By Bob Walsh
Prosecutors in Contra Costa County (CA) have decided on the latter, and have charged a 15-year old water polo play with felony assault for (allegedly) deliberately breaking the nose of a fellow water polo player during the course of a J V game between Acalanes High of Lafayette and Bellarmine College Prep of San Jose. The incident took place at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek.
There is video of the incident. Even though it took place largely under water the video is said to be pretty solid. The victim needed surgery. Neither of the boys had the ball at the time of the contact. They were both playing the two-meter position, which tends to be rather physical.
The case is pending in juvenile court. The alleged assailant is an A student with no history of trouble. The referees did not see the incident as neither boy had the ball, but when the video was reviewed later he was tossed out of the rest of the tournament, which consisted of one more game.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have a sort of similar case here in Texas.
Two football players from San Antonio’s John Jay High School hit the referee during a game against Marble Falls on September 4. On one play both backs took running starts, with one of them smashing into the back of referee Robert Watts as he watched a play, and the other diving into the official after he went down. The players said they were acting on the instructions of one of their coaches.
On Monday in a Burnett County court, former John Jay assistant coach Mack Breed pled guilty to assault on the official. Breed was sentenced to 18 months of probation, fined $1,500, ordered to serve 120 hours of community service and pay restitution to Watts. Breed must also forfeit his Texas teaching certificate permanently.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
AND THE CONTEST IS STILL RUNNING
By Bob Walsh
The crime-ridden, gang-infested and bankrupt shit hole of San Bernardino is engaged in an informal but interesting contest with the crime-ridden, gang-infested and recently bankrupt city of Stockton. The metric is the number of homicides in the city. Since Stockton is significantly larger in population than San Berdoo one would think that Stockton would have a leg up, but recent events game San Berdoo a major bump in the count. Nevertheless Stockton is still trying hard.
Juwan Small was one day short of his 18th birthday and one class shy of graduation from Cesar Chavez High School on Tuesday when he died in the street on East Swain Rd in north Stockton. He is #45 for the year on the tally board for Stockton. He was shot to death hours before a vigil to end gun violence began in Stockton. It doesn’t seem to be working, the same day there were two other people shot. They are in critical condition but likely to survive.
Violence is caused by violent people. Arresting them and throwing their happy asses in the slammer will make a serious dent in violence. It isn’t that hard to figure out.
The crime-ridden, gang-infested and bankrupt shit hole of San Bernardino is engaged in an informal but interesting contest with the crime-ridden, gang-infested and recently bankrupt city of Stockton. The metric is the number of homicides in the city. Since Stockton is significantly larger in population than San Berdoo one would think that Stockton would have a leg up, but recent events game San Berdoo a major bump in the count. Nevertheless Stockton is still trying hard.
Juwan Small was one day short of his 18th birthday and one class shy of graduation from Cesar Chavez High School on Tuesday when he died in the street on East Swain Rd in north Stockton. He is #45 for the year on the tally board for Stockton. He was shot to death hours before a vigil to end gun violence began in Stockton. It doesn’t seem to be working, the same day there were two other people shot. They are in critical condition but likely to survive.
Violence is caused by violent people. Arresting them and throwing their happy asses in the slammer will make a serious dent in violence. It isn’t that hard to figure out.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
THINGS ARE SPICING UP FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
When spice users get high, they are taking a cannabinoid-like drug that has been reported to be anywhere from 100 to 800 times more potent than THC
By Keith Graves
The California Narcotic Officer
Fall 2015
Spice is a slang term that defines a group of drugs called synthetic cannabinoids. Essentially, spice is a group of synthetic compounds chemically similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. These chemicals are sprayed onto a mixture of herbs and spices, like Damiana leaves, and then smoked much like marijuana is smoked.
So where do these chemicals come from and how is spice made? Suppliers of the drug will order synthetic cannabinoid compounds from labs oversees, such as China. When their package arrives, it comes to them in a powder form. They will also need acetone, which most suppliers will get from a retailer such as Home Depot. Suppliers could also use ethyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol if they can’t find acetone. Using a specific recipe, the supplier will mix the acetone with the newly acquired chemical and spray it with damiana (or similar) leaves. The supplier will package the spice in whatever packaging they desire. It will usually be a press lock foil bag, which will be sold in liquor stores and gas stations. When the drug is put together by the supplier, it is not done in a laboratory setting. Rather, it is put together anywhere including on a garage floor on a tarp or in a storage locker.
There are literally hundreds of different compounds. Many of these chemicals have names like JWH-018, HU-210 or AM-2201. These names will tell you where these chemicals originated. As an example, compounds starting with JWH were developed by John W. Huffman from Clemson University and subsequently named after him. AM signifies that the compound was named for Northeastern University professor Alexandros Makriyannis. HU compounds were developed at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Under the Influence
When a spice user gets high on their product, they are taking a cannabinoid like drug that has been reported to be anywhere from 100 to 800 times more potent than THC. John W. Huffman, who developed the first known spice compounds, told Live Science (livescience.com) that it is 10 times more active than THC. Users will experience a rapid heart rate, muscle stiffness, muscle spasms and high blood pressure. Some users may experience nausea and vomiting. It would be a misnomer to compare spice to marijuana, however. Users can also experience hallucinations, image distortion, severe mood disorders and amnesia. These types of symptoms are seen more often with drugs like Dissociative Anesthetics (PCP, Ketamine, DXM), not Cannabis. The reason we see these extremes with spice is because of the potency of the compounds and the amount of spice a user will ingest.
John W. Huffman once said in an interview that anyone that uses synthetic cannabinoids is a “potential Darwin Award Winner” (a witty way of saying that someone removes themselves from the human race). The drug has been shown in studies to be addictive, with users suffering withdrawal symptoms if they stop regular use of the drug. Withdrawal symptoms can include suicidal ideation, psychotic episodes, inability to care about consequences, inability to sleep and depression.
Who are the Users?
Spice is very popular among our youth, especially among boys. The 2014 Monitoring the Future Survey showed that 1 in 20 high school students had used a synthetic cannabinoid. Overall, spice was the third most abused drug by our youth. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has said some of the contributing factors for the increased use by our youth could include the belief that it is all natural and the perception that it is a “legal high” (even though it is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act). Spice is also marketed to kids in brightly colored foil bags that have characters and logos that are attractive to our youth.
There is also a new segment of society that is using spice to avoid drug testing. Those that are mandated to take a drug test, such as truck drivers and those in safety sensitive jobs, as well as those that are subjected to court mandated drug testing, are switching to Spice. Their desire to be high has led them to this drug which is rarely tested by those mandating the drug test. Officer Nick Albert, an experienced Narcotics Detective in the San Francisco Bay Area, said, “We are now finding parolees and probationers doing spice in order to avoid testing positive on their drug tests.”
The Outlook for Law Enforcement
Officers will continue to encounter persons under the influence of synthetic cannabinoids. As these drugs become more popular, it is imperative that officers arm themselves with knowledge of the signs and symptoms of influence. They can do this formally by taking courses such as the California Narcotic Officers Association’s Drug Abuse Recognition Course or informally by gaining experience by contacting regular users of the drug and debriefing them.
If an officer encounters a person under the influence, understand they are not perceiving the world as you and I are and you should use good officer safety principles (such as contact/cover and speaking in a calming voice). A good idea is to reduce the stimuli around them. This will ensure that loud sounds, bright lights, or nearby agitators don’t set them off. Reassuring them that they will be alright may help as well. If you contact a user that is driving, a Drug Recognition Expert should handle the drug evaluation. If no DRE is available, use the training that you have to complete the investigation and take a blood sample. You should request the lab test for synthetic cannabinoids.
During an interview with CBS on May 8, 2015, Dr. Steven Marcus, executive director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System at the New Jersey Medical School said, “This is the worst outbreak of drug abuse that I’ve lived through.” Continuing, Dr. Marcus said, “It’s almost as if someone had made a witches’ brew of these cannabinoids. This is not just powerful marijuana. This is really dangerous stuff that has effects that can be life-threatening.”
Check out this good video of a person under the influence of spice:
By Keith Graves
The California Narcotic Officer
Fall 2015
Spice is a slang term that defines a group of drugs called synthetic cannabinoids. Essentially, spice is a group of synthetic compounds chemically similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. These chemicals are sprayed onto a mixture of herbs and spices, like Damiana leaves, and then smoked much like marijuana is smoked.
So where do these chemicals come from and how is spice made? Suppliers of the drug will order synthetic cannabinoid compounds from labs oversees, such as China. When their package arrives, it comes to them in a powder form. They will also need acetone, which most suppliers will get from a retailer such as Home Depot. Suppliers could also use ethyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol if they can’t find acetone. Using a specific recipe, the supplier will mix the acetone with the newly acquired chemical and spray it with damiana (or similar) leaves. The supplier will package the spice in whatever packaging they desire. It will usually be a press lock foil bag, which will be sold in liquor stores and gas stations. When the drug is put together by the supplier, it is not done in a laboratory setting. Rather, it is put together anywhere including on a garage floor on a tarp or in a storage locker.
There are literally hundreds of different compounds. Many of these chemicals have names like JWH-018, HU-210 or AM-2201. These names will tell you where these chemicals originated. As an example, compounds starting with JWH were developed by John W. Huffman from Clemson University and subsequently named after him. AM signifies that the compound was named for Northeastern University professor Alexandros Makriyannis. HU compounds were developed at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Under the Influence
When a spice user gets high on their product, they are taking a cannabinoid like drug that has been reported to be anywhere from 100 to 800 times more potent than THC. John W. Huffman, who developed the first known spice compounds, told Live Science (livescience.com) that it is 10 times more active than THC. Users will experience a rapid heart rate, muscle stiffness, muscle spasms and high blood pressure. Some users may experience nausea and vomiting. It would be a misnomer to compare spice to marijuana, however. Users can also experience hallucinations, image distortion, severe mood disorders and amnesia. These types of symptoms are seen more often with drugs like Dissociative Anesthetics (PCP, Ketamine, DXM), not Cannabis. The reason we see these extremes with spice is because of the potency of the compounds and the amount of spice a user will ingest.
John W. Huffman once said in an interview that anyone that uses synthetic cannabinoids is a “potential Darwin Award Winner” (a witty way of saying that someone removes themselves from the human race). The drug has been shown in studies to be addictive, with users suffering withdrawal symptoms if they stop regular use of the drug. Withdrawal symptoms can include suicidal ideation, psychotic episodes, inability to care about consequences, inability to sleep and depression.
Who are the Users?
Spice is very popular among our youth, especially among boys. The 2014 Monitoring the Future Survey showed that 1 in 20 high school students had used a synthetic cannabinoid. Overall, spice was the third most abused drug by our youth. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has said some of the contributing factors for the increased use by our youth could include the belief that it is all natural and the perception that it is a “legal high” (even though it is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act). Spice is also marketed to kids in brightly colored foil bags that have characters and logos that are attractive to our youth.
There is also a new segment of society that is using spice to avoid drug testing. Those that are mandated to take a drug test, such as truck drivers and those in safety sensitive jobs, as well as those that are subjected to court mandated drug testing, are switching to Spice. Their desire to be high has led them to this drug which is rarely tested by those mandating the drug test. Officer Nick Albert, an experienced Narcotics Detective in the San Francisco Bay Area, said, “We are now finding parolees and probationers doing spice in order to avoid testing positive on their drug tests.”
The Outlook for Law Enforcement
Officers will continue to encounter persons under the influence of synthetic cannabinoids. As these drugs become more popular, it is imperative that officers arm themselves with knowledge of the signs and symptoms of influence. They can do this formally by taking courses such as the California Narcotic Officers Association’s Drug Abuse Recognition Course or informally by gaining experience by contacting regular users of the drug and debriefing them.
If an officer encounters a person under the influence, understand they are not perceiving the world as you and I are and you should use good officer safety principles (such as contact/cover and speaking in a calming voice). A good idea is to reduce the stimuli around them. This will ensure that loud sounds, bright lights, or nearby agitators don’t set them off. Reassuring them that they will be alright may help as well. If you contact a user that is driving, a Drug Recognition Expert should handle the drug evaluation. If no DRE is available, use the training that you have to complete the investigation and take a blood sample. You should request the lab test for synthetic cannabinoids.
During an interview with CBS on May 8, 2015, Dr. Steven Marcus, executive director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System at the New Jersey Medical School said, “This is the worst outbreak of drug abuse that I’ve lived through.” Continuing, Dr. Marcus said, “It’s almost as if someone had made a witches’ brew of these cannabinoids. This is not just powerful marijuana. This is really dangerous stuff that has effects that can be life-threatening.”
Check out this good video of a person under the influence of spice:
BITCH-SLAP IN BALTO
By Bob Walsh
The jury came in in Baltimore, sort of. The first cop on trial in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray could not be convicted of any of the four charges against him. The judge had to declare a mistrial with the hung jury.
You might be aware the prosecutor came in stating up front that it was a slam-dunk and that the cops involved were clearly and obviously murderous assholes. This non-verdict was clearly a backhand to the face of this political hack.
The perpetually indignant, most of whom don’t have jobs so they are readily available, are already starting to mob up around the court house. Remember the watch-word: No Lynching, No Peace. Justice doesn’t have a damn thing to do with it. It is all politics, every last bit of it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: And it's caving in and catering to the Black Lives Matter lynch mob.
The jury came in in Baltimore, sort of. The first cop on trial in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray could not be convicted of any of the four charges against him. The judge had to declare a mistrial with the hung jury.
You might be aware the prosecutor came in stating up front that it was a slam-dunk and that the cops involved were clearly and obviously murderous assholes. This non-verdict was clearly a backhand to the face of this political hack.
The perpetually indignant, most of whom don’t have jobs so they are readily available, are already starting to mob up around the court house. Remember the watch-word: No Lynching, No Peace. Justice doesn’t have a damn thing to do with it. It is all politics, every last bit of it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: And it's caving in and catering to the Black Lives Matter lynch mob.
12-TEAR-OLD CAREER CRIMINAL
An 89-year-old Florida man had his car stolen by a 12-year-old criminal with more than 20 prior arrests
Raymond Raftery, 89, was driving his Toyota Friday in St. Petersburg, Florida when he was hailed down by a boy riding a bicycle. The boy told him he had a low tire. Raftery pulled over to an air pump at a service station. The boy ditched his bicycle and promptly drove off with the elderly man’s car.
The boy, who turned out to be 12 years old, was caught by the cops Monday after a detective recognized him from a surveillance video. And how did he recognize the little fart? It was because this young career criminal had been arrested more than 20 times, including arrests for auto theft, possession of pot, battery, and robbery.
Now he is charged with grand theft motor vehicle … again.
It’s time they threw away the key on this worthless little piece of shit before he becomes a killer!
Raymond Raftery, 89, was driving his Toyota Friday in St. Petersburg, Florida when he was hailed down by a boy riding a bicycle. The boy told him he had a low tire. Raftery pulled over to an air pump at a service station. The boy ditched his bicycle and promptly drove off with the elderly man’s car.
The boy, who turned out to be 12 years old, was caught by the cops Monday after a detective recognized him from a surveillance video. And how did he recognize the little fart? It was because this young career criminal had been arrested more than 20 times, including arrests for auto theft, possession of pot, battery, and robbery.
Now he is charged with grand theft motor vehicle … again.
It’s time they threw away the key on this worthless little piece of shit before he becomes a killer!
A CARTEL KILLER’S STORY
30 lives extinguished, but no regrets
By E. Eduardo Castillo
Associated Press
December 15, 2015
IGUALA, Mexico -- The killer says he "disappeared" a man for the first time at age 20. Nine years later, he says, he has eliminated 30 people — maybe three in error.
He sometimes feels sorry about the work he does but has no regrets, he says, because he is providing a kind of public service, defending his community from outsiders. Things would be much worse if rivals took over.
"A lot of times your neighborhood, your town, your city is being invaded by people who you think are going to hurt your family, your society," he says. "Well, then you have to act, because the government isn't going to come help you."
He operates along the Costa Grande of Guerrero, the southwestern state that is home to glitzy Acapulco as well as to rich farmland used to cultivate heroin poppies and marijuana. Large swaths of the state are controlled or contested by violent drug cartels that traffic in opium paste for the U.S. market, and more than 1,000 people have been reported missing in Guerrero since 2007— far fewer than the actual number believed to have disappeared in the state.
The plight of the missing and their families burst into public awareness last year when 43 rural college students were detained by police and disappeared from the Guerrero city of Iguala, setting off national protests. Then, suddenly, hundreds more families from the area came forward to report their kidnap victims, known now as "the other disappeared." They told stories of children and spouses abducted from home at gunpoint, or who left the house one day and simply vanished.
This is a story from the other side, the tale of a man who kidnaps, tortures and kills for a drug cartel. His story is the mirror image of those recounted by survivors and victims' families, and seems to confirm their worst fears: Many, if not most, of the disappeared likely are never coming home.
"Have you disappeared people?" he is asked.
"Yes," he replies.
In Mexico and other places where kidnapping is common, the word "disappeared" is an active verb and also an adjective to describe the missing. Disappearing someone means kidnapping, torturing, killing and disposing of the body in a place where no one will ever find it.
To date, none of the killer's victims have been found, he says.
For months, the AP approached sources connected with cartel bosses, seeking an interview with someone who kills people on their behalf.
Finally, the bosses put forward this 29-year-old man, with conditions: He, his organization and the town where he met with reporters would not be identified. He would appear on camera wearing a ski mask, and his voice would be distorted. And one of his bosses would be present throughout.
In jeans and a camouflage T-shirt, the hit man looked younger than his 29 years. He wore a baseball cap with a badge bearing the face of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and "prisoner 3578" — Guzman's inmate number before he escaped through a tunnel from Mexico's maximum-security prison in July, cementing his image as a folk hero.
"Of all the bad lot," the killer said, Guzman "seems to be the least bad."
