Saturday - October 22, 2005

Laci Peterson: Follow-Up

The courts finally ruled that Scott Peterson can’t collect the insurance money on the wife he murdered. That was a no-brainer but you can never tell what will happen in our nation’s courts. Now, if they’ll just fry the SOB the world will be a better place ...

Laci’s Life Insurance Money Going to Mom
FRESNO, Calif. (AP)

A judge ruled Friday that proceeds from a $250,000 life insurance policy Scott Peterson took out on his wife, Laci, will go to her mother instead. Because Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger Beauchesne said he is not entitled to collect the benefits of her life insurance policy. Under state law, criminals cannot profit from their crimes.

The judge said the money should go to the executor of Laci Peterson’s estate, her mother, Sharon Rocha. Neither Rocha, who had petitioned the court, nor Scott Peterson’s attorney could be reached for comment Friday. Scott Peterson was sentenced to death earlier this year for killing his wife and their unborn son. Their bodies were found on the shore of San Francisco Bay months after her December 2002 disappearance. A $25 million wrongful death lawsuit filed against Scott Peterson by Laci Peterson’s family is set for trial in April.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/22/2005 at 09:26 AM   
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   Friday - October 21, 2005

Stealing Is Now Legal In Alabama

Leave it up to the state legislators in my old home state to make asses out of themselves. I sometimes wonder where the brains are in that august body of worthy southern politicians ... or even if any of them have brains. Through a quirk of language, a recent bill passed that altered the language referring to horses and asses in criminal cases. It turns out the asses were the legislators who didn’t proofread the bill ... or it could be they were just horsing around. Either way, they erased from the books a section that made theft illegal, so if you’re in Alabama this weekend, feel free to take whatever you want. It’s all free ...

Legislative Mistake Wipes Out Theft Law
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER)

What started with taking the words “ass,” “mule” and “horse” out of state code has ended with the creation of a loophole in state law. A 2004 mistake by Alabama legislators has eliminated the code that says it’s a crime in Alabama to steal property valued between $1,000 and $2,500.

Area prosecutors say the inadvertent deletion has not caused much trouble in prosecuting alleged law breakers, but is something the Legislature needs to change. “We’ve tried to get around it as best we can,” said Randall Houston, district attorney for Elmore, Autauga and Chilton counties.

The foul-up happened when Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, put in a routine bill backed by the Alabama Horse Council to change the words “horse,” “mule” and “ass” to “equine” and “equidae.” Lindsey’s bill inserted the word “equine” into state code 94 times while inadvertently using outdated language for other parts of the code that neither he nor anyone else meant to change.

The bill sailed through the Legislature and was signed by the governor without anybody noticing that it eliminated the crime of second-degree theft. “I would suspect that people really haven’t been wise to it,” said Joseph Van Heest, president of the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Lindsey did not know about the loophole until the Advertiser told him about it. After looking up the code language, Van Heest said he would use the glitch if defending a theft charge.

“I would probably argue that, yes, you can’t be convicted,” he said. On Thursday, Lindsey had no idea that his bill had eliminated a law. But the Alabama District Attorneys Association has noticed it, and pushed for a correction earlier this year during the 2005 regular legislative session, only to be thwarted by a Senate feud that locked down the upper chamber in weeks of filibuster. “The theft cases are not usually the ones that go to trial,” said Michael Jackson, district attorney for Bibb, Dallas, Hale, Perry and Wilcox counties.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/21/2005 at 11:43 AM   
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   Thursday - October 20, 2005

Crime Increase In Britain

Here it is in a nutshell: Britain passed laws taking away ordinary citizen’s rights to own guns, so what happens? Gun-related crimes increase 6%, that’s what happens. What does the British government do to correct that? Well, the Liberal government in Britain is poised to pass a law allowing pubs to stay open 24 hours a day so everyone can stay drunk and hopefully not notice they’re being robbed or killed. This takes stupidity to a new level ...

Violent Offences Top Million Mark
LONDON (BBC)

Violent offences in England and Wales reached record levels in 2004-5 with police recording one million crimes - up 7% from the previous year. Police figures show 1,035,046 violent incidents against the person, excluding sexual offences and robberies.

