Saturday, May 30, 2015

COLORADO TEACHER AIDE’S FUTURE RATHER DIM

First grade girls at Denver’s Ford Elementary School found Cassandra Rein passed out in a school restroom with a syringe stuck in her arm

BarkGrowlBite | May 30, 2015

Many teacher aides aspire to become certified teachers. That may have been what Cassandra Rein, 27, had in mind. But something happened Thursday at Denver’s Ford Elementary School that makes her future as a teacher, or anything else for that matter, rather dim.

Four first grade girls found Cassandra passed out in a school restroom. Now that could happen to anybody. But Cassandra’s passing out was somewhat unique. When the little girls found her, there was a syringe stuck in her arm and a baggie containing white powder by her side.

One of the girls told her teacher that Cassandra was sleeping on the bathroom floor. Paramedics and the cops were called. Cassandra was taken to a hospital and then arrested for possession of a controlled substance. A search of her bag turned up several bottles of different pills, more syringes, and several metal caps containing the residue of burnt powder.

Cassandra is probably looking at some jail time and can kiss her aspirations of becoming a teacher adios. Eureka, not so fast! If I were her lawyer, I would argue that Cassandra was actually giving a drug education presentation to show her elementary school students what can happen to them if they use drugs. Brilliant, isn’t it?

Friday, May 29, 2015

EXECUTIONERS WANTED, NO EXPPERIENCE NEEDED

Saudi Arabia advertises for eight new executioners to carry out public beheadings

BarkGrowlBite | May 29, 2015

Justice in Saudi Arabia is harsh under Wahhabism, the Islamic sect of the Saudi rulers, which calls for the execution of murderers, apostates, homosexuals, adulterers, fortune tellers (for performing magic), etc. Executions, except for adulterers who are stoned to death, are by beheading and carried out in public, as are amputations and floggings.

The Daily Mail reports that so far this year, the Saudi kingdom has carried out 89 public executions. To keep up with the rash of beheadings, the Saudis have advertised for eight new executioners, no experience needed. The beginners hired will be given a traditional sword and will train by beheading live sheep. The advertisement promises successful applicants an attractive benefits package including a housing allowance and six months’ sick leave on full pay.

Here is the Daily Mail’s description of the typical Saudi execution:

The condemned, wearing white robes, is driven to a public square in a police van. He is dragged from it by eight officers. The executioner is waiting. He is carrying a four-foot curved silver sword.

He is forced to kneel facing Mecca, and the executioner tests his blade by running it lightly across the prisoner’s exposed neck, making him flinch. There is a drain in the ground to collect the blood.

The executioner raises his sword, then powers it down on to the kneeling man’s neck, slicing through skin, muscle and bone. The head rolls away; the body topples to the ground.

The man’s head is put in a bag and attached to his body with rope. Then the corpse, head dangling, is hoisted on a crane and left to fester in the square for up to three days.


These are equal opportunity beheadings in that the executions of women in Saudi Arabia are carried out in the same way as those of men. That should make the feminists happy.

The new executioners will also carry out amputations on thieves, stoning adulterers to death and surgically paralyzing offenders under the strict eye-for-an-eye Sharia law.

Stoning victims are typically buried up to their waist or neck, unable to avoid the stones hurled at their head by a crowd of bystanders until they slowly die.

The public is encouraged to bring their children to watch beheadings, amputations, stonings and floggings so that they will see the consequences of breaking Wahhabi laws.

I have a very strong suspicion that, even though the crime rate in Saudi Arabia has risen sharply, it is still very low.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

NO SHOOTOUT AT THE TWIN PEAKS CORRAL

I'm still recovering from some serious April 15th neck surgery. I spent part of Memorial Day at Twin Peaks. No, not the one in Waco, but the one in Webster. There was no shootout at the Twin Peaks corral. It was nice and peaceful, and I was enjoying some beers, a Philly cheese steak sandwich, and of course the view.



