama and her daughter, Sasha, would have been accompanied by an official entourage. It is my understanding that the taxpayers are only going to be stuck for the expenses of 10 staffers and dozens of secret service agents. And, of course, there is also the cost of the Air Force plane taking the vacationers to and from Spain.
But now some new information has popped up that has me joining the critics of that vacation. Lynn Sweet, a respected Chicago Sun Times journalist, told CBS News that Michelle chose the Spanish vacation to take along a close friend from Chicago in order to make her feel better over the recent death of her father. But why Spain and why at this time? Because her friend’s daughter, a playmate of Sasha’s when the Obamas lived in Chicago, wanted to celebrate her birthday in Spain.
If Sweet’s story is true, there was absolutely no excuse for Mrs. Obama’s lavish Spanish vacation. If she wanted to make her friend feel better, instead of taking her on that Spanish vacation, Michelle should have invited her for a prolonged stay at the White House.
Steve Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, finally got fed up. By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Slater left his job in an abrupt and most unusual manner.
As any of you airline passengers know, whenever a plane lands at an airport, there is a PA announcement by the flight crew instructing everyone to stay in their seats until the aircraft comes to a complete stop as it taxies to the terminal. And you also know that some passengers ignore that announcement and jump out of the seats to retrieve their luggage from the overhead compartments.
When Slater asked a woman who ignored the instructions to sit down, she told him to "fuck off." And then a piece of luggage the woman was pulling from the overhead compartment struck poor old Steve in the head. What happened next is described by Hair Balls:
__Slater -- in a moment of sheer inspiration -- went to the PA system, said "To the motherfucker who told me to fuck off, it's been a good 28 years!!"
__He grabbed two beers, pulled the lever to make the emergency chute deploy, and slid down into greatness.
Slater, who became an instant folk hero, was subsequently arrested. While out of a job and facing felony charges for activating the escape chute, he may be able to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame with some TV appearances. But then what?
Slater could be sentenced to prison for up to seven years but will almost certainly get probation. And when his fame fades, he will be broke and jobless. Slateer's abrupt outburst and exit from the plane can best be described this way: STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
MICHELLE’S SPANISH VACATION
The criticism of Mrs. Obama’s Spanish vacation put me off. While I agree that Michelle could have picked a less lavish vacation spot and would have been better served vacationing in the good old USA, I thought she and her young daughter had every right to take a vacation in Spain despite these tough economic times. I saw the criticism as nothing more than a cheap political attack on the Obama administration.
No matter where she would have vacationed, Mrs. Obama and her daughter, Sasha, would have been accompanied by an official entourage. It is my understanding that the taxpayers are only going to be stuck for the expenses of 10 staffers and dozens of secret service agents. And, of course, there is also the cost of the Air Force plane taking the vacationers to and from Spain.
But now some new information has popped up that has me joining the critics of that vacation. Lynn Sweet, a respected Chicago Sun Times journalist, told CBS News that Michelle chose the Spanish vacation to take along a close friend from Chicago in order to make her feel better over the recent death of her father. But why Spain and why at this time? Because her friend’s daughter, a playmate of Sasha’s when the Obamas lived in Chicago, wanted to celebrate her birthday in Spain.
If Sweet’s story is true, there was absolutely no excuse for Mrs. Obama’s lavish Spanish vacation. If she wanted to make her friend feel better, instead of taking her on that Spanish vacation, Michelle should have invited her for a prolonged stay at the White House.
DON'T FOLLOW YOUR VICTIM TO THE COP SHOP
When attempting to rob someone wearing a police uniform, here is the most important rule of all: Don’t follow your victim to the police station.
PERNELL DWAYNE McCARDELL: DON’T TRY TO CARJACK A UNIFORMED POLICE DISPATCHER
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 9, 2010
We don't claim to be criminal masterminds here, but we think we can offer two pieces of advice: If you're going to try to carjack somebody, pick ANYONE other than a person in a police uniform.
Just as a corollary to that, if you do somehow manage to attempt (and fail) to carjack a uniformed police department employee, don't jump in your car and follow him...as he drives to the freaking police station.
Luckily for society as a whole, Pernell Dwayne McCardell, 33, didn't follow these simple rules in Hitchcock early Sunday morning.
The Galveston County Daily News reports that McCardell and another man flagged down Brandon Scott, 18, a uniformed dispatcher for the Hitchcock PD, as he was headed home from the late shift about 2 a.m. Sunday.
When he stopped, they tried to carjack him. Apparently the thinking was "Okay, we can't carjack an actual cop, so we'll settle for this guy in a police-looking uniform."
Scott pulled away, as the pair tried to jump in the back of his pickup. The two then hopped in a car and followed him.
Scott, no dummy (and also, obviously, someone who knows how to work police calls) had contacted the Hitchcock police and drove to the station.
When McCardell and his partner pulled up to see him talking to an officer, they took off. Not for long, though:
__With a patrol unit behind them, the passenger jumped from the car and ran about 50 feet into the hood of a patrol car, where he was captured, [HPD chief Clay] Kennelly said.
__Another officer chased the driver, who stopped about two blocks from the police station, Scott and Kennelly said.
__"He tries to jump a steep ditch along (state) Highway 6, but he lands wrong on the other side and dislocates his hip and brakes a femur," Kennelly said. "He's sprawled out in a lane on Highway 6, and fortunately a car missed him."
"Ran about 50 feet into the hood of a patrol car"? Interesting.
McCardell was the passenger; the driver was taken to the hospital. He has yet to be charged, so his name has not been released.
PERNELL DWAYNE McCARDELL: DON’T TRY TO CARJACK A UNIFORMED POLICE DISPATCHER
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 9, 2010
We don't claim to be criminal masterminds here, but we think we can offer two pieces of advice: If you're going to try to carjack somebody, pick ANYONE other than a person in a police uniform.
Just as a corollary to that, if you do somehow manage to attempt (and fail) to carjack a uniformed police department employee, don't jump in your car and follow him...as he drives to the freaking police station.
Luckily for society as a whole, Pernell Dwayne McCardell, 33, didn't follow these simple rules in Hitchcock early Sunday morning.
The Galveston County Daily News reports that McCardell and another man flagged down Brandon Scott, 18, a uniformed dispatcher for the Hitchcock PD, as he was headed home from the late shift about 2 a.m. Sunday.
When he stopped, they tried to carjack him. Apparently the thinking was "Okay, we can't carjack an actual cop, so we'll settle for this guy in a police-looking uniform."
Scott pulled away, as the pair tried to jump in the back of his pickup. The two then hopped in a car and followed him.
Scott, no dummy (and also, obviously, someone who knows how to work police calls) had contacted the Hitchcock police and drove to the station.
When McCardell and his partner pulled up to see him talking to an officer, they took off. Not for long, though:
__With a patrol unit behind them, the passenger jumped from the car and ran about 50 feet into the hood of a patrol car, where he was captured, [HPD chief Clay] Kennelly said.
__Another officer chased the driver, who stopped about two blocks from the police station, Scott and Kennelly said.
__"He tries to jump a steep ditch along (state) Highway 6, but he lands wrong on the other side and dislocates his hip and brakes a femur," Kennelly said. "He's sprawled out in a lane on Highway 6, and fortunately a car missed him."
"Ran about 50 feet into the hood of a patrol car"? Interesting.
McCardell was the passenger; the driver was taken to the hospital. He has yet to be charged, so his name has not been released.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: 'A TROJAN HORSE FOR COMPLETE LEGALIZATION. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MEDICINE'
In his July 21 New York Times column, ‘A Smell of Pot And Privilege In the City,’ Jim Dwyer takes New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to task for granting city summer internships mostly to the sons an daughters of rich whites and for the lack of blacks, Latinos and women in his administration’s key management positions. Dwyer complained that the interns "reflected the mayor’s social and political circles: mostly white, many quite wealthy, coming from private high schools and Ivy League colleges" and "not residents of Stop and Frisk New York."
As for the Bloomberg administration’s white male managers, Dwyer says they "are shaping policies that wind up leading to the deprivation of liberty of people who do not look like them." Here Dwyer is referring to New York’s successful ‘Stop and Frisk’ crime fighting tool which he blames for the disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos that get busted on pot charges. (For some insights into NY’s Stop and Frisk program, read my blog NON-HISPANIC WHITES COMMIT ONLY 5% OF NEW YORK'S VIOLENT CRIMES, 1.4% OF ALL SHOOTINGS AND LESS THAN 5% OF ALL ROBBERIES / 7-5-10)
Dwyer mentions that Bloomberg says 'medical marijuana' was a Trojan horse for the complete legalization of pot, adding that "It has nothing to do with medicine." The mayor sure got that one right! All you have to do is look at what has happened in Kookfornia and Colorado.
Here are the excerpts on pot busts from A SMELL OF POT AND PRIVILEGE IN THE CITY:
No city in the world arrests more of its citizens for using pot than New York, according to statistics compiled by Harry G. Levine, a Queens College sociologist.
Nearly nine out of ten people charged with violating the law are black or Latino, although national surveys have shown that whites are the heaviest users of pot. Mr. Bloomberg himself acknowledged in 2001 that he had used it, and enjoyed it.
On the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the mayor lives, an average of 20 people for every 100,000 residents were arrested on the lowest-level misdemeanor pot charge in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
During those same years, the marijuana arrest rate in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was 3,109 for every 100,000 residents.
That means the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville — and nothing else — were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
No doubt this is, in large part, a consequence of the stop-and-frisk practices of the Police Department, which Mr. Bloomberg and his aides say have been an important tool in bringing down crime.
Nowhere in the city is that tactic used more heavily than in Brownsville. On average, the police conducted one stop and frisk a year for every one of the 14,000 people who live there, an analysis by The New York Times found. More than 99 percent of the people were not arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.
Brownsville has the highest marijuana arrest rate in the city. The top 10 precincts for marijuana arrests averaged 2,150 for every 100,000 residents; the populations in those precincts are generally 90 percent or more nonwhite.
Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood has the lowest rate of marijuana arrests; the 10 precincts with the lowest rates averaged 67 arrests per 100,000 residents. The population in most of those neighborhoods was 80 percent white.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg talked about proposals that would allow marijuana to be distributed for putatively medical purposes.
He said it was a Trojan horse for complete legalization.
"I mean, the idea of medical marijuana, we all know what that means: It means everybody is going to qualify," he said. "The worst thing is the hypocrisy of saying it’s medical marijuana. If you want to legalize it, let’s have that debate, but that’s what you’re really talking about. It has nothing to do with medicine."
In truth, in New York, the debate was over before it began.
For blacks and Latinos, it is very, very illegal.
But not in Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood.
As for the Bloomberg administration’s white male managers, Dwyer says they "are shaping policies that wind up leading to the deprivation of liberty of people who do not look like them." Here Dwyer is referring to New York’s successful ‘Stop and Frisk’ crime fighting tool which he blames for the disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos that get busted on pot charges. (For some insights into NY’s Stop and Frisk program, read my blog NON-HISPANIC WHITES COMMIT ONLY 5% OF NEW YORK'S VIOLENT CRIMES, 1.4% OF ALL SHOOTINGS AND LESS THAN 5% OF ALL ROBBERIES / 7-5-10)
Dwyer mentions that Bloomberg says 'medical marijuana' was a Trojan horse for the complete legalization of pot, adding that "It has nothing to do with medicine." The mayor sure got that one right! All you have to do is look at what has happened in Kookfornia and Colorado.
Here are the excerpts on pot busts from A SMELL OF POT AND PRIVILEGE IN THE CITY:
No city in the world arrests more of its citizens for using pot than New York, according to statistics compiled by Harry G. Levine, a Queens College sociologist.
Nearly nine out of ten people charged with violating the law are black or Latino, although national surveys have shown that whites are the heaviest users of pot. Mr. Bloomberg himself acknowledged in 2001 that he had used it, and enjoyed it.
On the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the mayor lives, an average of 20 people for every 100,000 residents were arrested on the lowest-level misdemeanor pot charge in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
During those same years, the marijuana arrest rate in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was 3,109 for every 100,000 residents.
That means the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville — and nothing else — were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
No doubt this is, in large part, a consequence of the stop-and-frisk practices of the Police Department, which Mr. Bloomberg and his aides say have been an important tool in bringing down crime.
Nowhere in the city is that tactic used more heavily than in Brownsville. On average, the police conducted one stop and frisk a year for every one of the 14,000 people who live there, an analysis by The New York Times found. More than 99 percent of the people were not arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.
Brownsville has the highest marijuana arrest rate in the city. The top 10 precincts for marijuana arrests averaged 2,150 for every 100,000 residents; the populations in those precincts are generally 90 percent or more nonwhite.
Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood has the lowest rate of marijuana arrests; the 10 precincts with the lowest rates averaged 67 arrests per 100,000 residents. The population in most of those neighborhoods was 80 percent white.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg talked about proposals that would allow marijuana to be distributed for putatively medical purposes.
He said it was a Trojan horse for complete legalization.
"I mean, the idea of medical marijuana, we all know what that means: It means everybody is going to qualify," he said. "The worst thing is the hypocrisy of saying it’s medical marijuana. If you want to legalize it, let’s have that debate, but that’s what you’re really talking about. It has nothing to do with medicine."
In truth, in New York, the debate was over before it began.
For blacks and Latinos, it is very, very illegal.
But not in Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood.
BOOB BOOSTING CAPITOL OF THE WORLD
Texas is the capital punishment capitol of the world and Houston is the death penalty capitol of Texas because it sends more murderers to death row than any other jurisdiction in the state. And now Houston has been bestowed with another honor - it has become the boob boosting capitol of the world.
The Houston Chronicle reports that according to Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Franklin Rose, the Bayou City boasts the most breast implants per capita in the world. The average implant in the 1980s measured 275cc. (Cubic centimeters are the standard for liquid silicone measurement.) That’s equal to a small C cup. Patients are now requesting 350cc, a small D cup equivalent, Rose says.
My state’s reputation for executing scumbags makes me proud to be a Texan. And my city’s death penalty record coupled with its recognition for boosting them thar boobs makes me damn proud to be a Houstonian as well.
The Houston Chronicle reports that according to Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Franklin Rose, the Bayou City boasts the most breast implants per capita in the world. The average implant in the 1980s measured 275cc. (Cubic centimeters are the standard for liquid silicone measurement.) That’s equal to a small C cup. Patients are now requesting 350cc, a small D cup equivalent, Rose says.
My state’s reputation for executing scumbags makes me proud to be a Texan. And my city’s death penalty record coupled with its recognition for boosting them thar boobs makes me damn proud to be a Houstonian as well.