Total recorded crime fell 6% to 5.6m incidents, but gun crime was up 6%. Minister Hazel Blears stressed overall crime fell, saying the apparent rise in violent crime merely reflected better reporting and recording of offences.

Ms Blears, a Home Office minister, also told the BBC that the separate British Crime Survey, which interviews people to ask if they have been crime victims, showed a decrease in violent crime.

But shadow home secretary David Davis said the police figures were “further evidence that the government continues to fail on violent crime”. “With violent crime continuing to spiral out of control, it beggars belief that the government’s only response is to unleash 24-hour drinking on our town and city centres,” he added in a reference to proposed drink law changes.

There was no great demand for extended drinking times, he told the BBC. “I see no reason to go ahead with 24 drinking until we’ve actually piloted, tested out some of the methods the government is proposing.” For the Lib Dems, Mark Oaten said violent crime was “directly linked” to drink.

“Our concern is that extending opening times for up to 24 hours will make the problems of alcohol-related crime worse, not better,” he said. Ms Blears said the government had already promised to keep 24-hour licensing under review when it is introduced in November. She rejected the call by Mr Davis to pilot the liberalisation in selected areas arguing people from outside would flood in to take advantage of longer drinking hours.

The police figures show there was a 20% fall in burglary and a 17% drop in car thefts. There were just under 11,000 gun crimes, up 6%, and 73 people were killed with guns over a 12 month period - five more than the previous year. Sexual offences rose by 17% to 61,000 but this was said to be partly down to reforms of sex crime laws and efforts by police and politicians to encourage more victims to come forward.

- Read More On This Sorry State Of Afffairs Here

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/20/2005 at 08:32 AM   
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Most Outrageous Item Of The Day (so far)

I’m afraid it doesn’t get more outrageous than this. There are just too many people in this world with defective brains. Darwin and the law of “survival of the fittest” used to keep that portion of the population under control but today’s society not only protects them and allows them to live but they are allowed to have children. That only leads to more tragedy and suffering ...

Woman Accused of Tossing Kids Into Bay
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)

A woman who was hearing voices tossed her three young children off a pier into San Francisco Bay, authorities said. Rescuers had found one body, and the two other children were feared dead. Lashaun Harris, 23, of Oakland, was booked on three counts of murder, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in Thursday’s editions. Her children were identified as Trayshaun Harris, 6, Travante Greely, 3, and Joshua Harris, 1.

A child’s body was found about four hours after a witness reported seeing a woman drop the children into the bay Wednesday near Pier 7, said Jonathan Guerra of the U.S. Coast Guard. The identity of the body was not immediately able to be confirmed. The San Francisco Examiner reported Thursday that the body was that of the 3-year-old.

While rescuers searched for the children, an empty stroller was visible on the pier. A small inflatable Coast Guard boat hugged the water front as rescuers used hand-held flashlights to search under the pier. Larger Coast Guard and San Francisco police boats searched the water with high-powered flashlights.

Mayor Gavin Newsom came to the scene to get briefed by authorities, telling reporters, “I’m sick to my stomach,” before leaving. Lashaun Harris told authorities that voices had told her to throw her children into the water, the Chronicle reported. It was not immediately known whether she had an attorney. Police contacted Thursday by The Associated Press declined to confirm the report. The department’s spokeswoman, Maria Oropeza, did not immediately returned a message.

She had been staying with her children at a Salvation Army shelter in Oakland, the Chronicle reported. “I just talked to her yesterday,” Mary Ann Ramirez, the shelter’s social services manager, told the newspaper Wednesday. “We had our usual how are you doing, how’s the kids. I would never have guessed in a million years that today she would do that.”

The pier is in the Embarcadero area, which draws tourists to the historic Ferry Building within view of Coit Tower and the landmark Transamerica pyramid. It’s about a mile from Fishermen’s Wharf.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/20/2005 at 08:18 AM   
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   Wednesday - October 19, 2005

Justice In Baghdad

Memo to Amnesty International: Don’t worry your empty little heads. We’ll make sure he gets a fair trial. Then we’ll hang the son of a b**ch ....

