During his visit to the federal prison at El Reno, Oklahoma, President Obama kept emphasizing the “mistakes” inmates made
On Monday, President Obama commuted the sentences of 46 “nonviolent” drug offenders doing time in federal prisons. On Thursday he visited the federal prison at El Reno, Oklahoma where he met with six “nonviolent” drug offenders. Afterwards he said:
Every single one of them emphasized the fact that they had done something wrong; they are prepared to take responsibility for it, but they also urged us to think about how society could’ve reached them earlier on in life to keep them out of trouble.
What a joke. Our president got conned with that “We done wrong” and “We take responsibility” convict horseshit. Had he talked to six rapists or murderers, they would have played exactly the same tune.
Obama went on to say:
I think we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted, or think it's normal, that so many young people end up in our criminal justice system. It's not normal. It's not what happens in other countries. What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things.
When they describe their youth, these are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different from the mistakes I made, and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made.
The difference is, they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes. ... That's what strikes me — there but for the grace of God.
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes ….. what mistakes? Those six inmates were not in prison for getting caught smoking a joint or littering the sidewalk. They are in prison for committing crimes, not for making mistakes. And they are not in prison for “doing stupid things.”
Hitting the wrong key on a computer keyboard is a mistake. Locking your keys inside the car is a mistake. Joyriding in a stolen car is a crime. Selling dope is a crime. Crimes are not mistakes. Criminals may do stupid things while committing a crime, but they’re still committing a crime. When Barack Obama was smoking marijuana, that may have been a stupid thing to do, but he was nevertheless committing a crime, not making a mistake.
Most prison inmates doing hard time for drug offenses are doing so for selling drugs. That’s a serious crime, not a mistake. And, by the way, while the sales of narcotics may be nonviolent, there is a lot of violence associated with the illegal sales of drugs.
When Obama made those 46 commutations, he did not commit a crime, but he may have made a mistake.
Friday, July 17, 2015
CALIFORNIA’S PRISON POTTY-WATCH
Contraband is found on 41 percent of prison inmates put on “potty-watch”
By Richard Krupp, PhD
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 16, 2015
From what I remember, smuggling contraband during visits was a common method for inmates to get drugs, weapons, etc. A common occurrence is the exchange of a kiss between an inmate and his girlfriend or wife when departing the visiting room.
The drugs would be swallowed and eventually come out the other end. Recently the Sacramento Bee ran a story about this practice, but of course focused on the poor inconvenienced inmate.
The Bee appears to be a sympathetic to the crime-tolerant positions taken by the State of California. Many of their articles seem to evoke pity for our unfortunate criminals.
I found the most recent scoop somewhat amusing.
From the Bee, buzzing around to shock your sensibilities:
California’s invasive ‘contraband watch’ often yields little
California uses a controversial method to recover contraband from inmates believed to have swallowed it or concealed it in body cavities: “potty watches” where inmates are handcuffed and shackled for days or even weeks while guards watch around-the-clock until nature takes its course.
Prison officials say the watches are necessary to recover weapons, cell phones and notes passed among inmates to coordinate illegal gang activities. Some recovered items seem truly bizarre: a can opener, hearing aids, and an entire electric tattoo kit. The watches have been used 1,200 times in the last 2½ years, yet state reports show that they produced results less than 41 percent of the time.
“It was the worst two weeks of my life,” recalled Raymond Kidd, who was on contraband watch at Folsom State Prison for 13 days in 2011 that found nothing. “I had to be duct-taped and gift-wrapped and shackled, 24-7, even while I slept.” Kidd said his girlfriend was chewing gum when he kissed her in the visiting room; guards watching on a video screen suspected she had passed him a balloon full of drugs that he swallowed during the kiss.
Suspected smugglers are strip-searched, then placed in an isolation cell in which the toilet has been covered and the water turned off. Their clothing is taped shut at the waist and legs to prevent them from physically reaching body cavities, their hands are cuffed to a chain around their waist and their legs may be shackled. If they fight back, they can be strapped down by the arms and legs. What are known as “hand isolation devices” — similar to oven mitts — can be used with a warden’s approval.
There they stay for at least 72 hours or until they complete at least three closely watched bowel movements and a guard searches through the results. Something is recovered from about four out of 10 inmates. “It’s a fairly low percentage and people who aren’t guilty are being put through torture,” said Laura Magnani, an American Friends Service Committee program director who sits on a committee that mediates between the prison system and inmates. “I mean, people are shocked when they hear of this.”
“We still have to have some way to determine if inmates have something in their bodies or they don’t,” Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said in an interview. He said the department has reduced the number of watches in recent years and is exploring scanning technology that could one day replace them. The watches were upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year…(for the full load read http://tinyurl.com/nzhryrg.)
Actually, a 41% success rate for potty-watch contraband is very impressive. A professional baseball player with a .410 batting average would be leading the league. This tells me that the Correctional Officers are doing a great job identifying the smugglers. Keep up the good work!
Of the 1200 potty watches over the 30 months reported in the above article there must have been almost 500 packages of drugs that were kept out of the prisons. Even the crime tolerant media thinks allowing drugs to enter a prison is bad. It interferes with all of those rehabilitation programs, not to mention facilitates prison violence.
I’m not sure why the Department of Corrections would want to reduce the number of potty-watches given that they are keeping drugs and gang communications out of the prisons. Besides, it has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the Court of Appeals. Perhaps Jeff Beard can’t tell time on his potty-watch—something about the movement I suspect.
I don’t think the Department is overly concerned about the can openers so much, unless they are used as weapons (or to bust out of the can.) I don’t know what to say about keistered cell phones, absent the obvious crappy reception.
There may be a lot a intrigue involved. Secret kisses, unseen exchanges, and surreptitious surveillance seems exciting to the general public, but in the end all is revealed.
Imagine being a correctional officer assigned to potty-watch. You really can’t tell the spouse and kids at the dinner table what you did all day at work.
The media should be more concerned about the correctional staff who have to endure this ordeal. They have to do the real dirty work.
By Richard Krupp, PhD
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 16, 2015
From what I remember, smuggling contraband during visits was a common method for inmates to get drugs, weapons, etc. A common occurrence is the exchange of a kiss between an inmate and his girlfriend or wife when departing the visiting room.
The drugs would be swallowed and eventually come out the other end. Recently the Sacramento Bee ran a story about this practice, but of course focused on the poor inconvenienced inmate.
The Bee appears to be a sympathetic to the crime-tolerant positions taken by the State of California. Many of their articles seem to evoke pity for our unfortunate criminals.
I found the most recent scoop somewhat amusing.
From the Bee, buzzing around to shock your sensibilities:
California’s invasive ‘contraband watch’ often yields little
California uses a controversial method to recover contraband from inmates believed to have swallowed it or concealed it in body cavities: “potty watches” where inmates are handcuffed and shackled for days or even weeks while guards watch around-the-clock until nature takes its course.
Prison officials say the watches are necessary to recover weapons, cell phones and notes passed among inmates to coordinate illegal gang activities. Some recovered items seem truly bizarre: a can opener, hearing aids, and an entire electric tattoo kit. The watches have been used 1,200 times in the last 2½ years, yet state reports show that they produced results less than 41 percent of the time.
“It was the worst two weeks of my life,” recalled Raymond Kidd, who was on contraband watch at Folsom State Prison for 13 days in 2011 that found nothing. “I had to be duct-taped and gift-wrapped and shackled, 24-7, even while I slept.” Kidd said his girlfriend was chewing gum when he kissed her in the visiting room; guards watching on a video screen suspected she had passed him a balloon full of drugs that he swallowed during the kiss.
Suspected smugglers are strip-searched, then placed in an isolation cell in which the toilet has been covered and the water turned off. Their clothing is taped shut at the waist and legs to prevent them from physically reaching body cavities, their hands are cuffed to a chain around their waist and their legs may be shackled. If they fight back, they can be strapped down by the arms and legs. What are known as “hand isolation devices” — similar to oven mitts — can be used with a warden’s approval.
There they stay for at least 72 hours or until they complete at least three closely watched bowel movements and a guard searches through the results. Something is recovered from about four out of 10 inmates. “It’s a fairly low percentage and people who aren’t guilty are being put through torture,” said Laura Magnani, an American Friends Service Committee program director who sits on a committee that mediates between the prison system and inmates. “I mean, people are shocked when they hear of this.”
“We still have to have some way to determine if inmates have something in their bodies or they don’t,” Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said in an interview. He said the department has reduced the number of watches in recent years and is exploring scanning technology that could one day replace them. The watches were upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year…(for the full load read http://tinyurl.com/nzhryrg.)
Actually, a 41% success rate for potty-watch contraband is very impressive. A professional baseball player with a .410 batting average would be leading the league. This tells me that the Correctional Officers are doing a great job identifying the smugglers. Keep up the good work!
Of the 1200 potty watches over the 30 months reported in the above article there must have been almost 500 packages of drugs that were kept out of the prisons. Even the crime tolerant media thinks allowing drugs to enter a prison is bad. It interferes with all of those rehabilitation programs, not to mention facilitates prison violence.
I’m not sure why the Department of Corrections would want to reduce the number of potty-watches given that they are keeping drugs and gang communications out of the prisons. Besides, it has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the Court of Appeals. Perhaps Jeff Beard can’t tell time on his potty-watch—something about the movement I suspect.
I don’t think the Department is overly concerned about the can openers so much, unless they are used as weapons (or to bust out of the can.) I don’t know what to say about keistered cell phones, absent the obvious crappy reception.
There may be a lot a intrigue involved. Secret kisses, unseen exchanges, and surreptitious surveillance seems exciting to the general public, but in the end all is revealed.
Imagine being a correctional officer assigned to potty-watch. You really can’t tell the spouse and kids at the dinner table what you did all day at work.
The media should be more concerned about the correctional staff who have to endure this ordeal. They have to do the real dirty work.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
IN MEXICO, CRIME IS BIGGER THAN A CRIME BOSS
Stratfor Global Intelligence
July 14, 2015
Summary
The July 11 escape of the notorious Sinaloa crime boss, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, from a maximum-security prison in Mexico has drawn considerable Mexican and international media attention. While the brazen and elaborate nature of the escape will add to the lore already surrounding Guzman, the escape itself carries little significance for organized crime in Mexico — though it will place a momentary strain on coordination between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement. The forces that drive the evolution of organized crime and their impact on society in Mexico are simply greater than any single crime boss.
Analysis
Mexico's geography enabled drug traffickers like Guzman to operate on a global scale. As international law enforcement effectively dismantled the powerful Colombian cartels and stymied their maritime trafficking routes through the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s, Mexico became the lynchpin of new smuggling routes into the United States. This evolution took place just as the Mexican criminal networks that trafficked drugs broke down into smaller groups. Though crime bosses like Guzman rose in stature relative to others, all organized crime groups in Mexico are the result of a systematic decentralization in cartel structure that continues today.
In fact, by the time Guzman was arrested in February 2014, the Sinaloa Cartel was already fragmenting. Groups that operated in areas such as Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California states — areas that were once part of El Chapo's criminal network — were already acting autonomously. Some of them were even fighting one another. The arrest of Guzman and the subsequent capture of some of his lieutenants only accelerated this trend. Now, geographic domains that were controlled by Sinaloa-based crime bosses for decades are now controlled by other groups, including the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which expanded from the Tierra Caliente region, and La Linea, which was once the enforcement group for the Juarez cartel.
Among the myths surrounding El Chapo were tales pertaining to his purported role as an arbiter of organized crime in Mexico. According to some of those myths, his organization preferred to expand its business operations through negotiation, rather than through violent conflict. But Guzman, in fact, was party to some of the most violent turf wars in Mexico, introducing rampant insecurity in places such as Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez. These conflicts had subsided by the time he was arrested but not before nationwide turf wars devolved into more localized conflicts. Guzman may attempt to re-consolidate the control he once had over Mexico's organized crime activities, but his previous efforts to do so failed, and the task would be even tougher now that his network has become even thinner.
Since 2012, Mexican organized crime has become increasingly balkanized amid government efforts to revamp public security institutions, and nationwide levels of organized crime-related violence have gradually diminished. Though having more crime groups means there are more bosses, these leaders have not been able to sustain violent offensives against their rivals and fend off the state as well as their predecessors did. And while waves of extreme violence can still emerge in places like Tamaulipas, they typically weaken as soon as security forces move in — in contrast to past conflicts in places like Juarez, where violence continued to climb despite repeated deployments of federal troops.
July 14, 2015
Summary
The July 11 escape of the notorious Sinaloa crime boss, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, from a maximum-security prison in Mexico has drawn considerable Mexican and international media attention. While the brazen and elaborate nature of the escape will add to the lore already surrounding Guzman, the escape itself carries little significance for organized crime in Mexico — though it will place a momentary strain on coordination between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement. The forces that drive the evolution of organized crime and their impact on society in Mexico are simply greater than any single crime boss.
Analysis
Mexico's geography enabled drug traffickers like Guzman to operate on a global scale. As international law enforcement effectively dismantled the powerful Colombian cartels and stymied their maritime trafficking routes through the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s, Mexico became the lynchpin of new smuggling routes into the United States. This evolution took place just as the Mexican criminal networks that trafficked drugs broke down into smaller groups. Though crime bosses like Guzman rose in stature relative to others, all organized crime groups in Mexico are the result of a systematic decentralization in cartel structure that continues today.
In fact, by the time Guzman was arrested in February 2014, the Sinaloa Cartel was already fragmenting. Groups that operated in areas such as Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California states — areas that were once part of El Chapo's criminal network — were already acting autonomously. Some of them were even fighting one another. The arrest of Guzman and the subsequent capture of some of his lieutenants only accelerated this trend. Now, geographic domains that were controlled by Sinaloa-based crime bosses for decades are now controlled by other groups, including the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which expanded from the Tierra Caliente region, and La Linea, which was once the enforcement group for the Juarez cartel.
Among the myths surrounding El Chapo were tales pertaining to his purported role as an arbiter of organized crime in Mexico. According to some of those myths, his organization preferred to expand its business operations through negotiation, rather than through violent conflict. But Guzman, in fact, was party to some of the most violent turf wars in Mexico, introducing rampant insecurity in places such as Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez. These conflicts had subsided by the time he was arrested but not before nationwide turf wars devolved into more localized conflicts. Guzman may attempt to re-consolidate the control he once had over Mexico's organized crime activities, but his previous efforts to do so failed, and the task would be even tougher now that his network has become even thinner.
Since 2012, Mexican organized crime has become increasingly balkanized amid government efforts to revamp public security institutions, and nationwide levels of organized crime-related violence have gradually diminished. Though having more crime groups means there are more bosses, these leaders have not been able to sustain violent offensives against their rivals and fend off the state as well as their predecessors did. And while waves of extreme violence can still emerge in places like Tamaulipas, they typically weaken as soon as security forces move in — in contrast to past conflicts in places like Juarez, where violence continued to climb despite repeated deployments of federal troops.
NYC AWARDS CAREER CRIMINAL’S FAMILY $5.9 MILLION
Sergeants Benevolent Association head Ed Mullins describes the settlement with Eric Garner’s family "obscene" and "shameful"
One year ago, Eric Garner, 43, was selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street. Store owners nearby complained to the police. He had several previous arrests on the same offense and was out on bail awaiting trial on the latest charge. When NYPD officers attempted to arrest him, the 350 pound giant resisted arrest. One officer helped subdue him with an arm around the neck, which the media described as a prohibited chokehold. Garner croaked and the medical examiner labeled his death as a homicide.
On Monday the city awarded the family of Eric Garner $5.9 million as a wrongful death settlement.
Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association described the settlement as “obscene” and “shameful.” The sergeants union leader said:
Where is the justice for New York taxpayers? In my view, the city has chosen to abandon its fiscal responsibility to all of its citizens and genuflect to the select few who curry favor with the city government. Mr. Garner’s family should not be rewarded simply because he repeatedly chose to break the law and resist arrest.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer justified the extraordinary size of the settlement because of the “extraordinary impact” Garner’s death had on the entire country. Stringer said, “It forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve.”
New York’s Sandinista loving Mayor Bill de Blasio said:
No sum of money can make this family whole, but hopefully the Garner family can find some peace and finality from today's settlement. By reaching a resolution, family and other loved ones can move forward even though we know they will never forget this tragic incident."
Stringer and de Blasio ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Stringer based the size of the settlement not on the circumstances surrounding Garner's death, but rather on the fact that the whole country got exercised over his death. And by approving the amount, de Blasio agreed with him. That truly is obscene and shameful.
Was Garner’s death a wrongful death? Far from it, in my professional opinion. Tragic it was, but when a career criminal with a history of more than 30 arrests and weighing 350 pounds resists arrest and it takes several officers to subdue him so that he subsequently dies, that is not a wrongful death.
Those who side or sympathize with Garner will say that most of his arrests were for petty crimes. True, but they were crimes nevertheless. And the city had ordered a crackdown on the sales of untaxed cigarettes, an offense Garner had made a career of.
Unlike the Garner case, there is a case in Gardena, California where the city shelled out $4.7 million to the family of an unarmed man who was shot dead by the police and to the family of another man who was wounded by the gunfire.
On June 2, 2013, Ricardo Diaz Zeferino was out looking for his brother’s stolen bicycle. Two of his friends, riding their own bikes, were also searching for the stolen bicycle. Gardena cops responding to the report of a bicycle stolen from a CVS pharmacy mistook Diaz Zeferino’s friends as the bike thieves. They were ordered to put their hands up. Diaz Zeferino ran up on foot to tell the cops they had the wrong men. When ordered to put his hands up, he kept raising and lowering them. According to the police report, when he appeared to remove something from his back pocket, the cops opened fire, killing him and wounding one of his friends.
