By Bob Walsh
A three-day old baby girl was killed in a dog attack in Fresno (CA) on Monday (06-27).
The 33-year old mother had taken the baby to her brother’s home around midnight. The brother owns two male pit-bull mixes, one of which was known to be aggressive. The woman asserts that she thought the dogs were chained up in the back yard so she left the back door opened and left the girl unattended for “a few seconds.” (By the way it is illegal to chain dogs for extended periods of time in California.)
The dogs came into the house about 12:30 a. m. and attacked the baby. The little girl died shortly after at a local hospital.
The dogs were surrendered to the local SPCA which will euthanize them. The matter is still under investigation but for now the cops are saying it appears to be an accident. At the time of the attack the woman, her 30-year old brother and the baby were the only people in the house.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
CHICAGO CELEBRATED FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND WITH 59 PE0PLE SHOT, 13 FATALLY
This year, through the Father’s Day weekend, the city with some of the strictest gun restrictions in the nation has had about 1,800 people shot, with more than 200 of them fatally
BarkGrowlBite | June 29, 2016
The shootings keep piling up in the Windy City which has some of the strictest gun restrictions in the nation. This Father’s Day weekend was an especially bloody one for Chicago, with 59 people shot, 13 of them fatally.
In Chicago so far this year, there have been about 1,800 people shot, with more than 200 of them fatally.
The Chicago Tribune reports that over the course of the year, the Harrison District on the city's West Side has tallied more homicides than any other district in the city, with 37. The Englewood District on the South Side had 36. The Austin District on the West Side, the Gresham District on the South Side and the Deering District on the South and Southwest sides each tallied 24.
So, how's that gun control working for you, Mayor Rahm Emanuel? Yeah, I know, they're getting their guns in Indiana.
59 Chicagoans shot … way to celebrate Father’s Day.
Most of the 59 shooting victims were black. How come Black Lives Matter isn’t protesting? Oh, I keep forgetting … BLM is only concerned about blacks getting killed by white cops.
BarkGrowlBite | June 29, 2016
The shootings keep piling up in the Windy City which has some of the strictest gun restrictions in the nation. This Father’s Day weekend was an especially bloody one for Chicago, with 59 people shot, 13 of them fatally.
In Chicago so far this year, there have been about 1,800 people shot, with more than 200 of them fatally.
The Chicago Tribune reports that over the course of the year, the Harrison District on the city's West Side has tallied more homicides than any other district in the city, with 37. The Englewood District on the South Side had 36. The Austin District on the West Side, the Gresham District on the South Side and the Deering District on the South and Southwest sides each tallied 24.
So, how's that gun control working for you, Mayor Rahm Emanuel? Yeah, I know, they're getting their guns in Indiana.
59 Chicagoans shot … way to celebrate Father’s Day.
Most of the 59 shooting victims were black. How come Black Lives Matter isn’t protesting? Oh, I keep forgetting … BLM is only concerned about blacks getting killed by white cops.
FATHER SAYS JAIL WOULD BE THE BEST PLACE FOR JOHNNY MANZIEL
Manziel’s father says, “I don’t know what to say other than my son is a druggie and he needs help … I hate to say it but I hope he goes to jail.”
By Sean Pendergast | Houston Press | June 27, 2016
For everyone who's said that Johnny Manziel won't ever play football again, and has followed that up semi-jokingly with the hypothesis that he will "wind up on a reality TV show," in a perverse way, those predictions are coming true.
Manziel's life at this point is realer than anything a highly edited show on E! could produce, and through the dark magic of TMZ and social media, we're watching his personal destruction, the crumbling of an Aggie legend one brick at a time. Sometimes the next episode comes from the unlikeliest of places, and this time it was from the inept fingers of Manziel's attorney, Bob Hinton, who last week accidentally fired off a text meant for a fellow attorney to the Associated Press, and that news outlet shared the contents with the Manziel reality show "viewing audience."
The text was meant for the lead attorney in Manziel's case, Jim Darnell, and from that text and the subsequent conversations generated, we learned some harrowing details of where Johnny Manziel's life is right now. Here's what we've learned in the past few days:
1. Manziel's defense team is seeking a plea deal in his domestic assault case.
Upon news of the text leaking, Manziel's spokeswoman, Denise Michaels, reinforced that Manziel's legal team has never been of the mind that Manziel would plead guilty in the case in which Manziel allegedly hit his ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, but Hinton clearly has some trepidation over a plea deal, given that it would likely be tied to Manziel's staying drug-free, a proposition that Darnell seems to think is doubtful given this sentence in his misfired text — "Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle." Which brings us to...
2. Manziel's drug problems are as bad as or worse than what we've seen on TMZ.
Last Monday, Manziel was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Dallas. Reportedly, Tuesday afternoon, he purchased more than $1,000 worth of drug paraphernalia at a place called the Gas Pipe, that according to a "heads up" receipt emailed to Manziel's legal team. Hinton was understandably coy about the genesis of the receipt and what it may mean:
"I don't know if the receipt is legitimate or not," Hinton responded when asked about it by the AP. "I just know that it doesn't say Johnny's name on it anywhere that I can see. It's just that somebody in that store, I guess, circulated that to the other store managers and employees saying, 'Guess who was here today and spent this amount of money.' That's all I know."
Well, if the reaction of Manziel's father Paul is any indicator, it would seem logical that Manziel is making large purchases on drug apparatuses...
3. Manziel's family has kind of given up on him.
Shortly after Hinton's accidental text to the AP, ESPN's Rosina Anderson caught up with the elder Manziel, who seems to have thrown his hands up in the air on his son:
“He’s a druggie. It’s not a secret that he’s a druggie. I don’t know what to say other than my son is a druggie and he needs help. He just hasn’t seeked it yet. Hopefully he doesn’t die before he comes to his senses. That’s about all you can say. I don’t know what else to say…I hate to say it but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him. So we’ll see.”
4. Manziel's first rehab stint was clearly not his idea.
When Manziel went to rehab after his rookie year, many were skeptical that it would work. The mere math of rehab (most addicts take multiple trips before they are able to stabilize, if they're ever able to) was working against Manziel, let alone his enabling surroundings. As it turns out, that rehab stint appears to have been pushed by Manziel's father, who had this to say to Anderson:
"You have no idea. And the system failed," he said. "I had him in rehab and he escaped and the doctors let him go, and that is a whole other story. So I mean I had him [in rehab] and the system failed. It didn't work."
5. Manziel does not appear to be partying on his family's dime.
The one question a lot of us have had, as we've watched Manziel party his way lavishly across the United States and back, is "Where is he getting the money to do all of this?" I mean, sure, Manziel still has enough cachet as a Heisman winner to get some comps and perks, but private jets ain't free, and it seems like he has a new plaintiff coming after him every day for something. Point being, we all have wondered if Manziel's family was supporting him financially.
Well, not only does that not appear to be the case, but according to Paul Manziel, Johnny's rookie deal with the Browns (a fully guaranteed four-year, $7.7 million deal), along with whatever endorsement income he has left, makes up a resource pool that exceeds his parents' resources:
"He has more money than me, so he can outrun me. Like I said, there are two things that are going to happen: He's either going to die, or he's going to figure out that he needs help. It's one of the two. But we've done everything that we can do. Life goes on. You can't just chase somebody that's not willing to listen. The story is not going to change. It's the same."
Wow. If that's the case, Johnny may start hanging out with some REALLY shady characters before we know it, and this story may hit a wall sooner than we all thought it would. For his part, Paul Manziel gives perhaps the most poignant, most accurate and most frightening assessment of where this is all going for the man they called "Johnny Football."
"We're so far past what everybody thinks we are past. People are ignorant. It's just a horrible story. That's all there is to it. I mean, I hate to say it, but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him."
If the Manziel reality show maintains its ebb and flow, we should have a story later this week from one of his sycophants telling us how he's getting ready to play football in 2016 or 2017. That's kind of how it's gone.
The fact is that, if Manziel's attorneys' concerns are right, Manziel's father may get his wish eventually, either through a judgment on his domestic assault case or a failed drug test after a plea agreement — his wish that prison actually saves his son.
By Sean Pendergast | Houston Press | June 27, 2016
For everyone who's said that Johnny Manziel won't ever play football again, and has followed that up semi-jokingly with the hypothesis that he will "wind up on a reality TV show," in a perverse way, those predictions are coming true.
Manziel's life at this point is realer than anything a highly edited show on E! could produce, and through the dark magic of TMZ and social media, we're watching his personal destruction, the crumbling of an Aggie legend one brick at a time. Sometimes the next episode comes from the unlikeliest of places, and this time it was from the inept fingers of Manziel's attorney, Bob Hinton, who last week accidentally fired off a text meant for a fellow attorney to the Associated Press, and that news outlet shared the contents with the Manziel reality show "viewing audience."
The text was meant for the lead attorney in Manziel's case, Jim Darnell, and from that text and the subsequent conversations generated, we learned some harrowing details of where Johnny Manziel's life is right now. Here's what we've learned in the past few days:
1. Manziel's defense team is seeking a plea deal in his domestic assault case.
Upon news of the text leaking, Manziel's spokeswoman, Denise Michaels, reinforced that Manziel's legal team has never been of the mind that Manziel would plead guilty in the case in which Manziel allegedly hit his ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, but Hinton clearly has some trepidation over a plea deal, given that it would likely be tied to Manziel's staying drug-free, a proposition that Darnell seems to think is doubtful given this sentence in his misfired text — "Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle." Which brings us to...
2. Manziel's drug problems are as bad as or worse than what we've seen on TMZ.
Last Monday, Manziel was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Dallas. Reportedly, Tuesday afternoon, he purchased more than $1,000 worth of drug paraphernalia at a place called the Gas Pipe, that according to a "heads up" receipt emailed to Manziel's legal team. Hinton was understandably coy about the genesis of the receipt and what it may mean:
"I don't know if the receipt is legitimate or not," Hinton responded when asked about it by the AP. "I just know that it doesn't say Johnny's name on it anywhere that I can see. It's just that somebody in that store, I guess, circulated that to the other store managers and employees saying, 'Guess who was here today and spent this amount of money.' That's all I know."
Well, if the reaction of Manziel's father Paul is any indicator, it would seem logical that Manziel is making large purchases on drug apparatuses...
3. Manziel's family has kind of given up on him.
Shortly after Hinton's accidental text to the AP, ESPN's Rosina Anderson caught up with the elder Manziel, who seems to have thrown his hands up in the air on his son:
“He’s a druggie. It’s not a secret that he’s a druggie. I don’t know what to say other than my son is a druggie and he needs help. He just hasn’t seeked it yet. Hopefully he doesn’t die before he comes to his senses. That’s about all you can say. I don’t know what else to say…I hate to say it but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him. So we’ll see.”
4. Manziel's first rehab stint was clearly not his idea.
When Manziel went to rehab after his rookie year, many were skeptical that it would work. The mere math of rehab (most addicts take multiple trips before they are able to stabilize, if they're ever able to) was working against Manziel, let alone his enabling surroundings. As it turns out, that rehab stint appears to have been pushed by Manziel's father, who had this to say to Anderson:
"You have no idea. And the system failed," he said. "I had him in rehab and he escaped and the doctors let him go, and that is a whole other story. So I mean I had him [in rehab] and the system failed. It didn't work."
5. Manziel does not appear to be partying on his family's dime.
The one question a lot of us have had, as we've watched Manziel party his way lavishly across the United States and back, is "Where is he getting the money to do all of this?" I mean, sure, Manziel still has enough cachet as a Heisman winner to get some comps and perks, but private jets ain't free, and it seems like he has a new plaintiff coming after him every day for something. Point being, we all have wondered if Manziel's family was supporting him financially.
Well, not only does that not appear to be the case, but according to Paul Manziel, Johnny's rookie deal with the Browns (a fully guaranteed four-year, $7.7 million deal), along with whatever endorsement income he has left, makes up a resource pool that exceeds his parents' resources:
"He has more money than me, so he can outrun me. Like I said, there are two things that are going to happen: He's either going to die, or he's going to figure out that he needs help. It's one of the two. But we've done everything that we can do. Life goes on. You can't just chase somebody that's not willing to listen. The story is not going to change. It's the same."
Wow. If that's the case, Johnny may start hanging out with some REALLY shady characters before we know it, and this story may hit a wall sooner than we all thought it would. For his part, Paul Manziel gives perhaps the most poignant, most accurate and most frightening assessment of where this is all going for the man they called "Johnny Football."
"We're so far past what everybody thinks we are past. People are ignorant. It's just a horrible story. That's all there is to it. I mean, I hate to say it, but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him."
If the Manziel reality show maintains its ebb and flow, we should have a story later this week from one of his sycophants telling us how he's getting ready to play football in 2016 or 2017. That's kind of how it's gone.
The fact is that, if Manziel's attorneys' concerns are right, Manziel's father may get his wish eventually, either through a judgment on his domestic assault case or a failed drug test after a plea agreement — his wish that prison actually saves his son.
BAD ANGEL
A restored WW2 P-51 Mustang fighter plane named Bad Angel that sits in Hangar 4 at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson is credited with shooting down an American plane for which its pilot was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
Here is the story of the Bad Angel and the heroic pilot who flew it.
In 1942, the United States needed pilots for its war planes lots of war planes; lots of pilots. Lt. Louis Curdes was one. When he was 22 years old, he graduated flight training school and was shipped off to the Mediterranean to fight Nazis in the air over Southern Europe.
He arrived at his 82nd Fighter Group, 95th Fighter Squadron in April 1943 and was assigned a P-38 Lightning. Ten days later he shot down three German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters. A few weeks later, he downed two more German Bf -109's. In less than a month of combat, Louis was an Ace and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
During the next three months, Louis shot down an Italian Mc.202 fighter and two more Messerschmitts before his luck ran out. A German fighter shot down his plane on August 27, 1943 over Salerno, Italy. Captured by the Italians, he was sent to a POW camp near Rome. No doubt this is where he thought he would spend the remaining years of the war. It wasn't to be. A few days later, the Italians surrendered. Louis and a few other pilots escaped before the Nazis could take control of the camp.
One might think that such harrowing experiences would have taken the fight out of Louis, yet he volunteered for another combat tour. This time, Uncle Sam sent him to the Philippines where he flew P-51 Mustangs.
Soon after arriving in the Pacific Theater, Louis downed a Mitsubishi reconnaissance plane near Formosa. Now he was one of only three Americans to have kills against all three Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Up until this point, young Lt. Curdes combat career had been stellar. His story was about to take a twist so bizarre that it seems like the fictional creation of a Hollywood screenwriter.
While attacking the Japanese-held island of Bataan, one of Louis wingmen was shot down. The pilot ditched in the ocean. Circling overhead, Louis could see that his wingman had survived, so he stayed in the area to guide a rescue plane and protect the downed pilot.
It wasn't long before he noticed another, larger airplane, wheels down, preparing to land at the Japanese-held airfield on Bataan. He moved in to investigate. Much to his surprise the approaching plane was a Douglas C-47 transport with American markings.
He tried to make radio contact, but without success. He maneuvered his Mustang in front of the big transport several times trying to wave it off. The C-47 kept head to its landing target. Apparently the C-47 crew didn’t realize they were about to land on a Japanese held island, and soon would be captives.
Lt. Curdes read the daily newspaper accounts of the war, including the viciousness of the Japanese soldiers toward their captives. He knew that whoever was in that American C-47 would be, upon landing, either dead or wish they were. But what could he do?
Audaciously, he lined up his P-51 directly behind the transport, carefully sighted one of his .50 caliber machine guns and knocked out one of its two engines. Still the C-47 continued on toward the Bataan airfield. Curdes shifted his aim slightly and knocked out the remaining engine, leaving the baffled pilot no choice but to ditch in the ocean.
The big plane came down to it wings. in one piece about 50 yards from his bobbing wingman. At this point, nightfall and low fuel forced Louis to return to base. The next morning, Louis flew cover for a rescuing PBY that picked up the downed Mustang pilot and 12 passengers and crew, including two female nurses, from the C-47. All survived, and later, Lt. Curdes would end up marrying one of these nurses.
For shooting down an unarmed American transport plane, Lt. Louis Curdes was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Thereafter, on the fuselage of his P-51 "Bad Angel", he proudly displayed the symbols of his kills: seven German, one Italian, one Japanese and one American flag.
Here is the story of the Bad Angel and the heroic pilot who flew it.
In 1942, the United States needed pilots for its war planes lots of war planes; lots of pilots. Lt. Louis Curdes was one. When he was 22 years old, he graduated flight training school and was shipped off to the Mediterranean to fight Nazis in the air over Southern Europe.
He arrived at his 82nd Fighter Group, 95th Fighter Squadron in April 1943 and was assigned a P-38 Lightning. Ten days later he shot down three German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters. A few weeks later, he downed two more German Bf -109's. In less than a month of combat, Louis was an Ace and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
During the next three months, Louis shot down an Italian Mc.202 fighter and two more Messerschmitts before his luck ran out. A German fighter shot down his plane on August 27, 1943 over Salerno, Italy. Captured by the Italians, he was sent to a POW camp near Rome. No doubt this is where he thought he would spend the remaining years of the war. It wasn't to be. A few days later, the Italians surrendered. Louis and a few other pilots escaped before the Nazis could take control of the camp.
One might think that such harrowing experiences would have taken the fight out of Louis, yet he volunteered for another combat tour. This time, Uncle Sam sent him to the Philippines where he flew P-51 Mustangs.
Soon after arriving in the Pacific Theater, Louis downed a Mitsubishi reconnaissance plane near Formosa. Now he was one of only three Americans to have kills against all three Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Up until this point, young Lt. Curdes combat career had been stellar. His story was about to take a twist so bizarre that it seems like the fictional creation of a Hollywood screenwriter.
While attacking the Japanese-held island of Bataan, one of Louis wingmen was shot down. The pilot ditched in the ocean. Circling overhead, Louis could see that his wingman had survived, so he stayed in the area to guide a rescue plane and protect the downed pilot.
It wasn't long before he noticed another, larger airplane, wheels down, preparing to land at the Japanese-held airfield on Bataan. He moved in to investigate. Much to his surprise the approaching plane was a Douglas C-47 transport with American markings.