As you can see from the pictures, I wasn’t feeling any pain. I don’t know if it was the beer or the boobs, but I felt good. Now that I’m back home, damn it, I’ve got that awful pain in the neck again.

MEMORIAL DAY POLICE CHASE ENDS AT BARBEQUE GRILL

Half-hour chase of burglar by LAPD ends at Chanel Washington’s family barbeque

BarkGrowlBite | May 26, 2015

When South Los Angeles homeowners returned to their house around 3 p.m. on Memorial Day they noticed signs that they had been burglarized. When LAPD officers responded to their call they observed a man in the alley behind the home. The suspect jumped into a red Honda and took off with the cops in pursuit.

The chase started at Hoover and 58th streets and ended in the driveway of a duplex on 87th Place a half hour later. During the chase, according to CBS Los Angeles, the suspect circled surrounding neighborhoods, driving erratically, jumping the sidewalk and sideswiping parked cars.

The Chanel Washington family had been enjoying a family barbeque on their front lawn when they noticed the suspect turning into their driveway with the police in pursuit. They did not stay to see what was going on. Instead they fled indoors and locked the doors.

The Honda came to a stop only a few feet from Chanel’s grill. The suspect emerged from the car with his hands up and was taken into custody.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

PROFESSOR DAVID KIRK’S ‘AMAZING’ DISCOVERY

The Oxford University sociology professor discovered that dispersing parolees away from crime-infested neighborhoods reduces the parole recidivism rate

BarkGrowlBite | May 24, 2015

David Kirk, a sociology professor at Britain’s prestigious Oxford University, apparently had a lot of money and time to prove what he most certainly had to have already known - that parolees who are released to crime-infested neighborhoods have a high recidivism rate, but if they are dispersed to crime-free neighborhoods, the recidivism rate is substantially reduced.

Kirk’s study on the consequences of concentrating former prisoners in the same neighborhoods as other parolees has just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Here are some excerpts from his study:

The results of my analyses suggest the greater the concentration of ex-prisoners in a neighborhood, the greater the rate of subsequent recidivism. I find that concentrating former prisoners in the same neighborhoods leads to significantly higher recidivism rates than if ex-prisoners were more dispersed across neighborhoods.

The results presented in this study suggest that although parole and public housing policies and practices were designed, in principle, to enhance public safety, they may in fact be undermining it.

The extreme concentration of criminals in geographic space likely produces a contagion effect that not only leads to elevated rates of recidivism among existing criminals but also pulls the previously noncriminal toward deviance.


“Put simply, the alarming rates of recidivism in the United States are partly a consequence of the fact that many individuals being released from prison ultimately reside in the same neighborhoods as other former felons,” says Kirk in summing up his findings.

Wow, double wow, this is really amazing! Who would have ever thought that releasing parolees to the same crime-infested neighborhood results in a high rate of parolee recidivism. Seriously though, here we have another example of how those in academia set out to prove what they most certainly already know.

I don’t know how much time and money Kirk spent on his study, and how many assistants he used to conduct it, but all he had to do was to ask any parole officer and he would have instantly reached the same findings.

Kirk provides us with evidence that professors in academia do not live in the real world. Yes, it would be nice if we could spread all parolees around relatively crime-free America’s middle and upper-class neighborhoods. How about Malibu, the ritzy Dallas suburb of Plano, New York’s upper west side, the Hamptons and other trendy communities? Sorry Prof. Kirk, but it ain’t ever gonna happen. The residents of those communities will not stand for any parolees residing there other than their own family members.

I am sure that Kirk and his assistants have never been involved in counseling prison inmates or in conducting pre-release investigations. Had they been, they would have learned that every counselor and parole officer tries to place each parolee in the best available free world setting.

Here is a dose of reality. Most families of prison inmates live in lower-class neighborhoods, many of which are crime-infested. Other than a halfway house, the only residence usually available to a parolee is with family members. And even if you placed him in a sanitary crime-free environment among complete strangers, he would very likely drift back to his old neighborhood to be in familiar places with old friends, many of them also on parole or engaged in unlawful activities.

