The world has lost a truly great man in Nelson Mandela, one whose legacy will live on for centuries. I believe it’s not inappropriate to make some comparisons between Mandela and Barack Obama.
Both men were lawyers.
Mandela was a freedom fighter who went to prison for 27 years for challenging an oppressive apartheid government. Obama was a community organizer.
Mandela changed a racially divided South Africa into a multi-racial nation where the oppressed black masses have been united with their former white oppressors. During Obama’s presidency, America’s racial divide has widened.
President Mandela went out of his way to work with the opposition political parties. Obama has made little effort to work with his Republican opposition.
Mandela presided over a functional government. Obama’s policies have led to a dysfunctional Congress.
Mandela united his nation. Obama has polarized America.
Compared to Mandela, Obama will be nothing more than a tiny speck on the pages of history.
Friday, December 06, 2013
FORMER DRUG KINGPIN IS HOUNDED BY U.S. FOR THE MURDER OF A DEA AGENT MORE LIKELY KILLED BY A CIA AGENT
Rafael Caro Quintero asks Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to resist pressure from the U.S. to arrest and extradite him
The Mexican weekly news magazine Proceso reported on October 12, 2013 that in interviews with former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) Phil Jordan, former DEA agent Hector Berrellez and former CIA pilot Tosh Plumlee, the three claim to have evidence that the U.S. government itself ordered the murder of Kiki Camarena. They fingered Felix Ismael Rodriguez, a Cuban, as the actual killer. Rodriguez, a CIA officer, had also participated in the interrogation and killing of legendary Che Guevara.
Plumlee says the CIA was running drugs from South America to the U.S. and using the drug money to arm the Contras in Nicaragua. Camarena was terminated because he intended to follow the drug trafficking money trail which would have exposed the CIA’s illicit operation.
I do not have any sympathy for Rafael Caro Quintero because he was present during the murder of Kiki Camarena. But considering the questionable circumstances involving Kiki’s murder, I would have to agree that the U.S. is out for revenge, and by hounding Quintero it is also covering up the fact that our government was actually behind his murder.
FUGITIVE DRUG LORD TO MEXICAN PRESIDENT: REJECT U.S. EXTRADITION BID
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
December 3, 2013
MEXICO CITY -- A fugitive drug kingpin convicted in the slaying of an American federal agent is urging Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to resist U.S. “pressure” for his extradition and to end the manhunt pursuing him, an official said Tuesday.
Atty. Gen. Jesus Murillo Karam confirmed to reporters the existence of a letter written by Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from prison in August after serving 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the 1985 slaying of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.
Amid outrage from American officials and families of Caro Quintero’s many victims, the Mexican Supreme Court later overturned the court decision that allowed the former capo’s release and ordered him recaptured.
Caro Quintero has not been seen since he walked out of a Guadalajara prison in the middle of the night.
Murillo did not enter into details of the letter. But the newsmagazine Proceso this week reproduced a copy of the document, dated Nov. 11 and with stamps showing it delivered to Peña Nieto’s office on Nov. 19. Proceso said it was delivered by Caro Quintero’s attorneys.
Caro Quintero argues that any debt to society that he might have had, “I have already paid.” He accuses the U.S. of pursuing “extradition tinged with revenge” by seeking his removal to California to be tried on additional drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. He urges Peña Nieto and other top members of the government to resist those demands.
“The only thing they are trying to do is make me feel the weight of revenge, using my family and discrediting Mexico and its laws, and to subjugate our sovereignty with the only desire of feeling superior,” Caro Quintero wrote.
He complains that the U.S. is unfairly targeting his wife, children and mother, and that the charges in California are false.
The U.S. Treasury Department has put several of Caro Quintero’s family members and associates and their businesses on the so-called kingpin blacklist, which bars U.S. firms and banks from dealing with them. Washington has offered a $5-million reward for information leading to Caro Quintero's arrest.
Copies of the letter also went to Murillo and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
“It is true, the letter, as it appears, was sent,” Murillo said. “The matter, as you can see from the letter itself, is a matter that should be resolved in the judicial purview, and that’s where it is.”
Camarena was killed along with his Mexican pilot while working out of the Guadalajara office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He had made a big dent in Caro Quintero’s marijuana business when he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Caro Quintero fled, but was captured and convicted in Mexico.
The Mexican weekly news magazine Proceso reported on October 12, 2013 that in interviews with former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) Phil Jordan, former DEA agent Hector Berrellez and former CIA pilot Tosh Plumlee, the three claim to have evidence that the U.S. government itself ordered the murder of Kiki Camarena. They fingered Felix Ismael Rodriguez, a Cuban, as the actual killer. Rodriguez, a CIA officer, had also participated in the interrogation and killing of legendary Che Guevara.
Plumlee says the CIA was running drugs from South America to the U.S. and using the drug money to arm the Contras in Nicaragua. Camarena was terminated because he intended to follow the drug trafficking money trail which would have exposed the CIA’s illicit operation.
I do not have any sympathy for Rafael Caro Quintero because he was present during the murder of Kiki Camarena. But considering the questionable circumstances involving Kiki’s murder, I would have to agree that the U.S. is out for revenge, and by hounding Quintero it is also covering up the fact that our government was actually behind his murder.
FUGITIVE DRUG LORD TO MEXICAN PRESIDENT: REJECT U.S. EXTRADITION BID
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
December 3, 2013
MEXICO CITY -- A fugitive drug kingpin convicted in the slaying of an American federal agent is urging Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to resist U.S. “pressure” for his extradition and to end the manhunt pursuing him, an official said Tuesday.
Atty. Gen. Jesus Murillo Karam confirmed to reporters the existence of a letter written by Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from prison in August after serving 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the 1985 slaying of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.
Amid outrage from American officials and families of Caro Quintero’s many victims, the Mexican Supreme Court later overturned the court decision that allowed the former capo’s release and ordered him recaptured.
Caro Quintero has not been seen since he walked out of a Guadalajara prison in the middle of the night.
Murillo did not enter into details of the letter. But the newsmagazine Proceso this week reproduced a copy of the document, dated Nov. 11 and with stamps showing it delivered to Peña Nieto’s office on Nov. 19. Proceso said it was delivered by Caro Quintero’s attorneys.
Caro Quintero argues that any debt to society that he might have had, “I have already paid.” He accuses the U.S. of pursuing “extradition tinged with revenge” by seeking his removal to California to be tried on additional drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. He urges Peña Nieto and other top members of the government to resist those demands.
“The only thing they are trying to do is make me feel the weight of revenge, using my family and discrediting Mexico and its laws, and to subjugate our sovereignty with the only desire of feeling superior,” Caro Quintero wrote.
He complains that the U.S. is unfairly targeting his wife, children and mother, and that the charges in California are false.
The U.S. Treasury Department has put several of Caro Quintero’s family members and associates and their businesses on the so-called kingpin blacklist, which bars U.S. firms and banks from dealing with them. Washington has offered a $5-million reward for information leading to Caro Quintero's arrest.
Copies of the letter also went to Murillo and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
“It is true, the letter, as it appears, was sent,” Murillo said. “The matter, as you can see from the letter itself, is a matter that should be resolved in the judicial purview, and that’s where it is.”
Camarena was killed along with his Mexican pilot while working out of the Guadalajara office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He had made a big dent in Caro Quintero’s marijuana business when he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Caro Quintero fled, but was captured and convicted in Mexico.
WOULD ILLEGAL ALIEN ONYANGO OBAMA HAVE BEEN GRANTED LEGAL RESIDENCY IF HIS NEPHEW WERE NOT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
Onyango Obama, who has lived in this country illegally nearly 50 years, was granted legal residency Tuesday by a federal judge in Boston.
Onyango is an uncle of President Obama. He is the half-brother of the president’s late father. He came to this country from Kenya in 1963 on a student visa. He did not return to Kenya when the visa expired. He has also ignored several deportation orders.
Onyango told U.S. Judge Leonard Shapiro that he has been a hard worker, paid income tax and was arrested only once. When asked about any family in the U.S., he told the judge he has a sister and two nieces, and “I do have a nephew.” When Judge Shapiro, who obviously knew the identity of the nephew, asked Onyango to name him, he replied, “Barack Obama ….. He’s the president of the United States.”
I do not have a problem with Onyango being granted legal residency even though he ignored several deportation orders while living here illegally for nearly 50 years. He has been a productive resident of this country and paid his taxes. However, I wonder if he were not Barack Obama’s uncle, would the judge have been as generous. Somehow, I doubt it.
During the hearing, Onyango said under oath that in the 1980s his nephew lived with him for three weeks at his apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Last year the White House issued a statement that President Obama had never met his uncle. But on Thursday, the Liar-in-Chief admitted that he had stayed at Onyango Obama’s apartment when he prepared to enter Harvard Law School.
Onyango is an uncle of President Obama. He is the half-brother of the president’s late father. He came to this country from Kenya in 1963 on a student visa. He did not return to Kenya when the visa expired. He has also ignored several deportation orders.
Onyango told U.S. Judge Leonard Shapiro that he has been a hard worker, paid income tax and was arrested only once. When asked about any family in the U.S., he told the judge he has a sister and two nieces, and “I do have a nephew.” When Judge Shapiro, who obviously knew the identity of the nephew, asked Onyango to name him, he replied, “Barack Obama ….. He’s the president of the United States.”