The killer — who does not work for Guzman — does not see himself as bad. Unlike others, he says, he has standards: He doesn't kill women or children. He doesn't make his victims dig their own graves. He raises cattle for a living and doesn't consider himself a drug trafficker or a professional killer, although he is paid for disappearing people. While he acknowledges that what he does is illegal, he says he is defending his people against the violence of other cartels.
The killer wears a bag with a strap over his chest in which he carries several walkie-talkies and cell phones, one of which he used to take calls and issue orders: "Muevanse," he said — move on. "Esperense ahí" — wait there. Just before the interview begins, he puts the bag aside, and slips on the ski mask. He sits in a plastic armchair.
There are many reasons people are disappeared, the killer says. It may be for belonging to a rival gang, or for giving information to one. If a person is considered a security risk for any reason, he may be disappeared. Some are kidnapped for ransom, though he says he does not do this.
Each kidnapping starts with locating the target. The best place is at a home, early in the morning, "when everyone is asleep." But sometimes they are kidnapped from public areas. If the target is unarmed, two men are enough to carry out a "pickup" or "levanton," as the gang kidnappings are known. If he is armed, it requires more manpower.
The victim is taken to a safe house or far enough out into the woods that no one will hear him during the next step: "getting information out of them by torture."
He rests his forearms on the chair and moves his hands over his knees as he speaks about torture. He describes three methods: beatings; waterboarding, or simulated drownings in which a cloth is tied around the mouth and nose, and water is poured over it; and electric shocks to the testicles, tongue and the soles of the feet.
He has no training in torture. He learned it all by practice, he says. "With time, you come to learn how to hurt people, to get the information you need."
It usually takes just one night. "Of the people who have information you want, 99 percent will give you that information," he says. Once he gets it, he kills them. "Usually with a gun."
The problem is that people under torture sometimes admit to things that are not true: "They do it in hope that you will stop hurting them. They think it's a way to get out of the situation."
That may have happened to him three times, he says, leading him to kill the wrong men.
The dead are buried in clandestine grave sites, dumped into the ocean, or burned. If the organization wants to send a message to another cartel, a victim's tortured body is dumped in a public area. But the 30 people he has "disappeared" all have been buried, he says.
By the official count, 26,000 Mexicans have been reported missing nationwide since 2007, just over 1,000 of those from Guerrero. But human rights officials and the experience of families from the Iguala area indicate that most people are too afraid to report kidnappings, particularly in areas where police, municipal and state officials are believed to be operating in tandem with the cartels. The official tally has just 24 missing from the Costa Grande area, where the killer says he has been involved in the killings of 30 people.
"The (disappeared) problem is much bigger than people think," the killer says.
The killer has a grade-school education. He wanted to continue studying, but when he was a child there was no middle school in his town. "I would have liked to learn languages ... to travel to other places or other countries. I would have liked that," he said.
Some in his circumstances use drugs, but he says he doesn't. "When people are on drugs, they're not really themselves," he says. "They lose control, their judgment."
He says no one forced him to join his organization. His parents and siblings don't know what he does, but he thinks they can guess, since he is always armed: He usually carries a .38-caliber pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle.
He isn't married and has no children. Although he would like to have a family, he knows his future is uncertain. "I don't really see anything," he said. "I don't think you can make plans for the future, because you don't know what will happen tomorrow."
"It's not a pretty life," he says.
Life in an area torn by drug disputes is rarely pretty. For years, Guzman's Sinaloa cartel controlled drug production, coastal access and trafficking routes in Guerrero. The Beltran Leyva brothers took over, until the Mexican government killed Arturo Beltran Leyva in a shootout in December 2009, and then the state's opium and marijuana business was divided up among half a dozen smaller cartels, including Guerreros Unidos, los Rojos, Los Granados and La Familia, from neighboring Michoacan state.
Besides running drugs, some Mexican cartels operate extortion rackets and control human trafficking to the United States. Where needed, they buy off politicians and police forces to make sure nothing gets in the way of business. When necessary, they kill those who fail to cooperate.
The violence spikes when cartels are fighting each other for control of territory, or when the military launches operations to strike the cartels. An anti-narcotics military operation prevented the killer's arrival at a pre-arranged location on the first try, but the next day he and his bosses made it to a house on a humid stretch of the Pacific Ocean known as the Costa Grande, an area lush with groves of coconuts and mangos — other exports for which cartels take a cut.
In recent years, residents of a number of towns and cities have taken up arms to protect themselves against drug cartels. In several cases, authorities have claimed these vigilantes are allied with rival gangs, and pass themselves off as self-defense groups to gain greater legitimacy.
Federal authorities told the AP that several drug gangs in Guerrero, including those that operate on the Costa Grande, act as self-defense groups to generate support from local residents.
"I can't say I'm a vigilante," says the killer, "but I am part of a group that protects people, an autonomous group of people who protect their town, their people."
He recognizes he would be punished if caught by the authorities. "For them, these (killings) are not justifiable under the laws we have, but my conscience — how can I put this — this is something that I can justify, because I am defending my family." A rival gang, "would do worse damage."
The killer fears dying, but he fears being captured by a rival gang even more. He knows better than most what will happen to him: "If I died in a shootout, for example, the suffering wouldn't be as bad."
With the same lack of emotion with which he described torture, the killer addresses his many murders.
"Whatever you want to say, you're hurting someone and in the end, you kill them, and that leaves people hurting, the family hurting," he said. "It's the kind of thing that causes stress and remorse, because it's not a good thing."
But he tries not to think about it too much, and while he can remember the number of people he has killed and the places he buried them, he says he cannot recall his victims. "Over time," he says, "you forget."
By E. Eduardo Castillo
Associated Press
December 15, 2015
IGUALA, Mexico -- The killer says he "disappeared" a man for the first time at age 20. Nine years later, he says, he has eliminated 30 people — maybe three in error.
He sometimes feels sorry about the work he does but has no regrets, he says, because he is providing a kind of public service, defending his community from outsiders. Things would be much worse if rivals took over.
"A lot of times your neighborhood, your town, your city is being invaded by people who you think are going to hurt your family, your society," he says. "Well, then you have to act, because the government isn't going to come help you."
He operates along the Costa Grande of Guerrero, the southwestern state that is home to glitzy Acapulco as well as to rich farmland used to cultivate heroin poppies and marijuana. Large swaths of the state are controlled or contested by violent drug cartels that traffic in opium paste for the U.S. market, and more than 1,000 people have been reported missing in Guerrero since 2007— far fewer than the actual number believed to have disappeared in the state.
The plight of the missing and their families burst into public awareness last year when 43 rural college students were detained by police and disappeared from the Guerrero city of Iguala, setting off national protests. Then, suddenly, hundreds more families from the area came forward to report their kidnap victims, known now as "the other disappeared." They told stories of children and spouses abducted from home at gunpoint, or who left the house one day and simply vanished.
This is a story from the other side, the tale of a man who kidnaps, tortures and kills for a drug cartel. His story is the mirror image of those recounted by survivors and victims' families, and seems to confirm their worst fears: Many, if not most, of the disappeared likely are never coming home.
"Have you disappeared people?" he is asked.
"Yes," he replies.
In Mexico and other places where kidnapping is common, the word "disappeared" is an active verb and also an adjective to describe the missing. Disappearing someone means kidnapping, torturing, killing and disposing of the body in a place where no one will ever find it.
To date, none of the killer's victims have been found, he says.
For months, the AP approached sources connected with cartel bosses, seeking an interview with someone who kills people on their behalf.
Finally, the bosses put forward this 29-year-old man, with conditions: He, his organization and the town where he met with reporters would not be identified. He would appear on camera wearing a ski mask, and his voice would be distorted. And one of his bosses would be present throughout.
In jeans and a camouflage T-shirt, the hit man looked younger than his 29 years. He wore a baseball cap with a badge bearing the face of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and "prisoner 3578" — Guzman's inmate number before he escaped through a tunnel from Mexico's maximum-security prison in July, cementing his image as a folk hero.
"Of all the bad lot," the killer said, Guzman "seems to be the least bad."
The killer — who does not work for Guzman — does not see himself as bad. Unlike others, he says, he has standards: He doesn't kill women or children. He doesn't make his victims dig their own graves. He raises cattle for a living and doesn't consider himself a drug trafficker or a professional killer, although he is paid for disappearing people. While he acknowledges that what he does is illegal, he says he is defending his people against the violence of other cartels.
The killer wears a bag with a strap over his chest in which he carries several walkie-talkies and cell phones, one of which he used to take calls and issue orders: "Muevanse," he said — move on. "Esperense ahí" — wait there. Just before the interview begins, he puts the bag aside, and slips on the ski mask. He sits in a plastic armchair.
There are many reasons people are disappeared, the killer says. It may be for belonging to a rival gang, or for giving information to one. If a person is considered a security risk for any reason, he may be disappeared. Some are kidnapped for ransom, though he says he does not do this.
Each kidnapping starts with locating the target. The best place is at a home, early in the morning, "when everyone is asleep." But sometimes they are kidnapped from public areas. If the target is unarmed, two men are enough to carry out a "pickup" or "levanton," as the gang kidnappings are known. If he is armed, it requires more manpower.
The victim is taken to a safe house or far enough out into the woods that no one will hear him during the next step: "getting information out of them by torture."
He rests his forearms on the chair and moves his hands over his knees as he speaks about torture. He describes three methods: beatings; waterboarding, or simulated drownings in which a cloth is tied around the mouth and nose, and water is poured over it; and electric shocks to the testicles, tongue and the soles of the feet.
He has no training in torture. He learned it all by practice, he says. "With time, you come to learn how to hurt people, to get the information you need."
It usually takes just one night. "Of the people who have information you want, 99 percent will give you that information," he says. Once he gets it, he kills them. "Usually with a gun."
The problem is that people under torture sometimes admit to things that are not true: "They do it in hope that you will stop hurting them. They think it's a way to get out of the situation."
That may have happened to him three times, he says, leading him to kill the wrong men.
The dead are buried in clandestine grave sites, dumped into the ocean, or burned. If the organization wants to send a message to another cartel, a victim's tortured body is dumped in a public area. But the 30 people he has "disappeared" all have been buried, he says.
By the official count, 26,000 Mexicans have been reported missing nationwide since 2007, just over 1,000 of those from Guerrero. But human rights officials and the experience of families from the Iguala area indicate that most people are too afraid to report kidnappings, particularly in areas where police, municipal and state officials are believed to be operating in tandem with the cartels. The official tally has just 24 missing from the Costa Grande area, where the killer says he has been involved in the killings of 30 people.
"The (disappeared) problem is much bigger than people think," the killer says.
The killer has a grade-school education. He wanted to continue studying, but when he was a child there was no middle school in his town. "I would have liked to learn languages ... to travel to other places or other countries. I would have liked that," he said.
Some in his circumstances use drugs, but he says he doesn't. "When people are on drugs, they're not really themselves," he says. "They lose control, their judgment."
He says no one forced him to join his organization. His parents and siblings don't know what he does, but he thinks they can guess, since he is always armed: He usually carries a .38-caliber pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle.
He isn't married and has no children. Although he would like to have a family, he knows his future is uncertain. "I don't really see anything," he said. "I don't think you can make plans for the future, because you don't know what will happen tomorrow."
"It's not a pretty life," he says.
Life in an area torn by drug disputes is rarely pretty. For years, Guzman's Sinaloa cartel controlled drug production, coastal access and trafficking routes in Guerrero. The Beltran Leyva brothers took over, until the Mexican government killed Arturo Beltran Leyva in a shootout in December 2009, and then the state's opium and marijuana business was divided up among half a dozen smaller cartels, including Guerreros Unidos, los Rojos, Los Granados and La Familia, from neighboring Michoacan state.
Besides running drugs, some Mexican cartels operate extortion rackets and control human trafficking to the United States. Where needed, they buy off politicians and police forces to make sure nothing gets in the way of business. When necessary, they kill those who fail to cooperate.
The violence spikes when cartels are fighting each other for control of territory, or when the military launches operations to strike the cartels. An anti-narcotics military operation prevented the killer's arrival at a pre-arranged location on the first try, but the next day he and his bosses made it to a house on a humid stretch of the Pacific Ocean known as the Costa Grande, an area lush with groves of coconuts and mangos — other exports for which cartels take a cut.
In recent years, residents of a number of towns and cities have taken up arms to protect themselves against drug cartels. In several cases, authorities have claimed these vigilantes are allied with rival gangs, and pass themselves off as self-defense groups to gain greater legitimacy.
Federal authorities told the AP that several drug gangs in Guerrero, including those that operate on the Costa Grande, act as self-defense groups to generate support from local residents.
"I can't say I'm a vigilante," says the killer, "but I am part of a group that protects people, an autonomous group of people who protect their town, their people."
He recognizes he would be punished if caught by the authorities. "For them, these (killings) are not justifiable under the laws we have, but my conscience — how can I put this — this is something that I can justify, because I am defending my family." A rival gang, "would do worse damage."
The killer fears dying, but he fears being captured by a rival gang even more. He knows better than most what will happen to him: "If I died in a shootout, for example, the suffering wouldn't be as bad."
With the same lack of emotion with which he described torture, the killer addresses his many murders.
"Whatever you want to say, you're hurting someone and in the end, you kill them, and that leaves people hurting, the family hurting," he said. "It's the kind of thing that causes stress and remorse, because it's not a good thing."
But he tries not to think about it too much, and while he can remember the number of people he has killed and the places he buried them, he says he cannot recall his victims. "Over time," he says, "you forget."
APPLE DOES IT AGAIN!
Apple computer announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play commercial-free Hi Fi music from inside women’s breast implants.
The iTit will cost between $499 and $699.00 per breast depending on speaker size. Implanting iTit in both breasts will provide listeners with a stereo effect.
Apple spent nearly $2.7 million developing the iTit system. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said we always strive to meet the needs and desires of Apple’s loyal customers.
Cook says he considers iTit to be a major breakthrough because women have always complained about men staring at their tits and not listening to them.
The iTit will cost between $499 and $699.00 per breast depending on speaker size. Implanting iTit in both breasts will provide listeners with a stereo effect.
Apple spent nearly $2.7 million developing the iTit system. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said we always strive to meet the needs and desires of Apple’s loyal customers.
Cook says he considers iTit to be a major breakthrough because women have always complained about men staring at their tits and not listening to them.
WHAT’S YOUR GRANDPA LIKE?
My small grandson got lost at the shopping mall.
He approached a uniformed security guard and said, “I’ve lost my grandpa!”
The security guard asked, “What’s his name?”
“Grandpa.”
The guard smiled, then asked, “What’s he like?”
The little tyke hesitated for a moment and then replied: Crown Royal whiskey and women with big tits.”
He approached a uniformed security guard and said, “I’ve lost my grandpa!”
The security guard asked, “What’s his name?”
“Grandpa.”
The guard smiled, then asked, “What’s he like?”
The little tyke hesitated for a moment and then replied: Crown Royal whiskey and women with big tits.”
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
GENERAL ROBERT ABRAMS ORDERS GENERAL COURT MARTIAL FOR BOWE BERGDAHL
U.S. Army Forces Command chief Gen. Robert Abrams refused to accept the pre-trial hearing recommendation that Bergdahl be tried by a Special Court Martial and not get any jail time if convicted
Last September I was shocked and got thoroughly pissed off when at the conclusion of a pre-trial hearing, Major General Kenneth Dahl recommended a Special Court Martial instead of a General Court Martial for Bowe Bergdahl and said the deserter should not get any jail time if convicted.
Talk about adding insult to injury, first President Obama swaps five high-ranking Taliban leaders that were being held at Guantanamo for the slimeball and hugs his parents in a highly publicized Rose Garden appearance. Then a general recommends that Bergdahl receive practically no punishment for deserting his frontline outpost in Afghanistan.
Fortunately, sanity has returned to the Army command now that Bergdahl will stand trial before a General Court Martial and face a possible life sentence in a military prison.
BOWE BERGDAHL TO FACE GENERAL COURT MARTIAL, COULD FACE LIFE SENTENCE
By Luis Martinez
ABC News
December 14, 2015
Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s case has been referred to a general court martial, where he could face a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy and he could face five years of prison time if convicted of desertion. On June 30, 2009, Bergdahl walked away from his unit’s remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for the next five years until a controversial prisoner swap for five former Taliban officials held at Guantanamo.
"The U.S. Army Forces Command's Commanding General referred two charges today, Dec. 14, in the case of United States vs. Sgt. Robert B. Bergdahl to a General Court-Martial," the Army said in a statement.
"The two specific charges referred under the U.S. Armed Forces' Uniform Code of Military Justice are: (1) Article 85: 'Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty;' and (2) Article 99: 'Misbehavior before the Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place,'" the statement added.
Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement that Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, did not accept the recommendation from a pre-trial hearing that Bergdahl’s case should be referred to a special court martial that would have limited prison time for a conviction to a year. Instead, Abrams decided to refer Bergdahl’s case to a general court martial for which he could get five years if convicted of desertion and a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy.
"The convening authority did not follow the advice of the hearing officer who heard the witnesses," said Fidell, noting he "had hoped the case would not go in this direction."
At a pre-trial hearing in September known as an Article 32 hearing, Major General Kenneth Dahl, who had conducted an exhaustive investigation of Bergdahl’s case testified that he felt Bergdahl should not face jail time if convicted. “I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process," Dahl said. "I think it would be inappropriate.”
The hearing’s presiding officer later recommended that Bergdahl’s case should be heard by a special court martial. Lt. Col. Mark Visger also recommended that Bergdahl should not face any jail time or a punitive discharge if convicted of the charges.
"We will continue to defend Sgt. Bergdahl as the case proceeds," Fidell said.
Bergdahl disappeared June 30, 2009, from Combat Outpost Mest-Malak in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and was held captive by the Taliban for five years.
Late last week, Bergdahl explained his disappearance from his post in his own words in the first installment of the popular podcast “Serial."