Prof. Kirk, I suggest you take a lengthy sabbatical from Oxford to spend time in the real world where you do not have to waste time and money on studies to prove what you already know.

Friday, May 22, 2015

OOPS, THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT TOO WELL !!

L.A. SWAT officer violated policy in use of Taser, police panel says

By Richard Winton and Kate Mather

Los Angeles Times
May 21, 2015

A Los Angeles police SWAT officer violated department policies last year when he used a Taser on a mentally ill homeless man standing on a downtown rooftop who then fell to his death, the LAPD's civilian overseers recently concluded.

The Police Commission voted 3 to 1 in support of Chief Charlie Beck's conclusion that a veteran officer's tactics "substantially and unjustifiably deviated" from his training, according to records obtained by The Times.

The officer said he had fired the electric stun gun to prevent Carlos Ocana from climbing a ladder back up a rooftop billboard. And, he told department investigators, he thought the man would fall in a way that would not hurt him. Instead, the 56-year-old fell to his death.

Another officer on the roof grabbed Ocana's leg, but couldn't keep hold, records show. Ocana fell more than 15 feet and landed in a parking lot below, just missing one of two air cushions that firefighters had deployed, the report states. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

In his report to the commission, Beck said the officer, as a SWAT member, had the tactical expertise, extensive training and other skills to "ensure the highest degree of operational effectiveness."

"I have high expectations for SWAT. They meet or exceed them almost every time," Beck told The Times. "This was a rare exception."

Sources familiar with the matter said Beck's findings were harsher than those of the commission's inspector general, Alex Bustamante, who did not find fault in the officer's overall tactics and use of the Taser.

The names of the officers involved in the incident were redacted from the report provided to The Times. But multiple sources identified the officer who shot the Taser as Stephen Scallon.

Scallon, who has spent most of his 26 years in the LAPD with the elite Metropolitan Division, received the agency's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, and was recognized at the White House for his role in a deadly 2008 shootout in Winnetka that left one officer dead and another seriously wounded. Scallon helped pull the wounded officer, who was shot in the face, from the house as other officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect.

Scallon could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The incident involving Ocana unfolded the night of May 24, when officers from the LAPD's Central Division responded to a radio call of a homeless man on the roof of the Four Corners Market on San Pedro Street, along downtown's skid row. The officers tried to talk to Ocana, but he ignored them, the report said. Ocana then climbed from the roof to the top of a billboard using a ladder.

Ocana straddled the top of the billboard and began to rock it back and forth. Officers at the scene said he appeared to be under the influence of narcotics or mentally ill, the report said.

Firefighters placed two air cushions, one on the rooftop of a building next to the market and another in the market's parking lot.

When the Central officers were unable to get Ocana down, officials requested SWAT come to the scene.

Believing Ocana posed a threat to himself while atop the billboard, SWAT supervisors devised a plan to prevent Ocana from climbing back up the billboard should he come down to the rooftop. By then, officers said, they had learned Ocana had a history of fighting with police.

Officers planned to grab the suspect but were prepared to use "less-lethal" force, such as a Taser, the chief said in his report.

About 11:30 p.m., an officer placed a cigarette at the bottom of the billboard's ladder and backed away, hoping to lure Ocana down. Ocana hesitantly climbed down to the rooftop and grabbed the cigarette, according to the report.

Another officer then took out a lighter, hoping to coax Ocana further away from the edge of the roof. But the man dug into his shorts pocket and pulled out one of his own. As Ocana smoked the cigarette, Scallon unholstered his Taser and hid it behind his leg, police records state.

Suddenly, Ocana turned and grabbed onto the ladder leading up the billboard. Scallon fired the Taser, causing Ocana to fall.

Coroner's officials determined that he died of blunt force head trauma, with "massive skull fractures," and deemed the death accidental. They also found cocaine in his system.