I do not have a problem with Onyango being granted legal residency even though he ignored several deportation orders while living here illegally for nearly 50 years. He has been a productive resident of this country and paid his taxes. However, I wonder if he were not Barack Obama’s uncle, would the judge have been as generous. Somehow, I doubt it.
During the hearing, Onyango said under oath that in the 1980s his nephew lived with him for three weeks at his apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Last year the White House issued a statement that President Obama had never met his uncle. But on Thursday, the Liar-in-Chief admitted that he had stayed at Onyango Obama’s apartment when he prepared to enter Harvard Law School.
PROMINENT DETROIT PLASTIC SURGEON BELIEVES SMOKING POT CAUSES MAN BOOBS
Dr. Anthony Youn sees a relationship between smoking pot and gynecomastia, otherwise known as man boobs
Gynecomastia is caused by a hormone imbalance between testosterone and estrogen. When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs.
Dr. Youn is of the opinion that chronic marijuana use leads to lower testosterone levels, the cause of man boobs. In a December 5 CNN op-ed, Dr. Youn wrote:
“Although the association between marijuana and gynecomastia hasn't been conclusively proven, it appears very plausible. For this reason, the majority of plastic surgeons I've consulted with routinely inquire with their gynecomastia patients about cannabis use and recommend they stop smoking pot immediately.”
So all you male potheads out there, if you’re gonna keep smoking them joints, check out your boobs because it may be time for you to head over to Victoria’s Secret and get fitted for some bras. And, now tell me again that pot is less dangerous than alcohol.
Gynecomastia is caused by a hormone imbalance between testosterone and estrogen. When the ratio between testosterone and estrogen tips in favor of estrogen, the body responds by creating excessive breast tissue. Hence, man boobs.
Dr. Youn is of the opinion that chronic marijuana use leads to lower testosterone levels, the cause of man boobs. In a December 5 CNN op-ed, Dr. Youn wrote:
“Although the association between marijuana and gynecomastia hasn't been conclusively proven, it appears very plausible. For this reason, the majority of plastic surgeons I've consulted with routinely inquire with their gynecomastia patients about cannabis use and recommend they stop smoking pot immediately.”
So all you male potheads out there, if you’re gonna keep smoking them joints, check out your boobs because it may be time for you to head over to Victoria’s Secret and get fitted for some bras. And, now tell me again that pot is less dangerous than alcohol.
RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS CHARGED WITH FRAUD FOR DOING WHAT MANY AMERICANS DO
49 diplomats lied about their income in order for them and their families to qualify for Medicaid
Hmm, I wonder if we are now on the verge of another cold war with the Russians?
U.S. CHARGES 49 RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS WITH HEALTHCARE FRAUD
Thomson/Reuters
December 5, 2013
U.S. prosecutors have charged 49 current and former Russian diplomats and their family members with participating in a scheme to get health benefits intended for the poor by lying about their income.
The charges come against a backdrop of tense exchanges between Russia and the United States over law enforcement actions in both countries.
According to the charges, filed in November and unsealed on Thursday, the diplomats' families got around $1.5 million in benefits from the Medicaid program for families with low monthly incomes - in many cases around $3,000 or less. The benefits covered costs related to pregnancies, births and infant care, the charges say.
Meanwhile, according to the charges, the family members had their housing costs paid for by the Russian government and spent "tens of thousands of dollars" on vacations, jewelry and luxury goods from stores like Swarovski and Jimmy Choo.
Each of the 49 people was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to steal government funds and make false statements relating to healthcare matters, according to the charges.
"We are puzzled by the stove-piping of information to the media about accusations against Russian diplomatic mission officials in the U.S.," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency.
"One does not understand why the [U.S.] institutions involved considered it possible to make these accusations public without discussing [them] through diplomatic channels."
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Peter Donald, said no one was arrested.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan press conference that the U.S. State Department would have had to request a waiver of immunity from Russia in order for U.S. authorities to arrest the defendants. If no waiver is granted, Bharara said the State Department can insist that the defendants leave the country.
"Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country," he said.
Bharara declined to say how the charges might affect U.S.-Russia relations. He said his office has not been in contact with the White House.
A spokeswoman for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Russian mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on the case.
The charges say the defendants obtained letters to prove their false incomes from officials at the Russian U.N. mission, including a former counselor and a former second secretary, as well as from former top officials at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in New York and the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the USA.
Only two of the seven officials who allegedly signed off on the income letters are identified in the charges by name. The other five are referred to as unidentified co-conspirators.
Timur Salomatin, a former Russian diplomat at the U.N., and his wife Nailya Babaeva, said they made $3,000 a month when Salomatin's U.N. salary was actually $5,160 per month, according to the charges.
Another couple, Andrey Kalinin and Irina Shirshova, lied about their income and monthly housing costs in order to be deemed eligible for Medicaid and also sought benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which subsidizes the cost of some types of foods and education. According to the charges, the family received more than $23,000 in Medicaid benefits over about three years.
Some families also lied about their newborns' citizenship status, the charges say, because children born to many diplomats and their spouses do not automatically acquire U.S. citizenship the way others do.
Hundreds of Russian diplomats and their families live in a compound in the Riverdale neighborhood in the Bronx. Three dozen of the defendants lived in Russian-owned housing in the Bronx, according to the complaint.
Bharara said only 11 are still in the United States; ten are diplomats with the Russian Mission to the U.N. and their spouses, and one is now stationed at the Russian embassy in Washington.
Russia has in recent years accused the United States of biased and politically motivated prosecution of its citizens, including jailed arms dealer Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking.
In response to a U.S. law enacted in December 2012 that bars Russians seen as human rights abusers from entering the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off that same month on a similar law barring Americans, including some U.S. Justice Department officials, from Russia. Bharara is among those banned from Russia.
Hmm, I wonder if we are now on the verge of another cold war with the Russians?
U.S. CHARGES 49 RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS WITH HEALTHCARE FRAUD
Thomson/Reuters
December 5, 2013
U.S. prosecutors have charged 49 current and former Russian diplomats and their family members with participating in a scheme to get health benefits intended for the poor by lying about their income.
The charges come against a backdrop of tense exchanges between Russia and the United States over law enforcement actions in both countries.
According to the charges, filed in November and unsealed on Thursday, the diplomats' families got around $1.5 million in benefits from the Medicaid program for families with low monthly incomes - in many cases around $3,000 or less. The benefits covered costs related to pregnancies, births and infant care, the charges say.
Meanwhile, according to the charges, the family members had their housing costs paid for by the Russian government and spent "tens of thousands of dollars" on vacations, jewelry and luxury goods from stores like Swarovski and Jimmy Choo.
Each of the 49 people was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to steal government funds and make false statements relating to healthcare matters, according to the charges.
"We are puzzled by the stove-piping of information to the media about accusations against Russian diplomatic mission officials in the U.S.," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency.
"One does not understand why the [U.S.] institutions involved considered it possible to make these accusations public without discussing [them] through diplomatic channels."
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Peter Donald, said no one was arrested.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan press conference that the U.S. State Department would have had to request a waiver of immunity from Russia in order for U.S. authorities to arrest the defendants. If no waiver is granted, Bharara said the State Department can insist that the defendants leave the country.
"Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country," he said.
Bharara declined to say how the charges might affect U.S.-Russia relations. He said his office has not been in contact with the White House.
A spokeswoman for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Russian mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on the case.
The charges say the defendants obtained letters to prove their false incomes from officials at the Russian U.N. mission, including a former counselor and a former second secretary, as well as from former top officials at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in New York and the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the USA.
Only two of the seven officials who allegedly signed off on the income letters are identified in the charges by name. The other five are referred to as unidentified co-conspirators.
Timur Salomatin, a former Russian diplomat at the U.N., and his wife Nailya Babaeva, said they made $3,000 a month when Salomatin's U.N. salary was actually $5,160 per month, according to the charges.
Another couple, Andrey Kalinin and Irina Shirshova, lied about their income and monthly housing costs in order to be deemed eligible for Medicaid and also sought benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which subsidizes the cost of some types of foods and education. According to the charges, the family received more than $23,000 in Medicaid benefits over about three years.
Some families also lied about their newborns' citizenship status, the charges say, because children born to many diplomats and their spouses do not automatically acquire U.S. citizenship the way others do.
Hundreds of Russian diplomats and their families live in a compound in the Riverdale neighborhood in the Bronx. Three dozen of the defendants lived in Russian-owned housing in the Bronx, according to the complaint.
Bharara said only 11 are still in the United States; ten are diplomats with the Russian Mission to the U.N. and their spouses, and one is now stationed at the Russian embassy in Washington.
Russia has in recent years accused the United States of biased and politically motivated prosecution of its citizens, including jailed arms dealer Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking.
In response to a U.S. law enacted in December 2012 that bars Russians seen as human rights abusers from entering the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off that same month on a similar law barring Americans, including some U.S. Justice Department officials, from Russia. Bharara is among those banned from Russia.
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS FROM A REDNECK’S POINT OF VIEW
By Charlie Daniels
The Charlie Daniels Band
November 29, 2013
"Blessed are the peacemakers they will be called the children of God" - Matthew 5:9
The search for peace is not only a noble mission, but also a sacred undertaking.