On Tuesday U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson released dash cam videos of the shooting, the release of which had been fought by the city. The city filed a notice of appeal with the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th quickly issued a stay which reversed the release, but it was too late because the videos had already hit the internet.
I can understand why the city fought against the release of the dash cam videos. The shooting really looks bad. On the videos it does not appear as though Diaz Zeferino presented an imminent threat to the lives of the officers.
That brings up a problem with videos. What appears to be a cold blooded killing may not at all have been what actually happened.
Illegal drugs may have played a part in the bizarre behavior of Diaz Zeferino. An autopsy revealed that at the time of his death he had alcohol and methamphetamine in his system.
The City of Gardena settled with the Diaz Zeferino family because it realized that if the family’s lawsuit went to trial, once a jury viewed those videos, its chances of winning were less than a snowball’s chance in hell. Not so with New York.
The Garner settlement sets a terrible precedent for NYC. From now on anytime cops kill an unarmed man and his death sets off disturbances and riots in other parts of the country, New York will have to shell out big bucks to offset the “extraordinary impact” the case had on the entire country.
One year ago, Eric Garner, 43, was selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street. Store owners nearby complained to the police. He had several previous arrests on the same offense and was out on bail awaiting trial on the latest charge. When NYPD officers attempted to arrest him, the 350 pound giant resisted arrest. One officer helped subdue him with an arm around the neck, which the media described as a prohibited chokehold. Garner croaked and the medical examiner labeled his death as a homicide.
On Monday the city awarded the family of Eric Garner $5.9 million as a wrongful death settlement.
Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association described the settlement as “obscene” and “shameful.” The sergeants union leader said:
Where is the justice for New York taxpayers? In my view, the city has chosen to abandon its fiscal responsibility to all of its citizens and genuflect to the select few who curry favor with the city government. Mr. Garner’s family should not be rewarded simply because he repeatedly chose to break the law and resist arrest.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer justified the extraordinary size of the settlement because of the “extraordinary impact” Garner’s death had on the entire country. Stringer said, “It forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve.”
New York’s Sandinista loving Mayor Bill de Blasio said:
No sum of money can make this family whole, but hopefully the Garner family can find some peace and finality from today's settlement. By reaching a resolution, family and other loved ones can move forward even though we know they will never forget this tragic incident."
Stringer and de Blasio ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Stringer based the size of the settlement not on the circumstances surrounding Garner's death, but rather on the fact that the whole country got exercised over his death. And by approving the amount, de Blasio agreed with him. That truly is obscene and shameful.
Was Garner’s death a wrongful death? Far from it, in my professional opinion. Tragic it was, but when a career criminal with a history of more than 30 arrests and weighing 350 pounds resists arrest and it takes several officers to subdue him so that he subsequently dies, that is not a wrongful death.
Those who side or sympathize with Garner will say that most of his arrests were for petty crimes. True, but they were crimes nevertheless. And the city had ordered a crackdown on the sales of untaxed cigarettes, an offense Garner had made a career of.
Unlike the Garner case, there is a case in Gardena, California where the city shelled out $4.7 million to the family of an unarmed man who was shot dead by the police and to the family of another man who was wounded by the gunfire.
On June 2, 2013, Ricardo Diaz Zeferino was out looking for his brother’s stolen bicycle. Two of his friends, riding their own bikes, were also searching for the stolen bicycle. Gardena cops responding to the report of a bicycle stolen from a CVS pharmacy mistook Diaz Zeferino’s friends as the bike thieves. They were ordered to put their hands up. Diaz Zeferino ran up on foot to tell the cops they had the wrong men. When ordered to put his hands up, he kept raising and lowering them. According to the police report, when he appeared to remove something from his back pocket, the cops opened fire, killing him and wounding one of his friends.
On Tuesday U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson released dash cam videos of the shooting, the release of which had been fought by the city. The city filed a notice of appeal with the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th quickly issued a stay which reversed the release, but it was too late because the videos had already hit the internet.
I can understand why the city fought against the release of the dash cam videos. The shooting really looks bad. On the videos it does not appear as though Diaz Zeferino presented an imminent threat to the lives of the officers.
That brings up a problem with videos. What appears to be a cold blooded killing may not at all have been what actually happened.
Illegal drugs may have played a part in the bizarre behavior of Diaz Zeferino. An autopsy revealed that at the time of his death he had alcohol and methamphetamine in his system.
The City of Gardena settled with the Diaz Zeferino family because it realized that if the family’s lawsuit went to trial, once a jury viewed those videos, its chances of winning were less than a snowball’s chance in hell. Not so with New York.
The Garner settlement sets a terrible precedent for NYC. From now on anytime cops kill an unarmed man and his death sets off disturbances and riots in other parts of the country, New York will have to shell out big bucks to offset the “extraordinary impact” the case had on the entire country.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
U.S. ILL PREPARED FOR CYBER WARFARE
Cyber warfare expert Richard Clarke accuses Obama administration of “almost criminal negligence”
The next great war may not be fought by soldiers on the traditional battlefield. It will likely be fought by geeks sitting behind computers. It’s called cyber warfare. Experts believe that in the near future wars can be won and lost without firing a shot. An all-out cyber attack, it is predicted, can cripple a nation’s power grid, infrastructure and military capabilities, thereby bringing it to its knees.
On Sunday’s ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos the subject of cyber warfare came up. Richard Clarke, former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism and advisor to four presidents, had some harsh things to say about the Obama administration, accusing it of “almost criminal negligence,”
Clarke said that the networks we rely on as a country to protect us against cyber warfare are very fragile and that instead of 50 or 60 government agencies being responsible for cyber security, we need to create one authority in the federal government that has the mandate and the money to secure cyber space.
My suggestion is to do away with the worthless Department of Homeland Security and replace it with a Department of Cyber Security.
Here is a transcript of the interview with Richard Clarke:
STEPHANOPOULOS:Let's get more on this from cyber terror expert, Richard Clarke, key adviser to four presidents.
Welcome back, Richard.
We heard how worried about this OPM hack the FBI director was. You served four presidents, so your background likely looked at, as well.
Try to give a sense of how serious this breach was and what can be done with this information.
RICHARD CLARKE, CHAIRMAN & CEO, GOOD HARBOR RISK MANAGEMENT: Well, it's very serious because the -- the form that I had to shell out went on for almost 100 pages -- everything about my background. And they have that for 21 million Americans, date of birth, Social Security number, foreign contacts, foreign trips, any problems you've ever had medically or psychologically, any addiction problems you ever had.
They can use this information to blackmail people. They can use it to steal identities.
But, George, I don't blame the Chinese. This is what intelligence agencies do. This is what we, the United States, do. We steal this sort of information.
I blame the Obama administration for taking this issue not seriously enough.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But...
CLARKE: This is almost criminal negligence.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Criminal negligence, those are strong words, Richard. We just saw the incoming chair of the Joint Chiefs say that all options are on the table.
If there has been criminal negligence, what's the most important thing in the -- that needs to be done right now that's not being done?
CLARKE: We need to take the job of cyber security away from 50 or 60 small government agencies like OPM that clearly can't handle it and create one authority in the federal government that has the mandate and the money to secure cyber space.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Also, you said this week, you know, we saw these glitches hit the same day -- the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines, "The Wall Street Journal" Web page. Computer software problems blamed. Every official who came out said no, no, no, there's not -- this is not an act of cyber war.
But you sounded a note of skepticism.
CLARKE: Well, they all said it wasn't cyber war within hours of it happening. And to find out, it actually takes weeks of forensic activity to go through the log files and do the -- the good, detailed forensics.
We know two things. Coincidences do happen in the world a lot. But we also know that in cyber war, people do trial runs. And they try to make those trial runs look like something other than what they are. They try to make them look like normal computer failure.
Either way, what it proves is that the networks that we rely on as a country are very fragile. And if this happens without anybody doing malicious activity, think of what could happen if someone did to malicious activity.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That is some point. Scary stuff.
OK, Richard Clarke, thanks very much.
In short, the U.S. is ill prepared against an all-out cyber attack. If our government doesn’t get its act together, in a war with China or Russia, we could conceivably be defeated without a shot being fired.
Obama may be gloating over the nuclear arms deal just reached with Iran, but in the not too distant future nuclear weapons could well be neutralized by cyber warfare.
The next great war may not be fought by soldiers on the traditional battlefield. It will likely be fought by geeks sitting behind computers. It’s called cyber warfare. Experts believe that in the near future wars can be won and lost without firing a shot. An all-out cyber attack, it is predicted, can cripple a nation’s power grid, infrastructure and military capabilities, thereby bringing it to its knees.
On Sunday’s ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos the subject of cyber warfare came up. Richard Clarke, former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism and advisor to four presidents, had some harsh things to say about the Obama administration, accusing it of “almost criminal negligence,”
Clarke said that the networks we rely on as a country to protect us against cyber warfare are very fragile and that instead of 50 or 60 government agencies being responsible for cyber security, we need to create one authority in the federal government that has the mandate and the money to secure cyber space.
My suggestion is to do away with the worthless Department of Homeland Security and replace it with a Department of Cyber Security.
Here is a transcript of the interview with Richard Clarke:
STEPHANOPOULOS:Let's get more on this from cyber terror expert, Richard Clarke, key adviser to four presidents.
Welcome back, Richard.
We heard how worried about this OPM hack the FBI director was. You served four presidents, so your background likely looked at, as well.
Try to give a sense of how serious this breach was and what can be done with this information.
RICHARD CLARKE, CHAIRMAN & CEO, GOOD HARBOR RISK MANAGEMENT: Well, it's very serious because the -- the form that I had to shell out went on for almost 100 pages -- everything about my background. And they have that for 21 million Americans, date of birth, Social Security number, foreign contacts, foreign trips, any problems you've ever had medically or psychologically, any addiction problems you ever had.
They can use this information to blackmail people. They can use it to steal identities.
But, George, I don't blame the Chinese. This is what intelligence agencies do. This is what we, the United States, do. We steal this sort of information.
I blame the Obama administration for taking this issue not seriously enough.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But...
CLARKE: This is almost criminal negligence.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Criminal negligence, those are strong words, Richard. We just saw the incoming chair of the Joint Chiefs say that all options are on the table.
If there has been criminal negligence, what's the most important thing in the -- that needs to be done right now that's not being done?
CLARKE: We need to take the job of cyber security away from 50 or 60 small government agencies like OPM that clearly can't handle it and create one authority in the federal government that has the mandate and the money to secure cyber space.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Also, you said this week, you know, we saw these glitches hit the same day -- the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines, "The Wall Street Journal" Web page. Computer software problems blamed. Every official who came out said no, no, no, there's not -- this is not an act of cyber war.
But you sounded a note of skepticism.
CLARKE: Well, they all said it wasn't cyber war within hours of it happening. And to find out, it actually takes weeks of forensic activity to go through the log files and do the -- the good, detailed forensics.
We know two things. Coincidences do happen in the world a lot. But we also know that in cyber war, people do trial runs. And they try to make those trial runs look like something other than what they are. They try to make them look like normal computer failure.
Either way, what it proves is that the networks that we rely on as a country are very fragile. And if this happens without anybody doing malicious activity, think of what could happen if someone did to malicious activity.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That is some point. Scary stuff.
OK, Richard Clarke, thanks very much.
In short, the U.S. is ill prepared against an all-out cyber attack. If our government doesn’t get its act together, in a war with China or Russia, we could conceivably be defeated without a shot being fired.
Obama may be gloating over the nuclear arms deal just reached with Iran, but in the not too distant future nuclear weapons could well be neutralized by cyber warfare.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
EL CHAPO TAUNTS TRUMP
The boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel threatens Trump in reaction to The Donald’s vow to “kick his ass”
In his announcement that he was running for president, Donald Trump accused Mexico of sending us criminals (illegal immigrants). Ever since then he has been trying to justify his broad-brushing of illegal immigrants. He even used the prison escape of Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in attacking Mexico and vowed he would kick El Chapo’s ass.
Even though he is being hunted by Mexican military forces and the federal police, El Chapo is not one to let idle chatter go by. A pissed off El Chapo tweeted Trump:
Sigue chingando y voy hacer que te tragues todas tus putas palabras pinche guero cagaleche
There have been two translations of El Chapo’s tweet:
Keep fucking around and I’m gonna make you swallow your bitch words you fucking whitey milkshitter
If you keep pissing me off I’m going to make you eat your words you fucking blonde milkshitter
In case you’re curious, “milkshitter” is the Mexican equivalent of the homosexual slur “faggot.” As for the two translations, I think the first one is the most accurate.
What did Trump do after El Chapo’s tweet? He ran to the Manhattan office of the FBI on Monday and asked them to investigate El Chapo’s threat.
Trump also released a statement which said, “I’m fighting for much more than myself. I’m fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. You can’t be intimidated. This is too important.”
El Chapo also tweeted:
La vida da muchas vueltas, un día estamos en el hoyo y otro día estamos arriba
Life takes many turns, one day we are in the hole and another day we are on top
In his announcement that he was running for president, Donald Trump accused Mexico of sending us criminals (illegal immigrants). Ever since then he has been trying to justify his broad-brushing of illegal immigrants. He even used the prison escape of Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in attacking Mexico and vowed he would kick El Chapo’s ass.
Even though he is being hunted by Mexican military forces and the federal police, El Chapo is not one to let idle chatter go by. A pissed off El Chapo tweeted Trump:
Sigue chingando y voy hacer que te tragues todas tus putas palabras pinche guero cagaleche
There have been two translations of El Chapo’s tweet:
Keep fucking around and I’m gonna make you swallow your bitch words you fucking whitey milkshitter
If you keep pissing me off I’m going to make you eat your words you fucking blonde milkshitter
In case you’re curious, “milkshitter” is the Mexican equivalent of the homosexual slur “faggot.” As for the two translations, I think the first one is the most accurate.
What did Trump do after El Chapo’s tweet? He ran to the Manhattan office of the FBI on Monday and asked them to investigate El Chapo’s threat.
Trump also released a statement which said, “I’m fighting for much more than myself. I’m fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. You can’t be intimidated. This is too important.”
El Chapo also tweeted:
La vida da muchas vueltas, un día estamos en el hoyo y otro día estamos arriba
Life takes many turns, one day we are in the hole and another day we are on top
CALIFORNIA IS A CRIME TOLERANT STATE
It’s time for the renegades to make their move
By Richard Krupp, PhD
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 14, 2015
There was a time in the past when California meant a great opportunity to people from all over the country and people outside the U.S. as well. These were people who wanted to not only do what was expected of them but go above and beyond that.
These renegades and underdogs showed strength and character. People who were legitimately disabled worked even harder to overcome their limitations.
In California today, the underdogs and disabled now include the criminals, bums, drug addicts and alcoholics, those with various loosely defined mental problems, and illegal aliens. These fringe groups of people should do what everybody else is expected to do. The word-police have sanitized these fringe groups with words like “homeless” “challenged” “undocumented” and “disordered”.
State and local governments have taken the redefining of abhorrent behavior to a broader level. Cities like San Francisco, Davis, and others label themselves “sanctuary” locations. This actually means they are areas where criminals can hide out and avoid sanctions for their illegal behavior.
The recent incident on Pier 14 in San Francisco is a perfect example of our down slide. These cities are evidently willing to sacrifice their law abiding citizens in an effort to assist low life bottom dwellers. They are now serving as magnets for law-breakers and the criminal element.
In the new crime-tolerant state of California, we bend over to help those who make no effort to help themselves. By accommodating those on the bottom we step on those in the middle, and knock down those who get to the top. It’s a long way down to achieve third-world status.
It will be even more difficult to stop the downward slide and attempt the climb back up. The ignorant and arrogant politicians and supporters of this idiotic trend in decision-making and policy are not capable of rational thought or common sense.
While some politicians try hard to explain how they may have supported sanctuary status in the past, in light of recent highly publicized policy failures, many are now opposed to it. Others steadfastly defend their defense of the fringe groups because those groups support them politically.
Once again the excuse factory is cranking out explanations. I’m not sure if the general public will be duped by the pro-crime groups.
Some of the most disturbing excuse mongers are at the highest level of the San Francisco police department. They offer excuses for releasing criminals that make them sound like lawyers and politicians. They should be ashamed.
California is now a crime-tolerant state. Maybe it’s time for the rank and file peace officers to take matters into their own hands.
Perhaps when it is known that San Francisco is going to release an illegal alien a phone call to ICE from an anonymous peace officer would be in order. We need some renegades, rebels and mutineers to overcome the high level of spineless crime tolerance.
I think the rank and file peace officers know that crime tolerance and sanctuary is wrong. Maybe they can lend a hand in overturning the pro-crime movement in California.
Take the state of California back.
By Richard Krupp, PhD
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 14, 2015
There was a time in the past when California meant a great opportunity to people from all over the country and people outside the U.S. as well. These were people who wanted to not only do what was expected of them but go above and beyond that.
These renegades and underdogs showed strength and character. People who were legitimately disabled worked even harder to overcome their limitations.
In California today, the underdogs and disabled now include the criminals, bums, drug addicts and alcoholics, those with various loosely defined mental problems, and illegal aliens. These fringe groups of people should do what everybody else is expected to do. The word-police have sanitized these fringe groups with words like “homeless” “challenged” “undocumented” and “disordered”.
State and local governments have taken the redefining of abhorrent behavior to a broader level. Cities like San Francisco, Davis, and others label themselves “sanctuary” locations. This actually means they are areas where criminals can hide out and avoid sanctions for their illegal behavior.
The recent incident on Pier 14 in San Francisco is a perfect example of our down slide. These cities are evidently willing to sacrifice their law abiding citizens in an effort to assist low life bottom dwellers. They are now serving as magnets for law-breakers and the criminal element.
In the new crime-tolerant state of California, we bend over to help those who make no effort to help themselves. By accommodating those on the bottom we step on those in the middle, and knock down those who get to the top. It’s a long way down to achieve third-world status.