Although Beck ordered two lieutenants and a sergeant to undergo more training after the incident, the chief primarily faulted Scallon for how he used the Taser. The chief said Scallon deviated from the tactical plan by using the Taser before officers had the chance to grab Ocana and did not provide adequate warning that he was going to deploy the device.

Scallon told investigators that he thought there was only a "small window of opportunity" to use the Taser and take Ocana into custody. He said he thought Ocana would fall onto the roof, the chief's report states.

The Taser was used despite the LAPD's warning to officers against generally using the device against someone who is "in danger of falling which would likely result in death or serious bodily injury," according to the report.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scallon, a 26-year LAPD veteran, “received the agency's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, and was recognized at the White House for his role in a deadly 2008 shootout in Winnetka that left one officer dead and another seriously wounded. Scallon helped pull the wounded officer, who was shot in the face, from the house as other officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect.”

What’s Chief Beck going to recommend? Does he want to fire this highly decorated veteran officer? Suspend him without pay for 30 days?

Although the use of the taser resulted in a tragic death, I do not believe Scallon meant to harm Ocana. I believe that a reprimand is the most punishment that is called for in this case.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

POLICE NEED MORE AND BETTER TRAINING

Now let’s see if we can get this right. There's no guidance or discipline in the home.

The family situation is so unstable that Tyrone Washington has never seen his father and doesn’t know who or where he is.

Tyrone gets dumped into the education system where he is socially promoted because the school district will not suspend or expel undisciplined black whelps.

Tyrone's major formative influences are 'gangsta' rap videos and a corresponding peer group of gangsta wannabes.

At age 18, Tyrone is turned loose on society carrying a bad attitude, a broken compass and no respect for authority.

Tyrone gets himself in big trouble with the law because he is illiterate, unskilled, unemployable and his only source of income other than Government assistance is from stealing, burgling, robbing, carjacking and selling dope.

Tyrone points a pistol at the cops and gets shot. ‘Witnesses’ claim Tyrone was unarmed and that the cops shot him for no reason. Massive “No Justice, No Peace” demonstrations follow. Rioting, looting and burning occurs.

Then, according to academia's social scientists, Justice Department officials and civil rights leaders, the solution for situations like those of Tyrone is for the police to get more and better training in compassion, sensitivity and understanding of the urban black culture.

Pardon me for asking, but can you possibly buy this bullshit solution?

Monday, May 18, 2015

NO GAFFE BY JOE BIDEN AT ‘TOP COPS DINNER’

The Vice President paid a resounding tribute to cops at the ‘Top Cops Dinner’ in the nation’s capital

BarkGrowlBite | May 19, 2015

“What shape we’d be in as a nation if we didn’t have you doing the job. We expect you to do everything. We expect you to be constitutional scholars. We expect you to have instantaneous reactions to a crisis without making any mistake or without knowing what’s behind that door or what’s in that guy’s pocket. When you make a mistake, we come down on you like a ton of bricks. But you still do your job. You do it every single day when no one hears about it, when no one knows. We know the risks you take to protect us every single day — from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to New York City.”

Thus spoke Vice President Joe Biden in acknowledging the hard task faced by law enforcement officers when he addressed officers at the annual ‘Top Cops Dinner’ in Washington last Tuesday.

“From Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to New York City” referred to the recent murders of officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate in Hattiesburg and the murder of NYPD officer Brian Moore.

Biden, who is known for making gaffes when speaking, got it exactly right this time. He could not have said it any better.

It’s a shame that President Obama, who has been quick to criticize the police, has not seen it fit to made such a resounding tribute to cops in a public address to the nation.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

SHOOTOUT AT THE TWIN PEAKS CORRAL

Nine outlaw bikers are dead and 18 injured after rival gangs shoot it out in front of the cops at a Waco, Texas Twin Peaks restaurant

BarkGrowlBite | May 18, 2015

The old Wild West was relived in Waco, Texas on Sunday when around 200 bikers from several outlaw biker gangs met up at a Twin Peaks restaurant. A fight and then a gun battle broke out between rival gangs, killing nine bikers and wounding 18 others. And the shootout occurred right in front of the cops who had been sent there to avert any trouble.

