Tuesday - December 20, 2005

This is some Christmas Fun!

Father, Son Tag-Team Armed Robbers

MILWAUKEE—A Milwaukee father and son said they thought it was a joke when two men with guns entered their home on Friday night.

Police said two armed men walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and planned to rob the home of Alfredo Hernandez and his son.

OK guys...joke’s over.  Come on now.  Put the gun down.  Guys?

“I saw the pistol ... to my son’s head,” Hernandez said. “If they were going to shoot anybody, they were going to shoot me.”

So dad springs into action

While one of the men attempted to make off with his son’s recording equipment, Hernandez said he wrestled the other man to get the gun away from his son’s head.

But what was the sone doing at the time, you ask?

“He clenched onto my arm and I just kept punching him till finally I ripped my arm out,” said the son, who didn’t want his name publicized. “Then we got him down, then I kicked him a couple times.”

Heh, heh, heh.  Good move, young man.

By the time police arrived on the scene, Hernandez told WISN-TV, they had injured the man so badly that an ambulance had to come to the home.

Hernandez said he stabbed the man three times in the leg with a cheese knife and his son hit the man in the head with a snow shovel, which authorities took for evidence.

According to Hernandez, the man was screaming for help, begging not be arrested by police.

Begging to not be arrested?  Hmmmm. Maybe he has something to fear from the police?

“Oh yeah, I messed him up,” Hernandez said. “He came in walking and left in a stretcher.”

Too bad he didn’t leave in a body bag.  But at least our hero(s) stood their ground and taught this painty-waisted, low life a thing or two about the consequences of one’s actions.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 02:54 PM   
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   Monday - December 19, 2005

Smackdown!

Today’s “Kick Butt And Take Names” trophy goes to Alfredo Hernandez and his son in Milwaukee. Alfredo also gets a special award for an outstanding quote (see last paragraph below). It’s too bad they didn’t have a firearm or three handy in the house to take these dirtbags out permanently. However, I feel under the circumstances they did a remarkable job of defending the family. Congratulations!

Father, Son Tag-Team Armed Robbers
Ambulance Called To Take Suspect Away
2:11 pm EST December 18, 2005
MILWAUKEE (WEWS - NEWSNET5)

A Milwaukee father and son said they thought it was a joke when two men with guns entered their home on Friday night. But once guns were at their heads, they fought back, reported WISN-TV. Police said two armed men walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and planned to rob the home of Alfredo Hernandez and his son.

“I saw the pistol ... to my son’s head,” Hernandez said. “If they were going to shoot anybody, they were going to shoot me.” While one of the men attempted to make off with his son’s recording equipment, Hernandez said he wrestled the other man to get the gun away from his son’s head. Hernandez’s son also didn’t give into the robbery.

“He clenched onto my arm and I just kept punching him till finally I ripped my arm out,” said the son, who didn’t want his name publicized. “Then we got him down, then I kicked him a couple times.” The man who nabbed the valuables was able to get away, while Hernandez sat on the other robber, trapping him. By the time police arrived on the scene, Hernandez told WISN-TV, they had injured the man so badly that an ambulance had to come to the home.

Hernandez said he stabbed the man three times in the leg with a cheese knife and his son hit the man in the head with a snow shovel, which authorities took for evidence. According to Hernandez, the man was screaming for help, begging not be arrested by police. Hernandez also said the crooks pointed the loaded guns at his daughter and his 3-year-old granddaughter.

With his family in peril, Hernandez said he did what he had to do. “Oh yeah, I messed him up,” Hernandez said. ”He came in walking and left in a stretcher.” Hernandez said his favorite movie is “Scarface.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/19/2005 at 09:30 AM   
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   Saturday - December 17, 2005

All Quiet On The Down-Under Front

What if they gave a beach party and no one came? Police in Australia found out today. Two thousand police were on hand in case more riots and fighting broke out between Aussies and Muzzies. However, only 2,000 beachgoers actually showed up, about 10% of the normal Saturday crowd. Interestingly, police have been apprehending rioters with swords and daggers - which is what you get when the government outlaws firearms ... “there can be only one, MacLeod!” ...

2000 Police But The Beaches Were Empty
December 18, 2005
(SYDNEY MORNING-HERALD)

Sydney’s beaches were strangely empty yesterday - testament to a week of race-based violence and threats, and tough no-nonsense warnings from police and politicians to stay away. At Bondi Beach, lifeguards reported only 2000 beachgoers by lunchtime, down from the usual 20,000 expected for a Saturday. Last night numbers of revellers at the beach’s strip of restaurants and bars were down more than half.