It will be even more difficult to stop the downward slide and attempt the climb back up. The ignorant and arrogant politicians and supporters of this idiotic trend in decision-making and policy are not capable of rational thought or common sense.
While some politicians try hard to explain how they may have supported sanctuary status in the past, in light of recent highly publicized policy failures, many are now opposed to it. Others steadfastly defend their defense of the fringe groups because those groups support them politically.
Once again the excuse factory is cranking out explanations. I’m not sure if the general public will be duped by the pro-crime groups.
Some of the most disturbing excuse mongers are at the highest level of the San Francisco police department. They offer excuses for releasing criminals that make them sound like lawyers and politicians. They should be ashamed.
California is now a crime-tolerant state. Maybe it’s time for the rank and file peace officers to take matters into their own hands.
Perhaps when it is known that San Francisco is going to release an illegal alien a phone call to ICE from an anonymous peace officer would be in order. We need some renegades, rebels and mutineers to overcome the high level of spineless crime tolerance.
I think the rank and file peace officers know that crime tolerance and sanctuary is wrong. Maybe they can lend a hand in overturning the pro-crime movement in California.
Take the state of California back.
Monday, July 13, 2015
THOUSANDS OF CONFEDERATE FLAGS WAVED AT FLORIDA RALLY
An 8-mile long string of more than 1,500 motorcycles, pickup trucks and cars, all flying Confederate flags, paraded in support of the much maligned flag
A Florida Southern Pride Ride held Saturday in Ocala attracted around 4,500 supporters of the Confederate battle flag. The 17-mile long parade was made up of an 8-mile long string of more than 1,500 motorcycles, pickup trucks and cars, all flying Confederate flags.
The rally, at which thousands of the much maligned flags were waved, was held to protest the removal of the Confederate flag from government facilities in the South. People from as far away as California attended the rally. Many men, women and children in attendance wore Confederate flag t-shirts.
It’s a shame that the Confederate battle flag has been hijacked by the KKK and other white supremacy hate groups. Because of that, the flag has become a symbol of hate.
Personally, that flag has never symbolized hate to me, even though it has been prominently displayed at white supremacy rallies during which blacks and Jews have been condemned.
I see the Confederate battle flag as a historical reminder of the Civil War and, as such, a symbol of Southern heritage, not hate. Around 250,000 Confederate soldiers died under that flag and many more suffered amputations and other war wounds. For that reason, the Confederate battle flag deserves to be honored, not despised.
Oh by the way, in addition to the Confederate flag, the KKK and other white supremacy hate groups also prominently display the American flag at their public rallies.
A Florida Southern Pride Ride held Saturday in Ocala attracted around 4,500 supporters of the Confederate battle flag. The 17-mile long parade was made up of an 8-mile long string of more than 1,500 motorcycles, pickup trucks and cars, all flying Confederate flags.
The rally, at which thousands of the much maligned flags were waved, was held to protest the removal of the Confederate flag from government facilities in the South. People from as far away as California attended the rally. Many men, women and children in attendance wore Confederate flag t-shirts.
It’s a shame that the Confederate battle flag has been hijacked by the KKK and other white supremacy hate groups. Because of that, the flag has become a symbol of hate.
Personally, that flag has never symbolized hate to me, even though it has been prominently displayed at white supremacy rallies during which blacks and Jews have been condemned.
I see the Confederate battle flag as a historical reminder of the Civil War and, as such, a symbol of Southern heritage, not hate. Around 250,000 Confederate soldiers died under that flag and many more suffered amputations and other war wounds. For that reason, the Confederate battle flag deserves to be honored, not despised.
Oh by the way, in addition to the Confederate flag, the KKK and other white supremacy hate groups also prominently display the American flag at their public rallies.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
EL CHAPO ESCAPES PRISON THROUGH ELABORATE MILE-LONG TUNNEL
This is Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s second escape from a Mexican maximum security prison
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, did it again, his second escape from a Mexican maximum security prison. The boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who is wanted in multiple U.S. jurisdictions for funneling tons of illegal drugs into this country, bid an adios to the Altiplano prison Saturday evening by escaping through an elaborate mile-long tunnel.
Here is how AFP describes the tunnel:
After security cameras lost sight of Guzman, guards went into the cell and found a hole 10 meters (33 feet) deep with a ladder, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
The gap led to the 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel with a ventilation and light system, Rubido said, adding that its exit was in a building that was under construction in central Mexico State.
A motorcycle [modified to run] on a rail system was found in the tunnel and is believed to have been used to transport tools and remove earth from the space, which was 1.7 meters high and around 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) wide.
El Capo had been imprisoned since he was captured 17 months ago. Prior to his capture, he had been on the lam for 13 years. His first prison break occurred in 2001 when he escaped from another prison by hiding in a laundry cart.
The Altiplano prison, which is 55 miles west of Mexico City, houses Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins, murderers and kidnappers. This was the first escape ever from the Altiplano prison. Eighteen prison guards are under investigation and will be interrogated by federal prosecutors.
Authorities believe the tunnel was dug by members of the Sinaloa cartel, starting at a construction site one mile from the prison and using GPS to pinpoint the precise location of El Chapo’s shower stall.
The Mexican army, Mexican marines and the cops are conducting an extensive search for the elusive drug lord.
El Chapo’s escape makes the recent escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from a New York state prison look like small-time.
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, did it again, his second escape from a Mexican maximum security prison. The boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who is wanted in multiple U.S. jurisdictions for funneling tons of illegal drugs into this country, bid an adios to the Altiplano prison Saturday evening by escaping through an elaborate mile-long tunnel.
Here is how AFP describes the tunnel:
After security cameras lost sight of Guzman, guards went into the cell and found a hole 10 meters (33 feet) deep with a ladder, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
The gap led to the 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel with a ventilation and light system, Rubido said, adding that its exit was in a building that was under construction in central Mexico State.
A motorcycle [modified to run] on a rail system was found in the tunnel and is believed to have been used to transport tools and remove earth from the space, which was 1.7 meters high and around 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) wide.
El Capo had been imprisoned since he was captured 17 months ago. Prior to his capture, he had been on the lam for 13 years. His first prison break occurred in 2001 when he escaped from another prison by hiding in a laundry cart.
The Altiplano prison, which is 55 miles west of Mexico City, houses Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins, murderers and kidnappers. This was the first escape ever from the Altiplano prison. Eighteen prison guards are under investigation and will be interrogated by federal prosecutors.
Authorities believe the tunnel was dug by members of the Sinaloa cartel, starting at a construction site one mile from the prison and using GPS to pinpoint the precise location of El Chapo’s shower stall.
The Mexican army, Mexican marines and the cops are conducting an extensive search for the elusive drug lord.
El Chapo’s escape makes the recent escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from a New York state prison look like small-time.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
INMATES SAWED, FOLDED NICHOLAS RODRUGUEZ IN HALF
Rodriguez was found stuffed in a garbage can 15 hours after a riot at California State Prison, Solano
The July 11 issue of the Daily Mail reports that inmate Nicholas Rodriguez, 24, who was serving an 8-year robbery sentence, turned up missing after a riot last May at California State Prison, Solano. Some 15 hours after correctional officers quelled the riot and locked down the prison, they found Rodriguez stuffed in a garbage can in a shower stall not far from his cell.
Rodriguez had been sawed nearly in half. His abdominal organs and most chest organs had been removed before he was folded and stuffed in the garbage can.
According to the Daily Mail, "Rodriguez had alcohol in his system and was dead before he was eviscerated, killed by blows to the head that left him with a deep star-shaped wound on his forehead among his multiple skull fractures, cuts and other wounds, according to the May 27 autopsy report conducted by the Solano County Sheriff coroner's office."
The early morning riot on May 4 involved 58 inmates in Rodriguez's housing unit. He wasn't discovered missing until a 4:40 p.m. headcount. His 46-year-old cellie, who is doing life for murder, is considered the only suspect in the gruesome killing.
His cellie seems like the logical culprit since they cannot blame Bush, and because Rodriguez was not beheaded, neither can ISIS be blamed for his demise.
Since the eviscerated organs were never found, I can only surmise that they were considered a delicacy and eaten by some of the inmates. Yummie, yummie!
The July 11 issue of the Daily Mail reports that inmate Nicholas Rodriguez, 24, who was serving an 8-year robbery sentence, turned up missing after a riot last May at California State Prison, Solano. Some 15 hours after correctional officers quelled the riot and locked down the prison, they found Rodriguez stuffed in a garbage can in a shower stall not far from his cell.
Rodriguez had been sawed nearly in half. His abdominal organs and most chest organs had been removed before he was folded and stuffed in the garbage can.
According to the Daily Mail, "Rodriguez had alcohol in his system and was dead before he was eviscerated, killed by blows to the head that left him with a deep star-shaped wound on his forehead among his multiple skull fractures, cuts and other wounds, according to the May 27 autopsy report conducted by the Solano County Sheriff coroner's office."
The early morning riot on May 4 involved 58 inmates in Rodriguez's housing unit. He wasn't discovered missing until a 4:40 p.m. headcount. His 46-year-old cellie, who is doing life for murder, is considered the only suspect in the gruesome killing.
His cellie seems like the logical culprit since they cannot blame Bush, and because Rodriguez was not beheaded, neither can ISIS be blamed for his demise.
Since the eviscerated organs were never found, I can only surmise that they were considered a delicacy and eaten by some of the inmates. Yummie, yummie!
HOW SANCTUARY POLICIES HAVE DIRECTLY LED TO THOUSANDS OF CRIMES AGAINST AMERICANS
By Hans von Spakovsky
The Daily Signal
July 9, 2015
There has been a fiery debate over the past few weeks about illegal aliens and crime, which has intensified with the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by a seven-time felon and five-time deportee as the direct result of the city’s sanctuary policy.
What seems to have been overlooked in the back and forth on this is some of the very disturbing, actual data on crimes committed by illegal aliens, which should concern every American—particularly those who live in sanctuary cities like New Orleans or San Francisco that release criminal aliens rather than turning them over to the Department of Homeland Security.
As Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Study outlines, Department of Homeland Security records show that in just one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions. Three thousand of them were felons and 62 percent had a prior criminal record. Nineteen hundred were later rearrested a total of 4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses.
Thus, these sanctuary policies directly victimized thousands of the residents of these sanctuary cities who were subjected to assaults, burglaries, sexual assaults, thefts and even murders that would not have occurred except for these sanctuary policies.
But there is more. In 2005, at the request of several members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office prepared two reports on criminal aliens—legal and illegal—in prison for committing crimes in the United States. Those reports are very revealing. For example, the first report (GAO-05-337R) released on April 7, 2005, found that:
The percentage of federal prisoners who are criminal aliens is about 27 percent;
In 2004, there were 49,000 such prisoners in federal jails;
In 2002, the federal government gave reimbursements to the 50 states under the “State Criminal Alien Assistance Program” (SCAAP) for incarcerating another 77,000 illegal aliens in state prisons; and
At the local level in 2002, the federal government reimbursed 750 local governments under SCAAP for incarcerating an additional 138,000 criminal illegal aliens, which jumped to 147,000 prisoners in 2003.
It is important to note that these reported numbers “represent only a portion of the total population of criminal aliens who may be incarcerated at the local level,” since the federal government does “not reimburse localities for all criminal aliens” and some states don’t submit requests for reimbursement. So where were all of these criminal aliens from? According to the GAO report, the breakdown was as follows:
Federal prisons: Mexico (63 percent); Colombia (7 percent); the Dominican Republic (7 percent); Jamaica (4 percent); Cuba (3 percent); El Salvador (2 percent); Honduras, Haiti and Guatemala (each 1 percent), and the remaining 11 percent from 164 other countries.
State prisons: In the five states (Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas) incarcerating about 80 percent of SCAAP criminal aliens, the prisoners were from Mexico (58 percent); Cuba (5 percent); Dominican Republic (5 percent); El Salvador (4 percent); Jamaica (3 percent); Vietnam (2 percent); and the remaining 22 percent from 148 other countries.
Local jails: In the five local jails with the largest criminal illegal alien populations, the prisoners were from Mexico (65 percent); El Salvador (6 percent); Guatemala (3 percent); Honduras (2 percent); South Korea, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines (each 1 percent); and the remaining 20 percent from 193 other countries.
Thus, it is clear that criminal aliens already represent more than a quarter of all of the prisoners in federal prisons and are present in large numbers in state and local jails.
The second GAO report (GAO-05-646R), released on May 9, 2005, looked at the crimes committed by 55,322 aliens who “had entered the country illegally and were still illegally in the country at the time of their incarceration in federal or state prison or local jail during fiscal year 2003.”
The path of destruction weaved by these 55,322 illegal aliens was truly shocking. According to GAO, these criminal aliens:
Were arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien;
97 percent had more than one arrest, while 26 percent had over 11 arrests;
Committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging 13 offenses per illegal alien;
10 percent of these illegal aliens were arrested for committing 26 or more offenses;
Out of all of the arrests, 12 percent were for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, assault and sex-related crimes; 15 percent were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage; 24 percent were for drug offenses; and the remaining offenses were for DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons, immigration and obstruction of justice; and
80 percent of the arrests occurred in just three states: California, Texas, and Arizona
Of course, these statistics reflect the criminal histories of aliens who were in prison. Unfortunately, in fiscal year 2013, the Obama administration released over 36,000 convicted criminal aliens awaiting the outcome of deportation hearings upon an unsuspecting public, and another 30,558 in fiscal year 2014 according to the House Judiciary Committee.
The offenses for which they were convicted involved “dangerous drugs, assault and domestic violence, stolen vehicles, robbery, sex offenses, sexual assault, kidnaping, voluntary manslaughter, and even homicide.” As the House Judiciary Committee outlined, more than a quarter of these aliens “were so called ‘level 1s’ according to the administration—the worst of the worst.” And in 2013 alone, the administration didn’t even bring removal proceedings against an additional 68,000 criminal aliens convicted of everything from homicide to sexual assault.
If the over 134,000 aliens released by the administration in just the past two years follow the pattern of those aliens studied by the GAO in 2005, they will commit hundreds of thousands of more crimes, victimizing countless innocent Americans in crimes that could have been prevented.
How many Americans have to be assaulted, injured, raped or killed, or have their homes, cars and personal property burglarized, stolen or damaged before both the federal government and local governments like San Francisco will finally do what is necessary to lock up criminal aliens who are a danger to the safety and lives of the public?
The Daily Signal
July 9, 2015
There has been a fiery debate over the past few weeks about illegal aliens and crime, which has intensified with the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by a seven-time felon and five-time deportee as the direct result of the city’s sanctuary policy.
What seems to have been overlooked in the back and forth on this is some of the very disturbing, actual data on crimes committed by illegal aliens, which should concern every American—particularly those who live in sanctuary cities like New Orleans or San Francisco that release criminal aliens rather than turning them over to the Department of Homeland Security.
As Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Study outlines, Department of Homeland Security records show that in just one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions. Three thousand of them were felons and 62 percent had a prior criminal record. Nineteen hundred were later rearrested a total of 4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses.
Thus, these sanctuary policies directly victimized thousands of the residents of these sanctuary cities who were subjected to assaults, burglaries, sexual assaults, thefts and even murders that would not have occurred except for these sanctuary policies.
But there is more. In 2005, at the request of several members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office prepared two reports on criminal aliens—legal and illegal—in prison for committing crimes in the United States. Those reports are very revealing. For example, the first report (GAO-05-337R) released on April 7, 2005, found that:
The percentage of federal prisoners who are criminal aliens is about 27 percent;
In 2004, there were 49,000 such prisoners in federal jails;
In 2002, the federal government gave reimbursements to the 50 states under the “State Criminal Alien Assistance Program” (SCAAP) for incarcerating another 77,000 illegal aliens in state prisons; and
At the local level in 2002, the federal government reimbursed 750 local governments under SCAAP for incarcerating an additional 138,000 criminal illegal aliens, which jumped to 147,000 prisoners in 2003.
It is important to note that these reported numbers “represent only a portion of the total population of criminal aliens who may be incarcerated at the local level,” since the federal government does “not reimburse localities for all criminal aliens” and some states don’t submit requests for reimbursement. So where were all of these criminal aliens from? According to the GAO report, the breakdown was as follows:
Federal prisons: Mexico (63 percent); Colombia (7 percent); the Dominican Republic (7 percent); Jamaica (4 percent); Cuba (3 percent); El Salvador (2 percent); Honduras, Haiti and Guatemala (each 1 percent), and the remaining 11 percent from 164 other countries.
State prisons: In the five states (Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas) incarcerating about 80 percent of SCAAP criminal aliens, the prisoners were from Mexico (58 percent); Cuba (5 percent); Dominican Republic (5 percent); El Salvador (4 percent); Jamaica (3 percent); Vietnam (2 percent); and the remaining 22 percent from 148 other countries.
Local jails: In the five local jails with the largest criminal illegal alien populations, the prisoners were from Mexico (65 percent); El Salvador (6 percent); Guatemala (3 percent); Honduras (2 percent); South Korea, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines (each 1 percent); and the remaining 20 percent from 193 other countries.
Thus, it is clear that criminal aliens already represent more than a quarter of all of the prisoners in federal prisons and are present in large numbers in state and local jails.
The second GAO report (GAO-05-646R), released on May 9, 2005, looked at the crimes committed by 55,322 aliens who “had entered the country illegally and were still illegally in the country at the time of their incarceration in federal or state prison or local jail during fiscal year 2003.”