The day’s festivities started shortly after noon with some shoving in the Twin Peaks restroom, then spilled out into the corral, err the parking lot that is, where it escalated from fisticuffs to a fight with clubs, chains and knives and then erupted into a blaze of gunfire. What started out as a gunfight between bikers quickly turned into a shootout between the cops and the bikers. None of the cops were injured. It is not known how many of the dead and injured were hit by biker or police gunfire.

Five gangs, including the Bandidos, Cossacks and Scimitars, are believed to have been involved in the battles. After the gun smoke cleared, 170 bikers were arrested and charged with Engaging in Organized Crime. Bond for each was set at $1 million.

Twin Peaks is a chain of restaurants competing with Hooters that employs scantily clad waitresses in plaid tops. The Waco Twin Peaks billed itself as the “ultimate man-cave” and apparently had issued an invitation for a bikers’ night.

An open invitation to bikers? What was the Twin Peaks management thinking? Anytime you get rival biker gangs together you can expect a heap of trouble.

I once supervised a parolee in San Bernardino, California who, unknown to me, was riding with the Devil’s Disciples, a local biker gang. One weekend, he and his fellow bikers were out riding when they had the misfortune to come across a small group of Hells Angels with their ballpeen hammers. Within minutes the Disciples were splattered all over the roadway. When I visited the parolee in the hospital he was unrecognizable. It took two weeks for the swelling in his head to go down before I could actually recognize him.

The biker battle in Waco was the worst ever gunfight within the city limits. It just goes to show that we do things bigger and better in Texas!

SWEARING AT TEACHERS, REFUSING DIRECT ORDERS AND STORMING OUT OF CLASS IS ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR FOR BLACK STUDENTS IN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

The school board members were concerned that too many black students are being suspended for ‘willful defiance,’ so they voted unanimously to stop such suspensions

BarkGrowlBite | May 17, 2015

The Oakland, California school board is concerned about too many black students being suspended for “willful defiance,” which includes swearing at teachers, refusing direct orders and storming out of classrooms. Their solution? Stop punishing black students for such behavior.

SFGate reports that Wednesday the Board of the Oakland Unified School District voted unanimously to stop suspending students for acts of willful defiance. The new official policy also bans expulsions and involuntary transfers to other schools.

Apparently, “Fuck you motherfucker!” will now be an appropriate response to a teacher’s direct order.

SFGate also reports that the school districts of Los Angeles, San Francisco and several other California cities had already adopted the same official policy.

Our schools are being run by educated idiots. Will someone please explain to me how permissible disruptive behavior of hoodlums will enhance the classroom learning process.

You can bet your life savings that any kind of defiant behavior is not tolerated and does not occur in the schools of our chief international economic competitors - China, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Russia.

No wonder our public schools turn out students who, for all practical purposes, cannot read or write, and cannot add, subtract, multiply or divide numbers. And if you asked some of those Oakland, Los Angeles and San Francisco black students to name the state capital of California, after a momentary thought their answer would probably be, “Fuck you motherfucker!”

Saturday, May 16, 2015

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

A most remarkable photo of a Falcon nesting in a tree

I've received many remarkable nature photographs over the years but this photo of a nesting Falcon is perhaps the most remarkable Nature shot that I've ever seen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Nature is truly breath-taking!

I've sent this to most of my older friends.

The younger ones probably have never seen a falcon and wouldn't recognize it.

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CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS’ MOONLIGHTING NOT ON APPROVED LIST

Baltimore correctional officers Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard looted a 7-Eleven store during the Freddie Gray riots

BarkGrowlBite | May 16, 2015

Two African-American female correctional officers employed by the city of Baltimore were caught on video moonlighting during the Freddie Gray riots, but looting a closed 7-Eleven store is not on the approved moonlighting list.