BOGUS GRAVES: WHAT DEV IOUS SCHEME WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT?
ARAB LEAGUE SQUEALS AS ISRAEL REMOVES FAKE MUSLIM GRAVES
Israel Today
August 9, 2010
The Arab League at the weekend dramatically condemned Israel's "heinous crime" of removing a number of phony Muslim graves that had only recently been erected in a downtown Jerusalem park.
The eastern corner of Independence Park in downtown Jerusalem is indeed home to a small centuries-old Muslim graveyard. The graveyard is under the supervision of the same Islamic Trust (Waqf) that administers the Temple Mount.
Last week, an Arutz 7 radio reporter discovered that Waqf bulldozers and trucks operating at the site were not only refurbishing the old graves, but were actually erecting new graves in areas of the park not previously part of the cemetery.
Of course, no one was buried under the new graves, which were merely an attempt to extend Waqf control over the central Jerusalem park.
In response, the Jerusalem Municipality removed the phony graves, prompting Arab League Assistant Secretary General for Palestinian Affairs Mohamed Sobeih to lash out at the Jewish state in hopes of creating an international incident.
"The Arab League is closely following up this heinous crime," said Sobeih. "Israel is destroying the Muslims' graves when Arabs are restoring the Jewish ones everywhere in the world."
Israel Today
August 9, 2010
The Arab League at the weekend dramatically condemned Israel's "heinous crime" of removing a number of phony Muslim graves that had only recently been erected in a downtown Jerusalem park.
The eastern corner of Independence Park in downtown Jerusalem is indeed home to a small centuries-old Muslim graveyard. The graveyard is under the supervision of the same Islamic Trust (Waqf) that administers the Temple Mount.
Last week, an Arutz 7 radio reporter discovered that Waqf bulldozers and trucks operating at the site were not only refurbishing the old graves, but were actually erecting new graves in areas of the park not previously part of the cemetery.
Of course, no one was buried under the new graves, which were merely an attempt to extend Waqf control over the central Jerusalem park.
In response, the Jerusalem Municipality removed the phony graves, prompting Arab League Assistant Secretary General for Palestinian Affairs Mohamed Sobeih to lash out at the Jewish state in hopes of creating an international incident.
"The Arab League is closely following up this heinous crime," said Sobeih. "Israel is destroying the Muslims' graves when Arabs are restoring the Jewish ones everywhere in the world."
Monday, August 09, 2010
MILLIONS OF JAPANESE WOULD LIVE BECAUSE NEARLY 200,000 DIED
65 years ago on August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. dropped a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The final death toll for Hiroshima was calculated at 135,000 and 50,000 for Nagasaki. Thousands more were seriously wounded, with many dying years later from radiation sickness.
The do-gooders and peaceniks of the world continue to condemn the U.S. for dropping those atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fuck those idiots! Had we not resorted to the use of those atomic bombs, millions of Japanese would have died in the invasion of their homeland by U.S. military forces. Many thousands of Americans would have died as well. There was a good chance that I would have been one of those killed. That’s why I say, fuck all those people who condemn us for resorting to the use of nuclear weapons.
We do not owe the Japanese any apologies. They brought the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki upon themselves. They set out to conquer the Asian world. Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We fought back and they paid a heavy price for their misadventures. The atomic bombings resulted in the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII.
I, for one, am very grateful to President Harry Truman for the courage he found to give the go-ahead for the use of these awesome weapons. By doing so, Truman probably saved my life and millions of other lives as well..
The do-gooders and peaceniks of the world continue to condemn the U.S. for dropping those atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fuck those idiots! Had we not resorted to the use of those atomic bombs, millions of Japanese would have died in the invasion of their homeland by U.S. military forces. Many thousands of Americans would have died as well. There was a good chance that I would have been one of those killed. That’s why I say, fuck all those people who condemn us for resorting to the use of nuclear weapons.
We do not owe the Japanese any apologies. They brought the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki upon themselves. They set out to conquer the Asian world. Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We fought back and they paid a heavy price for their misadventures. The atomic bombings resulted in the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII.
I, for one, am very grateful to President Harry Truman for the courage he found to give the go-ahead for the use of these awesome weapons. By doing so, Truman probably saved my life and millions of other lives as well..
THE CASE AGAINST CONFINING DANGEROUS CRIMINALS IN PRIVATE PRISONS (2)
Daniel Renwick, Tracy Province, and John McCluskey escaped on July 30 from a private prison in Kingman, Arizona. Renwick was caught in Colorado on August 1 after a gun battle with police. The other two remain at large. Renwick was serving a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder, Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery, and McCluskey was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.
The trio was aided in their escape by Casslyn Welch, McCluskey's fiancee and cousin. Welch is believed to have tossed some wire cutters over the prison fence. The trio cut their way out and escaped without being detected. Welch is believed to have picked up the escapees. Claudia Washburn, McCluskey’s elderly mother, has since been arrested for aiding the escapees by furnishing them with money.
Forensic evidence has now linked at least one of the inmates to the killings of Linda and Gary Haas, both 61, a traveling Oklahoma couple. Their badly burned skeletal remains were found in a charred camper Wednesday morning on a remote ranch in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Their pickup truck was found abandoned that afternoon 100 miles west in Albuquerque.
This begs the question: Why were these dangerous criminals confined in a private medium security prison? What does the escape say about the lack of security provided by on-the-cheap private prisons? The trio’s escape and the murders of Linda and Gary Haas can be directly attributed to the budget cutting measures now being resorted to by many of our states.
The trio was aided in their escape by Casslyn Welch, McCluskey's fiancee and cousin. Welch is believed to have tossed some wire cutters over the prison fence. The trio cut their way out and escaped without being detected. Welch is believed to have picked up the escapees. Claudia Washburn, McCluskey’s elderly mother, has since been arrested for aiding the escapees by furnishing them with money.
Forensic evidence has now linked at least one of the inmates to the killings of Linda and Gary Haas, both 61, a traveling Oklahoma couple. Their badly burned skeletal remains were found in a charred camper Wednesday morning on a remote ranch in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Their pickup truck was found abandoned that afternoon 100 miles west in Albuquerque.
This begs the question: Why were these dangerous criminals confined in a private medium security prison? What does the escape say about the lack of security provided by on-the-cheap private prisons? The trio’s escape and the murders of Linda and Gary Haas can be directly attributed to the budget cutting measures now being resorted to by many of our states.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
POLITICALLY CORRECT TERMINOLOGY GONE ABSURD
Trudie Hall,23, was four-months pregnant when she disappeared in Hyannis more than a week ago. Her rental car was found abandoned and contained bloodstains.
Barnstable police and Massachusetts state police investigators made an extensive search of Quoizel Wilson’s home. Wilson was an acquaintance of the missing woman. The police took a motorcycle and white SUV in addition to other items from his home. Wilson was questioned for hours at a police station before he was released.
The police refuse to call Wilson a suspect, referring to him only as ‘a person of interest.’ What a crock of supreme shit! They question him for hours, seize two of his vehicles and other items from his home and they don’t call him a suspect? Incredible!
This is a perfect example of politically correct terminology gone absurd. In my day – and don’t give me that shit of ‘that was then and this is now’ – we questioned two kinds of people when conducting a criminal investigation. There were witnesses and there were suspects, none of this person of interest nonsense.
Let’s be perfectly clear: Wilson is a suspect, political correctness notwithstanding. To call him anything but a suspect is absolutely absurd!
Barnstable police and Massachusetts state police investigators made an extensive search of Quoizel Wilson’s home. Wilson was an acquaintance of the missing woman. The police took a motorcycle and white SUV in addition to other items from his home. Wilson was questioned for hours at a police station before he was released.
The police refuse to call Wilson a suspect, referring to him only as ‘a person of interest.’ What a crock of supreme shit! They question him for hours, seize two of his vehicles and other items from his home and they don’t call him a suspect? Incredible!
This is a perfect example of politically correct terminology gone absurd. In my day – and don’t give me that shit of ‘that was then and this is now’ – we questioned two kinds of people when conducting a criminal investigation. There were witnesses and there were suspects, none of this person of interest nonsense.
Let’s be perfectly clear: Wilson is a suspect, political correctness notwithstanding. To call him anything but a suspect is absolutely absurd!
SOME SUPPLEMENTAL BENEFITS OF POLICE WORK: Cops substituting dicks for brains
My friend Trey sent me this Los Angeles Times report and wrote: First she screwed the cop, then she screwed his friend the drug cop, then she had group sex with cops at the union hall. What word describes this woman best?
Beats me, Trey, but I do know how to describe the cops – STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
WOMAN FILES $500,000 SEX CLAIM AGAINST RIALTO POLICE
A server at Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club says officers used department’s offices and police union hall for sex
By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2010
Rialto police officers had group sex with employees of the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club at the police narcotics office and the police union headquarters, according to a claim filed against the Inland Empire city.
Nancy Holtgreve, a server at the club, says that more than two officers engaged in sexual conduct with strip club employees, and that one officer used the department's narcotics office for sexual liaisons during the last two years. Her relationship with one officer soured when she got pregnant, she alleges, and the officer began threatening her.
The claim filed Monday alleges that the behavior "fostered and perpetuated a culture of unwanted sexual harassment of females by male police officers."
"This sexual behavior happened on duty and off duty," Danuta Tuszynska, Holtgreve's attorney, said Friday. "I have a picture of an officer exposing himself in his uniform … I don't know how the chief and bosses couldn't know about it in such a small department."
Tuszynska declined to make her client available for an interview.
Police Chief Mark Kling said the department has been investigating the allegations since they were reported May 5.
"I've placed four officers on administrative leave and two others are under investigation," he said, adding that he hoped to complete the inquiry this month.
City Atty. Jimmy Gutierrez said Holtgreve's claim will be rejected by the city as untimely and without merit because the acts were consensual. "She claimed she had consensual sex with two men.… She had a child with one of the men," he said. "She did not file any police reports with the city or city she lives in alleging she was threatened."
The allegations come five years after the Police Department of this diverse city was nearly disbanded amid allegations of racism and sexism.
Holtgreve, 37, alleges that the misconduct began in 2008 when officers started hanging out in the Spearmint Rhino, then arranged to rendezvous at a nearby Denny's. Officer James Dobbs started taking her to the union hall of the Rialto Police Benefit Assn. for sex, according to the $500,000 claim, a required precursor to a lawsuit against a government agency.
"Occasionally several employees of the Rhino and several officers would engage in sexual relations at the union together," according to the claim. She also alleged that Dobbs introduced her to a narcotics officer who had sexual relations with her at the department narcotics office.
Holtgreve became pregnant by Dobbs and had a child last March, according to the claim.
Holtgreve alleges that during the pregnancy he began to "intimidate and threaten" her with calls and texts, stating in one message, "I'm going to make you look like an unfit mother, you ruined my life…. I'm a cop" and "You should have had an abortion."
According to the claim, the officer also "physically abused" Holtgreve on several occasions.
The claim said she went to the Rialto Police Department in late April and spoke to internal affairs, Holtgreve alleged. Holtgreve said she spoke to Kling, who she claims apologized for the circumstances and said, "We'll protect you Nancy, please don't take it to the press."
Kling denies having said this.
Dobbs could not be reached for comment.
__ Times staff writers Joe Mozingo and Ann M. Simmons contributed to this report.
Beats me, Trey, but I do know how to describe the cops – STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
WOMAN FILES $500,000 SEX CLAIM AGAINST RIALTO POLICE
A server at Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club says officers used department’s offices and police union hall for sex
By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2010
Rialto police officers had group sex with employees of the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club at the police narcotics office and the police union headquarters, according to a claim filed against the Inland Empire city.
Nancy Holtgreve, a server at the club, says that more than two officers engaged in sexual conduct with strip club employees, and that one officer used the department's narcotics office for sexual liaisons during the last two years. Her relationship with one officer soured when she got pregnant, she alleges, and the officer began threatening her.
The claim filed Monday alleges that the behavior "fostered and perpetuated a culture of unwanted sexual harassment of females by male police officers."
"This sexual behavior happened on duty and off duty," Danuta Tuszynska, Holtgreve's attorney, said Friday. "I have a picture of an officer exposing himself in his uniform … I don't know how the chief and bosses couldn't know about it in such a small department."
Tuszynska declined to make her client available for an interview.
Police Chief Mark Kling said the department has been investigating the allegations since they were reported May 5.
"I've placed four officers on administrative leave and two others are under investigation," he said, adding that he hoped to complete the inquiry this month.
City Atty. Jimmy Gutierrez said Holtgreve's claim will be rejected by the city as untimely and without merit because the acts were consensual. "She claimed she had consensual sex with two men.… She had a child with one of the men," he said. "She did not file any police reports with the city or city she lives in alleging she was threatened."
The allegations come five years after the Police Department of this diverse city was nearly disbanded amid allegations of racism and sexism.
Holtgreve, 37, alleges that the misconduct began in 2008 when officers started hanging out in the Spearmint Rhino, then arranged to rendezvous at a nearby Denny's. Officer James Dobbs started taking her to the union hall of the Rialto Police Benefit Assn. for sex, according to the $500,000 claim, a required precursor to a lawsuit against a government agency.
"Occasionally several employees of the Rhino and several officers would engage in sexual relations at the union together," according to the claim. She also alleged that Dobbs introduced her to a narcotics officer who had sexual relations with her at the department narcotics office.
Holtgreve became pregnant by Dobbs and had a child last March, according to the claim.
Holtgreve alleges that during the pregnancy he began to "intimidate and threaten" her with calls and texts, stating in one message, "I'm going to make you look like an unfit mother, you ruined my life…. I'm a cop" and "You should have had an abortion."
According to the claim, the officer also "physically abused" Holtgreve on several occasions.
The claim said she went to the Rialto Police Department in late April and spoke to internal affairs, Holtgreve alleged. Holtgreve said she spoke to Kling, who she claims apologized for the circumstances and said, "We'll protect you Nancy, please don't take it to the press."
Kling denies having said this.
Dobbs could not be reached for comment.
__ Times staff writers Joe Mozingo and Ann M. Simmons contributed to this report.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
SCREAMS AND BLUSTERS AND BULLIES, PULLING RACE CARDS FROM EVERY POCKET
White liberals and black Sharpton supporters will shit in their pants if they read this op-ed. They’ll piss and moan that Larry Elder must be a low-down racist. But the cherished ‘race card’ bubble will burst when white liberals discover that Elder is a noted black columnist and author, and not a white racist.