The path of destruction weaved by these 55,322 illegal aliens was truly shocking. According to GAO, these criminal aliens:
Were arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien;
97 percent had more than one arrest, while 26 percent had over 11 arrests;
Committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging 13 offenses per illegal alien;
10 percent of these illegal aliens were arrested for committing 26 or more offenses;
Out of all of the arrests, 12 percent were for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, assault and sex-related crimes; 15 percent were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage; 24 percent were for drug offenses; and the remaining offenses were for DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons, immigration and obstruction of justice; and
80 percent of the arrests occurred in just three states: California, Texas, and Arizona
Of course, these statistics reflect the criminal histories of aliens who were in prison. Unfortunately, in fiscal year 2013, the Obama administration released over 36,000 convicted criminal aliens awaiting the outcome of deportation hearings upon an unsuspecting public, and another 30,558 in fiscal year 2014 according to the House Judiciary Committee.
The offenses for which they were convicted involved “dangerous drugs, assault and domestic violence, stolen vehicles, robbery, sex offenses, sexual assault, kidnaping, voluntary manslaughter, and even homicide.” As the House Judiciary Committee outlined, more than a quarter of these aliens “were so called ‘level 1s’ according to the administration—the worst of the worst.” And in 2013 alone, the administration didn’t even bring removal proceedings against an additional 68,000 criminal aliens convicted of everything from homicide to sexual assault.
If the over 134,000 aliens released by the administration in just the past two years follow the pattern of those aliens studied by the GAO in 2005, they will commit hundreds of thousands of more crimes, victimizing countless innocent Americans in crimes that could have been prevented.
How many Americans have to be assaulted, injured, raped or killed, or have their homes, cars and personal property burglarized, stolen or damaged before both the federal government and local governments like San Francisco will finally do what is necessary to lock up criminal aliens who are a danger to the safety and lives of the public?
PROSECUTORS DROP RIDICULOUS ‘FLEEING POLICE’ CHARGE FOR CAUTIOUS DRIVER, BUT NOT BEFORE EXPOSING A BIGGER ISSUE
By Nick Wing
Huffington Post
July 10, 2015
Last month, DaJuawn Wallace was given a choice: Plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit, or continue to fight the charge and take his chances in the criminal justice system.
At least that's the way county prosecutors in Saginaw, Michigan, laid it out for him following a preliminary hearing on June 12. Robertson, a 24-year-old graduate student at Saginaw Valley State University, had reason to consider caving. At issue was a felony count of fleeing and eluding police, a charge that carries a potential two-year jail sentence. Preparing a defense for a criminal trial is an expensive and time-consuming process, and it's difficult to predict the outcome of any case, even when the facts seem to be in your favor.
The charge stemmed from a February incident in which Wallace drove slowly for over a mile to a lit parking lot after a police officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop at 2 a.m. along a dark road. Wallace said he was just being cautious. Fake cops have drawn attention in Michigan, and he claimed police impostors had recently robbed his friends. The prosecution heard Wallace's explanation and expressed sympathy -- in the form of a deal that would allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge instead of a felony. Wallace rejected the offer, maintaining his innocence and noting that a misdemeanor charge would still come with significant consequences to his job and financial aid.
Prosecutors dropped the charge earlier this week amid a flurry of media scrutiny, bringing an end to a ridiculous and needless legal standoff.
"As of right now, the charge is dismissed. It was a unique set of facts and (a unique) situation," said Christopher Boyd, chief prosecutor for Saginaw County, according to MLive.
But the fact that prosecutors tried to pressure Wallace into pleading guilty in a case they likely couldn't have won -- or perhaps never even intended to take to trial -- is a symptom of the broader problem with plea bargaining in the criminal justice system.
Much of the focus on this issue has been placed on the rampant use of plea bargains in settling federal criminal cases. According to a 2014 report by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in the New York Review of Books, 97 percent of all federal cases closed in 2013 were resolved through plea bargains, in part due to the incredible power many prosecutors now wield over the process thanks to mandatory minimum sentences and other strict sentencing guidelines. Critics claim this trend leads many innocent, often disadvantaged people to plead guilty to lesser charges in order to avoid the prospect of more severe punishment should the case go to trial. Rakoff estimates there are as many as 20,000 people in prison after pleading guilty to crimes they didn't actually commit.
But this isn't just a problem for poorer defendants facing serious federal charges. The same basic calculation emerges in countless cases like Wallace's playing out in lower courts around the nation.
"After all, the typical person accused of a crime combines a troubled past with limited resources," Rakoff writes. "[H]e thus recognizes that, even if he is innocent, his chances of mounting an effective defense at trial may be modest at best."
It is likely this vulnerability that led prosecutors to believe they could manipulate Wallace into pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit. While he had no criminal record, neither did Wallace have infinite resources at his disposal to fight the charge. He also had plenty riding on the case. Wallace is just a few semesters away from earning his master's degree in health administration from SVSU. It would have been hard to fault him for thinking it safer simply to accept the lesser charge, especially if prosecutors were hanging the possibility of jail time and a hefty fine over his head. If Wallace conceded, the Saginaw County prosecutor's office would have been able put another tally in the win column, thereby improving its conviction rate. If he didn't, they could continue to threaten Wallace with a felony charge, only to back down just days before a preliminary examination scheduled for Thursday. Which is exactly what happened.
This prosecution's underhanded yet commonplace behavior wasn't lost on the handful of people who on Wednesday gathered in support of Wallace outside the Saginaw County Governmental Center.
"It wasn't fair how it was carried out," one protester told NBC 25. "For them to wait to do the right thing and wait for civil unrest and media outpour, they should have done the right thing in February."
Huffington Post
July 10, 2015
Last month, DaJuawn Wallace was given a choice: Plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit, or continue to fight the charge and take his chances in the criminal justice system.
At least that's the way county prosecutors in Saginaw, Michigan, laid it out for him following a preliminary hearing on June 12. Robertson, a 24-year-old graduate student at Saginaw Valley State University, had reason to consider caving. At issue was a felony count of fleeing and eluding police, a charge that carries a potential two-year jail sentence. Preparing a defense for a criminal trial is an expensive and time-consuming process, and it's difficult to predict the outcome of any case, even when the facts seem to be in your favor.
The charge stemmed from a February incident in which Wallace drove slowly for over a mile to a lit parking lot after a police officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop at 2 a.m. along a dark road. Wallace said he was just being cautious. Fake cops have drawn attention in Michigan, and he claimed police impostors had recently robbed his friends. The prosecution heard Wallace's explanation and expressed sympathy -- in the form of a deal that would allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge instead of a felony. Wallace rejected the offer, maintaining his innocence and noting that a misdemeanor charge would still come with significant consequences to his job and financial aid.
Prosecutors dropped the charge earlier this week amid a flurry of media scrutiny, bringing an end to a ridiculous and needless legal standoff.
"As of right now, the charge is dismissed. It was a unique set of facts and (a unique) situation," said Christopher Boyd, chief prosecutor for Saginaw County, according to MLive.
But the fact that prosecutors tried to pressure Wallace into pleading guilty in a case they likely couldn't have won -- or perhaps never even intended to take to trial -- is a symptom of the broader problem with plea bargaining in the criminal justice system.
Much of the focus on this issue has been placed on the rampant use of plea bargains in settling federal criminal cases. According to a 2014 report by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in the New York Review of Books, 97 percent of all federal cases closed in 2013 were resolved through plea bargains, in part due to the incredible power many prosecutors now wield over the process thanks to mandatory minimum sentences and other strict sentencing guidelines. Critics claim this trend leads many innocent, often disadvantaged people to plead guilty to lesser charges in order to avoid the prospect of more severe punishment should the case go to trial. Rakoff estimates there are as many as 20,000 people in prison after pleading guilty to crimes they didn't actually commit.
But this isn't just a problem for poorer defendants facing serious federal charges. The same basic calculation emerges in countless cases like Wallace's playing out in lower courts around the nation.
"After all, the typical person accused of a crime combines a troubled past with limited resources," Rakoff writes. "[H]e thus recognizes that, even if he is innocent, his chances of mounting an effective defense at trial may be modest at best."
It is likely this vulnerability that led prosecutors to believe they could manipulate Wallace into pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit. While he had no criminal record, neither did Wallace have infinite resources at his disposal to fight the charge. He also had plenty riding on the case. Wallace is just a few semesters away from earning his master's degree in health administration from SVSU. It would have been hard to fault him for thinking it safer simply to accept the lesser charge, especially if prosecutors were hanging the possibility of jail time and a hefty fine over his head. If Wallace conceded, the Saginaw County prosecutor's office would have been able put another tally in the win column, thereby improving its conviction rate. If he didn't, they could continue to threaten Wallace with a felony charge, only to back down just days before a preliminary examination scheduled for Thursday. Which is exactly what happened.
This prosecution's underhanded yet commonplace behavior wasn't lost on the handful of people who on Wednesday gathered in support of Wallace outside the Saginaw County Governmental Center.
"It wasn't fair how it was carried out," one protester told NBC 25. "For them to wait to do the right thing and wait for civil unrest and media outpour, they should have done the right thing in February."
Friday, July 10, 2015
BALTIMORE: IT’S SO MUCH WORSE THAN YOU THINK
By Christopher Corbett
Reuters
July 9, 2015
Things have been a bit rough of late on the streets of Charm City, as Baltimore calls itself — much to the amusement of nearly everyone who hears those words. In the month after Freddie Gray’s death, with six law-enforcement officers charged in connection with the incident, more people were murdered than in any month in 25 years — 42 or 43 are the accepted totals now. (As this is Baltimore, no one can agree on the actual number of dead.)
In that same period, more than 100 shootings occurred. The city has logged 144 murders in the first six months of 2015 — 74 since the Gray incident — a nearly 50 percent spike in murders from the same period last year. Three more people were killed Tuesday night in a shooting downtown near the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The deaths raised the homicide total to 155 for the year. Yet police responses to crimes and arrests have dropped from 2,677 in April, the month of Gray’s death, to 1,531 in May.
Gray allegedly died as the result of what the cops here call “a rough ride.” It was not the first time that I had heard this term.
In the early 1980s, two off-duty cops worked security in the downtown Baltimore high-rise where I worked at the Associated Press office. We were almost always open, and we always had free coffee — a powerful inducement for the constabulary to visit us.
Our visitors were central-casting Baltimore cops — tough, profane and bigoted. We assumed half of what they told us was exaggerated, and the rest completely untrue.
One drove what was then still called a paddy wagon. He was the first person I ever heard speak of a “rough ride.” Baltimore prosecutors say Gray went for a rough ride in a police wagon on April 12, and died a week later from spinal injuries that appear to have been sustained while in police custody.
By now, most Americans have heard of Gray, the alleged rough ride and the riots following his death. A rough ride, as it was explained to us back at in the AP office, involved putting a prisoner in the back of the wagon and driving him around at what the police euphemistically called “a high rate of speed” so that the passenger in the back of the wagon — basically a metal box — bounced around like a pinball. Sharp turns, braking, quick acceleration, more turns, more braking. The ride may be made rougher if the passenger is restrained, as Gray was (handcuffed or legs tied but not lashed down).
It’s a venerable practice. The traveler would arrive at central booking worse for wear.
Even the city’s police commissioner acknowledged that Gray was the victim of a rough ride. But whether he sustained his injuries at that time we do not know. Two months after the death of the 25-year-old Gray, most questions remain unanswered. It is widely conceded in the city that it will be a long, long time before any of this is resolved.
The Baltimore Sun recently got its hands on a copy of Gray’s autopsy report. It indicated that he suffered a single “high-energy injury” to his neck and spine, most likely as a result of a rough ride. But that report will likely be much contested.
Meanwhile, there is widespread public feeling that the police have stopped policing. This may in no small way be because of aggressive citizens who have taken to stalking cops with cameras.
Baltimore sustained $20 million in damages from the rioting (unless you believe that true figure might be higher), but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has declined to offer disaster relief. Nothing seems to have gone right in the past two months.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican businessman who was elected largely because he faced a lackluster Democrat, and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have been sparring nonstop. Baltimore is a poor city surrounded by five relatively prosperous counties, and many residents of those counties regard Baltimore as a deadbeat relative with his hand out.
Down at Baltimore police headquarters, Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, an African-American who came here from Oakland – and who was fired Wednesday — had a relationship with his officers that was fractious, at best. Batts recently published an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun that did nothing to calm the situation. The Fraternal Order of Police has been extremely critical of him and his handling of the Gray incident. Many rank-and-file cops believe the brass downtown do not support them — especially since six officers (three black, three white) are facing charges that could lead to prison.
Batts’ op-ed piece reminded the city (and the police) that his first duty here (the one he was hired for) was to reform the police department and rebuild relationships with communities around the city.
He was brought to Baltimore, Bates wrote, because “the cycle of scandal, corruption and malfeasance seemed to be continuing without abatement.” He cited some of the city’s most celebrated incidents of corruption, including police robbing drug suspects and an extensive towing scandal that rocked the city a few years ago.
On Wednesday, after the three shooting deaths near the University of Maryland and the release of the Baltimore police union’s review that criticized the police response to the April rioting over Gray’s death, saying commanders let unrest spiral into arson and looting, Batts was dismissed. The mayor replaced him with Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, whose extensive experience in law enforcement is in suburban Baltimore and Washington — not Baltimore city.
Baltimore is accustomed to turnover in the police commissioner’s office. Davis is the seventh in less than 15 years. One former police commissioner, who later appeared as a police detective in the critically acclaimed cable series The Wire, actually went to jail on corruption charges.
Generally, “Baltimorons,” as H.L. Mencken dubbed them, do not need to be reminded that theirs is a city with a certain amount of corruption, whether it’s rogue cops, the last mayor who resigned in a corruption scandal (she’s seeking re-election) or a weird citywide speed-camera controversy that involved millions of dollars. The administrator of the city’s free downtown bus shuttle and water-taxi system was sent to federal prison last month on a bribery and money-laundering conviction.
One consequence of the riots was that hundreds of thousands of doses of hard drugs are on the streets after an uncountable number of drug stores — 27 is the accepted figure — and two methadone clinics were looted. Baltimore already had a drug problem. Before he was replaced, Batts said there were enough illegal drugs on the streets to keep the city high for a year.
At the center of much of the controversy here is Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, a recently elected 35 year-old rookie with little criminal experience. Her husband represents the city council district where Gray was injured. The Gray case is a daunting debut.
The lawyers defending the six police officers have blasted what they perceive as the prosecutor’s gaffes and the “media frenzy” here as they campaign for a change of venue.
In recent weeks, Mosby might have benefited from a handler. She appears to enjoy the limelight. After the riots, she appeared on stage with Prince at a concert to commemorate Gray, was interviewed by Vogue magazine, photographed by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz (yes, that Annie Leibovitz) and served as ringmaster for a circus. That last move prompted an obvious headline: “From Media Circus to Real Circus.” To add to the weirdness, a videotape surfaced of Mosby on Judge Judy when she was a student. She won that case. Mosby’s due to address a national meeting of the NAACP in Philadelphia this week.
There are days when Baltimore seems like material for a sequel to Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. In late June, the mayor, who was heavily criticized for her handling of the riots, was named president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors at their meeting in San Francisco. The Baltimore media’s response was to complain that she was three times zones away while the city’s violence continued to spike and gripe that she should fix Baltimore before she seeks to advise the nation.
Meanwhile, the Gray killing continues to haunt Baltimore. Citizens from suburbia and out of state write to the Baltimore Sun and various websites vowing they will never come to the city again. Attendance at public events is off. Students accepted at local colleges and universities are said to be thinking twice about coming here.
Baltimore woke up on the Monday after the July 4 weekend to read a lively op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun by a citizen who said he’d been mugged and his bicycle stolen. That’s not a big deal here. What was a big deal was that after first getting the run-around from the 911 operator, he walked to the southwestern district police station. There, he was told the station was closed from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. For safety reasons. He complained to the police, and they argued that he’d actually been mugged in another district (an old police trick here) and took him there. But as it would happen, that station was also closed for safety reasons. The op-ed complaint seemed to work. On Tuesday, the police said the district stations would remain open 24 hours a day.
I went to the supermarket on the first day of summer. It had rained hard during the night. Baltimore is like the tropics when the weather is like this — day after day of high humidity and temperatures in the 90s. Even early in the morning, the city is like a steam bath. I said to the clerk who waited on me, an older black woman, that we’d had a lot of rain last night. But instead of the usual check-out-line small talk, we began to speak of Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore. She looked at me sadly and, referring to the heavy rain, said, “God is weeping for the country. God is weeping for Baltimore.”
Reuters
July 9, 2015
Things have been a bit rough of late on the streets of Charm City, as Baltimore calls itself — much to the amusement of nearly everyone who hears those words. In the month after Freddie Gray’s death, with six law-enforcement officers charged in connection with the incident, more people were murdered than in any month in 25 years — 42 or 43 are the accepted totals now. (As this is Baltimore, no one can agree on the actual number of dead.)
In that same period, more than 100 shootings occurred. The city has logged 144 murders in the first six months of 2015 — 74 since the Gray incident — a nearly 50 percent spike in murders from the same period last year. Three more people were killed Tuesday night in a shooting downtown near the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The deaths raised the homicide total to 155 for the year. Yet police responses to crimes and arrests have dropped from 2,677 in April, the month of Gray’s death, to 1,531 in May.
Gray allegedly died as the result of what the cops here call “a rough ride.” It was not the first time that I had heard this term.
In the early 1980s, two off-duty cops worked security in the downtown Baltimore high-rise where I worked at the Associated Press office. We were almost always open, and we always had free coffee — a powerful inducement for the constabulary to visit us.
Our visitors were central-casting Baltimore cops — tough, profane and bigoted. We assumed half of what they told us was exaggerated, and the rest completely untrue.
One drove what was then still called a paddy wagon. He was the first person I ever heard speak of a “rough ride.” Baltimore prosecutors say Gray went for a rough ride in a police wagon on April 12, and died a week later from spinal injuries that appear to have been sustained while in police custody.