Rights Groups Concerned Over Saddam Trial
(TIME)

Amnesty International spent years campaigning on behalf of Saddam Hussein’s victims; now the international human rights group wants to make sure the former dictator gets a fair trial. Amnesty is sending three observers to Saddam’s trial, which starts Wednesday in Baghdad. Their mission? “To assess the trial’s fairness,” says Beth Ann Toupin, an Iraq specialist for the human rights group. “And to make clear we are committed to insuring that victims of human right abuses gain access to justice.”

The Iraqi Special Tribunal before which Saddam is to appear will, on Wednesday, begin hearing only one of what could be many cases brought against Saddam. It concerns the torture and murder of 143 people in the town of Dujail in 1982 after some local men attempted to assassinate Saddam. If the former dictator and his seven co-defendants are convicted, Iraqi law calls for them to be executed within 30 days of their last appeal.

Amnesty International, which objects to capital punishment in all cases, contends that a rush to judgment and early executions will cut short the investigations of a long list of atrocities, including the massacres of 3,000 Kurds 1983 and the disappearance of a further 182,000 during the 1988 Anfal campaign, as well as the massacre of tens of thousands of Shiites during a 1991 uprising in southern Iraq and the persecution of the Marsh Arabs throughout the 1990s.

On Monday, Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shiite whose brother and other male relatives died at the regime’s hands, called for a quick trial and, according to the Associated Press, told reporters, “The Saddam trial is not a research project.”

Go Read The Rest Here ...

Update I: Now Iran wants a piece of Saddam for the Iran-Iraq war.

Update II: Saddam’s lawyer says court is “illegitimate”, requests three-month adjournment.

Update III: Outlawed Baath Party issues statement: “The dear leader Saddam Hussein ... will make a stand on the 19th of this month for justice, freedom and defiance, as a fighting leader, a jihadist resister, a patriotic Iraqi, an Arab nationalist, and a progressive humanist.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/19/2005 at 01:35 AM   
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   Sunday - October 16, 2005

Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right

Take twenty four members of the so-called National Socialist Party in America (Nazis), put them in a protest march in Toledo, Ohio protesting black gangs who allegedly have been harassing neighborhoods ....

Emergency Declared After Anti-Nazi Riots
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)

At least two dozen members of the National Socialist Movement, which calls itself “America’s Nazi Party,” had gathered at a city park to march under police protection. Organizers said they were demonstrating against black gangs they said were harassing white residents.

.... and then see what happens in the streets when the aforementioned black gangs decide to crash the party ....

A crowd protesting a white supremacists’ march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores, and setting fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said.

The violence broke out about one-quarter of a mile away along the planned march route shortly before it was to begin. One group of men pounded on a convenience store, and others overturned vehicles. There was a report of a shooting but police hadn’t found a victim, Police Chief Mike Navarre said.

When the rioting began, [Mayor Jack] Ford tried to negotiate with those involved, but “they weren’t interested in that.” He said people in the crowd swore at him and wanted to know why he was protecting the Nazis.

They were mostly “gang members who had real or imagined grievances and took it as an opportunity to speak in their own way,” Ford said.

Is anyone really surprised? I don’t have any sympathy at all for either the Nazis or the black gangs. They both were doing exactly what they normally do ... the Nazis were stirring up trouble by pointing the finger of blame at the black gangs and the black gangs just obliged them by doing what they normally do - namely rioting, burning and looting. This is why I’m not a policeman. I would have been tempted to just gun down both groups and go home and call it a day ...

Go read the rest here ... and try to keep in mind that both sides were wrong and that doesn’t make it right ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/16/2005 at 07:57 AM   
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   Saturday - October 15, 2005

Dangerous Criminal Captured

There are only two things that are certain ... but at least death doesn’t pull you over and arrest you at gunpoint when you get slightly ill. The taxman, on the other hand, will come after you with guns blazing for that last red cent you owe him. Don’t believe it? Just ask Deborah Combs ... provided they haven’t executed her by now ...