At North Cronulla John Griggs, who owns the Blue Parrot restaurant, said he had experienced a 70 per cent drop in sales and lost about $10,000 because diners were staying away. At Maroubra Beach, numbers were down from 15,000 to only 500 as mounted police and uniformed officers patrolled the sands. A similar-sized drop was reported at Coogee Beach, the scene of last week’s retaliatory “smash and bash” attacks.

More than 2000 police were out on the streets and beaches, using tough new laws passed by the NSW Parliament last week to crack down on troublemakers. Roadblocks were established at Cronulla, Maroubra, Coogee and Bondi. Thirty police were stationed along The Grand Parade, at Brighton-le-Sands. “We are stationed, two cops to each car, along this road,” one officer said.

“We are checking the cars out for any weapons - knives, bats, golf clubs - and just making sure that everything is above board.” Four all-terrain quad bikes have been purchased to enhance Operation Seta, the strike force set up last week to tackle the violence. On Friday night, police arrested 19 people as part of the operation.

They seized a vehicle at Matraville, in Sydney’s south-east, and inside found swords and a dagger. The driver, a 17-year-old youth from Castle Hill, was charged with possessing an offensive implement and possessing offensive weapons and was granted conditional bail to appear at Bidura Children’s Court in February. In another incident, police charged two men after an alleged assault with golf clubs at Jannali early yesterday.

- More on the story here, mates ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/17/2005 at 09:01 AM   
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   Thursday - December 15, 2005

Aussie Update

In order to get a grip on the recent rioting, the government of New South Wales has passed new laws that make the Patriot Act look like nothing more than simple guidelines. Police in Sydney can now impound vehicles and cell phones without warrants, they can close down shops, lock down sections of the city and declare alcohol-free zones. In addition, penalties for rioting have been increased from ten years to fifteen years in prison.

Here is a link to what Australians are saying about the new laws, as seen on the Australian newspaper The Age’s reader comment section. Here are a few comments posted there to give you a taste of how Aussies feel about the new laws and the Middle Eastern immigrants who started it all ...

If I’m walking down a street and get bashed by a gang wielding bats and bars I’m not going to give a tuppenny stuff about their cultural background or whether they feel marginalised. Do you think I should?

Should I, as they swing the bats down on me, feel sorry for them and empathise? Should I accept responsibility for not being more welcoming when their parents came to this country? Do you think they’ll want to talk to me about it?

Thugs are thugs. They’re not activists. They have no political justification for the way they act. They are criminals and should be treated as such. Shoot the morons down and send the parents the bill. I’m sick of it all.

* Posted by: Stuart D at December 15, 2005 10:06 AM

Bring back old fashioned policing - AND - restore a bit of structure back into society instead of the PC bulls*** mess we have now. Sod the Politically Correct crowd - the cops could give the local thugs the occasional hiding to keep them in line, as dead heads only understand that type of reasoning.

Society must take a lot of the blame too - doesnt matter WHO is playing up, members of the community should be able to pull up the hoons and slap them and keep them in line.

As to the Politically Correct morons - your mates who seem to permiate all levels of society that are decision makers - I hope you are happy now - look around you and see the fruits of your labour(pun)- or should I say - communism....

I for one will be making sure my community starts policing itself. The buck stops with each one of us -so tell the PC mob to get stuffed and take back control of our lives.

We have had enough.

* Posted by: steve at December 15, 2005 01:03 PM

‘I am sick of all the namby-bamby liberals harking about freedom and liberty when the most productive and orderly societies are the ones with strict military discipline. ‘

What a load. Last time I looked, neither the US, the UK, most of Western Europe and Australia managed to be first-world, creative, productive nations without ‘strict military discipline’. I can’t understand how people such as Uncle Joe can criticise the Left on one hand for their nanny-statism, and in the same breath whine that the state isn’t being paternalistic enough. Just go and live in Singapore. We’ll stay here and enjoy our hard-earned freedom.

