Sleepless in Midland

Unbelievable if true -- Wife tried to frame husband for ricin letters

What a stunning case. It's detailed at GMA Yahoo, to wit:

Shannon Richardson, 35, initially called the FBI claiming that her husband was the person who had sent a series of letters tainted with small amounts of the toxin ricin to Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg's top gun-control lobbyist in Washington in late May.

But when investigators looked closer, they arrested Shannon Richardson June 7 at the couple's home in New Boston, Texas. The actress who played bit roles in movies and on TV shows, including the "Walking Dead," was charged with mailing a threatening communication to the president. She could face 10 years in federal prison if found guilty.

Investigators tripped her up in the interrogation, and apparently she confessed after a polygraph test. If all this is true, she wasn't as good an actress as she thought she was.

As for any larger lesson, is it any wonder that young men are shunning marriage these days?

On the other hand, it will be a giant step forward gender equality when the number of females in prison equals the number of males.

Oh yeah, happy father's day. And watch out for white powdery substances.

Non-profit seeks to arm citizens in high crime neighborhoods

The goal is to arm some residents who live in high crime neighborhoods with pump action shotguns and place signs around the neighborhood warning criminal what to expect should they break into one of those homes. The houses with guns aren't identified, and the theory is that not knowing who is and isn't armed will influence the criminals to avoid that entire neighborhood.

The organization is the Armed Citizen Project, and their first project was in Houston. The Cypress Creek Mirror has more:

The Armed Citizen Project is dedicated to facilitating the arming of law abiding citizens, and analyzing the relationship between increased firearm availability and crime rates. They are choosing mid-high crime neighborhoods in cities across America, and offering defensive weapons to homeowners that can pass a background check and will participate in safety, legal, and tactical training. The data collected will be used in the completion of a policy study that will measure the deterrent effects of firearms on crime. While a multi-year/multi-city will be conducted, the organization is first and foremost a charitable nonprofit, motivated by the desire to help fellow citizens. They have been training and arming single women/mothers and the elderly, and are now ready to arm entire neighborhoods.

Via FoxNews.com.

P.S. I wonder if they applied for an exemption from the IRS. If they did, it's almost a certainty that they would have been given the Tea Party treatment.

Burger King -- have it your way, but hold the phlegm

Have it your way was once a popular refrain in a Burger King ad. But in this case a deputy sheriff named Edward Bylsma in Vancouver, Washington, didn't get the burger he expected. Some miscreant behind the counter spit in it before handing it to him. Gross.

But the deputy sheriff didn't eat it. Instead, he opened the bun, discovered the spittle, sent it off for a DNA test, and identified the culprit. The spitting punk pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to 90 days in the slammer.

But here's where the story turns nasty. The deputy sheriff was so traumatized by the sight of the spittle that he suffered emotional distress. At least that's what he claimed in his lawsuit against Burger King and the franchisee under the state's product liability law. The lower court threw it out because he suffered no physical injury. But on appeal the state supreme court ruled in January, 2013, that emotional distress without physical injury was sufficient to make a claim.

So unless it gets settled, the deputy sheriff will have his day in court. Via Reasonably Disgusting.

And that raises another question. What if Bylsma is such a good story teller that jurors are so traumatized by his testimony that they, too, suffer the same emotional distress he suffered? Could they collect, too?

They probably could in one of those Judicial Hellholes. Washington only got an dishonorable mention, but they're trying to move up.

Citizen traffic cops

The police information service in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has a blog called Cops & Bloggers -- tagged Saskatoon Police Service Blog -- which contains some interesting articles. A case in point is one written by Kelsie Fraser, the Social Media / Media Relations Specialist at Saskatoon Police Service, titled They did WHAT behind the wheel?!.

In that post Ms. Fraser advises readers in Saskatoon of a power available to them to report traffic law infractions they see. Excerpt:

The horror stories that we hear about behind the wheel and witness on a daily basis cause us to shake our heads too. The only difference is that we’re equipped with a ticket book, and we have the authority to use it. I know I’ve seen plenty of people on social media who wish they were equipped with the same book and had the same authority on their morning and afternoon commutes.