In exposing the Reverend Al for the four-flushing phony he is, Elder failed to mention that on another occasion Sharpton's inflammatory race-baiting rhetoric provoked one of his followers to take a gun into Freddie's Fashion Mart and slaughter seven customers before committing suicide.
NEWSWEEK WHITEWASHES AL SHARPTON
By Larry Elder
Jewish World Review
August 5, 2010
A well-known "civil rights activist" made the cover of Newsweek, the left-wing "news" magazine reportedly sold for its debt and $1. Based on this cover story, the buyer overpaid.
The headline, above the flattering photograph of a Man of Gravitas, reads: "The Reinvention of the Reverend Al: From Tawana to Obama, What Sharpton's Longevity Says About Race in America."
It's good to be the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America's pre-eminent race-hustlers and demagogues. The word "shameless" doesn't do him justice. The word "whitewash" understates the gushing makeover accorded him by Newsweek.
The article discusses, but minimizes, the how and why of Sharpton's rise to national prominence: He falsely accused a man of rape. Almost 20 years ago, Sharpton became famous by championing the cause of a black teenager named Tawana Brawley, who, it turned out, lied when she claimed that she'd been abducted and sexually assaulted by whites. Sharpton not only offered Tawana Brawley up as a sympathetic victim of America's alleged pervasive racism, he accused Steven Pagones, a white assistant district attorney, of committing the crime.
A grand jury found that Tawana Brawley fabricated the whole thing. Sharpton not only refused to apologize, he dared Pagones to sue him for defamation. Pagones obliged. A jury unanimously found Sharpton liable, and Pagones' lawyer spent years trying to get Sharpton to pay the judgment. To this day, Sharpton refuses to apologize to Pagones, who said he received death threats.
Newsweek says Sharpton "has been right much more often than wrong in his choice of causes." Obviously, this offsets the numerous times Sharpton, without due cause, screamed and blustered and bullied, pulling race cards from every pocket.
The piece barely touches on or completely ignores many items on his long list of schemes, fraudulent race-based hustles and scandals. Nothing about the FBI surveillance video of Sharpton arranging a cocaine/money laundering deal with a mobster-turned-informant. Nothing about Sharpton calling the first black mayor of New York a "n---er whore." (With typical gall, Sharpton later pushed to "ban" the use of the N-word.)
Newsweek says, "His enemies sometimes charge, bizarrely, that he has chosen a career as a peripatetic community activist for the money." Bizarrely? Nothing about how he signed with one of Hollywood's biggest agencies, which then shopped a sitcom starring Sharpton, called "Al in the Family." Nothing about his gig as a paid pitchman for LoanMax, a "predatory lender" that cannot legally operate in New York.
Crown Heights tells us everything one needs to know about Sharpton. A 7-year-old black child was accidentally struck and killed by a car driven by a Hasidic Jew in that section of Brooklyn, N.Y. It sparked three days of riots, resulting in a hundred people injured and the stabbing death of a young Jewish scholar, who was surrounded by a mob chanting, "Kill the Jew." Sharpton fanned the flames, leading some 400 protesters through a Jewish section of Crown Heights. He said: "The world will tell us that (the child) was killed by accident. … What type of city do we have that would allow politics to rise above the blood of innocent babies? … Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. … All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise. Pay for your deeds." Later he said, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell t hem to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."
Want a different perspective on the reverend? A November 2004 Village Voice article led with this title: "On a New High, Sharpton Hits a New Low: TV's Democratic Minister of 'Moral Values' Takes a Hypocritical Plunge."
Newsweek: "He has lived an upper-middle-class, although hardly opulent, life." The Village Voice: Sharpton and family lived in "their enormous Brooklyn mansion."
Newsweek: "(Sharpton) is one preacher who has managed to negotiate the temptations of fame untouched by sexual scandal." The Village Voice, on Sharpton's apparent extramarital relationship with a married employee: "The … saga is not just a question of sex; it's a window into the dysfunction of Sharpton's universe."
So what, indeed, does Sharpton's "longevity say about race in America"? It says that Newsweek and others who should know better apply a different and lower standard of acceptability for a black race-hustler like Sharpton than for a white race-hustler like David Duke. And, assuming Sharpton ever mattered, does he now?
Blacks and whites were asked by Gallup in 2003 to name "the most important national leader in the black community today." Four percent of blacks and 2 percent of whites named Sharpton.
On some things, it appears, whites and blacks are not so far apart. Perhaps the Rev. Al achieved some racial unity after all.
In exposing the Reverend Al for the four-flushing phony he is, Elder failed to mention that on another occasion Sharpton's inflammatory race-baiting rhetoric provoked one of his followers to take a gun into Freddie's Fashion Mart and slaughter seven customers before committing suicide.
NEWSWEEK WHITEWASHES AL SHARPTON
By Larry Elder
Jewish World Review
August 5, 2010
A well-known "civil rights activist" made the cover of Newsweek, the left-wing "news" magazine reportedly sold for its debt and $1. Based on this cover story, the buyer overpaid.
The headline, above the flattering photograph of a Man of Gravitas, reads: "The Reinvention of the Reverend Al: From Tawana to Obama, What Sharpton's Longevity Says About Race in America."
It's good to be the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America's pre-eminent race-hustlers and demagogues. The word "shameless" doesn't do him justice. The word "whitewash" understates the gushing makeover accorded him by Newsweek.
The article discusses, but minimizes, the how and why of Sharpton's rise to national prominence: He falsely accused a man of rape. Almost 20 years ago, Sharpton became famous by championing the cause of a black teenager named Tawana Brawley, who, it turned out, lied when she claimed that she'd been abducted and sexually assaulted by whites. Sharpton not only offered Tawana Brawley up as a sympathetic victim of America's alleged pervasive racism, he accused Steven Pagones, a white assistant district attorney, of committing the crime.
A grand jury found that Tawana Brawley fabricated the whole thing. Sharpton not only refused to apologize, he dared Pagones to sue him for defamation. Pagones obliged. A jury unanimously found Sharpton liable, and Pagones' lawyer spent years trying to get Sharpton to pay the judgment. To this day, Sharpton refuses to apologize to Pagones, who said he received death threats.
Newsweek says Sharpton "has been right much more often than wrong in his choice of causes." Obviously, this offsets the numerous times Sharpton, without due cause, screamed and blustered and bullied, pulling race cards from every pocket.
The piece barely touches on or completely ignores many items on his long list of schemes, fraudulent race-based hustles and scandals. Nothing about the FBI surveillance video of Sharpton arranging a cocaine/money laundering deal with a mobster-turned-informant. Nothing about Sharpton calling the first black mayor of New York a "n---er whore." (With typical gall, Sharpton later pushed to "ban" the use of the N-word.)
Newsweek says, "His enemies sometimes charge, bizarrely, that he has chosen a career as a peripatetic community activist for the money." Bizarrely? Nothing about how he signed with one of Hollywood's biggest agencies, which then shopped a sitcom starring Sharpton, called "Al in the Family." Nothing about his gig as a paid pitchman for LoanMax, a "predatory lender" that cannot legally operate in New York.
Crown Heights tells us everything one needs to know about Sharpton. A 7-year-old black child was accidentally struck and killed by a car driven by a Hasidic Jew in that section of Brooklyn, N.Y. It sparked three days of riots, resulting in a hundred people injured and the stabbing death of a young Jewish scholar, who was surrounded by a mob chanting, "Kill the Jew." Sharpton fanned the flames, leading some 400 protesters through a Jewish section of Crown Heights. He said: "The world will tell us that (the child) was killed by accident. … What type of city do we have that would allow politics to rise above the blood of innocent babies? … Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. … All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise. Pay for your deeds." Later he said, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell t hem to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."
Want a different perspective on the reverend? A November 2004 Village Voice article led with this title: "On a New High, Sharpton Hits a New Low: TV's Democratic Minister of 'Moral Values' Takes a Hypocritical Plunge."
Newsweek: "He has lived an upper-middle-class, although hardly opulent, life." The Village Voice: Sharpton and family lived in "their enormous Brooklyn mansion."
Newsweek: "(Sharpton) is one preacher who has managed to negotiate the temptations of fame untouched by sexual scandal." The Village Voice, on Sharpton's apparent extramarital relationship with a married employee: "The … saga is not just a question of sex; it's a window into the dysfunction of Sharpton's universe."
So what, indeed, does Sharpton's "longevity say about race in America"? It says that Newsweek and others who should know better apply a different and lower standard of acceptability for a black race-hustler like Sharpton than for a white race-hustler like David Duke. And, assuming Sharpton ever mattered, does he now?
Blacks and whites were asked by Gallup in 2003 to name "the most important national leader in the black community today." Four percent of blacks and 2 percent of whites named Sharpton.
On some things, it appears, whites and blacks are not so far apart. Perhaps the Rev. Al achieved some racial unity after all.
JUVENILE RECORDS TRUMP COPS' RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH
Seventeen comments were posted by police officers on PoliceOne.com. Every comment either supported the officer, condemned his punishment, attacked the juvenile or whined about the treatment of cops. Don’t these cops know that juvenile records are confidential?
I happen to agree the punishment in this case was too harsh. 30 days would have been sufficient, 45 days at the most. You cannot justify wrongdoing based on some asshole’s criminal history. So, when cops defend their fellow officers’ obvious misconduct, as is common, they bring dishonor to the whole profession.
COP BUSTED FOR ‘IMPROPER INTERNET COMMENTS’
Robert Fox received the most serious discipline possible after comments made under the handle ‘pilgrims-progress’
By Brennan David
Columbia Daily Tribune
August 5, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A Columbia police officer yesterday received the most serious discipline allowed within the department after the conclusion of a month-and-a-half-long internal investigation into improper Internet comments.
Officer Robert Fox was penalized for posting information related to the juvenile record of a protester who was photographed and quoted in a May 16 Tribune news story. The penalty for violating his duty to safeguard information was 120 hours without pay, the complainant, Columbia resident Greg Williams, told the Tribune after he met with Fox and police administrators yesterday.
Williams, 24, was photographed holding a sign that said "Stop Brutality" on May 15 while protesting in front of the Walnut Street post office against a Feb. 11 SWAT raid. Fox commented about Williams below the story on the Tribune's website. Fox's comment later was removed because it violated the Tribune's commenting policy.
"He was investigated for releasing information that should not have been," Columbia police spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden said. "The investigation sustained the complaint, and he received the most serious discipline allowable without him losing his job. The investigation into that has concluded. The complainant met with the officer and the chief, and we were able to extend our apology as well as discuss the matter."
Although Haden did not identify the officer by name or specify the penalty, Williams confirmed both.
Fox is a member of the six-man SWAT unit that entered the southwest Columbia home of Jonathan Whitworth in February.
Williams, with his pit bull, was protesting the death of a pit bull and injuries to another dog as a result of the raid.
Fox responded to a previous posting that said, "Seeing the people of Columbia stand up to this totally unacceptable police brutality refreshes my pride in America."
"Hahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Fox responded. "The guy with the 'stop the brutality' sign has multiple convictions for assaulting people with guns!!! I'd like him to stop the brutality of humans!
"Your case has never had any solid basis other than you didn't like seeing what's required to police Columbia and you want weed to be legal. The majority of the people in Columbia don't care enough to comment, go to a meeting or protest at the post office. You're all irrelevant. We need to move on."
A commenter later wrote back to Fox, "Greg Williams in the picture, can file a defamation of character and slander against you ... so maybe a retraction should be in order."
Fox responded by posting, "It ain't slander if it's true. It is."
Williams said yesterday that he learned of the incident when his sister contacted him about the posting. He later took a printed version to the police department's internal affairs unit, which immediately launched an investigation.
The Tribune did not have a role in revealing the identity of Fox, who commented using the handle "pilgrims-progress."
"I didn't know it was a cop until today," Williams said. "I was just suspicious."
Williams said he was suspicious because it is his understanding, along with that of his attorney, that his juvenile record could not be accessed by any ordinary person, and so a law enforcement official must have been responsible.
He said he is satisfied with the meeting he had yesterday with Chief Ken Burton, Deputy Chief Tom Dresner and Fox, and he thought Fox's apology was "more than sincere."
"I don't want to see anyone lose their job over it ... I still feel the punishment was harsh. I don't want to see his family suffer for it," Williams said. "But it should be made up to me as well. I am still considering civil action."
Fox is the recipient of a Meritorious Service Ribbon in 2008 for a lifesaving effort at a Columbia hotel.
The department has had several discussions internally to stress the difference between news reporting and commenters or bloggers, Haden said. Officers should focus on the reporter's news story and not other commenters.
"We will defend our officers when they act appropriately publicly, but not on blogs," she said. "The blogs are the bloggers' playground, and we're not going to hold court there."
I happen to agree the punishment in this case was too harsh. 30 days would have been sufficient, 45 days at the most. You cannot justify wrongdoing based on some asshole’s criminal history. So, when cops defend their fellow officers’ obvious misconduct, as is common, they bring dishonor to the whole profession.
COP BUSTED FOR ‘IMPROPER INTERNET COMMENTS’
Robert Fox received the most serious discipline possible after comments made under the handle ‘pilgrims-progress’
By Brennan David
Columbia Daily Tribune
August 5, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A Columbia police officer yesterday received the most serious discipline allowed within the department after the conclusion of a month-and-a-half-long internal investigation into improper Internet comments.
Officer Robert Fox was penalized for posting information related to the juvenile record of a protester who was photographed and quoted in a May 16 Tribune news story. The penalty for violating his duty to safeguard information was 120 hours without pay, the complainant, Columbia resident Greg Williams, told the Tribune after he met with Fox and police administrators yesterday.
Williams, 24, was photographed holding a sign that said "Stop Brutality" on May 15 while protesting in front of the Walnut Street post office against a Feb. 11 SWAT raid. Fox commented about Williams below the story on the Tribune's website. Fox's comment later was removed because it violated the Tribune's commenting policy.
"He was investigated for releasing information that should not have been," Columbia police spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden said. "The investigation sustained the complaint, and he received the most serious discipline allowable without him losing his job. The investigation into that has concluded. The complainant met with the officer and the chief, and we were able to extend our apology as well as discuss the matter."
Although Haden did not identify the officer by name or specify the penalty, Williams confirmed both.
Fox is a member of the six-man SWAT unit that entered the southwest Columbia home of Jonathan Whitworth in February.
Williams, with his pit bull, was protesting the death of a pit bull and injuries to another dog as a result of the raid.
Fox responded to a previous posting that said, "Seeing the people of Columbia stand up to this totally unacceptable police brutality refreshes my pride in America."
"Hahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Fox responded. "The guy with the 'stop the brutality' sign has multiple convictions for assaulting people with guns!!! I'd like him to stop the brutality of humans!
"Your case has never had any solid basis other than you didn't like seeing what's required to police Columbia and you want weed to be legal. The majority of the people in Columbia don't care enough to comment, go to a meeting or protest at the post office. You're all irrelevant. We need to move on."
A commenter later wrote back to Fox, "Greg Williams in the picture, can file a defamation of character and slander against you ... so maybe a retraction should be in order."
Fox responded by posting, "It ain't slander if it's true. It is."
Williams said yesterday that he learned of the incident when his sister contacted him about the posting. He later took a printed version to the police department's internal affairs unit, which immediately launched an investigation.
The Tribune did not have a role in revealing the identity of Fox, who commented using the handle "pilgrims-progress."
"I didn't know it was a cop until today," Williams said. "I was just suspicious."
Williams said he was suspicious because it is his understanding, along with that of his attorney, that his juvenile record could not be accessed by any ordinary person, and so a law enforcement official must have been responsible.
He said he is satisfied with the meeting he had yesterday with Chief Ken Burton, Deputy Chief Tom Dresner and Fox, and he thought Fox's apology was "more than sincere."
"I don't want to see anyone lose their job over it ... I still feel the punishment was harsh. I don't want to see his family suffer for it," Williams said. "But it should be made up to me as well. I am still considering civil action."
Fox is the recipient of a Meritorious Service Ribbon in 2008 for a lifesaving effort at a Columbia hotel.
The department has had several discussions internally to stress the difference between news reporting and commenters or bloggers, Haden said. Officers should focus on the reporter's news story and not other commenters.
"We will defend our officers when they act appropriately publicly, but not on blogs," she said. "The blogs are the bloggers' playground, and we're not going to hold court there."
Friday, August 06, 2010
THE TORTURE OF JUDGE SAMUEL KENT
Samuel Kent was a long-time federal judge based in Galveston. He was in the habit of groping and otherwise sexually harassing his female staff members. Their complaints were ignored for years but finally His Honor got his just dues. Apparently prison doesn’t sit too well with the former judge who was also known for bullying those appearing before him.
Kent has complained of mistreatment by his guards and prison administrators. His attorney compares it to torture. Kent has petitioned the courts to have his 33-month sentence vacated and adjusted on the grounds he has been subjected to inhumane and unfair treatment
Here are some of the tortures poor old Sam has had to endure:
__ He was locked up "wearing only a smock and carrying only a single sheet in a filthy ... completely empty cell where the temperature was kept at 60 degrees. The only bed in the room was a raised concrete slab with no mattress and the light was kept on constantly,"
__An unidentified sergeant forced him to "strip naked and perform a painful and repetitive series of humiliating exercises. Once Sam Kent was too tired and in too much pain to perform the exercises any more, the sergeant confiscated Sam Kent's wedding ring and used it to ridicule him."
__He spent 16 days in solitary, where he claims the first night he helplessly listened to the "continuous screams of a man being violently raped in the next cell" and "was horrified to observe that the guards ignored the man's screams and only came to remove the man from the cell after the attack had finally ended."
__Such "abusive psychological and physical conditions" have "jeopardized his ongoing recovery from severe depression and alcoholism."
Now, everybody put your hankies away because here are two takes on Judge Kent’s predicament from Hair Balls:
JUDGE SAMUEL KENT: I OBSTRUCTED JUSTIEC IN A SEX-OFFENSE CASE, BUT I’M NO SEX OFFENDER
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 3, 2010
U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, currently imprisoned in Florida, is asking a federal court to overturn his sentence because, he says, the court treated him as a sex offender.
He also complains about losing sleep because a guy was being violently raped in the next cell.
"All sexual allegations against Sam Kent were dismissed by the prosecutor...Sam Kent pled guilty to Obstruction of Justice, a non-sexual offense," the court document reads.
The charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain to settle a case involving charges Kent, a federal judge in Galveston, sexually harassed and assaulted females on his staff.
Persons who are convicted of obstruction of justice, Kent argues, are usually sent to minimum-security prisons. Instead, he says; the feds have "subjected [him] to substantial time in solitary confinement."
"Contrary to the public interest," the motion says, "the Federal Bureau of Prisons has subjected Sam Kent to abusive psychological and physical conditions that have jeopardized his ongoing recovery from depression and alcoholism."
Hmmm..."Abusive psychological and physical conditions"? Sounds like Sam Kent's courthouse office.
The motion includes some details:
__On the day Sam kent resigned his position as U.S. District Judge, BOP [Bureau of Prisons] staff locked Sam Kent -- wearing only a smock and carrying only a single sheet -- in a filthy, completely empty cell where the temperature was kept at 60 degrees.
__In Florida during a transfer, he says, state guards "forced Sam Kent to strip naked and perform a painful and repetitive series of humiliating exercises." One guard also "cruelly ridcule[d]" Kent about his wedding ring.
__Once he reached his cell, "he was forced to try to sleep the first night helplessly listening to the continuous screams of a man being violently raped in the next cell."
JUDGE SAM KENT: HIS FIVE OTHER COMPLAINTS ABOUT PRISON
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 5, 2010
As we recounted Tuesday, former federal judge Samuel Kent is not a happy man in prison.
Among his complaints: a "filthy" cell kept at 60 degrees, being given only a single sheet, and not being able to talk to his wife often enough. Oh, and being kept awake much of one night because of the screams of an inmate being violently raped in the next cell.
All those were contained in a motion to have his sentencing overturned; we've since possibly learned that he filed an addendum addressing a few other issues with his confinement. (As with the original filing, the former judge's lawyers refer to him as "Sam Kent" throughout the document.)
1. FAR TOO FEW SECRETARIES TO DRUNKENLY GROPE
"Sam Kent entered a guilty plea based on the fact he would plead guilty only to obstruction of justice in a sexual-harassment case, not to sexual harassment itself. It was Sam Kent's belief that inmates convicted of obstruction of justice would be provided intimidated, frightened secretaries whom he could feel up after coming back from a liquid lunch. Sam Kent has been very disappointed to find this is not true."
2. RAPE VICTIMS CAN BE QUIETER, DAMMIT
"While Sam Kent was drunkenly groping his secretaries, they never screamed. Sam Kent believes this is because, like most women, they really mean 'yes' when they say "Please, judge, no...really, no' or words to that effect. No screaming involved. It is Sam Kent's belief that inmates being violently raped in the next cell should just shut up and take it."
3. INMATES SHOULD BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, LIKE LITIGANTS
"While Sam Kent was on the bench, he treated all before him with the utmost respect. (The many, many articles that say otherwise, like "Bullying From the Bench," all mistake lighthearted jocularity for petty, preening, egomaniacal humiliation of already cowed attorneys.) Since Sam Kent never, ever went out of his way to abuse his position of power, he sees no reason why prison guards can't give him two sheets for his bed. (Minimum 750-thread count, may it please the court.)"
4. THE FOOD
"Frankly, Sam Kent thinks it sucks. Sam Kent would be willing to provide, at no cost, the recipes for several of the items at Gaido's." [Gaido’s is a famous Galveston seafood restaurant.]
5. NOT TO BEAT A DEAD HORSE, BUT THE LACK OF GROPEABLE WOMEN
"Judge Sam Kent realizes he has mentioned this issue previously in the document, but Sam Kent knows that judges' eyes often glaze over as they quickly skim petitions from federal prisoners about their treatment, should they bother to read them at all. So Sam Kent will resort to all-caps: THERE ARE NO WOMEN TO DRUNKENLY GROPE IN PRISON. Sam Kent wishes this issue to be addressed immediately."
Kent has complained of mistreatment by his guards and prison administrators. His attorney compares it to torture. Kent has petitioned the courts to have his 33-month sentence vacated and adjusted on the grounds he has been subjected to inhumane and unfair treatment
Here are some of the tortures poor old Sam has had to endure:
__ He was locked up "wearing only a smock and carrying only a single sheet in a filthy ... completely empty cell where the temperature was kept at 60 degrees. The only bed in the room was a raised concrete slab with no mattress and the light was kept on constantly,"
__An unidentified sergeant forced him to "strip naked and perform a painful and repetitive series of humiliating exercises. Once Sam Kent was too tired and in too much pain to perform the exercises any more, the sergeant confiscated Sam Kent's wedding ring and used it to ridicule him."
__He spent 16 days in solitary, where he claims the first night he helplessly listened to the "continuous screams of a man being violently raped in the next cell" and "was horrified to observe that the guards ignored the man's screams and only came to remove the man from the cell after the attack had finally ended."
__Such "abusive psychological and physical conditions" have "jeopardized his ongoing recovery from severe depression and alcoholism."
Now, everybody put your hankies away because here are two takes on Judge Kent’s predicament from Hair Balls:
JUDGE SAMUEL KENT: I OBSTRUCTED JUSTIEC IN A SEX-OFFENSE CASE, BUT I’M NO SEX OFFENDER
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 3, 2010
U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, currently imprisoned in Florida, is asking a federal court to overturn his sentence because, he says, the court treated him as a sex offender.
He also complains about losing sleep because a guy was being violently raped in the next cell.
"All sexual allegations against Sam Kent were dismissed by the prosecutor...Sam Kent pled guilty to Obstruction of Justice, a non-sexual offense," the court document reads.
The charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain to settle a case involving charges Kent, a federal judge in Galveston, sexually harassed and assaulted females on his staff.
Persons who are convicted of obstruction of justice, Kent argues, are usually sent to minimum-security prisons. Instead, he says; the feds have "subjected [him] to substantial time in solitary confinement."
"Contrary to the public interest," the motion says, "the Federal Bureau of Prisons has subjected Sam Kent to abusive psychological and physical conditions that have jeopardized his ongoing recovery from depression and alcoholism."
Hmmm..."Abusive psychological and physical conditions"? Sounds like Sam Kent's courthouse office.
The motion includes some details:
__On the day Sam kent resigned his position as U.S. District Judge, BOP [Bureau of Prisons] staff locked Sam Kent -- wearing only a smock and carrying only a single sheet -- in a filthy, completely empty cell where the temperature was kept at 60 degrees.
__In Florida during a transfer, he says, state guards "forced Sam Kent to strip naked and perform a painful and repetitive series of humiliating exercises." One guard also "cruelly ridcule[d]" Kent about his wedding ring.
__Once he reached his cell, "he was forced to try to sleep the first night helplessly listening to the continuous screams of a man being violently raped in the next cell."
JUDGE SAM KENT: HIS FIVE OTHER COMPLAINTS ABOUT PRISON
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 5, 2010
As we recounted Tuesday, former federal judge Samuel Kent is not a happy man in prison.
Among his complaints: a "filthy" cell kept at 60 degrees, being given only a single sheet, and not being able to talk to his wife often enough. Oh, and being kept awake much of one night because of the screams of an inmate being violently raped in the next cell.
All those were contained in a motion to have his sentencing overturned; we've since possibly learned that he filed an addendum addressing a few other issues with his confinement. (As with the original filing, the former judge's lawyers refer to him as "Sam Kent" throughout the document.)
1. FAR TOO FEW SECRETARIES TO DRUNKENLY GROPE
"Sam Kent entered a guilty plea based on the fact he would plead guilty only to obstruction of justice in a sexual-harassment case, not to sexual harassment itself. It was Sam Kent's belief that inmates convicted of obstruction of justice would be provided intimidated, frightened secretaries whom he could feel up after coming back from a liquid lunch. Sam Kent has been very disappointed to find this is not true."
2. RAPE VICTIMS CAN BE QUIETER, DAMMIT
"While Sam Kent was drunkenly groping his secretaries, they never screamed. Sam Kent believes this is because, like most women, they really mean 'yes' when they say "Please, judge, no...really, no' or words to that effect. No screaming involved. It is Sam Kent's belief that inmates being violently raped in the next cell should just shut up and take it."
3. INMATES SHOULD BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, LIKE LITIGANTS
"While Sam Kent was on the bench, he treated all before him with the utmost respect. (The many, many articles that say otherwise, like "Bullying From the Bench," all mistake lighthearted jocularity for petty, preening, egomaniacal humiliation of already cowed attorneys.) Since Sam Kent never, ever went out of his way to abuse his position of power, he sees no reason why prison guards can't give him two sheets for his bed. (Minimum 750-thread count, may it please the court.)"
4. THE FOOD
"Frankly, Sam Kent thinks it sucks. Sam Kent would be willing to provide, at no cost, the recipes for several of the items at Gaido's." [Gaido’s is a famous Galveston seafood restaurant.]
5. NOT TO BEAT A DEAD HORSE, BUT THE LACK OF GROPEABLE WOMEN
"Judge Sam Kent realizes he has mentioned this issue previously in the document, but Sam Kent knows that judges' eyes often glaze over as they quickly skim petitions from federal prisoners about their treatment, should they bother to read them at all. So Sam Kent will resort to all-caps: THERE ARE NO WOMEN TO DRUNKENLY GROPE IN PRISON. Sam Kent wishes this issue to be addressed immediately."
NOW THIS DEFINES CHUTZPAH
CHRISTIE LAVERNE HAWKINS: BRYAN WOMAN DEMANDS DEALER UPGRADES ON STOLEN TRUCK
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 5, 2010
Christie Laverne Hawkins might not be the brightest thief in College Station, but never let it be said that she suffers from a lack of nerve.
Police in Aggieland says the 35-year-old Bryan resident not only stole a pick-up truck from the Varsity Ford Dealership during a bogus test-drive on Monday, but had the balls to return the 2010 F-150 on Tuesday and demand that a trailer hitch and antenna be added as upgrades.
In a police report, Varsity employees also said that Hawkins threatened to use a handgun to "take care" of both the car dealers on the scene and the police responding to the subsequent call if she was not allowed to drive off with the truck a second time. (Police said she later admitted to threatening the car dealers but denied threatening the cops.)
Other aspects of the case seemed just plain crazy, as in Hawkins might just have been having a week of meds-free living. The Bryan-College Station Eagle picks up the tale:
__Hawkins said she was talking with the salesman beside the truck when he suddenly became angry and looked as if he was going to "put hands" on her before she drove away, according to a police report. An officer said she denied making threats toward police, but did not deny threatening dealership employees.
__The officer said Hawkins told him more than once that she did not pay for the truck, but someone else had. When he asked who told her it had been purchased for her, she said she had advised herself someone else had bought it for her, according to a police report.