He tried to make radio contact, but without success. He maneuvered his Mustang in front of the big transport several times trying to wave it off. The C-47 kept head to its landing target. Apparently the C-47 crew didn’t realize they were about to land on a Japanese held island, and soon would be captives.
Lt. Curdes read the daily newspaper accounts of the war, including the viciousness of the Japanese soldiers toward their captives. He knew that whoever was in that American C-47 would be, upon landing, either dead or wish they were. But what could he do?
Audaciously, he lined up his P-51 directly behind the transport, carefully sighted one of his .50 caliber machine guns and knocked out one of its two engines. Still the C-47 continued on toward the Bataan airfield. Curdes shifted his aim slightly and knocked out the remaining engine, leaving the baffled pilot no choice but to ditch in the ocean.
The big plane came down to it wings. in one piece about 50 yards from his bobbing wingman. At this point, nightfall and low fuel forced Louis to return to base. The next morning, Louis flew cover for a rescuing PBY that picked up the downed Mustang pilot and 12 passengers and crew, including two female nurses, from the C-47. All survived, and later, Lt. Curdes would end up marrying one of these nurses.
For shooting down an unarmed American transport plane, Lt. Louis Curdes was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Thereafter, on the fuselage of his P-51 "Bad Angel", he proudly displayed the symbols of his kills: seven German, one Italian, one Japanese and one American flag.
WHY SENTENCE STRUCTURE IS CRUCIAL
Business was terrible and not picking up. The boss had to fire somebody, and he narrowed it down to one of two people, Debra or Jack. It was an impossible decision because they were both excellent workers. Rather than flip a coin, he decided he would fire the first one who used the water cooler the next morning.
Debra came in the next morning with a horrible hangover after partying all night. She went to the cooler to take an aspirin. The boss approached her and said: "Debra, I've never done this before but I have to either lay you or Jack off."
"Could you just jack off?" she says. "I feel like shit."
Debra came in the next morning with a horrible hangover after partying all night. She went to the cooler to take an aspirin. The boss approached her and said: "Debra, I've never done this before but I have to either lay you or Jack off."
"Could you just jack off?" she says. "I feel like shit."
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
TEXAS MAN WHACKED OVER WEED WHACKER
Melvin Adalberto Morales-Rivas was charged in the Liberty County shooting death of Vincente Rodriguez
By Dale Lezon | Houston Chronicle | June 27, 2016
A suspect was arrested early Monday, a day after the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man in a dispute about a weed trimmer at his home in north Liberty County.
Melvin Adalberto Morales-Rivas, 28, is charged with murder in the slaying of Vincente Rodriquez about 12:10 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Road 3405 in the Bella Vista subdivision, according to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said Rodriguez brought home a weed trimmer that he told his wife he had found on the side of the road. Investigators later learned that the weed trimmer apparently belonged to Morales-Rivas and his partner, who have a lawn-care business together.
Morales-Rivas' partner, who has not been charged in the case, told investigators he and Morales-Rivas went to talk to Rodriguez at his home about getting the machine back. While they were speaking with Rodriguez's wife, Rodriguez's van burst into flames. When Rodriguez ran outside the house to put out the fire, deputies said, Morales-Rivas shot him several times, fatally wounding him.
Deputies said Rodriguez apparently was lured outside with the burning van.
Morales-Rivas and his partner left after the shooting.
The partner later told investigators he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, but had left his gun in his car while he and Morales-Rivas went to Rodriguez's front door. The man told investigators he believed Morales-Rivas grabbed the gun and shot Rodriguez.
Morales-Rivas surrendered to deputies after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the case.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shucks, this ain’t no big deal. This is just how we deal with a thieving varmint in the wild west state of Texas.
By Dale Lezon | Houston Chronicle | June 27, 2016
A suspect was arrested early Monday, a day after the fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man in a dispute about a weed trimmer at his home in north Liberty County.
Melvin Adalberto Morales-Rivas, 28, is charged with murder in the slaying of Vincente Rodriquez about 12:10 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Road 3405 in the Bella Vista subdivision, according to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said Rodriguez brought home a weed trimmer that he told his wife he had found on the side of the road. Investigators later learned that the weed trimmer apparently belonged to Morales-Rivas and his partner, who have a lawn-care business together.
Morales-Rivas' partner, who has not been charged in the case, told investigators he and Morales-Rivas went to talk to Rodriguez at his home about getting the machine back. While they were speaking with Rodriguez's wife, Rodriguez's van burst into flames. When Rodriguez ran outside the house to put out the fire, deputies said, Morales-Rivas shot him several times, fatally wounding him.
Deputies said Rodriguez apparently was lured outside with the burning van.
Morales-Rivas and his partner left after the shooting.
The partner later told investigators he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, but had left his gun in his car while he and Morales-Rivas went to Rodriguez's front door. The man told investigators he believed Morales-Rivas grabbed the gun and shot Rodriguez.
Morales-Rivas surrendered to deputies after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the case.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shucks, this ain’t no big deal. This is just how we deal with a thieving varmint in the wild west state of Texas.
944 LOST LAW ENFORCEMNT GUNS IN CALIFORNIA SINCE 2010: 717 UNACCOUNTED FOR, 192 STOLEN, 35 MISPLACED
Disarmed and dangerous: Officers across the Bay Area and state are losing firearms at an astonishing rate — and the consequences can be deadly
By Thomas Peele | The Mercury News | June 26, 2016
Nine-hundred and forty-four guns.
From Glocks, Sig Sauers and Remingtons to sniper and assault rifles, some equipped with grenade launchers.
They used to belong to law enforcement officers across California, but a new Bay Area News Group investigation found hundreds of police-issued weapons have been either stolen, lost or can’t be accounted for since 2010, often disappearing onto the streets without a trace.
A year after a bullet from a federal agent’s stolen gun killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier, this news organization surveyed more than 240 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and discovered an alarming disregard for the way many officers — from police chiefs to cadets to FBI agents — safeguard their weapons.
Their guns have been stolen from behind car seats and glove boxes, swiped from gym bags, dresser drawers and under beds. They have been left on tailgates, car roofs and even atop a toilet paper dispenser in a car dealership’s bathroom. One officer forgot a high-powered assault rifle in the trunk of a taxi.
The tally includes Colts, Rugers, Smith & Wessons, a Derringer, a .44-caliber Dirty Harry hand cannon and a small snub-nosed revolver called a “Detective Special.”
In all, since 2010, at least 944 guns have disappeared from police in the Bay Area and state and federal agents across California — an average of one almost every other day — and fewer than 20 percent have been recovered.
Little attention had been paid to the issue before Steinle’s highly publicized death. But at least 86 weapons were snatched from officers’ vehicles between January 2010 and last June’s smash-and-grab burglary of a U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger’s gun recovered after Steinle’s shooting. Police have not determined who stole it, but an illegal immigrant is charged in her killing.
“You just can’t leave a gun alone in a vehicle,” said retired FBI Agent Jim Wedick. “You just can’t do it. It has to be in a compartment, or in chains an inch thick wrapped around a lead box, because, God forbid, someone gets hurt.”
Even after Steinle’s death, law enforcement agents have continued to leave guns available in their cars: Four FBI guns have been stolen from vehicles in the Bay Area this year, including three in Benicia; Salinas police had three stolen from cars in a six-week period in April and May. And a San Jose Police cadet resigned on the eve of becoming an officer after his gun was stolen from his car in late October while he was in the Benihana restaurant at Cupertino’s Vallco Shopping Mall.
A breakdown of the missing 944 guns: 600 semi-automatic pistols and revolvers, 251 shotguns, 27 assault rifles, 16 rifles, 15 sniper rifles, 12 grenade/tear gas launchers, 1 submachine gun and 22
not disclosed or unknown.
Scope is ‘staggering’
The thefts are revealed in records obtained from government agencies in one of the most comprehensive examinations of missing police guns of its kind. While last year’s highly publicized killings of Steinle and Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos brought attention to the tragic consequences of stolen police guns, the scope of the problem has been far less clear — until now.
The numbers “are staggering,” said Frank Pitre, an attorney representing Steinle’s parents, Jim Steinle and Elizabeth Sullivan, in a federal lawsuit over their daughter’s death. The BLM is one of three defendants.
This news organization’s investigation also uncovered that a gun stolen from a Tracy cop in 2010 was used to kill a man in Contra Costa County four years later, and a now-retired Piedmont police chief’s stolen gun in 2012 was used in a San Francisco gang shooting that year.
Many departments have struggled to keep track of weapons. Oakland police, for example, lost track of 370 weapons since 2011, including 30 this year that later turned up. It’s unclear how many other guns could be missing from local departments that haven’t bothered to audit their inventory of weapons.
While police agencies documented the majority of missing guns in this news organization’s analysis as lost or unaccounted for, 192 were listed as stolen.
“This needs to stop,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who is sponsoring legislation that would make it illegal in California for a cop to leave a gun in an unattended car unless it is locked inside a hidden compartment or secure case.
Officers become complacent with their weapon, because they are so used to it always being there, Hill said. “They don’t take it as seriously as they should, and what the effects of it could be if it gets lost to the wrong hands.”
Late last year, after Steinle and Ramos were killed, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order requiring all federal guns left in parked vehicles to be locked down. The White House took no action, DeSaulnier said in an interview.
Regulations for gun storage in vehicles vary widely across the more than nearly 100 federal agencies that employ armed agents, DeSaulnier said. He said he will soon introduce legislation to make regulations uniform by requiring lockable compartments in any parked vehicle where a government gun is left.
He is also considering adding a requirement that any police department in the country that receives federal funding have strict policies in place about safeguarding guns in unattended vehicles.
“It was very staggering for me to find out that there is no set, universal policy at all for state, local and federal government,” DeSaulnier said. “That’s crazy.”
Most thefts from vehicles
The records that show from where a theft occurred highlight a distinct pattern: 60 percent were swiped from vehicles, almost always from a personal car or truck where a gun was left vulnerable, this news organization found.
Rather than securing their guns, officers sought to hide them under or behind car seats, placed them in glove boxes and center consoles, or stowed them in exposed equipment bags and backpacks before dropping into coffee shops, health clubs, grocery stores, bars, a Bass Pro Shop, a Nordstrom or their homes.
“It’s a movie that keeps getting repeated,” said Pitre, who also represents Ramos’ parents in a claim against the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement department in their son’s death.
Ramos, the Oakland street artist, was painting an anti-violence mural on West Street under an Interstate 580 overpass when he was shot, purportedly by Marquise Holloway, 22, with a gun stolen from an ICE agent’s parked car in San Francisco. It had been left in a bag, Pitre said.
But Steinle and Ramos weren’t the only ones killed with stolen police weapons in the region since 2010, this news organization found. In March 2014, a gun stolen from the vehicle of a Tracy police officer was used in the death of Jesus Orozco, 34, a laborer and father of two, in a dispute over a woman that a prosecutor called “a little love triangle.”
Three men were arrested, but not charged. Orozco had been carrying an air gun that looked like an assault weapon, and the men raised self-defense claims, said Contra Costa deputy district attorney Mary Knox.
A cousin of Orozco said his family never knew a police gun was involved. The gunman wasn’t charged with possessing the officer’s stolen weapon because “we have to prove that he knew the gun was stolen,” Knox said.
New Tracy police Chief Larry Esquivel, the former San Jose chief, said “the circumstances were truly unfortunate for everybody involved. I can’t stress enough the importance of proper storage (and) care of any weapon.”
Running the gamut
Across the state, the officers whose guns were lost or stolen run the law enforcement gamut, from ICE and DEA agents to forest rangers, alcoholic beverage control officers, sheriff’s deputies, game wardens, welfare fraud investigators and parks police. A CHP officer’s gun was even stolen from his wife after she took it without his knowledge.
Losing a gun — especially when it was left vulnerable — is one of “the worst things to have happen to a police officer,” said CHP Captain Josh Ehlers.
Forty government-issued and personal guns were stolen from CHP officers during the period this news organization analyzed. Three more were reported missing.
CHP Officer Antonio Garrett left six guns — two shotguns, two pistols and two assault rifles — inside his personal Chevrolet Tahoe while he stopped at a Claim Jumper restaurant in Southern California in 2013. He didn’t notice the cache of weapons was gone until he got home and found a lock on the SUV was broken. The guns have not been found, Ehlers said. Garrett had been returning from a CHP gun range.
Stolen police guns have ended up in the hands of members and associates of notorious gangs like the Bloods, The Aryan Brotherhood and Norteños. One fell into the hands of a Reno pimp after a prostitute took a Kensington police officer’s Glock pistol and badge from his hotel room when he fell asleep. That gun was recovered when the pimp accidentally shot himself in the leg during an altercation.
That’s not the only bizarre discovery of an officer’s stolen gun: In 2014, a Washington woman driving through a Seattle suburb was pounding on the rattling glove compartment of a used car she just bought when it popped open and out fell a .40-caliber Sig Sauer pistol that had been hidden in the air-bag compartment. Three years earlier, a thief had swiped it from a Stockton police officer’s car.
Weapon thefts
San Francisco police and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, which includes Dublin police, topped local agencies with 10 stolen weapons each. All of the sheriff’s gun thefts were swiped from vehicles, including one where a deputy’s personal car flipped over in an accident and a passer-by snatched a bag from the wreckage as the injured officer waited for help.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said the thefts led him to issue an order earlier this year mimicking one by former San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr that prohibits officers from leaving weapons in vehicles overnight.
Former Piedmont police Chief John Hunt could have used the same policy.
He drove home to Danville after work on March 9, 2012, and as was his custom, left his briefcase in his car — with his Sig Sauer pistol inside. Hunt, who now lives in Idaho, said his wife didn’t want the gun in the house as a precaution because they have children.
The next morning, poof, the briefcase was gone.
Hunt said he instantly “felt sick. We lived in a safe community. The (driveway) gate was locked. It was so embarrassing.”
Four months later, two San Francisco police officers were driving along Mission Street shortly after midnight when they heard four or five gunshots, saw people scattering, then ran down a gang member who had tossed a weapon under a car.
When police ran that gun’s serial number through a statewide database that traces weapons, up popped the Piedmont Police Department.
It was Hunt’s gun.
Piedmont police were notified of the recovery, but Hunt, who had retired weeks earlier, said he was never told the gun was found until a reporter called.
In a phone interview he said he was surprised this news organization had traced the gun to the San Francisco shooting.
“At least it’s off the streets,” Hunt said. “I am so relieved. At least no one was hurt.”
Discipline appears rare
Strong discipline would help curb thefts, experts say, but it isn’t clear whether such discipline happens; California’s secretive police personnel laws often make it difficult to find out what happened to cops who left guns unsecured.
A few cases show punishment is far from severe.
When an unidentified Napa police officer left an assault weapon in the trunk of a taxi — the driver later turned it in — the discipline was a written reprimand, Chief Steven Potter said. When another cop had a weapon stolen from his home, he received a lecture and was told to buy a gun safe.
A cop leaving a gun unsecured in a vehicle can be “gross negligence,” Stephanie Wheaton, a senior DMV investigator, wrote in a January memo after investigating an underling whose gun was stolen in Los Angeles County last year.
Wheaton found the investigator “changed his story,” first claiming he left a bag containing the gun in the car, then saying he took the gun in his house.
She wrote that, at a minimum, the investigator’s punishment should be to pay the state the cost of the weapon — more than $700. A DMV spokesman would not say if or how the investigator was disciplined.
Alameda Sheriff Ahern said that none of the guns stolen from his deputies’ personal vehicles resulted in the kind of internal affairs investigations that can lead to serious discipline. Rather, he said, the department took administrative measures, such as “an informal counseling session” and what he called a “formal record of conversation.”
Most missing guns unaccounted for
Far more guns are listed as lost, missing or unaccounted for than stolen ¬— designations that can seem charitable, with police saying they sometimes use that listing when they suspect but aren’t sure that the weapon might have been stolen.
Stockton police list two Colt assault rifles as lost, although Lt. Rodney Rego said they were probably stolen when a police building being closed was burglarized.
“We just don’t really know what happened to them,” he said. The department also listed 15 12-gauge Remington shotguns and two Bushmaster assault rifles as unaccounted for in 2014. Two of the shotguns have been found. Some of the others “might have been cannibalized for parts,” lost, traded in for newer weapons, or stolen, Rego said.
San Jose lost track of 324 guns, with records showing the city’s lax controls failed to track whether officers took their weapons with them when they retired. The city recovered 14 of the missing weapons, records show. Like Oakland, San Jose’s numbers are eye-popping, but experts argue that other large departments would likely show similar numbers of missing weapons if they conducted similar audits. San Francisco, the region’s other large department, keeps documented track of rifles and shotguns, a spokesman said, but not pistols.
Oakland police have historically “done a very poor job” of keeping track of weapons, working with “a system that is really lousy,” said Lt. Sekou Millington, commander of the department’s training office.
A 2011 report showed 305 missing weapons, and follow-ups have added to the total. Forty-seven have turned up, but most are gone, Millington said, sold, perhaps, but not documented. The department has little idea where they might be and in whose hands. Millington said he hopes the city will buy software to track when guns enter or leave the station and signal alerts when one is gone too long.
“As bad as this is,” Millington said, “I hope it is going to get us the technology we need to fix it.”
Human error
Some departments are exploring technology that would help track down lost and stolen guns, similar to GPS trackers that help people locate missing cellphones, Ahern said.
That could have helped in a variety of scenarios where guns vanished in a flash. A Gilroy cop and a Marin County deputy each left weapons on the tailgates of their trucks. They fell off. The Marin gun was found in a field and returned.
Sometimes guns were temporarily misplaced. An investigator for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency reported his weapon stolen to Fresno police after he put his state vehicle through a local carwash.
Cops interrogated carwash workers and searched their homes as part of a full-scale investigation, documents show. Days later, the investigator was cleaning at home when he found a bag.
“Surprise surprise,” he began an email to his bosses. The gun had been inside the bag all along.
Then there was what Wedick, the retired FBI agent, called an unfortunate fact about gun holsters: It’s difficult to use a toilet without taking one off.
“People have to go to the bathroom,” Wedick said.
Last year, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Captain Jeff Kearnan ¬— a homeland security expert with a recent master’s degree from the Naval Intelligence School in Monterey — left his duty weapon on the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom of a Dublin car dealership.