* Posted by: Pete at December 15, 2005 02:11 PM

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/15/2005 at 04:48 AM   
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Black Widow

You be the judge - death penalty or life imprisonment (eligible for parole in seven years)? Would you trust this woman back out on the streets after serving a brief sentence? What if she finds religion while in prison, writes a book against crime and gets nominated for a Nobel Prize - should she be executed even then? After twenty years on death row, how badly will those augmented breasts sag? Enquiring minds want to know ...

Marine Widow to Cash in Life Insurance
December 15, 2005, 3:39 AM EST
SAN DIEGO (AP)

Cynthia Sommer didn’t fit the role of a grieving Marine widow. Shortly after her husband died suddenly, she hosted boisterous parties at her home on the base. Authorities say she showed Marine wives her newly enhanced breasts—paid for with her husband’s life insurance policy. And within two months, she had taken up with another man.

Military investigators say Sommer wanted a life that was out of her reach as a mother of four working at a Subway restaurant and married to a strict Marine—and she allegedly poisoned her husband with arsenic to get it.

Sommer, 32, is in a Palm Beach County, Fla. jail fighting extradition back to San Diego. She is charged with first-degree murder for financial gain, a special circumstance that could carry the death penalty. The San Diego County district attorney’s office has not yet decided whether to seek it, prosecutor Laura Gunn said.

Sommer’s Florida attorney, Robert Gentile, did not return a message left seeking comment Wednesday. Her next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4 in Florida.

Marine Sgt. Todd Sommer, 23, died in February 2002 in his home at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. His death initially was ruled a heart attack, but tests of his liver later found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal, court documents show. Arsenic is a colorless and usually tasteless poison that causes stomach distress followed by death.

Following a lengthy investigation by military and civilian authorities, the San Diego County Medical Examiner concluded in October 2005 that the cause of death was acute arsenic poisoning.

- Read the rest of this sorry affair here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/15/2005 at 04:14 AM   
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   Wednesday - December 14, 2005

Australian Riots: Update

For those of you who watch American football, you may be familiar with what I am about to say. In football, when two players get into a fight during play it is always the last one who throws a punch that gets penalized. That is because the last punch is the only one the referees ever see. The same is true with the recent riots in Sydney.

The media is covered with pictures of white youth fighting with police and almost every aritcle concentrates on the attacks by “white gangs” on peaceful Middle Eastern youth. These “white gangs” are being called “white supremacists” and even “neo-nazis”. That is because the media saw only the last punch thrown. Five yard penalty and loss of down.

As usual, the truth is a little more complex than that. Read the first four articles below to see how the mainstream media are portraying this as a racist attack by white youth against peaceful Middle Eastern youth. Then .... read the fifth article below. It is a long piece but is well worth the time invested in reading it. A retired Sydney police detective gives the background in full detail and predicts a backlash to come .... in a speech given two years ago.

• Australian authorities moved 450 more policemen onto the streets as violence continues for a third day.


• The Red Chinese media is calling it a conflict between peaceful Middle Eastern youths and drunken, white supremacist gangs.


• The liberal Guardian (UK) is blaming it all on “neo-nazis”.


• A Christian church next to an Islamic center was mysteriously burned to the ground yet no one is sure if “peaceful Middle Eastern” youth are responsible.


• Tom Priest, a retired Sydney detective, has seen this problem growing since the 1980’s as Middle Eastern families moved in and started dealing drugs, running protection rackets and forming youth gangs like the “bloods” and “crips”. This is the text of a speech he gave two years ago, describing the problem and with uncanny accuracy predicting the current unrest.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/14/2005 at 10:44 AM   
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   Tuesday - December 13, 2005

Tookie’s End

Am I happy that Tookie is dead? No. I do however feel safer knowing that one more brutal killer is out of the system. I salute Governor Schwarzenegger for having the courage to stand up to the Leftist crowd who wanted Tookie spared.

A little after midnight tonight, they quietly put Tookie to sleep. Which is a much better way to die than he afforded his victims. Reuters wants to make sure you know Tookie was a “changed man”, as evidenced by their headline for the story.

Reverend Jesse was there along with the usual suspects screaming outside San Quentin. Look carefully at the bottom of the banner below to see who this group belongs to ....

Calif. Killer Turned Peacemaker
Williams Executed
Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:41 AM ET
SAN QUENTIN, California (Reuters)

California prison officials executed Stanley Tookie Williams, 51, the ex-leader of the Crips gang who brutally killed four people in 1979, early on Tuesday after top courts and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected final appeals to spare his life. The unofficial time of death was 12:35 a.m. PST Tuesday. The execution by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco followed a frenzied but failed effort to reopen the case by supporters of Williams, who repudiated gang life during his 24 years on Death Row.