__The officer said at one point she told him the vehicle belonged to her because she had taken it, and also alluded it belonged to her because she had gotten an insurance policy for it.
So, in other words, it belongs to me because I really want it and I bought insurance for it. Wow. (By that logic, we could just add Christina Hendricks to our healthcare plan, book two weeks in a Maui honeymoon suite, and tell her agent to dispatch Joan to us toot suite.)
Needless to say that logic didn't pan out for Hawkins: after nine past arrests over the last ten years for theft, this charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle marks the 5'4", 340-pounder's tenth trip to the Brazos County pokey.
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 5, 2010
Christie Laverne Hawkins might not be the brightest thief in College Station, but never let it be said that she suffers from a lack of nerve.
Police in Aggieland says the 35-year-old Bryan resident not only stole a pick-up truck from the Varsity Ford Dealership during a bogus test-drive on Monday, but had the balls to return the 2010 F-150 on Tuesday and demand that a trailer hitch and antenna be added as upgrades.
In a police report, Varsity employees also said that Hawkins threatened to use a handgun to "take care" of both the car dealers on the scene and the police responding to the subsequent call if she was not allowed to drive off with the truck a second time. (Police said she later admitted to threatening the car dealers but denied threatening the cops.)
Other aspects of the case seemed just plain crazy, as in Hawkins might just have been having a week of meds-free living. The Bryan-College Station Eagle picks up the tale:
__Hawkins said she was talking with the salesman beside the truck when he suddenly became angry and looked as if he was going to "put hands" on her before she drove away, according to a police report. An officer said she denied making threats toward police, but did not deny threatening dealership employees.
__The officer said Hawkins told him more than once that she did not pay for the truck, but someone else had. When he asked who told her it had been purchased for her, she said she had advised herself someone else had bought it for her, according to a police report.
__The officer said at one point she told him the vehicle belonged to her because she had taken it, and also alluded it belonged to her because she had gotten an insurance policy for it.
So, in other words, it belongs to me because I really want it and I bought insurance for it. Wow. (By that logic, we could just add Christina Hendricks to our healthcare plan, book two weeks in a Maui honeymoon suite, and tell her agent to dispatch Joan to us toot suite.)
Needless to say that logic didn't pan out for Hawkins: after nine past arrests over the last ten years for theft, this charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle marks the 5'4", 340-pounder's tenth trip to the Brazos County pokey.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN TEXAS? NO THANKS! (4)
As of 2:00 p.m. CDT today, there have been 24 comments on Hair Ball’s post about medical marijuana. While most of them dumped on me, all but one of them were adamantly for the legalization of pot. The one exception from ‘Anonymous’ was pretty clever. Here is what Anonymous wrote:
Howie says:
Am I embarrassed about my spelling errors. Yes and no. I happen to be visually impared and it is hard for me to proof-read the small font in Hair Ball's comment box.
__You know what could help you with that? Pot.
Had I chosen to put in another two-cents’ worth, I would have said: Let me suggest to all you pot heads that every time you toke up be sure and take a good look around. That guy over there may be a narc getting ready to ‘ruin your lives.’
Howie says:
Am I embarrassed about my spelling errors. Yes and no. I happen to be visually impared and it is hard for me to proof-read the small font in Hair Ball's comment box.
__You know what could help you with that? Pot.
Had I chosen to put in another two-cents’ worth, I would have said: Let me suggest to all you pot heads that every time you toke up be sure and take a good look around. That guy over there may be a narc getting ready to ‘ruin your lives.’
REVERSE RACISM IN THE COURTS
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will be hearing the Arizona immigration law case, is the most liberal appellate court in the land. Recently it made a race-based decision that is a terrible travesty of justice.
Last month, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit overturned the conviction of Steven Frank Jackson for the brutal rape of a 72-year-old great-grandmother despite solid DNA evidence of his guilt. Two of the three judges were black, as is Jackson, while the victim was white.
The judges ruled that Jackson did not get a fair trial because the Sacramento County prosecutors dismissed two African-Americans during jury selection.
One of those dismissed was a black man who admitted having "a lot of baggage" in light of a niece and nephew being molested by a family member. He also told the court a friend had been convicted of rape. He was removed because he was unpredictable, prosecutors said.
The other prospective juror, a black woman, was dismissed because she had a master's degree in social work, a red flag for prosecutors. Stewart Katz, a criminal defense lawyer, notes that "It's no secret that some professions make better jurors for the prosecution and others for the defense."
There was one African-American on the jury that convicted Jackson of first-degree burglary, forced oral copulation, three counts of forcible sexual penetration and 10 counts of forcible rape. Jackson's conviction was his "third strike" and came with a prison sentence of 310 years to life.
Only one African-American on a panel of 12 jurors does not seem to be unfair for Sacramento County where only 10 percent of the population is black. Thus Jackson’s jury was truly representative of his peers.
After the court overturned Jackson’s conviction, the victim's son asked, "What do the judges consider representative? Is it African American men with a criminal history?"
The court’s ruling is a clear cut case of reverse racism and a terrible travesty of justice.
Here is what Bob Walsh had to say:
__There is a significant chunk of society that believes it is not possible for anyone other than a white person to be racist. They believe that, due to the unequal distribution of wealth / power / whatever in this society that virtually all whites (especially white men) are inherently racist, and that it is functionally impossible for a non-white to be racist. Its idiotic, but its there.
And here is what Paco had to say:
__Racism (reverse or otherwise) and a lack of common sense are not mutually exclusive. Clearly, the judges applied faulty, racially based reasoning in issuing a ruling [that] lacks common sense. How, then, is "reverse racism" so easily dismissed?
__Given the overwhelming evidence of [Jackson’s] guilt, it is difficult to imagine any jury exonerating him. Thus, it is equally difficult to infer anything but racism in the ruling. [The overturning of the conviction] leads to the unavoidable conclusion the Court [was] blinded by color. It’s high time we checked Lady Justice’s blindfold.
Last month, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit overturned the conviction of Steven Frank Jackson for the brutal rape of a 72-year-old great-grandmother despite solid DNA evidence of his guilt. Two of the three judges were black, as is Jackson, while the victim was white.
The judges ruled that Jackson did not get a fair trial because the Sacramento County prosecutors dismissed two African-Americans during jury selection.
One of those dismissed was a black man who admitted having "a lot of baggage" in light of a niece and nephew being molested by a family member. He also told the court a friend had been convicted of rape. He was removed because he was unpredictable, prosecutors said.
The other prospective juror, a black woman, was dismissed because she had a master's degree in social work, a red flag for prosecutors. Stewart Katz, a criminal defense lawyer, notes that "It's no secret that some professions make better jurors for the prosecution and others for the defense."
There was one African-American on the jury that convicted Jackson of first-degree burglary, forced oral copulation, three counts of forcible sexual penetration and 10 counts of forcible rape. Jackson's conviction was his "third strike" and came with a prison sentence of 310 years to life.
Only one African-American on a panel of 12 jurors does not seem to be unfair for Sacramento County where only 10 percent of the population is black. Thus Jackson’s jury was truly representative of his peers.
After the court overturned Jackson’s conviction, the victim's son asked, "What do the judges consider representative? Is it African American men with a criminal history?"
The court’s ruling is a clear cut case of reverse racism and a terrible travesty of justice.
Here is what Bob Walsh had to say:
__There is a significant chunk of society that believes it is not possible for anyone other than a white person to be racist. They believe that, due to the unequal distribution of wealth / power / whatever in this society that virtually all whites (especially white men) are inherently racist, and that it is functionally impossible for a non-white to be racist. Its idiotic, but its there.
And here is what Paco had to say:
__Racism (reverse or otherwise) and a lack of common sense are not mutually exclusive. Clearly, the judges applied faulty, racially based reasoning in issuing a ruling [that] lacks common sense. How, then, is "reverse racism" so easily dismissed?
__Given the overwhelming evidence of [Jackson’s] guilt, it is difficult to imagine any jury exonerating him. Thus, it is equally difficult to infer anything but racism in the ruling. [The overturning of the conviction] leads to the unavoidable conclusion the Court [was] blinded by color. It’s high time we checked Lady Justice’s blindfold.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN TEXAS? NO THANKS! (3)
And the saga goes on. A guy by the name of Steve Elliott responded to my comments on Hair Balls. No matter what anyone says, the indisputable fact is that Colorado’s medical marijuana law, like Kookfornia’s, has turned into a de facto legalization of pot.
HERE ARE ELLIOTT’S COMMENTS:
Howie, if you really believe that increases your credibility in this argument -- empty threats of arguments that don't exist, made by a "former narcotic officer," no less -- then you have an even more tenuous grip on the reality of the situation than your initial painfully spelling-challenged spews would indicate.
Here's the deal: You've made a profession out of ruining people's lives for choosing to use possibly the safest psychoactive substance known to mankind.
Don't expect any respect for that, "Professor of Criminal Justice" or not.
AND HEERE IS MY RESPONSE TO STEVE ELLIOTT AND MY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON WILL BREATHES’ TAX BONANZA CLAIMS:
Steve
Am I embarrassed about my spelling errors. Yes and no. I happen to be visually impaired and it is hard for me to proof-read the small font in Hair Ball's comment box.
That aside, you are full of it! I've arrested lots of people on drug charges but I never ruined their lives. They ruined their own lives when they knowingly chose to break the law.
Contrary to your pot-laced attack on me, there are plenty of good reasons why marijuana should not be legalized. Pot is not the innocuous substance you and others would have us believe. And as for reality, I have a far better grip on it than you appear to have.
And while we’re at it, Will Breathes is being somewhat disingenuous when he talks about the fees and taxes collected in Colorado. On August 1, there were 717 dispensaries, 271 marijuana-infused product manufacturers and 1,071 grow facilities -- in total earning the state $7.34 million in fees. Will is flat-out wrong when he says medical marijuana generates "hundreds of millions in local tax dollars."
Last year, Colorado Springs collected $111,000 total from the sale of marijuana and marijuana-infused products, such as brownies, lotions and teas. In the first four months of this year, the city has collected $123,000. The city of Denver collected $1,023,308 between December and April. In March, the city collected $226,492, the highest reported collection to date. However, both Colorado Springs and Denver officials are quick to point out that the figures represent less than 1 percent of all sales taxes collected.
Sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-laced products in Colorado Springs topped $1.6 million in April alone. That and the large number of licensees just goes to prove that a law passed with good intentions has been perverted by doctors who are writing a ton of scrips for pot heads who do not suffer from any qualifying ailments.
HERE ARE ELLIOTT’S COMMENTS:
Howie, if you really believe that increases your credibility in this argument -- empty threats of arguments that don't exist, made by a "former narcotic officer," no less -- then you have an even more tenuous grip on the reality of the situation than your initial painfully spelling-challenged spews would indicate.
Here's the deal: You've made a profession out of ruining people's lives for choosing to use possibly the safest psychoactive substance known to mankind.
Don't expect any respect for that, "Professor of Criminal Justice" or not.
AND HEERE IS MY RESPONSE TO STEVE ELLIOTT AND MY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON WILL BREATHES’ TAX BONANZA CLAIMS:
Steve
Am I embarrassed about my spelling errors. Yes and no. I happen to be visually impaired and it is hard for me to proof-read the small font in Hair Ball's comment box.
That aside, you are full of it! I've arrested lots of people on drug charges but I never ruined their lives. They ruined their own lives when they knowingly chose to break the law.
Contrary to your pot-laced attack on me, there are plenty of good reasons why marijuana should not be legalized. Pot is not the innocuous substance you and others would have us believe. And as for reality, I have a far better grip on it than you appear to have.
And while we’re at it, Will Breathes is being somewhat disingenuous when he talks about the fees and taxes collected in Colorado. On August 1, there were 717 dispensaries, 271 marijuana-infused product manufacturers and 1,071 grow facilities -- in total earning the state $7.34 million in fees. Will is flat-out wrong when he says medical marijuana generates "hundreds of millions in local tax dollars."
Last year, Colorado Springs collected $111,000 total from the sale of marijuana and marijuana-infused products, such as brownies, lotions and teas. In the first four months of this year, the city has collected $123,000. The city of Denver collected $1,023,308 between December and April. In March, the city collected $226,492, the highest reported collection to date. However, both Colorado Springs and Denver officials are quick to point out that the figures represent less than 1 percent of all sales taxes collected.
Sales of medical marijuana and marijuana-laced products in Colorado Springs topped $1.6 million in April alone. That and the large number of licensees just goes to prove that a law passed with good intentions has been perverted by doctors who are writing a ton of scrips for pot heads who do not suffer from any qualifying ailments.
HE PREPPED FOR HIS MEAL BY SMOKING POT
And they say marijuana is a harmless substance. Just look at what that funny tobacco did to this geek.
UKRANIAN COMPUTER PROGRAMMER ACCUSED OF GAUGING OUT GRANDMOTHERS’S EYEBALLS AND EATING HER ALIVE
By Will Stewart
Mail Online
August 4, 3010
A 26-year-old computer programmer is accused of eating his own grandmother alive.
Sergei Zhmaryov is alleged to have slashed 60-year-old Lydia with a shard of broken mirror, gauging out her eyeballs and eating them, police said.
She was conscious and desperately trying to escape throughout the horrific attack.
When she screamed for help, Zhmaryov sliced off her tongue and ate it as well, it was alleged.
He is also said to have cut off her lips and ears during the assault on a woman who had raised him as a child after his parents split.
Mrs Zhmaryov eventually died from her devastating wounds.
Police in Simferopol, Ukraine, pumped gas into the flat to subdue then arrest the alleged killer.
Known to neighbours as a religious fanatic, Zhmaryov dressed only in his underpants, holding a cross, chanting prayers and is believed to have conducted a 'funeral service' for his grandmother.
Police chief Olga Kondrashova said: 'We can only confirm that a 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder.
'I can add that this murder was committed with particular cruelty.
'We cannot disclose further details in the interests of the investigation.
Zhmaryov admitted to smoking cannabis before the alleged attack, which police say was a ritualistic killing.
He is expected to face murder charges and if found guilty could be jailed for up to 20 years.
UKRANIAN COMPUTER PROGRAMMER ACCUSED OF GAUGING OUT GRANDMOTHERS’S EYEBALLS AND EATING HER ALIVE
By Will Stewart
Mail Online
August 4, 3010
A 26-year-old computer programmer is accused of eating his own grandmother alive.
Sergei Zhmaryov is alleged to have slashed 60-year-old Lydia with a shard of broken mirror, gauging out her eyeballs and eating them, police said.