By now, most Americans have heard of Gray, the alleged rough ride and the riots following his death. A rough ride, as it was explained to us back at in the AP office, involved putting a prisoner in the back of the wagon and driving him around at what the police euphemistically called “a high rate of speed” so that the passenger in the back of the wagon — basically a metal box — bounced around like a pinball. Sharp turns, braking, quick acceleration, more turns, more braking. The ride may be made rougher if the passenger is restrained, as Gray was (handcuffed or legs tied but not lashed down).
It’s a venerable practice. The traveler would arrive at central booking worse for wear.
Even the city’s police commissioner acknowledged that Gray was the victim of a rough ride. But whether he sustained his injuries at that time we do not know. Two months after the death of the 25-year-old Gray, most questions remain unanswered. It is widely conceded in the city that it will be a long, long time before any of this is resolved.
The Baltimore Sun recently got its hands on a copy of Gray’s autopsy report. It indicated that he suffered a single “high-energy injury” to his neck and spine, most likely as a result of a rough ride. But that report will likely be much contested.
Meanwhile, there is widespread public feeling that the police have stopped policing. This may in no small way be because of aggressive citizens who have taken to stalking cops with cameras.
Baltimore sustained $20 million in damages from the rioting (unless you believe that true figure might be higher), but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has declined to offer disaster relief. Nothing seems to have gone right in the past two months.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican businessman who was elected largely because he faced a lackluster Democrat, and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have been sparring nonstop. Baltimore is a poor city surrounded by five relatively prosperous counties, and many residents of those counties regard Baltimore as a deadbeat relative with his hand out.
Down at Baltimore police headquarters, Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, an African-American who came here from Oakland – and who was fired Wednesday — had a relationship with his officers that was fractious, at best. Batts recently published an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun that did nothing to calm the situation. The Fraternal Order of Police has been extremely critical of him and his handling of the Gray incident. Many rank-and-file cops believe the brass downtown do not support them — especially since six officers (three black, three white) are facing charges that could lead to prison.
Batts’ op-ed piece reminded the city (and the police) that his first duty here (the one he was hired for) was to reform the police department and rebuild relationships with communities around the city.
He was brought to Baltimore, Bates wrote, because “the cycle of scandal, corruption and malfeasance seemed to be continuing without abatement.” He cited some of the city’s most celebrated incidents of corruption, including police robbing drug suspects and an extensive towing scandal that rocked the city a few years ago.
On Wednesday, after the three shooting deaths near the University of Maryland and the release of the Baltimore police union’s review that criticized the police response to the April rioting over Gray’s death, saying commanders let unrest spiral into arson and looting, Batts was dismissed. The mayor replaced him with Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, whose extensive experience in law enforcement is in suburban Baltimore and Washington — not Baltimore city.
Baltimore is accustomed to turnover in the police commissioner’s office. Davis is the seventh in less than 15 years. One former police commissioner, who later appeared as a police detective in the critically acclaimed cable series The Wire, actually went to jail on corruption charges.
Generally, “Baltimorons,” as H.L. Mencken dubbed them, do not need to be reminded that theirs is a city with a certain amount of corruption, whether it’s rogue cops, the last mayor who resigned in a corruption scandal (she’s seeking re-election) or a weird citywide speed-camera controversy that involved millions of dollars. The administrator of the city’s free downtown bus shuttle and water-taxi system was sent to federal prison last month on a bribery and money-laundering conviction.
One consequence of the riots was that hundreds of thousands of doses of hard drugs are on the streets after an uncountable number of drug stores — 27 is the accepted figure — and two methadone clinics were looted. Baltimore already had a drug problem. Before he was replaced, Batts said there were enough illegal drugs on the streets to keep the city high for a year.
At the center of much of the controversy here is Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, a recently elected 35 year-old rookie with little criminal experience. Her husband represents the city council district where Gray was injured. The Gray case is a daunting debut.
The lawyers defending the six police officers have blasted what they perceive as the prosecutor’s gaffes and the “media frenzy” here as they campaign for a change of venue.
In recent weeks, Mosby might have benefited from a handler. She appears to enjoy the limelight. After the riots, she appeared on stage with Prince at a concert to commemorate Gray, was interviewed by Vogue magazine, photographed by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz (yes, that Annie Leibovitz) and served as ringmaster for a circus. That last move prompted an obvious headline: “From Media Circus to Real Circus.” To add to the weirdness, a videotape surfaced of Mosby on Judge Judy when she was a student. She won that case. Mosby’s due to address a national meeting of the NAACP in Philadelphia this week.
There are days when Baltimore seems like material for a sequel to Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. In late June, the mayor, who was heavily criticized for her handling of the riots, was named president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors at their meeting in San Francisco. The Baltimore media’s response was to complain that she was three times zones away while the city’s violence continued to spike and gripe that she should fix Baltimore before she seeks to advise the nation.
Meanwhile, the Gray killing continues to haunt Baltimore. Citizens from suburbia and out of state write to the Baltimore Sun and various websites vowing they will never come to the city again. Attendance at public events is off. Students accepted at local colleges and universities are said to be thinking twice about coming here.
Baltimore woke up on the Monday after the July 4 weekend to read a lively op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun by a citizen who said he’d been mugged and his bicycle stolen. That’s not a big deal here. What was a big deal was that after first getting the run-around from the 911 operator, he walked to the southwestern district police station. There, he was told the station was closed from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. For safety reasons. He complained to the police, and they argued that he’d actually been mugged in another district (an old police trick here) and took him there. But as it would happen, that station was also closed for safety reasons. The op-ed complaint seemed to work. On Tuesday, the police said the district stations would remain open 24 hours a day.
I went to the supermarket on the first day of summer. It had rained hard during the night. Baltimore is like the tropics when the weather is like this — day after day of high humidity and temperatures in the 90s. Even early in the morning, the city is like a steam bath. I said to the clerk who waited on me, an older black woman, that we’d had a lot of rain last night. But instead of the usual check-out-line small talk, we began to speak of Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore. She looked at me sadly and, referring to the heavy rain, said, “God is weeping for the country. God is weeping for Baltimore.”
STILL WAITING FOR THE CHANGE
The Unconventional Gazette
July 10, 2015
A priest says to his friend, the rabbi, that he has developed a plan of eating for free in really good restaurants.
"I simply go in at well past 9 pm, eat several courses slowly, and linger over coffee, dessert, and a cigar until they are cleaning up. I keep sitting there until eventually a waiter comes up and asks me to pay. Then I say, 'I've already paid my original waiter who has left for the night.' And, because I am a man of the cloth, the waiter takes my word for it, and I just simply walk out the front door as calm as can be."
The rabbi, clearly impressed says, "Let's try it together this evening."
The priest agrees and books them into an expensive, 5-Star Italian restaurant.
They both eat like kings and, just as before, right at 2 am, they are both sitting quietly after enjoying their very full meal.
Sure enough, a waiter comes over and hands the priest and the rabbi a bill and asks them to pay.
The priest calmly says: "I've already paid our original waiter who has left for the evening."
And then the rabbi adds: "And we're still waiting for the change!"
July 10, 2015
A priest says to his friend, the rabbi, that he has developed a plan of eating for free in really good restaurants.
"I simply go in at well past 9 pm, eat several courses slowly, and linger over coffee, dessert, and a cigar until they are cleaning up. I keep sitting there until eventually a waiter comes up and asks me to pay. Then I say, 'I've already paid my original waiter who has left for the night.' And, because I am a man of the cloth, the waiter takes my word for it, and I just simply walk out the front door as calm as can be."
The rabbi, clearly impressed says, "Let's try it together this evening."
The priest agrees and books them into an expensive, 5-Star Italian restaurant.
They both eat like kings and, just as before, right at 2 am, they are both sitting quietly after enjoying their very full meal.
Sure enough, a waiter comes over and hands the priest and the rabbi a bill and asks them to pay.
The priest calmly says: "I've already paid our original waiter who has left for the evening."
And then the rabbi adds: "And we're still waiting for the change!"
Thursday, July 09, 2015
AFRICAN-AMEICANS ARE NOT IMPRISONED FOR BEING BLACK
Jarrell Milton, a 12-year-old murderer, and Allen McQueen are products of a subculture of criminality
African-Americans and white liberals claim that our jails and prisons are full of blacks because the criminal justice system is racist. President Obama and former attorney general Eric Holder have publicly made such claims. Plain and simple, that’s a lot of hooey!
While we continue to have some miscarriages of justice due to racism, the truth is that blacks in jails and prisons are there for committing crimes and not for being black. They are imprisoned largely because there is a subculture of criminality within black communities. 12-year-old Jarrell Milton of Omaha, Nebraska is a poster boy for that subculture.
In broad daylight on June 29, Jarrel, his 17-year-old brother Jamar and 15-year-old Shuntayvious Primes-Willis lured Jamymell Ray, 31, and Charles Fisher, 30, to a park on the pretense of wanting to buy some pot. Upon their arrival at the park, Ray was shot dead and Fisher was seriously wounded. Police believe the shootings were gang related.
Jamar and Shuntayvious are in custody. Jarrell was on the lam until Tuesday when he was busted in Minneapolis, Minnesota, some 400 miles from Omaha. All three are charged with first degree murder and the prosecutor’s office wants to try the three as adults.
The two murderers being held in Omaha appeared in court Tuesday and were denied bail.
I am sure that liberals would not want to see 12-year-old Jarrell jailed. Instead they would compliment the boy for his skillful use of a gun and suggest he puts those skills to use by becoming a game warden.
Another example of the black subculture of criminality occurred in the Bronx on Tuesday. Allen McQueen, 21, was carrying his one-year-old daughter while walking to a park. Suddenly a gunman appeared and shot McQueen in the head. The baby fell to the ground but was unhurt. The gunman, believed to be in his 20s, laughed loudly after killing McQueen, then ran to a Mercedes and drove off. He subsequently wrecked the Mercedes and continued his flight on foot.
The cops believe this shooting was also gang related. While McQueen was a loving and doting father, he also had a record of 20 arrests, including arrests for attempted murder, robbery, narcotics, weapons possession and theft. McQueen was also shot in 2014.
So what is it going to take to wipe out this subculture of criminality which claims far more African-American victims than whites? It’s certainly not going to be wiped out by Al Sharpton, President Obama, Eric Holder and their ilk blaming it on a racist criminal justice system.
Criminologists believe education and employment is the key. But blacks are not going to find well-paying jobs if they are school dropouts or graduate from high school without being able to read or do math. With the exception of menial labor, most construction and other blue collar jobs require the ability to read and do mathematical calculations.
Even if we put every black criminal into prison, unless they’re sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, eventually they are simply going to be recycled back into the community to resume their criminal lifestyle. In other words, that subculture is here to stay.
African-Americans and white liberals claim that our jails and prisons are full of blacks because the criminal justice system is racist. President Obama and former attorney general Eric Holder have publicly made such claims. Plain and simple, that’s a lot of hooey!
While we continue to have some miscarriages of justice due to racism, the truth is that blacks in jails and prisons are there for committing crimes and not for being black. They are imprisoned largely because there is a subculture of criminality within black communities. 12-year-old Jarrell Milton of Omaha, Nebraska is a poster boy for that subculture.
In broad daylight on June 29, Jarrel, his 17-year-old brother Jamar and 15-year-old Shuntayvious Primes-Willis lured Jamymell Ray, 31, and Charles Fisher, 30, to a park on the pretense of wanting to buy some pot. Upon their arrival at the park, Ray was shot dead and Fisher was seriously wounded. Police believe the shootings were gang related.
Jamar and Shuntayvious are in custody. Jarrell was on the lam until Tuesday when he was busted in Minneapolis, Minnesota, some 400 miles from Omaha. All three are charged with first degree murder and the prosecutor’s office wants to try the three as adults.
The two murderers being held in Omaha appeared in court Tuesday and were denied bail.
I am sure that liberals would not want to see 12-year-old Jarrell jailed. Instead they would compliment the boy for his skillful use of a gun and suggest he puts those skills to use by becoming a game warden.
Another example of the black subculture of criminality occurred in the Bronx on Tuesday. Allen McQueen, 21, was carrying his one-year-old daughter while walking to a park. Suddenly a gunman appeared and shot McQueen in the head. The baby fell to the ground but was unhurt. The gunman, believed to be in his 20s, laughed loudly after killing McQueen, then ran to a Mercedes and drove off. He subsequently wrecked the Mercedes and continued his flight on foot.
The cops believe this shooting was also gang related. While McQueen was a loving and doting father, he also had a record of 20 arrests, including arrests for attempted murder, robbery, narcotics, weapons possession and theft. McQueen was also shot in 2014.
So what is it going to take to wipe out this subculture of criminality which claims far more African-American victims than whites? It’s certainly not going to be wiped out by Al Sharpton, President Obama, Eric Holder and their ilk blaming it on a racist criminal justice system.
Criminologists believe education and employment is the key. But blacks are not going to find well-paying jobs if they are school dropouts or graduate from high school without being able to read or do math. With the exception of menial labor, most construction and other blue collar jobs require the ability to read and do mathematical calculations.
Even if we put every black criminal into prison, unless they’re sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, eventually they are simply going to be recycled back into the community to resume their criminal lifestyle. In other words, that subculture is here to stay.
GETTING A BAD IRAN DEAL AT ANY PRICE
By Noah Beck
Israel Today
July 7. 2015
Much has been written about just how bad the proposed Iranian nuclear deal has gotten. This outcome is hardly surprising after Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, bravely published Ally, his memoir detailing Obama’s hostility towards Israel. But even without Ambassador Michael Oren’s personal testimony, there is overwhelming evidence that – on the issue most important to global security and Israel’s very existence – Obama has been, at best, reckless and, at worst, treasonous.
Obama’s administration has shown a breathtaking readiness to cover for a wide range of abuses and violations by the same Iranian regime that seeks international acceptance of its nuclear activities. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz recently noted that the State Department was illegally delaying the publication of a report on Iranian human rights violations, which was due last February, to avoid adversely affecting the talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
According to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, a non-proliferation think tank, Iran has violated the current interim nuclear deal, the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA). The president of the institute, David Albright, noted that “When it became clear Iran could not meet its commitment to convert the LEU into uranium dioxide, the United States revised its criteria for Iran meetings its obligations.” Such leniency on a crucial compliance issue suggests that the world powers negotiating with Iran (the “P5+1”) will ignore or explain away Iranian violations of any future agreement over its nuclear program.
In another breach of the JPOA, Iran continues trying to acquire nuclear-related materials – some of which would be prohibited under the emerging deal. Reuters reported last May that the Czech government had uncovered an Iranian attempt to purchase a shipment of compressors from a U.S.-owned company based in Prague. These parts can be used to extract enriched uranium directly from the centrifuge cascades. In April, the British Government reportedly informed a UN panel about an illicit Iranian nuclear procurement network involving two firms under sanctions for suspected links to Iran’s nuclear activities. Iran fed uranium hexafluoride gas into an advanced centrifuge, yet another violation of the JPOA. In April 2014, Reuters reported that Iran’s oil exports were well above the monthly 1 million barrel-per-day limit imposed by the JPOA. If the P5+1 countenanced all of these Iranian violations of the JPOA, why would they be any more forceful when an even stronger Iran violates a permanent nuclear accord?
The news outlet Al-Monitor reported that the U.S. State Department is three years late in applying certain sanctions on Iran. The report provides more proof that the State Department is intentionally delaying sanctions on Iran in its quest to close a nuclear deal. The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration has pressured the CIA so that its analysts are now in an “impossible position regarding analysis of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Not only has the Obama administration ignored Iranian violations, it has also disregarded evidence that sanctions relief will only support Iran’s most dangerous policies. Under Iran’s “moderate” President Rouhani, spending on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the entity tasked with spreading Iranian influence abroad while suppressing dissent at home, has increased by 48%. Iran spends approximately $200 million per year on Hezbollah and up to $15 billion per year to support the Assad regime in Syria. (Apparently the Obama administration sees no contradiction in calling for Assad’s ouster while helping Iran to fund him by removing sanctions.) Former Senior Advisor on Iran at the State Department, Ray Takeyh, has warned that the “massive financial gains from [a sanctions-lifting nuclear] deal would enable [Iran’s] imperial surge.” Iran is now the main power broker in four Arab countries (Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria). So how much more powerful and aggressive will Iran become when sanctions are lifted and billions of dollars flow into its economy?
Obama has also disregarded his own former Iran and nonproliferation experts, who last month signed on to a letter warning that the emerging Iran deal may “fall short of the administration’s own standard.” Signatories include the White House’s former chief weapons of mass destruction advisor, Gary Samore, the Department of State’s former principal nonproliferation advisor, Robert Einhorn, the former director of the CIA, David Petraeus, the former special advisor on the Persian Gulf, Dennis Ross, and other notable officials and analysts. The letter asserts that the emerging deal will not dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and outlines the elements of a good deal. These include unlimited inspections, including military sites; strict limits on centrifuge R&D; disclosure of Iran’s past nuclear military work; phased sanctions-lifting that is tied to Iran’s compliance with the deal; and the creation of an effective mechanism to re-impose sanctions automatically in the event of an Iranian violation.
Iran’s breakout time under the emerging deal would be far less than the Obama administration’s estimate of one year, according to one proliferation expert and the former deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In pursuit of this bad deal, Obama has not only covered for Iranian violations and ignored Iran’s continued ballistic missile developments, it has actually offered the Iranian regime nuclear technology. On what basis does Obama so trust a regime that, for decades, has been one of the most dangerous on the planet, and an arch foe of the U.S. and its closest Mideast allies? In another shocking example of that misplaced trust, the U.S. is sharing a base in Iraq with Iranian-backed Shiite militias, who have killed American soldiers in the past, despite concerns that doing so puts American soldiers at risk by allowing the militias to spy on U.S. operations at the base.