The case has generated widespread interest and fierce debate over the death penalty in the United States because Williams, 51, has written a series of books warning young people against gangs. Supporters said such efforts showed the inmate had changed fundamentally in the half of his life he has spent in prison. But Schwarzenegger and others said his continued protestations of innocence negated any claim that he had redeemed himself.

“Stanley Williams insists he is innocent, and that he will not and should not apologize or otherwise atone for the murders of the four victims in this case,” Schwarzenegger wrote on Monday in denying clemency. “Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption. Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence, there is no reason to second guess the jury’s decision of guilt or raise significant doubts or serious reservations about Williams’ convictions and death sentence.”

Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said he broke the news on Monday afternoon that Schwarzenegger had denied clemency as Williams met several supporters in prison. “He said ‘Don’t cry, let’s remain strong,’” Jackson told Reuters. “He smiled, you know, with a certain strength, a certain resolve. I think he feels a comfort in his new legacy as a social transformer,” Jackson said.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/13/2005 at 04:58 AM   
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   Monday - December 12, 2005

Elderly Entrepreneurs

Any way you look at it, this is a sad statement on our society. I sometimes wonder how I will survive ten or twenty years from now when I am retired and I have substantial social security benefits coming thanks to high salaries in recent decades, a substantial 401k savings built up and a few mutual fund investments to rely on. All that and I still worry.

These people in Appalachia are drawing the bare minimum social security benefits and if it hadn’t been for recent efforts by the Bush administration and Republicans they wouldn’t have the benefit of any kind of medicine program. Most of them are illiterate and have no knowledge of programs sponsored by Lilly, Pfizer and other drug companies. They’re getting by the best way they know how. Imprison them? Hell no! Imprison the asshats who dreamed up this whole social security lottery program that has left so many elderly people with nothing to look forward to ....

Seniors Charged With Selling Prescriptions
December 12, 2005, 1:54 PM EST
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP)

Dottie Neeley, 87, was fingerprinted, photographed and thrown in jail, imprisoned as much by the tubing from her oxygen tank as by the concrete and steel around her. The woman—who spent two days in jail after her arrest last December—is among a growing number of Kentucky senior citizens charged in a crackdown on a crime authorities say is rampant in Appalachia: Elderly people are reselling their painkillers and other medications to addicts.

“When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they’ll take half of them for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or buy groceries,” Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said. Since April 2004, Operation UNITE, a Kentucky anti-drug task force created largely in response to rampant abuse of the powerful and sometimes lethal painkiller OxyContin, has charged more than 40 people 60 or older with selling primarily prescription drugs in the mountains.

“It used to be a rare occasion to have an elderly inmate,” Webb said. “Five years ago it was a rarity.” Local jails are having to bear the increased cost of caring for old and often sickly inmates. “You’ve got to give them more attention,” Webb said. “It’s putting a strain on my deputies. We’re understaffed anyway. You’ve got to get them doctors, and meet their medical needs.”

Researchers suspect the problem is not limited to Appalachia. Elderly people “may be looking for a way to bring in a little extra money,” said Erin Artigiani, deputy director of the University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse Research. “We haven’t heard a lot about senior citizens being a source of those drugs. We know college students do this. It’s not much a stretch to think that seniors could do it, too.”

Dr. Anita Cornett, a physician in Hyden, said one of her patients, a reformed drug addict, told her that he bought all his drugs not from a known dealer, but from elderly people.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/12/2005 at 02:55 PM   
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Goodbye, Tookie

Memo To Ah-Nuld: Don’t even think about granting this killer clemency. Hang him and be done with it.

California Justices Reject Williams’ Appeal
Governor to decide Monday
Sunday, December 11, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN)

The California Supreme Court late Sunday refused to grant a stay of execution for gang member and convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, meaning Williams will be executed early Tuesday unless the governor grants clemency or a last-ditch federal appeal succeeds.

Williams’ supporters made another pitch to save his life earlier Sunday, telling Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s staff that they had a new witness who could help prove Williams’ innocence.

“All we need now is time to investigate to make sure this story is real,” said NAACP California President Alice Huffman. “We’re hoping and praying for clemency, but we’re not going to leave any stone unturned.”