In recorded phone conversations with filmmaker Mark Boal, Bergdahl said he was unhappy with the leadership in his unit and feared his fellow soldiers might suffer harm as a result. He devised a plan to hike 18 miles to another Army base to report his concerns to a general.
“I was fully confident that when someone took a look at the situation ... that people would understand that I was right. What was going on was a danger to the lives of the men of that company,” Bergdahl said on the podcast. Bergdahl’s description matched details gathered by Major General Dahl’s investigation that were presented at the Article 32 hearing in September.
Bergdahl also admitted that he had the desire to prove himself as a kind of “super soldier,” like the fictional spy Jason Bourne.
Bergdahl’s case has also become a hot topic in the presidential campaign. Republican Donald Trump frequently labels the Army sergeant as a deserter.
"We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client. “
Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, in a controversial swap for five former Taliban leaders who had been held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
“We also ask that the House and Senate Armed Services Committees avoid any further statements or actions that prejudice our client’s right to a fair trial," said Fidell in his statement.
The House Armed Services Committee issued a report last week critical of the Obama administration for not properly informing Congress in advance of the swap.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest today defended President Obama's efforts to secure Bergdahl's freedom.
"He feels a responsibility to everyone who puts on a uniform that we are not going to leave them behind and the ... way that Sgt. Bergdahl was rescued I think is a testament to the president’s commitment to that principle,” Earnest said.
The date of Bergdahl's arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be announced at a later date.
Last September I was shocked and got thoroughly pissed off when at the conclusion of a pre-trial hearing, Major General Kenneth Dahl recommended a Special Court Martial instead of a General Court Martial for Bowe Bergdahl and said the deserter should not get any jail time if convicted.
Talk about adding insult to injury, first President Obama swaps five high-ranking Taliban leaders that were being held at Guantanamo for the slimeball and hugs his parents in a highly publicized Rose Garden appearance. Then a general recommends that Bergdahl receive practically no punishment for deserting his frontline outpost in Afghanistan.
Fortunately, sanity has returned to the Army command now that Bergdahl will stand trial before a General Court Martial and face a possible life sentence in a military prison.
BOWE BERGDAHL TO FACE GENERAL COURT MARTIAL, COULD FACE LIFE SENTENCE
By Luis Martinez
ABC News
December 14, 2015
Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s case has been referred to a general court martial, where he could face a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy and he could face five years of prison time if convicted of desertion. On June 30, 2009, Bergdahl walked away from his unit’s remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for the next five years until a controversial prisoner swap for five former Taliban officials held at Guantanamo.
"The U.S. Army Forces Command's Commanding General referred two charges today, Dec. 14, in the case of United States vs. Sgt. Robert B. Bergdahl to a General Court-Martial," the Army said in a statement.
"The two specific charges referred under the U.S. Armed Forces' Uniform Code of Military Justice are: (1) Article 85: 'Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty;' and (2) Article 99: 'Misbehavior before the Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place,'" the statement added.
Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement that Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, did not accept the recommendation from a pre-trial hearing that Bergdahl’s case should be referred to a special court martial that would have limited prison time for a conviction to a year. Instead, Abrams decided to refer Bergdahl’s case to a general court martial for which he could get five years if convicted of desertion and a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy.
"The convening authority did not follow the advice of the hearing officer who heard the witnesses," said Fidell, noting he "had hoped the case would not go in this direction."
At a pre-trial hearing in September known as an Article 32 hearing, Major General Kenneth Dahl, who had conducted an exhaustive investigation of Bergdahl’s case testified that he felt Bergdahl should not face jail time if convicted. “I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process," Dahl said. "I think it would be inappropriate.”
The hearing’s presiding officer later recommended that Bergdahl’s case should be heard by a special court martial. Lt. Col. Mark Visger also recommended that Bergdahl should not face any jail time or a punitive discharge if convicted of the charges.
"We will continue to defend Sgt. Bergdahl as the case proceeds," Fidell said.
Bergdahl disappeared June 30, 2009, from Combat Outpost Mest-Malak in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and was held captive by the Taliban for five years.
Late last week, Bergdahl explained his disappearance from his post in his own words in the first installment of the popular podcast “Serial."
In recorded phone conversations with filmmaker Mark Boal, Bergdahl said he was unhappy with the leadership in his unit and feared his fellow soldiers might suffer harm as a result. He devised a plan to hike 18 miles to another Army base to report his concerns to a general.
“I was fully confident that when someone took a look at the situation ... that people would understand that I was right. What was going on was a danger to the lives of the men of that company,” Bergdahl said on the podcast. Bergdahl’s description matched details gathered by Major General Dahl’s investigation that were presented at the Article 32 hearing in September.
Bergdahl also admitted that he had the desire to prove himself as a kind of “super soldier,” like the fictional spy Jason Bourne.
Bergdahl’s case has also become a hot topic in the presidential campaign. Republican Donald Trump frequently labels the Army sergeant as a deserter.
"We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client. “
Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, in a controversial swap for five former Taliban leaders who had been held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
“We also ask that the House and Senate Armed Services Committees avoid any further statements or actions that prejudice our client’s right to a fair trial," said Fidell in his statement.
The House Armed Services Committee issued a report last week critical of the Obama administration for not properly informing Congress in advance of the swap.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest today defended President Obama's efforts to secure Bergdahl's freedom.
"He feels a responsibility to everyone who puts on a uniform that we are not going to leave them behind and the ... way that Sgt. Bergdahl was rescued I think is a testament to the president’s commitment to that principle,” Earnest said.
The date of Bergdahl's arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will be announced at a later date.
LACK OF FOLLOW-THRU MAY BE EXPENSIVE
By Bob Walsh
Mark Oberholtzer of Texas City, Texas sold an old pick-up truck from his plumbing business to the local Ford Dealer back in 2013. As he started to remove his company logo from the truck the dealer’s people told him not to bother, they would do it for him. He has sold at least ten used-up work trucks in similar fashion with no problem. So far, so good.
The truck, with the Mark-I Plumbing decal and phone number still clearly visible, somehow ended up in Syria with an ISIS light artillery piece mounted in the bed, which then ended up on video footage which got international play. It appeared, among other places, on the Colbert Report.
Oberholtzer started getting very nasty phone calls from people and he is pissed.
Oberholtzer had to shut his business down temporarily. He is suing AutoNation Ford for $1 million.
Mark Oberholtzer of Texas City, Texas sold an old pick-up truck from his plumbing business to the local Ford Dealer back in 2013. As he started to remove his company logo from the truck the dealer’s people told him not to bother, they would do it for him. He has sold at least ten used-up work trucks in similar fashion with no problem. So far, so good.
The truck, with the Mark-I Plumbing decal and phone number still clearly visible, somehow ended up in Syria with an ISIS light artillery piece mounted in the bed, which then ended up on video footage which got international play. It appeared, among other places, on the Colbert Report.
Oberholtzer started getting very nasty phone calls from people and he is pissed.
Oberholtzer had to shut his business down temporarily. He is suing AutoNation Ford for $1 million.
IGNORANT BIGOTS AND VANDALS
By Bob Walsh
This past Friday somebody vandalized a building on Santa Clara Ave in Alameda, California. The building had been vacant for some months but was previously used by the Islamic Center of Alameda, which is now across the street from the targeted building. The old building still had a sign on it indicating the Islamic Center was housed there, though they had not used the building in about eight months.
I guess bigots and vandals don’t necessarily do good research and / or recon before doing dumb shit.
This past Friday somebody vandalized a building on Santa Clara Ave in Alameda, California. The building had been vacant for some months but was previously used by the Islamic Center of Alameda, which is now across the street from the targeted building. The old building still had a sign on it indicating the Islamic Center was housed there, though they had not used the building in about eight months.
I guess bigots and vandals don’t necessarily do good research and / or recon before doing dumb shit.
DR. OLEFART’S CLINIC
An old fart became very bored in retirement and decided to open a medical clinic. He put a sign up outside that said: "Dr. Olefart’s clinic. Get your treatment for $500, if not cured, get back $1,000."
A young doctor, who was positive that this old fart didn't know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great opportunity to get $1,000. So he went to Dr. Olefart's clinic.
Young doctor: "Dr. Olefart, I have lost all taste in my mouth. Can you please help me ??"
Dr. Olefart: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the doctor's mouth."
Young doctor: Aaagh !! -- "This is Gasoline!"
Dr. Olefart: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."
The young doctor gets pissed off and goes back after a couple of days figuring to recover his money.
Young doctor: "I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything.”
Dr. Olefart: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Young doctor: "Oh, no you don't, -- that is Gasoline!"
Dr. Olefartr: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."
The young doctor (after having lost $1000) leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.
Young doctor: "My eyesight has become weak --- I can hardly see anything!!!!”
Dr. Olefart: "Well, I don't have any medicine for that so, "Here's your $1000 back." (giving him a $10 bill)
Young doctor: "But this is only $10!”
Dr. Olefart: "Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500.”
A young doctor, who was positive that this old fart didn't know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great opportunity to get $1,000. So he went to Dr. Olefart's clinic.
Young doctor: "Dr. Olefart, I have lost all taste in my mouth. Can you please help me ??"
Dr. Olefart: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the doctor's mouth."
Young doctor: Aaagh !! -- "This is Gasoline!"
Dr. Olefart: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."
The young doctor gets pissed off and goes back after a couple of days figuring to recover his money.
Young doctor: "I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything.”
Dr. Olefart: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Young doctor: "Oh, no you don't, -- that is Gasoline!"
Dr. Olefartr: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."
The young doctor (after having lost $1000) leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.
Young doctor: "My eyesight has become weak --- I can hardly see anything!!!!”
Dr. Olefart: "Well, I don't have any medicine for that so, "Here's your $1000 back." (giving him a $10 bill)
Young doctor: "But this is only $10!”
Dr. Olefart: "Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500.”
Monday, December 14, 2015
STUDENTS AT TEXAS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL SHIELDED FROM ANY SIGNS OF VIOLENCE
7th grader Colton Southern was banned from wearing his Star Wars t-shirt at Rosenberg’s George Junior High School
Colton Southern, a 7th grader at George Junior High School in Rosenberg, Texas, has a t-shirt with the Star Wars: The Force Awakens logo on it. He’s worn the shirt to school on several occasions but on Thursday school administrators ordered Colton to cover up the shirt because it had a Star Wars weapon depicted on it.
Colton’s father was incensed, calling the order “political correctness run amok.”
School officials, however, pointed to the school hand book in which it is a dress code violation to wear “symbols oriented toward violence.”
According to school administrators, Colton was treated rather well because they could have given the little terrorist an in-school suspension or sent him off to an alternative school.
I am sure that the George Junior High School students will feel and be safer now that they won’t be exposed to the horrible sight of that Star Wars weapon.
Thus the public school system continues to plunge further down into the abyss of political correctness.
Colton Southern, a 7th grader at George Junior High School in Rosenberg, Texas, has a t-shirt with the Star Wars: The Force Awakens logo on it. He’s worn the shirt to school on several occasions but on Thursday school administrators ordered Colton to cover up the shirt because it had a Star Wars weapon depicted on it.
Colton’s father was incensed, calling the order “political correctness run amok.”
School officials, however, pointed to the school hand book in which it is a dress code violation to wear “symbols oriented toward violence.”
According to school administrators, Colton was treated rather well because they could have given the little terrorist an in-school suspension or sent him off to an alternative school.
I am sure that the George Junior High School students will feel and be safer now that they won’t be exposed to the horrible sight of that Star Wars weapon.
Thus the public school system continues to plunge further down into the abyss of political correctness.
LIAR OF THE YEAR FINALIST
What Brandon Weathers told a jury will surly earn him this prestigious award
Brandon Weathers, 39, of Omaha, Nebraska is not too swift. First of all, he defended himself during his trial for raping his then 13-year-old foster daughter. Not swift at all. Then on Tuesday he told a jury what really happened.
Weathers told the jury that he never had sex with the girl, now 15. He said that the girl dreamed of becoming pregnant and that he merely fulfilled her fantasy by impregnating her with a syringe. That’s right, he said he impregnated her with a syringe.
The girl, however, testified that she was a virgin before her foster father started diddling her and that they had oral and vaginal sex “more times than she could count.” According to her, the sexual assaults occurred during a six months period and took place at Brandon’s home, his workplace and in his car.
Oh, by the way, good ole Brandon happens to be a three time felon who served two prison terms for burglary. He was released from his last prison term in 2001. Weathers and his then wife became foster parents in 2013.
Nebraska state regulations allow felons to become foster parents if more than five years pass from a conviction in certain crimes such as burglary and theft.
He impregnated her with a syringe? If that doesn’t get Brandon the Liar of the Year Award, then there’s no justice in the world.
Brandon Weathers, 39, of Omaha, Nebraska is not too swift. First of all, he defended himself during his trial for raping his then 13-year-old foster daughter. Not swift at all. Then on Tuesday he told a jury what really happened.
Weathers told the jury that he never had sex with the girl, now 15. He said that the girl dreamed of becoming pregnant and that he merely fulfilled her fantasy by impregnating her with a syringe. That’s right, he said he impregnated her with a syringe.
The girl, however, testified that she was a virgin before her foster father started diddling her and that they had oral and vaginal sex “more times than she could count.” According to her, the sexual assaults occurred during a six months period and took place at Brandon’s home, his workplace and in his car.
Oh, by the way, good ole Brandon happens to be a three time felon who served two prison terms for burglary. He was released from his last prison term in 2001. Weathers and his then wife became foster parents in 2013.
Nebraska state regulations allow felons to become foster parents if more than five years pass from a conviction in certain crimes such as burglary and theft.
He impregnated her with a syringe? If that doesn’t get Brandon the Liar of the Year Award, then there’s no justice in the world.
TRUMP PLEDGES DEATH PENALTY FOR COP KILLERS
"I want to tell you that police and law enforcement in this country, I will never, ever let them down.”
By Chris Cassidy
Boston Herald
December 11, 2015
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Despite lingering outrage over Republican front-runner Donald Trump's controversial plan to block Muslims from entering the U.S., a top New England police union endorsed the former reality star Thrusday night after he pledged to give the death penalty to cop-killers.
"I'd call it the Lifetime Improvement Award -- I'm improving with this award," Trump told dozens of officers from the New England Police Benevolent Association here last night. "I want to tell you that police and law enforcement in this country, I will never, ever let them down -- just remember that."
The union's executive director, Jerry Flynn, said Trump was the only candidate who agreed to meet with the board and won their endorsement after he pledged to sign an executive order as soon as he takes office to require the death penalty for criminals who kill police and corrections officers.
He insisted the firestorm over Trump's plan to temporarily stop Muslims from coming to America did not influence their decision.
"We didn't discuss that," Flynn said after his board emerged from the formal vote. "We discussed what he's going to do for law enforcement."
The union boycotted President Obama's Labor Day address in Boston earlier this year to make a statement about violence against cops. Flynn said both Obama and former Gov. Deval Patrick have hurt the cause of police officers over the years, and they sought a leader who would have their backs.
Asked whether he's concerned the union's ties to Trump will reflect badly on the force in light of his anti-Muslim remarks, Flynn said, "How much more can law enforcement be reflected badly on? Every time we open up the news, people are taking buckshots at us, whether it's literally or figuratively. So Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air as far as I'm concerned."
Other union members here fully supported Trump's Muslim ban, even if they didn't want to be identified.
"Close the whole border down," one union member, who refused to give his name, told the Herald. "Shut it all down until we figure it out -- that's what I want to see."
A throng of protesters lined the road leading up to the hotel before Trump arrived. They chanted and waved signs that read "Deport Fascism" and "Peace" and criticized the cop union's embrace of the New York billionaire.
"Those are the same people who stood out in the middle of (Interstate) 93 laying down on the sidewalk saying, 'Black lives matter,'" Flynn said. "Well, you know what? Police lives matter -- all lives matter -- as far as we're concerned. I'm telling you right now, we endorsed a candidate who best serves our membership."
Trump spoke briefly last night at the event, which was open only to union members and press and -- in a Trump rarity -- did not ridicule or insult any of his fellow candidates.
He defended local police departments' use of military-style vehicles and equipment -- as long as they're trained -- which came under fire during the Ferguson, Mo., race riots.
"They're taking away the military equipment now," Trump told the cops. "Every time I see a conflict, I see a van pull up. I see an armor-plated Humvee pull up. I see almost a tank in some cases pull up ... The police have to have the finest training."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, lookee here, The Donald finally said exactly the right thing! In the general election, Trump should be able to count on 800,000 sure votes, the number of law enforcement officers in the United States.
By Chris Cassidy
Boston Herald
December 11, 2015
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Despite lingering outrage over Republican front-runner Donald Trump's controversial plan to block Muslims from entering the U.S., a top New England police union endorsed the former reality star Thrusday night after he pledged to give the death penalty to cop-killers.
"I'd call it the Lifetime Improvement Award -- I'm improving with this award," Trump told dozens of officers from the New England Police Benevolent Association here last night. "I want to tell you that police and law enforcement in this country, I will never, ever let them down -- just remember that."
The union's executive director, Jerry Flynn, said Trump was the only candidate who agreed to meet with the board and won their endorsement after he pledged to sign an executive order as soon as he takes office to require the death penalty for criminals who kill police and corrections officers.
He insisted the firestorm over Trump's plan to temporarily stop Muslims from coming to America did not influence their decision.
"We didn't discuss that," Flynn said after his board emerged from the formal vote. "We discussed what he's going to do for law enforcement."
The union boycotted President Obama's Labor Day address in Boston earlier this year to make a statement about violence against cops. Flynn said both Obama and former Gov. Deval Patrick have hurt the cause of police officers over the years, and they sought a leader who would have their backs.
Asked whether he's concerned the union's ties to Trump will reflect badly on the force in light of his anti-Muslim remarks, Flynn said, "How much more can law enforcement be reflected badly on? Every time we open up the news, people are taking buckshots at us, whether it's literally or figuratively. So Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air as far as I'm concerned."