Friday’s Baltimore Sun reports that in the video Kendra Richard is seen coming out of the closed 7-Eleven store holding Slim Jims, while Tamika Cobb has Tostitos chips, police said. Police identified Richard as the woman exiting the store wearing yellow tennis shoes, black Adidas jogging pants and a jean jacket. They said Cobb was the one in yellow shoes, blue pants and a black sweatshirt with a large white graphic on the front.

Cobb and Richard were busted on theft and burglary charges following a tip to the police. Bond for each was set at $35,000. Both have been suspended without pay.

It’s obvious that Tamika and Kendra were merely participating in the evening’s festivities, but those Tostitos chips turned out to be a very, very costly snack!

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

HILLARY NOT THE BISEXUAL CANDIDATE

World News Daily hit the mother lode with report of Yoko Ono saying she had a sexual relationship with Hillary Clinton in the 1970s

BarkGrowlBite | May 13, 2015

“We met many times during the New York Vietnam War protests in the 1970s, and became very intimate. We shared many of the same values about sexual equality, fighting against the authoritarian, patriarchal, male-dominated society we were raised in. We had a brief romantic fling when I lived with John in Manhattan and Hillary was studying at Yale, but eventually we lost touch. I am amazed how things are going well for her and wish her the best for her campaign.”

That’s what World News Daily reported Yoko Ono, widow of icon John Lennon, telling reporters Thursday at a press conference in Los Angeles.

Just as soon as this report was published, the blogosphere filled up with posts by right-wingers and other Hillary haters salivating all over themselves about the expected Democratic presidential candidate’s lesbian relationship. Sorry fellas, but you’ve been had. Yoko Ono never said any such thing.

World News Daily, like The Onion, is a satirical publication that frequently fools its readers with made-up stories. World News Daily hit the mother lode with this laugher.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

FINAL PROOF

MAN WHO SPIT POOP AT GALVESTON COPS FACES CHARGE OF AGGRAVATED ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON

On his way to jail in the back of a cop car, Jonathon Glenn pooped, managed to put some of it in his mouth, then spit it at the arresting officers

BarkGrowlBite | May10, 2015

Late Tuesday night Jonathon Glenn, 29, stabbed another Galveston, Texas man, leaving him hospitalized in critical condition. On Wednesday,, investigating officers went to Glenn’s hous to arrest him. He was caught after a brief foot chase.

While on the way to jail, Glenn pooped in the back of the cop car. He managed to put some of the shit in his mouth and spit it at the arresting officers. Then he tried to strangle himself with a seat belt, which the officers promptly cut off of him.

Glenn is being held on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge with bond set at $100,000. He is also wanted in Midland, Texas on a kidnapping charge.

At first glance, I thought Glenn was being charged with aggravated assault for spitting his shit at the officers, but the charge is obviously related to the stabbing incident.

Lately, all you read in the papers and see on the TV news programs are reports of alleged police misconduct. In this case, many would have applaud the officers had they kicked the supreme shit out of Glenn for spitting his poop at them. The fact that Glenn was jailed all in one piece goes to the credit of some very tolerant Galveston police officers.

The restraint and control of temper exercised by those Galveston cops should have made all the papers and the national TV news programs. Sadly, because they did not kick the shit out of Glenn, that did not happen.

Friday, May 8, 2015

TEXAS LAWMAKER BELIEVES THAT LIKE TOMATOES, POT IS A GIFT FROM GOD

David Simpson’s bill would repeal all the Texas laws against marijuana because "everything that God made is good, even marijuana”

BarkGrowlBite | May 8, 2015

Texas State Representative David Simpson, a Republican from Longview, has introduced a bi that would repeal all the state’s laws against marijuana.