The new witness’ statements were sent to Schwarzenegger’s office, where the staff said the governor wouldn’t announce his decision on the clemency request before Monday.

As a young man, Williams co-founded Los Angeles’ violent Crips street gang, but his supporters say he has turned his life around and redeemed himself by speaking out against violence and writing children’s books on the evils of gang life during his 24 years at San Quentin prison.

Clemency for convicted killers hasn’t been common in California, though. Schwarzenegger denied the only two previous requests to cross his desk. The last California governor to grant clemency was Ronald Reagan, who spared a mentally ill killer in 1967.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/12/2005 at 02:34 AM   
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   Sunday - December 11, 2005

Russian Crooks Really Suck

Our Russian friends may still be struggling to come to grips with this whole new “capitolism” thing but they seem to have crime down pat. In fact, they have discovered new ways to “beat the house” ... literally. All it takes is the ability to really .... suck ...

Women Hoover $590,000 Out From Casino
December 1, 2005
(PRAVDA)

Two washer women are suspected to have stolen about $590,000 from Korona Casino using vacuum cleaners. The women used powerful vacuum cleaners to “clean” slot machines. The owners of the casino in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, called the police and reported a theft of a large sum of money. They said the money from slot machines was disappearing in a strange way. But the it was vanishing from the machines at night time when the casino was closed.

The preliminary investigation showed that at least two washer women were cleaning out the casino for several months using their professional equipment. The owners of the casino said that they had suffered the losses of $590,000. However, they could not provide evidence to prove it. All the Korona Casino’s washers were given the sack because of the scandal. Investigation is underway.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/11/2005 at 01:22 PM   
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   Wednesday - December 07, 2005

Stupid Criminal Award (for today)

Rape suspect programmed numbers into his phone
Orlando Sentinel Blog

Here’s an update from reporter Henry Pierson Curtis, from the meeting with investigators about the rape of two UCF students this weekend: The suspect, Evislandys Brito, was captured because investigators say he programmed his cell phone number into the cell phones of the women after he raped them—one early Sunday morning and the other later Sunday night in the same apartment complex of UCF students.

Invesitigators said he apparently acted as if the he and the women would get together again in some social way, so they had an undercover deputy call and pretend to be one of the victims. Brito arranged a meeting Monday back at the same apartment complex, where he was arrested, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators are not saying exactly which apartment complex was the site of the rapes.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/07/2005 at 01:14 PM   
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   Tuesday - December 06, 2005

Pizza Justice

Occasionally I run across a story that confirms for me the existence of God, and not only that, he (or she) loves a good joke as much as we do. This thief in Norway found out the hard way that sometimes the bad deeds we perform come back to haunt us rather quickly ....

Customer Gives Pizza Man His Own Card
December 6, 2005, 9:29 AM EST
OSLO, Norway (AP)

When Vegard Sjaastad delivered a pizza near the western Norwegian town of Aalesund, there was something familiar about the customer’s credit card. It was his card, and had been stolen the day before. “It was like I met myself in the doorway,” the 24-year-old said by telephone Tuesday. “It was my picture on the back of the card.”

Sjaastad, who manages a Peppes Pizza restaurant, his drivers license and his Visa card stolen from his car on Saturday night at his father’s house. He canceled the card, and reported the theft. He was training a new driver on Monday, and they delivered the pizzeria’s ‘Film Package:” a pizza, soft drinks, and the film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” on DVD.

A man with a credit card answered the door, and clearly did not recognize Sjaastad from the picture embossed on all Norwegian Visa cards. “I wasn’t going to play hero. I’m pretty calm by nature. I just accepted the card and said ‘I hope you enjoy the meal,’ as we always say,” he told The Associated Press.

With the address from the order form in hand, Sjaastad called the police to give an exact location of the suspects. “I figured they could enjoy the pizza and film, as long as it lasted,” he said. Police arrived about 30 minutes later, arrested three people, and recovered suspected stolen goods, at least some of it Sjaastad’s. “I expect to get my stuff back tomorrow,” he said. “This is just great. What you might dream of.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/06/2005 at 11:34 AM   
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   Saturday - December 03, 2005

Weekend Discussion: Nguyen Tuong Van

Three years in a prison in Singapore. A year and a half on death row. A five minute walk to the gallows. A few seconds to fall before the rope tightens and the neck snaps. All this for smuggling 400 grams of heroin. I’m on the fence on this one. Help me decide.