She was conscious and desperately trying to escape throughout the horrific attack.
When she screamed for help, Zhmaryov sliced off her tongue and ate it as well, it was alleged.
He is also said to have cut off her lips and ears during the assault on a woman who had raised him as a child after his parents split.
Mrs Zhmaryov eventually died from her devastating wounds.
Police in Simferopol, Ukraine, pumped gas into the flat to subdue then arrest the alleged killer.
Known to neighbours as a religious fanatic, Zhmaryov dressed only in his underpants, holding a cross, chanting prayers and is believed to have conducted a 'funeral service' for his grandmother.
Police chief Olga Kondrashova said: 'We can only confirm that a 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder.
'I can add that this murder was committed with particular cruelty.
'We cannot disclose further details in the interests of the investigation.
Zhmaryov admitted to smoking cannabis before the alleged attack, which police say was a ritualistic killing.
He is expected to face murder charges and if found guilty could be jailed for up to 20 years.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
THIS PICTURE REALLY IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
After taking a second look, it appears as though the dog's picture was photo-shopped. But that doesn't make it any less funny.
BROKEN NEWS
FLASH
This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan, the Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if Arizona's Immigration Law is not repealed, Taliban authorities intend to cut off America's supply of Convenience Store Managers and possibly Motel 6 & Super 8 Managers.
And, if this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by DELL, IBM and AOL Customer Service Reps.
Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened to send us no more candidates for President of the United States!
Folks, it's gonna get ugly!
This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan, the Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if Arizona's Immigration Law is not repealed, Taliban authorities intend to cut off America's supply of Convenience Store Managers and possibly Motel 6 & Super 8 Managers.
And, if this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by DELL, IBM and AOL Customer Service Reps.
Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened to send us no more candidates for President of the United States!
Folks, it's gonna get ugly!
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN TEXAS? NO THANKS!
My readers all know that I am unalterably opposed to any legalization of marijuana, medical or whatever. Richard Connelly has got it right when he says that the opening paragraph of MMAG’s official press release doesn’t make any sense. Actually the paragraph looks like it was written by some pot head from San Fransicko, Kookfornia whose brains have become addled by smoking that funny tobacco once too often. And in responding to Hair Balls, Alexander Young couldn’t even get his own telephone number right – he’s missing a digit.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROUP STARTS IN TEXAS, WE THINK
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 3, 2010
Our sister blog, Toke of the Town -- the number one site for all weed-related news on the net -- reported yesterday on the founding of a new group seeking to make medical marijuana legit in Texas.
Lots luck with that, fellas.
There's an official press release from Texas Medicinal Marijuana Advocates Group, but the opening paragraph sounds like it was written by someone who was....wait for it.....not very good at English. (What did you think we were going to say?)
__With the state of Texas recognizing Medicinal Marijuana Advocates Group (MMAG) as a non-profit, the fight to bring medical marijuana legislation to Texas' constitution grows closer to being a reality. MMAG, a recently founded organization advocating peaceful protest for pharmaceutical research, joined the movement with full force, absent of hesitation to act, from Alexander Young, president and founder of the group. The goal was clear and the level of motivation and passion in the executive board members flared, quickly attracting supporters.
We have no idea what that all means, on many levels. Except that Babelfish is still on the web, translating from the original Esperanto.
We tried calling the number for the PR guy, but it was no longer in service.
So all we're saying is, don't expect to have legal medical marijuana in Texas by, like, next month or something.
------------------
HERE IS ALEXANDER YOUNG’S RESPONSE:
Mr. Connelly,
My name is Alexander Young; the founder of MMAG. I fail to see how this release did not make sense to you. As far as our employees' credentials, the majority of us have extensive college back rounds. The gentleman that you say "...but the opening paragraph sounds like it was written by someone who was....wait for it.....not very good at English. (What did you think we were going to say?)" actually is an English/Literature major, as well as myself. I understand people's skepticism on this matter, but I request your column not be so hasty in the critique of our literary publications. This organization is here to help, not to hinder in any way. We are committed to the betterment of health and humanity. If you cannot seem to reach our Director of Public Relations, you may contact me directly. Thank you for your time.
High Hopes my Friends,
Alexander Young-President/Founder of MMAG
Contact at 361758826
http://www.cannabisrxnow.org
AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO ALEXANDER YOUNG:
Extensive college backgrounds - what does that really mean? Our universities are full of educated idiots. The country is full of graduates with extensive college backgrounds and many of them are educated idiots.
Comitted to the betterment of health and humanity? What a crock! Come on Mr. Young, come clean. All you and your ilk want to do is to legalize marijuana - health and humanity has nothing to do with it.
The legalization of 'medical marijuana' is a joke. Just look at California and Colorado. Doctors there are writing prescriptions by the ton for all kinds of faked ailments and the pot pharmacists are making millions of dollars.
Medical marijuana in Texas? No thanks!
MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROUP STARTS IN TEXAS, WE THINK
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 3, 2010
Our sister blog, Toke of the Town -- the number one site for all weed-related news on the net -- reported yesterday on the founding of a new group seeking to make medical marijuana legit in Texas.
Lots luck with that, fellas.
There's an official press release from Texas Medicinal Marijuana Advocates Group, but the opening paragraph sounds like it was written by someone who was....wait for it.....not very good at English. (What did you think we were going to say?)
__With the state of Texas recognizing Medicinal Marijuana Advocates Group (MMAG) as a non-profit, the fight to bring medical marijuana legislation to Texas' constitution grows closer to being a reality. MMAG, a recently founded organization advocating peaceful protest for pharmaceutical research, joined the movement with full force, absent of hesitation to act, from Alexander Young, president and founder of the group. The goal was clear and the level of motivation and passion in the executive board members flared, quickly attracting supporters.
We have no idea what that all means, on many levels. Except that Babelfish is still on the web, translating from the original Esperanto.
We tried calling the number for the PR guy, but it was no longer in service.
So all we're saying is, don't expect to have legal medical marijuana in Texas by, like, next month or something.
------------------
HERE IS ALEXANDER YOUNG’S RESPONSE:
Mr. Connelly,
My name is Alexander Young; the founder of MMAG. I fail to see how this release did not make sense to you. As far as our employees' credentials, the majority of us have extensive college back rounds. The gentleman that you say "...but the opening paragraph sounds like it was written by someone who was....wait for it.....not very good at English. (What did you think we were going to say?)" actually is an English/Literature major, as well as myself. I understand people's skepticism on this matter, but I request your column not be so hasty in the critique of our literary publications. This organization is here to help, not to hinder in any way. We are committed to the betterment of health and humanity. If you cannot seem to reach our Director of Public Relations, you may contact me directly. Thank you for your time.
High Hopes my Friends,
Alexander Young-President/Founder of MMAG
Contact at 361758826
http://www.cannabisrxnow.org
AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO ALEXANDER YOUNG:
Extensive college backgrounds - what does that really mean? Our universities are full of educated idiots. The country is full of graduates with extensive college backgrounds and many of them are educated idiots.
Comitted to the betterment of health and humanity? What a crock! Come on Mr. Young, come clean. All you and your ilk want to do is to legalize marijuana - health and humanity has nothing to do with it.
The legalization of 'medical marijuana' is a joke. Just look at California and Colorado. Doctors there are writing prescriptions by the ton for all kinds of faked ailments and the pot pharmacists are making millions of dollars.
Medical marijuana in Texas? No thanks!
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN TEXAS? NO THANKS! (2)
Some guy from Colorado using the pseudonym ‘Will Breathes’ commented on Hair Balls concerning the response I made about Alexander Young’s comments. Here is what Will Breathes [pot smoke] said:
The medical marijuana legalization in Colorado is hardly a joke, sir. It helps thousands of Coloradans daily, including myself. Our state legislature also takes it seriously, enacting laws to solidify the growing business (thousands of small, locally owned businesses mind you).
Nobody is stupid: Yes, doctors are writing questionable prescriptions. but lets talk about that as a larger issue -- texas has a huge problem with illicit codeine use and other pharmaceutical drugs... yet, where is your outrage over that? I agree that is a problem to be addressed, but you would be awful naive or plain dumb to think that it is only medical marijuana that doctors are writing bad scrips for. this is a dumb argument to make, Howie.
And if it is people simply getting a buzz that bothers you, I would hope that you are against alcohol sales in the great state of Texas too...
moving on... pot pharmacists making thousands? how about the MILLIONS in tax revenue they have brought to my state? last sunday alone, Colorado collected more than $7 million in licensing fees and application fees. That's not even going into the hundreds of millions in local tax dollars this generates in small towns across this state. this is a good thing. Where's the good fiscal conservative in you, Howie??
and lets not even get into the pharmaceutical companies RUNNING this country and making BILLIONS off of Americans while farming out jobs to foreign countries... i'm talking about a LOCAL product, sold LOCALLY, that builds LOCAL tax coffers. Is this sinking in at all, Howie?
I have a friend DYING of pancreatic cancer in houston right now. The chemotherapy has been worse than the disease, however, and the only thing that has helped him manage to eat and keep food down is marijuana -- illegal in your state. this is a man who has access to any pharmaceutical drug he could need for his pain, and yet this plant does more for him than any of the drugs can. Where's the good social conservaitive in you, howie? You know, the one that SHOULD be saying that the gov't has no place telling you what medicines you should and shouldn't have access to? Contrary to your opinion, it's proven FACT that this plant has medicinal benefits.
so really, Howie.. i get that D.A.R.E. classes have brainwashed you a bit -- but take some time to REALLY think about what you are opposing and why...because to more and more Americans, you are simply parroting an argument you can't really support.
AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO WILL BREATHES:
Will, you sound like someone who moved to Colorado from San Fransicko.
Medical marijuana was supposed to be limited to those suffering from HIV, Glaucoma and terminal cancer. But once legalized, it is being prescribed for everything from a grown-in toenail to baldness.
There is no consensus within the medical profession about the effectiveness of medical marijuana. One group of doctors says it works wonders, other doctors say it's a pipe dream.
There are a number of analgesics available to your pancreatic cancer friend here in Houston. I'm sure our fine Medical Center here can find him one that works just fine.
Marijuana does more for him than any drugs can? What a load of crap! How about Heroin, Cocaine and Meth? They'll do even more for him.
As a former narcotic officer from Kookfornia and a retired Professor of Criminal Justice, I can shoot down your arguments and the arguments of those proposing to legalize pot, but that would be useless because the minds on both sides of this issue appear to be set in concrete.
Have a good day Will, but don't get too high.
The medical marijuana legalization in Colorado is hardly a joke, sir. It helps thousands of Coloradans daily, including myself. Our state legislature also takes it seriously, enacting laws to solidify the growing business (thousands of small, locally owned businesses mind you).
Nobody is stupid: Yes, doctors are writing questionable prescriptions. but lets talk about that as a larger issue -- texas has a huge problem with illicit codeine use and other pharmaceutical drugs... yet, where is your outrage over that? I agree that is a problem to be addressed, but you would be awful naive or plain dumb to think that it is only medical marijuana that doctors are writing bad scrips for. this is a dumb argument to make, Howie.
And if it is people simply getting a buzz that bothers you, I would hope that you are against alcohol sales in the great state of Texas too...
moving on... pot pharmacists making thousands? how about the MILLIONS in tax revenue they have brought to my state? last sunday alone, Colorado collected more than $7 million in licensing fees and application fees. That's not even going into the hundreds of millions in local tax dollars this generates in small towns across this state. this is a good thing. Where's the good fiscal conservative in you, Howie??
and lets not even get into the pharmaceutical companies RUNNING this country and making BILLIONS off of Americans while farming out jobs to foreign countries... i'm talking about a LOCAL product, sold LOCALLY, that builds LOCAL tax coffers. Is this sinking in at all, Howie?
I have a friend DYING of pancreatic cancer in houston right now. The chemotherapy has been worse than the disease, however, and the only thing that has helped him manage to eat and keep food down is marijuana -- illegal in your state. this is a man who has access to any pharmaceutical drug he could need for his pain, and yet this plant does more for him than any of the drugs can. Where's the good social conservaitive in you, howie? You know, the one that SHOULD be saying that the gov't has no place telling you what medicines you should and shouldn't have access to? Contrary to your opinion, it's proven FACT that this plant has medicinal benefits.
so really, Howie.. i get that D.A.R.E. classes have brainwashed you a bit -- but take some time to REALLY think about what you are opposing and why...because to more and more Americans, you are simply parroting an argument you can't really support.
AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO WILL BREATHES:
Will, you sound like someone who moved to Colorado from San Fransicko.
Medical marijuana was supposed to be limited to those suffering from HIV, Glaucoma and terminal cancer. But once legalized, it is being prescribed for everything from a grown-in toenail to baldness.
There is no consensus within the medical profession about the effectiveness of medical marijuana. One group of doctors says it works wonders, other doctors say it's a pipe dream.
There are a number of analgesics available to your pancreatic cancer friend here in Houston. I'm sure our fine Medical Center here can find him one that works just fine.
Marijuana does more for him than any drugs can? What a load of crap! How about Heroin, Cocaine and Meth? They'll do even more for him.
As a former narcotic officer from Kookfornia and a retired Professor of Criminal Justice, I can shoot down your arguments and the arguments of those proposing to legalize pot, but that would be useless because the minds on both sides of this issue appear to be set in concrete.
Have a good day Will, but don't get too high.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
THE CASE AGAINST CONFINING DANGEROUS CRIMINALS IN PRIVATE PRISONS
TWO OF THREE ESCAPED INMATES AT LARGE IN ARIZONA
Police believe the two remaining inmates have not left the state
Deseret Morning News
August 2, 2010
PHOENIX — The search continued Sunday for two convicted murderers who escaped from a private prison in northwest Arizona, while a third escaped convict was back behind bars following an early-morning shootout with police in western Colorado. Police believe the two who remain at large are still in Arizona.
Early Sunday, a police officer spotted Daniel Renwick, 36, in a brown sport utility vehicle in Rifle, Colo., some 670 miles from the medium-security Arizona State Prison in Golden Valley, said Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The officer pursued Renwick, gunshots were exchanged, and the convict was eventually taken into custody without anyone being injured, Ryan said.
Renwick had been serving a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder when he and the other two inmates escaped Friday evening by cutting a hole in the prison's perimeter fence. The men then kidnapped two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to flee, authorities said.
Police said the two men who remain at large - Tracy Province, 42, and John McCluskey, 45 - should be considered dangerous.
Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery, and McCluskey was serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.
The men are believed to be traveling with a woman suspected of helping in the escape, 44-year-old Casslyn Mae Welch.