When someone strives to bring about a situation that is beneficial to all people, the cessation of armed conflict, the senseless slaughter of innocent people, of hopefully creating an atmosphere where cooler heads prevail and old grudges and vendettas are laid aside and a war weary people can have at least a semblance of a normal productive existence without having to fear for their lives and those of their loved ones.
The United States of America has had a long and successful record of achieving a real and lasting peace with former enemies. The Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, even our staunch allies, the British were at one time engaged in bloody wars with America, and due to wise diplomacy and the American people's willingness to forgive and forget, lasting peace has prevailed between us and our former enemies.
But the last half-century has not gone well for America in the foreign policy realm. We've littered the international land scape with unwise military intervention, unfinished wars, propping up dictators and betraying those who fought beside us as we did the Montagnards in Vietnam, violating trust, eroding confidence and leaving the credible impression that America is no longer as good as its word.
Now, at least in my humble opinion, America - or those who speak for America - are just about to make another, and perhaps the most catastrophic blunder since Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain with the firm conviction that Adolph Hitler was the kind of leader who would end his aggression and honor his word.
I am, of course, speaking about the Obama administration's overtures to Iran, that on nothing but their promise of giving up their nuclear weapons program we would lift many of the effective sanctions that has crippled their economy.
This is a one-sided deal, Iran gives up nothing, only delays their nuclear research for a few months, gets their economy rolling again by being able to put their oil on the world market and after getting on their feet, they could very well politely thumb their noses at the Western World and take up where they left off.
President Obama's willingness to make concessions to the biggest exporter of terror on the planet, to take the word of Mullahs whose religion allows dishonesty and deception when dealing with infidels, his eagerness to take America's mind off the dismal failure the roll out of Obamacare and his many other shortcomings, wreaks of naivety and back room politics and accomplishes nothing more than the delay of the inevitable.
The inevitable being that Iran is not, I repeat, not going to abandon their determination to build weapons of mass destruction and obtain delivery systems to deploy them to any country they deem to be their enemy.
Anybody who believes otherwise is in for a very nasty surprise. Giving Iran breathing space at this very crucial time in the last inning phase of their nuclear development is like letting a boxer out of the corner of the ring without delivering a knockout punch, the pressure should be turned up, not down on Iran.
No matter what glowing terms the media describes Obama's appeasement of one of our deadliest enemies in, remember this, Iran's desire to make the world an Islamic planet has not slackened and all Obama is doing is throwing fuel on a fire that would like nothing better than to turn the Western World into a sheet of glass.
The only friend we have in that part of the world is Israel and what Obama's deal would do to them is tantamount to another betrayal of an American ally, leaving them in an untenable position at odds with the rest of the world if they are forced, which I believe they will be, into attacking Iran's nuclear facilities to protect their homeland.
Already the other oil rich nations in the region are saying that if Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon they will have to have one too and I can't think of a more nightmarish scenario than a nuclear armed Middle East and the terrorist implications that go along with it.
And people, if you think president Obama is being perceived as being a knight in shining armor by Iran and the other nations in the neighborhood, you'd best think again. In that part of the world his actions are viewed as weakness by our enemies, betrayal by the Israelis and downright foolishness by realistic people who are looking at the long run.
The pursuit of peace is a noble calling; the acceptance of appeasement is a fool's errand.
The Charlie Daniels Band
November 29, 2013
"Blessed are the peacemakers they will be called the children of God" - Matthew 5:9
The search for peace is not only a noble mission, but also a sacred undertaking.
When someone strives to bring about a situation that is beneficial to all people, the cessation of armed conflict, the senseless slaughter of innocent people, of hopefully creating an atmosphere where cooler heads prevail and old grudges and vendettas are laid aside and a war weary people can have at least a semblance of a normal productive existence without having to fear for their lives and those of their loved ones.
The United States of America has had a long and successful record of achieving a real and lasting peace with former enemies. The Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, even our staunch allies, the British were at one time engaged in bloody wars with America, and due to wise diplomacy and the American people's willingness to forgive and forget, lasting peace has prevailed between us and our former enemies.
But the last half-century has not gone well for America in the foreign policy realm. We've littered the international land scape with unwise military intervention, unfinished wars, propping up dictators and betraying those who fought beside us as we did the Montagnards in Vietnam, violating trust, eroding confidence and leaving the credible impression that America is no longer as good as its word.
Now, at least in my humble opinion, America - or those who speak for America - are just about to make another, and perhaps the most catastrophic blunder since Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain with the firm conviction that Adolph Hitler was the kind of leader who would end his aggression and honor his word.
I am, of course, speaking about the Obama administration's overtures to Iran, that on nothing but their promise of giving up their nuclear weapons program we would lift many of the effective sanctions that has crippled their economy.
This is a one-sided deal, Iran gives up nothing, only delays their nuclear research for a few months, gets their economy rolling again by being able to put their oil on the world market and after getting on their feet, they could very well politely thumb their noses at the Western World and take up where they left off.
President Obama's willingness to make concessions to the biggest exporter of terror on the planet, to take the word of Mullahs whose religion allows dishonesty and deception when dealing with infidels, his eagerness to take America's mind off the dismal failure the roll out of Obamacare and his many other shortcomings, wreaks of naivety and back room politics and accomplishes nothing more than the delay of the inevitable.
The inevitable being that Iran is not, I repeat, not going to abandon their determination to build weapons of mass destruction and obtain delivery systems to deploy them to any country they deem to be their enemy.
Anybody who believes otherwise is in for a very nasty surprise. Giving Iran breathing space at this very crucial time in the last inning phase of their nuclear development is like letting a boxer out of the corner of the ring without delivering a knockout punch, the pressure should be turned up, not down on Iran.
No matter what glowing terms the media describes Obama's appeasement of one of our deadliest enemies in, remember this, Iran's desire to make the world an Islamic planet has not slackened and all Obama is doing is throwing fuel on a fire that would like nothing better than to turn the Western World into a sheet of glass.
The only friend we have in that part of the world is Israel and what Obama's deal would do to them is tantamount to another betrayal of an American ally, leaving them in an untenable position at odds with the rest of the world if they are forced, which I believe they will be, into attacking Iran's nuclear facilities to protect their homeland.
Already the other oil rich nations in the region are saying that if Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon they will have to have one too and I can't think of a more nightmarish scenario than a nuclear armed Middle East and the terrorist implications that go along with it.
And people, if you think president Obama is being perceived as being a knight in shining armor by Iran and the other nations in the neighborhood, you'd best think again. In that part of the world his actions are viewed as weakness by our enemies, betrayal by the Israelis and downright foolishness by realistic people who are looking at the long run.
The pursuit of peace is a noble calling; the acceptance of appeasement is a fool's errand.
Thursday, December 05, 2013
COPS SUSPENDED FOR COMMUNICATING WITH MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE
On November 11, a Dalton, Georgia school bus dispatcher called 911 when one of the school bus drivers requested the police because he could not control a busload of unruly Dalton Middle School students. The responding officers, Steven Collins and John Gurrie, met the bus and lectured the students using the ‘F’ word four times.
When a parent complained about the profanity used by his officers, Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker suspended Collins, a seven-year veteran, and Gurrier, a cop for one year, for two days without pay. They were also ordered to perform 40 hours of community service on their own time in support of Dalton’s youth programs. Furthermore, Collins and Gurrier received a written reprimand and will be required to undergo training in verbal communication.
Chief Parker said, “I was very disappointed to hear about this incident. This type of behavior is not acceptable, and is out of line with department and community standards.”
Cone on chief, get real! I’ve been around middle school students often enough to know that many of them use the ‘F’ word over and over again on a daily basis. The students who do not use the word, would not have been shocked to hear the cops use it. Collins and Gurrier used the ‘F’ word as a means of communicating with the students in a language they understand.
The officers did not act in anger and were merely trying to get the kids' attention by speaking in their language. The parent or parents who were offended by what Collins and Gurrier said are not living in the real world. I do not believe the suspensions, written reprimands, community service and verbal communication training are warranted. A simple oral reprimand would have sufficed. It’s Chief Parker who needs the verbal communication training.
When a parent complained about the profanity used by his officers, Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker suspended Collins, a seven-year veteran, and Gurrier, a cop for one year, for two days without pay. They were also ordered to perform 40 hours of community service on their own time in support of Dalton’s youth programs. Furthermore, Collins and Gurrier received a written reprimand and will be required to undergo training in verbal communication.
Chief Parker said, “I was very disappointed to hear about this incident. This type of behavior is not acceptable, and is out of line with department and community standards.”
Cone on chief, get real! I’ve been around middle school students often enough to know that many of them use the ‘F’ word over and over again on a daily basis. The students who do not use the word, would not have been shocked to hear the cops use it. Collins and Gurrier used the ‘F’ word as a means of communicating with the students in a language they understand.
The officers did not act in anger and were merely trying to get the kids' attention by speaking in their language. The parent or parents who were offended by what Collins and Gurrier said are not living in the real world. I do not believe the suspensions, written reprimands, community service and verbal communication training are warranted. A simple oral reprimand would have sufficed. It’s Chief Parker who needs the verbal communication training.