He drove away, but raced back as soon as he realized he was unarmed.
The gun was gone. It remains missing.
EDITOR’S NOTE: 15 sniper rifles? I’ll bet those suckers are tucked away in the closets or attics of some hunter-happy cops.
Here is a list of agencies in the Bay Area with the most lost guns:
California Highway Patrol 40 (Statewide)
California Department of Fish and Wildlife 16 (statewide)
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency 13 (statewide)
San Francisco Police Department 10
Alameda County Sheriff’s Department 10
Oakland Police Department 8
Calif. Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection 8 (statewide)
San Francisco County Sheriff’s Department 6
Calif. Dept. of Parks and Recreation 6 (statewide)
San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department 5
Those 944 lost law enforcement guns are in California only. I wonder what the tally is for the rest of the country?
By Thomas Peele | The Mercury News | June 26, 2016
Nine-hundred and forty-four guns.
From Glocks, Sig Sauers and Remingtons to sniper and assault rifles, some equipped with grenade launchers.
They used to belong to law enforcement officers across California, but a new Bay Area News Group investigation found hundreds of police-issued weapons have been either stolen, lost or can’t be accounted for since 2010, often disappearing onto the streets without a trace.
A year after a bullet from a federal agent’s stolen gun killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier, this news organization surveyed more than 240 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and discovered an alarming disregard for the way many officers — from police chiefs to cadets to FBI agents — safeguard their weapons.
Their guns have been stolen from behind car seats and glove boxes, swiped from gym bags, dresser drawers and under beds. They have been left on tailgates, car roofs and even atop a toilet paper dispenser in a car dealership’s bathroom. One officer forgot a high-powered assault rifle in the trunk of a taxi.
The tally includes Colts, Rugers, Smith & Wessons, a Derringer, a .44-caliber Dirty Harry hand cannon and a small snub-nosed revolver called a “Detective Special.”
In all, since 2010, at least 944 guns have disappeared from police in the Bay Area and state and federal agents across California — an average of one almost every other day — and fewer than 20 percent have been recovered.
Little attention had been paid to the issue before Steinle’s highly publicized death. But at least 86 weapons were snatched from officers’ vehicles between January 2010 and last June’s smash-and-grab burglary of a U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger’s gun recovered after Steinle’s shooting. Police have not determined who stole it, but an illegal immigrant is charged in her killing.
“You just can’t leave a gun alone in a vehicle,” said retired FBI Agent Jim Wedick. “You just can’t do it. It has to be in a compartment, or in chains an inch thick wrapped around a lead box, because, God forbid, someone gets hurt.”
Even after Steinle’s death, law enforcement agents have continued to leave guns available in their cars: Four FBI guns have been stolen from vehicles in the Bay Area this year, including three in Benicia; Salinas police had three stolen from cars in a six-week period in April and May. And a San Jose Police cadet resigned on the eve of becoming an officer after his gun was stolen from his car in late October while he was in the Benihana restaurant at Cupertino’s Vallco Shopping Mall.
A breakdown of the missing 944 guns: 600 semi-automatic pistols and revolvers, 251 shotguns, 27 assault rifles, 16 rifles, 15 sniper rifles, 12 grenade/tear gas launchers, 1 submachine gun and 22
not disclosed or unknown.
Scope is ‘staggering’
The thefts are revealed in records obtained from government agencies in one of the most comprehensive examinations of missing police guns of its kind. While last year’s highly publicized killings of Steinle and Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos brought attention to the tragic consequences of stolen police guns, the scope of the problem has been far less clear — until now.
The numbers “are staggering,” said Frank Pitre, an attorney representing Steinle’s parents, Jim Steinle and Elizabeth Sullivan, in a federal lawsuit over their daughter’s death. The BLM is one of three defendants.
This news organization’s investigation also uncovered that a gun stolen from a Tracy cop in 2010 was used to kill a man in Contra Costa County four years later, and a now-retired Piedmont police chief’s stolen gun in 2012 was used in a San Francisco gang shooting that year.
Many departments have struggled to keep track of weapons. Oakland police, for example, lost track of 370 weapons since 2011, including 30 this year that later turned up. It’s unclear how many other guns could be missing from local departments that haven’t bothered to audit their inventory of weapons.
While police agencies documented the majority of missing guns in this news organization’s analysis as lost or unaccounted for, 192 were listed as stolen.
“This needs to stop,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who is sponsoring legislation that would make it illegal in California for a cop to leave a gun in an unattended car unless it is locked inside a hidden compartment or secure case.
Officers become complacent with their weapon, because they are so used to it always being there, Hill said. “They don’t take it as seriously as they should, and what the effects of it could be if it gets lost to the wrong hands.”
Late last year, after Steinle and Ramos were killed, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order requiring all federal guns left in parked vehicles to be locked down. The White House took no action, DeSaulnier said in an interview.
Regulations for gun storage in vehicles vary widely across the more than nearly 100 federal agencies that employ armed agents, DeSaulnier said. He said he will soon introduce legislation to make regulations uniform by requiring lockable compartments in any parked vehicle where a government gun is left.
He is also considering adding a requirement that any police department in the country that receives federal funding have strict policies in place about safeguarding guns in unattended vehicles.
“It was very staggering for me to find out that there is no set, universal policy at all for state, local and federal government,” DeSaulnier said. “That’s crazy.”
Most thefts from vehicles
The records that show from where a theft occurred highlight a distinct pattern: 60 percent were swiped from vehicles, almost always from a personal car or truck where a gun was left vulnerable, this news organization found.
Rather than securing their guns, officers sought to hide them under or behind car seats, placed them in glove boxes and center consoles, or stowed them in exposed equipment bags and backpacks before dropping into coffee shops, health clubs, grocery stores, bars, a Bass Pro Shop, a Nordstrom or their homes.
“It’s a movie that keeps getting repeated,” said Pitre, who also represents Ramos’ parents in a claim against the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement department in their son’s death.
Ramos, the Oakland street artist, was painting an anti-violence mural on West Street under an Interstate 580 overpass when he was shot, purportedly by Marquise Holloway, 22, with a gun stolen from an ICE agent’s parked car in San Francisco. It had been left in a bag, Pitre said.
But Steinle and Ramos weren’t the only ones killed with stolen police weapons in the region since 2010, this news organization found. In March 2014, a gun stolen from the vehicle of a Tracy police officer was used in the death of Jesus Orozco, 34, a laborer and father of two, in a dispute over a woman that a prosecutor called “a little love triangle.”
Three men were arrested, but not charged. Orozco had been carrying an air gun that looked like an assault weapon, and the men raised self-defense claims, said Contra Costa deputy district attorney Mary Knox.
A cousin of Orozco said his family never knew a police gun was involved. The gunman wasn’t charged with possessing the officer’s stolen weapon because “we have to prove that he knew the gun was stolen,” Knox said.
New Tracy police Chief Larry Esquivel, the former San Jose chief, said “the circumstances were truly unfortunate for everybody involved. I can’t stress enough the importance of proper storage (and) care of any weapon.”
Running the gamut
Across the state, the officers whose guns were lost or stolen run the law enforcement gamut, from ICE and DEA agents to forest rangers, alcoholic beverage control officers, sheriff’s deputies, game wardens, welfare fraud investigators and parks police. A CHP officer’s gun was even stolen from his wife after she took it without his knowledge.
Losing a gun — especially when it was left vulnerable — is one of “the worst things to have happen to a police officer,” said CHP Captain Josh Ehlers.
Forty government-issued and personal guns were stolen from CHP officers during the period this news organization analyzed. Three more were reported missing.
CHP Officer Antonio Garrett left six guns — two shotguns, two pistols and two assault rifles — inside his personal Chevrolet Tahoe while he stopped at a Claim Jumper restaurant in Southern California in 2013. He didn’t notice the cache of weapons was gone until he got home and found a lock on the SUV was broken. The guns have not been found, Ehlers said. Garrett had been returning from a CHP gun range.
Stolen police guns have ended up in the hands of members and associates of notorious gangs like the Bloods, The Aryan Brotherhood and Norteños. One fell into the hands of a Reno pimp after a prostitute took a Kensington police officer’s Glock pistol and badge from his hotel room when he fell asleep. That gun was recovered when the pimp accidentally shot himself in the leg during an altercation.
That’s not the only bizarre discovery of an officer’s stolen gun: In 2014, a Washington woman driving through a Seattle suburb was pounding on the rattling glove compartment of a used car she just bought when it popped open and out fell a .40-caliber Sig Sauer pistol that had been hidden in the air-bag compartment. Three years earlier, a thief had swiped it from a Stockton police officer’s car.
Weapon thefts
San Francisco police and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, which includes Dublin police, topped local agencies with 10 stolen weapons each. All of the sheriff’s gun thefts were swiped from vehicles, including one where a deputy’s personal car flipped over in an accident and a passer-by snatched a bag from the wreckage as the injured officer waited for help.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said the thefts led him to issue an order earlier this year mimicking one by former San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr that prohibits officers from leaving weapons in vehicles overnight.
Former Piedmont police Chief John Hunt could have used the same policy.
He drove home to Danville after work on March 9, 2012, and as was his custom, left his briefcase in his car — with his Sig Sauer pistol inside. Hunt, who now lives in Idaho, said his wife didn’t want the gun in the house as a precaution because they have children.
The next morning, poof, the briefcase was gone.
Hunt said he instantly “felt sick. We lived in a safe community. The (driveway) gate was locked. It was so embarrassing.”
Four months later, two San Francisco police officers were driving along Mission Street shortly after midnight when they heard four or five gunshots, saw people scattering, then ran down a gang member who had tossed a weapon under a car.
When police ran that gun’s serial number through a statewide database that traces weapons, up popped the Piedmont Police Department.
It was Hunt’s gun.
Piedmont police were notified of the recovery, but Hunt, who had retired weeks earlier, said he was never told the gun was found until a reporter called.
In a phone interview he said he was surprised this news organization had traced the gun to the San Francisco shooting.
“At least it’s off the streets,” Hunt said. “I am so relieved. At least no one was hurt.”
Discipline appears rare
Strong discipline would help curb thefts, experts say, but it isn’t clear whether such discipline happens; California’s secretive police personnel laws often make it difficult to find out what happened to cops who left guns unsecured.
A few cases show punishment is far from severe.
When an unidentified Napa police officer left an assault weapon in the trunk of a taxi — the driver later turned it in — the discipline was a written reprimand, Chief Steven Potter said. When another cop had a weapon stolen from his home, he received a lecture and was told to buy a gun safe.
A cop leaving a gun unsecured in a vehicle can be “gross negligence,” Stephanie Wheaton, a senior DMV investigator, wrote in a January memo after investigating an underling whose gun was stolen in Los Angeles County last year.
Wheaton found the investigator “changed his story,” first claiming he left a bag containing the gun in the car, then saying he took the gun in his house.
She wrote that, at a minimum, the investigator’s punishment should be to pay the state the cost of the weapon — more than $700. A DMV spokesman would not say if or how the investigator was disciplined.
Alameda Sheriff Ahern said that none of the guns stolen from his deputies’ personal vehicles resulted in the kind of internal affairs investigations that can lead to serious discipline. Rather, he said, the department took administrative measures, such as “an informal counseling session” and what he called a “formal record of conversation.”
Most missing guns unaccounted for
Far more guns are listed as lost, missing or unaccounted for than stolen ¬— designations that can seem charitable, with police saying they sometimes use that listing when they suspect but aren’t sure that the weapon might have been stolen.
Stockton police list two Colt assault rifles as lost, although Lt. Rodney Rego said they were probably stolen when a police building being closed was burglarized.
“We just don’t really know what happened to them,” he said. The department also listed 15 12-gauge Remington shotguns and two Bushmaster assault rifles as unaccounted for in 2014. Two of the shotguns have been found. Some of the others “might have been cannibalized for parts,” lost, traded in for newer weapons, or stolen, Rego said.
San Jose lost track of 324 guns, with records showing the city’s lax controls failed to track whether officers took their weapons with them when they retired. The city recovered 14 of the missing weapons, records show. Like Oakland, San Jose’s numbers are eye-popping, but experts argue that other large departments would likely show similar numbers of missing weapons if they conducted similar audits. San Francisco, the region’s other large department, keeps documented track of rifles and shotguns, a spokesman said, but not pistols.
Oakland police have historically “done a very poor job” of keeping track of weapons, working with “a system that is really lousy,” said Lt. Sekou Millington, commander of the department’s training office.
A 2011 report showed 305 missing weapons, and follow-ups have added to the total. Forty-seven have turned up, but most are gone, Millington said, sold, perhaps, but not documented. The department has little idea where they might be and in whose hands. Millington said he hopes the city will buy software to track when guns enter or leave the station and signal alerts when one is gone too long.
“As bad as this is,” Millington said, “I hope it is going to get us the technology we need to fix it.”
Human error
Some departments are exploring technology that would help track down lost and stolen guns, similar to GPS trackers that help people locate missing cellphones, Ahern said.
That could have helped in a variety of scenarios where guns vanished in a flash. A Gilroy cop and a Marin County deputy each left weapons on the tailgates of their trucks. They fell off. The Marin gun was found in a field and returned.
Sometimes guns were temporarily misplaced. An investigator for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency reported his weapon stolen to Fresno police after he put his state vehicle through a local carwash.
Cops interrogated carwash workers and searched their homes as part of a full-scale investigation, documents show. Days later, the investigator was cleaning at home when he found a bag.
“Surprise surprise,” he began an email to his bosses. The gun had been inside the bag all along.
Then there was what Wedick, the retired FBI agent, called an unfortunate fact about gun holsters: It’s difficult to use a toilet without taking one off.
“People have to go to the bathroom,” Wedick said.
Last year, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Captain Jeff Kearnan ¬— a homeland security expert with a recent master’s degree from the Naval Intelligence School in Monterey — left his duty weapon on the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom of a Dublin car dealership.
He drove away, but raced back as soon as he realized he was unarmed.
The gun was gone. It remains missing.
EDITOR’S NOTE: 15 sniper rifles? I’ll bet those suckers are tucked away in the closets or attics of some hunter-happy cops.
Here is a list of agencies in the Bay Area with the most lost guns:
California Highway Patrol 40 (Statewide)
California Department of Fish and Wildlife 16 (statewide)
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency 13 (statewide)
San Francisco Police Department 10
Alameda County Sheriff’s Department 10
Oakland Police Department 8
Calif. Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection 8 (statewide)
San Francisco County Sheriff’s Department 6
Calif. Dept. of Parks and Recreation 6 (statewide)
San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department 5
Those 944 lost law enforcement guns are in California only. I wonder what the tally is for the rest of the country?
MARRIAGE COUNSELOR SOLVES CCOUPLE’S PROBLEMS
After 35 years of marriage, a husband and wife came for marriage counseling.
When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years they had been married.
On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured.
Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to stand, he embraced and kissed her long and passionately as her husband watched - with a raised eyebrow.
The woman shut up and quietly sat down in a daze.
The therapist turned to the husband and said, "This is what your wife needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?"
The husband replies, "Sure, you bet! I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays. The only problem in the schedule is . . . . I Play Golf ON FRIDAYS - maybe you can pick her up on that day?"
When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years they had been married.
On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured.
Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to stand, he embraced and kissed her long and passionately as her husband watched - with a raised eyebrow.
The woman shut up and quietly sat down in a daze.
The therapist turned to the husband and said, "This is what your wife needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?"
The husband replies, "Sure, you bet! I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays. The only problem in the schedule is . . . . I Play Golf ON FRIDAYS - maybe you can pick her up on that day?"
Monday, June 27, 2016
KING OF PEDOPHILES MICHAEL JACKSON
Detectives were convinced Michael Jackson molested his nephews
By Stacy Brown | Page Six | June 25, 2016
Investigators were convinced Michael Jackson preyed on his own nephews, several sources involved in the criminal probe told The Post.
Santa Barbara County detectives interviewed two of Jackson’s nephews and another family member while investigating the King of Pop for child molestation in 2004-2005, but believe Jacko silenced his family with gifts and threats.
“We received a credible tip about the nephews and, as with many things that happened during the investigation, Jackson’s people got wind of it and Jackson spirited the one boy off to an island,” said a former county detective. “Well, when that boy returned, Jackson had also purchased him a brand new car which we understood, along with the trip, was to shut the nephew up.”
But the then-18-year-old nephew still hinted something was amiss.
“He was home alone and invited two detectives in, offered refreshments and he also offered that he would be unwilling to talk bad about his uncle,” a prosecution source said.
“It was odd that he wasn’t upset with the visit, he wasn’t upset that the detectives told them what they had suspected happened between he and Michael and he never gave a real denial,” the source said.
Another nephew denied being assaulted by the “Dangerous” singer.
One family member “said he feared there were several nephews who had already been victimized and that he also feared that Jackson’s own son [Blanket] was being groomed by Jackson for unsavory behavior,” the detective told the Post.
Investigators never charged Jacko because the relatives wouldn’t cooperate, investigators said.
The police interviews took place before Jacko’s molestation trial was beginning in Santa Maria, Calif. Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old cancer patient, but was acquitted. Four years later, the singer died of a drug overdose.
Last week, Radar Online reported that Jacko hid a twisted sex addiction as well as deviant artifacts like a Jon Benet Ramsey doll with a noose around her neck and torture magazines at his Neverland Ranch.
The website said police also found scantily clad photos of young boys including that of Jackson’s nephews, Taj, Terrell and T.J. — the sons of Jacko’s brother Tito — who formed the 1990s pop group 3T.
One private investigator with direct knowledge of the police raids told the website: “The detectives report cites Michael even used sexy photos of his own nephews … in their underwear to excite young boys.”
Jackson attorney Brian Oxman said the Radar Report mischaracterized art as porn: “Terrell is standing naked with a shirt in front of him. It is reminiscent of Kim Kardashian on the cover of GQ magazine. He had the photo done for an album cover. There were 50 people there at that photo shoot.”
Jacko recorded and produced music with his nephews and, as revealed in a family member’s tweet last year, eerily wrote a letter to the boys’ late mother – his sister in law – warning her to “please read this article about child molestation and please read it to Taj … it brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, even uncles or aunts molesting nephews or nieces. Please read. Love MJ.”