Ohio Police Arrest Woman For $1 In Unpaid Taxes
LOVELAND, Ohio (WKMG)

An Ohio woman was arrested after she didn’t pay just more than $1 that she owed in income taxes, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati reported. Deborah Combs owed the city of Loveland $1.16 last year, but she also hadn’t filed her city income tax forms in five years, the television station said. She said officers pulled her over and acted as though she were a violent criminal.

“One sheriff approached my car with his hand on his gun,” she said. “Another from the other side of the car leaned in and said, ‘Are you Deborah Combs?’ He said, ‘We have a warrant for your arrest.’ I was absolutely shocked.” Combs said she thinks the arrest and charges are over-the-top for the amount she owed. “What they’ve spent in stamps is more than what I owe,” she said.

She could also end up paying hundreds of dollars in fines for the unfiled tax forms, the television station reported. Loveland City Manager Fred Enderle said the amount Combs owes isn’t the real issue. “Whether it’s $1 they owe us or $1,000, it’s not fair to the rest of the public to not pursue that person,” he said. “There is some expense involved, but it goes back to the principle. We have laws. The laws have to be complied with. At what cost do you stop enforcing the law?” Combs is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 20.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/15/2005 at 12:51 PM   
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Most Ridiculous Item Of The Week

This past week has been full of stupid. However, the following news story tops them all ...

Man Faces Murder Charge in 1973 Shooting
NEW YORK (AP)

A suspect was charged Friday with murder in the death last year of a man who had been shot 32 years earlier during a racial dispute. Jose Colon, 47, died from infections related to gunshot wounds suffered when he was 15, a medical examiner ruled. The shooting paralyzed Colon from the neck down.

Ralph Alini, who already served three years for the shooting, was arrested Thursday after a grand jury indicted him on a second-degree murder charge. The 54-year-old from Staten Island was ordered held without bail. Defense attorney Philip J. Smallman told reporters outside court that he would challenge the medical examiner’s homicide finding. He said his client was shocked by his arrest.

“He was quite surprised to be visited by the police department at his home for something that occurred a number of years ago,” Smallman said. Colon was shot during a racially charged clash between Hispanics and Italians in June 1973 in Brooklyn, according to authorities. Alini, an Italian American, allegedly fired his gun from a rooftop into a crowd and struck Colon, a Puerto Rican.

Alini and a second suspect were charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment. A jury convicted both men but an appeals court overturned the verdict because the judge erred by allowing one attorney to represent both defendants. The men pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in 1978 and served three year sentences. The second defendant was killed in 1980s in an unsolved homicide, officials said. “Finally, someone is going to pay for what they did to my brother,” said Colon’s sister, Esther.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/15/2005 at 09:09 AM   
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   Thursday - October 13, 2005

Criminal Of The Day

This Police Chief wins the Mister Obvious Award for the day with this quote: “Five days later, he is at it again. There’s a good sign he’s not rehabilitated.”

Cops: Man Robs Bank 5 Days After Release
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (AP)

An Indianapolis man robbed a Lake County bank less than a week after he finished a sentence for another bank robbery, police said. Police officers arrested Mark Konefsky, 41, minutes after a robbery Wednesday at a Fifth Third Bank branch in Merrillville. He was freed from an Indiana Department of Correction work release center on Oct. 7, police said

Konefsky entered the bank about 12:50 p.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money, Police Chief Nicholas Bravos said. No weapon was displayed, and branch managers sounded an alarm as the robber fled, Bravos said. Officers reported seeing Konefsky flee the bank and captured him after a brief foot chase. Konefsky was being held in the Lake County Jail on bank robbery charges.

Konefsky had pleaded guilty to a June 2003 bank robbery in Indianapolis and was sentenced to six years in prison, Bravos said. Konefsky had been released from the state’s South Bend Work Release Center. “Five days later, he is at it again,” Bravos said. “There’s a good sign he’s not rehabilitated.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/13/2005 at 10:44 PM   
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Super-Duper FEMA Phone And More

Some people just never learn ....