According to Flagstaff police Sgt. James Jackson, at about 5 a.m. Saturday, the group kidnapped two drivers of a semi in Kingman and forced them at gunpoint to drive two hours east to Flagstaff. The group left the drivers, unharmed, in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 and then fled.
Police spent much of Saturday using helicopters and dogs to search for the men.
Ryan said Sunday the escape is under investigation. "We have great concerns that there was laxness on the part of security staff at this private prison, but I'm going to allow the investigation to run its course," said Ryan, who plans to meet with prison officials in the next day or two.
Police believe the two remaining inmates have not left the state
Deseret Morning News
August 2, 2010
PHOENIX — The search continued Sunday for two convicted murderers who escaped from a private prison in northwest Arizona, while a third escaped convict was back behind bars following an early-morning shootout with police in western Colorado. Police believe the two who remain at large are still in Arizona.
Early Sunday, a police officer spotted Daniel Renwick, 36, in a brown sport utility vehicle in Rifle, Colo., some 670 miles from the medium-security Arizona State Prison in Golden Valley, said Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The officer pursued Renwick, gunshots were exchanged, and the convict was eventually taken into custody without anyone being injured, Ryan said.
Renwick had been serving a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder when he and the other two inmates escaped Friday evening by cutting a hole in the prison's perimeter fence. The men then kidnapped two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to flee, authorities said.
Police said the two men who remain at large - Tracy Province, 42, and John McCluskey, 45 - should be considered dangerous.
Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery, and McCluskey was serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.
The men are believed to be traveling with a woman suspected of helping in the escape, 44-year-old Casslyn Mae Welch.
According to Flagstaff police Sgt. James Jackson, at about 5 a.m. Saturday, the group kidnapped two drivers of a semi in Kingman and forced them at gunpoint to drive two hours east to Flagstaff. The group left the drivers, unharmed, in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 and then fled.
Police spent much of Saturday using helicopters and dogs to search for the men.
Ryan said Sunday the escape is under investigation. "We have great concerns that there was laxness on the part of security staff at this private prison, but I'm going to allow the investigation to run its course," said Ryan, who plans to meet with prison officials in the next day or two.
NEVER MARRY A BROAD 35 YEARS YOUNGER THAN YOU: She would have made a great Auschwitz death camp guard
CHEATING WIFE LOCKS HUSBAND, 80, IN LAUNDRY IN FRANCE FOR 12 MONTHS
By Ian Sparks
Mail Online
August 2, 2010
A cheating wife kept her 80-year-old husband imprisoned in a locked laundry for a year while she lived with her younger lover.
The frail man was subjected to regular beatings at the house in Arrou, near Paris. He survived on stale bread and old pastries.
The 45-year-old wife and her boyfriend also pillaged more than £400,000 from the husband's bank account.
The man became blind during the ordeal. He was only discovered after the wife's nine-year-old child from an earlier marriage told neighbours there was a 'smelly old man who stole food' locked up in his house.
When police arrived at the couple's home, the wife initially claimed her husband was abroad, deputy prosecutor Fanny Floquet said. She added: 'But the wife finally led them to a small laundry room in the house away from rooms used to live in and opened a locked door in front of the gendarmes.'
Local gendarme commander Bruno Arviset said: ‘The victim suffered violence and ill-treatment. The man ate twice a day, mostly pastries that were past their sell-by date.'
A council source in Arrou said when the wife applied to marry the older man three years ago the mayor initially refused to conduct the ceremony because he was suspicious of her motives. He added: 'The service was eventually carried out by a deputy mayor.'
Neighbours said the old man was last seen in a local chemist's shop in July 2009. One added: 'The wife was a very strange woman. People round here thought it odd that she was married to an old man while living with her lover in the same house.'
The woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, is being held in custody charged with physical abuse, illegal detention and taking advantage of a vulnerable person.
Her lover and another adult son have been released on bail after being charged with complicity with kidnapping and failing to report the abuse. Social services have taken her younger child into care, judicial sources said.
By Ian Sparks
Mail Online
August 2, 2010
A cheating wife kept her 80-year-old husband imprisoned in a locked laundry for a year while she lived with her younger lover.
The frail man was subjected to regular beatings at the house in Arrou, near Paris. He survived on stale bread and old pastries.
The 45-year-old wife and her boyfriend also pillaged more than £400,000 from the husband's bank account.
The man became blind during the ordeal. He was only discovered after the wife's nine-year-old child from an earlier marriage told neighbours there was a 'smelly old man who stole food' locked up in his house.
When police arrived at the couple's home, the wife initially claimed her husband was abroad, deputy prosecutor Fanny Floquet said. She added: 'But the wife finally led them to a small laundry room in the house away from rooms used to live in and opened a locked door in front of the gendarmes.'
Local gendarme commander Bruno Arviset said: ‘The victim suffered violence and ill-treatment. The man ate twice a day, mostly pastries that were past their sell-by date.'
A council source in Arrou said when the wife applied to marry the older man three years ago the mayor initially refused to conduct the ceremony because he was suspicious of her motives. He added: 'The service was eventually carried out by a deputy mayor.'
Neighbours said the old man was last seen in a local chemist's shop in July 2009. One added: 'The wife was a very strange woman. People round here thought it odd that she was married to an old man while living with her lover in the same house.'
The woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, is being held in custody charged with physical abuse, illegal detention and taking advantage of a vulnerable person.
Her lover and another adult son have been released on bail after being charged with complicity with kidnapping and failing to report the abuse. Social services have taken her younger child into care, judicial sources said.
REPENTANCE WAS SHORT LIVED
On July 23, Israel Camacho walked into a Pompano Beach, Florida cell phone store with a gun in hand and asked 20-year-old store clerk Nayara Goncalves for the money.
Goncalves told the robber, "You can do whatever you want, but I'm just going to talk to you about Jesus, my God, before you leave. Jesus got something way better for you. I don't know what you are going through, but all of us are going through a hard time right now."
Camacho told Goncalves he was a Christian too and they found out both attended the same church. He was very apologetic and told her that although he had a job, he needed $300 to keep from being evicted from his home.
Camacho told Goncalvas that he would have to take all the money in the register. When she told him that the store’s owner would hold her accountable for the money, he changed his mind and said, "I don't want to do that to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
As Camacho walked out of the store, Goncalves told him, "Jesus helps you. He can change your life. Go back to church. Find a job. Get real friends in church. Talk to a pastor. They can pray for you. You don't need to do this. Jesus is coming soon."
Camacho’s repentance was short lived. If not that, then he must have found a Jewish owned store. Less than two hours after the aborted phone store caper, he took his gun and robbed a Payless Shoe Store. This time he took all of the money. As he left, Camacho turned around and told his shaking victims, "Jesus loves you."
When he was arrested two days later, police described Camacho as a serial robber. He has been in and out of jail in Florida since 1998, including an 18-month prison stay six years ago for forging documents and grand theft.
Goncalves told the robber, "You can do whatever you want, but I'm just going to talk to you about Jesus, my God, before you leave. Jesus got something way better for you. I don't know what you are going through, but all of us are going through a hard time right now."
Camacho told Goncalves he was a Christian too and they found out both attended the same church. He was very apologetic and told her that although he had a job, he needed $300 to keep from being evicted from his home.
Camacho told Goncalvas that he would have to take all the money in the register. When she told him that the store’s owner would hold her accountable for the money, he changed his mind and said, "I don't want to do that to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
As Camacho walked out of the store, Goncalves told him, "Jesus helps you. He can change your life. Go back to church. Find a job. Get real friends in church. Talk to a pastor. They can pray for you. You don't need to do this. Jesus is coming soon."
Camacho’s repentance was short lived. If not that, then he must have found a Jewish owned store. Less than two hours after the aborted phone store caper, he took his gun and robbed a Payless Shoe Store. This time he took all of the money. As he left, Camacho turned around and told his shaking victims, "Jesus loves you."
When he was arrested two days later, police described Camacho as a serial robber. He has been in and out of jail in Florida since 1998, including an 18-month prison stay six years ago for forging documents and grand theft.
Monday, August 02, 2010
NATIONWIDE IMPACT OF AN UPPER TEXAS COAST STORM SURGE
Galveston Bay on the upper Texas coast is lined with the largest concentration of petro-chemical plants in the Western Hemisphere, if not in the world. Any serious damage to that complex or product interruption would have serious consequences for the nation’s economy and impact the lives of all our citizens. That is why I have chosen to reproduce an important op-ed piece from the Houston Chronicle.
That petro-chemical complex is subject to a destructive storm surge from a major hurricane's direct hit on the Houston-Galveston area. And so are the homes of several million residents. A direct hit by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane could create a storm surge that would result in a high death toll, the destruction of countless homes and businesses, serious damage to the petro-chemical plants, thousands of jobs lost, an increase in property insurance rates for all Americans and an increase in the prices of consumer goods.
A direct hit on the Galveston-Houston area by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane would make the costliest U.S. hurricanes - Katrina ($96 billion), Andrew ($26.5 billion) and Ike ($22 billion) - pale by comparison. It should be noted that Ike made its landfall some miles east of Galveston as a Category 2 hurricane with a Category 5 storm surge. Thus the rotation of the storm put the Houston-Galveston area on the clean side of the hurricane. Had Ike made its landfall at Galveston instead, the storm surge would have resulted in a catastrophic loss of lives and property.
To protect the upper Texas coast from a catastrophic storm surge, a professor from Texas A&M University has proposed extending Galveston’s seawall in both directions together with the construction of Netherlands-like flood gates across the entrance to Galveston Bay and several of the other bays. His proposal has come to be known as ‘The Ike Dike.’
The Ike Dike proposal came under immediate attack by environmentalists. They charged that the Ike Dike would destroy the upper coast’s ecosystem, prevent the migration of marine life between the bays and the Gulf and invite further development. They proposed letting the sand dunes on the barrier islands serve to protect the coast from a storm surge. It seems as though the econuts are much more concerned about the ecosystem than they are about a catastrophic loss of lives,property and jobs.
The environmentalists say that the petro-chemical plants, homes and businesses should never have been developed in the storm surge-prone areas of the Gulf coast. And you know, they’re absolutely right. But the reality is that those plants, homes and businesses are now in place there and can’t just be abandoned to the ravages of a hurricane.
Bill King, a highly regarded former two-term mayor of Kemah, has contributed a number of op-eds to the Chronicle. Because his views did not mesh with those of the left-wing, an EX-friend who calls me a Nazi (see "Extremist and Racist Old Man?" 7-15-10) took to calling King a ‘right-wing nut.’ When you read the following op-ed piece you will see that King is a very reasonable and responsible concerned citizen and in no way a right-wing nut.
IT’S TIME TO COORDINATE STORM MITIGATION EFFORTS
The extremists on either side of the Ike Dike issue should be ignored while we formulate plans for a regional surge protection system
By Bill King
Houston Chronicle
July 29, 2010
Unfortunately public debates tend to devolve into discussions about the most extreme positions. So it is becoming with the pubic conversation about the so-called Ike Dike. Increasingly, the choices are being presented as building a Galveston-Seawall- type structure along the entire upper Texas coast or "retreating" out of the surge zone. Both of these extreme alternatives are absurd on their face.
Let me start with the notion that we are going to retreat out of the hurricane surge zone. Typically this idea is presented with the appealing argument that environmentally sensitive areas like Bolivar and the west end of Galveston Island are really not suitable for intensive development. While that may be the case and while there may be a case for restricting development in such areas, these seaside areas represent a tiny fraction of the hurricane surge zone area.
The surge zone for a major hurricane covers all of Galveston County, about 65 percent of Brazoria County and about 20 percent of Harris County. Included in the zone are the homes of about 1 million people, thousands of businesses, hundreds of schools and churches and dozens of hospitals and nursing homes. Also located in the zone are such critical infrastructures as the Johnson Space Center, some of the largest petrochemical plants in the world, hundreds of wastewater treatment plants, power-generating plants and a critical freshwater reservoir, just to name a few. We have literally trillions of dollars invested already in the surge zone and it represents thousands of jobs.
Building all of this on a flat coastal plain may not have been the best idea, but it is done. The idea that we as a community are going to retreat from these investments is not even worthy of a serious discussion. And if we continue to leave these investments unprotected we risk an economic blow from which the region might never recover. It is worth remembering that Galveston never returned to her pre-1900 storm glory.
It is equally absurd to imagine we are going to build a 17-foot concrete wall along the entire upper coast. First, it would be prohibitively expensive. But more importantly, the Galveston Seawall is an early 20th century technology. Much has been learned about flood protection and coastal geology since 1900, especially in the integration of natural barriers as design elements. The Dutch, for example, rely on massive sand dunes for much of their coastal protection system. Any structural components of a storm surge protection system built in the 21st century are going to look much different than the Galveston Seawall and will be much more environmentally sensitive.
The only real choices we have are whether we are going to have regionally coordinated efforts to mitigate the effects of a hurricane surge or ad hoc protection efforts by individual communities, homeowners and businesses. If we allow the latter to happen it will be massively more expensive, leave many areas unprotected and likely have many collateral adverse impacts, including potentially severe environmental impacts. And if there is not a regionally coordinated effort, individual hardening will be the default result.
There are many other cities and countries around the world that are facing similar problems, including Venice, New York, St. Petersburg, London and, of course, the Netherlands. None of these places are sitting back and letting their flood control proceed on an ad hoc basis. All are engaged in regional planning and international cooperation. In fact, an international association has recently been formed for this purpose (see http://www.networkbar riermanagers.com).
This is a time that we need to ignore the fringe voices and concentrate on the real problem at hand. Over the last century, we have suffered massive losses from hurricanes about every 20 years. Each time, the losses have been larger and the flood waters higher. With coastal subsidence and the sea level rising, the situation is likely only to get worse. Let's not wait until we have another 1900 storm disaster to decide that we need to do something.
__King, a frequent contributor to Outlook, was one of the incorporators of the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District and served on a governor's committee that recommended its creation.
That petro-chemical complex is subject to a destructive storm surge from a major hurricane's direct hit on the Houston-Galveston area. And so are the homes of several million residents. A direct hit by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane could create a storm surge that would result in a high death toll, the destruction of countless homes and businesses, serious damage to the petro-chemical plants, thousands of jobs lost, an increase in property insurance rates for all Americans and an increase in the prices of consumer goods.