Other union members here fully supported Trump's Muslim ban, even if they didn't want to be identified.
"Close the whole border down," one union member, who refused to give his name, told the Herald. "Shut it all down until we figure it out -- that's what I want to see."
A throng of protesters lined the road leading up to the hotel before Trump arrived. They chanted and waved signs that read "Deport Fascism" and "Peace" and criticized the cop union's embrace of the New York billionaire.
"Those are the same people who stood out in the middle of (Interstate) 93 laying down on the sidewalk saying, 'Black lives matter,'" Flynn said. "Well, you know what? Police lives matter -- all lives matter -- as far as we're concerned. I'm telling you right now, we endorsed a candidate who best serves our membership."
Trump spoke briefly last night at the event, which was open only to union members and press and -- in a Trump rarity -- did not ridicule or insult any of his fellow candidates.
He defended local police departments' use of military-style vehicles and equipment -- as long as they're trained -- which came under fire during the Ferguson, Mo., race riots.
"They're taking away the military equipment now," Trump told the cops. "Every time I see a conflict, I see a van pull up. I see an armor-plated Humvee pull up. I see almost a tank in some cases pull up ... The police have to have the finest training."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, lookee here, The Donald finally said exactly the right thing! In the general election, Trump should be able to count on 800,000 sure votes, the number of law enforcement officers in the United States.
IS THE DONALD TALKING HIMSELF INTO OBLIVION?
The latest poll in Iowa shows Ted Cruz surging ahead of Donald Trump by 10 points
While Trump is still ahead in the rest of the nation, the latest poll by the Des Moines Register shows that Ted Cruz has surged ahead of The Donald by 10 points. The poll was taken between December 7 and 10 after Trump had called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.
Trump was quick to accuse the Des Moines Register of being biased. Then he took a swipe at Crus by questioning his evangelical credentials because of his Cuban background. Trump told a crowd at the Iowa State Fair that "I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba."
Then on Fox News Sunday, Trump said of Cruz: “I don't think he's qualified to be president. When you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there like, frankly, a little bit like a maniac – you're never going to get things done that way.”
A little bit like a maniac? Isn’t that like the kettle calling the pot black?
I believe the more Trump talks the more he is likely to talk himself into oblivion. Even though people like what he is saying, I think they will eventually wise up and realize that the buffoon – oops, I meant tycoon – is a loose cannon and lacks the necessary judgement required of our president.
In the end, look for the fight for the Republican nomination to be between Cruz and Marco Rubio. Either one of them would be a longshot, but I believe Rubio would have the best shot at Hillary. On the other hand, were Trump to somehow become the Republican nominee, Hillary would make mincemeat out of the buffoon – oops, there I go again, I meant tycoon.
While Trump is still ahead in the rest of the nation, the latest poll by the Des Moines Register shows that Ted Cruz has surged ahead of The Donald by 10 points. The poll was taken between December 7 and 10 after Trump had called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.
Trump was quick to accuse the Des Moines Register of being biased. Then he took a swipe at Crus by questioning his evangelical credentials because of his Cuban background. Trump told a crowd at the Iowa State Fair that "I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba."
Then on Fox News Sunday, Trump said of Cruz: “I don't think he's qualified to be president. When you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there like, frankly, a little bit like a maniac – you're never going to get things done that way.”
A little bit like a maniac? Isn’t that like the kettle calling the pot black?
I believe the more Trump talks the more he is likely to talk himself into oblivion. Even though people like what he is saying, I think they will eventually wise up and realize that the buffoon – oops, I meant tycoon – is a loose cannon and lacks the necessary judgement required of our president.
In the end, look for the fight for the Republican nomination to be between Cruz and Marco Rubio. Either one of them would be a longshot, but I believe Rubio would have the best shot at Hillary. On the other hand, were Trump to somehow become the Republican nominee, Hillary would make mincemeat out of the buffoon – oops, there I go again, I meant tycoon.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
METH FUELED SLAYINGS OF 3 IN MISSISSIPPI
Willie Miller says he was high on meth and oxycodone when a quarrel led him to kill three friends
Associated Press
December 10, 2015
WAYNESBORO, Miss. -- A man charged with killing three people and sexually assaulting a witness told a Mississippi judge Thursday it was all "a big mistake" that began when he hit a deer, and got worse when he took drugs and tried to find the roadkill.
William "Willie" P. Miller, 27, of Millry, Alabama, spoke softly as he tried to explain what happened to Wayne County Justice Court Judge Charles Chapman, who set his bail at $4.6 million.
Deputies said Miller hit the deer with his van while driving to the home of Lloyd and Sonya Taylor near Buckatunna around midnight Tuesday.
Miller told the judge that he consumed methamphetamine and oxycodone at the home, and then took off around dawn with Lloyd Taylor and Jamie Gardner to find the roadkill.
He said they quarreled along the way, and that one of the men was "more or less picking on me."
"He kept on and it got physical," he added.
Deputies believe Miller shot and killed Lloyd Taylor and Jamie Gardner near the Alabama-Mississippi state line around sunrise on Tuesday, then returned to the home with their bodies in the car and killed Sonya Taylor, Wayne County sheriff's investigator Jamey Beard said.
Beard said Miller then sexually assaulted another woman at the home who saw Sonya Taylor die, and forced her to lead him to a dirt pit where he set the car on fire with the men's bodies inside. Their remains have not yet been identified.
Beard said Miller fled from police in the survivor's car, eventually running into the woods, before surrendering Wednesday after an 18-hour manhunt.
Miller was charged with three counts of murder; first-degree rape and oral sex, and malicious mischief for the alleged destruction of the truck registered to the Taylors.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an example of why meth is so dangerous. It is not only highly addictive, but you never know how a person under the influence of meth is going to act.
Associated Press
December 10, 2015
WAYNESBORO, Miss. -- A man charged with killing three people and sexually assaulting a witness told a Mississippi judge Thursday it was all "a big mistake" that began when he hit a deer, and got worse when he took drugs and tried to find the roadkill.
William "Willie" P. Miller, 27, of Millry, Alabama, spoke softly as he tried to explain what happened to Wayne County Justice Court Judge Charles Chapman, who set his bail at $4.6 million.
Deputies said Miller hit the deer with his van while driving to the home of Lloyd and Sonya Taylor near Buckatunna around midnight Tuesday.
Miller told the judge that he consumed methamphetamine and oxycodone at the home, and then took off around dawn with Lloyd Taylor and Jamie Gardner to find the roadkill.
He said they quarreled along the way, and that one of the men was "more or less picking on me."
"He kept on and it got physical," he added.
Deputies believe Miller shot and killed Lloyd Taylor and Jamie Gardner near the Alabama-Mississippi state line around sunrise on Tuesday, then returned to the home with their bodies in the car and killed Sonya Taylor, Wayne County sheriff's investigator Jamey Beard said.
Beard said Miller then sexually assaulted another woman at the home who saw Sonya Taylor die, and forced her to lead him to a dirt pit where he set the car on fire with the men's bodies inside. Their remains have not yet been identified.
Beard said Miller fled from police in the survivor's car, eventually running into the woods, before surrendering Wednesday after an 18-hour manhunt.
Miller was charged with three counts of murder; first-degree rape and oral sex, and malicious mischief for the alleged destruction of the truck registered to the Taylors.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an example of why meth is so dangerous. It is not only highly addictive, but you never know how a person under the influence of meth is going to act.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER FACES DRUG, WEAPON CHARGES
“That’s meth, I smoke it to stay awake, I’m an air traffic controller.”
By John Valenti
Newsday
December 10, 2015
Nassau's acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter said on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, that "the Nassau police may have averted an air disaster" by arresting Breen Peck, 52, an air traffic controller assigned to a post in Westbury. He was found with two illegal handguns and crystal methampethamine when police stopped his vehicle at 10:10 p.m. Dec. 9 in Wantagh for illegal window tint and for failure to signal, authorities said. (Credit: Newsday / Jessica Rotkiewicz)
An air traffic controller assigned to a Westbury facility that guides flights in the New York metro area was arrested Wednesday night on drug possession and weapons charges during a traffic stop in Wantagh, Nassau County police said.
Breen Peck, 52, of Redkey, Indiana, was arrested after officers from the Criminal Intelligence Rapid Response Team found him with two illegal handguns and crystal methampethamine when they stopped his 2010 Toyota FJ Cruiser on Byron Street, near Willow Street, at 10:10 p.m. for illegal window tint and for failure to signal, police said.
During the stop, Peck, who also has a Wantagh address, informed officers there was “a loaded handgun behind his driver’s seat” and another in a rear cargo area, police said.
Officers also recovered the crystal methamphetamine from a pants pocket, police said.
“That’s meth, I smoke it to stay awake, I’m an air traffic controller,” Peck told police, according to court documents.
Acting Nassau police chief Thomas Krumpter said yesterday the guns police recovered were a Bersa Thunder .380-caliber handgun with eight rounds in the magazine and a Beretta .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun with 10 rounds in the magazine and an additional five rounds in another magazine.
Nassau police “may have averted an air disaster in the skies above Nassau County” by arresting Peck, said Krumpter, who added Peck had been employed by the FAA since 1991.
Peck was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and with “numerous” vehicle and traffic law violations, police said.
At his arraignment yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead before Judge Frank A. Doddato, Peck was ordered held on $12,500 cash bail or $25,000 bond.
Peck, who was represented by Legal Aid, is due back in court on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration website identifies Breen Peck as an air traffic control specialist working at TRACON in Westbury. That center controls flights into and out of Kennedy, LaGuardia, Long Island MacArthur, and Republic airports, among others.
It was not clear if he had worked on the day of his arrest or was scheduled to work.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said he was currently “in training,” but would not explain what that meant. She also would not say whether the agency employed more than one controller named Breen Peck.
The FAA refused to say whether he was the same Breen Peck who reportedly once misdirected a flight carrying First Lady Michelle Obama into the “potentially dangerous turbulence” of a military transport plane.
But The Washington Post yesterday reported that Peck was the same man responsible for the April 2011 incident, as well as an earlier mistake that “nearly caused a collision” a year earlier involving a United Airlines flight carrying Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.).
By John Valenti
Newsday
December 10, 2015
Nassau's acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter said on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, that "the Nassau police may have averted an air disaster" by arresting Breen Peck, 52, an air traffic controller assigned to a post in Westbury. He was found with two illegal handguns and crystal methampethamine when police stopped his vehicle at 10:10 p.m. Dec. 9 in Wantagh for illegal window tint and for failure to signal, authorities said. (Credit: Newsday / Jessica Rotkiewicz)
An air traffic controller assigned to a Westbury facility that guides flights in the New York metro area was arrested Wednesday night on drug possession and weapons charges during a traffic stop in Wantagh, Nassau County police said.
Breen Peck, 52, of Redkey, Indiana, was arrested after officers from the Criminal Intelligence Rapid Response Team found him with two illegal handguns and crystal methampethamine when they stopped his 2010 Toyota FJ Cruiser on Byron Street, near Willow Street, at 10:10 p.m. for illegal window tint and for failure to signal, police said.
During the stop, Peck, who also has a Wantagh address, informed officers there was “a loaded handgun behind his driver’s seat” and another in a rear cargo area, police said.
Officers also recovered the crystal methamphetamine from a pants pocket, police said.
“That’s meth, I smoke it to stay awake, I’m an air traffic controller,” Peck told police, according to court documents.
Acting Nassau police chief Thomas Krumpter said yesterday the guns police recovered were a Bersa Thunder .380-caliber handgun with eight rounds in the magazine and a Beretta .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun with 10 rounds in the magazine and an additional five rounds in another magazine.
Nassau police “may have averted an air disaster in the skies above Nassau County” by arresting Peck, said Krumpter, who added Peck had been employed by the FAA since 1991.
Peck was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and with “numerous” vehicle and traffic law violations, police said.
At his arraignment yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead before Judge Frank A. Doddato, Peck was ordered held on $12,500 cash bail or $25,000 bond.
Peck, who was represented by Legal Aid, is due back in court on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration website identifies Breen Peck as an air traffic control specialist working at TRACON in Westbury. That center controls flights into and out of Kennedy, LaGuardia, Long Island MacArthur, and Republic airports, among others.
It was not clear if he had worked on the day of his arrest or was scheduled to work.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said he was currently “in training,” but would not explain what that meant. She also would not say whether the agency employed more than one controller named Breen Peck.
The FAA refused to say whether he was the same Breen Peck who reportedly once misdirected a flight carrying First Lady Michelle Obama into the “potentially dangerous turbulence” of a military transport plane.
But The Washington Post yesterday reported that Peck was the same man responsible for the April 2011 incident, as well as an earlier mistake that “nearly caused a collision” a year earlier involving a United Airlines flight carrying Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.).
YOUR TAX DOLLARS DOWN THE TOILET
The Navy has spent $864 million on mine detecting drones that don’t work
Your tax dollars at work … or rather, not working. The Navy has spent $864 million on developing Lockheed Martin’s underwater mine detecting drones. There’s only one slight problem. The damn things don’t work.
THE NAVY’S $864 MILLION UNDERWATER DRONES STILL DON’T WORK
Pentagon test data show 24 major failures since September 2014 with crippled Lockheed drones towed to port seven times this year
By Anthony Capaccio
Bloomberg Business
December 8, 2015
The U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship would be ineffective at hunting for mines because an underwater drone made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that’s supposed to find them often fails to work, the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office found.
While mine-hunting is intended to be the primary combat mission of the ship, the drones required to detect underwater explosive devices from a safe distance have failed 24 times since September 2014, according to Navy test data provided to the Defense Department’s Office of Operational Test & Evaluation.
Most recently, the drones failed 14 times over 300 hours in a five-month round of preliminary trials at sea that ended Aug. 30, according to the data. Crippled drones were towed to port seven times, and the intense combat testing required for increased purchases has been delayed. The Navy plans to spend $864 million buying 54 drones from Lockheed, the biggest U.S. contractor.
Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, has scheduled a Jan. 19 review of the drone’s reliability woes, the latest setback for the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of combat testing, prepared a 41-page classified assessment dated Nov. 12 for the review.
An independent team named by the Navy also is reviewing the drone program because the service realizes “reliability performance has not been acceptable,” Captain Thurraya Kent, a spokeswoman for the service, said in an e-mail.
Lockheed’s Response
Lockheed spokesman Joe Dougherty said in an e-mail that the drone “exceeded or met key performance parameters during a Navy-led development test conducted in early 2015.’’ He said the Remote Minehunting System is “the only system on track for delivery that can fill” an “imminent capability gap.”
Equipped with a mobile sonar made by Raytheon Co., the drone is supposed to provide the ship with a system that can spot underwater explosive devices without sailing near them, as current Avenger-class mine-hunting ships must do.
“We remain confident the RMS is the most mature system to identify and destroy mines,” Dougherty said. A Lockheed brochure posted online and dated 2014 says the drone “meets or exceeds all key performance parameters and is available today.”
Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an e-mail Tuesday that the new report “only furthers my concerns about the testing and reliability performance of the Littoral Combat Ship’s troubled mine countermeasures capability. ”
The Arizona Republican said decisions over the next few months will set the course for U.S. maritime anti-mine capabilities for decades so“there should be no rush to failure.”
Previous Questions
The drone failures add to previous questions about how much value the U.S. will get from what’s now supposed to be a $23 billion program to build 32 Littoral Combat Ships in two versions made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed and Austal Ltd. based in Henderson, Australia. Both versions depend on the drones to detect mines from a safe distance.
In 2014 then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel truncated the original plan to buy 52 Littoral Combat Ships, built to operate in shallow coastal waters, citing reservations about the vessel’s effectiveness in combat and vulnerability to attack. Later, he approved a Navy proposal to buy 20 modified ships after 2019 with improved armor, sensors and weapons.
The Navy spent $109 million buying the first eight drones, spare parts and logistics services from Lockheed in 2005. The drone was supposed to complete combat testing and be declared ready for combat by September of this year. Lockheed stands to gain more than $700 million in orders for the remaining 46 drones. That includes as much as $400 million in February for the next order of 18 that Kendall will review.
Gilmore, the testing chief, found there’s “sufficient information available, based on testing to date, to conclude” the Littoral Combat Ship “would not be operationally effective” or maintainable if deployed in combat with the current mine-sweeping modules, Marine Corps Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, Gilmore’s spokesman, said in an e-mail describing the study’s unclassified conclusions.
The system’s “reliability remains far below what is needed to support” the mine-hunting mission, Rankine-Galloway said. It’s unclear whether the drone “will ever achieve its reliability goals” of operating 75 hours between major failures, “but given the history of the program, it may require more design changes than the Navy has been considering,” Rankine-Galloway said.
The Navy’s program to date “has not substantially grown the reliability,” he said. The conclusion was based on data showing not only that critical mine-hunting systems were unreliable but also that the drone was vulnerable to mines and possessed limited communications capability.
Airborne System
Further, the Littoral Combat Ship’s separate, airborne-based AN/ASQ-235 mine neutralization system currently can’t disable “most of the mines contained in the Navy’s own real-world threat scenarios,” Rankine-Galloway said. The system, which would be deployed on MH-60S helicopters, is intended to destroy the mines found by the drones.
Kent, the Navy spokeswoman, said the mine-hunting system “has demonstrated the ability to meet operational requirements.” Still, “reliability performance has not been acceptable during the most recent” evaluation.
Since September 2014, the drone has experienced 24 “operational mission failures” blamed on poor workmanship, design deficiencies, wear and tear or training procedures, Kendall was told Nov. 3 in a memo from David C. Brown, his deputy for development testing.
“Considering the focused effort put into improving” the drone’s reliability since 2010, the latest poor performance “puts into question whether the current” design “will ever meet the Navy’s reliability requirement,” Brown wrote.
Your tax dollars at work … or rather, not working. The Navy has spent $864 million on developing Lockheed Martin’s underwater mine detecting drones. There’s only one slight problem. The damn things don’t work.