Katrina Spawns Thousands of Fraud Cases
WASHINGTON (AP)

Hurricane Katrina has spawned a second big flood that is surging well beyond the Gulf Coast: thousands of cases and complaints alleging fraud. Seven weeks after the storm roared ashore, authorities around the country are amassing cases ranging from identity theft to scams by phony construction contractors to hotel price gouging. In Louisiana, dozens of victims have applied for benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, only to find their personal identification information has been stolen and already used. In Texas, authorities say people falsely claiming to be refugees collected hundreds of dollars in emergency aid—sometimes going back two or three times each day.

And in Mississippi, authorities are on the lookout for a woman who was charging victims $50 to use her “super-duper FEMA phone”—which she said would let frustrated callers bypass busy signals on a direct hot line to the relief agency. “There are some real oddball cases,” said Mississippi Assistant Attorney General Grant Hedgepeth, who heads the state’s consumer protection office. Mississippi investigators have received more than 1,000 complaints—about hotel and gas price gouging, phony insurance adjuster scams, people posing as FEMA workers to collect victims’ personal information. The Red Cross is investigating more than 500 fraud cases, said spokeswoman Devorah Goldburg. And as of Thursday, the Justice Department had charged 34 people with various fraud crimes stemming from Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

An estimated 1.5 million people evacuated their homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama when Katrina hit the coast Aug. 29. Congress has approved $62 billion in disaster relief aid. The big payout, combined with the scattering of victims to nearly every state, created the potential for rampant fraud in Katrina’s aftermath, said Jeannette M. Adkins, executive director of the National Organization of Victim Assistance. Scam artists “can show up to disaster relief centers in almost every state and present themselves as victims, and have nothing to show for it,” Adkins said. “And people are handing out the money.” While the number of federal cases is still relatively small, officials say the prosecutions reflect a more aggressive effort by the government to curb fraud than there was after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The federal government prosecuted 13 people accused of fraudulently seeking aid from the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund and New York City, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general. Focused on preventing more terror attacks, the department left nearly all 9/11 fraud cases to local and state prosecutors. With Katrina, the federal government created an anti-fraud task force the week after the storm hit to curb con artists and contractors trying to cheat the system. The goal is to make sure that money from the relief effort “doesn’t end up in the pockets or wallets of defrauders,” said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher, who heads the task force of investigators from 35 agencies.

Nearly all the federal cases target people posing as displaced hurricane victims. Some are charged with applying for FEMA and Red Cross aid using stolen identity information; others are accused of contriving tragic scenarios to blend in with victims who lost all documentation of their properties. Two people in Los Angeles are accused of posing as charity officials to collect money from trusting donors. A Miami-area man allegedly solicited donations though his Web site by promising to help evacuate children and critically ill patients from Louisiana. The bulk of the cases are surfacing at state and local levels. In Houston, local police arrested 54 people over a six-day period last month, accusing them of illegally collecting Red Cross benefits from a Baptist church.

“Some people were bold enough to come through three times a day,” said Houston Police Lt. Craig Williams, who estimated that up to 7,000 Katrina victims—and impostors—collected aid at the church daily. Victims were eligible for $360 individually, or $1,565 for a family of five—and “everybody was claiming they had five kids,” he said. Investigators for Louisiana’s attorney general are looking into more than 2,200 complaints about gas stations and hotels trying to take advantage of desperate families by raising prices, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cluck. In Mississippi, Hedgepeth said some hotel prices skyrocketed from nightly rates of $49 to $135 as evacuees searched for shelter. Even a Louisiana campground got into the price gouging game, Cluck said, by allowing only evacuees willing to pay $900 in monthly fees to stay.

As the immediate emergency for evacuees subsides, authorities anticipate scammers will find new ways to defraud victims. Construction contracts are being watched closely by federal, state and local prosecutors. Roofers are under particular scrutiny in Louisiana, which has seen a spate of cases where little or no work gets done after scammers receive upfront payments. “We’ll probably start seeing some new trends as people look to get back into heir homes and restart their lives,” Cluck said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/13/2005 at 03:20 PM   
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   Monday - October 10, 2005

Let The Beatings Begin!