I have provided two clips from yesterday and today’s news below as well as a link to the official trial transcript. In spite of what you may think of Singapore, the trial record shows a remarkably sophisticated judicial system with well-defined laws and punishments for crimes and protection for the accused in the form of defense attorneys and evidentiary proof requirements.

With that said, help me understand if you think this punishment was justified and whether or not hanging should be condoned. Bear in mind that this is not the US or the UK or any Western country where this happened. I have a certain opinion on this but I want to hear from our readers first ....

A Final Embrace Before Van Faced Fate
December 2, 2005
(WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN)

Just before dawn, as the rest of Changi prison’s inmates slept, Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van took his last steps, embraced a prison official and with his mind “at great peace”, met his death on the gallows. Almost three years to the day after he was arrested carrying heroin through Singapore’s international airport, the 25-year-old former Melbourne salesman was put to death under the island state’s unwavering capital punishment laws.

Twin brother Khoa sat in a room with friends in the prison’s visitor centre, so he could be near Van for his final moments, as his mother, Kim, prayed for her son’s soul in a service held at a small chapel across town. At 6am (AEDT 9am), the scheduled time of his execution, no official word came - but there was little doubt in the minds of his family and friends that the long and torturous battle to save Van had been lost.

Van’s Australian-based barrister, Julian McMahon, said Mrs Nguyen had been “well prepared” by her condemned son and was the most composed she had been for months. In the minutes before his death, Van was joined in prayer by two prison pastoral workers, who later described him as “calm and inspiring to the end”.

- More on Van’s execution here ...

Body of Australian Smuggler Returns Home
December 3, 2005
SINGAPORE (AP)

The body of an executed Australian drug smuggler returned home from Singapore in the company of his weeping mother Saturday. Nguyen Tuong Van’s body was flown from Singapore to the southern Australian city of Melbourne, a day after Nguyen was hanged at Singapore’s Changi Prison. His mother, Kim Nguyen, wept quietly as she sat in front of a check-in counter at Singapore’s airport, covering her face with her hands. His brother Khoa wore black, with a Catholic rosary around his neck. The family did not speak to reporters.

Nguyen, 25, was executed before dawn Friday despite numerous appeals for clemency from Australian leaders and his lawyers. He received a mandatory death sentence after being caught with 14 ounces of heroin at Singapore’s airport in 2002 and convicted of drug smuggling. Lawyer Lex Lasry, who accompanied Nguyen’s mother and brother on their flight, said the campaign against the death penalty by advocates for Nguyen would not stop with the execution. He urged the Australian government to oppose execution in all cases, even when it was used to punish terrorists.

Australia scrapped the death penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967, while Singapore has executed more than 100 people for drug-related offenses since 1999. But Australia has supported the death penalty for the three militants convicted of taking part in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, saying it sends a clear message of zero tolerance for terrorism. An execution date has not been set. “The death penalty is something we simply must oppose in every case,” Lasry said. “We can’t pick and choose anymore. If you are against it you are against it for everyone.”

- More on the Australian reaction here ...

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR vs Nguyen Tuong Van
Suit No: CC 43/2003
Decision Date: 20 Mar 2004
Court: High Court
Coram: Kan Ting Chiu
Counsel: Han Ming Kuang and Lee Cheow Han (Deputy Public Prosecutors) for prosecution, Joseph Theseira (Naidu Mohan and Theseira) and Tito Shane Isaac (Tito Isaac and Co) for accused

The accused, Nguyen Tuong Van, appeared before me charged that he:

1. [O]n the 12th day of December 2002, at or about 3.06 pm, at Changi International Airport Terminal 2, Singapore, did import into Singapore, a controlled drug specified in Class “A” of the First Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185, to wit, 2 packets of powdery substance containing not less than 396.2 grams of diamorphine, without any authorisation under the said Act or the Regulations made thereunder, and [he has] thereby committed an offence under section 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185 and punishable under section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

2. He is an Australian national aged 23 years. On 12 December 2002 he arrived in Singapore from Phnom Penh. At about 7.45pm he was at Boarding Gate C22 of the airport waiting to board a flight to Melbourne. During a routine check, a police officer felt something bulky on his lower back. He was brought to a search room for a thorough search, taking his haversack and business bag with him.