THE NAVY’S $864 MILLION UNDERWATER DRONES STILL DON’T WORK
Pentagon test data show 24 major failures since September 2014 with crippled Lockheed drones towed to port seven times this year
By Anthony Capaccio
Bloomberg Business
December 8, 2015
The U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship would be ineffective at hunting for mines because an underwater drone made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that’s supposed to find them often fails to work, the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office found.
While mine-hunting is intended to be the primary combat mission of the ship, the drones required to detect underwater explosive devices from a safe distance have failed 24 times since September 2014, according to Navy test data provided to the Defense Department’s Office of Operational Test & Evaluation.
Most recently, the drones failed 14 times over 300 hours in a five-month round of preliminary trials at sea that ended Aug. 30, according to the data. Crippled drones were towed to port seven times, and the intense combat testing required for increased purchases has been delayed. The Navy plans to spend $864 million buying 54 drones from Lockheed, the biggest U.S. contractor.
Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, has scheduled a Jan. 19 review of the drone’s reliability woes, the latest setback for the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of combat testing, prepared a 41-page classified assessment dated Nov. 12 for the review.
An independent team named by the Navy also is reviewing the drone program because the service realizes “reliability performance has not been acceptable,” Captain Thurraya Kent, a spokeswoman for the service, said in an e-mail.
Lockheed’s Response
Lockheed spokesman Joe Dougherty said in an e-mail that the drone “exceeded or met key performance parameters during a Navy-led development test conducted in early 2015.’’ He said the Remote Minehunting System is “the only system on track for delivery that can fill” an “imminent capability gap.”
Equipped with a mobile sonar made by Raytheon Co., the drone is supposed to provide the ship with a system that can spot underwater explosive devices without sailing near them, as current Avenger-class mine-hunting ships must do.
“We remain confident the RMS is the most mature system to identify and destroy mines,” Dougherty said. A Lockheed brochure posted online and dated 2014 says the drone “meets or exceeds all key performance parameters and is available today.”
Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an e-mail Tuesday that the new report “only furthers my concerns about the testing and reliability performance of the Littoral Combat Ship’s troubled mine countermeasures capability. ”
The Arizona Republican said decisions over the next few months will set the course for U.S. maritime anti-mine capabilities for decades so“there should be no rush to failure.”
Previous Questions
The drone failures add to previous questions about how much value the U.S. will get from what’s now supposed to be a $23 billion program to build 32 Littoral Combat Ships in two versions made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed and Austal Ltd. based in Henderson, Australia. Both versions depend on the drones to detect mines from a safe distance.
In 2014 then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel truncated the original plan to buy 52 Littoral Combat Ships, built to operate in shallow coastal waters, citing reservations about the vessel’s effectiveness in combat and vulnerability to attack. Later, he approved a Navy proposal to buy 20 modified ships after 2019 with improved armor, sensors and weapons.
The Navy spent $109 million buying the first eight drones, spare parts and logistics services from Lockheed in 2005. The drone was supposed to complete combat testing and be declared ready for combat by September of this year. Lockheed stands to gain more than $700 million in orders for the remaining 46 drones. That includes as much as $400 million in February for the next order of 18 that Kendall will review.
Gilmore, the testing chief, found there’s “sufficient information available, based on testing to date, to conclude” the Littoral Combat Ship “would not be operationally effective” or maintainable if deployed in combat with the current mine-sweeping modules, Marine Corps Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, Gilmore’s spokesman, said in an e-mail describing the study’s unclassified conclusions.
The system’s “reliability remains far below what is needed to support” the mine-hunting mission, Rankine-Galloway said. It’s unclear whether the drone “will ever achieve its reliability goals” of operating 75 hours between major failures, “but given the history of the program, it may require more design changes than the Navy has been considering,” Rankine-Galloway said.
The Navy’s program to date “has not substantially grown the reliability,” he said. The conclusion was based on data showing not only that critical mine-hunting systems were unreliable but also that the drone was vulnerable to mines and possessed limited communications capability.
Airborne System
Further, the Littoral Combat Ship’s separate, airborne-based AN/ASQ-235 mine neutralization system currently can’t disable “most of the mines contained in the Navy’s own real-world threat scenarios,” Rankine-Galloway said. The system, which would be deployed on MH-60S helicopters, is intended to destroy the mines found by the drones.
Kent, the Navy spokeswoman, said the mine-hunting system “has demonstrated the ability to meet operational requirements.” Still, “reliability performance has not been acceptable during the most recent” evaluation.
Since September 2014, the drone has experienced 24 “operational mission failures” blamed on poor workmanship, design deficiencies, wear and tear or training procedures, Kendall was told Nov. 3 in a memo from David C. Brown, his deputy for development testing.
“Considering the focused effort put into improving” the drone’s reliability since 2010, the latest poor performance “puts into question whether the current” design “will ever meet the Navy’s reliability requirement,” Brown wrote.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
SUICIDE IS GOING TO THE DOGS
By Bob Walsh
If the local medical examiner is to be believed the death of Rebecca Hardy, 22, in Port Huron, MI, on December 3 was a suicide.
The young woman, who had a baby and was engaged to be married, was recently kicked out of her family home and had attempted suicide once before. Never the less her family is not buying into the suicide story and believe she was killed while taking a short-cut through a fenced yard.
The dog that killed here, a pit bull and husky mix, was put down the day of the attack as was one of the dog’s three puppies.
Clicking on this link will go to a very thin NY Daily News piece on this story.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mich-woman-dog-mauling-death-ruled-suicide-police-article-1.2462252
If the local medical examiner is to be believed the death of Rebecca Hardy, 22, in Port Huron, MI, on December 3 was a suicide.
The young woman, who had a baby and was engaged to be married, was recently kicked out of her family home and had attempted suicide once before. Never the less her family is not buying into the suicide story and believe she was killed while taking a short-cut through a fenced yard.
The dog that killed here, a pit bull and husky mix, was put down the day of the attack as was one of the dog’s three puppies.
Clicking on this link will go to a very thin NY Daily News piece on this story.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mich-woman-dog-mauling-death-ruled-suicide-police-article-1.2462252
INTERESTING THOUGHTS ON FEAR OF TERRORISM AND REACTIONS TO IT
By Bob Walsh
I was listening today (12-11) to my favorite talk radio guy, Tom Sullivan, as I was driving home from my dad's house. Sullivan is primarily a financial guy but does a lot of general talk radio subjects as well and is on the Fox Network.
He cited the following two recent poll results.
The week after 9-11 the general public reported that 78% of them had a serious or substantial fear of a subsequent terrorist attack. Within the week just past that figure was 79%.
This past week the general public is now reporting that a majority is OPPOSED to further bans on "assault weapons." That is the first time that has been true since the term "assault weapons" game into general use.
I don't know if our little corner of the world is functionally a less safe place than it was 60 days ago but it would seem that John Q. Citizen certainly THINKS it is. These beliefs are very likely to effect the outcome of upcoming elections.
It is likely to be an interesting 11 months or so coming up.
I was listening today (12-11) to my favorite talk radio guy, Tom Sullivan, as I was driving home from my dad's house. Sullivan is primarily a financial guy but does a lot of general talk radio subjects as well and is on the Fox Network.
He cited the following two recent poll results.
The week after 9-11 the general public reported that 78% of them had a serious or substantial fear of a subsequent terrorist attack. Within the week just past that figure was 79%.
This past week the general public is now reporting that a majority is OPPOSED to further bans on "assault weapons." That is the first time that has been true since the term "assault weapons" game into general use.
I don't know if our little corner of the world is functionally a less safe place than it was 60 days ago but it would seem that John Q. Citizen certainly THINKS it is. These beliefs are very likely to effect the outcome of upcoming elections.
It is likely to be an interesting 11 months or so coming up.
THIS MURDER HAS EXPOSED THE DARK SIDE OF MEXICO’S HACKING COMMUNITY
Raúl Robles, a prominent Mexican hacker and cybersecurity expert, was assassinated after receiving several online threats to his life
By Duncan Tucker
VICE News
December 10, 2015
Raúl Robles, a prominent Mexican hacker and cybersecurity expert, was eating breakfast with his father at a quiet café in a leafy neighborhood of the western city of Guadalajara when a masked gunman walked in and opened fire. Robles, 31, was reportedly hit five times and died at the scene. The killer escaped before police arrived.
The December 2 murder has shocked Mexico's hacker community but it has also provided a window on a murky world of intense rivalry and mutual sabotage where the death itself was seemingly announced beforehand in an online forum.
Robles, a resident of Mexico City, had been the target of several threatening messages on Hispachan, a site for completely anonymous Spanish-language discussion that has proven popular among hackers since its launch in 2012. All the threats have now been deleted.
"I'm gonna kill this faggot!! I know he's coming to my city and I'll kill him here," read the first threat posted in October, alongside an image of Robles.
The next warning came on the eve of the killing. "I'm sick of Raúl Robles, I have a gun and I'll steal his fucking car," it read. "I saw him eating breakfast in a café yesterday, he goes there very often, I'll wait and see if he comes tomorrow."
A third message appeared hours after the killing alongside an image of a handgun: "Like I told you, I'd had it up to here with the fat son of a bitch, that's why my heart didn't miss a beat when the time came to kill him."
Robles — who was known by the pseudonym MegaByte — was the CEO of Hacking Mexico, a cybersecurity firm that claims to provide training for agents from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office and the National Security and Investigation Center. Having founded the company in 2012, Robles went on to become one of Mexico's best known hackers and would often run hacking courses and give speeches at conferences.
Robles was a controversial figure who faced accusations of humiliating and defrauding other members of the hacking community. On social networks such as Facebook and Taringa, several users published documents that appeared to indicated that Robles had lied about holding a master's degree and falsely claimed that his company was affiliated with Mexico's National Polytechnic Institute.
In an online community characterized by bravado and macho attitudes, Robles also loved to flaunt his apparent wealth by uploading YouTube videos of expensive watches, sports cars and fat stacks of cash. His Twitter profile pronounced his love of "weed, mezcal and oral sex."
Within hours of Robles' death, hundreds of commenters on sites such as Reddit, and Taringa left virulent messages mocking his fate and denouncing him as a fraud and a bully who deserved to be killed.
One YouTube user named TechnoHack alleged that Robles had sexually harassed him or her by sending photos of his private parts. Another user, Petrovic Ígor, admitted that he and several others used to bully Robles on online software forums.
Daniel Rodríguez, a Mexican IT professional better known by his online alias Last Dragon, told VICE News that Robles often dismissed his critics as "blacks or indians" in a way that carried clear racist connotations.
Rodríguez accused Robles of trolling him on his blog, but said he was much nicer in person than his online persona suggested. Even so, Rodríguez said that the largely unsympathetic reaction to the murder was "justified, despite being politically incorrect."
According to Rodríguez, Hacking Mexico has often been involved in bitter disputes with rival groups such as Anonymous México that hacked Robles' company website in 2013 to highlight flaws in its security systems. He added that the Mexican Organization of Ethical Hackers got very upset when one of Robles' colleagues started trolling them online.
There is a "lot of tension" between members of Mexico's hacking community, Rodríguez stressed, but "the only thing everyone had in common was that they hated MegaByte."
Shortly after the shooting Guadalajara's attorney general, Eduardo Almaguer, told local reporters that Robles had used several different aliases and that a number of complaints had been filed against him in Mexico City for cyber crimes. He did not give details about the alleged crimes.
Alejandro Torres, who works as an IT engineer at Hacking Mexico, told VICE News that while some Mexican hacker groups are dedicated to crimes such as online theft, he had never witnessed any illegal activity at Robles' firm.
As for the widespread criticism of his friend's online behavior, Torres said Robles had carefully crafted an egocentric and sarcastic persona on social networks in a bid to cause controversy and generate free publicity for his business.
"He was another person in real life," he said.
Robles' murder was the highest profile killing in a wave of violence that hit Guadalajara at the beginning of December, with 23 people slain across the city over two days in what analysts said could be an underworld power struggle unleashed by a series of recent arrests of leaders within the locally-dominant drug cartel. The fact that his death was foretold in a forum popular with hackers, however, meant speculation of who might be responsible in this case has inevitably focused on his many enemies in the community.
"Perhaps it was someone who felt offended by a comment some time ago and they held onto that feeling of anger until they had an opportunity [to take revenge]," Torres speculated.
He also suggested that the killing could have been related to a series of classes Robles was due to give this month on how to hack casinos. Torres said the course was intended to highlight vulnerabilities that hackers could take advantage of in the servers used by online casinos with the aim of helping the owners of the sites protect their businesses. "Maybe [the killer] was someone who didn't like that or whose interests could have been affected," he said.
Mexican casinos have long been linked to organized crime, most infamously in 2011 when 52 people were killed in a cartel attack on the Casino Royale in the northern city of Monterrey.
Torres also noted that Hacking Mexico was one of the first businesses in Mexico to provide training in cybersecurity, an area he said has drawn increasing public interest due to the violence and crime that has plagued the country in recent years in the context of multiple rivalries between different criminal groups and a much-questioned government offensive against them that made things worse.
Virtual kidnappings — in which criminals use personal information they find online to trick people into believing they've abducted a family member and then panic them into paying a ransom — have become increasingly common in Mexico in the social media age. Such tactics rely on lax security settings, deception and bogus threats, but they can be effective given that Mexicans live in a world where horrific violence dominates the daily news.
Robles' murder brought the two phenomena together.
"I feel a bit disturbed by what's happening in Mexico with all the crime and how easy it is for someone who decides to kill a person to buy a gun and kill them in a place that's supposed to be safe," Torres said.
But, he added, while the shock of Robles' death was still reverberating through the hacking community, he did not expect that it would prompt a new sense of fraternity among the rival hackers locked in feuds on online forums.
"It's always been that way on the social networks," he said. "That's not going to change."
By Duncan Tucker
VICE News
December 10, 2015
Raúl Robles, a prominent Mexican hacker and cybersecurity expert, was eating breakfast with his father at a quiet café in a leafy neighborhood of the western city of Guadalajara when a masked gunman walked in and opened fire. Robles, 31, was reportedly hit five times and died at the scene. The killer escaped before police arrived.
The December 2 murder has shocked Mexico's hacker community but it has also provided a window on a murky world of intense rivalry and mutual sabotage where the death itself was seemingly announced beforehand in an online forum.
Robles, a resident of Mexico City, had been the target of several threatening messages on Hispachan, a site for completely anonymous Spanish-language discussion that has proven popular among hackers since its launch in 2012. All the threats have now been deleted.
"I'm gonna kill this faggot!! I know he's coming to my city and I'll kill him here," read the first threat posted in October, alongside an image of Robles.
The next warning came on the eve of the killing. "I'm sick of Raúl Robles, I have a gun and I'll steal his fucking car," it read. "I saw him eating breakfast in a café yesterday, he goes there very often, I'll wait and see if he comes tomorrow."
A third message appeared hours after the killing alongside an image of a handgun: "Like I told you, I'd had it up to here with the fat son of a bitch, that's why my heart didn't miss a beat when the time came to kill him."
Robles — who was known by the pseudonym MegaByte — was the CEO of Hacking Mexico, a cybersecurity firm that claims to provide training for agents from Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office and the National Security and Investigation Center. Having founded the company in 2012, Robles went on to become one of Mexico's best known hackers and would often run hacking courses and give speeches at conferences.
Robles was a controversial figure who faced accusations of humiliating and defrauding other members of the hacking community. On social networks such as Facebook and Taringa, several users published documents that appeared to indicated that Robles had lied about holding a master's degree and falsely claimed that his company was affiliated with Mexico's National Polytechnic Institute.
In an online community characterized by bravado and macho attitudes, Robles also loved to flaunt his apparent wealth by uploading YouTube videos of expensive watches, sports cars and fat stacks of cash. His Twitter profile pronounced his love of "weed, mezcal and oral sex."
Within hours of Robles' death, hundreds of commenters on sites such as Reddit, and Taringa left virulent messages mocking his fate and denouncing him as a fraud and a bully who deserved to be killed.
One YouTube user named TechnoHack alleged that Robles had sexually harassed him or her by sending photos of his private parts. Another user, Petrovic Ígor, admitted that he and several others used to bully Robles on online software forums.
Daniel Rodríguez, a Mexican IT professional better known by his online alias Last Dragon, told VICE News that Robles often dismissed his critics as "blacks or indians" in a way that carried clear racist connotations.
Rodríguez accused Robles of trolling him on his blog, but said he was much nicer in person than his online persona suggested. Even so, Rodríguez said that the largely unsympathetic reaction to the murder was "justified, despite being politically incorrect."
According to Rodríguez, Hacking Mexico has often been involved in bitter disputes with rival groups such as Anonymous México that hacked Robles' company website in 2013 to highlight flaws in its security systems. He added that the Mexican Organization of Ethical Hackers got very upset when one of Robles' colleagues started trolling them online.
There is a "lot of tension" between members of Mexico's hacking community, Rodríguez stressed, but "the only thing everyone had in common was that they hated MegaByte."
Shortly after the shooting Guadalajara's attorney general, Eduardo Almaguer, told local reporters that Robles had used several different aliases and that a number of complaints had been filed against him in Mexico City for cyber crimes. He did not give details about the alleged crimes.
Alejandro Torres, who works as an IT engineer at Hacking Mexico, told VICE News that while some Mexican hacker groups are dedicated to crimes such as online theft, he had never witnessed any illegal activity at Robles' firm.
As for the widespread criticism of his friend's online behavior, Torres said Robles had carefully crafted an egocentric and sarcastic persona on social networks in a bid to cause controversy and generate free publicity for his business.
"He was another person in real life," he said.
Robles' murder was the highest profile killing in a wave of violence that hit Guadalajara at the beginning of December, with 23 people slain across the city over two days in what analysts said could be an underworld power struggle unleashed by a series of recent arrests of leaders within the locally-dominant drug cartel. The fact that his death was foretold in a forum popular with hackers, however, meant speculation of who might be responsible in this case has inevitably focused on his many enemies in the community.