CNN, BBC, AP, Reuters, every news organization on the planet, including Al-Jazeera, is reporting the recent police beatings in New Orleans that was recorded on videotape and broadcast to the entire known universe. Like AbuGhraib, the media just loves it when a few of the good guys are caught doing bad things. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that they rarely, if ever, report on the millions of police officers who do their job honorably, fairly and justly every day of the year. And while we’re on the subject, what happened to all the good cop shows that used to be on TV? On a side note, do I really need to remind everyone that a large part of the New Orleans police force is more corrupt than the criminals they are pursuing - and their bosses at City Hall are even worse. I know. I’ve lived there (of course, after writing this I probably won’t be welcomed back any time soon).

New Orleans Officers Plead Not Guilty
Three charged with battery on 64-year-old man
NEW ORLEANS (CNN)

Three New Orleans police officers pleaded not guilty Monday to battery charges based on a videotape showing two patrolmen repeatedly punching a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication and a third officer grabbing and shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the confrontation on tape. After a brief hearing, at which trial was set for January 11, the officers were released on bond. They quickly left in cars without commenting.

They were suspended without pay Sunday, police spokesman Marlon Defillo said. The police promised a criminal investigation. “It’s a troubling tape, no doubt about it,” Defillo said. The confrontations come as the department—long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption—struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass. The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the suspect, Robert Davis, at least four times in the head Saturday night outside a French Quarter bar. Davis appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers.

Another of the officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter. Then a fifth officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade. “I’ve been here for six weeks trying to keep ... alive. ... Go home!” shouted the officer, who identified himself as S.M. Smith.

In addition to Smith, the other officers charged were identified as Lance Schilling and Robert Evangelist. Smith is an eight-year veteran of the force, while Evangelist and Schilling have served three years each. “The incidents taped by our cameraman are extremely troubling,” said Mike Silverman, AP’s managing editor. “We are heartened that the police department is taking them seriously and promising a thorough investigation.” Police said Davis, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. He was treated at a hospital and released into police custody.

A mug shot of Davis, provided by a jailer, showed him with his right eye swollen shut, an apparent abrasion on the left side of his neck and a cut on his right temple. Davis, who is black, was subdued at the intersection of Conti and Bourbon streets. Three of the officers appeared to be white, and the other is light skinned. The officer who hit Matthews is white. Defillo said race was not an issue. Two of the officers in the video appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina, and Defillo said it would be up to their commanders to decide if they would face charges.

Under normal circumstances, it takes unusually offensive behavior to trigger an arrest on Bourbon Street. But New Orleans police have been working under stressful conditions since the hurricane. About 300 officers apparently either died, abandoned their posts or disappeared for some other reason. Those who stayed slept in their cars and worked 24-hour shifts after the storm. Three-quarters lost their homes and their families are scattered across the country.

“Our police officers are working under some very trying times,” Defillo said. “So it’s a difficult time, but it doesn’t excuse what our jobs are supposed to be.” Conditions have improved—officers now have beds on a cruise ship—but they don’t have private rooms and are still working five, 12-hour days. Compass, the police superintendent, resigned September 27. Despite more than 10 years of reform efforts dating to before he took office, police were dogged by allegations of brutality and corruption.

On Friday, state authorities said they were investigating allegations that New Orleans police broke into a dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars—including 41 new Cadillacs—as the storm closed in.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/10/2005 at 11:38 AM   
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   Tuesday - October 04, 2005

Time to Run

As a follow-up to the Skipper’s post on Saturday about the Brady Bunch taking out an ad in France warning folks about coming to Florida, Jaguar has found an interesting story on Townhall.com with the right attitude.

Hey Florida scum . . . it’s time for you to run!

As of this Saturday, October 1, 2005, the law abiding citizens of Florida have been “given back” the already God-given, Constitution-given and no-duh-right to defend themselves, and if need be, use deadly force in so doing.  That’s right . . . if you decide to rape, rob, car jack or accost a Floridian, you might want to think twice about that brain fart, as that may be the last thing you do before your soul wings its way to Hades.

If you’re the little weed contemplating these things, you should reflect a bit longer on the wisdom of this course of violent action, because we the people can now wale on you and be protected from criminal prosecution and/or an inane civil suit.