3. In the search room he was asked to remove his jacket and shirt. When that was done, a plastic packet was seen strapped to his lower back with masking tape. At that stage he started crying and tried to hit his head against a wall.

4. Sergeant Teh Kim Leng (“Sgt Teh”), the officer in charge of the security screening unit, was notified. He went to the search room and saw the accused, who appeared to be in distress, holding his head with his hands. When Sgt Teh asked him what was on his back, the accused replied that it was heroin. With the help of Sgt Teh the accused removed the packet from his body. When Sgt Teh asked him if there was anything to declare in his luggage, the accused opened the haversack, took out another packet, and handed it to him.

5. The two packets were subsequently sent for analysis. The packet from the body was found to contain not less than 151.5g of diamorphine and the other packet not less than 244.7g. The analysis results were not disputed.

6. The Central Narcotics Bureau (“CNB”) was then informed of the matter. At 9.10pm CNB officers arrived at the airport and took over the case from the airport police. At about 10.05pm Station Inspector Ng Beng Chin (“SI Ng”) spoke to the accused and recorded a statement from him. SI Ng and the accused appended their signatures to the statement after it was recorded and read back to the accused.

- Read the official trial transcripts here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/03/2005 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • International • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (28) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - December 02, 2005

Hall Of Fame Candidate

If I ever get around to finishing up building the Barking Moonbat Hall Of Fame, this gentleman will undoubtedly be one of the first inductees. I am amazed at the lengths some people will go to in order to prove they have no brains, morals or character. What puzzles me is why these sleazy characters are almost always found in the co-called “Blue States”. Maybe it’s true that voting for Democrats is an infectious disease that causes aberrant behavior. Hmmmm ... Let’s see - Howard Dean, John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy .... yep, it sure looks like a deadly mental disease of epic proportions. I say we nuke the all the “Blue States” before this disease spreads to “Red State” country. What say you ...?

THIEF WENT ON WHIP TRIPS
(NEW YORK POST)

Dominatrix Lady Sage, who’s really 43-year-old Ohio grandmom Pam DeBord, gets $250 an hour for her spank service. A heartless man who embezzled more than $200,000 from a cardiac charity left his wife and family behind to fly to Ohio for kinky trysts with his raven- haired S&M “mistress,” authorities said yesterday. Abraham Alexander flew world-famous whip-wielder Lady Sage to the Big Apple for his beat-downs — but when he couldn’t wait for her to come to him, he went to her, according to receipts showing his illicitly bought airline tickets and rented cars.

Alexander went from low-level accounts-receivable clerk at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation to jet-setting playboy of pain, with more than $200,000 he took from the heart-disease research organization, prosecutors charge. It is not clear exactly when or how many times he met with the 43-year-old back- paddling Columbus grandmother, but it may have been as recently as the past few months. “I saw him twice. One time he got out of a red car, it could have been a Mustang,” Lady Sage’s neighbor, Chris Murtha, said yesterday. “The other time, he came in her car and picked her up.”

Alexander simply cut checks to himself from the company coffers, authorities claimed yesterday. The Long Island man, who is now separated from his wife, took advantage of his position in the accounts receivable department to access the computer program used in the organization’s financial transactions, documents filed by the Manhattan DA’s Office show. Alexander would then forge or alter the group’s checks in a way that made them payable to himself and his private American Express and Capital One cards.

Much of that money was used to pay for pricey private meet-and-beat sessions with the S&M mistress, sources said. According to the prosecution’s documents, Alexander took a total of $237,162.40 from the foundation. Of that, some $30,000 was forked over to the $250-an-hour Lady Sage for fees, sources said. That number includes $11,000 paid to a company called Through the Looking Glass, which is apparently Sage’s corporate name. Prosecution documents released yesterday said he carried out the check forgery and theft between November 2003 and April 20 this year.

He was arrested Monday on Avenue C in Manhattan. He is still being held in lieu of $10,000 bail. Lady Sage is a well-known dominatrix who travels the world working her whip for paying customers with a penchant for pain. According to her Web site, she charges $1,000 a day, plus expenses and her hourly fee, to travel to meet her clients.

Her husband — who said she is a mom of an adult son and a grandmother — said she has traveled as far as Egypt to dominate paying customers. A lawyer for Alexander could not be reached yesterday. Charity officials have said they expect the stolen money — which represents only a fraction of their multimillion-dollar yearly revenue — to be covered by insurance.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/02/2005 at 02:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

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