Well, I’m here to tell you that while you may not have the ticket book, I’ve found many people don’t know they have DO ability to report traffic infractions the same as they have the ability to report a break and enter, an assault, or a robbery. ...

All you need to do is come to the Service Centre at Police Headquarters and leave a written witness statement for us to get started.

**Note that a license plate is imperative to an investigation as a starting point.

It's easy to foresee a potential problem. Assume a citizen files the witness statement, a ticket is issued, but the witness failed to show up at court to testify. In that case everyone's time was wasted. The citizen should then be eligible for an arrest warrant for making a false report.

But another more frustrating problem would be for the citizen to file the witness statement with all the necessary information, then nothing happens. That's when the witness's ire shifts from the original traffic law breaker to the police. It would be interesting to know what percentage of citizen reports in Saskatoon actually resulted in traffic tickets.

Charles Ramsey - an American hero, and not even politically correct

Charles Ramsey is the fellow who heard Amanda Berry's calls for help and got the police to come to the three kidnapped girls' aid. Here's a quote from Charles Ramsey: Ohio "hero" and Internet sensation.

"Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway," Ramsey said about the rescue in an interview with WEWS-TV.

Kudos to this American hero for spotting that girl and bringing about their rescue. But did you catch the racial remark? Not very PC, but so what?

Contrast that with lefties who get their thrills baiting people with suspicious looking mixed race situations to get them to call police. There's an Austin blogger who has done it at least twice, and leftie bloggers go bananas each time. See Police Chief Goes on the Offensive - Acevedo called Henson a "liar" to the Statesman for a flavor of how it goes when a leftie, instead of cooperating, goes all self righteous when an officer tries to respond to a call.

The best part: "Henson corrected his original post and has noted that it wasn't a lie, but a trick of memory in a stressful situation." Yeah, you gotta watch out for those tricks of memory.

So what did we learn from this? Ignore the race baiting lefties. If you see something, say something.

Tsarnaev lawyers up -- What was U.S. Magistrate Marianne Bowler thinking?

Breitbart.com identified U.S. Magistrate Marianne Bowler as the one who barged in on interrogators and read Miranda rights to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The famous "Miranda rights" could probably be recited by heart by every American over the age of 12 as it has probably been read by actors on TV hundreds of thousands of times, millions if you count reruns. Even a relatively new citizen like Tsarnaev could probably recite it in English.

We expect everyone accused of a crime to get a fair hearing, however, we need to understand just what the Miranda warning does and doesn't do. There have been some fine lawyerly posts about the topic. Here's Orin Kerr , for example.

The remedy for the defendant in a Miranda warning case is inadmissibility of any statement the defendant made before the warning, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Kerr noted in an addendum to his post, "If Tsarnaev is going to be charged in federal court, the more pressing limit on his interrogation may be the limits imposed by Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. See generally Corley v. United States (2009)." Tsarnaev was indeed charged with a federal crime, but Corley simply confirmed that a confession obtained in violation of the rule was inadmissible.

We don't know whether Tsarnaev would have provided any useful information had Bowler not intervened, but the magistrate did seem to interfere with an investigation. You would have thought the investigators were poking Tsarnaev's wounds or even subjecting him to -- gasp -- waterboarding!

Mind boggling, according to Rudy Giuliani.

Every few years an activist judge jumps into an issue and makes citizens appreciate former presidential candidate Rick Perry's suggestion to place term limits on federal judges.

How to pick up chicks while in prison -- 1st, be a gang leader in a Baltimore jail

The Baltimore City Detention Center must be the most corrupt jail in the country. We can at least hope it's the worst, anyway.

Earlier this week the FBI announced that a grand jury indicted 25 individuals including 13 employees of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services for conspiracy and racketeering involving smuggling and distributing drugs, laundering money, bribery, retaliating against witnesses and extortion.