TEXAS EXECUTES 16TH MURDERER THIS YEAR
All the other states combined executed 20 murderers
In September 2007, Texas convicts Jerry Martin and John Falk were on an outside work detail when they stole a City of Huntsville pickup truck to escape. The pair plowed into a correctional officer guarding them on horseback. The guard, 59-year-old Susan Canfield, suffered fatal head injuries. Both escapees were recaptured within a few hours. At the time, Martin was serving a 50-year sentence for attempted capital murder.
On Tuesday evening, Jerry Martin was put to death with a single lethal dose of pentobarbital for the murder of Officer Canfield, thereby becoming the 16th Texas murderer executed this year. Martin had requested that no further appeals be filed in his behalf because he did not want to spend the rest of his life locked up.
Here is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice transcript of Martin’s final words: “I would like to tell the Canfield family I’m sorry. Sorry for your loss. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. I hope this gives you closure. I did not murder your loved one. It was an accident. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I take full responsibility. To my family, we’ve talked earlier, and you know I’m at peace. God is the ultimate judge. He knows what happened. We talked earlier. I love all of you all. I’m ready Warden.”
John Falk, who has been appealing his sentence, is awaiting a retrial in this case. Hopefully he will meet the same fate as Martin for the murder of Susan Canfield.
Texas, as usual, leads the nation in executions. In 2013 there were a combined 20 executions in all the other states. There were seven executions in Florida, four in Oklahoma and three in Ohio. Kudos to Texas for being No. 1.
In September 2007, Texas convicts Jerry Martin and John Falk were on an outside work detail when they stole a City of Huntsville pickup truck to escape. The pair plowed into a correctional officer guarding them on horseback. The guard, 59-year-old Susan Canfield, suffered fatal head injuries. Both escapees were recaptured within a few hours. At the time, Martin was serving a 50-year sentence for attempted capital murder.
On Tuesday evening, Jerry Martin was put to death with a single lethal dose of pentobarbital for the murder of Officer Canfield, thereby becoming the 16th Texas murderer executed this year. Martin had requested that no further appeals be filed in his behalf because he did not want to spend the rest of his life locked up.
Here is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice transcript of Martin’s final words: “I would like to tell the Canfield family I’m sorry. Sorry for your loss. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. I hope this gives you closure. I did not murder your loved one. It was an accident. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I take full responsibility. To my family, we’ve talked earlier, and you know I’m at peace. God is the ultimate judge. He knows what happened. We talked earlier. I love all of you all. I’m ready Warden.”
John Falk, who has been appealing his sentence, is awaiting a retrial in this case. Hopefully he will meet the same fate as Martin for the murder of Susan Canfield.
Texas, as usual, leads the nation in executions. In 2013 there were a combined 20 executions in all the other states. There were seven executions in Florida, four in Oklahoma and three in Ohio. Kudos to Texas for being No. 1.
YET ANOTHER OBAMA LIE
In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and promised, “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided”
Promises, promises from America’s Liar-in-Chief.
OBAMA TO KERRY: ISRAEL’S US EMBASSY MUST REMAIN IN TEL AVIV
By Elliot Jager
Newsmax
December 4, 2013
Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, President Barack Obama suspended for another six months a law passed by Congress in 1995 that required the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to a White House statement Tuesday.
Under the Jerusalem Embassy Act, Congress empowered the president to waive the law on grounds of national security.
Obama formerly instructed Secretary of State John Kerry not to move the embassy. The president must issue the order on six-month intervals or the law goes into effect.
As a candidate in 2008, Obama referred to Jerusalem as Israel's capital saying, "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."
He subsequently clarified his position saying, "Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations."
During the 2012 presidential campaign Mitt Romney promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem. "Every nation has the right to choose its capital," he declared.
Prior to his election candidate George W. Bush had also promised that he would move the embassy.
While the Israeli government is seated in Jerusalem, since Israel's establishment in 1948, Washington has never recognized the Jewish state's sovereignty over any part of the city.
Promises, promises from America’s Liar-in-Chief.
OBAMA TO KERRY: ISRAEL’S US EMBASSY MUST REMAIN IN TEL AVIV
By Elliot Jager
Newsmax
December 4, 2013
Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, President Barack Obama suspended for another six months a law passed by Congress in 1995 that required the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to a White House statement Tuesday.
Under the Jerusalem Embassy Act, Congress empowered the president to waive the law on grounds of national security.
Obama formerly instructed Secretary of State John Kerry not to move the embassy. The president must issue the order on six-month intervals or the law goes into effect.
As a candidate in 2008, Obama referred to Jerusalem as Israel's capital saying, "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."
He subsequently clarified his position saying, "Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations."
During the 2012 presidential campaign Mitt Romney promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem. "Every nation has the right to choose its capital," he declared.
Prior to his election candidate George W. Bush had also promised that he would move the embassy.
While the Israeli government is seated in Jerusalem, since Israel's establishment in 1948, Washington has never recognized the Jewish state's sovereignty over any part of the city.
AMERICAN IMPRISONED IN CUBA FEELS ABANDONED BY HIS GOVERNMENT
The Obama administration is too busy negotiating with the terrorist regime of Iran to bother much with negotiating for the release of an insignificant American who was working for our government when the Cubans arrested him four years ago.
WIFE OF AMERICAN JAILED IN CUBA: HE FEELS ‘ABANDONED’ BY U.S.
By Bill Hoffmann
Newsmax
December 4, 2013
The wife of Alan Gross, a U.S. subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba for alleged acts against the state, says her husband feels "abandoned" by the United States.
"He's not doing so well. He's lost 100 pounds, he's in chronic pain from arthritis, and he's losing his hope . . . He really now worries that he might not come back from Cuba alive," Judy Gross told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"President Obama needs to get personally involved in getting Alan out of Cuba. He needs to make this his project, his personal involvement," she said Wednesday.
Cuban authorities arrested Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, in 2009 after he allegedly delivered equipment to three Jewish community groups on the island in an attempt to break the Cuban government's "information blockade," The Washington Post reported.
He was charged with illegally distributing prohibited satellite communications equipment to dissidents — charges he denies — and in 2011 was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On Tuesday, the White House received a letter from Gross that had been sent through the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, in which he pleaded directly with President Barack Obama to personally intervene in his case.
"He basically said that he feels like he's been abandoned," Judy Gross told Malzberg. "He was hired and working for a U.S. government project, and he has not heard anything from his government.
"He feels totally abandoned and forgotten by his country and by his government," she said.
"My hope is that the government is able to sit down and start talks and negotiate with the Cuban government. That's how you start getting things done. You have to sit down sometime and start dialogue."
In reaction to Gross' letter, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that he was not sure whether Obama had read the letter, but that the "State Department has kept Mr. Gross' case at the forefront of discussions with the Cuban government and made clear the importance the United States places on his welfare."
"They have also engaged a wide range of foreign counterparts, and urged them to advocate for Mr. Gross' release," Carney said.
In his letter, Gross wrote that his imprisonment has taken its toll on his loved ones, leading to the sale of his family home in Maryland, and that both his wife and daughter are stricken with cancer.
"I know that your administration and prior administrations have taken extraordinary steps to obtain the release of other U.S. citizens imprisoned abroad – even citizens who were not arrested for their work on behalf of their country," Gross wrote.
"I ask that you also take action to secure my release, for my sake and for the sake of my family," Gross wrote. "Officials in your administration have expressed sympathy and called for my unconditional release, and I very much appreciate that. But it has not brought me home."
WIFE OF AMERICAN JAILED IN CUBA: HE FEELS ‘ABANDONED’ BY U.S.
By Bill Hoffmann
Newsmax
December 4, 2013
The wife of Alan Gross, a U.S. subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba for alleged acts against the state, says her husband feels "abandoned" by the United States.
"He's not doing so well. He's lost 100 pounds, he's in chronic pain from arthritis, and he's losing his hope . . . He really now worries that he might not come back from Cuba alive," Judy Gross told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"President Obama needs to get personally involved in getting Alan out of Cuba. He needs to make this his project, his personal involvement," she said Wednesday.
Cuban authorities arrested Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, in 2009 after he allegedly delivered equipment to three Jewish community groups on the island in an attempt to break the Cuban government's "information blockade," The Washington Post reported.
He was charged with illegally distributing prohibited satellite communications equipment to dissidents — charges he denies — and in 2011 was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On Tuesday, the White House received a letter from Gross that had been sent through the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, in which he pleaded directly with President Barack Obama to personally intervene in his case.
"He basically said that he feels like he's been abandoned," Judy Gross told Malzberg. "He was hired and working for a U.S. government project, and he has not heard anything from his government.
"He feels totally abandoned and forgotten by his country and by his government," she said.
"My hope is that the government is able to sit down and start talks and negotiate with the Cuban government. That's how you start getting things done. You have to sit down sometime and start dialogue."
In reaction to Gross' letter, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that he was not sure whether Obama had read the letter, but that the "State Department has kept Mr. Gross' case at the forefront of discussions with the Cuban government and made clear the importance the United States places on his welfare."
"They have also engaged a wide range of foreign counterparts, and urged them to advocate for Mr. Gross' release," Carney said.
In his letter, Gross wrote that his imprisonment has taken its toll on his loved ones, leading to the sale of his family home in Maryland, and that both his wife and daughter are stricken with cancer.
"I know that your administration and prior administrations have taken extraordinary steps to obtain the release of other U.S. citizens imprisoned abroad – even citizens who were not arrested for their work on behalf of their country," Gross wrote.