A direct hit on the Galveston-Houston area by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane would make the costliest U.S. hurricanes - Katrina ($96 billion), Andrew ($26.5 billion) and Ike ($22 billion) - pale by comparison. It should be noted that Ike made its landfall some miles east of Galveston as a Category 2 hurricane with a Category 5 storm surge. Thus the rotation of the storm put the Houston-Galveston area on the clean side of the hurricane. Had Ike made its landfall at Galveston instead, the storm surge would have resulted in a catastrophic loss of lives and property.
To protect the upper Texas coast from a catastrophic storm surge, a professor from Texas A&M University has proposed extending Galveston’s seawall in both directions together with the construction of Netherlands-like flood gates across the entrance to Galveston Bay and several of the other bays. His proposal has come to be known as ‘The Ike Dike.’
The Ike Dike proposal came under immediate attack by environmentalists. They charged that the Ike Dike would destroy the upper coast’s ecosystem, prevent the migration of marine life between the bays and the Gulf and invite further development. They proposed letting the sand dunes on the barrier islands serve to protect the coast from a storm surge. It seems as though the econuts are much more concerned about the ecosystem than they are about a catastrophic loss of lives,property and jobs.
The environmentalists say that the petro-chemical plants, homes and businesses should never have been developed in the storm surge-prone areas of the Gulf coast. And you know, they’re absolutely right. But the reality is that those plants, homes and businesses are now in place there and can’t just be abandoned to the ravages of a hurricane.
Bill King, a highly regarded former two-term mayor of Kemah, has contributed a number of op-eds to the Chronicle. Because his views did not mesh with those of the left-wing, an EX-friend who calls me a Nazi (see "Extremist and Racist Old Man?" 7-15-10) took to calling King a ‘right-wing nut.’ When you read the following op-ed piece you will see that King is a very reasonable and responsible concerned citizen and in no way a right-wing nut.
IT’S TIME TO COORDINATE STORM MITIGATION EFFORTS
The extremists on either side of the Ike Dike issue should be ignored while we formulate plans for a regional surge protection system
By Bill King
Houston Chronicle
July 29, 2010
Unfortunately public debates tend to devolve into discussions about the most extreme positions. So it is becoming with the pubic conversation about the so-called Ike Dike. Increasingly, the choices are being presented as building a Galveston-Seawall- type structure along the entire upper Texas coast or "retreating" out of the surge zone. Both of these extreme alternatives are absurd on their face.
Let me start with the notion that we are going to retreat out of the hurricane surge zone. Typically this idea is presented with the appealing argument that environmentally sensitive areas like Bolivar and the west end of Galveston Island are really not suitable for intensive development. While that may be the case and while there may be a case for restricting development in such areas, these seaside areas represent a tiny fraction of the hurricane surge zone area.
The surge zone for a major hurricane covers all of Galveston County, about 65 percent of Brazoria County and about 20 percent of Harris County. Included in the zone are the homes of about 1 million people, thousands of businesses, hundreds of schools and churches and dozens of hospitals and nursing homes. Also located in the zone are such critical infrastructures as the Johnson Space Center, some of the largest petrochemical plants in the world, hundreds of wastewater treatment plants, power-generating plants and a critical freshwater reservoir, just to name a few. We have literally trillions of dollars invested already in the surge zone and it represents thousands of jobs.
Building all of this on a flat coastal plain may not have been the best idea, but it is done. The idea that we as a community are going to retreat from these investments is not even worthy of a serious discussion. And if we continue to leave these investments unprotected we risk an economic blow from which the region might never recover. It is worth remembering that Galveston never returned to her pre-1900 storm glory.
It is equally absurd to imagine we are going to build a 17-foot concrete wall along the entire upper coast. First, it would be prohibitively expensive. But more importantly, the Galveston Seawall is an early 20th century technology. Much has been learned about flood protection and coastal geology since 1900, especially in the integration of natural barriers as design elements. The Dutch, for example, rely on massive sand dunes for much of their coastal protection system. Any structural components of a storm surge protection system built in the 21st century are going to look much different than the Galveston Seawall and will be much more environmentally sensitive.
The only real choices we have are whether we are going to have regionally coordinated efforts to mitigate the effects of a hurricane surge or ad hoc protection efforts by individual communities, homeowners and businesses. If we allow the latter to happen it will be massively more expensive, leave many areas unprotected and likely have many collateral adverse impacts, including potentially severe environmental impacts. And if there is not a regionally coordinated effort, individual hardening will be the default result.
There are many other cities and countries around the world that are facing similar problems, including Venice, New York, St. Petersburg, London and, of course, the Netherlands. None of these places are sitting back and letting their flood control proceed on an ad hoc basis. All are engaged in regional planning and international cooperation. In fact, an international association has recently been formed for this purpose (see http://www.networkbar riermanagers.com).
This is a time that we need to ignore the fringe voices and concentrate on the real problem at hand. Over the last century, we have suffered massive losses from hurricanes about every 20 years. Each time, the losses have been larger and the flood waters higher. With coastal subsidence and the sea level rising, the situation is likely only to get worse. Let's not wait until we have another 1900 storm disaster to decide that we need to do something.
__King, a frequent contributor to Outlook, was one of the incorporators of the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District and served on a governor's committee that recommended its creation.
POSTHUMOUS PARDON FOR A RUTHLESS KILLER?
Take a sitting liberal governor and a long-dead outlaw folk hero and you have the makings of a posthumous pardon for a ruthless killer. We should all be relieved that Bill Richardson failed to win the Democratic party’s nomination for president. On the other hand, look at what we ended up with for a president.
PARDON BILLY THE KID? NOT SO FAST, SAY SHERIFF’S KIN
By John O. Membrino
AolNews.
July 30. 2010
There's talk around New Mexico that the governor is thinking of pardoning Billy the Kid, and descendants of Pat Garrett don't much cotton to the idea.
Sheriff Garrett tracked down and shot dead Billy the Kid, aka William Bonney and several other aliases, in 1881 after the notorious gunslinger had killed two deputies while busting out of jail in Lincoln County. A couple of years earlier, the territorial governor, Lew Wallace, reportedly offered the Kid a pardon in connection with a murder charge he faced in return for his testimony against those involved in a bloody range war. But Wallace is said to have reneged on the promise.
Gov. Bill Richardson now is considering the possibility of pardoning the Kid. A spokeswoman for the governor told the El Paso Times that "right now we have nothing planned,'' but Garrett's family sent a letter to Richardson objecting that such a move would amount to a defamation of the lawman, according to The Associated Press.
"If Billy the Kid was living amongst us now, would you issue a pardon for someone who made his living as a thief and, more egregiously, who killed four law enforcement officers and numerous others?" the Garrett family wrote.
Richardson's spokeswoman told the El Paso newspaper that the governor's staff is trying to set up a meeting with Garrett's family.
As is the case with much of what transpired in the Old West, the line separating legend and truth can be blurry. Some skeptics insist that someone other than Billy the Kid was killed by Garrett, and that he might have lived until 1950 in Texas under the name of "Brushy Bill" Roberts. And there are several numbers thrown around when it comes to toting up the outlaw's victims.
The chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission told the El Paso Times he opposes having the governor grant a pardon.
"It's more of a news grabber than anything else,'' Bernie Sargent said. "[Billy the Kid] did some bad things. He is somewhat a false hero."
PARDON BILLY THE KID? NOT SO FAST, SAY SHERIFF’S KIN
By John O. Membrino
AolNews.
July 30. 2010
There's talk around New Mexico that the governor is thinking of pardoning Billy the Kid, and descendants of Pat Garrett don't much cotton to the idea.
Sheriff Garrett tracked down and shot dead Billy the Kid, aka William Bonney and several other aliases, in 1881 after the notorious gunslinger had killed two deputies while busting out of jail in Lincoln County. A couple of years earlier, the territorial governor, Lew Wallace, reportedly offered the Kid a pardon in connection with a murder charge he faced in return for his testimony against those involved in a bloody range war. But Wallace is said to have reneged on the promise.
Gov. Bill Richardson now is considering the possibility of pardoning the Kid. A spokeswoman for the governor told the El Paso Times that "right now we have nothing planned,'' but Garrett's family sent a letter to Richardson objecting that such a move would amount to a defamation of the lawman, according to The Associated Press.
"If Billy the Kid was living amongst us now, would you issue a pardon for someone who made his living as a thief and, more egregiously, who killed four law enforcement officers and numerous others?" the Garrett family wrote.
Richardson's spokeswoman told the El Paso newspaper that the governor's staff is trying to set up a meeting with Garrett's family.
As is the case with much of what transpired in the Old West, the line separating legend and truth can be blurry. Some skeptics insist that someone other than Billy the Kid was killed by Garrett, and that he might have lived until 1950 in Texas under the name of "Brushy Bill" Roberts. And there are several numbers thrown around when it comes to toting up the outlaw's victims.
The chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission told the El Paso Times he opposes having the governor grant a pardon.
"It's more of a news grabber than anything else,'' Bernie Sargent said. "[Billy the Kid] did some bad things. He is somewhat a false hero."
Sunday, August 01, 2010
LORDIE LORD, FIRST RANGEL AND NOW WATERS
"The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history." That’s what Nancy Pelosi promised in 2006 as she was poised to take over as Speaker of the House. Whoa, hold them thar horses! Integrity and honesty? That ain’t exactly what happened.
First Rep. Charlie Rangel, the 80-year-old 20-term Democrat gets charged with 13 ethics violations, among them that he improperly solicited money from corporate officials and lobbyists for the Charles B. Rangel Public Policy Center at the City College of New York; that he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of income and assets on financial disclosure forms; that he maintained multiple rent-stabilized apartments in violation of New York City rules; and failed to pay income taxes on a Dominican island resort home.
And now 71-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters, that rabble-rousing Kookfornia 10-term Democrat who sees racism under every bed and around every corner, joins fellow Black Caucus member Rangel as the object of ethics violations.
Waters, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, is accused of using her position to help obtain federal bailout funds for a black-owned bank in which her husband held stock.. She was investigated for communicating with an executive at the bank while he was applying for federal bailout funds and for helping to arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at Boston-based OneUnited Bank without disclosing her husband's financial ties to the bank. Waters’ husband held at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and had served on its board of directors.
It just goes to show that regardless of whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, the longer members of Congress stay in office the more corrupt they are likely to become.
First Rep. Charlie Rangel, the 80-year-old 20-term Democrat gets charged with 13 ethics violations, among them that he improperly solicited money from corporate officials and lobbyists for the Charles B. Rangel Public Policy Center at the City College of New York; that he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of income and assets on financial disclosure forms; that he maintained multiple rent-stabilized apartments in violation of New York City rules; and failed to pay income taxes on a Dominican island resort home.
And now 71-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters, that rabble-rousing Kookfornia 10-term Democrat who sees racism under every bed and around every corner, joins fellow Black Caucus member Rangel as the object of ethics violations.
Waters, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, is accused of using her position to help obtain federal bailout funds for a black-owned bank in which her husband held stock.. She was investigated for communicating with an executive at the bank while he was applying for federal bailout funds and for helping to arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at Boston-based OneUnited Bank without disclosing her husband's financial ties to the bank. Waters’ husband held at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and had served on its board of directors.
It just goes to show that regardless of whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, the longer members of Congress stay in office the more corrupt they are likely to become.
GIVING NEW MEANING TO 'ENTRAPMENT'
Lately in Amsterdam, Jews are regularly attacked verbally and physically in broad daylight by anti-Semitic thugs as they walk on the streets of the Dutch capital.
Amsterdam police officers are trying to catch the thugs by pounding the pavement dressed as Jews. The Dutch authorities hope that these decoys will be able to attract the Jew-haters and arrest them.
Apparently, some Dutch have a problem with punishing Jew-hating attackers. As Paul Belien reported in the Brussels Journal, "Evelien van Roemburg, an Amsterdam city council member from the Green Left Party, says that using a decoy by the police amounts to [entrapment], which is itself a criminal offence under Dutch law."
Van Roemburg must think that when Jewish-looking people go for a walk, they are asking for someone to kick the shit out of them.
Amsterdam police officers are trying to catch the thugs by pounding the pavement dressed as Jews. The Dutch authorities hope that these decoys will be able to attract the Jew-haters and arrest them.
Apparently, some Dutch have a problem with punishing Jew-hating attackers. As Paul Belien reported in the Brussels Journal, "Evelien van Roemburg, an Amsterdam city council member from the Green Left Party, says that using a decoy by the police amounts to [entrapment], which is itself a criminal offence under Dutch law."
Van Roemburg must think that when Jewish-looking people go for a walk, they are asking for someone to kick the shit out of them.
NO JUSTICE WHEN COURT ACCEPTS MALICIOUS SUIT
How can there be any justice when the courts accept a lawsuit filed against the victim of a theft by the sorry-ass crook he caught in the act? This suit was obviously filed out of malicious intent. In retrospect, when making the citizen’s arrest, the victim should have kicked the supreme shit out of the asshole.
INMATE SUES CITIZEN WHO ARRESTED HIM
Claims he was roughed up during a citizen’s arrest after stealing a bicycle
Associated Press
July 30, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A Florida inmate is suing the man he's convicted of burglarizing, claiming the man and two others roughed him up during a citizen's arrest.
Michael Dupree is serving a 12-year sentence for burglary and cocaine possession stemming from a 2007 break-in of a van in St. Petersburg. Dupree allegedly stole a bicycle locked inside and was apprehended after the owner, Anthony McKoy, saw him with the bike down the street.
Dupree says McKoy and two others pointed a gun at him, handcuffed him and placed a knee painfully in his back. He's seeking $500,000 for disabilities and distress suffered during the takedown.
Dupree filed the civil lawsuit on his own, without the help of an attorney.
After being served with the suit, McKoy said, "I thought it was a joke. I'm the victim."
INMATE SUES CITIZEN WHO ARRESTED HIM
Claims he was roughed up during a citizen’s arrest after stealing a bicycle
Associated Press
July 30, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A Florida inmate is suing the man he's convicted of burglarizing, claiming the man and two others roughed him up during a citizen's arrest.
Michael Dupree is serving a 12-year sentence for burglary and cocaine possession stemming from a 2007 break-in of a van in St. Petersburg. Dupree allegedly stole a bicycle locked inside and was apprehended after the owner, Anthony McKoy, saw him with the bike down the street.
Dupree says McKoy and two others pointed a gun at him, handcuffed him and placed a knee painfully in his back. He's seeking $500,000 for disabilities and distress suffered during the takedown.
Dupree filed the civil lawsuit on his own, without the help of an attorney.
After being served with the suit, McKoy said, "I thought it was a joke. I'm the victim."
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