Here’s what Floridians are now afforded via The Castle Doctrine.  This beautiful new law basically gives the average Joe who gets criminally assaulted while minding his own beeswax three essentials things:

1. It establishes, by law, the presumption that if a moron has the moxie to forcibly enter my home or vehicle that he is probably not there to borrow sugar, rather to cause death or bodily harm.
2. It removes my duty to turn the other cheek and runaway when I’m being attacked.
3. I can rest assured that I am protected from a therapeutic culture and the soulless lawyers it has spawned.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/04/2005 at 07:18 AM   
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   Sunday - October 02, 2005

Daily Darwin Award

The gene pool is a wee bit cleaner this morning as another dumbass is taking a dirt nap. Too bad all four didn’t become candidates for the Darwin Award ....

Man Killed in Alleged Carjacking Attempt of FBI Agents
LOS ANGELES (AP)

One man was shot to death and another wounded after they allegedly attempted a carjacking against two FBI agents who were conducting surveillance, officials said. The FBI agents apparently were targeted randomly and the incident remains under investigation.

FBI officials Friday declined to identify the slain suspect pending the notification of his relatives. The identity of the wounded suspect also was being withheld, along with the names of two others who were arrested because they are minors. Both agents were assigned to the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. The agency did not disclose their names.

The bureau said in a statement that the two agents were in a parked vehicle in Reseda during an investigation of a violation of the Hobbs Act, which concerns extortion and robbery. The agents were “accosted by four young male subjects, at least one of whom was armed’’ about midnight and an altercation ensued when the four suspects allegedly tried to take the agents’ vehicle, FBI officials said.

Authorities did not say how many shots were fired or how many individuals had guns. The wounded suspect was hospitalized in stable condition. The other two suspects were in the custody of the Los Angeles Police Department. FBI officials said a special team will investigate the shooting while local officials will consider criminal charges against the suspects.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/02/2005 at 11:06 AM   
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   Friday - September 30, 2005

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day (so far)

Here is is, in a nutshell: three nuts decided they wanted to shutdown a guinea pig farm so they went to a graveyard, dug up the body of the farm owner’s relative and told the owners they could have the body back when they closed down the farm. Hmmmm ... and you thought that we could only breed lunatics this mad on our side of the pond? Think again ....

Three Remanded in Body Theft Case
LONDON (BBC)

Three men accused of conspiring to blackmail the owners of a guinea pig breeding farm have been remanded in custody. Kerry Whitburn, John Ablewhite and John Smith appeared before Burton-on-Trent magistrates charged with conspiracy to blackmail the Hall family. Josephine Mayo is charged with the same offence and was given conditional bail.

The Halls are related to Gladys Hammond whose remains were taken from a church in Staffordshire last year. All four defendants will appear at Stafford Crown Court next Friday. Mr Whitburn, 36, of Summer Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Mr Smith, 38, of Leicester Street, Wolverhampton, Mr Ablewhite, 35, of Hawley Street, Levenshulme, Manchester, and Ms Mayo, 37, of Cottage Close, Chasetown, Staffordshire, will appear at Stafford Crown Court next Friday.

The defendants are all charged with conspiracy to blackmail David Hall and Partners and others connected to Darley Oaks Farm, Newchurch, Staffordshire, between 1 September, 1999 and 27 September this year. They allegedly conspired together “with a view to cause loss to another” by making unwarranted demands for the closure of Darley Oaks Farm.

Police had detained the three men, aged 35, 36 and 38, in separate raids in Manchester, the Edgbaston area of Birmingham and Wolverhampton on Tuesday morning. The woman was arrested in Burntwood, Staffordshire, on the same day. She is due in court on 11 October. Another woman, 23, also from Wolverhampton, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting and obstructing police and bailed on Tuesday.

Mrs Hammond’s body was taken from her grave in St Peter’s churchyard in Yoxall on 6 or 7 October 2004, seven years after she was buried there. Her remains have still not been recovered. The Hall family, which owns Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, decided to start winding down their guinea pig breeding operation in August.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/30/2005 at 08:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous •  
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