"I ask that you also take action to secure my release, for my sake and for the sake of my family," Gross wrote. "Officials in your administration have expressed sympathy and called for my unconditional release, and I very much appreciate that. But it has not brought me home."
NEIL CAVUTO SLAMS OBAMACARE AND OBAMA'S DENUNCIATION OF FOX NEWS
I just received this blast of Obmacare and the President from a friend and, although it was made back in September, everything Cavuto said still rings true today.
MR. PRESIDENT, WE AT FOX NEWS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM
By Neil Cavuto
Fox News
September 26, 2013
Mr. President, Fox News isn't what's making Americans sick about your healthcare law. Your healthcare law is.
Welcome, everybody, I'm Neil Cavuto. And excuse this departure from form. But I think this is just poor form. So, it's time we set some things straight.
Mr. President, we at Fox News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. You are. Your words are. Your promises are.
We didn't sell this healthcare law. Sir, you did. Remember this?
You said: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.”
Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who've been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Fox News didn't break that news to them, Mr. President. Their companies did.
Fox News didn't push more of those firms to hire part-time workers. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't incentivize fast food restaurants to scale back their benefits. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make doctors want to opt out. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make insurance premiums sky rocket. Your healthcare law did.
Just like Fox News didn't grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them. You did. And Fox News didn't delay one key provision after another, including online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did.
Just like it wasn't Fox News that said we had to pass this to see what was in this. You did. Or was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes I'm confused.
But of this I am not. Fox News didn't re-do basic math. Sir, you did.
Fox News didn't say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hike in premiums. You did.
Fox News didn't say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it. You did.
Fox News didn't all but say you could get something for nothing. You did.
Fox News didn't come back years later and say, oh yea, we did raise some taxes. You did.
Here's where you are right about Fox News, however, Mr. President. We can do math. And did. You cannot. And did not. We said it, and proved it. You didn't. And we're all suffering for it. Take it from the numbers guy at Fox. Numbers don't lie. The number of Americans working part-time and nervous. The number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges and anxious. The number of company bosses with any news to pass along on those exchanges, but still clueless.
The number of doctors who want out. The number of congressmen now opting out. No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie.
But with all due respect sir, I can only conclude you do know; I know, I know you hate us at Fox. But please take a look in a mirror, and fast.
You think we're the skunk at your picnic. But that doesn't mean we're the ones that stink. Because that smell isn't coming from the folks reporting on your law. Mr. President, that smell is your law.
MR. PRESIDENT, WE AT FOX NEWS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM
By Neil Cavuto
Fox News
September 26, 2013
Mr. President, Fox News isn't what's making Americans sick about your healthcare law. Your healthcare law is.
Welcome, everybody, I'm Neil Cavuto. And excuse this departure from form. But I think this is just poor form. So, it's time we set some things straight.
Mr. President, we at Fox News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. You are. Your words are. Your promises are.
We didn't sell this healthcare law. Sir, you did. Remember this?
You said: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.”
Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who've been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Fox News didn't break that news to them, Mr. President. Their companies did.
Fox News didn't push more of those firms to hire part-time workers. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't incentivize fast food restaurants to scale back their benefits. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make doctors want to opt out. Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make insurance premiums sky rocket. Your healthcare law did.
Just like Fox News didn't grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them. You did. And Fox News didn't delay one key provision after another, including online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did.
Just like it wasn't Fox News that said we had to pass this to see what was in this. You did. Or was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes I'm confused.
But of this I am not. Fox News didn't re-do basic math. Sir, you did.
Fox News didn't say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hike in premiums. You did.
Fox News didn't say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it. You did.
Fox News didn't all but say you could get something for nothing. You did.
Fox News didn't come back years later and say, oh yea, we did raise some taxes. You did.
Here's where you are right about Fox News, however, Mr. President. We can do math. And did. You cannot. And did not. We said it, and proved it. You didn't. And we're all suffering for it. Take it from the numbers guy at Fox. Numbers don't lie. The number of Americans working part-time and nervous. The number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges and anxious. The number of company bosses with any news to pass along on those exchanges, but still clueless.
The number of doctors who want out. The number of congressmen now opting out. No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie.
But with all due respect sir, I can only conclude you do know; I know, I know you hate us at Fox. But please take a look in a mirror, and fast.
You think we're the skunk at your picnic. But that doesn't mean we're the ones that stink. Because that smell isn't coming from the folks reporting on your law. Mr. President, that smell is your law.
KENYAN WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF HAD HE RAPED A GOAT IN CALIFORNIA
Female goat present in Kenyan court when her rapist is sentenced to 10 years in the pen
Disorderly conduct would have been the most he’d be charged with had this man raped a goat in California. And in San Fransicko, he probably would have had to wait in line to take his turn at having sex with this animal.
SEX ATTACKER IS CONFRONTED BY HIS VICTIM IN KENYAN COURT … A FEMALE GOAT (AND HE IS JAILED A RECORD TEN YEARS FOR ‘DEFILING’ IT)
Katana Kitsao Gona caught with the goat in a bush by a passer-by; the 28-year-old pleaded guilty to 'defiling' the animal
By Tara Brady
Mail Online
December 3, 2013
A man who was jailed for 10 years for having sex with a female goat came face-to-face with his victim in a Kenyan court.
The goat watched quietly from the corner of the court room in Malindi while Katana Kitsao Gona, 28, was jailed for bestiality.
According to Jimmy Kimaru, chief prosecutor, Gona was caught sexually assaulting the goat in a bush in Dabaso, Kilifi county, on November 25.
The goat had been tied to graze by its owner, Sarah Kadenge, for the afternoon.
But when a passer-by went to relieve himself in the bush he was shocked to discover Gona having sex with the animal.
The man reported what he had seen to the goat's owner who cornered Gona and took him to Watamu Police Station.
Following a medical examination carried out by Munga Gambo, a veterinary officer from Malindi, it was confirmed that the goat had been sexually abused.
Gona, who pleaded guilty, told the court his wife is disabled and depends on him daily.
Despite this, the judge jailed him for a record 10 years for 'defiling' the animal.
Disorderly conduct would have been the most he’d be charged with had this man raped a goat in California. And in San Fransicko, he probably would have had to wait in line to take his turn at having sex with this animal.
SEX ATTACKER IS CONFRONTED BY HIS VICTIM IN KENYAN COURT … A FEMALE GOAT (AND HE IS JAILED A RECORD TEN YEARS FOR ‘DEFILING’ IT)
Katana Kitsao Gona caught with the goat in a bush by a passer-by; the 28-year-old pleaded guilty to 'defiling' the animal
By Tara Brady
Mail Online
December 3, 2013
A man who was jailed for 10 years for having sex with a female goat came face-to-face with his victim in a Kenyan court.
The goat watched quietly from the corner of the court room in Malindi while Katana Kitsao Gona, 28, was jailed for bestiality.
According to Jimmy Kimaru, chief prosecutor, Gona was caught sexually assaulting the goat in a bush in Dabaso, Kilifi county, on November 25.
The goat had been tied to graze by its owner, Sarah Kadenge, for the afternoon.
But when a passer-by went to relieve himself in the bush he was shocked to discover Gona having sex with the animal.
The man reported what he had seen to the goat's owner who cornered Gona and took him to Watamu Police Station.
Following a medical examination carried out by Munga Gambo, a veterinary officer from Malindi, it was confirmed that the goat had been sexually abused.
Gona, who pleaded guilty, told the court his wife is disabled and depends on him daily.
Despite this, the judge jailed him for a record 10 years for 'defiling' the animal.
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
ADVICE TO GANGBANGERS: DO NOT CHALLENGE A COP’S GANG AFFILIATION
Shots at man believed to be a member of a rival gang backfire
He was a member of a rival gang alright – the Police gang. OK, so these gangbangers didn’t know they were challenging an off-duty cop, but how sweet it is!
OFF-DUTY FRESNO POLICE OFFICER SHOT AT AND FIRES BACK, WOUNDING 2
By Brianna Vaccari
The Fresno Bee
December 3, 2013
The Two gang members were wounded Monday night when one of them opened fire on an off-duty officer in southeast Fresno, and the officer fired back, police said.
The officer was in his personal car on his way to work in southeast Fresno about 8:30 p.m. when he pulled up to a stop light at Cedar and Butler avenues.
Four gang members, in a car in an adjacent lane a few vehicles behind the officer, yelled at him, demanding to know what gang he was in. One of the occupants of the car then fired six shots at the officer, striking the passenger side of the officer's personal car, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.
The officer, who was in civilian clothes but had his service weapon with him, returned fire. The officer also got the car's license, and drove to the southeast Fresno police station a block away and notified fellow officers.
Two of the gang members came to Community Regional Medical Center with gunshot wounds, Dyer said. They were reported in stable condition. A third gang member was stopped a short distance from where the shooting occurred. Police were still looking for a fourth suspect.
Dyer said Monday night that three people were wounded. Police on Tuesday morning corrected that number to two.
The officer, a 10-year veteran of the department, was unhurt. He is now on paid administrative leave, as is typical in officer-involved shootings.
"That officer did an incredible job," Dyer said. "We're very, very fortunate we do not have a dead police officer."
Dyer said the officer, who was not identified, was on his way to work for a midnight shift when the gang members began looking at him, and then began shooting. There was another vehicle in front of the officer that prevented him from driving away when the shooting began.