"Perhaps it was someone who felt offended by a comment some time ago and they held onto that feeling of anger until they had an opportunity [to take revenge]," Torres speculated.
He also suggested that the killing could have been related to a series of classes Robles was due to give this month on how to hack casinos. Torres said the course was intended to highlight vulnerabilities that hackers could take advantage of in the servers used by online casinos with the aim of helping the owners of the sites protect their businesses. "Maybe [the killer] was someone who didn't like that or whose interests could have been affected," he said.
Mexican casinos have long been linked to organized crime, most infamously in 2011 when 52 people were killed in a cartel attack on the Casino Royale in the northern city of Monterrey.
Torres also noted that Hacking Mexico was one of the first businesses in Mexico to provide training in cybersecurity, an area he said has drawn increasing public interest due to the violence and crime that has plagued the country in recent years in the context of multiple rivalries between different criminal groups and a much-questioned government offensive against them that made things worse.
Virtual kidnappings — in which criminals use personal information they find online to trick people into believing they've abducted a family member and then panic them into paying a ransom — have become increasingly common in Mexico in the social media age. Such tactics rely on lax security settings, deception and bogus threats, but they can be effective given that Mexicans live in a world where horrific violence dominates the daily news.
Robles' murder brought the two phenomena together.
"I feel a bit disturbed by what's happening in Mexico with all the crime and how easy it is for someone who decides to kill a person to buy a gun and kill them in a place that's supposed to be safe," Torres said.
But, he added, while the shock of Robles' death was still reverberating through the hacking community, he did not expect that it would prompt a new sense of fraternity among the rival hackers locked in feuds on online forums.
"It's always been that way on the social networks," he said. "That's not going to change."
Friday, December 11, 2015
LET THEM EAT STEAK: WALLER COUNTY SHERIFF’S CAR ROBBED OF GUNS DURING STEAKHOUSE LUNCHEON
Thanks to thieves, Sheriff Smith's mobile armory is now just a regular truck
By Leif Reigstad
Houston Press
December 9, 2015
While Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith cleaned his plate inside Saltgrass Steakhouse for lunch on Saturday, thieves rolled up to the parking lot out back and ripped a total of ten guns from Smith's truck and a second vehicle belonging to Waller County Precinct 4 Commissioner Justin Beckendorf.
As Fox 26 first reported earlier this week, Beckendorf was robbed of two guns, and Smith's 2006 Ford F-250 lost a rather astounding eight firearms, including a machine gun (because what kind of Texas sheriff drives to the steakhouse without a pick-up full of guns?). Smith's "official" windbreaker jacket was also stolen. According to Fox 26, Smith and Beckenford were attending a county luncheon at the steakhouse.
Smith explained to Fox 26 that he was ridin' strapped in grandpa's Cadillac because Waller County is a pretty big area to cover and he has to be ready to go on SWAT calls at all times. You'd think Smith's apparent hyper-preparedness would've led him to put some sort of preventative measure in place to keep people from stealing guns from his car in broad daylight— like, maybe a loud car alarm or a better security system (to be clear, we haven't received the offense report yet from Waller County, so we don't know much at this point about the particulars of the robbery— if the car was left unlocked, if the lock was picked, or if the windows were shattered in a smash-and-grab).
Smith's had himself a pretty rough year. First, Sandra Bland was found dead in her cell at Waller County jail in July, putting Smith under intense national scrutiny. His jail got slammed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards shortly after for substandard training in handling potentially suicidal inmates. As protesters converged on Waller County this summer, information resurfaced in national news outlets about Smith's suspension and eventual firing from his former post as chief of police in Hempstead in 2007 following allegations of police brutality and racism. In August, he was caught on video calling a local pastor peacefully protesting outside his jail a Satanist.
Now, he's been robbed blind of some pretty serious firepower. Poor guy.
At least we know what's on his Christmas list: more guns, probably. Let's hope Santa just gives him a football or something else that won't endanger the public when it falls into the wrong hands.
Update 11:30 a.m.:
According to the Waller County incident report obtained by the Houston Press this morning, the burglars broke the lock on the driver's side door of Smith's truck, and also broke the lock on Beckendorff's Dodge Ram. Among the eight guns stolen from Smith's vehicle was a Heckler and Koch UMP .45 submachine gun, which is described on its manufacturer's website as "a highly-effective, economical alternative for military and law enforcement applications," which doesn't sound like something you want to leave behind unattended in a parking lot.
The report also says Beckendorff "did not realize his vehicle had been burglarized until speaking with Sheriff Smith" the next morning.
EDITOR’S NOTE: From the police report, here is a list of the guns stolen from Sheriff Smith. Unless otherwise noted, the guns are county issued.
1. Heckler & Koch UMP 45
2. Springfield TRP 45
3. Heckler & Koch compact 45
4. Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum
5. Sig Sauer Pm400 (personal)
6. Sig Sauer 1911 .45 cal. (personal)
7. Bond Arms derringer .45 cal. (personal)
8. Heckler & Koch P30SK 9mm (personal)
Those H&Ks and Sig Sauers are some mighty fine guns, but a derringer? Shades of the Old West.
As for leaving all those guns unattended while feasting on a steak – Stupid is as stupid does!
By Leif Reigstad
Houston Press
December 9, 2015
While Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith cleaned his plate inside Saltgrass Steakhouse for lunch on Saturday, thieves rolled up to the parking lot out back and ripped a total of ten guns from Smith's truck and a second vehicle belonging to Waller County Precinct 4 Commissioner Justin Beckendorf.
As Fox 26 first reported earlier this week, Beckendorf was robbed of two guns, and Smith's 2006 Ford F-250 lost a rather astounding eight firearms, including a machine gun (because what kind of Texas sheriff drives to the steakhouse without a pick-up full of guns?). Smith's "official" windbreaker jacket was also stolen. According to Fox 26, Smith and Beckenford were attending a county luncheon at the steakhouse.
Smith explained to Fox 26 that he was ridin' strapped in grandpa's Cadillac because Waller County is a pretty big area to cover and he has to be ready to go on SWAT calls at all times. You'd think Smith's apparent hyper-preparedness would've led him to put some sort of preventative measure in place to keep people from stealing guns from his car in broad daylight— like, maybe a loud car alarm or a better security system (to be clear, we haven't received the offense report yet from Waller County, so we don't know much at this point about the particulars of the robbery— if the car was left unlocked, if the lock was picked, or if the windows were shattered in a smash-and-grab).
Smith's had himself a pretty rough year. First, Sandra Bland was found dead in her cell at Waller County jail in July, putting Smith under intense national scrutiny. His jail got slammed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards shortly after for substandard training in handling potentially suicidal inmates. As protesters converged on Waller County this summer, information resurfaced in national news outlets about Smith's suspension and eventual firing from his former post as chief of police in Hempstead in 2007 following allegations of police brutality and racism. In August, he was caught on video calling a local pastor peacefully protesting outside his jail a Satanist.
Now, he's been robbed blind of some pretty serious firepower. Poor guy.
At least we know what's on his Christmas list: more guns, probably. Let's hope Santa just gives him a football or something else that won't endanger the public when it falls into the wrong hands.
Update 11:30 a.m.:
According to the Waller County incident report obtained by the Houston Press this morning, the burglars broke the lock on the driver's side door of Smith's truck, and also broke the lock on Beckendorff's Dodge Ram. Among the eight guns stolen from Smith's vehicle was a Heckler and Koch UMP .45 submachine gun, which is described on its manufacturer's website as "a highly-effective, economical alternative for military and law enforcement applications," which doesn't sound like something you want to leave behind unattended in a parking lot.
The report also says Beckendorff "did not realize his vehicle had been burglarized until speaking with Sheriff Smith" the next morning.
EDITOR’S NOTE: From the police report, here is a list of the guns stolen from Sheriff Smith. Unless otherwise noted, the guns are county issued.
1. Heckler & Koch UMP 45
2. Springfield TRP 45
3. Heckler & Koch compact 45
4. Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum
5. Sig Sauer Pm400 (personal)
6. Sig Sauer 1911 .45 cal. (personal)
7. Bond Arms derringer .45 cal. (personal)
8. Heckler & Koch P30SK 9mm (personal)
Those H&Ks and Sig Sauers are some mighty fine guns, but a derringer? Shades of the Old West.
As for leaving all those guns unattended while feasting on a steak – Stupid is as stupid does!
YOUR GOD IS SATAN BY GOD!
Conspicuous stupidity is a woman attacking a bunch of Muslim men praying in a park
By Bob Walsh
Denise Sanders is a non-peace officer employee of the California Dept. of Corrections (and Rehabilitation). Her conspicuous lack of PC (or maybe she’s just stupid) is likely to have a negative effect on her career based on an incident that went down Sunday afternoon in a public park in Castro Valley.
Ms. Sanders came across a group of Muslim men praying in the park and basically went ballistic on them. She yelled at them, among other things, “Your god is Satan” and “The Quran is Evil.”
One of the men, Rasheed Albeshari, recorded the incident on video. For his trouble Ms. Sanders attacked him, tried to knock his camera phone away and threw hot coffee on him. He posted the video on his Facebook page.
The park police arrived and had a word with Ms. Sanders, who didn’t back away from her position. In fact the officer observed what could reasonably be interpreted as assault and battery committed by Ms. Sanders on Mr. Albeshari.
The Park Police have referred the matter to the D. A. for further investigation as a hate crime. CDCr is also investigating the matter internally.
Clicking on the link below will take you to a news piece on this story, complete with the video mentioned.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Woman-s-park-confrontation-with-Muslims-prompts-6686827.php
EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s refreshing to see that we have patriots like Denise Sanders who will stand up to them thar terrorists.
It is to the credit of Allah's faithful that none of them kicked the supreme shit out of Denise.
By Bob Walsh
Denise Sanders is a non-peace officer employee of the California Dept. of Corrections (and Rehabilitation). Her conspicuous lack of PC (or maybe she’s just stupid) is likely to have a negative effect on her career based on an incident that went down Sunday afternoon in a public park in Castro Valley.
Ms. Sanders came across a group of Muslim men praying in the park and basically went ballistic on them. She yelled at them, among other things, “Your god is Satan” and “The Quran is Evil.”
One of the men, Rasheed Albeshari, recorded the incident on video. For his trouble Ms. Sanders attacked him, tried to knock his camera phone away and threw hot coffee on him. He posted the video on his Facebook page.
The park police arrived and had a word with Ms. Sanders, who didn’t back away from her position. In fact the officer observed what could reasonably be interpreted as assault and battery committed by Ms. Sanders on Mr. Albeshari.
The Park Police have referred the matter to the D. A. for further investigation as a hate crime. CDCr is also investigating the matter internally.
Clicking on the link below will take you to a news piece on this story, complete with the video mentioned.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Woman-s-park-confrontation-with-Muslims-prompts-6686827.php
EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s refreshing to see that we have patriots like Denise Sanders who will stand up to them thar terrorists.
It is to the credit of Allah's faithful that none of them kicked the supreme shit out of Denise.
PROACTIVE POLICING KEPT OKLAHOMA CITY COP VERY BUSY
Daniel Holtzclaw was tried on 36 charges, including rape, sexual battery, burglary, indecent exposure and stalking, all committed while on duty
Talk about proactive policing, here is a former Oklahoma City cop who was quite busy sexually assaulting a whole slew of women while on duty. Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, can now look forward to a long term behind bars where he might be able to find some vulnerable inmates to screw in the ass.
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY POLICE OFFICER GUILTY OF RAPE
Jury finds Holtzclaw guilty of 18 counts of rape and sexual assaults against women after 45 hours of deliberations
By Molly Redden
The Guardian
December 10, 2015
The women were teenagers and grandmothers. Most were living on the margins. All of them were black. And during a month-long trial that became a symbol of police predation, they formed a bleak parade of 13 witnesses who accused a former Oklahoma City officer of using his badge to coerce sex acts and rape.
On Thursday, after 45 hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, on five counts of rape and 13 other counts of sexual assault, including six of sexual battery, against eight of the women.
The convictions included four for first-degree rape, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison. He will appear in court on 21 January for sentencing.
Holtzclaw was cleared of a further 18 of the 36 charges he faced, including rape, sexual battery, burglary, indecent exposure and stalking.
His conviction is likely to be viewed as a key moment of accountability for law enforcement officers who abuse their position: out of the hundreds of police officers terminated for sexual abuse in recent years, only a small number faced criminal charges and even fewer were convicted. And black women are especially liable to be their targets.
Still, the case did not attract the level of attention that activists and media outlets have paid to other accusations of rape or police abuse. Some racial justice activists were frustrated that the trial did not generate the same coverage as police-involved shootings that have killed black men. At the start of the trial, in early November, local activists were surprised to find the courtroom empty of the women’s groups that have supported accusers in other rape trials. And major networks carried little to no coverage of the trial or its outcome.
Many attributed the low visibility of the case to the profile of the victims: vulnerable women of color with troubled histories. Holtzclaw, police investigators found, methodically targeted black women with criminal records or a history of drug use or sex work. For all but one of his targets, police investigators said, the former officer used his position on the force to run background checks for outstanding warrants or other means by which to coerce sex.
An advocate who watched the trial unfold said the allegations fit a familiar pattern. “Officers count on no one believing the victim if she reports,” said Diane Wetendorf, who runs a counseling group in Chicago for women who are victims of police abuse. “And [they] know that the word of a woman of color is likely to be worth even less than the word of a white woman to those who matter in the criminal justice system.”
Indeed, Holtzclaw’s choice of victims laid the groundwork for an aggressive defense. His attorney, Scott Adams, aggressively questioned his accusers about their marijuana use, drinking, thefts, and suspended driver’s licenses in an attempt to undermine their credibility.
In court and in pretrial testimony, however, the 13 accusers told broadly consistent stories about how Holtzclaw isolated them, assaulted them, and terrorized them into silence.
One woman accused Holtzclaw of driving her to a field, raping her in the back of his squad car, and leaving her there. “There was nothing that I could do,” she testified. “He was a police officer and I was a woman.”
Another of his victims, a 17-year-old girl, testified that Holtzclaw raped her on her mother’s front porch. She said he threatened her with an outstanding warrant for trespassing. “What am I going to do?” she asked. “Call the cops? He was a cop.” The jury convicted Holtzclaw of every count related to her assault.
Another woman said the former officer forced her to perform oral sex while she was under the influence of drugs and handcuffed to a hospital bed. Holtzclaw, the woman testified, implied that he could have her charges dropped in return. “I didn’t think that no one would believe me,” the woman testified in a pre-trial hearing. “I feel like all police will work together.”
Holtzclaw’s crimes took place over seven months in 2013 and 2014 while he worked the 4pm to 2am patrol. Oklahoma City law enforcement arrested Holtzclaw on 18 June 2014. The previous night, he had pulled over a 57-year-old daycare worker and molesting her during the traffic stop. Holtzclaw then ordered her to perform oral sex, his gun in plain view, she has testified.
The woman made an immediate report to the Oklahoma City sex crimes division. Detectives arrested Holtzclaw in the afternoon. Before long, the investigative team connected Holtzclaw with other reports of sexual abuse against unnamed officers. GPS evidence from his patrol car also linked Holtzclaw to the alleged crimes.
Holtzclaw was fired from the force in January 2015.
Talk about proactive policing, here is a former Oklahoma City cop who was quite busy sexually assaulting a whole slew of women while on duty. Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, can now look forward to a long term behind bars where he might be able to find some vulnerable inmates to screw in the ass.
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY POLICE OFFICER GUILTY OF RAPE
Jury finds Holtzclaw guilty of 18 counts of rape and sexual assaults against women after 45 hours of deliberations
By Molly Redden
The Guardian
December 10, 2015
The women were teenagers and grandmothers. Most were living on the margins. All of them were black. And during a month-long trial that became a symbol of police predation, they formed a bleak parade of 13 witnesses who accused a former Oklahoma City officer of using his badge to coerce sex acts and rape.
On Thursday, after 45 hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, on five counts of rape and 13 other counts of sexual assault, including six of sexual battery, against eight of the women.
The convictions included four for first-degree rape, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison. He will appear in court on 21 January for sentencing.
Holtzclaw was cleared of a further 18 of the 36 charges he faced, including rape, sexual battery, burglary, indecent exposure and stalking.
His conviction is likely to be viewed as a key moment of accountability for law enforcement officers who abuse their position: out of the hundreds of police officers terminated for sexual abuse in recent years, only a small number faced criminal charges and even fewer were convicted. And black women are especially liable to be their targets.
Still, the case did not attract the level of attention that activists and media outlets have paid to other accusations of rape or police abuse. Some racial justice activists were frustrated that the trial did not generate the same coverage as police-involved shootings that have killed black men. At the start of the trial, in early November, local activists were surprised to find the courtroom empty of the women’s groups that have supported accusers in other rape trials. And major networks carried little to no coverage of the trial or its outcome.
Many attributed the low visibility of the case to the profile of the victims: vulnerable women of color with troubled histories. Holtzclaw, police investigators found, methodically targeted black women with criminal records or a history of drug use or sex work. For all but one of his targets, police investigators said, the former officer used his position on the force to run background checks for outstanding warrants or other means by which to coerce sex.
An advocate who watched the trial unfold said the allegations fit a familiar pattern. “Officers count on no one believing the victim if she reports,” said Diane Wetendorf, who runs a counseling group in Chicago for women who are victims of police abuse. “And [they] know that the word of a woman of color is likely to be worth even less than the word of a white woman to those who matter in the criminal justice system.”
Indeed, Holtzclaw’s choice of victims laid the groundwork for an aggressive defense. His attorney, Scott Adams, aggressively questioned his accusers about their marijuana use, drinking, thefts, and suspended driver’s licenses in an attempt to undermine their credibility.