Jacko estate lawyer Howard Weitzman told The Post Jacko “never molested anyone. And, whomever would say that he would harm his own children is ridiculous.”
Before the acquittal and in their attempts to uncover more family secrets, authorities flew to Las Vegas and met with an “immediate” family member of Jacko’s.
“What he told us was eye-opening. He told us that Jackson had for years tried to hide his predilection for prepubescent boys.” However the family member said Jackson had also been addicted to all kinds of drugs and often was too screwed up to even realize that others were witnessing his touching little boys.
This family member said he feared that there were several nephews, including his own son and Jacko’s own son, who may have been victims.
Jacko had a total of 23 nephews and nieces. Oldest brother Jackie, 65, has two children, including one son; Tito, 62, has three sons; Jermaine, 61, has nine children, including seven sons; Marlon, 59, has three children, including one son; Randy, 54, has three children, including one son; sister Rebbie, 66, has three children, including one son.
Jacko had three children, Prince, 19; Paris, 18, and Blanket, 14.
“The family member … told us that [family matriarch] Katherine Jackson more than anyone else knew about her son’s activities with boys but was too embarrassed to do anything about it. He told us that Katherine implied that Hollywood turned Jackson gay, which had nothing to do with his being a pedophile,” the prosecution source said.
The family member declined to testify at trial, telling investigators and friends that such testimony would lead to an unwanted divorce from his wife and he’d be ostracized from the family or even killed if he did so.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Fame and money prevented Jackson from getting the long prison term he deserved. He may be the King of Pop to his admirers, but what he really was is the King of Pedophiles.
By Stacy Brown | Page Six | June 25, 2016
Investigators were convinced Michael Jackson preyed on his own nephews, several sources involved in the criminal probe told The Post.
Santa Barbara County detectives interviewed two of Jackson’s nephews and another family member while investigating the King of Pop for child molestation in 2004-2005, but believe Jacko silenced his family with gifts and threats.
“We received a credible tip about the nephews and, as with many things that happened during the investigation, Jackson’s people got wind of it and Jackson spirited the one boy off to an island,” said a former county detective. “Well, when that boy returned, Jackson had also purchased him a brand new car which we understood, along with the trip, was to shut the nephew up.”
But the then-18-year-old nephew still hinted something was amiss.
“He was home alone and invited two detectives in, offered refreshments and he also offered that he would be unwilling to talk bad about his uncle,” a prosecution source said.
“It was odd that he wasn’t upset with the visit, he wasn’t upset that the detectives told them what they had suspected happened between he and Michael and he never gave a real denial,” the source said.
Another nephew denied being assaulted by the “Dangerous” singer.
One family member “said he feared there were several nephews who had already been victimized and that he also feared that Jackson’s own son [Blanket] was being groomed by Jackson for unsavory behavior,” the detective told the Post.
Investigators never charged Jacko because the relatives wouldn’t cooperate, investigators said.
The police interviews took place before Jacko’s molestation trial was beginning in Santa Maria, Calif. Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old cancer patient, but was acquitted. Four years later, the singer died of a drug overdose.
Last week, Radar Online reported that Jacko hid a twisted sex addiction as well as deviant artifacts like a Jon Benet Ramsey doll with a noose around her neck and torture magazines at his Neverland Ranch.
The website said police also found scantily clad photos of young boys including that of Jackson’s nephews, Taj, Terrell and T.J. — the sons of Jacko’s brother Tito — who formed the 1990s pop group 3T.
One private investigator with direct knowledge of the police raids told the website: “The detectives report cites Michael even used sexy photos of his own nephews … in their underwear to excite young boys.”
Jackson attorney Brian Oxman said the Radar Report mischaracterized art as porn: “Terrell is standing naked with a shirt in front of him. It is reminiscent of Kim Kardashian on the cover of GQ magazine. He had the photo done for an album cover. There were 50 people there at that photo shoot.”
Jacko recorded and produced music with his nephews and, as revealed in a family member’s tweet last year, eerily wrote a letter to the boys’ late mother – his sister in law – warning her to “please read this article about child molestation and please read it to Taj … it brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, even uncles or aunts molesting nephews or nieces. Please read. Love MJ.”
Jacko estate lawyer Howard Weitzman told The Post Jacko “never molested anyone. And, whomever would say that he would harm his own children is ridiculous.”
Before the acquittal and in their attempts to uncover more family secrets, authorities flew to Las Vegas and met with an “immediate” family member of Jacko’s.
“What he told us was eye-opening. He told us that Jackson had for years tried to hide his predilection for prepubescent boys.” However the family member said Jackson had also been addicted to all kinds of drugs and often was too screwed up to even realize that others were witnessing his touching little boys.
This family member said he feared that there were several nephews, including his own son and Jacko’s own son, who may have been victims.
Jacko had a total of 23 nephews and nieces. Oldest brother Jackie, 65, has two children, including one son; Tito, 62, has three sons; Jermaine, 61, has nine children, including seven sons; Marlon, 59, has three children, including one son; Randy, 54, has three children, including one son; sister Rebbie, 66, has three children, including one son.
Jacko had three children, Prince, 19; Paris, 18, and Blanket, 14.
“The family member … told us that [family matriarch] Katherine Jackson more than anyone else knew about her son’s activities with boys but was too embarrassed to do anything about it. He told us that Katherine implied that Hollywood turned Jackson gay, which had nothing to do with his being a pedophile,” the prosecution source said.
The family member declined to testify at trial, telling investigators and friends that such testimony would lead to an unwanted divorce from his wife and he’d be ostracized from the family or even killed if he did so.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Fame and money prevented Jackson from getting the long prison term he deserved. He may be the King of Pop to his admirers, but what he really was is the King of Pedophiles.
WIFE OF MEXICAN DRUG KINGPIN ‘EL CHAPO’ PLEADS CASE IN DC
Emma Coronel Aispura, the wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, traveled to Washington earlier this month to seek an international investigation into her claim that Guzman’s human rights are being violated while he awaits extradition to the U.S.
By Josh Gaynor and Evan Perez | CNN | June 20, 2016
The wife of Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman traveled to Washington earlier this month launching her efforts to seek an international investigation into her claim that Guzman's human rights are being violated while he awaits extradition to the U.S.
Emma Coronel Aispura, a former beauty queen and a U.S. citizen who lives in Mexico, spent several days in Washington, where she held a meeting at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization for American States.
A spokeswoman for the commission, Maria Isabel Rivero, confirmed the meeting with Aispuro but, citing privacy issues, would not discuss the purpose or details of the visit.
"Every single person who asks for a meeting at the IACHR is received under rules of confidentiality for the security of the persons involved," she said.
U.S. officials questioned Coronel during her entry and departure from the U.S. as part of the customs process, according to a U.S. official. But the dual U.S. and Mexican citizen is not charged with any crimes, so she was allowed to enter and leave.
Andres Granados, an attorney for Guzman, told CNN in a telephone interview that the purpose of Coronel's visit was to file a petition with human rights commission and to seek an investigation into the conditions of his imprisonment in Mexico.
In February, Coronel told Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo she feared for her husband's life in Mexico's Altiplano prison, saying, "They want to make him pay for his escape."
"They say that they are not punishing him. Of course they are," Coronel said. "They are there with him, watching him in his cell. They don't let him sleep. He has no privacy, not even to go to the restroom."
Mexican authorities, citing security concerns, have since moved Guzman to a prison in Juarez, Mexico, near the U.S. border.
Granados says Coronel noticed being followed during her visit by what she assumes to be U.S. government agents.
"That's how it is for her, she knows they always have her under surveillance," Granados told CNN.
Coronel, more than 20 years Guzman's junior, met the drug kingpin when she was just 17, in 2007, and they were married the following year. She gave birth to twin daughters in Lancaster, California, in 2011. She was with her husband when he was arrested in the Mexican resort town of Mazatlan in 2014.
By Josh Gaynor and Evan Perez | CNN | June 20, 2016
The wife of Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman traveled to Washington earlier this month launching her efforts to seek an international investigation into her claim that Guzman's human rights are being violated while he awaits extradition to the U.S.
Emma Coronel Aispura, a former beauty queen and a U.S. citizen who lives in Mexico, spent several days in Washington, where she held a meeting at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization for American States.
A spokeswoman for the commission, Maria Isabel Rivero, confirmed the meeting with Aispuro but, citing privacy issues, would not discuss the purpose or details of the visit.
"Every single person who asks for a meeting at the IACHR is received under rules of confidentiality for the security of the persons involved," she said.
U.S. officials questioned Coronel during her entry and departure from the U.S. as part of the customs process, according to a U.S. official. But the dual U.S. and Mexican citizen is not charged with any crimes, so she was allowed to enter and leave.
Andres Granados, an attorney for Guzman, told CNN in a telephone interview that the purpose of Coronel's visit was to file a petition with human rights commission and to seek an investigation into the conditions of his imprisonment in Mexico.
In February, Coronel told Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo she feared for her husband's life in Mexico's Altiplano prison, saying, "They want to make him pay for his escape."
"They say that they are not punishing him. Of course they are," Coronel said. "They are there with him, watching him in his cell. They don't let him sleep. He has no privacy, not even to go to the restroom."
Mexican authorities, citing security concerns, have since moved Guzman to a prison in Juarez, Mexico, near the U.S. border.
Granados says Coronel noticed being followed during her visit by what she assumes to be U.S. government agents.
"That's how it is for her, she knows they always have her under surveillance," Granados told CNN.
Coronel, more than 20 years Guzman's junior, met the drug kingpin when she was just 17, in 2007, and they were married the following year. She gave birth to twin daughters in Lancaster, California, in 2011. She was with her husband when he was arrested in the Mexican resort town of Mazatlan in 2014.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
16 HOSPITALIZED IN HOUSTON AFTER SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA OVERDOSES AT HERMANN PARK
By Meagan Flynn | Houston Press | June 24, 2016
The calls started rolling in about people at Hermann Park who appeared to have "altered states of mind" around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Houston Fire Department Captain Ruy Lozano told reporters.
The victims were spotted in an area of the park so notorious for synthetic marijuana users that it's nicknamed "Kush Corner." And when firefighters showed up, Lozano said, they found packets of the fake pot, commonly known as kush, scattered around more than a dozen people who needed hospitalization.
By 6 p.m., paramedics had found 16 people in Hermann Park — many of them homeless, Luzano said — who had apparently overdosed on the drug and were taken away in ambulances.
The Harris County Attorney's Office and the Texas Attorney General's Office have been cracking down on head shops or convenience stores that sell synthetic marijuana for this very reason.
Officials will likely cite the incident in the next lawsuit they file against a local Houston shop selling the drug — a dangerous combination of herbs and chemicals that is actually nothing like marijuana. According to the DEA, severe side effects can include seizures, psychotic episodes or random outbursts of violence. Lozano said yesterday that the heat only makes side effects worse and that many of the patients were dehydrated.
The county attorney and the attorney general most recently obtained a temporary injunction against Good Timez Boutique and Smoke Shop, which sold packets of kush claiming it was "not for human consumption," prosecutors said. Often, kush is branded as "potpourri" or "incense" and sold in brightly colored packages with comic-book-like graphics and catchy names such as "Galactic Head Trip" or "Klimax."
This is the ninth lawsuit the agencies have filed against a local smoke shop, attempting to eradicate the dangerous synthetic drug. Earlier this month, Jams Smoke Shop was ordered to pay $878,000 in penalties after losing one such suit.
Other bizarre incidents in the Houston area that county attorneys blame on synthetic marijuana in these lawsuits include: an incident where two men got angry about finding a piece of cold chicken on their neighbor's lawn during a barbecue, then attacked and shot at those neighbors; another in which a man allegedly smoked a "bad batch" of the drug, then stabbed, beat and choked his girlfriend to death during an argument; and a third when a man suspected of being high on kush ran over a woman walking on the sidewalk, then continued driving and rammed into another driver stopped at a red light.
Looks like they have another to add to their collection.
The calls started rolling in about people at Hermann Park who appeared to have "altered states of mind" around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Houston Fire Department Captain Ruy Lozano told reporters.
The victims were spotted in an area of the park so notorious for synthetic marijuana users that it's nicknamed "Kush Corner." And when firefighters showed up, Lozano said, they found packets of the fake pot, commonly known as kush, scattered around more than a dozen people who needed hospitalization.
By 6 p.m., paramedics had found 16 people in Hermann Park — many of them homeless, Luzano said — who had apparently overdosed on the drug and were taken away in ambulances.
The Harris County Attorney's Office and the Texas Attorney General's Office have been cracking down on head shops or convenience stores that sell synthetic marijuana for this very reason.
Officials will likely cite the incident in the next lawsuit they file against a local Houston shop selling the drug — a dangerous combination of herbs and chemicals that is actually nothing like marijuana. According to the DEA, severe side effects can include seizures, psychotic episodes or random outbursts of violence. Lozano said yesterday that the heat only makes side effects worse and that many of the patients were dehydrated.
The county attorney and the attorney general most recently obtained a temporary injunction against Good Timez Boutique and Smoke Shop, which sold packets of kush claiming it was "not for human consumption," prosecutors said. Often, kush is branded as "potpourri" or "incense" and sold in brightly colored packages with comic-book-like graphics and catchy names such as "Galactic Head Trip" or "Klimax."
This is the ninth lawsuit the agencies have filed against a local smoke shop, attempting to eradicate the dangerous synthetic drug. Earlier this month, Jams Smoke Shop was ordered to pay $878,000 in penalties after losing one such suit.
Other bizarre incidents in the Houston area that county attorneys blame on synthetic marijuana in these lawsuits include: an incident where two men got angry about finding a piece of cold chicken on their neighbor's lawn during a barbecue, then attacked and shot at those neighbors; another in which a man allegedly smoked a "bad batch" of the drug, then stabbed, beat and choked his girlfriend to death during an argument; and a third when a man suspected of being high on kush ran over a woman walking on the sidewalk, then continued driving and rammed into another driver stopped at a red light.
Looks like they have another to add to their collection.
NO MOVIE, IT’S REAL: HE KILLED BROTHER’S EX-BOYFRIEND FOR $2.5M INSURANCE
MyNewsLA.com | June 24, 2016
A 37-year-old man was convicted Friday in the killing of his ex-boyfriend in Sun Valley in what authorities said was a plot to collect on a $2.5 million life insurance payout.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about seven hours before finding Hovanes “John” Maskovian guilty of first-degree murder and attempted kidnapping for the April 24, 2013, killing of Joshua West, 33.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain, murder while lying in wait and murder during an attempted kidnapping.
Maskovian’s younger brother, Hachik “Kriss” Maskovian, 31, was convicted Thursday by a separate jury of the same charges, with the panel finding true the same special circumstance allegations. That jury rejected allegations that Hachik Maskovian personally discharged or used a handgun during the commission of the crime.
The two brothers — who are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole — are due back before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen for sentencing in late August.
In his opening statement in the brothers’ trial, Deputy District Attorney Geoff Lewin called the attack on West “brutally horrific.”
“Joshua West would not go quickly and he would not go quietly,” Lewin told jurors, noting that a tire iron, a cutting instrument, a car and a gun were used to “finally silence his screams.”
West had broken up with Hovanes Maskovian, but the two continued living together for financial reasons as Hovanes Maskovian’s bills continued to mount up, the prosecutor said.
“There is one bill that John will pay,” Lewin said, referring to life insurance policies that Hovanes Maskovian and West had applied for in 2009. Two life insurance policies were issued — $2.5 million on West’s life and $3.5 million on Hovanes Maskovian’s life. Hovanes Maskovian was the primary beneficiary on West’s policy, while the second beneficiary was the victim’s brother, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor called the evidence against the Maskovians “absolutely overwhelming,” noting that a pair of gloves found in a canyon about two miles from the murder scene tested positive for DNA linked to Hachik Maskovian and the victim.
Hovanes Maskovian’s attorney, Albert DeBlanc Jr., told jurors in his opening statement his client had “no intent to hurt Josh ever” and maintained that the two had a “close, loving relationship” and were still living together.
He said he believed the case would show that his client intended to rescue West.
“You’re going to know that my client John Maskovian is not guilty,” he said.
Hachik Maskovian’s attorney, Alex Kessel, told jurors, “My client had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with shooting the victim. Kriss did not conspire with anyone to kill the victim.”
He said his client and his older brother had separate lifestyles and that Hachik Maskovian had financially helped his brother in the past, but wasn’t particularly close to him.
Co-defendant Nazaret “Nick” Bayamdzhyan, 22, is awaiting trial separately in connection with the killing.
A 37-year-old man was convicted Friday in the killing of his ex-boyfriend in Sun Valley in what authorities said was a plot to collect on a $2.5 million life insurance payout.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about seven hours before finding Hovanes “John” Maskovian guilty of first-degree murder and attempted kidnapping for the April 24, 2013, killing of Joshua West, 33.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain, murder while lying in wait and murder during an attempted kidnapping.
Maskovian’s younger brother, Hachik “Kriss” Maskovian, 31, was convicted Thursday by a separate jury of the same charges, with the panel finding true the same special circumstance allegations. That jury rejected allegations that Hachik Maskovian personally discharged or used a handgun during the commission of the crime.
The two brothers — who are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole — are due back before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen for sentencing in late August.
In his opening statement in the brothers’ trial, Deputy District Attorney Geoff Lewin called the attack on West “brutally horrific.”
“Joshua West would not go quickly and he would not go quietly,” Lewin told jurors, noting that a tire iron, a cutting instrument, a car and a gun were used to “finally silence his screams.”
West had broken up with Hovanes Maskovian, but the two continued living together for financial reasons as Hovanes Maskovian’s bills continued to mount up, the prosecutor said.
“There is one bill that John will pay,” Lewin said, referring to life insurance policies that Hovanes Maskovian and West had applied for in 2009. Two life insurance policies were issued — $2.5 million on West’s life and $3.5 million on Hovanes Maskovian’s life. Hovanes Maskovian was the primary beneficiary on West’s policy, while the second beneficiary was the victim’s brother, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor called the evidence against the Maskovians “absolutely overwhelming,” noting that a pair of gloves found in a canyon about two miles from the murder scene tested positive for DNA linked to Hachik Maskovian and the victim.