On March 2, when he filed House Bill 2165, the Christian conservative said:

"Everything that God made is good, even marijuana. The conservative thought is that government doesn't need to fix something that God made good. We should use our resources in law enforcement to deal with murder, with rape, with theft, but just possessing a substance that God made is not wrong. Putting people in prison and teaching them a whole lot about crime, separating them from the family, taking away the breadwinners simply for possessing a plant that God made - that's wrong."

Simpson said the state should regulate marijuana like the state regulates "tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee."

On Wednesday the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee unexpectedly voted 5-2 to support Simpson’s bill, with three Democrats and two Republicans voting in favor of the bill. However, it is predicted that HB 2165 will be DOA when it hits the House floor.

Me thinks the state representative from deep in the heart of the East Texas bible belt has been inhaling too much smoke from a crop which he believes is a gift from God, the same as tomatoes or jalapeños.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

TEXAS’ TOP OFFICER CALLS SNOOP DOGG A ‘DOPE SMOKING COP HATER’

The accusation was made before reprimanding a state trooper who posed for a picture with the rapper

By Paul J. Weber

Associated Press
May 6, 2015

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas’ chief law enforcement official called Snoop Dogg a “dope smoking cop hater” before reprimanding a state trooper who posed for a picture with the rapper, according to emails made public Wednesday.

Snoop Dogg posted a photo to Instagram with Department of Public Safety Trooper Billy Spears in March with the comment “Me n my deputy dogg.” It was taken during the South by Southwest music festival, where Spears was working off-duty as extra security.

Spears is now suing DPS after being disciplined for taking a picture with a public figure who has a several convictions for drug possession.

Emails obtained by Spears’ attorney through open records laws show that the incident went all the way to DPS Director Steve McCraw, who is best known for overseeing the state’s expansive border security operations.

“Apparently he would rather work the convention while on a week’s vacation to earn additional money rather than take an additional tour on the border,” McCraw wrote. “He must not understand that he was being lampooned by a dope smoking cop hater which reflects very poorly on the department.”

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger confirmed the authenticity of the email but did not comment on its content. He referred to the agency previously saying that DPS holds employees to high standards of conduct and judgment.

The emails include a DPS supervisor explaining that Spears and other troopers have routinely taken pictures with other celebrities at SXSW. He mentions actor Robert Duvall, former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and musicians Cee Lo Green and Rob Zombie.

Spears is seeking unspecified damages in a Travis County court. He claims his discipline was retaliation for filing a complaint several weeks earlier against a superior.

EDITOR’S NOTE: When I was on the Board of Directors of the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association (INEOA), John Bellizzi, the association’s founder and executive director, attended one of those infamous parties at the Playboy Mansion and posed for arm-in-arm pictures with Hugh Hefne, pictures which he published in the INEOA publications. I thought it was inappropriate for the head of the INEOA to attend a party at the Playboy Mansion and to publish pictures of him arm-in-arm with Hefner who was widely known for smoking dope and as a proponent of pot, one of the drugs on the IENOA’s hit list. When I proposed that Bellizzi be reprimanded, all the DEA board member supported the motion, but a majority of the board, fearing that he would resign, voted it down.

As for DPD Trooper Billy Spears posing in uniform with Snoop Dogg, a convicted dope smoking celebrity, that was somewhat inappropriate. But since the picture was taken at a musical festival where Spears was working an extra job providing security, a littlr ass-chewing should have been all that was called for.

A MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED OVER PACQUIANO’S SHOULDER INJURY

AFP
May 5, 2015

Two Nevada men filed a class-action lawsuit against Manny Pacquiao, seeking millions in damages because they say he fraudulently concealed a shoulder injury before his defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

It is just the latest fallout from Mayweather's victory in Las Vegas on Saturday in a unanimous decision, with Pacquiao saying afterward that the shoulder complaint hampered his performance in the welterweight world title showdown.

The plaintiffs argue that by failing to go public with the injury before the feverishly anticipated bout, the Philippine icon and his camp violated the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The suit filed in a US District Court in Las Vegas names Pacquiao, his manager Michael Koncz and promotional company Top Rank as well as Top Rank chairman Bob Arum and president Todd duBoef.