The overwhelming evidence all points to the same troubling question: in the nuclear faceoff between Iran and the West, whose side is Obama on? He may get his “legacy deal,” but it will include nuclear proliferation across the Middle East, an Iranian regime much more able to support terrorism and hegemonic policies, and the far greater prospect of nuclear terrorism and/or doomsday in the world’s most unstable region.
Israel Today
July 7. 2015
Much has been written about just how bad the proposed Iranian nuclear deal has gotten. This outcome is hardly surprising after Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, bravely published Ally, his memoir detailing Obama’s hostility towards Israel. But even without Ambassador Michael Oren’s personal testimony, there is overwhelming evidence that – on the issue most important to global security and Israel’s very existence – Obama has been, at best, reckless and, at worst, treasonous.
Obama’s administration has shown a breathtaking readiness to cover for a wide range of abuses and violations by the same Iranian regime that seeks international acceptance of its nuclear activities. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz recently noted that the State Department was illegally delaying the publication of a report on Iranian human rights violations, which was due last February, to avoid adversely affecting the talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
According to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, a non-proliferation think tank, Iran has violated the current interim nuclear deal, the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA). The president of the institute, David Albright, noted that “When it became clear Iran could not meet its commitment to convert the LEU into uranium dioxide, the United States revised its criteria for Iran meetings its obligations.” Such leniency on a crucial compliance issue suggests that the world powers negotiating with Iran (the “P5+1”) will ignore or explain away Iranian violations of any future agreement over its nuclear program.
In another breach of the JPOA, Iran continues trying to acquire nuclear-related materials – some of which would be prohibited under the emerging deal. Reuters reported last May that the Czech government had uncovered an Iranian attempt to purchase a shipment of compressors from a U.S.-owned company based in Prague. These parts can be used to extract enriched uranium directly from the centrifuge cascades. In April, the British Government reportedly informed a UN panel about an illicit Iranian nuclear procurement network involving two firms under sanctions for suspected links to Iran’s nuclear activities. Iran fed uranium hexafluoride gas into an advanced centrifuge, yet another violation of the JPOA. In April 2014, Reuters reported that Iran’s oil exports were well above the monthly 1 million barrel-per-day limit imposed by the JPOA. If the P5+1 countenanced all of these Iranian violations of the JPOA, why would they be any more forceful when an even stronger Iran violates a permanent nuclear accord?
The news outlet Al-Monitor reported that the U.S. State Department is three years late in applying certain sanctions on Iran. The report provides more proof that the State Department is intentionally delaying sanctions on Iran in its quest to close a nuclear deal. The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration has pressured the CIA so that its analysts are now in an “impossible position regarding analysis of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Not only has the Obama administration ignored Iranian violations, it has also disregarded evidence that sanctions relief will only support Iran’s most dangerous policies. Under Iran’s “moderate” President Rouhani, spending on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the entity tasked with spreading Iranian influence abroad while suppressing dissent at home, has increased by 48%. Iran spends approximately $200 million per year on Hezbollah and up to $15 billion per year to support the Assad regime in Syria. (Apparently the Obama administration sees no contradiction in calling for Assad’s ouster while helping Iran to fund him by removing sanctions.) Former Senior Advisor on Iran at the State Department, Ray Takeyh, has warned that the “massive financial gains from [a sanctions-lifting nuclear] deal would enable [Iran’s] imperial surge.” Iran is now the main power broker in four Arab countries (Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria). So how much more powerful and aggressive will Iran become when sanctions are lifted and billions of dollars flow into its economy?
Obama has also disregarded his own former Iran and nonproliferation experts, who last month signed on to a letter warning that the emerging Iran deal may “fall short of the administration’s own standard.” Signatories include the White House’s former chief weapons of mass destruction advisor, Gary Samore, the Department of State’s former principal nonproliferation advisor, Robert Einhorn, the former director of the CIA, David Petraeus, the former special advisor on the Persian Gulf, Dennis Ross, and other notable officials and analysts. The letter asserts that the emerging deal will not dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and outlines the elements of a good deal. These include unlimited inspections, including military sites; strict limits on centrifuge R&D; disclosure of Iran’s past nuclear military work; phased sanctions-lifting that is tied to Iran’s compliance with the deal; and the creation of an effective mechanism to re-impose sanctions automatically in the event of an Iranian violation.
Iran’s breakout time under the emerging deal would be far less than the Obama administration’s estimate of one year, according to one proliferation expert and the former deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In pursuit of this bad deal, Obama has not only covered for Iranian violations and ignored Iran’s continued ballistic missile developments, it has actually offered the Iranian regime nuclear technology. On what basis does Obama so trust a regime that, for decades, has been one of the most dangerous on the planet, and an arch foe of the U.S. and its closest Mideast allies? In another shocking example of that misplaced trust, the U.S. is sharing a base in Iraq with Iranian-backed Shiite militias, who have killed American soldiers in the past, despite concerns that doing so puts American soldiers at risk by allowing the militias to spy on U.S. operations at the base.
The overwhelming evidence all points to the same troubling question: in the nuclear faceoff between Iran and the West, whose side is Obama on? He may get his “legacy deal,” but it will include nuclear proliferation across the Middle East, an Iranian regime much more able to support terrorism and hegemonic policies, and the far greater prospect of nuclear terrorism and/or doomsday in the world’s most unstable region.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
SHIPWRECKED
The Unconventional Gazette
July 8, 2015
A man washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Only a sheep and a sheepdog were washed-up with him. After looking around, he realized that they were stranded on a deserted island.
After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset.
One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely man. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
The sheepdog, ever-protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep.
After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed-by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck. The only
survivor was Hillary Clinton.
That evening, the man brought Hillary to the evening beach ritual. It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance.
Pretty soon, the man started to get those feelings again. He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave-in and leaned over to Hillary and told her he hadn't had sex for months.
Hillary batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do for him.
He said, 'Take the dog for a long walk.'
July 8, 2015
A man washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Only a sheep and a sheepdog were washed-up with him. After looking around, he realized that they were stranded on a deserted island.
After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset.
One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely man. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
The sheepdog, ever-protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep.
After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed-by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck. The only
survivor was Hillary Clinton.
That evening, the man brought Hillary to the evening beach ritual. It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance.
Pretty soon, the man started to get those feelings again. He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave-in and leaned over to Hillary and told her he hadn't had sex for months.
Hillary batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do for him.
He said, 'Take the dog for a long walk.'
WHAT ARE YOU SELLING HERE?
The Unconventional Gazette
July 8, 2015
Two young businessmen in Florida were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store in the shopping mall.
As yet, the store's merchandise wasn't in -- only a few shelves and display racks set up.
One said to the other, "I'll bet that any minute now some old geezer is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling."
Sure enough, just a moment later, a curious senior gentleman walked up to the window, looked around intensely and rapped on the glass, then in a loud voice asked,.... "What are you selling here?"
One of the men replied sarcastically, "We're selling ass-holes."
Without skipping a beat, the old timer said, "You must be doing well. Only two left."
July 8, 2015
Two young businessmen in Florida were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store in the shopping mall.
As yet, the store's merchandise wasn't in -- only a few shelves and display racks set up.
One said to the other, "I'll bet that any minute now some old geezer is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling."
Sure enough, just a moment later, a curious senior gentleman walked up to the window, looked around intensely and rapped on the glass, then in a loud voice asked,.... "What are you selling here?"
One of the men replied sarcastically, "We're selling ass-holes."
Without skipping a beat, the old timer said, "You must be doing well. Only two left."
177 BIKERS BUSTED ON ‘COOKIE CUTTER’ PROBABLE CAUSE AFFIDAVITS
In the wake of the biker brawl at Twin Peaks in Waco, an officer obtained 177 identical probable cause affidavits with only the names of the bikers changed
In the wake of the Twin Peaks biker brawl, a Waco police detective obtained 177 identical ‘cookie cutter’ probable cause affidavits from the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office. The only change in each affidavit was the name of the arrested biker. None of the affidavits specified what each biker did.
Turning back a challenge to the lack of specificity in the affidavits, State District Judge Matt Johnson upheld the probable cause for the arrests.
It should be noted that not all outlaw biker club members are criminals or engaged in criminal activities. For reasons of their own, some doctors, lawyers and businessmen have been attracted to the outlaw clubs and joined up to become members, usually participating only in weekend rides. Furthermore, many of the arrested bikers did not come to Twin Peaks looking to brawl. They merely answered a foolish biker party invitation from the restaurant’s management.
Of course, anytime rival outlaw motorcycle gangs end up in the same place at the same time, the tiniest speak can set off a brawl. Many of the bikers at Twin Peaks did not participate in the brawl and should not have been arrested unless they were carrying weapons illegally or had outstanding warrants against them.
I realize that Waco’s police had a problem in arresting so many bikers, but when the founding fathers passed the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, I don’t think they had in mind ‘cookie cutter’ affidavits. The Fourth states, “… no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” And for those bikers that were arrested simply for being at Twin Peaks during the brawl, the $1 million bail set seems to violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against excessive bail.
Here is the July 2 Waco Tribune story on the ‘cookie cutter’ affidavits:
Biker attorney challenges ‘cookie-cutter’ arrest warrants
By Tommie Witherspoon
A hearing Thursday for a disabled Gatesville Army veteran who rides with the Cossacks Motorcycle Club included a strong challenge to the probable cause used to arrest 177 bikers in the wake of the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout.
Ronald Atterbury’s attorney, John H. Jackson, who also is a former state district judge from Corsicana, attacked the probable cause reported in Atterbury’s arrest warrant affidavit, which is identical to the others used to detain bikers en masse after the melee that left nine dead and 20 injured.
Officials used identical documents, labeled “cookie-cutter” by defense attorneys, changing only the names, to apply the same conduct to all those jailed.
Jackson was not successful in getting the charges dismissed, but convinced 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to reduce Atterbury’s bond from $1 million to $40,000.
Jackson called Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez as a witness to describe how the affidavits were drafted. To obtain the arrest warrants, Chavez swore before a judge as to their content. He testified Thursday that the document was written by prosecutors in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office on the day of the shootout.
Chavez admitted he didn’t know if Atterbury, 45, committed any of the offenses alleged in the affidavit and acknowledged that the affidavit does not accuse Atterbury specifically of any wrongdoing besides being a member of the Cossacks.
“Is membership in one of those organizations a crime?” Jackson asked. Chavez answered, “No.”
“You did not furnish any information to Judge (Pete) Peterson that my client committed any crime, did you?” Jackson asked.
Chavez said, “No, sir.”
Peterson, a justice of the peace, issued the arrest warrants and set $1 million bonds for each biker.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Brandon Luce, Chavez said he spoke with other officers and witnesses who were present during the shootout.
“He committed the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity by associating with a criminal street gang and showing up with other members of an organized street gang where a melee ensued, involving another organized street gang. Is that right?” Luce asked.
“That is correct,” the detective replied.
Jackson again questioned Chavez.
“You did not set out specific allegations in those affidavits for any of these 177 people that would lead a judge to believe that any of them committed any offense at all, did you?” Jackson asked. “Does it bother you that a lot of people were locked up because of your affidavit that doesn’t allege any criminal act by any of these 177 people?”
His question drew an objection from Luce, and Jackson withdrew it.
Johnson ruled that probable cause was sufficient to support Atterbury’s arrest.
The judge lowered his bond to $40,000, but placed Atterbury under the same restrictions, including wearing a GPS ankle monitor, that most of the other bikers have.
Jackson said Atterbury’s family should be able to come up with the $4,000 — or 10 percent of the total bond — to get him released in a couple of days.
Prosecutors have filed a petition to seize and forfeit Atterbury’s 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the county.
Family members testified Atterbury has no prior criminal record and is needed at home to help support his wife, Diana, who suffered a debilitating leg injury in a motorcycle accident and came to court in a wheelchair.
She testified that her husband is 100 percent disabled after his Army service in the Gulf War.
In the wake of the Twin Peaks biker brawl, a Waco police detective obtained 177 identical ‘cookie cutter’ probable cause affidavits from the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office. The only change in each affidavit was the name of the arrested biker. None of the affidavits specified what each biker did.
Turning back a challenge to the lack of specificity in the affidavits, State District Judge Matt Johnson upheld the probable cause for the arrests.
It should be noted that not all outlaw biker club members are criminals or engaged in criminal activities. For reasons of their own, some doctors, lawyers and businessmen have been attracted to the outlaw clubs and joined up to become members, usually participating only in weekend rides. Furthermore, many of the arrested bikers did not come to Twin Peaks looking to brawl. They merely answered a foolish biker party invitation from the restaurant’s management.
Of course, anytime rival outlaw motorcycle gangs end up in the same place at the same time, the tiniest speak can set off a brawl. Many of the bikers at Twin Peaks did not participate in the brawl and should not have been arrested unless they were carrying weapons illegally or had outstanding warrants against them.
I realize that Waco’s police had a problem in arresting so many bikers, but when the founding fathers passed the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, I don’t think they had in mind ‘cookie cutter’ affidavits. The Fourth states, “… no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” And for those bikers that were arrested simply for being at Twin Peaks during the brawl, the $1 million bail set seems to violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against excessive bail.
Here is the July 2 Waco Tribune story on the ‘cookie cutter’ affidavits:
Biker attorney challenges ‘cookie-cutter’ arrest warrants
By Tommie Witherspoon
A hearing Thursday for a disabled Gatesville Army veteran who rides with the Cossacks Motorcycle Club included a strong challenge to the probable cause used to arrest 177 bikers in the wake of the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout.
Ronald Atterbury’s attorney, John H. Jackson, who also is a former state district judge from Corsicana, attacked the probable cause reported in Atterbury’s arrest warrant affidavit, which is identical to the others used to detain bikers en masse after the melee that left nine dead and 20 injured.
Officials used identical documents, labeled “cookie-cutter” by defense attorneys, changing only the names, to apply the same conduct to all those jailed.
Jackson was not successful in getting the charges dismissed, but convinced 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to reduce Atterbury’s bond from $1 million to $40,000.
Jackson called Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez as a witness to describe how the affidavits were drafted. To obtain the arrest warrants, Chavez swore before a judge as to their content. He testified Thursday that the document was written by prosecutors in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office on the day of the shootout.
Chavez admitted he didn’t know if Atterbury, 45, committed any of the offenses alleged in the affidavit and acknowledged that the affidavit does not accuse Atterbury specifically of any wrongdoing besides being a member of the Cossacks.
“Is membership in one of those organizations a crime?” Jackson asked. Chavez answered, “No.”
“You did not furnish any information to Judge (Pete) Peterson that my client committed any crime, did you?” Jackson asked.
Chavez said, “No, sir.”
Peterson, a justice of the peace, issued the arrest warrants and set $1 million bonds for each biker.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Brandon Luce, Chavez said he spoke with other officers and witnesses who were present during the shootout.
“He committed the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity by associating with a criminal street gang and showing up with other members of an organized street gang where a melee ensued, involving another organized street gang. Is that right?” Luce asked.
“That is correct,” the detective replied.
Jackson again questioned Chavez.
“You did not set out specific allegations in those affidavits for any of these 177 people that would lead a judge to believe that any of them committed any offense at all, did you?” Jackson asked. “Does it bother you that a lot of people were locked up because of your affidavit that doesn’t allege any criminal act by any of these 177 people?”
His question drew an objection from Luce, and Jackson withdrew it.
Johnson ruled that probable cause was sufficient to support Atterbury’s arrest.
The judge lowered his bond to $40,000, but placed Atterbury under the same restrictions, including wearing a GPS ankle monitor, that most of the other bikers have.
Jackson said Atterbury’s family should be able to come up with the $4,000 — or 10 percent of the total bond — to get him released in a couple of days.
Prosecutors have filed a petition to seize and forfeit Atterbury’s 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the county.
Family members testified Atterbury has no prior criminal record and is needed at home to help support his wife, Diana, who suffered a debilitating leg injury in a motorcycle accident and came to court in a wheelchair.
She testified that her husband is 100 percent disabled after his Army service in the Gulf War.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
TRUMP PUT HIS MOUTH IN MOTION BEFORE HE PUT HIS BRAIN IN GEAR
The Donald was clearly wrong when he broad brushed Mexican immigrants as criminals
In his rambling announcement that he was running for president, Donald Trump brought up the subject of illegal immigration and said:
“Mexico isn’t sending its best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump cannot be faulted for bringing up illegal immigration, but he was clearly wrong in the way he went about it. By broad brushing Mexican immigrants as criminals, The Donald let his mouth overload his ass.
Some of my friends have been jumping all over my ass for criticizing Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants. They defend Trump by saying he spoke the truth when he broad brushed Mexican illegals as criminals because it is a crime to be in this country illegally … hence they’re criminals.
Personally I like Donald Trump, but he really blew it when he put his mouth in motion before he put his brain in gear. The majority of Mexicans are coming here to find work, not to commit crimes. To defend The Donald by saying he spoke the truth because all illegal aliens have committed the crime of crossing the border illegally is really a stretch.
When Trump said, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he clearly did not have in mind that Mexicans were criminals for entering the U.S. illegally. What he meant was that once here, they were committing additional crimes, including rape. And possibly he may have been thinking about Salvadoran MS-13 gang members, who have been sneaking into the U.S. by way of Mexico, but I doubt it.
Trump said, “And some, I assume, are good people.” How magnanimous of The Donald. The majority of illegal aliens are good people. They left Mexico out of desperation, fleeing abject poverty to earn a decent living, something they were unable to do in their homeland. Many of the illegals send much of their earnings to their family members in Mexico.