Hovanes Maskovian’s attorney, Albert DeBlanc Jr., told jurors in his opening statement his client had “no intent to hurt Josh ever” and maintained that the two had a “close, loving relationship” and were still living together.
He said he believed the case would show that his client intended to rescue West.
“You’re going to know that my client John Maskovian is not guilty,” he said.
Hachik Maskovian’s attorney, Alex Kessel, told jurors, “My client had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with shooting the victim. Kriss did not conspire with anyone to kill the victim.”
He said his client and his older brother had separate lifestyles and that Hachik Maskovian had financially helped his brother in the past, but wasn’t particularly close to him.
Co-defendant Nazaret “Nick” Bayamdzhyan, 22, is awaiting trial separately in connection with the killing.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
WEIRD MURDER MISTRIAL: DEFENSE SAYS DEATH ON PURPOSE, PROSECUTOR SAYS ACCIDENT
Jose Espidion threatened Jose Alfredo Favela, “pushed him into the store at machete point” and forced the gun into his hands, the defense lawyer told jurors
By Hoa Quach | MyNewsLA.com | June 23, 2016
Prosecutors may try it again starting next week after another jury deadlocked in a bizarre murder trial in which the defense argued the killer shot his victim with an assault rifle on purpose, while the prosecution said the killing was an accident.
In a reversal of roles usually expected in a murder case, the defense said the killer shot his accomplice in a convenience store holdup, and the shooting was justified because the defendant was forced into the robbery by the dead man.
Prosecutors argued the defendant knew full well what he was doing in the robbery and shot the victim, his accomplice, by accident when unsuccessfully targeting the convenience store owner.
It was the second jury to be deadlocked in the trial of the killer charged with murdering his alleged accomplice during a botched convenience store heist nearly two years ago in the El Sereno area.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Richman declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the murder count against Jose Alfredo Favela, 24, one day after the panel found him guilty of attempted robbery.
It marked the second time a jury had deadlocked on the murder count against Favela in connection with the July 18, 2014, death of his alleged accomplice, Jose Espidion, who was armed with a machete. The first jury to hear the case against him in March could not reach a verdict, either.
Favela was arrested the day of the shooting and has remained jailed without bail since then.
He is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom next Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Fernanda Barreto told jurors in Favela’s retrial that Favela — armed with a knockoff AK-47 assault rifle — was the one in charge when he and Espidion entered the store.
The prosecutor noted that the owner of the Meadow Maid Market testified that be bent down to block Espidion’s access to the cash register and that Favela then aimed at him, but the bullet struck Espidion instead.
“Even if the killing was unintentional, accidental or negligent” and even if Espidion was not the intended victim of the robbery, “the defendant is guilty of felony murder,” the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Lori Harris countered that Favela thought he was going with Espidion to pick up a load and be paid $70 and that Favela had objected while on the road when Espidion told him, “We’re going to do a robbery. We’re going to do a hold-up.”
Espidion threatened Favela, “pushed him into the store at machete point” and forced the gun into his hands, the defense lawyer told jurors.
Favela’s attorney said her client saw the storeowner struggling with Espidion and realized he had put his life in the hands of “a high, crazy, crazed, agitated stranger.” Frightened that Espidion was about to lose control, Facela “raised the gun up over Mr. Chun and fired directly at Mr. Espidion,” she said, maintaining that the shooting was “justified.”
By Hoa Quach | MyNewsLA.com | June 23, 2016
Prosecutors may try it again starting next week after another jury deadlocked in a bizarre murder trial in which the defense argued the killer shot his victim with an assault rifle on purpose, while the prosecution said the killing was an accident.
In a reversal of roles usually expected in a murder case, the defense said the killer shot his accomplice in a convenience store holdup, and the shooting was justified because the defendant was forced into the robbery by the dead man.
Prosecutors argued the defendant knew full well what he was doing in the robbery and shot the victim, his accomplice, by accident when unsuccessfully targeting the convenience store owner.
It was the second jury to be deadlocked in the trial of the killer charged with murdering his alleged accomplice during a botched convenience store heist nearly two years ago in the El Sereno area.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Richman declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the murder count against Jose Alfredo Favela, 24, one day after the panel found him guilty of attempted robbery.
It marked the second time a jury had deadlocked on the murder count against Favela in connection with the July 18, 2014, death of his alleged accomplice, Jose Espidion, who was armed with a machete. The first jury to hear the case against him in March could not reach a verdict, either.
Favela was arrested the day of the shooting and has remained jailed without bail since then.
He is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom next Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Fernanda Barreto told jurors in Favela’s retrial that Favela — armed with a knockoff AK-47 assault rifle — was the one in charge when he and Espidion entered the store.
The prosecutor noted that the owner of the Meadow Maid Market testified that be bent down to block Espidion’s access to the cash register and that Favela then aimed at him, but the bullet struck Espidion instead.
“Even if the killing was unintentional, accidental or negligent” and even if Espidion was not the intended victim of the robbery, “the defendant is guilty of felony murder,” the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Lori Harris countered that Favela thought he was going with Espidion to pick up a load and be paid $70 and that Favela had objected while on the road when Espidion told him, “We’re going to do a robbery. We’re going to do a hold-up.”
Espidion threatened Favela, “pushed him into the store at machete point” and forced the gun into his hands, the defense lawyer told jurors.
Favela’s attorney said her client saw the storeowner struggling with Espidion and realized he had put his life in the hands of “a high, crazy, crazed, agitated stranger.” Frightened that Espidion was about to lose control, Facela “raised the gun up over Mr. Chun and fired directly at Mr. Espidion,” she said, maintaining that the shooting was “justified.”
RICHARD ROSARIO, WRONGFULLY CONVICTED OF 1996 SHOOTING DEATH, REJECTS DISMISSAL OF MURDER CHARGE IN QUEST TO PROVE INNOCENCE
NYPD investigators ignored 13 alibi witnesses who would have testified that Rosario was in Florida at the time of the shooting in the Bronx
By Shirley Chan | WPIX | June 24, 2016
THE BRONX -- After spending 20 years in jail for a crime he says he didn't commit, a Bronx man took an unusual move in court today.
It was a stunning day in court as Richard Rosario asked the judge for a stay of dismissal, keeping the murder indictment against him.
An open homicide case still hangs over Rosario's head. He says it's worth it because he wants to keep the case alive and continue the investigation, to prove his innocence.
"We want the court to stay the dismissal," said defense attorney Glenn Garber, of the Exoneration Initiative. Garber spoke before a packed courtroom.
The 40-year-old Rosario was freed from prison in March. His sentence was vacated after spending 20 years in jail for a crime he says he didn't commit -- the 1996 shooting death of 17-year-old George Collazo on a Bronx street.
Today was supposed to be the formal dismissal of his conviction. Outside court, he explained his stunning request.
Being free is not enough -- he wants his name cleared.
"I took this unusual step of stopping them from dismissing their indictment until the complete truth is out there, everyone knows I'm innocent," said Rosario.
But the Collazo family says they aren't buying it.
"He goes around saying he's innocent he's lying to you and to the public," said the victim's father, also named George Collazo, as he spoke before a throng of reporters.
From the very beginning, Rosario has maintained his innocence.
He claims he was in Florida when the murder was committed. Thirteen alibi witnesses backed him up. His court-appointed attorney only reached out to two of the 13 alibis. Police reportedly did not check out any of the alibis.
Rosario was convicted when two eyewitnesses picked him out of a lineup. He was sentenced to 25 years-to life.
Over the years, he has tried to get the sentence vacated. Several years ago, attorneys from the Exoneration Initiative, looked into his case and began to represent him.
The case was renewed when new Bronx DA Darcel Clark came into office in January.
The prosecution conceded Rosario was denied his right to effective counsel.
Now, Rosario wants access to a file that allegedly went missing until recently. He claims the DA's office has reneged on agreeing to give him access.
"All I'm asking for is transparency," said Rosario.
Inspired by Rosario's case, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is proposing legislation to fix a system he calls broken.
In a news release from his office: "According to reports, people in poverty account for more than 80 percent of individuals prosecuted. These criminal defendants plead guilty approximately 90 percent of the time. In many cases, overworked lawyers entered pleas for defendants without spending substantial time on these cases, interviewing witnesses, or filing pre-trial motions."
Judge Robert E. Torres asked both sides for written arguments on the stay by Aug. 30. The prosecution is objecting to the stay, arguing they are already committed to fully investigating the case.
By Shirley Chan | WPIX | June 24, 2016
THE BRONX -- After spending 20 years in jail for a crime he says he didn't commit, a Bronx man took an unusual move in court today.
It was a stunning day in court as Richard Rosario asked the judge for a stay of dismissal, keeping the murder indictment against him.
An open homicide case still hangs over Rosario's head. He says it's worth it because he wants to keep the case alive and continue the investigation, to prove his innocence.
"We want the court to stay the dismissal," said defense attorney Glenn Garber, of the Exoneration Initiative. Garber spoke before a packed courtroom.
The 40-year-old Rosario was freed from prison in March. His sentence was vacated after spending 20 years in jail for a crime he says he didn't commit -- the 1996 shooting death of 17-year-old George Collazo on a Bronx street.
Today was supposed to be the formal dismissal of his conviction. Outside court, he explained his stunning request.
Being free is not enough -- he wants his name cleared.
"I took this unusual step of stopping them from dismissing their indictment until the complete truth is out there, everyone knows I'm innocent," said Rosario.
But the Collazo family says they aren't buying it.
"He goes around saying he's innocent he's lying to you and to the public," said the victim's father, also named George Collazo, as he spoke before a throng of reporters.
From the very beginning, Rosario has maintained his innocence.
He claims he was in Florida when the murder was committed. Thirteen alibi witnesses backed him up. His court-appointed attorney only reached out to two of the 13 alibis. Police reportedly did not check out any of the alibis.
Rosario was convicted when two eyewitnesses picked him out of a lineup. He was sentenced to 25 years-to life.
Over the years, he has tried to get the sentence vacated. Several years ago, attorneys from the Exoneration Initiative, looked into his case and began to represent him.
The case was renewed when new Bronx DA Darcel Clark came into office in January.
The prosecution conceded Rosario was denied his right to effective counsel.
Now, Rosario wants access to a file that allegedly went missing until recently. He claims the DA's office has reneged on agreeing to give him access.
"All I'm asking for is transparency," said Rosario.
Inspired by Rosario's case, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is proposing legislation to fix a system he calls broken.
In a news release from his office: "According to reports, people in poverty account for more than 80 percent of individuals prosecuted. These criminal defendants plead guilty approximately 90 percent of the time. In many cases, overworked lawyers entered pleas for defendants without spending substantial time on these cases, interviewing witnesses, or filing pre-trial motions."
Judge Robert E. Torres asked both sides for written arguments on the stay by Aug. 30. The prosecution is objecting to the stay, arguing they are already committed to fully investigating the case.
EX-FIANCEE CLAIMS SHE HAS RIGHT TO $5 MILLION ARSENAL MAN’S FAMILY WANTS TO DESTROY
Catherine Nebron, the ex-fiancee of Jeffrey Lash, claims she should have the right to sell the weapons he purchased, but his estranged cousins claim they are the rightful heirs to his estate and they aim to send a gun control message to lawmakers by having the 891 guns and 8 tons of ammunition dumped into the ocean or melted down
By Miriam Hernandez | KABC-TV Los Angeles | June 22, 2016
PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The saga of the late Jeffrey Lash unfolded like a psychological thriller spurring a debate over gun control.
According to his ex-fiancee, Lash was a hoarder of weapons and a conman.
Over the course of 17 years, he bought so many firearms, they were stacked to the ceiling of Catherine Nebron's Pacific Palisades townhouse.
Nebron said Lash forced her to live in a downstairs bathroom and convinced her he was an ultra-secret agent.
"He had worked for an intelligence agency, now he was on his own, he was independent," Nebron said.
Nebron alleged Lash manipulated her with stories about his power.
In court documents, she said Lash stated he thwarted two-thirds of the bomb and terrorist threats in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks, stating they were incidents the public didn't know about.
Nebron said he dropped names like Ronald and Nancy Reagan, the Bushes, and Condoleezza Rice.
She said Lash would hit her, reduced her to a robot, and convinced her and other women to bankroll his cash purchases for firearms and more than a dozen vehicles.
Nebron said it was all in the name of national security.
"We didn't want people to die or cities to explode. It was very real for us. We thought we were doing a good thing," Nebron said.
Yet, estranged cousins of Lash claim they are the rightful heirs to his estate and they aimed to take action to send a message to lawmakers.
They want the 891 guns and 8 tons of ammunition dumped into the ocean or melted down.
"We want them destroyed rather than have them returned back into commerce, gun dealers, auctions gun shows," their lawyer Daniel Brookman said.
According to Brookman, Lash's stockpile was worth an estimated $5 million.
A year after an autopsy said Lash died at 60 years old from natural causes, Los Angeles police said he legally purchased the firearms.
Nebron's lawyer claims now they were hers to sell.
"They can be sold through the Department of Justice and may be sold to police departments, but there is no point in destroying them," Nebron's lawyer Harland Braun said.
Lash's stockpile never raised a red flag, according to Nebron.
"People saw them but not really. Again, it was the way this man spoke. He was so good at what he did," says Nebron.
The case is headed to probate court in July.
By Miriam Hernandez | KABC-TV Los Angeles | June 22, 2016
PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The saga of the late Jeffrey Lash unfolded like a psychological thriller spurring a debate over gun control.
According to his ex-fiancee, Lash was a hoarder of weapons and a conman.
Over the course of 17 years, he bought so many firearms, they were stacked to the ceiling of Catherine Nebron's Pacific Palisades townhouse.
Nebron said Lash forced her to live in a downstairs bathroom and convinced her he was an ultra-secret agent.
"He had worked for an intelligence agency, now he was on his own, he was independent," Nebron said.
Nebron alleged Lash manipulated her with stories about his power.
In court documents, she said Lash stated he thwarted two-thirds of the bomb and terrorist threats in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks, stating they were incidents the public didn't know about.
Nebron said he dropped names like Ronald and Nancy Reagan, the Bushes, and Condoleezza Rice.
She said Lash would hit her, reduced her to a robot, and convinced her and other women to bankroll his cash purchases for firearms and more than a dozen vehicles.
Nebron said it was all in the name of national security.
"We didn't want people to die or cities to explode. It was very real for us. We thought we were doing a good thing," Nebron said.
Yet, estranged cousins of Lash claim they are the rightful heirs to his estate and they aimed to take action to send a message to lawmakers.
They want the 891 guns and 8 tons of ammunition dumped into the ocean or melted down.
"We want them destroyed rather than have them returned back into commerce, gun dealers, auctions gun shows," their lawyer Daniel Brookman said.
According to Brookman, Lash's stockpile was worth an estimated $5 million.
A year after an autopsy said Lash died at 60 years old from natural causes, Los Angeles police said he legally purchased the firearms.
Nebron's lawyer claims now they were hers to sell.
"They can be sold through the Department of Justice and may be sold to police departments, but there is no point in destroying them," Nebron's lawyer Harland Braun said.
Lash's stockpile never raised a red flag, according to Nebron.
"People saw them but not really. Again, it was the way this man spoke. He was so good at what he did," says Nebron.
The case is headed to probate court in July.
Friday, June 24, 2016
HOUSTON ATTORNEY SUES STARBUCKS OVER ALLEGED COFFEE BURNS
By Craig Malisow | Houston Press | June 21, 2016
A Houston woman is suing Starbucks over an alleged scalding-hot coffee mishap that seared her skin and left her in excruciating pain.
Katherine Mize is also suing the barista who allegedly spilled the 20-ouncer on Mize as she was buying coffee for herself and some colleagues at the java giant's 445 North Loop West location in July 2014. The barista, identified only as "Brie," allegedly squeezed a cup of coffee as she handed it to Mize, "causing it to collapse and for the top to come off. Extremely hot coffee covered [Mize], severely burning multiple parts of her body."
Mize filed the suit last week in Harris County District Court and is seeking $200,000-$1 million, claiming she suffered "physical disfigurement." The suit doesn't get into details, but her attorney, Brian Humphrey, told Texas Lawyer, "She didn't have to have skin grafts, but she had to have treatment....It resulted in scarring."
The suit alleges that Mize, who is also an attorney, was "unable to eat, sit, walk, work, or function normally for an extended period of time after the accident." To add insult to injury, the suit also alleges that neither the mysterious Brie nor any of her co-workers "event attempted to assist" Mize.
As Texas Lawyer noted, the suit is similar to a widely publicized McDonald's hot-coffee case from 1994, in which a New Mexico woman was awarded $2.9 million for damages after she suffered third-degree burns and spent eight days in the hospital.
Similarly to the McDonald's case, the Houston suit alleges that Starbucks negligently served coffee that was "at an unreasonably dangerous temperature."
A Starbucks spokesperson told us in an email, "The health and safety of our customers and partners (employees) is always our top priority. We are evaluating the customer's claims and are determining the appropriate next steps."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Looks like a Houston shyster is trying to fleece Starbuck’s deep pockets. And poor old Brie … how much could she possibly be making as a barista?
If Mize was as seriously injured as she claims, why did she wait two years to file the lawsuit?
A Houston woman is suing Starbucks over an alleged scalding-hot coffee mishap that seared her skin and left her in excruciating pain.
Katherine Mize is also suing the barista who allegedly spilled the 20-ouncer on Mize as she was buying coffee for herself and some colleagues at the java giant's 445 North Loop West location in July 2014. The barista, identified only as "Brie," allegedly squeezed a cup of coffee as she handed it to Mize, "causing it to collapse and for the top to come off. Extremely hot coffee covered [Mize], severely burning multiple parts of her body."
Mize filed the suit last week in Harris County District Court and is seeking $200,000-$1 million, claiming she suffered "physical disfigurement." The suit doesn't get into details, but her attorney, Brian Humphrey, told Texas Lawyer, "She didn't have to have skin grafts, but she had to have treatment....It resulted in scarring."
The suit alleges that Mize, who is also an attorney, was "unable to eat, sit, walk, work, or function normally for an extended period of time after the accident." To add insult to injury, the suit also alleges that neither the mysterious Brie nor any of her co-workers "event attempted to assist" Mize.