The chief said the gang members apparently mistook the officer for a gang member, adding that such mistaken identities involving officers is "very, very rare."
He was a member of a rival gang alright – the Police gang. OK, so these gangbangers didn’t know they were challenging an off-duty cop, but how sweet it is!
OFF-DUTY FRESNO POLICE OFFICER SHOT AT AND FIRES BACK, WOUNDING 2
By Brianna Vaccari
The Fresno Bee
December 3, 2013
The Two gang members were wounded Monday night when one of them opened fire on an off-duty officer in southeast Fresno, and the officer fired back, police said.
The officer was in his personal car on his way to work in southeast Fresno about 8:30 p.m. when he pulled up to a stop light at Cedar and Butler avenues.
Four gang members, in a car in an adjacent lane a few vehicles behind the officer, yelled at him, demanding to know what gang he was in. One of the occupants of the car then fired six shots at the officer, striking the passenger side of the officer's personal car, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.
The officer, who was in civilian clothes but had his service weapon with him, returned fire. The officer also got the car's license, and drove to the southeast Fresno police station a block away and notified fellow officers.
Two of the gang members came to Community Regional Medical Center with gunshot wounds, Dyer said. They were reported in stable condition. A third gang member was stopped a short distance from where the shooting occurred. Police were still looking for a fourth suspect.
Dyer said Monday night that three people were wounded. Police on Tuesday morning corrected that number to two.
The officer, a 10-year veteran of the department, was unhurt. He is now on paid administrative leave, as is typical in officer-involved shootings.
"That officer did an incredible job," Dyer said. "We're very, very fortunate we do not have a dead police officer."
Dyer said the officer, who was not identified, was on his way to work for a midnight shift when the gang members began looking at him, and then began shooting. There was another vehicle in front of the officer that prevented him from driving away when the shooting began.
The chief said the gang members apparently mistook the officer for a gang member, adding that such mistaken identities involving officers is "very, very rare."
SENSATIONAL LIES BY MEDIA TO SUPPORT SOCIAL AGENDAS EXPOSED
Media lies: (1998) the murder of gay Matthew Shepard was a hate crime; (2006) nooses were strung from a tree in Jena, La. by white racist schoolboys; white racist Duke lacrosse players gang raped a black stripper
The media goes into a prolonged sensational frenzy at the first allegation of a hate crime or white racist act despite evidence to the contrary, even resorting to outright lies in order to support its social agenda of rooting out any vestiges of bigotry and discrimination.
A WORLD OF LIES
By Dennis Prager
Jewish World Review
December 3, 2013
Remember the terrible murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998 — tortured, beaten and left hanging on a fence to die because he was gay?
The American people were led from the outset to believe that Shepard was the victim of a hate crime, murdered because of his sexual orientation. And that is how virtually every American still views the story.
In the words of Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., "Matthew Shepard is to gay rights what Emmett Till was to the civil rights movement."
A play based on Shepard's killing, "The Laramie Project," became, according to the Wall Street Journal, "one of the most produced theatrical shows in the country." In 2009, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, the Matthew Shepard law, which expanded the definition of hate crimes to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
It turns out that Matthew Shepard's murder had nothing to do with his being gay.
As early as 2004, the ABC News program "20/20" broadcast (to its credit) a denial by both murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, that the murder had anything to do with Shepard's being gay. It was, they both claimed, a robbery gone bad.
"It was not because me and Aaron had anything against gays," Henderson told ABC.
As a result, ABC News was widely attacked by all those who had a vested interest not in truth, but in maintaining the homophobia story: the liberal media, the gay-rights movement and the lawyers for the victim's mother.
The New York Times reported: "Those leading the charge against the heavily promoted ABC report [included] Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)."
Sean Maloney, the aforementioned congressman who was the lawyer for Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard's mother, called the program "just bad journalism ... there is a mountain of evidence that anti-gay bias was a trigger for the beating that left Matthew dead after they robbed him."
Now a book has been published, written by Stephen Jimenez, himself a gay man, that confirms the accuracy of the 2004 ABC News report. Matthew Shepard was involved in the hyperactive Wyoming meth drug culture; he was murdered over a drug deal; and his primary murderer was a bisexual who had probably slept with Shepard.
The media aspect of this case was summed up in a Wall Street Journal review: "Mr. Jimenez's book is most useful in illuminating the power of the media to shape the popular conception of an event. It shows how a desire for Manichaean morality tales can lead us to oversimplify the human experience."
That's a bit delicate. Actually, it shows how powerful the left-wing media are, how they are dedicated to agendas rather than to truth, and how much of what Americans believe is shaped accordingly.
Remember the 2006 story about nooses that were hung by racist white students in Jena, La., to signify lynchings?
CNN reported: "Jena's racial tensions were aggravated in August 2006, when three white teens hung the nooses the day after a group of black students received permission from school administrators to sit under the tree — a place where white students normally congregated."
That was the national story: There was a tree near the high school under which only white students sat, one day a black student sat under the tree, and the next day nooses were hung from the tree. As late as August 2007, the Washington Post still wrote about "Jim Crow-like hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree at the local high school."
None of this story was true.
First, the tree was never reserved for white students. As the Associated Press reported in September 2007, "According to teachers and school administrators, students of all races congregated under it at one time or another."
Second, the nooses had nothing to do with lynchings or race. As the Christian Science Monitor reported in October 2007, "An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree. "[They] were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team."
Remember the white lacrosse-team members at Duke University charged with the gang rape of a black stripper — and how the New York Times and Duke and everyone in between reported this as an example of privileged white boys' racism?
That, too, was all a lie. The stripper made up the whole story. (Last week, she was convicted of murdering her boyfriend. Have you read about that?)
The list of lies is almost endless.
The New York Times reporter in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, Walter Duranty, denied that there was a famine in the Ukraine in 1931-32 — the Communist-induced famine that killed about 5 million Ukrainians. And he won a Pulitzer Prize for it.
The media has recently portrayed the Kennedy assassination as the product of Dallas's "right-wing" "climate of hate" — even though a card-carrying Communist committed the assassination.
The media told us over and over about a heterosexual AIDS "epidemic" in the U.S. There was none. The media fabricated the heterosexual epidemic in order to remove stigma from gay males and in order to garner support for more AIDS research money.
Why all this mendacity?
There are truth-tellers and there are liars on the right and on the left. But for the Left, truth is subordinated to whatever it is the Left most cares about. Gay rights, minority rights, women's rights, government health care, and environmentalism are only the most obvious current examples.
That's why talk radio, conservative websites, Fox News and conservative opinion pages are so important.
Europe doesn't have them. And its population is brainwashed. No wonder Europeans believe that America and Israel are the most dangerous countries in the world. Their media told them so.
The media goes into a prolonged sensational frenzy at the first allegation of a hate crime or white racist act despite evidence to the contrary, even resorting to outright lies in order to support its social agenda of rooting out any vestiges of bigotry and discrimination.
A WORLD OF LIES
By Dennis Prager
Jewish World Review
December 3, 2013
Remember the terrible murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998 — tortured, beaten and left hanging on a fence to die because he was gay?
The American people were led from the outset to believe that Shepard was the victim of a hate crime, murdered because of his sexual orientation. And that is how virtually every American still views the story.
In the words of Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., "Matthew Shepard is to gay rights what Emmett Till was to the civil rights movement."
A play based on Shepard's killing, "The Laramie Project," became, according to the Wall Street Journal, "one of the most produced theatrical shows in the country." In 2009, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, the Matthew Shepard law, which expanded the definition of hate crimes to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
It turns out that Matthew Shepard's murder had nothing to do with his being gay.
As early as 2004, the ABC News program "20/20" broadcast (to its credit) a denial by both murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, that the murder had anything to do with Shepard's being gay. It was, they both claimed, a robbery gone bad.
"It was not because me and Aaron had anything against gays," Henderson told ABC.
As a result, ABC News was widely attacked by all those who had a vested interest not in truth, but in maintaining the homophobia story: the liberal media, the gay-rights movement and the lawyers for the victim's mother.
The New York Times reported: "Those leading the charge against the heavily promoted ABC report [included] Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)."
Sean Maloney, the aforementioned congressman who was the lawyer for Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard's mother, called the program "just bad journalism ... there is a mountain of evidence that anti-gay bias was a trigger for the beating that left Matthew dead after they robbed him."
Now a book has been published, written by Stephen Jimenez, himself a gay man, that confirms the accuracy of the 2004 ABC News report. Matthew Shepard was involved in the hyperactive Wyoming meth drug culture; he was murdered over a drug deal; and his primary murderer was a bisexual who had probably slept with Shepard.
The media aspect of this case was summed up in a Wall Street Journal review: "Mr. Jimenez's book is most useful in illuminating the power of the media to shape the popular conception of an event. It shows how a desire for Manichaean morality tales can lead us to oversimplify the human experience."
That's a bit delicate. Actually, it shows how powerful the left-wing media are, how they are dedicated to agendas rather than to truth, and how much of what Americans believe is shaped accordingly.
Remember the 2006 story about nooses that were hung by racist white students in Jena, La., to signify lynchings?
CNN reported: "Jena's racial tensions were aggravated in August 2006, when three white teens hung the nooses the day after a group of black students received permission from school administrators to sit under the tree — a place where white students normally congregated."