Should we stop the illegal border crossings? Most certainly! Should we deport the illegal aliens? Yes, but we simply cannot deport 20 million Latinos. However, we can and should deport those illegals who are burgling, robbing, raping and murdering people. But don’t deport those that are mowing our yards, cleaning our homes, fixing our roofs, filling in the pot holes in our streets, picking our crops, etc., etc. Are they taking jobs away from our citizens? No, because Americans refuse to do those kind of jobs because they require hard work and pay very little.
Speaking of illegals committing crimes, there has been a significant increase in hit-and-run traffic accidents. I believe that increase is due to illegals. They don’t want to stick around at the scene because they fear the cops will turn them over to ICE.
You can turn me into the political correctness police for referring to them as illegals instead of undocumented workers.
In his rambling announcement that he was running for president, Donald Trump brought up the subject of illegal immigration and said:
“Mexico isn’t sending its best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump cannot be faulted for bringing up illegal immigration, but he was clearly wrong in the way he went about it. By broad brushing Mexican immigrants as criminals, The Donald let his mouth overload his ass.
Some of my friends have been jumping all over my ass for criticizing Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants. They defend Trump by saying he spoke the truth when he broad brushed Mexican illegals as criminals because it is a crime to be in this country illegally … hence they’re criminals.
Personally I like Donald Trump, but he really blew it when he put his mouth in motion before he put his brain in gear. The majority of Mexicans are coming here to find work, not to commit crimes. To defend The Donald by saying he spoke the truth because all illegal aliens have committed the crime of crossing the border illegally is really a stretch.
When Trump said, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he clearly did not have in mind that Mexicans were criminals for entering the U.S. illegally. What he meant was that once here, they were committing additional crimes, including rape. And possibly he may have been thinking about Salvadoran MS-13 gang members, who have been sneaking into the U.S. by way of Mexico, but I doubt it.
Trump said, “And some, I assume, are good people.” How magnanimous of The Donald. The majority of illegal aliens are good people. They left Mexico out of desperation, fleeing abject poverty to earn a decent living, something they were unable to do in their homeland. Many of the illegals send much of their earnings to their family members in Mexico.
Should we stop the illegal border crossings? Most certainly! Should we deport the illegal aliens? Yes, but we simply cannot deport 20 million Latinos. However, we can and should deport those illegals who are burgling, robbing, raping and murdering people. But don’t deport those that are mowing our yards, cleaning our homes, fixing our roofs, filling in the pot holes in our streets, picking our crops, etc., etc. Are they taking jobs away from our citizens? No, because Americans refuse to do those kind of jobs because they require hard work and pay very little.
Speaking of illegals committing crimes, there has been a significant increase in hit-and-run traffic accidents. I believe that increase is due to illegals. They don’t want to stick around at the scene because they fear the cops will turn them over to ICE.
You can turn me into the political correctness police for referring to them as illegals instead of undocumented workers.
Monday, July 06, 2015
EUROPEAN TV COMMERCIALS STRICTLY VERBOTEN IN U.S.
Right over the border of Northern Germany in Denmark there are a couple of "Fleggard" supermarkets (belongs to the Costco family) where you really find everything your heart craves, especially high tech and household appliances; a lot cheaper than in Germany...
For this commercial, more than 100 skydiver women jumped from a transport plane, you see them in free fall forming the ad text:
"SIEMENS washing machine for only 269 Euros"
If anyone ever tried to run a TV commercial like this in the U.S., all hell would break loose among the Christian conservative family values organizations.
For this commercial, more than 100 skydiver women jumped from a transport plane, you see them in free fall forming the ad text:
"SIEMENS washing machine for only 269 Euros"
If anyone ever tried to run a TV commercial like this in the U.S., all hell would break loose among the Christian conservative family values organizations.
IRAQIS FLUNKED U.S. TRAINING COURSES
An Iraqi warplane ‘accidentally’ bombs Baghdad
We’ve spent billions of America’s taxpayer dollars to train and equip the Iraqi military. But quite obviously, the Iraqis have flunked their U.S. training courses.
First the Iraqi army’s soldiers flee every time they encounter a dozen or so ISIS fighters, leaving their American military vehicles and other U.S. equipment behind. Now an Iraqi warplane ‘accidentally’ bombed Baghdad.
It was reported Monday that an Iraqi Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet was returning from a bombing run against ISIS when it ‘accidentally’ bombed the Jadida neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The missile flattened three buildings, killing at least seven people and wounding seven others.
Brigadier General Saad Maan explained that "One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its [the aircraft's] return to base it fell on three houses in Baghdad Jadida."
Your tax dollars at work. Blame it on Bush …Oh, in this case we can blame the Russians.
We’ve spent billions of America’s taxpayer dollars to train and equip the Iraqi military. But quite obviously, the Iraqis have flunked their U.S. training courses.
First the Iraqi army’s soldiers flee every time they encounter a dozen or so ISIS fighters, leaving their American military vehicles and other U.S. equipment behind. Now an Iraqi warplane ‘accidentally’ bombed Baghdad.
It was reported Monday that an Iraqi Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet was returning from a bombing run against ISIS when it ‘accidentally’ bombed the Jadida neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The missile flattened three buildings, killing at least seven people and wounding seven others.
Brigadier General Saad Maan explained that "One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its [the aircraft's] return to base it fell on three houses in Baghdad Jadida."
Your tax dollars at work. Blame it on Bush …Oh, in this case we can blame the Russians.
SHARK ATTACKED WRONG GUY
Justin Bieber and his close buddy Joe Termini went swimming at a tropical resort when Termini was bitten by a reef shark
Justin Bieber and close buddy Joe Termini left Sydney Australia Saturday for a tropical island resort. While on the unidentified island, the two decided to go swimming Monday.
The Daily Mail reports that not long after Bieber and Termini dipped themselves into the tranquil waters, Termini was attacked by a reef shark. The shark left a gaping wound on Termini’s chest and rib cage.
Fortunately for Termini, he was attacked by a small reef shark and not by a great white shark. He is recovering.
Damn it, that dumb shark bit the wrong guy!
Justin Bieber and close buddy Joe Termini left Sydney Australia Saturday for a tropical island resort. While on the unidentified island, the two decided to go swimming Monday.
The Daily Mail reports that not long after Bieber and Termini dipped themselves into the tranquil waters, Termini was attacked by a reef shark. The shark left a gaping wound on Termini’s chest and rib cage.
Fortunately for Termini, he was attacked by a small reef shark and not by a great white shark. He is recovering.
Damn it, that dumb shark bit the wrong guy!
HOW MANY KINDS OF STUPID IS THIS?
A do it yourself July 4th fireworks display that is bound to turn your head ….. into mush that is
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 5, 2015
Devon Staples, 22, of Calais, Maine thought it would be amusing to place a fireworks launch mortar on top of his head yesterday and fire the thing off. It may have been so, but probably not for him. The one good thing is that he will not be around to further pollute the shallow end (very shallow end) of the gene pool.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out there was some alcohol or drugs or both involved in the decision making process. They can do strange things to a person’s notion of “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The New York Daily News reports that Staples and some friends were at a backyard July 4th party and all had been drinking.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 5, 2015
Devon Staples, 22, of Calais, Maine thought it would be amusing to place a fireworks launch mortar on top of his head yesterday and fire the thing off. It may have been so, but probably not for him. The one good thing is that he will not be around to further pollute the shallow end (very shallow end) of the gene pool.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out there was some alcohol or drugs or both involved in the decision making process. They can do strange things to a person’s notion of “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The New York Daily News reports that Staples and some friends were at a backyard July 4th party and all had been drinking.
Sunday, July 05, 2015
OBAMA COUNTS BORDER TURNBACKS AS DEPORTATIONS
Border turnbacks are clearly not deportations, yet Obama is counting them as such
President Obama long ago convinced me that he excels in the art of lying. In trying to convince the American public that he is tough on illegal immigration, Obama has trumpeted that deportations are way up during his administration. That is clearly not true. The plain truth is that our Liar-in-Chief is counting border turnbacks as deportations to jack up his numbers.
Border turnbacks and deportations are by no means one and tea same. When a Mexican has been turned back at the border, he has not entered the U.S. and thus he cannot be counted as deported.
On Sunday’s ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos, one of the subjects covered was the murder in San Francisco of Kate Steinle by an illegal Mexican immigrant with a criminal record who had been deported five times but still received protection from the feds under San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
Here from the transcript is an exchange between Stephanopoulos and Congressman Bob Goodlatte:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's get into this debate [the murder of Kate Steinle] now with the chair of the House judiciary committee. That committee oversees immigration. Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte joins us now.
Congressman, what went wrong here? And what should be done about it?
REP. BOB GOODLATTE, (R) VIRGINIA: Well, both the government -- the federal government and San Francisco are wrong here. And George let me say at the outset what a tragedy for this family. My heart goes out to them, but quite frankly the federal government, ICE, knows about San Francisco's sanctuary policy. It's a bad policy, but they know about it. Why did they ever turn him over to them when they could have deported him, or they could have prosecuted him for illegally reentering the country four times and send him to prison. Either way, Kate Steinle would be safe.
The fact of the matter is, San Francisco, why would they release somebody back onto their streets who is illegally in the United States and has committed seven prior felonies when they could have contacted ICE and turned him back over to them for deportation. And again, she would have been safe. It's a real tragedy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, what's the answer here? Should the federal government -- should there be a law that requires cities like San Francisco to turn over those who have been charged in the past, those who have been deported in the past, those who have been charged with illegal crimes?
GOODLATTE: Well, that is the law and that was the law, the policy regarding detainers, which is the law of the United States, was enforced by the Bush administration as being mandatory.
The Obama administration has converted that into something voluntary. And in doing so, they have eliminated a program that was working called Secure Communities, where individuals like this would be detained and would be turned over to the immigration service.
Now, in addition to that, this administration is releasing criminals back onto the streets themselves. So there's fault to be borne by both...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But as you know...
GOODLATTE: -- but the fact of the matter is...
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the Obama...
GOODLATTE: -- the laws need to be enforced.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the Obama administration points out that over the last six years, deportations of criminals are actually up 80 percent.
GOODLATTE: They are not deporting people in the numbers that have been deported in the past and they're counting people that they apprehend at the border and turn back around.
The Bush administration did not count those as deportations. They simply apprehended them at the border, sent them back into Mexico. That didn't count as deportation.
The Obama administration has started counting those and that has driven those numbers up. But the actual deportations from the interior of the country are way down. This administration is not enforcing our immigration laws and, quite frankly, I don't think they care. And this is -- this tragedy in San Francisco, which is repeated every day around the country and doesn't get this kind of notoriety is the product of that lack of caring about respect for the rule of law and enforcing our laws.
President Obama long ago convinced me that he excels in the art of lying. In trying to convince the American public that he is tough on illegal immigration, Obama has trumpeted that deportations are way up during his administration. That is clearly not true. The plain truth is that our Liar-in-Chief is counting border turnbacks as deportations to jack up his numbers.
Border turnbacks and deportations are by no means one and tea same. When a Mexican has been turned back at the border, he has not entered the U.S. and thus he cannot be counted as deported.
On Sunday’s ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos, one of the subjects covered was the murder in San Francisco of Kate Steinle by an illegal Mexican immigrant with a criminal record who had been deported five times but still received protection from the feds under San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
Here from the transcript is an exchange between Stephanopoulos and Congressman Bob Goodlatte:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's get into this debate [the murder of Kate Steinle] now with the chair of the House judiciary committee. That committee oversees immigration. Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte joins us now.
Congressman, what went wrong here? And what should be done about it?
REP. BOB GOODLATTE, (R) VIRGINIA: Well, both the government -- the federal government and San Francisco are wrong here. And George let me say at the outset what a tragedy for this family. My heart goes out to them, but quite frankly the federal government, ICE, knows about San Francisco's sanctuary policy. It's a bad policy, but they know about it. Why did they ever turn him over to them when they could have deported him, or they could have prosecuted him for illegally reentering the country four times and send him to prison. Either way, Kate Steinle would be safe.
The fact of the matter is, San Francisco, why would they release somebody back onto their streets who is illegally in the United States and has committed seven prior felonies when they could have contacted ICE and turned him back over to them for deportation. And again, she would have been safe. It's a real tragedy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, what's the answer here? Should the federal government -- should there be a law that requires cities like San Francisco to turn over those who have been charged in the past, those who have been deported in the past, those who have been charged with illegal crimes?
GOODLATTE: Well, that is the law and that was the law, the policy regarding detainers, which is the law of the United States, was enforced by the Bush administration as being mandatory.
The Obama administration has converted that into something voluntary. And in doing so, they have eliminated a program that was working called Secure Communities, where individuals like this would be detained and would be turned over to the immigration service.
Now, in addition to that, this administration is releasing criminals back onto the streets themselves. So there's fault to be borne by both...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But as you know...
GOODLATTE: -- but the fact of the matter is...
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the Obama...
GOODLATTE: -- the laws need to be enforced.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the Obama administration points out that over the last six years, deportations of criminals are actually up 80 percent.
GOODLATTE: They are not deporting people in the numbers that have been deported in the past and they're counting people that they apprehend at the border and turn back around.
The Bush administration did not count those as deportations. They simply apprehended them at the border, sent them back into Mexico. That didn't count as deportation.
The Obama administration has started counting those and that has driven those numbers up. But the actual deportations from the interior of the country are way down. This administration is not enforcing our immigration laws and, quite frankly, I don't think they care. And this is -- this tragedy in San Francisco, which is repeated every day around the country and doesn't get this kind of notoriety is the product of that lack of caring about respect for the rule of law and enforcing our laws.
PIER 14 MURDERER WAS A SANCTUARY CITY BENEFICIARY
By BobWalsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 3, 2015
The man who is believed to have gunned downed a tourist on Pier 14 in the People’s Republic of San Francisco had been convicted of seven felonies and had been deported five times.
Kate Steinle, 32, was shot to death on Wednesday. Francisco Sanchez, 45, is in custody as the suspect. He was released from the S F Jail in March despite an ICE hold on him. ICE had in fact turned him over to the S F authorities on a S F drug drug warrant. He was, at that time, doing federal time for illegal reentry into the country after having been deported.
The S F DA declined to prosecute on the old warrant, and (in accordance with existing S F policy) the Sheriff refused to notify ICE that they were releasing him. It should be noted that the S F policy was incorporated into law by AB4 in 2013. That bill was written by S F Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
Sanchez asserts that he was shooting at a sea lion (which is a serious felony) and accidentally shot Steinle. He tossed the gun into the bay, but it was recovered. About a zillion people shot cell phone pictures of Sanchez which aided in his arrest.
The S F Sheriff’s Office is blaming ICE for not lodging a stronger hold on Sanchez.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Donald Trump is using the murder of Kathryn Steinle to justify his much excoriated remarks about illegal Mexican immigrants – “Mexico isn’t sending its best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump cannot be faulted for bringing up illegal immigration, but he was clearly wrong in the way he went about it. By broad brushing Mexican immigrants as criminals, The Donald let his mouth overload his ass.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 3, 2015
The man who is believed to have gunned downed a tourist on Pier 14 in the People’s Republic of San Francisco had been convicted of seven felonies and had been deported five times.
Kate Steinle, 32, was shot to death on Wednesday. Francisco Sanchez, 45, is in custody as the suspect. He was released from the S F Jail in March despite an ICE hold on him. ICE had in fact turned him over to the S F authorities on a S F drug drug warrant. He was, at that time, doing federal time for illegal reentry into the country after having been deported.
The S F DA declined to prosecute on the old warrant, and (in accordance with existing S F policy) the Sheriff refused to notify ICE that they were releasing him. It should be noted that the S F policy was incorporated into law by AB4 in 2013. That bill was written by S F Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
Sanchez asserts that he was shooting at a sea lion (which is a serious felony) and accidentally shot Steinle. He tossed the gun into the bay, but it was recovered. About a zillion people shot cell phone pictures of Sanchez which aided in his arrest.
The S F Sheriff’s Office is blaming ICE for not lodging a stronger hold on Sanchez.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Donald Trump is using the murder of Kathryn Steinle to justify his much excoriated remarks about illegal Mexican immigrants – “Mexico isn’t sending its best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump cannot be faulted for bringing up illegal immigration, but he was clearly wrong in the way he went about it. By broad brushing Mexican immigrants as criminals, The Donald let his mouth overload his ass.
Saturday, July 04, 2015
CHINA OUTDOES TEXAS BIGTIME
Us Texans are fond of bragging that we do things bigger and better. After seeing the video about this colossal Chinese building we are going to have to tone our bragging down a tad.
Friday, July 03, 2015
WHAT PART OF THE “NO SWIMMING / ALLIGATORS” SIGN …
… did the late Tommie Woodward not understand?
After a several drinks Thursday night in the bar at Burkart's Marina in Orange, Texas, Tommie Woodward,28, and his girlfriend decided to take a post-midnight dip in Adam’s Bayou. The barkeep and several other people told the couple that no swimming was allowed in the bayiu and there was a prominent “No Swimming / Alligators” sign on the marina premises.
Ah, but you know what one too many drinks will do. Ignoring the warnings and the sign, Tommie took off his shoes and sox and jumped off a dock into the bayou. Almost immediately after he hit the water, Tommie began to scream and disappeared in the jaws of an alligator. His girlfriend – ah, what one too many will do – jumped in, apparently to rescue the now departed Tommie Woodward. She climbed out unhurt.
Orange County sheriff's deputies and a Texas game warden found Tommie’s mangled body nearby at about 4:30 Friday morning, some two hours after the alligator attack was reported to the Orange Police Department.
Now we have a teaching moment. Don’t go swimming where a sing clearly states “No Swimming / Alligators.” Don’t go swimming where people warn you there is no swimming allowed. And most of all, do not go swimming anywhere when you’ve had one drink too many.