As Texas Lawyer noted, the suit is similar to a widely publicized McDonald's hot-coffee case from 1994, in which a New Mexico woman was awarded $2.9 million for damages after she suffered third-degree burns and spent eight days in the hospital.
Similarly to the McDonald's case, the Houston suit alleges that Starbucks negligently served coffee that was "at an unreasonably dangerous temperature."
A Starbucks spokesperson told us in an email, "The health and safety of our customers and partners (employees) is always our top priority. We are evaluating the customer's claims and are determining the appropriate next steps."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Looks like a Houston shyster is trying to fleece Starbuck’s deep pockets. And poor old Brie … how much could she possibly be making as a barista?
If Mize was as seriously injured as she claims, why did she wait two years to file the lawsuit?
THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST THE U.K. LEAVING THE E.U.
The Onion | June 23, 2015
British voters will decide Thursday whether the U.K. should remain a member of the European Union. Here are the leading arguments for and against the U.K. leaving the E.U.:
FOR
First step in returning Britain to its pre-1970s glory as an economically languishing failed colonial empire
In the face of a resurgent Russia and increased threats from ISIS, leaving E.U. would be the best strategy for letting someone else deal with that shit
Britons could once again refocus their hatred on internal class divisions
One less goddamn flag everyone has to hang up
Won’t have to take part in awkward process of denying Bosnia and Herzegovina’s E.U. membership request
Throughout its history, Britain has always been a valiant defender of the right of smaller territories to separate from larger, oppressive governments
Pretty airtight way for citizens to mask racism as concern for national autonomy
AGAINST
Could lead to a chain reaction in which other member states consider leaving and then realize their economy would collapse if they did so
Abandonment of E.U. would significantly delay transition to single totalitarian world government
Could possibly make things awkward when bumping into Denmark or Malta at United Nations summits
The windswept Swiss Alps! The stunning Sagrada Familia! The radiant vineyards of Tuscany!
Never a good idea to find yourself on Luxembourg’s bad side
Free trade agreements keep price of imported wiener würstchen low
Fewer people for David Cameron to order around
EDITOR’S NOTE: At press time the results of the BREXIT votes had not come in.
British voters will decide Thursday whether the U.K. should remain a member of the European Union. Here are the leading arguments for and against the U.K. leaving the E.U.:
FOR
First step in returning Britain to its pre-1970s glory as an economically languishing failed colonial empire
In the face of a resurgent Russia and increased threats from ISIS, leaving E.U. would be the best strategy for letting someone else deal with that shit
Britons could once again refocus their hatred on internal class divisions
One less goddamn flag everyone has to hang up
Won’t have to take part in awkward process of denying Bosnia and Herzegovina’s E.U. membership request
Throughout its history, Britain has always been a valiant defender of the right of smaller territories to separate from larger, oppressive governments
Pretty airtight way for citizens to mask racism as concern for national autonomy
AGAINST
Could lead to a chain reaction in which other member states consider leaving and then realize their economy would collapse if they did so
Abandonment of E.U. would significantly delay transition to single totalitarian world government
Could possibly make things awkward when bumping into Denmark or Malta at United Nations summits
The windswept Swiss Alps! The stunning Sagrada Familia! The radiant vineyards of Tuscany!
Never a good idea to find yourself on Luxembourg’s bad side
Free trade agreements keep price of imported wiener würstchen low
Fewer people for David Cameron to order around
EDITOR’S NOTE: At press time the results of the BREXIT votes had not come in.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
CHICAGO’S NEW NORMAL: FIVE PEOPLE KILLED AND 12 WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE OVERNIGHT FRIDAY
40 people have been shot and killed since the beginning of this month – and 192 people shot and wounded
By Tess Owen | VICE News | June 18, 2016
Chicago's violent streak of shootings continued, as five people were killed and at least 12 others wounded by shootings between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, police said, bringing the week's total number of fatal shootings to 18 so far, with another 81 wounded.
Shortly after 9:00pm on Friday, a 16-year old was killed while sitting in the front passenger seat of a car. Not even two hours after, around 10:30pm, a 22-year-old man died after being shot in the neck. At 1:30am, one man was killed when he and another man were shot as they sat in a minivan on Chicago's west side. Around 3:40am on Saturday, police reported that another three men had been shot – one fatally – in the University Village neighborhood on the near west side of Chicago. About 6:30am on Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot and killed on Chicago's westside.
The youngest victim of the day was a six-year-old girl who was injured after a bullet struck and shattered a restaurant window.
The Chicago Tribune listed the deaths on Saturday morning in a crime-blotter like article that topped its homepage, in addition to a litany of other shootings that took place overnight but did not injure or kill anyone.
Unfortunately, the last 24-hours were nothing unusual for Chicago, a city whose name is often synonymous with gun violence. "Shooting in Chicago is like cancer," Charles Parker, 46, told the New York Times recently. Parker said that gun violence has been spreading from known hotbeds of unrest to blocks that had long been considered safe.
Shootings have spiked by 50 percent this year in the Windy City, placing it at the heart of the nation's raging debate over gun control. But using Chicago to make the case for gun control has its own set of problems. The city has some of the toughest firearm laws in the country, yet continues to be plagued by shootings and gun crime. Lawmakers who oppose gun control often tout the city as an example for why gun control doesn't work.
But gun control advocates say that its too easy to traffic guns between states that have tough gun regulation, and those which have very little regulation.
Philip Cook, a Duke public policy professor and economist who works with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, told Bloomberg that about 60 percent of guns which were recovered in Illinois in connection with an arrest were from out of state — over a third of which came from neighboring Indiana, which "isn't regulated at all." Gang activity was mostly to blame for the availability of guns in Chicago, Cook said.
According to a site which compiles shooting and homicide data in Chicago from analyzing local news stories, gun violence watchdogs and official data, gunshots have accounted for more than 89 percent of homicides since the start of 2016 – claiming 254 victims in total. It also found that 40 people have been shot and killed since the beginning of this month – and 192 people shot and wounded.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Most of the shootings are gang related. Most of the gang membership is black. So, most of those shot are black. Black Lives Matter, where are you? Oh, I forgot that BLM is only concerned about white cops killing blacks.
By Tess Owen | VICE News | June 18, 2016
Chicago's violent streak of shootings continued, as five people were killed and at least 12 others wounded by shootings between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, police said, bringing the week's total number of fatal shootings to 18 so far, with another 81 wounded.
Shortly after 9:00pm on Friday, a 16-year old was killed while sitting in the front passenger seat of a car. Not even two hours after, around 10:30pm, a 22-year-old man died after being shot in the neck. At 1:30am, one man was killed when he and another man were shot as they sat in a minivan on Chicago's west side. Around 3:40am on Saturday, police reported that another three men had been shot – one fatally – in the University Village neighborhood on the near west side of Chicago. About 6:30am on Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot and killed on Chicago's westside.
The youngest victim of the day was a six-year-old girl who was injured after a bullet struck and shattered a restaurant window.
The Chicago Tribune listed the deaths on Saturday morning in a crime-blotter like article that topped its homepage, in addition to a litany of other shootings that took place overnight but did not injure or kill anyone.
Unfortunately, the last 24-hours were nothing unusual for Chicago, a city whose name is often synonymous with gun violence. "Shooting in Chicago is like cancer," Charles Parker, 46, told the New York Times recently. Parker said that gun violence has been spreading from known hotbeds of unrest to blocks that had long been considered safe.
Shootings have spiked by 50 percent this year in the Windy City, placing it at the heart of the nation's raging debate over gun control. But using Chicago to make the case for gun control has its own set of problems. The city has some of the toughest firearm laws in the country, yet continues to be plagued by shootings and gun crime. Lawmakers who oppose gun control often tout the city as an example for why gun control doesn't work.
But gun control advocates say that its too easy to traffic guns between states that have tough gun regulation, and those which have very little regulation.
Philip Cook, a Duke public policy professor and economist who works with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, told Bloomberg that about 60 percent of guns which were recovered in Illinois in connection with an arrest were from out of state — over a third of which came from neighboring Indiana, which "isn't regulated at all." Gang activity was mostly to blame for the availability of guns in Chicago, Cook said.
According to a site which compiles shooting and homicide data in Chicago from analyzing local news stories, gun violence watchdogs and official data, gunshots have accounted for more than 89 percent of homicides since the start of 2016 – claiming 254 victims in total. It also found that 40 people have been shot and killed since the beginning of this month – and 192 people shot and wounded.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Most of the shootings are gang related. Most of the gang membership is black. So, most of those shot are black. Black Lives Matter, where are you? Oh, I forgot that BLM is only concerned about white cops killing blacks.
WOMAN CHARGED WITH STEALING MISSOURI PATROL CAR
Since the deputy sheriff’s car contained a gun, Stevi Renee Zinn was also charged with being a felon in possession of the firearm
By Katy Bergen | The Kansas City Star | June 21, 2016
Prosecutors accused a 28-year-old woman Monday of stealing a patrol car after a Johnson County's Sheriff's Office deputy gave her a ride to a hospital.
They also charged Stevi Renee Zinn, of Kansas City, Kan., with being a felon in possession of the firearm, which was inside the patrol car she allegedly took.
According to the sheriff's office, the incident began early Monday morning in De Soto when someone reported a "distraught" woman standing on a street corner.
When the deputy spoke with the woman, she asked to be taken to Shawnee Mission Medical Center.
He allowed her to sit in the front seat during the ride. But after they arrived, as the deputy walked around the vehicle to let the woman out, she slid into the driver's seat and made off with the Ford Crown Victoria, according to the sheriff's office.
The vehicle was recovered five minutes later at 9100 W. 70th St.,, and Zinn was arrested shortly after that at 71st Terrace and Frontage Road.
Zinn has a prior felony conviction for attempted aggravated escape, according to court records.
A judge set her bond at $100,000. She was scheduled to make her first appearance in Johnson County District Court Monday afternoon.
By Katy Bergen | The Kansas City Star | June 21, 2016
Prosecutors accused a 28-year-old woman Monday of stealing a patrol car after a Johnson County's Sheriff's Office deputy gave her a ride to a hospital.
They also charged Stevi Renee Zinn, of Kansas City, Kan., with being a felon in possession of the firearm, which was inside the patrol car she allegedly took.
According to the sheriff's office, the incident began early Monday morning in De Soto when someone reported a "distraught" woman standing on a street corner.
When the deputy spoke with the woman, she asked to be taken to Shawnee Mission Medical Center.
He allowed her to sit in the front seat during the ride. But after they arrived, as the deputy walked around the vehicle to let the woman out, she slid into the driver's seat and made off with the Ford Crown Victoria, according to the sheriff's office.
The vehicle was recovered five minutes later at 9100 W. 70th St.,, and Zinn was arrested shortly after that at 71st Terrace and Frontage Road.
Zinn has a prior felony conviction for attempted aggravated escape, according to court records.
A judge set her bond at $100,000. She was scheduled to make her first appearance in Johnson County District Court Monday afternoon.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
TRUMP MUST TAKE US ALL FOR FOOLS
The way Trump backtracked on his remarks about armed patrons in the Pulse nightclub is just one more reason Hillary will be our next president
BarkGrowlBite | June 22, 2016
In the wake of the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump made a number of speeches in which included remarks similar to the following one he made on CNN:
“If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had. If people in that room had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction right at him... right at his head, you wouldn’t have had the same tragedy that you ended up having.”
Or as he said at a Texas rally:
“If some of those wonderful people had gun strapped right here—right to their waist or right to their ankle—and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes ‘boom, boom,’ you know that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.”
However, on Sunday’s ABC This Week, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, responded to Trump’s remarks by saying:
“No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms. That defies common sense. It also defies the law.”
And NRA head Wayne LaPierre agreed, telling CBS Face the Nation, “I don’t think you should have firearms where people are drinking.”
Trump then quickly backtracked by tweeting:
“When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees.”
Yeah right! Anyone with the brain of an earthworm knows exactly that when Trump mentioned “those wonderful people,” he was obviously referring to the nightclub patrons being armed, and not to guards or employees.
What a schmuck! Trump must take us all for fools. His backtracking whopper is just one more reason the Hildebeast will be our next president.
BarkGrowlBite | June 22, 2016
In the wake of the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump made a number of speeches in which included remarks similar to the following one he made on CNN:
“If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had. If people in that room had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction right at him... right at his head, you wouldn’t have had the same tragedy that you ended up having.”
Or as he said at a Texas rally:
“If some of those wonderful people had gun strapped right here—right to their waist or right to their ankle—and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes ‘boom, boom,’ you know that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.”
However, on Sunday’s ABC This Week, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, responded to Trump’s remarks by saying:
“No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms. That defies common sense. It also defies the law.”
And NRA head Wayne LaPierre agreed, telling CBS Face the Nation, “I don’t think you should have firearms where people are drinking.”
Trump then quickly backtracked by tweeting:
“When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees.”
Yeah right! Anyone with the brain of an earthworm knows exactly that when Trump mentioned “those wonderful people,” he was obviously referring to the nightclub patrons being armed, and not to guards or employees.
What a schmuck! Trump must take us all for fools. His backtracking whopper is just one more reason the Hildebeast will be our next president.
MICHAEL JACKSON EXPOSED AS A SEX CRAZED PREDATOR
A 2013 sheriff’s raid on the King of Pop’s home uncovered an extensive collection of photos featuring naked teenage boys, as well as disgusting and downright shocking images of child torture, adult and child nudity, and sadomasochism
By Chris Spargo | Daily Mail | June 21, 2016
A new video has been released of the November 2003 raid of Michael Jackson's home by 70 members of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department which uncovered his collection of pornography and photos featuring young boys naked.
The video shows almost all of Jackson's home, from the arcade room to his bedroom and the many life-size mannequins he had throughout his Neverland Ranch.
Many of these mannequins were superheroes like Superman and Lara Croft.
This raid also revealed for the first time the King of Pop's secret closet, hidden in the back of his bedroom and kept closed with three deadlocks.
It was in here that he kept memorabilia like a signed photograph of Macaulay Culkin, stuffed animals and games, and naked photos.
Culkin signed his photo with the message: 'Don't leave me alone in the house.'
There were also racing cars, Disney merchandise and a shocking number of dolls.
Many of these books and videos found in the raid were also detailed in court papers from the time, submitted after a young boy came forward claiming that he had been sexually abused and assaulted by the singer on multiple occasions.
The police report claims that in Jackson's bedroom and bathroom alone there were at least seven collections of work found by investigators that show boys in their teenage years - and in some cases younger - fully nude or partially clothed.
One of the collections, Taormina Wilhelm Von Gloeden, is described in court papers as: 'Nude photos of teenage boys from late 1800s.'
An arrest warrant had been issued at that time as well, and Jackson later turned himself into police when he returned to California.
Radar Online first obtained the police report and court papers, and an investigator on the case told them: 'The documents exposed Jackson as a manipulative, drug-and-sex-crazed predator who used blood, gore, sexually explicit images of animal sacrifice and perverse adult sex acts to bend children to his will.'
The source added: 'He also had disgusting and downright shocking images of child torture, adult and child nudity, female bondage and sadomasochism.'
The report states that many of the materials featuring naked men and women in the home could be used for the purpose of trying to attract young men.
After the descriptions for many of the materials, the investigator notes: 'Based on my training, this type of material can be used as part of the "grooming" process, by which people (those seeking to molest children) lower the inhibitions of their intended victims and facilitate the molestation of said victims.'
These materials include 'a book depicting nude children' found in the singer's 'arcade room'; 'a book which contained nude photographs of men' in the 'master bathroom'; and multiple books found in the 'master bedroom' that included one with 'naked and semi-naked gay men' and another with 'pre-teen or early teenage individuals' who in some cases were 'nude or semi-nude.'
Radar spoke with Santa Barbara Senior Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen about the case as he was part of the prosecution team that took on Jackson in court.
'A lot of this stuff was used to desensitize the children, and Michael admitted taking one child after another into bed with him for long periods of time,' said Zonen.
'We identified five different boys, who all made allegations of sexual abuse. There’s not much question in my mind that Michael was guilty of child molestation.'
Jackson was ultimately acquitted in 2005 after being charged with seven felony counts of child molestation and two felony counts of providing an intoxicant to a minor under the age of 14 when Gavin Arvizo came forward claiming that he had been sexually assaulted by the singer.
Gavin was a 13-year-old cancer survivor at the time of the alleged incidents.
The claims made by Gavin were similar to the ones made a decade earlier when another 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler, came forward to say he had been molested by Jackson.
No charges were ever filed against the singer however after police discovered the Chandler's father may have been attempting to extort Jackson and the young boy's mother claimed Jackson never touched her son.
Jordan however was able to perfectly describe Jackson's buttocks, pubic hair, and distinctive marks on both his testicles and penis.
The mark on the penis could only be seen if it was lifted and was otherwise not visible.
In the end, Jackson settled with the Chandler family for $22million and no charges were ever filed against him in court.
Once the trial was over Jackson - who had been facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges - left the country, moving to the island nation of Bahrain, located in the Persian Sea.
He eventually returned to the United States and had been preparing for his comeback tour in 2009 when he was found unresponsive inside his Holmby Hills home.
Paramedics arrived on the scene and were unable to revive the singer, who they declared dead at the age of 48 while still at his residence.
The cause of death was later ruled to be acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication caused by drugs that were being prescribed to him by Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 and charged with the singer's death.
He was released in November 2013 after serving roughly half of his four year sentence.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jackson’s acquittal is reminiscent of OJ’s acquittal. Morally guilty, legally innocent.
Jackson has to be one of history’s sorriest pieces of shit, yet millions of his fans continue to idolize him.
By Chris Spargo | Daily Mail | June 21, 2016
A new video has been released of the November 2003 raid of Michael Jackson's home by 70 members of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department which uncovered his collection of pornography and photos featuring young boys naked.
The video shows almost all of Jackson's home, from the arcade room to his bedroom and the many life-size mannequins he had throughout his Neverland Ranch.
Many of these mannequins were superheroes like Superman and Lara Croft.
This raid also revealed for the first time the King of Pop's secret closet, hidden in the back of his bedroom and kept closed with three deadlocks.
It was in here that he kept memorabilia like a signed photograph of Macaulay Culkin, stuffed animals and games, and naked photos.