That was the national story: There was a tree near the high school under which only white students sat, one day a black student sat under the tree, and the next day nooses were hung from the tree. As late as August 2007, the Washington Post still wrote about "Jim Crow-like hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree at the local high school."
None of this story was true.
First, the tree was never reserved for white students. As the Associated Press reported in September 2007, "According to teachers and school administrators, students of all races congregated under it at one time or another."
Second, the nooses had nothing to do with lynchings or race. As the Christian Science Monitor reported in October 2007, "An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree. "[They] were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team."
Remember the white lacrosse-team members at Duke University charged with the gang rape of a black stripper — and how the New York Times and Duke and everyone in between reported this as an example of privileged white boys' racism?
That, too, was all a lie. The stripper made up the whole story. (Last week, she was convicted of murdering her boyfriend. Have you read about that?)
The list of lies is almost endless.
The New York Times reporter in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, Walter Duranty, denied that there was a famine in the Ukraine in 1931-32 — the Communist-induced famine that killed about 5 million Ukrainians. And he won a Pulitzer Prize for it.
The media has recently portrayed the Kennedy assassination as the product of Dallas's "right-wing" "climate of hate" — even though a card-carrying Communist committed the assassination.
The media told us over and over about a heterosexual AIDS "epidemic" in the U.S. There was none. The media fabricated the heterosexual epidemic in order to remove stigma from gay males and in order to garner support for more AIDS research money.
Why all this mendacity?
There are truth-tellers and there are liars on the right and on the left. But for the Left, truth is subordinated to whatever it is the Left most cares about. Gay rights, minority rights, women's rights, government health care, and environmentalism are only the most obvious current examples.
That's why talk radio, conservative websites, Fox News and conservative opinion pages are so important.
Europe doesn't have them. And its population is brainwashed. No wonder Europeans believe that America and Israel are the most dangerous countries in the world. Their media told them so.
HAYDEN, KISSINGER AND SHULTZ HAVE SERIOUS MISGIVINGS ON IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz agree with former CIA and NSA Direcotr Gen. Michael Hayden that the nuclear deal leaves Iran a nuclear threshold nation.
KISSINGER, SHULTZ: DEAL PUTS IRAN ON NUKE THRESHOLD
By Melissa Clyne
Newsmax
December 3, 2013
The temporary deal struck with Iran to freeze or scale back parts of its nuclear program in exchange for lifting some economic sanctions will be meaningless if a firm and final deal is not reached quickly, say former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
“Standing by itself, the interim agreement leaves Iran, hopefully only temporarily, in the position of a nuclear-threshold power — a country that can achieve a military nuclear capability within months of its choosing to do so,” the two write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “A final agreement leaving this threshold capacity unimpaired would institutionalize the Iranian nuclear threat, with profound consequences for global nonproliferation policy and the stability of the Middle East."
Kissinger, who served under presidents Nixon and Ford, and Shultz, who served under Reagan, outline the challenging task of negotiating with a nation that historically has been unyielding and deceptive; a government that periodically would engage in talks but never dismantle any of its growing enriched uranium stockpile or enrichment infrastructures.
Over the past decade, they say, Iran has rejected proposal after proposal while continuing to accelerate its nuclear program.
“Under the interim agreement, Iranian conduct that was previously condemned as illegal and illegitimate has effectively been recognized as a baseline, including an acceptance of Iran's continued enrichment of uranium (to 5 percent) during the agreement period,” they write.
“And that baseline program is of strategic significance. For Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium is coupled with an infrastructure sufficient to enrich it within a few months to weapons-grade, as well as a plausible route to producing weapons-grade plutonium in the installation now being built at Arak.”
Continual lowering of the bar, by the United States and other nations, only feeds Iran’s insolent bravado, they say, noting that after the six-month agreement was reached, the Iranian negotiator described it as “giving Iran its long-claimed right to enrich, and in effect, eliminating the American threat of force as a last resort.”
Kissinger and Shultz warn that anything less than a permanent agreement, requiring Iran to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, likely would result in the nation emerging as a “de facto nuclear power leading an Islamist camp,” while simultaneously damaging American credibility.
“Progress should be judged by a change of program, not a change of tone,” they say.
KISSINGER, SHULTZ: DEAL PUTS IRAN ON NUKE THRESHOLD
By Melissa Clyne
Newsmax
December 3, 2013
The temporary deal struck with Iran to freeze or scale back parts of its nuclear program in exchange for lifting some economic sanctions will be meaningless if a firm and final deal is not reached quickly, say former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
“Standing by itself, the interim agreement leaves Iran, hopefully only temporarily, in the position of a nuclear-threshold power — a country that can achieve a military nuclear capability within months of its choosing to do so,” the two write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “A final agreement leaving this threshold capacity unimpaired would institutionalize the Iranian nuclear threat, with profound consequences for global nonproliferation policy and the stability of the Middle East."
Kissinger, who served under presidents Nixon and Ford, and Shultz, who served under Reagan, outline the challenging task of negotiating with a nation that historically has been unyielding and deceptive; a government that periodically would engage in talks but never dismantle any of its growing enriched uranium stockpile or enrichment infrastructures.
Over the past decade, they say, Iran has rejected proposal after proposal while continuing to accelerate its nuclear program.
“Under the interim agreement, Iranian conduct that was previously condemned as illegal and illegitimate has effectively been recognized as a baseline, including an acceptance of Iran's continued enrichment of uranium (to 5 percent) during the agreement period,” they write.
“And that baseline program is of strategic significance. For Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium is coupled with an infrastructure sufficient to enrich it within a few months to weapons-grade, as well as a plausible route to producing weapons-grade plutonium in the installation now being built at Arak.”
Continual lowering of the bar, by the United States and other nations, only feeds Iran’s insolent bravado, they say, noting that after the six-month agreement was reached, the Iranian negotiator described it as “giving Iran its long-claimed right to enrich, and in effect, eliminating the American threat of force as a last resort.”
Kissinger and Shultz warn that anything less than a permanent agreement, requiring Iran to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, likely would result in the nation emerging as a “de facto nuclear power leading an Islamist camp,” while simultaneously damaging American credibility.
“Progress should be judged by a change of program, not a change of tone,” they say.
SOME FACTS TO PONDER
By Adolf der Schweinehund
The Unconventional Gazette
December 3, 2013
I received the following facts from a reader. True or not, here they are with my comments added:
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it! I already have 2 bombs)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (O.M.G.!!!)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy. I'm still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Don't try this at home; maybe at work.)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. (Honey, I'm home . What the...?)
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes. Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still can't believe that pig ...quality over quantity.)
Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm.......)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (Okay! That’s a good thing!!)
A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder how much the government paid to figure that out.)
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that, too.)
Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer!)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig? Do the dolphins know about the pig?)
The Unconventional Gazette
December 3, 2013
I received the following facts from a reader. True or not, here they are with my comments added:
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it! I already have 2 bombs)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (O.M.G.!!!)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy. I'm still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Don't try this at home; maybe at work.)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. (Honey, I'm home . What the...?)
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes. Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still can't believe that pig ...quality over quantity.)
Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm.......)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (Okay! That’s a good thing!!)
A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder how much the government paid to figure that out.)
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that, too.)
Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer!)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig? Do the dolphins know about the pig?)
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
AN ANGRY COP IS A DANGEROUS COP
Control of temper by law enforcement officers is extremely critical in preventing use of excessive force
There are three types of anger facing law enforcement officers: Lingering and Spontaneous or a combination of both.
Two former Fullerton, California police officers are now facing trial in the beating death two years ago of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness. A third ex-cop will be tried later. Thomas was tasered four times, beaten with the butt of the Taser gun, kneed, and repeatedly struck by fists and batons. Some reports say the beating lasted as much as 10 minutes. The lawyers for the accused officers claim that Thomas was resisting arrest and appeared to be high on drugs, thus necessitating the amount of force used. No drugs were found to be in his system. One of the cops can be heard on an audio recording telling Thomas: “See my fists? They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”
Regardless of the circumstances that led to the beating of Thomas, this is clearly a case where some of the officers involved had lost control of their tempers. Had they not been angry at the time, Thomas would be alive today and three former cops would not be facing possible prison terms. Was the anger of the cops lingering before the contact with Thomas, spontaneous or a combination of both?
There is nothing a supervisor can do about a cop losing his temper at the scene of a confrontation if he is not present. But there is something a supervisor can and should do about lingering anger. That requires the supervisor to be on the lookout for signs of emotional distress in his subordinates when they show up for work.
First and foremost, a supervisor must look for and recognize emotional distress in his subordinates. There are any number of reasons a law enforcement officer may show up for work with lingering anger. It could be something as benign as his wife or girlfriend refusing to have sex with him when he wanted it. He could have had a fight with his wife or one of his teenaged kids. He could have gotten himself in debt and been threatened with repossession of his car or foreclosure on his house. Or the supervisor could have just chewed his ass out for some reason or another.
An angry police officer should not be allowed to go into the field, because he is likely to take his anger out on some citizen the first chance he gets. A correctional officer in emotional distress should not be allowed direct contact with inmates having a history of assaulting staff, whether by physical attacks or by slinging piss or shit at staff. It’s hard enough to control your temper when you get pissed on or shit on while you are not already angry, but if you are emotionally distressed, you will blow up for sure. An angry cop is a dangerous cop.