After a several drinks Thursday night in the bar at Burkart's Marina in Orange, Texas, Tommie Woodward,28, and his girlfriend decided to take a post-midnight dip in Adam’s Bayou. The barkeep and several other people told the couple that no swimming was allowed in the bayiu and there was a prominent “No Swimming / Alligators” sign on the marina premises.
Ah, but you know what one too many drinks will do. Ignoring the warnings and the sign, Tommie took off his shoes and sox and jumped off a dock into the bayou. Almost immediately after he hit the water, Tommie began to scream and disappeared in the jaws of an alligator. His girlfriend – ah, what one too many will do – jumped in, apparently to rescue the now departed Tommie Woodward. She climbed out unhurt.
Orange County sheriff's deputies and a Texas game warden found Tommie’s mangled body nearby at about 4:30 Friday morning, some two hours after the alligator attack was reported to the Orange Police Department.
Now we have a teaching moment. Don’t go swimming where a sing clearly states “No Swimming / Alligators.” Don’t go swimming where people warn you there is no swimming allowed. And most of all, do not go swimming anywhere when you’ve had one drink too many.
Thursday, July 02, 2015
HOLY SHIT! AMERICA IS DOOMED BECAUSE THE CIA LACKS DIVERSITY
CIA Director John Brennan is “deeply concerned” that positions held at the upper levels of the intelligence agency do not reflect America
The political correctness police have struck again. This time their target was the CIA.
A yearlong study commissioned by the CIA and led by CIA advisory member Vernon Jordan, a longtime black civil rights activist, was highly critical of the lack of diversity at the upper levels of the CIA. The study, which was released Tuesday, found that:
The agency does not recognize the value of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, nor consistently promote an inclusive, “speak-up” culture where all opinions are heard, valued, and taken into account.
Agency leaders, managers and supervisors do not prioritize diversity in leadership. This fact is evident at the highest levels of the CIA, wherein the most senior positions - with few notable exceptions - are consistently occupied by white male career officers.
Cia Director John Brennan reacted to the study by telling reporters Tuesday that he was “deeply concerned” about the agency’s lack of diversity. “Without diversity we're not going to be able to do our job,” said Brennan. He vowed the CIA would redouble its efforts to recruit and promote minorities.
Brennan released the following statement:
Achieving that outcome is not only a matter of fairness and integrity, but one that is absolutely critical to CIA’s success. Given our global mission, no government agency stands to benefit more from diversity and inclusion than the CIA.
Excellence in foreign intelligence demands broad perspectives, both in our understanding of a complex world and in our approach to challenges and opportunities. Diversity - of thought, ethnicities, backgrounds, and experiences - is essential to CIA’s mission success, and we need it at every level of our enterprise.
Let’s see now. Non-whites (includes Hispanics) make up 30 percent of the general population. Minority employees make up 24 percent of the CIA workforce. 45 percent of CIA employees are women. Now, to me, that comes close to reflecting the diverse population of America.
It is true that with 10.8 percent minorities, the top ranks do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversities in America. There must be a good reason for the lack of diversity in the top ranks, and I do not believe it’s because of discrimination. I suspect the lower ranking minorities simply have not met the skills needed in the upper level positions.
Since its founding in 1947, the mission of the CIA has been to “preempt threats and further US national security objectives by collecting intelligence that matters, producing objective all-source analysis, conducting effective covert action as directed by the President, and safeguarding the secrets that help keep our Nation safe.”
That was then - when the CIA was founded - and this is now. According to Brennan, from now on, the mission of the CIA is to recruit and promote minorities. That will surely make our nation safer.
The CIA is not the New York or Los Angeles police force where diversity at the top is needed to deal with hostile minority communities. If diversity is needed at upper levels of the CIA, then it should consist of Chinese, Russians, Arabs and Iranians to deal with current worldwide threats to the security of the U.S.
Brennan’s statement is a crock of shit meant to appease the political correctness police. It would be nice if there were more ‘qualified’ minorities in upper level positions, but the gathering of intelligence is not dependent on whether whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women or orangutans occupy the senior positions of the CIA. And you can take that to the bank!
The political correctness police have struck again. This time their target was the CIA.
A yearlong study commissioned by the CIA and led by CIA advisory member Vernon Jordan, a longtime black civil rights activist, was highly critical of the lack of diversity at the upper levels of the CIA. The study, which was released Tuesday, found that:
The agency does not recognize the value of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, nor consistently promote an inclusive, “speak-up” culture where all opinions are heard, valued, and taken into account.
Agency leaders, managers and supervisors do not prioritize diversity in leadership. This fact is evident at the highest levels of the CIA, wherein the most senior positions - with few notable exceptions - are consistently occupied by white male career officers.
Cia Director John Brennan reacted to the study by telling reporters Tuesday that he was “deeply concerned” about the agency’s lack of diversity. “Without diversity we're not going to be able to do our job,” said Brennan. He vowed the CIA would redouble its efforts to recruit and promote minorities.
Brennan released the following statement:
Achieving that outcome is not only a matter of fairness and integrity, but one that is absolutely critical to CIA’s success. Given our global mission, no government agency stands to benefit more from diversity and inclusion than the CIA.
Excellence in foreign intelligence demands broad perspectives, both in our understanding of a complex world and in our approach to challenges and opportunities. Diversity - of thought, ethnicities, backgrounds, and experiences - is essential to CIA’s mission success, and we need it at every level of our enterprise.
Let’s see now. Non-whites (includes Hispanics) make up 30 percent of the general population. Minority employees make up 24 percent of the CIA workforce. 45 percent of CIA employees are women. Now, to me, that comes close to reflecting the diverse population of America.
It is true that with 10.8 percent minorities, the top ranks do not reflect the racial and ethnic diversities in America. There must be a good reason for the lack of diversity in the top ranks, and I do not believe it’s because of discrimination. I suspect the lower ranking minorities simply have not met the skills needed in the upper level positions.
Since its founding in 1947, the mission of the CIA has been to “preempt threats and further US national security objectives by collecting intelligence that matters, producing objective all-source analysis, conducting effective covert action as directed by the President, and safeguarding the secrets that help keep our Nation safe.”
That was then - when the CIA was founded - and this is now. According to Brennan, from now on, the mission of the CIA is to recruit and promote minorities. That will surely make our nation safer.
The CIA is not the New York or Los Angeles police force where diversity at the top is needed to deal with hostile minority communities. If diversity is needed at upper levels of the CIA, then it should consist of Chinese, Russians, Arabs and Iranians to deal with current worldwide threats to the security of the U.S.
Brennan’s statement is a crock of shit meant to appease the political correctness police. It would be nice if there were more ‘qualified’ minorities in upper level positions, but the gathering of intelligence is not dependent on whether whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women or orangutans occupy the senior positions of the CIA. And you can take that to the bank!
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
FEDS DECLARE CAPTIVE CHIMPS ENDANGERED
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press
July 1, 2015
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week declared all captive chimpanzees "endangered," restricting their use in biomedical research, granting the chimps at San Antonio's Southwest National Primate Research Center more protection.
The Center is one of a handful of federal research facilities housing chimps — it has "more than 129," according to the website — and the endangered declaration has no current impact on them, since there's no ongoing chimp research there, according to a spokeswoman.
Captive chimps were previously listed as "threatened," and the new classification is a response "to growing threats to the species," according to a Fish and Wildllife press release.
Under the new designation, permits for scientific research will only be issued to "purposes that benefit the species in the wild, or to enhance the propagation or survival of chimpanzees, including habitat restoration," the release states.
John Pippin, the Dallas-based director of academic affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which opposes animal testing, praised the decision in a statement on the Committee's site, saying, "Protection under the Endangered Species Act is long overdue for chimpanzees in laboratories. The new status is a tremendous change that ends the unprotected current status of captive chimpanzees."
The endangered designation is the latest chapter in a phasing-out of research chimps. The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 2011 stating that "most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary." But by that time, more than 200 lab chimps living out their twilight years at a U.S Air Force Base in Alamagordo, New Mexico were called out of retirement and scheduled for transfer to the Southwest National Primate Research Center.
When The Houston Press first wrote about this controversy in 2012, 14 of the chimps had already been transferred; a year later, the National Institutes of Health retired 310 of its chimps.
But scientists at the Southwest National Primate Research Center maintain that chimpanzee testing (as well as other primate testing) has proved beneficial. Southwest Spokeswoman Lisa Cruz told us in an email that "Animal research has saved lives, extended life expectancy, and improved the quality of life for both humans and animals by enabling scientists to conduct critical experiments that identified ways to prevent, treat, and cure disease. Chimpanzees have played a vital role in advancing human health, including critical research with chimpanzees here at [Southwest] in the development of a hepatitis B vaccine and recent breakthroughs in the cure of hepatitis C virus infection."
Pippin, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, disagreed in his statement: “Chimpanzees have repeatedly proven to be poor models for many areas of human disease research, such as HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases, neuroscience research, and cancer. The new protections for chimpanzees should cause the National Institutes of Health—the country’s largest funder of basic research—to close the door on a dark chapter of its history and expand its investment in non-animal research methods."
The Alamagordo chimps transferred to Southwest had certainly contributed a lot to science. Take Katrina, a 33-year-old chimp who, we wrote in 2012
did most of her time in a private lab in Tuxedo, New York. She has been sedated or anesthetized at least 295 times, endured 36 liver biopsies, four rectal biopsies, three lymph node biopsies and a cervical biopsy. In 1994, after coming out of a ketamine daze, she mutilated her thumb. Between June 2001 and March 2002 (when she was retired), she lost 38.5 pounds — one-third of her body weight.
And we would also be remiss to overlook Ken, who was first used in biomedical research 12 hours after his birth in 1982, when his blood drawn.
Over the next three years, he was studied at Centers for Disease Control labs in Phoenix and Atlanta. He was infected with hepatitis C from a serum derived from infected chimps and with hepatitis A from human feces. He was infected with HIV in 1993.
Ken was retired from medical research in 1996 after undergoing a total of 77 anesthetizations for serial blood sampling and biopsies. In retirement, he remained at the Air Force base in what is known as the Alamogordo Primate Facility. During a routine health exam on Ken in 2005, vets discovered a protein deficiency in his blood that they believe later led to his swollen scrotum and abdomen.
We hope that, if the feds issue any research permits, it really will be worth it. These animals have already been through a lot.
Houston Press
July 1, 2015
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week declared all captive chimpanzees "endangered," restricting their use in biomedical research, granting the chimps at San Antonio's Southwest National Primate Research Center more protection.
The Center is one of a handful of federal research facilities housing chimps — it has "more than 129," according to the website — and the endangered declaration has no current impact on them, since there's no ongoing chimp research there, according to a spokeswoman.
Captive chimps were previously listed as "threatened," and the new classification is a response "to growing threats to the species," according to a Fish and Wildllife press release.
Under the new designation, permits for scientific research will only be issued to "purposes that benefit the species in the wild, or to enhance the propagation or survival of chimpanzees, including habitat restoration," the release states.
John Pippin, the Dallas-based director of academic affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which opposes animal testing, praised the decision in a statement on the Committee's site, saying, "Protection under the Endangered Species Act is long overdue for chimpanzees in laboratories. The new status is a tremendous change that ends the unprotected current status of captive chimpanzees."
The endangered designation is the latest chapter in a phasing-out of research chimps. The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 2011 stating that "most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary." But by that time, more than 200 lab chimps living out their twilight years at a U.S Air Force Base in Alamagordo, New Mexico were called out of retirement and scheduled for transfer to the Southwest National Primate Research Center.
When The Houston Press first wrote about this controversy in 2012, 14 of the chimps had already been transferred; a year later, the National Institutes of Health retired 310 of its chimps.
But scientists at the Southwest National Primate Research Center maintain that chimpanzee testing (as well as other primate testing) has proved beneficial. Southwest Spokeswoman Lisa Cruz told us in an email that "Animal research has saved lives, extended life expectancy, and improved the quality of life for both humans and animals by enabling scientists to conduct critical experiments that identified ways to prevent, treat, and cure disease. Chimpanzees have played a vital role in advancing human health, including critical research with chimpanzees here at [Southwest] in the development of a hepatitis B vaccine and recent breakthroughs in the cure of hepatitis C virus infection."
Pippin, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, disagreed in his statement: “Chimpanzees have repeatedly proven to be poor models for many areas of human disease research, such as HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases, neuroscience research, and cancer. The new protections for chimpanzees should cause the National Institutes of Health—the country’s largest funder of basic research—to close the door on a dark chapter of its history and expand its investment in non-animal research methods."
The Alamagordo chimps transferred to Southwest had certainly contributed a lot to science. Take Katrina, a 33-year-old chimp who, we wrote in 2012
did most of her time in a private lab in Tuxedo, New York. She has been sedated or anesthetized at least 295 times, endured 36 liver biopsies, four rectal biopsies, three lymph node biopsies and a cervical biopsy. In 1994, after coming out of a ketamine daze, she mutilated her thumb. Between June 2001 and March 2002 (when she was retired), she lost 38.5 pounds — one-third of her body weight.
And we would also be remiss to overlook Ken, who was first used in biomedical research 12 hours after his birth in 1982, when his blood drawn.
Over the next three years, he was studied at Centers for Disease Control labs in Phoenix and Atlanta. He was infected with hepatitis C from a serum derived from infected chimps and with hepatitis A from human feces. He was infected with HIV in 1993.
Ken was retired from medical research in 1996 after undergoing a total of 77 anesthetizations for serial blood sampling and biopsies. In retirement, he remained at the Air Force base in what is known as the Alamogordo Primate Facility. During a routine health exam on Ken in 2005, vets discovered a protein deficiency in his blood that they believe later led to his swollen scrotum and abdomen.
We hope that, if the feds issue any research permits, it really will be worth it. These animals have already been through a lot.
IFYOU WANT TO MAKE CRIME PAY, GO TO LAW SCHOOL
Former Boston mobster Whitey Bulger’s advice to three Lakeville, Massachusetts teenage girls
James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the notorious former Boston mobster, was on the lam for 16 years before he was apprehended in California in 2011. In 2013, he was convicted on federal racketeering charges that included his complicity in eleven murders. Bulger, 85, has been roosting in a Florida federal lockup pending an appeal of his conviction.
Three 17-year-old students at Apponequet Regional High School in Lakeville, Massachusetts chose to write Bulger as part of a nationwide school contest. They requested his opinion on his legacy and advice on leadership. To their amazement, Brittany Tainsh, Michaela Arguin and Mollykate Rodenbush received a handwritten reply which Bulger penned in February. But instead of writing about his legacy and leadership, Whitey advised them not to waste their lives.
Here is what Whitey Bulger wrote:
Feb. 24, 2015
1:10 a.m.
Hello, Brittany:
I’m sorry but I can’t help you with your school project — There are many people more deserving of your time and interests. I’m a myth created by the media to help them generate Revenue and to hurt a relation because they didn’t appreciate his independence and daring to support an agenda they opposed.
May I suggest you and Molly create a website about the heroic service men of Mass. that are patients in, for instance, Walter Reed Veteran Hospital — good men isolated from society due to war wounds — life for some in pain and loneliness — hearing from school girls that care would do wonders for their morale and recovery.
Don’t waste your time on such as I — we are society’s lower, best forgotten, not looked to for advice on “Leadership”. I’m a 9th grade dropout from school and took the wrong road — my brother 5 years younger applied himself in school and worked hard and spent 40 years in Mass State House and retired and was the President of Mass Senate in State House for second term and President of U. Mass after Retirement. Had 9 children all college graduates and 4 lawyers among them. A Better Man than I.
My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon — Advice is a cheap commodity some seek it from me about crime — I know only thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — “Go to Law School.”
Brittany Best of Luck in the future to you and Molly and Michaela.
Sincerely James Bulger
While Bulger did not give them what they wanted, he did give them some very good advice. I especially liked the line: I know only [one] thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — “Go to Law School.” Ain’t that the truth!
James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the notorious former Boston mobster, was on the lam for 16 years before he was apprehended in California in 2011. In 2013, he was convicted on federal racketeering charges that included his complicity in eleven murders. Bulger, 85, has been roosting in a Florida federal lockup pending an appeal of his conviction.
Three 17-year-old students at Apponequet Regional High School in Lakeville, Massachusetts chose to write Bulger as part of a nationwide school contest. They requested his opinion on his legacy and advice on leadership. To their amazement, Brittany Tainsh, Michaela Arguin and Mollykate Rodenbush received a handwritten reply which Bulger penned in February. But instead of writing about his legacy and leadership, Whitey advised them not to waste their lives.
Here is what Whitey Bulger wrote:
Feb. 24, 2015
1:10 a.m.
Hello, Brittany:
I’m sorry but I can’t help you with your school project — There are many people more deserving of your time and interests. I’m a myth created by the media to help them generate Revenue and to hurt a relation because they didn’t appreciate his independence and daring to support an agenda they opposed.
May I suggest you and Molly create a website about the heroic service men of Mass. that are patients in, for instance, Walter Reed Veteran Hospital — good men isolated from society due to war wounds — life for some in pain and loneliness — hearing from school girls that care would do wonders for their morale and recovery.
Don’t waste your time on such as I — we are society’s lower, best forgotten, not looked to for advice on “Leadership”. I’m a 9th grade dropout from school and took the wrong road — my brother 5 years younger applied himself in school and worked hard and spent 40 years in Mass State House and retired and was the President of Mass Senate in State House for second term and President of U. Mass after Retirement. Had 9 children all college graduates and 4 lawyers among them. A Better Man than I.
My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon — Advice is a cheap commodity some seek it from me about crime — I know only thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — “Go to Law School.”
Brittany Best of Luck in the future to you and Molly and Michaela.
Sincerely James Bulger
While Bulger did not give them what they wanted, he did give them some very good advice. I especially liked the line: I know only [one] thing for sure — If you want to make crime pay — “Go to Law School.” Ain’t that the truth!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)