Culkin signed his photo with the message: 'Don't leave me alone in the house.'
There were also racing cars, Disney merchandise and a shocking number of dolls.
Many of these books and videos found in the raid were also detailed in court papers from the time, submitted after a young boy came forward claiming that he had been sexually abused and assaulted by the singer on multiple occasions.
The police report claims that in Jackson's bedroom and bathroom alone there were at least seven collections of work found by investigators that show boys in their teenage years - and in some cases younger - fully nude or partially clothed.
One of the collections, Taormina Wilhelm Von Gloeden, is described in court papers as: 'Nude photos of teenage boys from late 1800s.'
An arrest warrant had been issued at that time as well, and Jackson later turned himself into police when he returned to California.
Radar Online first obtained the police report and court papers, and an investigator on the case told them: 'The documents exposed Jackson as a manipulative, drug-and-sex-crazed predator who used blood, gore, sexually explicit images of animal sacrifice and perverse adult sex acts to bend children to his will.'
The source added: 'He also had disgusting and downright shocking images of child torture, adult and child nudity, female bondage and sadomasochism.'
The report states that many of the materials featuring naked men and women in the home could be used for the purpose of trying to attract young men.
After the descriptions for many of the materials, the investigator notes: 'Based on my training, this type of material can be used as part of the "grooming" process, by which people (those seeking to molest children) lower the inhibitions of their intended victims and facilitate the molestation of said victims.'
These materials include 'a book depicting nude children' found in the singer's 'arcade room'; 'a book which contained nude photographs of men' in the 'master bathroom'; and multiple books found in the 'master bedroom' that included one with 'naked and semi-naked gay men' and another with 'pre-teen or early teenage individuals' who in some cases were 'nude or semi-nude.'
Radar spoke with Santa Barbara Senior Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen about the case as he was part of the prosecution team that took on Jackson in court.
'A lot of this stuff was used to desensitize the children, and Michael admitted taking one child after another into bed with him for long periods of time,' said Zonen.
'We identified five different boys, who all made allegations of sexual abuse. There’s not much question in my mind that Michael was guilty of child molestation.'
Jackson was ultimately acquitted in 2005 after being charged with seven felony counts of child molestation and two felony counts of providing an intoxicant to a minor under the age of 14 when Gavin Arvizo came forward claiming that he had been sexually assaulted by the singer.
Gavin was a 13-year-old cancer survivor at the time of the alleged incidents.
The claims made by Gavin were similar to the ones made a decade earlier when another 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler, came forward to say he had been molested by Jackson.
No charges were ever filed against the singer however after police discovered the Chandler's father may have been attempting to extort Jackson and the young boy's mother claimed Jackson never touched her son.
Jordan however was able to perfectly describe Jackson's buttocks, pubic hair, and distinctive marks on both his testicles and penis.
The mark on the penis could only be seen if it was lifted and was otherwise not visible.
In the end, Jackson settled with the Chandler family for $22million and no charges were ever filed against him in court.
Once the trial was over Jackson - who had been facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges - left the country, moving to the island nation of Bahrain, located in the Persian Sea.
He eventually returned to the United States and had been preparing for his comeback tour in 2009 when he was found unresponsive inside his Holmby Hills home.
Paramedics arrived on the scene and were unable to revive the singer, who they declared dead at the age of 48 while still at his residence.
The cause of death was later ruled to be acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication caused by drugs that were being prescribed to him by Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 and charged with the singer's death.
He was released in November 2013 after serving roughly half of his four year sentence.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jackson’s acquittal is reminiscent of OJ’s acquittal. Morally guilty, legally innocent.
Jackson has to be one of history’s sorriest pieces of shit, yet millions of his fans continue to idolize him.
MUHAMMAD ALI WAS NOT THE GREATEST BOXER OF ALL TIME
BarkGrowlBite | June 22, 2016
A boxing fan by the name of recently Samuel Mobley recently described Rocky Marciano as the greatest boxer of all time in a post on Facebook. While Marciano is without question one of the greatest boxers ever and would have flattened Muhammad Ali, I believe there were several fighters who deserved the title better.
There was Jersey Joe Walcott whom I consider to be the greatest heavyweight in modern boxing history. Jersey Joe was so good that he could not get fights with any of the leading contenders. When the 37-year-old Walcott finally won the heavyweight championship, he was already well past his prime. Ali wouldn’t have lasted more than eight rounds, if that many, with Jersey Joe in his prime.
Pound-for-pound, welterweight and middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson was probably the greatest fighter of all time.
In the pre-modern day era there was middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel. The “Michigan Assassin” is rated by many boxing historians as the best middleweight ever to put on the gloves. He threw devastating knockout punches from any angle with either hand. Ketchel was fearless, even taking on heavyweights, including the great heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. In the 12th round of their fight, Ketchel actually floored Johnson. The heavyweight champ got up and KO’d the Michigan Assassin with his next punch, leaving two of Ketchel’s teeth embedded in his glove.
Had they fought in the same time period, Ketchel would have challenged Ali to a match. He probably would have lost, but you gotta remember that Ketchel was only a middleweight.
Who was the greatest boxer of all time? Pick from Jersey Joe Walcott, Sugar Ray Robinson or Stanley Ketchel and you can’t go wrong.
As for Ali, former heavyweight champions Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson, and a heroin-free Sonny Liston would have made mincemeat out of Muhammad Ali. That “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” style would not have worked against those great fighters.
Here is Mobley’s Facebook post:
THE “GREATEST BOXER OF ALL TIME”
By Samuel Mobley
A lot of people have this title confused.
The Greatest Boxer of All Time didn't die recently...he died 47 years ago.
He didn't have 5 losses, he had 0.
He didn't have 37 Knock Outs he had 43 (88%).
He didn't dodge the draft.
He wasn't a race baiter and didn't convert to islam.
He was a local kid named Rocky Marciano aka The Brockton Blockbuster (49-0).
Don't let mainstream media idolize false prophets.
When he was asked on tv if he could've knocked out Ali in his prime his response was oh so classical!!
"I’d be conceited if i said i could've, but I'd be a liar if i said i couldn't"
A boxing fan by the name of recently Samuel Mobley recently described Rocky Marciano as the greatest boxer of all time in a post on Facebook. While Marciano is without question one of the greatest boxers ever and would have flattened Muhammad Ali, I believe there were several fighters who deserved the title better.
There was Jersey Joe Walcott whom I consider to be the greatest heavyweight in modern boxing history. Jersey Joe was so good that he could not get fights with any of the leading contenders. When the 37-year-old Walcott finally won the heavyweight championship, he was already well past his prime. Ali wouldn’t have lasted more than eight rounds, if that many, with Jersey Joe in his prime.
Pound-for-pound, welterweight and middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson was probably the greatest fighter of all time.
In the pre-modern day era there was middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel. The “Michigan Assassin” is rated by many boxing historians as the best middleweight ever to put on the gloves. He threw devastating knockout punches from any angle with either hand. Ketchel was fearless, even taking on heavyweights, including the great heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. In the 12th round of their fight, Ketchel actually floored Johnson. The heavyweight champ got up and KO’d the Michigan Assassin with his next punch, leaving two of Ketchel’s teeth embedded in his glove.
Had they fought in the same time period, Ketchel would have challenged Ali to a match. He probably would have lost, but you gotta remember that Ketchel was only a middleweight.
Who was the greatest boxer of all time? Pick from Jersey Joe Walcott, Sugar Ray Robinson or Stanley Ketchel and you can’t go wrong.
As for Ali, former heavyweight champions Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson, and a heroin-free Sonny Liston would have made mincemeat out of Muhammad Ali. That “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” style would not have worked against those great fighters.
Here is Mobley’s Facebook post:
THE “GREATEST BOXER OF ALL TIME”
By Samuel Mobley
A lot of people have this title confused.
The Greatest Boxer of All Time didn't die recently...he died 47 years ago.
He didn't have 5 losses, he had 0.
He didn't have 37 Knock Outs he had 43 (88%).
He didn't dodge the draft.
He wasn't a race baiter and didn't convert to islam.
He was a local kid named Rocky Marciano aka The Brockton Blockbuster (49-0).
Don't let mainstream media idolize false prophets.
When he was asked on tv if he could've knocked out Ali in his prime his response was oh so classical!!
"I’d be conceited if i said i could've, but I'd be a liar if i said i couldn't"
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
SCOTUS HAS JUST LEFT THE SECOND AMMENDMENT TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF BECOMING MEANINGLESS
The Supreme Court in effect upheld Connecticut’s ban on 180 semiautomatic guns, including AR-15s and AK-47s, and high-capacity magazines
BarkGrowlBite | June 21, 2016
The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up a challenge to gun bans enacted in Connecticut and New York. The Connecticut bans were passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and cover semi-automatic guns, including Ar-15s and AK-47s, as well as high capacity magazines. The Connecticut law names more than 180 weapons that cannot be sold.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld the Connecticut ban and a similar ban in New York. SCOTUS refused to review either case, thus leaving the bans in effect.
Monday’s decision is really nothing new. SCOTUS in the past has refused to review gun bans enacted in Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New, Jersey. Many cities and towns have similar bans, all of which have been upheld by lower courts.
Gun rights advocates argued to no avail that the bans violate the the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which said individuals have a right to gun ownership for self-protection.
And here we are worried about Hillary Clinton becoming President and appointing liberal justices who will repeal the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court’s refusal to stop the Connecticut and New York gun bans, and the bans that have been upheld in other states, as well as in cities and towns, have left the Second Amendment teetering on the brink of becoming meaningless.
Apparently, as it stands now, states and local jurisdictions can limit gun ownership to revolvers, single-shot hunting rifles and shotguns without violating Heller. Thank God I live in gun happy Texas where there will be no gun ban nonsense.
BarkGrowlBite | June 21, 2016
The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up a challenge to gun bans enacted in Connecticut and New York. The Connecticut bans were passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and cover semi-automatic guns, including Ar-15s and AK-47s, as well as high capacity magazines. The Connecticut law names more than 180 weapons that cannot be sold.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld the Connecticut ban and a similar ban in New York. SCOTUS refused to review either case, thus leaving the bans in effect.
Monday’s decision is really nothing new. SCOTUS in the past has refused to review gun bans enacted in Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New, Jersey. Many cities and towns have similar bans, all of which have been upheld by lower courts.
Gun rights advocates argued to no avail that the bans violate the the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which said individuals have a right to gun ownership for self-protection.
And here we are worried about Hillary Clinton becoming President and appointing liberal justices who will repeal the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court’s refusal to stop the Connecticut and New York gun bans, and the bans that have been upheld in other states, as well as in cities and towns, have left the Second Amendment teetering on the brink of becoming meaningless.
Apparently, as it stands now, states and local jurisdictions can limit gun ownership to revolvers, single-shot hunting rifles and shotguns without violating Heller. Thank God I live in gun happy Texas where there will be no gun ban nonsense.
TEXAS PREPARES TO PREVENT ISLAMIC TERRORISTS FROM ACQUIRING GUNS
BY Harry Dunne
The State Legislature is voting on the Bacon Bill that is designed to prevent Islamic terrorists from acquiring guns.
The Bacon Bill, which was sent to the legislature by staunch conservative Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, requires that each licensed gun dealer in the State of Texas must keep a pork product on the gun display case. It also requires that each gun purchaser must sample the pork before being allowed to purchase a firearm.
The State will participate in the new law by raising hogs at the prisons for the pork products.
It will also be a class A misdemeanor if a gun dealer attempts to serve turkey bacon instead of real pig products.
Although the Democrats are opposed, the bill is expected to pass easily with all Republican legislators voting for the new law. Gov. Greg Abbott has announced he will sign the Bacon Bill into law.
The State Legislature is voting on the Bacon Bill that is designed to prevent Islamic terrorists from acquiring guns.
The Bacon Bill, which was sent to the legislature by staunch conservative Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, requires that each licensed gun dealer in the State of Texas must keep a pork product on the gun display case. It also requires that each gun purchaser must sample the pork before being allowed to purchase a firearm.
The State will participate in the new law by raising hogs at the prisons for the pork products.
It will also be a class A misdemeanor if a gun dealer attempts to serve turkey bacon instead of real pig products.
Although the Democrats are opposed, the bill is expected to pass easily with all Republican legislators voting for the new law. Gov. Greg Abbott has announced he will sign the Bacon Bill into law.
U.N. WARNS TRUMP MAY BE 7 MONTHS AWAY FROM ACQUIRING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The Onion | June 14, 2016
NEW YORK—According to an alarming new global risk report published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump may be just seven months away from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“A year ago, the threat didn’t seem great enough to warrant serious concern, but at this moment, a nuclear-capable Trump is now a very real and very imminent possibility,” said UNODA high representative Kim Won-soo, adding that the agency’s current projections showed Trump potentially procuring nuclear weapons, as well as advanced ballistic missile technology, as early as January of next year. “The longer we wait to act, the closer he comes to obtaining a nuclear arsenal. The final red line for preventing him from acquiring this devastating capability comes in early November. If he is not properly dealt with before then, there will be no way to stop him from going nuclear.”
While U.N. officials said the international community should prepare for the destabilizing effects of Trump acquiring such weapons, they still held out hope that citizens of his nation might yet rise up against him and topple the extremist before he posed a global existential threat.
NEW YORK—According to an alarming new global risk report published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump may be just seven months away from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“A year ago, the threat didn’t seem great enough to warrant serious concern, but at this moment, a nuclear-capable Trump is now a very real and very imminent possibility,” said UNODA high representative Kim Won-soo, adding that the agency’s current projections showed Trump potentially procuring nuclear weapons, as well as advanced ballistic missile technology, as early as January of next year. “The longer we wait to act, the closer he comes to obtaining a nuclear arsenal. The final red line for preventing him from acquiring this devastating capability comes in early November. If he is not properly dealt with before then, there will be no way to stop him from going nuclear.”
While U.N. officials said the international community should prepare for the destabilizing effects of Trump acquiring such weapons, they still held out hope that citizens of his nation might yet rise up against him and topple the extremist before he posed a global existential threat.
Monday, June 20, 2016
HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION FORCES RESIDENTS TO TAKE DOWN LAW ENFORCEMENT FLAGS
Residents in a neighborhood in Fort Worth are infuriated after their Home Owners Association began cracking down on flags flown to honor law enforcement
Officer.com News | June 19, 2016
Residents in a neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas are infuriated after their Home Owners Association began cracking down on flags flown to honor law enforcement.
The HOA in Seventeen Lakes only allows three types of flags to be flown including the Texas state flag, military flags and the American flag, according to WFAA-TV.
This spring, more residents began flying the blue and black American flags in honor of injured Fort Worth Police Officer Matthew Pearce -- and the HOA noticed.
"I got a letter of non-compliance," resident Marvin Faulkenburry told the news station. "I was given 30 days to get it down or face $100 a day fine until I did take it down."
Others in the neighborhood reported that they received citations as well.
"The fact the HOA takes exception to (the law enforcement flag) is insulting, in my opinion," Faulkenburry said.
Some in the neighborhood are split on what to do and one resident told the news station that he'll take his chances and leave it up.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Those flags will not affect property values. Fuck that HOA!
Officer.com News | June 19, 2016
Residents in a neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas are infuriated after their Home Owners Association began cracking down on flags flown to honor law enforcement.
The HOA in Seventeen Lakes only allows three types of flags to be flown including the Texas state flag, military flags and the American flag, according to WFAA-TV.
This spring, more residents began flying the blue and black American flags in honor of injured Fort Worth Police Officer Matthew Pearce -- and the HOA noticed.
"I got a letter of non-compliance," resident Marvin Faulkenburry told the news station. "I was given 30 days to get it down or face $100 a day fine until I did take it down."
Others in the neighborhood reported that they received citations as well.
"The fact the HOA takes exception to (the law enforcement flag) is insulting, in my opinion," Faulkenburry said.
Some in the neighborhood are split on what to do and one resident told the news station that he'll take his chances and leave it up.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Those flags will not affect property values. Fuck that HOA!
NEWLY FOUND BLOOD VIALS ALLOW FOR FUNERAL OF BATALLION FIRE CHIEF KILLED 15 YEARS AGO IN COLLAPSE OF TWIN TOWERS
No trace of NYFD Battalion Chief Lawrence Stack’s body was found in the rubble of the World Trade Center
BY Frank Eltman | Associated Press | June 17, 2016
Thousands of firefighters in their dress blues stood at attention and saluted Friday as a flag-draped casket passed carrying two tiny vials of blood, the only known remains of a comrade who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
For 15 years, the family of Fire Department of New York Battalion Chief Lawrence Stack was unable to put him to rest with a Roman Catholic funeral Mass because no trace of his body was found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. But the way was finally cleared when the family recently discovered the blood, which the 58-year-old Stack had donated as part of a bone marrow drive for a child with cancer before the 2001 attacks.
"He gives blood for a young cancer kid — that's just Larry," said Rich Brandt, a chief with the Long Beach, California, fire department, who began his career as a member of the FDNY and learned under Stack when Stack was a captain in a Manhattan fire house.
Brandt showed off a bracelet with Stack's name on it that he said he has worn since 2001.
"He was kind of a dad to me," Brandt said.
Stack's two sons, both New York firefighters, stood watch on the back of a ceremonial firetruck bearing the flag-draped casket with the vials of blood as it passed by firefighters and dignitaries standing at attention. The New York City Emerald Society Pipe Band led the procession, playing "Amazing Grace" as the casket was led into Saints Philip and James Roman Catholic Church, in St. James, on eastern Long Island.
Lt. Michael Stack said during the funeral that his father, who was a safety expert, had been working in his office preparing a report on the deaths of three firefighters killed 15 years ago Friday, on June 17, 2001. When he learned that planes had flown into the World Trade Center, he raced to the scene and began helping people flee the burning towers. He was last seen assisting a man who had injured his leg when the south tower collapsed with him on the ground below.
Brandt said his friend could always be counted on to help others.
"Not only did he help people that day, but his entire career and his entire life was about helping people," Brandt said.
Theresa Stack, marking what would have been her 49th wedding anniversary to the fallen firefighter on Friday, said last week that she had never given up hope that his remains would be found. About a year ago, her family reached out to the New York Blood Bank after recalling both had donated blood weeks before Sept. 11. When vials of his blood were located, plans were made for a funeral.