As for anger management training, that may work for domestic fights, road rage, or other cases where someone who feels offended by whomever or whatever reacts by resorting to aggressive behavior. I seriously doubt that when cops are verbally provoked or physically resisted/assaulted in a confrontational situation, or where correctional officers are physically attacked or pissed on and shit on by inmates, prior anger management training will enable those officers to suppress their anger.
Law enforcement supervisors and managers will be more effective in controlling the anger of subordinates by making it crystal clear that excessive force will absolutely not be tolerated under any circumstances and those who resort to it will be terminated and likely prosecuted.
The argument that, by assigning a cop to a desk job when his supervisor recognizes he is emotionally distressed, the law enforcement agency will be left short of staff may be true, but in the overall picture it does not hold water. When citizens or prison inmates are beaten to a bloody pulp by angry officers, the agency is likely to end up short of personnel, and it won’t be just for a day or two.
There are three types of anger facing law enforcement officers: Lingering and Spontaneous or a combination of both.
Two former Fullerton, California police officers are now facing trial in the beating death two years ago of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness. A third ex-cop will be tried later. Thomas was tasered four times, beaten with the butt of the Taser gun, kneed, and repeatedly struck by fists and batons. Some reports say the beating lasted as much as 10 minutes. The lawyers for the accused officers claim that Thomas was resisting arrest and appeared to be high on drugs, thus necessitating the amount of force used. No drugs were found to be in his system. One of the cops can be heard on an audio recording telling Thomas: “See my fists? They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”
Regardless of the circumstances that led to the beating of Thomas, this is clearly a case where some of the officers involved had lost control of their tempers. Had they not been angry at the time, Thomas would be alive today and three former cops would not be facing possible prison terms. Was the anger of the cops lingering before the contact with Thomas, spontaneous or a combination of both?
There is nothing a supervisor can do about a cop losing his temper at the scene of a confrontation if he is not present. But there is something a supervisor can and should do about lingering anger. That requires the supervisor to be on the lookout for signs of emotional distress in his subordinates when they show up for work.
First and foremost, a supervisor must look for and recognize emotional distress in his subordinates. There are any number of reasons a law enforcement officer may show up for work with lingering anger. It could be something as benign as his wife or girlfriend refusing to have sex with him when he wanted it. He could have had a fight with his wife or one of his teenaged kids. He could have gotten himself in debt and been threatened with repossession of his car or foreclosure on his house. Or the supervisor could have just chewed his ass out for some reason or another.
An angry police officer should not be allowed to go into the field, because he is likely to take his anger out on some citizen the first chance he gets. A correctional officer in emotional distress should not be allowed direct contact with inmates having a history of assaulting staff, whether by physical attacks or by slinging piss or shit at staff. It’s hard enough to control your temper when you get pissed on or shit on while you are not already angry, but if you are emotionally distressed, you will blow up for sure. An angry cop is a dangerous cop.
As for anger management training, that may work for domestic fights, road rage, or other cases where someone who feels offended by whomever or whatever reacts by resorting to aggressive behavior. I seriously doubt that when cops are verbally provoked or physically resisted/assaulted in a confrontational situation, or where correctional officers are physically attacked or pissed on and shit on by inmates, prior anger management training will enable those officers to suppress their anger.
Law enforcement supervisors and managers will be more effective in controlling the anger of subordinates by making it crystal clear that excessive force will absolutely not be tolerated under any circumstances and those who resort to it will be terminated and likely prosecuted.
The argument that, by assigning a cop to a desk job when his supervisor recognizes he is emotionally distressed, the law enforcement agency will be left short of staff may be true, but in the overall picture it does not hold water. When citizens or prison inmates are beaten to a bloody pulp by angry officers, the agency is likely to end up short of personnel, and it won’t be just for a day or two.
SOMETIMES IT BECOMES NECESSARY TO REPLACE A TOOL BEFORE GOING OUT ON A JOB
Robber’s gun falls apart when he tries to fire a shot into the ceiling
Just as in checking out your automobile when preparing to take trip, a worker should always check out his tools to make sure they are in good working order.
ROBBERS FLEE AFTER GUN FALLS APART
The Record
December 2, 2013
STOCKTON - An armed robber's dramatic exit from a Saturday-night heist fizzled when his handgun fell apart in his hand as he tried to fire a parting shot into the ceiling of the business he just robbed, police reported.
The suspect had successfully fired the small handgun into a display cabinet at the business, according to a robbery report from the Stockton Police Department. But the attempt at the second shot left gun parts and live rounds scattered on the floor as the robber fled from the business with an accomplice.
He had entered the business in the 1200 block of East Hammer Lane around 7:22 p.m., armed with a small handgun he pointed at customers in the business and a 23-year-old clerk, according to police. The second suspect then grabbed money from the register before they made their escape, firing into the display cabinet and attempting to fire again into the ceiling.
The suspect with the handgun is described as black, 18 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 150 pounds and wearing black pants and a grey, hooded sweatshirt with black trim. He also had a dark shirt over his head. The second suspect is described as black, 18 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 130 pounds and wearing all black, with a hood partially covering his face.
Just as in checking out your automobile when preparing to take trip, a worker should always check out his tools to make sure they are in good working order.
ROBBERS FLEE AFTER GUN FALLS APART
The Record
December 2, 2013
STOCKTON - An armed robber's dramatic exit from a Saturday-night heist fizzled when his handgun fell apart in his hand as he tried to fire a parting shot into the ceiling of the business he just robbed, police reported.
The suspect had successfully fired the small handgun into a display cabinet at the business, according to a robbery report from the Stockton Police Department. But the attempt at the second shot left gun parts and live rounds scattered on the floor as the robber fled from the business with an accomplice.
He had entered the business in the 1200 block of East Hammer Lane around 7:22 p.m., armed with a small handgun he pointed at customers in the business and a 23-year-old clerk, according to police. The second suspect then grabbed money from the register before they made their escape, firing into the display cabinet and attempting to fire again into the ceiling.
The suspect with the handgun is described as black, 18 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 150 pounds and wearing black pants and a grey, hooded sweatshirt with black trim. He also had a dark shirt over his head. The second suspect is described as black, 18 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 130 pounds and wearing all black, with a hood partially covering his face.
DISTRAUT MAN TOSSES HIS LAST $1,000 AT SHOPPERS HOPING TO GET HIS CAT BACK FROM ESTRANGED WIFE
Gets arrested after showering Black Friday shoppers with one dollar bills from fourth floor of Mall of America
This guy is ready for some downtime at Babbling Brooks Farm.
MAN ARRESTED FOR ‘MAKING IT SNOW’ MONEY AT MALL OF AMERICA
Serge Vorobyov threw 'his last $1,000' from the fourth floor as a choir performed 'Let it Snow'
Associated Press
December 1, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- A 29-year-old Minnesota man who says he was trying to spread holiday cheer by tossing 1,000 dollar bills over an upper floor railing at the Mall of America has been cited for disorderly conduct.
Serge Vorobyov, of Apple Valley, admitted throwing his "last $1,000" from the fourth floor on Friday as a choir performed "Let it Snow." Vorobyov said he also kept tossing cash as he continued down the escalator.
Vorobyov said he's going through a divorce, lost his car hauling business and hoped the positivity of throwing the money would come back to him.
"I wanted to do some sort of pay it forward kind of thing," Vorobyov said Sunday.
He invited his estranged wife to try to win her back but she didn't show up, he said.
Instead, Vorobyov was cited by Bloomington police and released at the scene. He also was ordered not to go into the mall for a year.
Vorobyov had stamped the bills with his YouTube address and on his Facebook page he called the event a publicity stunt. When asked why he wanted the publicity, he said he wanted his cat back from his estranged wife.
Mall of America spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said it's the first time anyone has ever done something like that in the mall. She said Vorobyov disrupted the performance and could've caused a serious situation.
This guy is ready for some downtime at Babbling Brooks Farm.
MAN ARRESTED FOR ‘MAKING IT SNOW’ MONEY AT MALL OF AMERICA
Serge Vorobyov threw 'his last $1,000' from the fourth floor as a choir performed 'Let it Snow'
Associated Press
December 1, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- A 29-year-old Minnesota man who says he was trying to spread holiday cheer by tossing 1,000 dollar bills over an upper floor railing at the Mall of America has been cited for disorderly conduct.
Serge Vorobyov, of Apple Valley, admitted throwing his "last $1,000" from the fourth floor on Friday as a choir performed "Let it Snow." Vorobyov said he also kept tossing cash as he continued down the escalator.
Vorobyov said he's going through a divorce, lost his car hauling business and hoped the positivity of throwing the money would come back to him.
"I wanted to do some sort of pay it forward kind of thing," Vorobyov said Sunday.
He invited his estranged wife to try to win her back but she didn't show up, he said.
Instead, Vorobyov was cited by Bloomington police and released at the scene. He also was ordered not to go into the mall for a year.
Vorobyov had stamped the bills with his YouTube address and on his Facebook page he called the event a publicity stunt. When asked why he wanted the publicity, he said he wanted his cat back from his estranged wife.
Mall of America spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said it's the first time anyone has ever done something like that in the mall. She said Vorobyov disrupted the performance and could've caused a serious situation.
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