According to court documents available online, the lawsuit claims that when plaintiffs Stephane Vanel and Kami Rahbaran bought tickets, forked out pay-per-view fees, or bet on the fight, the defendants "knew and had full knowledge and information that defendant Pacquiao had been seriously injured and was suffering from a torn rotator cuff."

"Defendants further know that such injury would severely affect his performance," the lawsuit says.

"None of the defendants informed or apprised the public or even the Nevada Athletic Commission about the injury to defendant Pacquiao."

The clash between Pacquiao and Mayweather at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was billed as the "Fight of the Century."

It's certainly set to go down as the most lucrative bout in history, with possible revenue of $400 million.

That could include as many as 3 million pay-per-view purchases, at about $100 each.

The bout went the full scheduled 12 rounds, Mayweather easily winning on the judges' scorecards to take his perfect record to 48-0.

After the fight, Pacquiao and Top Rank revealed the 36-year-old had been injured in training camp some three weeks earlier.

They said he had been cleared by doctors to fight, though they had expected him to be able to take an anti-inflammatory injection on fight night, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission ultimately denied him.

Pacquiao attorney Daniel Petrocelli told The Los Angeles Times that he expected the lawsuit to be dismissed.

"It claims Pacquiao was injured (immediately) before the bout and that's not true — he was injured (nearly a month) before the bout, was examined by doctors and cleared to fight," Petrocelli said. "And he was examined by the commission right before he fought."

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Pac Man has been my favorite fighter for some years, but he clearly lost his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Manny Pacquiao’s complaint about his shoulder injury is just a ploy to get a big moneymaking rematch with Mayweather.

As for the lawsuit, it’s a big bunch of bullshit. This case should be thrown out of court forthwith!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

BALI NINE: FUNERALS FOR ANDREW CHAN, MYURAN SUKUMARAN TO BE HELD IN SYDNEY THIS WEEK

Funeral services for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be held in Sydney this week

ABC Australia News
May 5, 2015

The two men were executed along with six others by firing squad on the Indonesian prison island of Nusakambangan last Wednesday.

Chan's funeral service will be held at the Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills this Friday.

Sukumaran will be farewelled this Saturday at the DaySpring Church in Castle Hill.

Both families have invited members of the public to attend the ceremonies.

The bodies of Chan and Sukumaran arrived back in Australia on Saturday, three days after the men were executed.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the executions were a "dark moment" in the relationship between Australia and Indonesia, and responded by withdrawing the Australian ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson.

Since the executions, backlash against the Australian Federal Police intensified over the fact they did not arrest the two drug smugglers before they left for Indonesia in 2005.

This week, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin explained police did not have enough evidence to arrest the men in Australia and it was "operationally appropriate" to cooperate with Indonesia.

Indonesia has staunchly defended the executions as a vital front of its "war" on drugs.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I think it is ridiculous for Australia to recall its ambassador from Indonesia over the executions of two sorry ass drug traffickers. Good riddance!

Dorina Lisson, my Aussie anti-death penalty crusader friend, says: “I have been invited [to the funerals] and I will be attending! Why? Not because they were convicted criminals but because they were 'legally murdered' !!!”

Sunday, May 3, 2015

DIVERSITY AMONG BALTIMORE COPS CHARGED IN FREDDIE GRAY’S DEATH

Of the six cops charged, three are white and three are black, with one of the black officers being a female

BarkGrowlBite | May3, 2015

The clarion call by academics and race experts calling for police reform has been more diversity.

Of the six Baltimore officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death, three are white and three are black, with one of the black officers being a female.

Now you can’t get much more diverse than that, with the possible exception that one of the three white officers should have been a Hispanic woman cop.

But how do you explain that half of the cops being held responsible for Freddie’s death are black? My son says that Al Sharpton would say the black officers were only there to prevent three white racist cops from beating up that poor black man.