In court and in pretrial testimony, however, the 13 accusers told broadly consistent stories about how Holtzclaw isolated them, assaulted them, and terrorized them into silence.
One woman accused Holtzclaw of driving her to a field, raping her in the back of his squad car, and leaving her there. “There was nothing that I could do,” she testified. “He was a police officer and I was a woman.”
Another of his victims, a 17-year-old girl, testified that Holtzclaw raped her on her mother’s front porch. She said he threatened her with an outstanding warrant for trespassing. “What am I going to do?” she asked. “Call the cops? He was a cop.” The jury convicted Holtzclaw of every count related to her assault.
Another woman said the former officer forced her to perform oral sex while she was under the influence of drugs and handcuffed to a hospital bed. Holtzclaw, the woman testified, implied that he could have her charges dropped in return. “I didn’t think that no one would believe me,” the woman testified in a pre-trial hearing. “I feel like all police will work together.”
Holtzclaw’s crimes took place over seven months in 2013 and 2014 while he worked the 4pm to 2am patrol. Oklahoma City law enforcement arrested Holtzclaw on 18 June 2014. The previous night, he had pulled over a 57-year-old daycare worker and molesting her during the traffic stop. Holtzclaw then ordered her to perform oral sex, his gun in plain view, she has testified.
The woman made an immediate report to the Oklahoma City sex crimes division. Detectives arrested Holtzclaw in the afternoon. Before long, the investigative team connected Holtzclaw with other reports of sexual abuse against unnamed officers. GPS evidence from his patrol car also linked Holtzclaw to the alleged crimes.
Holtzclaw was fired from the force in January 2015.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
THE BEARD'S COMEDY ACT IS CUT
Who will be selected to lead the prison system in California?
By Richard Krupp, PhD
As the current Department of Corrections Secretary pulls the plug and moves into retirement mode I think back at some of his CDCR highlights or maybe comedic highlights? There have been a few things that brought a smile to my face. Of course the media did not list many of the most amusing antics from the Beard days. Here are excerpts from a recent Sacramento Bee article,
California prison chief to leave
Jeffrey Beard, 68, will retire after three years as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, Beard set Jan. 1 as the effective date of his departure. During Beard’s tenure, the state settled one lawsuit that contended inmates were excessively punished for allegations of gang affiliation and another lawsuit that said they were punished by race.
More recently, the secretary was put in an awkward position over department policy for staffing inmate fire camps. In October, the corrections officials said they might change a long-standing policy that excludes inmates whose crimes fall under the state’s legal definition of a “violent offense.”
The announcement raised safety concerns, however, and the department pulled back. Then it had to acknowledge that some violent offenders were already assigned to fire camps, despite information on the CDCR website to the contrary
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article47839745.html#storylink=cpy
Though the article does mention the fire camp problem, some details were omitted. We did cover the violent camper theme in an article posted here on Paco, Beard Favors Prone Position with Inmate Hosers back on October 27, 2015.
Here are some highlights,
The Fluidly Violent Fire Camp Inmate--Something Good Can Work
Who's on first?
A couple of weeks ago Secretary of Corrections Jeffrey Beard demonstrated his comedic skills by utilizing the Abbot and Costello, "Who's on first" routine to explain away the prison system utilization of violent inmates on fire crews. According to Beard,
• Some inmates are convicted of violence and others are prone to violence.
• Inmates not '"classified" as violent are banned from fire camp if they act violent.
• Inmates who are non-violent but have violent tendencies are banned from fire camp.
• A violent inmate who changes to non-violent can go to camp.
The comedic Beard made everyone feel more comfortable when he indicated that even Corrections people haven't understood this fluid concept. This has been going on a long time so don't worry about it.
And of course, who could forget the brilliant Ad Seg game playing program for problem inmates highlighted in a September 1, 2014 post on Paco,
Playing games--Waiting for the cough syrup to go down
The three stooges find miracle cure for mental illness
“Standalone unit cells are provided electricity, allowing each inmate to have an electrical appliance in his cell,” a report on the policies explains. “Each inmate in the standalone unit will receive a general orientation packet and a (workbook), as well as pen fillers, paper, a calendar, a radio provided on the first day of placement, nonfiction and fiction books, regular offering of puzzles, crosswords, games, current events materials, the unit’s menu, and personal property such as photographs and notebooks.”
A major focus will be on getting inmates out of their cells to exercise or play with balls or games. Inmates in short-term housing will get 20 hours a week of such time, double what they are afforded in administrative segregation units.
And then there is the radical "Guard One" program that involved "hitting a thing with a stick" to ensure no inmates committed suicide. Highlighted in this December 26, 2014 Paco post,
The Cool Kids for 2015?
They know where we should go
"I think we have made a lot of good progress over the past year," Beard said.
In addition to providing more accommodations for mentally ill inmates, the prison system has put in place new protocols meant to reduce suicides. Beard noted that the number of inmate suicides has fallen -- there were 30 in 2013, and 23 reported so far this year. He attributes the decline to new policies, including a requirement that guards check on inmates in segregation units twice every hour rather than once an hour.
"The one big thing that we did is we installed what's called a Guard One system in all of our segregation units, and this is a system where the officer has a (tool), like a pipe, that they walk around and they hit a thing on each door," Beard said. "And so it actually ensures that somebody is making regular rounds in the housing unit."
Also ranking high on the list was, but not in the top three was the program involving "friendly, passive security dogs" utilized to sniff out inmate smuggled drugs and cell phones. Who wouldn't want a friendly security dog? The Beard replaced the highly successful German Shepherd dogs due to complaints from visitors about the non passive dogs. More details are available on the March 17, 2015 Paco post, Prison System to get Friendly, Passive Dogs: Who is keeping an eye on this?
He headed west from Pennsylvania to find some treasure but now the Beard and his comedy act now moves on. Who is to blame for the antics that peppered the Beard years? Who will be selected to carry on? Will he be funny? Here is the song, Blame it on me by, George Ezra,
We headed west for to find ourselves some truth, ooh
We counted all our reasons, excuses that we made
We found ourselves some treasure, and threw it all away
What you waiting for
No, What you waiting for
Caught in the tide of blossom, caught in the carnival
Your confidence forgotten, I see the gypsies rule
By Richard Krupp, PhD
As the current Department of Corrections Secretary pulls the plug and moves into retirement mode I think back at some of his CDCR highlights or maybe comedic highlights? There have been a few things that brought a smile to my face. Of course the media did not list many of the most amusing antics from the Beard days. Here are excerpts from a recent Sacramento Bee article,
California prison chief to leave
Jeffrey Beard, 68, will retire after three years as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, Beard set Jan. 1 as the effective date of his departure. During Beard’s tenure, the state settled one lawsuit that contended inmates were excessively punished for allegations of gang affiliation and another lawsuit that said they were punished by race.
More recently, the secretary was put in an awkward position over department policy for staffing inmate fire camps. In October, the corrections officials said they might change a long-standing policy that excludes inmates whose crimes fall under the state’s legal definition of a “violent offense.”
The announcement raised safety concerns, however, and the department pulled back. Then it had to acknowledge that some violent offenders were already assigned to fire camps, despite information on the CDCR website to the contrary
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article47839745.html#storylink=cpy
Though the article does mention the fire camp problem, some details were omitted. We did cover the violent camper theme in an article posted here on Paco, Beard Favors Prone Position with Inmate Hosers back on October 27, 2015.
Here are some highlights,
The Fluidly Violent Fire Camp Inmate--Something Good Can Work
Who's on first?
A couple of weeks ago Secretary of Corrections Jeffrey Beard demonstrated his comedic skills by utilizing the Abbot and Costello, "Who's on first" routine to explain away the prison system utilization of violent inmates on fire crews. According to Beard,
• Some inmates are convicted of violence and others are prone to violence.
• Inmates not '"classified" as violent are banned from fire camp if they act violent.
• Inmates who are non-violent but have violent tendencies are banned from fire camp.
• A violent inmate who changes to non-violent can go to camp.
The comedic Beard made everyone feel more comfortable when he indicated that even Corrections people haven't understood this fluid concept. This has been going on a long time so don't worry about it.
And of course, who could forget the brilliant Ad Seg game playing program for problem inmates highlighted in a September 1, 2014 post on Paco,
Playing games--Waiting for the cough syrup to go down
The three stooges find miracle cure for mental illness
“Standalone unit cells are provided electricity, allowing each inmate to have an electrical appliance in his cell,” a report on the policies explains. “Each inmate in the standalone unit will receive a general orientation packet and a (workbook), as well as pen fillers, paper, a calendar, a radio provided on the first day of placement, nonfiction and fiction books, regular offering of puzzles, crosswords, games, current events materials, the unit’s menu, and personal property such as photographs and notebooks.”
A major focus will be on getting inmates out of their cells to exercise or play with balls or games. Inmates in short-term housing will get 20 hours a week of such time, double what they are afforded in administrative segregation units.
And then there is the radical "Guard One" program that involved "hitting a thing with a stick" to ensure no inmates committed suicide. Highlighted in this December 26, 2014 Paco post,
The Cool Kids for 2015?
They know where we should go
"I think we have made a lot of good progress over the past year," Beard said.
In addition to providing more accommodations for mentally ill inmates, the prison system has put in place new protocols meant to reduce suicides. Beard noted that the number of inmate suicides has fallen -- there were 30 in 2013, and 23 reported so far this year. He attributes the decline to new policies, including a requirement that guards check on inmates in segregation units twice every hour rather than once an hour.
"The one big thing that we did is we installed what's called a Guard One system in all of our segregation units, and this is a system where the officer has a (tool), like a pipe, that they walk around and they hit a thing on each door," Beard said. "And so it actually ensures that somebody is making regular rounds in the housing unit."
Also ranking high on the list was, but not in the top three was the program involving "friendly, passive security dogs" utilized to sniff out inmate smuggled drugs and cell phones. Who wouldn't want a friendly security dog? The Beard replaced the highly successful German Shepherd dogs due to complaints from visitors about the non passive dogs. More details are available on the March 17, 2015 Paco post, Prison System to get Friendly, Passive Dogs: Who is keeping an eye on this?
He headed west from Pennsylvania to find some treasure but now the Beard and his comedy act now moves on. Who is to blame for the antics that peppered the Beard years? Who will be selected to carry on? Will he be funny? Here is the song, Blame it on me by, George Ezra,
We headed west for to find ourselves some truth, ooh
We counted all our reasons, excuses that we made
We found ourselves some treasure, and threw it all away
What you waiting for
No, What you waiting for
Caught in the tide of blossom, caught in the carnival
Your confidence forgotten, I see the gypsies rule
HILLARY HAS GOT TO LOVE THE DONALD
Under her breath, Hillary must be saying go Trump go, go Trump go!
The Republicans have a big problem, a really big problem! They have lost the women’s vote because of their stance on abortions and contraceptives. They’ve lost the Hispanic vote because of their stance on immigration and they never had the black vote. That leaves the Republicans with mostly white men. And there aren’t enough white males to secure the presidency for the GOP.
If that wasn’t enough of a dilemma, along comes Donald Trump with his outrageous and bombastic statements on the campaign trail. His latest statement that he would not allow any Muslims to enter this country, including Muslim-Americans returning home from abroad, set off a shitstorm of criticism not only from Democrats, but from his fellow Republicans as well.
The buffoon – oops, I mean tycoon – backtracked somewhat by saying that the entry ban on Muslims would be temporary “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses,” and that it would not apply to Muslim-Americans returning home from abroad, nor to government officials of Muslim countries.
The White House responded by saying Trump was not fit to be president. Tom Brokaw crwled out from under his rock to say, “Trump's statement, even in this season of extremes, is a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law and the foundation of America itself.” Bokaw compared Trump’s proposal to what we did to the Japanese-Americans by sending them to concentration camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He even went so far as to all but compare Trump to Hitler by referring to the Nazi treatment of the Jews.
A number of my friends like what Trump is saying. They like the fact that the buffoon – oops again, I mean tycoon – is not politically correct. They believe he’s saying what needs to be said. But I suspect they really prefer someone else as the Republican nominee for President.
You never know what The Donald might say next. It wouldn’t surprise me if he calls for an overthrow of the Obama administration which he believes is clueless.
Even if Trump wins the primary vote, there is a chance that during the Republican National Convention, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz will nonetheless be nominated for the presidency. If that were to happen, Trump would likely run as an Independent, thereby guaranteeing a victory for the Democratic nominee.
Hillary has been blasting Trump at every campaign stop and during every TV interview. But secretly, Hillary has got to love The Donald. I’ll bet that under her breath, she must be saying go Trump go, go Trump go!
If Trump is the Republican nominee or if he runs as an Independent, Hillary is a shoo-in. Hilary would eat The Donald’s lunch during any debate. If Rubio or Cruz were to be nominated, they would give Hillary the Beast a run for her money because they are fresh new faces and have not been part of the Washington scene for long. But without the women’s vote, Jesus Christ running as a Republican probably wouldn’t win.
The Republicans have a big problem, a really big problem! They have lost the women’s vote because of their stance on abortions and contraceptives. They’ve lost the Hispanic vote because of their stance on immigration and they never had the black vote. That leaves the Republicans with mostly white men. And there aren’t enough white males to secure the presidency for the GOP.
If that wasn’t enough of a dilemma, along comes Donald Trump with his outrageous and bombastic statements on the campaign trail. His latest statement that he would not allow any Muslims to enter this country, including Muslim-Americans returning home from abroad, set off a shitstorm of criticism not only from Democrats, but from his fellow Republicans as well.
The buffoon – oops, I mean tycoon – backtracked somewhat by saying that the entry ban on Muslims would be temporary “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses,” and that it would not apply to Muslim-Americans returning home from abroad, nor to government officials of Muslim countries.
The White House responded by saying Trump was not fit to be president. Tom Brokaw crwled out from under his rock to say, “Trump's statement, even in this season of extremes, is a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law and the foundation of America itself.” Bokaw compared Trump’s proposal to what we did to the Japanese-Americans by sending them to concentration camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He even went so far as to all but compare Trump to Hitler by referring to the Nazi treatment of the Jews.
A number of my friends like what Trump is saying. They like the fact that the buffoon – oops again, I mean tycoon – is not politically correct. They believe he’s saying what needs to be said. But I suspect they really prefer someone else as the Republican nominee for President.
You never know what The Donald might say next. It wouldn’t surprise me if he calls for an overthrow of the Obama administration which he believes is clueless.
Even if Trump wins the primary vote, there is a chance that during the Republican National Convention, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz will nonetheless be nominated for the presidency. If that were to happen, Trump would likely run as an Independent, thereby guaranteeing a victory for the Democratic nominee.
Hillary has been blasting Trump at every campaign stop and during every TV interview. But secretly, Hillary has got to love The Donald. I’ll bet that under her breath, she must be saying go Trump go, go Trump go!
If Trump is the Republican nominee or if he runs as an Independent, Hillary is a shoo-in. Hilary would eat The Donald’s lunch during any debate. If Rubio or Cruz were to be nominated, they would give Hillary the Beast a run for her money because they are fresh new faces and have not been part of the Washington scene for long. But without the women’s vote, Jesus Christ running as a Republican probably wouldn’t win.
CALIFORNIAS PROP 47 HAS TURNED CRIMINALS LOOSE TO PREY ON THE PUBLIC
Changing a number of felonies to misdemeanors has encouraged criminals to continue committing crimes
When California voters passed Prop 47, they did not expect they were voting for a rise in crime. By changing a number of felonies to misdemeanors, they voted to victimize themselves.
Here is an op-ed from the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), the collective bargaining agent that represents nearly 1,000 Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys:
THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DECEPTION OF PROP 47
By Marc Debbaudt
As supporters of Prop 47 furiously try to convince the public of their very dubious claim that the initiative has resulted in monetary savings, Californians have suffered a myriad of other real costs as a result of this measure. Prop 47 certainly does not create any clear benefits to society, but only to drug addicts and thieves. The claim there are savings is a monumental misconception.
The numerical value of the real costs of this policy that has been inflicted upon Californians through a misleading initiative is never calculated. The ignored costs range from a spike in violent crime and property crimes, increased rates of recidivism, and an abrupt decrease in the population of participants in drug and mental health treatment facilities throughout Southern California.
The physical and psychological costs of the increase in property and violent crimes on citizens, store owners, and victims have no price tag. As Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell recently expressed, there have been 30 homicides since the passage of Prop 47 by individuals who otherwise would have been off the streets and in the County jail for previous crimes they had committed which now fall under Prop 47. That's real trauma in the lives of decent, law-abiding human beings. 30 victims, and their families, as well as those who were forced to witness inexcusable violence. All of these pay a dear price that can't be monetarily quantified-all because of Prop 47.
The deceitfully named Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act is having a substantial negative impact on society throughout the City and County of Los Angeles in both the associated costs of crime and its psychological costs. Crime will undoubtedly continue to rise due to a lack of proper punishments and incentives to make individuals abide by the law. Some criminals have gleefully told reporters that Prop 47 has incentivized them to continue to commit crimes. In a Washington Post story appropriately headlined, "A virtual get-out-of-jail-free card", one thief in San Bernardino County, who had been caught shoplifting, even bragged about carrying a calculator to ensure he did not exceed the $950 limit that would make his crime a felony.
The toll of crime on people victimized does not end when the crime is completed. When property is stolen, identity is taken by a criminal to commit a theft, or checks are forged, and the victim suffers a loss of personal privacy and security that lingers and does not evaporate. It takes valuable time to contact the authorities, the banks, creditors, and businesses. What is the cost of that?
Prop 47 has also failed in its stated purpose of rehabilitating drug addicts. Statewide, the number of participants in both mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities has plummeted. The individuals that are committing crimes that fall under Prop 47 are now misdemeanors and are no longer required (by court order) to enroll in drug treatment programs or do time in county jail. Therefore, there is no longer a metaphorical hammer being held over their head to ensure they attend and successfully complete these programs to be effectively reintegrated into society. The social engineers claimed it was about rehabilitation, but there is no rehabilitation. Large sums of money are being spent on these drug treatment programs that no one will attend because there is no incentive to attend and complete the programs.