Theresa Stack, who was presented with her husband's helmet as she left the church, said the family wanted to hold a public funeral "so people don't forget" Sept. 11.
Retired firefighter Ray Pfeiffer, who has cancer, attended the funeral in a wheelchair.
"Larry was killed by a terrorist," he said. "Whether it was done 15 years ago or whether it was done yesterday, he deserves a line-of-duty funeral, and he's going to get that respect. Larry was a good man."
BY Frank Eltman | Associated Press | June 17, 2016
Thousands of firefighters in their dress blues stood at attention and saluted Friday as a flag-draped casket passed carrying two tiny vials of blood, the only known remains of a comrade who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
For 15 years, the family of Fire Department of New York Battalion Chief Lawrence Stack was unable to put him to rest with a Roman Catholic funeral Mass because no trace of his body was found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. But the way was finally cleared when the family recently discovered the blood, which the 58-year-old Stack had donated as part of a bone marrow drive for a child with cancer before the 2001 attacks.
"He gives blood for a young cancer kid — that's just Larry," said Rich Brandt, a chief with the Long Beach, California, fire department, who began his career as a member of the FDNY and learned under Stack when Stack was a captain in a Manhattan fire house.
Brandt showed off a bracelet with Stack's name on it that he said he has worn since 2001.
"He was kind of a dad to me," Brandt said.
Stack's two sons, both New York firefighters, stood watch on the back of a ceremonial firetruck bearing the flag-draped casket with the vials of blood as it passed by firefighters and dignitaries standing at attention. The New York City Emerald Society Pipe Band led the procession, playing "Amazing Grace" as the casket was led into Saints Philip and James Roman Catholic Church, in St. James, on eastern Long Island.
Lt. Michael Stack said during the funeral that his father, who was a safety expert, had been working in his office preparing a report on the deaths of three firefighters killed 15 years ago Friday, on June 17, 2001. When he learned that planes had flown into the World Trade Center, he raced to the scene and began helping people flee the burning towers. He was last seen assisting a man who had injured his leg when the south tower collapsed with him on the ground below.
Brandt said his friend could always be counted on to help others.
"Not only did he help people that day, but his entire career and his entire life was about helping people," Brandt said.
Theresa Stack, marking what would have been her 49th wedding anniversary to the fallen firefighter on Friday, said last week that she had never given up hope that his remains would be found. About a year ago, her family reached out to the New York Blood Bank after recalling both had donated blood weeks before Sept. 11. When vials of his blood were located, plans were made for a funeral.
Theresa Stack, who was presented with her husband's helmet as she left the church, said the family wanted to hold a public funeral "so people don't forget" Sept. 11.
Retired firefighter Ray Pfeiffer, who has cancer, attended the funeral in a wheelchair.
"Larry was killed by a terrorist," he said. "Whether it was done 15 years ago or whether it was done yesterday, he deserves a line-of-duty funeral, and he's going to get that respect. Larry was a good man."
NEW MOUNTAIN DEW VOWS TO KILL 99.9% OF STOMACH BACTERIA
The Onion | June 16, 2016
PURCHASE, NY—Touting the beverage’s refreshing citrus taste, tongue-tingling carbonation, and prescription-strength antimicrobial properties, PepsiCo officials announced Wednesday that their newest product, Mountain Dew Code White, kills 99.9 percent of consumers’ stomach bacteria.
“If you like Mountain Dew, you’re going to love Code White. All it takes is one sip and you’ll start feeling the rush of your gut flora being systematically exterminated,” said Mountain Dew product manager Mark Aldag, boasting that extensive lab tests had proved the drink’s lethality to nearly all of the stomach’s bacterial phyla, including Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria. “Whether you need a little extra boost in the middle of the workday or to eradicate an unwanted strain of H. pylori embedded in the mucus lining of your stomach, just grab a Code White and you’re sure to be satisfied!”
PepsiCo officials went on to urge consumers to exercise caution, as any bacteria that survived the new beverage could be highly resistant to all forms of antibiotics.
PURCHASE, NY—Touting the beverage’s refreshing citrus taste, tongue-tingling carbonation, and prescription-strength antimicrobial properties, PepsiCo officials announced Wednesday that their newest product, Mountain Dew Code White, kills 99.9 percent of consumers’ stomach bacteria.
“If you like Mountain Dew, you’re going to love Code White. All it takes is one sip and you’ll start feeling the rush of your gut flora being systematically exterminated,” said Mountain Dew product manager Mark Aldag, boasting that extensive lab tests had proved the drink’s lethality to nearly all of the stomach’s bacterial phyla, including Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria. “Whether you need a little extra boost in the middle of the workday or to eradicate an unwanted strain of H. pylori embedded in the mucus lining of your stomach, just grab a Code White and you’re sure to be satisfied!”
PepsiCo officials went on to urge consumers to exercise caution, as any bacteria that survived the new beverage could be highly resistant to all forms of antibiotics.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
THIS IS JUST GETTING RIDICULOUS
By Bob Walsh
The mayor of Oakland, California has just discarded the city’s third Chief of Police in slightly more than one week.
Mayor Libby Schaaf said that Acting Chief Paul Figueroa stepped down after two days as the top cop in the city. At the same time she denounced loudly the department’s “macho culture” vowed to root out the department’s “bad apples” and stated she was running a police department and not a frat party.
The mayor has not appointed a new interim chief. The department command staff are reporting to City Administrator Sabrina Landreth who will be directly responsible for personnel and disciplinary decisions. (I didn’t even know that a modern P.D. could legally function without a chief of some sort, even if in name only.)
The mayor is also quoted as saying yesterday, “This is the appropriate time to install civilian oversight in this police department. I want to assure the citizens of Oakland that we are hell bent on rooting out this disgusting culture.” The department is already under federal oversight.
Allegedly the mayor is looking for a new chief from outside the department with the following MQs for the gig:
A non-white asexual transgender with at least 20 years of experience as a police officer, at least seven years in an administrative or command position who has never had an excessive use-of-force complaint made against them, has never actually shot anybody and preferably has never fired a firearm in the line of duty.
Being a non-English speaking undocumented alien would appear to be a definite plus. With those qualifications, Mayor Libby Schaaf could rest assured that the applicant had never served on one of Mexico’s crooked, ass-kicking police departments.
Figueroa is now on a Leave of Absence. He has asked to return to the department as a Captain, not his previous rank of Assistant Chief. I am confident that there will be lots of applications to sort thru, or maybe not so many.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shit, and here I always thought that a police department and a frat party were supposed to be one and the same.
The mayor of Oakland, California has just discarded the city’s third Chief of Police in slightly more than one week.
Mayor Libby Schaaf said that Acting Chief Paul Figueroa stepped down after two days as the top cop in the city. At the same time she denounced loudly the department’s “macho culture” vowed to root out the department’s “bad apples” and stated she was running a police department and not a frat party.
The mayor has not appointed a new interim chief. The department command staff are reporting to City Administrator Sabrina Landreth who will be directly responsible for personnel and disciplinary decisions. (I didn’t even know that a modern P.D. could legally function without a chief of some sort, even if in name only.)
The mayor is also quoted as saying yesterday, “This is the appropriate time to install civilian oversight in this police department. I want to assure the citizens of Oakland that we are hell bent on rooting out this disgusting culture.” The department is already under federal oversight.
Allegedly the mayor is looking for a new chief from outside the department with the following MQs for the gig:
A non-white asexual transgender with at least 20 years of experience as a police officer, at least seven years in an administrative or command position who has never had an excessive use-of-force complaint made against them, has never actually shot anybody and preferably has never fired a firearm in the line of duty.
Being a non-English speaking undocumented alien would appear to be a definite plus. With those qualifications, Mayor Libby Schaaf could rest assured that the applicant had never served on one of Mexico’s crooked, ass-kicking police departments.
Figueroa is now on a Leave of Absence. He has asked to return to the department as a Captain, not his previous rank of Assistant Chief. I am confident that there will be lots of applications to sort thru, or maybe not so many.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shit, and here I always thought that a police department and a frat party were supposed to be one and the same.
OBAMA A SAINT?
Last Saturday afternoon in Washington , DC an aide to President Barack Obama visited the Cardinal of the Catholic cathedral in Washington . He told the Cardinal that President Barack Obama would be attending the next mass, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Obama to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Obama a saint.
The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the man, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Obama's views. Obama's aide then said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $10,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Obama as a saint." The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."
As Obama's aide promised, Obama appeared for the Sunday worship and seated himself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle. As promised, at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Obama was present.
The Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, "While President Obama’s presence is probably an honor to some, the man is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of his views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and he tends to flip-flop on many other issues. Barack Obama is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker and a nit-wit. Barack Obama is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, Barack Obama is the worst example of a Christian I have ever personally witnessed. He is a narcissist and is using his speaking ability to lie to the American people. He also has a reputation for shirking his obligations, both In Washington and in Illinois . The man is simply not to be trusted."
The Cardinal concluded, "But, when compared with Hillary Clinton, Obama is a Saint."
The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the man, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Obama's views. Obama's aide then said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $10,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Obama as a saint." The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."
As Obama's aide promised, Obama appeared for the Sunday worship and seated himself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle. As promised, at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Obama was present.
The Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, "While President Obama’s presence is probably an honor to some, the man is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of his views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and he tends to flip-flop on many other issues. Barack Obama is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker and a nit-wit. Barack Obama is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, Barack Obama is the worst example of a Christian I have ever personally witnessed. He is a narcissist and is using his speaking ability to lie to the American people. He also has a reputation for shirking his obligations, both In Washington and in Illinois . The man is simply not to be trusted."
The Cardinal concluded, "But, when compared with Hillary Clinton, Obama is a Saint."
Saturday, June 18, 2016
RED DAVID ORGANIZES AND LEADS ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTERS IN HOUSTON
Avowed Marxist and fired college professor calls Trump a racist, mysoginist, bigot and warmonger
BarkGrowlBite | June 18, 2016
Donald Trump attended a fund raiser late Friday afternoon at the home of an attorney in Houston’s ritzy River Oaks neighborhood. Both pro and anti-Trump demonstrators waited in the street for Trump to arrive.
David Michael Smith, an avowed Marxist, was a government professor at College of the Mainland, the institution where I taught criminal justice for 23 years. Red David, as he was called by us anti-Communists, was fired in July 2013. That hasn’t kept him from continuing with his anti-American activities.
Through the years students have said that instead of covering the course content as described in the college catalog, Red David yapped a lot of anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism in what they thought would be a course about U.S. government.
Red David and his wife Rona have formed a group to protest Trump’s appearance in Houston which they named the June 17th Coalition.
Here is what Red David told KHOU:
“He’s a racist, he’s mysoginist, he’s a bigot, he’s a warmonger. We don’t want him here. His slander of Mexicans, Muslims, women, disabled people, it’s really outrageous. So we’re gonna have to have a lot of people from Greater Houston out there to express our opposition to Trump. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. And we’re gonna show Mr. Trump he’s not welcome in Houston.”
And here is what Red Rona, Red David’s wife, told KPRC:
“He's a fascist, he’s a racist, he’s a maniac.”
I’m sure that most of the anti-Trump protesters were unaware they were being led by an avowed Marxist couple. And they also don’t know that the two Reds do not hate Trump because he’s a fascist, a racist and a maniac, but that they hate him simply because he’s a capitalist.
Dr. Beth Lewis, the COM president who fired Red David, got fired herself last month. I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see the college rehiring the Marxist.
BarkGrowlBite | June 18, 2016
Donald Trump attended a fund raiser late Friday afternoon at the home of an attorney in Houston’s ritzy River Oaks neighborhood. Both pro and anti-Trump demonstrators waited in the street for Trump to arrive.
David Michael Smith, an avowed Marxist, was a government professor at College of the Mainland, the institution where I taught criminal justice for 23 years. Red David, as he was called by us anti-Communists, was fired in July 2013. That hasn’t kept him from continuing with his anti-American activities.
Through the years students have said that instead of covering the course content as described in the college catalog, Red David yapped a lot of anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism in what they thought would be a course about U.S. government.
Red David and his wife Rona have formed a group to protest Trump’s appearance in Houston which they named the June 17th Coalition.
Here is what Red David told KHOU:
“He’s a racist, he’s mysoginist, he’s a bigot, he’s a warmonger. We don’t want him here. His slander of Mexicans, Muslims, women, disabled people, it’s really outrageous. So we’re gonna have to have a lot of people from Greater Houston out there to express our opposition to Trump. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. And we’re gonna show Mr. Trump he’s not welcome in Houston.”
And here is what Red Rona, Red David’s wife, told KPRC:
“He's a fascist, he’s a racist, he’s a maniac.”
I’m sure that most of the anti-Trump protesters were unaware they were being led by an avowed Marxist couple. And they also don’t know that the two Reds do not hate Trump because he’s a fascist, a racist and a maniac, but that they hate him simply because he’s a capitalist.
Dr. Beth Lewis, the COM president who fired Red David, got fired herself last month. I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see the college rehiring the Marxist.
Friday, June 17, 2016
SEN. MCCAIN HAD A TRUMP MOMENT BUT LATER SAID HE MISSPOKE
McCain said Obama was “directly responsible” for the Orlando massacre
BarkGrowlBite | June 17, 2016
Immediately after Omar Mateen’s Islamic terrorist attack on the Pulse nightclub, Donald Trump went on a rant blaming Obama and Hillary for the Orlando massacre. On Thursday Sen. John McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill that Obama was “directly responsible” for the Orlando massacre.
“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures -- utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq, thinking that conflicts end just because you leave. So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies.”
After Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman said, “Senator McCain's unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump,” the Arizona senator backtracked, saying:
“I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the President was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama's national security decisions, not the President himself. As I have said, President Obama's decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL.”
Thus McCain had a Trump moment, albeit a brief one. However, his clarification is spot on.
BarkGrowlBite | June 17, 2016
Immediately after Omar Mateen’s Islamic terrorist attack on the Pulse nightclub, Donald Trump went on a rant blaming Obama and Hillary for the Orlando massacre. On Thursday Sen. John McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill that Obama was “directly responsible” for the Orlando massacre.
“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures -- utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq, thinking that conflicts end just because you leave. So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies.”
After Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman said, “Senator McCain's unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump,” the Arizona senator backtracked, saying:
“I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the President was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama's national security decisions, not the President himself. As I have said, President Obama's decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL.”
Thus McCain had a Trump moment, albeit a brief one. However, his clarification is spot on.
MRS. SPRAT’S ULTIMATE DEMISE AT KATZ’S DELI
By Lou Craft
The New York Times
June 12, 2016
Dear Mrs. Sprat was enormously fat,
Her hubby (the rat!) took a powder.
She found some relief from her gluttonous grief
In a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder.
As it simmered and steamed, she pondered and dreamed
Of the time when she might become svelte.
“It’s unchic to be chubby, the hell with my hubby,
And one day I just might wear a belt.”
Oh, how firm, resolute, she considered each glute,
“I’ll be pretty and lovely and fair.”
So she went to the gym, took a sauna, a swim,
And thus chiseled her huge derrière.
She counted each carbo, was losing her cargo,
She fasted, she cleansed and she juiced.
Getting slimmer and slimmer and trimmer and trimmer,
Behold, Mrs. Sprat had reduced!
But that was before a knock on the door,
Cousin Izzy was there with a smile.
“My, you’re looking much thinner, I’ll take you to dinner,
How ‘bout Katz’s, we’ll go kosher style.”
The name made her blood flow, that deli on Ludlow,
Puts dieters into a coma.
It’s part the décor, and linoleum floor,
And, the punchy and pungent aroma.
Her nostrils assaulted (how could she be faulted?)
Pass up pastrami? Who’d risk it?
The kishke! The kugel! They’re still-lifes by Bruegel.
Oh, the corned beef, the tongue and the brisket!
She sweated and shivered, was blintzed and chopped livered,
Indulged every possible urge.
Enraptured, enthralled, egg creamed, matzo balled,
Such a sad and spontaneous splurge.
For poor Mrs. Sprat once again grew quite fat,
While swimming in dangerous waters.
And oh my, Gott in himmel, the great Yonah Schimmel,
She discovered as well Russ & Daughters.
It isn’t ironic that restaurants iconic,
Have fabulous treats here to sell you.
When it comes to the fork, there’s no place like New York,
Just ask Mrs. Sprat and she’ll tell you.
The New York Times
June 12, 2016
Dear Mrs. Sprat was enormously fat,
Her hubby (the rat!) took a powder.
She found some relief from her gluttonous grief
In a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder.
As it simmered and steamed, she pondered and dreamed
Of the time when she might become svelte.
“It’s unchic to be chubby, the hell with my hubby,
And one day I just might wear a belt.”
Oh, how firm, resolute, she considered each glute,
“I’ll be pretty and lovely and fair.”
So she went to the gym, took a sauna, a swim,
And thus chiseled her huge derrière.
She counted each carbo, was losing her cargo,
She fasted, she cleansed and she juiced.
Getting slimmer and slimmer and trimmer and trimmer,
Behold, Mrs. Sprat had reduced!
But that was before a knock on the door,
Cousin Izzy was there with a smile.
“My, you’re looking much thinner, I’ll take you to dinner,
How ‘bout Katz’s, we’ll go kosher style.”
The name made her blood flow, that deli on Ludlow,
Puts dieters into a coma.
It’s part the décor, and linoleum floor,
And, the punchy and pungent aroma.
Her nostrils assaulted (how could she be faulted?)
Pass up pastrami? Who’d risk it?
The kishke! The kugel! They’re still-lifes by Bruegel.
Oh, the corned beef, the tongue and the brisket!
She sweated and shivered, was blintzed and chopped livered,
Indulged every possible urge.
Enraptured, enthralled, egg creamed, matzo balled,
Such a sad and spontaneous splurge.
For poor Mrs. Sprat once again grew quite fat,
While swimming in dangerous waters.
And oh my, Gott in himmel, the great Yonah Schimmel,
She discovered as well Russ & Daughters.
It isn’t ironic that restaurants iconic,
Have fabulous treats here to sell you.
When it comes to the fork, there’s no place like New York,
Just ask Mrs. Sprat and she’ll tell you.
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