In seeking criminal justice, three overriding concepts are considered: rehabilitation, punishment, and deterrence. Punishment and deterrence are now anathema to the those who tinker with public safety and came up with Prop 47. Anything other than rehabilitation is characterized as an inhuman, uncompassionate response to crime-nevermind that while incarcerated criminals are not committing crimes on the streets. Under Prop 47, those same criminals are let loose on our streets.
With all of the evident negative consequences and deceptions that have been put forth by Prop 47, I am left wondering why this reckless policy was ever advanced. What is the true goal? Anarchy? One can only wonder given the clear negative impact on the safety and wellbeing of our community and the victimization of the citizens that is a direct result of Prop 47. The toll of Proposition 47 continues to climb, and it is not simply a monetary cost. It is a real cost on lives that no one wants to discuss.
When California voters passed Prop 47, they did not expect they were voting for a rise in crime. By changing a number of felonies to misdemeanors, they voted to victimize themselves.
Here is an op-ed from the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), the collective bargaining agent that represents nearly 1,000 Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys:
THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DECEPTION OF PROP 47
By Marc Debbaudt
As supporters of Prop 47 furiously try to convince the public of their very dubious claim that the initiative has resulted in monetary savings, Californians have suffered a myriad of other real costs as a result of this measure. Prop 47 certainly does not create any clear benefits to society, but only to drug addicts and thieves. The claim there are savings is a monumental misconception.
The numerical value of the real costs of this policy that has been inflicted upon Californians through a misleading initiative is never calculated. The ignored costs range from a spike in violent crime and property crimes, increased rates of recidivism, and an abrupt decrease in the population of participants in drug and mental health treatment facilities throughout Southern California.
The physical and psychological costs of the increase in property and violent crimes on citizens, store owners, and victims have no price tag. As Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell recently expressed, there have been 30 homicides since the passage of Prop 47 by individuals who otherwise would have been off the streets and in the County jail for previous crimes they had committed which now fall under Prop 47. That's real trauma in the lives of decent, law-abiding human beings. 30 victims, and their families, as well as those who were forced to witness inexcusable violence. All of these pay a dear price that can't be monetarily quantified-all because of Prop 47.
The deceitfully named Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act is having a substantial negative impact on society throughout the City and County of Los Angeles in both the associated costs of crime and its psychological costs. Crime will undoubtedly continue to rise due to a lack of proper punishments and incentives to make individuals abide by the law. Some criminals have gleefully told reporters that Prop 47 has incentivized them to continue to commit crimes. In a Washington Post story appropriately headlined, "A virtual get-out-of-jail-free card", one thief in San Bernardino County, who had been caught shoplifting, even bragged about carrying a calculator to ensure he did not exceed the $950 limit that would make his crime a felony.
The toll of crime on people victimized does not end when the crime is completed. When property is stolen, identity is taken by a criminal to commit a theft, or checks are forged, and the victim suffers a loss of personal privacy and security that lingers and does not evaporate. It takes valuable time to contact the authorities, the banks, creditors, and businesses. What is the cost of that?
Prop 47 has also failed in its stated purpose of rehabilitating drug addicts. Statewide, the number of participants in both mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities has plummeted. The individuals that are committing crimes that fall under Prop 47 are now misdemeanors and are no longer required (by court order) to enroll in drug treatment programs or do time in county jail. Therefore, there is no longer a metaphorical hammer being held over their head to ensure they attend and successfully complete these programs to be effectively reintegrated into society. The social engineers claimed it was about rehabilitation, but there is no rehabilitation. Large sums of money are being spent on these drug treatment programs that no one will attend because there is no incentive to attend and complete the programs.
In seeking criminal justice, three overriding concepts are considered: rehabilitation, punishment, and deterrence. Punishment and deterrence are now anathema to the those who tinker with public safety and came up with Prop 47. Anything other than rehabilitation is characterized as an inhuman, uncompassionate response to crime-nevermind that while incarcerated criminals are not committing crimes on the streets. Under Prop 47, those same criminals are let loose on our streets.
With all of the evident negative consequences and deceptions that have been put forth by Prop 47, I am left wondering why this reckless policy was ever advanced. What is the true goal? Anarchy? One can only wonder given the clear negative impact on the safety and wellbeing of our community and the victimization of the citizens that is a direct result of Prop 47. The toll of Proposition 47 continues to climb, and it is not simply a monetary cost. It is a real cost on lives that no one wants to discuss.
MUSLIM TRUCK DRIVERS WIN SUIT AFTER GETTING FIRED FOR REFUSING TO DELIVER BEER
In an EEOC lawsuit, a jury awarded $240,000 to two Muslim truck drivers who got fired for refusing to deliver beer, but they may not be able to collect because their former employer is no longer in business
In 2013, Business Insurance reported that:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a trucking firm for allegedly firing two Muslim drivers who refused to deliver alcohol because of their religious beliefs.
The EEOC said Wednesday it is charging Morton, Ill.-based Star Transport Inc. with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion.
According to the EEOC, the trucking firm refused to accommodate the two unnamed employees and terminated them.
“Our investigation revealed that Star could have readily avoided assigning these employees to alcohol delivery without any undue hardship, but chose to force the issue despite the employees' Islamic religion,” EEOC Chicago District Director John P. Rowe said in a statement.
In October of this year, a jury awarded the two truck drivers $240,000, but they may not be able to collect because Star Transportation, their former employer, is no longer in business.
Once the jury award was announced, it took only a New York minute for right wingers to complain that the Obama administration will go to bat for Muslims, but not for Christians. Megyn Kelly of Fox News said: “The Obama administration actually represented the two Muslims in this case, but has sometimes taken a very different position in the case of Christians trying to assert their religious beliefs.”
$240,000 JURY AWARD TO MUSLIM TRUCK DRIVERS WHO WERE FIRED FOR REFUSING TO TRNASPORT ALCOHOL
By Eugene Volokh
The Washington Post
October 23, 2015
One more data point on the “When does your religion legally excuse you from doing part of your job?” question — like it or not, under American law, employers sometimes do have to excuse employees from tasks that the employees find religiously objectionable. Tuesday, two Muslim truck drivers who were fired for refusing to deliver shipments containing alcohol were awarded $40,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages by the jury in their discrimination claim.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit on their behalf (EEOC v. Star Transport Co., Inc. (N.D. Ill.)), arguing that the employer had failed to provide “reasonable accommodations” to the employees — i.e., accommodations (including an exemption from job duties) that could be provided without “undue hardship” to the employer or others. The court noted that Star Transport had indeed often “swap[ped]’ loads between drivers,” and Star Transport conceded that it could have easily accommodated this request, too, but argued (unsuccessfully) that it shouldn’t be liable for punitive damages.
This concession was important, and if Star Transport had fought the case, and shown that such a swap would indeed be difficult (and that its “forced dispatch” policy, which on its face generally required drivers to deliver what they were told, was consistently enforced), it should have won. But when accommodating an employee just requires a bit of extra administrative hassle, in the form of arranging a swap (given that most other drivers presumably wouldn’t care about whether they are delivering alcohol), the federal Civil Rights Act requires the employer to do this.
But as the Peoria Journal Star (Andy Kravetz) notes, “Whether the men collect their money is another story. Star Transport went out of business earlier this year and it’s unknown who is now responsible for the judgment.” Thanks to Professor Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) for the pointer.
In 2013, Business Insurance reported that:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a trucking firm for allegedly firing two Muslim drivers who refused to deliver alcohol because of their religious beliefs.
The EEOC said Wednesday it is charging Morton, Ill.-based Star Transport Inc. with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion.
According to the EEOC, the trucking firm refused to accommodate the two unnamed employees and terminated them.
“Our investigation revealed that Star could have readily avoided assigning these employees to alcohol delivery without any undue hardship, but chose to force the issue despite the employees' Islamic religion,” EEOC Chicago District Director John P. Rowe said in a statement.
In October of this year, a jury awarded the two truck drivers $240,000, but they may not be able to collect because Star Transportation, their former employer, is no longer in business.
Once the jury award was announced, it took only a New York minute for right wingers to complain that the Obama administration will go to bat for Muslims, but not for Christians. Megyn Kelly of Fox News said: “The Obama administration actually represented the two Muslims in this case, but has sometimes taken a very different position in the case of Christians trying to assert their religious beliefs.”
$240,000 JURY AWARD TO MUSLIM TRUCK DRIVERS WHO WERE FIRED FOR REFUSING TO TRNASPORT ALCOHOL
By Eugene Volokh
The Washington Post
October 23, 2015
One more data point on the “When does your religion legally excuse you from doing part of your job?” question — like it or not, under American law, employers sometimes do have to excuse employees from tasks that the employees find religiously objectionable. Tuesday, two Muslim truck drivers who were fired for refusing to deliver shipments containing alcohol were awarded $40,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages by the jury in their discrimination claim.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit on their behalf (EEOC v. Star Transport Co., Inc. (N.D. Ill.)), arguing that the employer had failed to provide “reasonable accommodations” to the employees — i.e., accommodations (including an exemption from job duties) that could be provided without “undue hardship” to the employer or others. The court noted that Star Transport had indeed often “swap[ped]’ loads between drivers,” and Star Transport conceded that it could have easily accommodated this request, too, but argued (unsuccessfully) that it shouldn’t be liable for punitive damages.
This concession was important, and if Star Transport had fought the case, and shown that such a swap would indeed be difficult (and that its “forced dispatch” policy, which on its face generally required drivers to deliver what they were told, was consistently enforced), it should have won. But when accommodating an employee just requires a bit of extra administrative hassle, in the form of arranging a swap (given that most other drivers presumably wouldn’t care about whether they are delivering alcohol), the federal Civil Rights Act requires the employer to do this.
But as the Peoria Journal Star (Andy Kravetz) notes, “Whether the men collect their money is another story. Star Transport went out of business earlier this year and it’s unknown who is now responsible for the judgment.” Thanks to Professor Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) for the pointer.
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
GUN CONTROL THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK
Forget the proposals for tougher gun controls put forth by President Obama every time there is a mass shooting; there is a better way to prevent the killings
I’m sure you’ve heard the oft repeated phrase, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Well, chew on this one for a while. Guns don’t kill people, bullets kill people. It’s a truth that what comes out of the barrel of a gun is what kills people, not the gun itself.
Every time there is a mass shooting President Obama weeps and wails about the need for tougher gun controls. In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, Hillary Clinton has piped in with her two bits worth on the need for tougher gun controls. The New York Times ran a front page editorial Saturday saying that no citizen should be able to purchase or possess a military-style rifle. And true to form, in his Sunday evening address from the Oval Office, Obama joined The Times by calling for a ban on assault rifles.
None of the proposals by Obama, Hillary and the New York Times are going to prevent mass shootings or the daily shootings by gangbangers. No, not with an estimated 300 million guns already owned by Americans and with more being purchased each day.
But there is a gun control that might actually work. If Congress passed a law banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handgun and rifle ammunition that would really have an effect on gun deaths in this country. Eventually the supply of ammo now held by law abiding citizens and criminals would dry up. Not only would gun death then all but disappear, but there would be no more robberies by firearm and the gangbangers would be reduced to pistol whipping each other. There would also be far fewer young black men killed by white cops.
While The Times editorial said “It is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency,” the editors would have been more truthful had they said it is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase ammunition designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency.
With a ban on the manufacture of handgun and rifle ammunition, how would our military and law enforcement agencies get their small arms ammunition? That can be solved with Congress passing a law that allows the army to establish ammunition manufacturing facilities on one or more of its military bases. The only outsiders that would be able purchase any ammo from the army would be our law enforcement agencies and they should be able to make those purchases at cost.
Now you say, “Hey, hold your horses! What about us hunters?” Well fellas, you’ll just have to go back to basics. Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain and Cabela’s will be only too happy to sell you their compound-bow packages.
There are those of you who will say that the Mexican cartels will just love the ban on ammo. They’ll start manufacturing their own and smuggle it into the United States. That’s easier said than done. It will be much harder to conceal ammo than illegal drugs and it will be much easier to detect the illegal ammunition shipments.
Finally, what about the Second Amendment? It says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It doesn’t say a word about ammunition. The ammunition ban would keep the Second Amendment intact and people would still be free to purchase and own as many guns as they want.
Again, a law banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handgun and rifle ammunition is a gun control that might actually work. And with that ban, all you gun owners out there wouldn’t have to worry about the government confiscating your firearms.
But don’t worry guys, no one will have to pry your bullets from your cold dead hands. Congress would never ever pass any such law.
I’m sure you’ve heard the oft repeated phrase, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Well, chew on this one for a while. Guns don’t kill people, bullets kill people. It’s a truth that what comes out of the barrel of a gun is what kills people, not the gun itself.
Every time there is a mass shooting President Obama weeps and wails about the need for tougher gun controls. In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, Hillary Clinton has piped in with her two bits worth on the need for tougher gun controls. The New York Times ran a front page editorial Saturday saying that no citizen should be able to purchase or possess a military-style rifle. And true to form, in his Sunday evening address from the Oval Office, Obama joined The Times by calling for a ban on assault rifles.
None of the proposals by Obama, Hillary and the New York Times are going to prevent mass shootings or the daily shootings by gangbangers. No, not with an estimated 300 million guns already owned by Americans and with more being purchased each day.
But there is a gun control that might actually work. If Congress passed a law banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handgun and rifle ammunition that would really have an effect on gun deaths in this country. Eventually the supply of ammo now held by law abiding citizens and criminals would dry up. Not only would gun death then all but disappear, but there would be no more robberies by firearm and the gangbangers would be reduced to pistol whipping each other. There would also be far fewer young black men killed by white cops.
While The Times editorial said “It is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency,” the editors would have been more truthful had they said it is a moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase ammunition designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency.
With a ban on the manufacture of handgun and rifle ammunition, how would our military and law enforcement agencies get their small arms ammunition? That can be solved with Congress passing a law that allows the army to establish ammunition manufacturing facilities on one or more of its military bases. The only outsiders that would be able purchase any ammo from the army would be our law enforcement agencies and they should be able to make those purchases at cost.
Now you say, “Hey, hold your horses! What about us hunters?” Well fellas, you’ll just have to go back to basics. Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain and Cabela’s will be only too happy to sell you their compound-bow packages.
There are those of you who will say that the Mexican cartels will just love the ban on ammo. They’ll start manufacturing their own and smuggle it into the United States. That’s easier said than done. It will be much harder to conceal ammo than illegal drugs and it will be much easier to detect the illegal ammunition shipments.
Finally, what about the Second Amendment? It says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It doesn’t say a word about ammunition. The ammunition ban would keep the Second Amendment intact and people would still be free to purchase and own as many guns as they want.
Again, a law banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handgun and rifle ammunition is a gun control that might actually work. And with that ban, all you gun owners out there wouldn’t have to worry about the government confiscating your firearms.
But don’t worry guys, no one will have to pry your bullets from your cold dead hands. Congress would never ever pass any such law.
BABY BURIED ALIVE WAS BORN TO MOTHER WHO HID PREGNANCY
LAPD identified Porche Laronda Washington as the woman who delivered on Nov. 26, the baby being found the following day at 24-48 hours old
CBS/AP
December 7, 2015
LOS ANGELES -- The 33-year-old woman whose buried baby was found alive near a Southern California bike path had been hiding her pregnancy and did not want to deliver, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Richard Ruiz of the Special Victims Bureau said at a press conference Monday.
The woman, identified as Porche Laronda Washington, delivered on Nov. 26 and the baby was found the following day at 24-48 hours old, Ruiz said.
She had been hiding her pregnancy and "She did not want people to know she was pregnant," he said, adding that she had been successfully concealing her condition.
Los Angeles' safe haven law requires that an unwanted baby be dropped off at a firehouse or a hospital within three days of delivery.
Washington, however, was to be arraigned this afternoon and would be charged with attempted murder and child abandonment, Ruiz said.
He said her arrest Friday took place in a Compton home without incident and that people who knew Washington helped lead police to her after authorities had identified the suspect through the hospital where she delivered.
Around 4 p.m. on Nov. 27, deputies were sent to an area between 136th Street and Slater Avenue in Compton, Los Angeles, for reports of a baby crying in the riverbed, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Marvin Jaramilla.
Upon their arrival, authorities heard a "baby's muffled cry" and located the infant. A deputy rescued the infant from inside a crevice located along the bike path.
"The baby was wrapped in a blanket and cold to the touch," said Jaramilla in a statement. She was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
CBS/AP
December 7, 2015
LOS ANGELES -- The 33-year-old woman whose buried baby was found alive near a Southern California bike path had been hiding her pregnancy and did not want to deliver, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Richard Ruiz of the Special Victims Bureau said at a press conference Monday.
The woman, identified as Porche Laronda Washington, delivered on Nov. 26 and the baby was found the following day at 24-48 hours old, Ruiz said.
She had been hiding her pregnancy and "She did not want people to know she was pregnant," he said, adding that she had been successfully concealing her condition.
Los Angeles' safe haven law requires that an unwanted baby be dropped off at a firehouse or a hospital within three days of delivery.
Washington, however, was to be arraigned this afternoon and would be charged with attempted murder and child abandonment, Ruiz said.
He said her arrest Friday took place in a Compton home without incident and that people who knew Washington helped lead police to her after authorities had identified the suspect through the hospital where she delivered.
Around 4 p.m. on Nov. 27, deputies were sent to an area between 136th Street and Slater Avenue in Compton, Los Angeles, for reports of a baby crying in the riverbed, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Marvin Jaramilla.
Upon their arrival, authorities heard a "baby's muffled cry" and located the infant. A deputy rescued the infant from inside a crevice located along the bike path.
"The baby was wrapped in a blanket and cold to the touch," said Jaramilla in a statement. She was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)