But here's the juicy part from the press release:

[Tavon] White allegedly had long-term sexual relationships inside BCDC with four correctional officers—Jennifer Owens, Katera Stevenson, Chania Brooks, and Tiffany Linder—impregnating each of the four officers at least once. Owens had “Tavon” tattooed on her neck and Stevenson had “Tavon” tattooed on her wrist. All four officers allegedly help smuggle contraband into BCDC and related facilities. White allegedly gave Owens a diamond ring and provided luxury automobiles to Owens, Stevenson, and Brooks.

Four baby mommas among the jail guards. Hmm. That certainly makes this an understatement: “Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates ..."

Links: FBI press release;
Tavon White's mugshot;
And read the indictment here.

The search for Dzokhar Tsarnaev -- who checked that boat the first go round, also where were the bloodhounds?

I would hate to be the cop who first searched the property and overlooked that boat where Dzokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in that Watertown, Mass, residential neighborhood. Assuming that hideout boat was within the perimeter of the original search area, some law enforcement officer had the job of searching that property before the lock-down was lifted.

Whoever it was neglected to do a thorough search. There was an abandoned escape vehicle, a fugitive who escaped on foot, a bloody trail, a cut tie-down cord, and blood at the scene among the clues that would have led to the fugitive.

It would seem that anyone with the responsibility of searching an area would have thought to look in every possible hiding place -- dumpsters, trash cans, boxes, storage buildings, culverts, and yes, boats.

So someone had that responsibility and blew it.

Also, where were the bloodhounds? A bleeding suspect left a stolen SUV on foot. If it had happened near Huntsville, TX, the wail of bloodhounds would have filled the night, and they would have been on his trail in no time. Apparently, big cities prefer drug sniffing dogs over trackers.

Here's the way to order a search. Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard:

Alright, listen up, ladies and gentlemen. Our fugitive has been on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is 4 miles-per-hour. That gives us a radius of six miles.

What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles.

Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble.

Go get him.

Well, even Gerard didn't think to mention boats.

Update: "Dzhokar was located one block outside the designated containment area." Source. That explains why they didn't find him in the initial search. But it still doesn't explain the inability to following a bloody trail.

Confession in Kaufman County murders -- wait wait, wasn't it supposed to be the white supremacists?

Shortly after the Kaufman County DA and his wife were assassinated, our local paper's print edition gave us a front page article borrowed from MySanAntonio.com which tried to tie the murders on the Aryan Brotherhood. See God forgives. The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas does not. One had to read the whole thing to conclude that there was no evidence and that it was mere conjecture.

But that was irrelevant, the story had a good narrative -- prison gangs, revenge, and white supremacists, especially white supremacists, without whom the hot button of racism couldn't be pushed.

Here's a tip for newspaper readers everywhere: Whenever you see the Southern Poverty Law Center quoted, your BS detectors should go on high alert. You may remember the SPLC from its snarky comments about Fox News and the Tea Party rallies of 2009. The msm, unfortunately, accept their opinions as fact. Round up the usual suspects.

So now we learn that former Kaufman County JP Eric Williams' wife Kim just confessed that she and Eric committed the murders.

No one is going to ask how the Aryan Brotherhood is going to get its reputation back. But this isn't really about the Aryan Brotherhood. This is about the once proud profession of journalism and how the effort to be on top of things looks more like an effort to get attention from the cool crowd.

How hard must it be to find police officers who agree with Obama's gun control agenda?

 

PoliceOne.com released results from a survey they conducted in early March of this year. And the findings are interesting. PoliceOne.com has 400,000 members they verified as law enforcement officers, and their poll got over 15,000 responses.

The full survey results can be found here. Via WSJ.

Let's take a look at some of the questions and answers.

Q4 - almost 61% didn't think Obama's proposed legislation would improve their safety.

Q5 - 71% didn't think an "assault weapon" ban would reduce violent crime.

Q6 - a whopping 95.7% didn't think a ban of magazines that hold over 10 rounds would reduce violent crime.

Q7 - almost 80% didn't think a law prohibiting non dealer transfers of firearms between individuals would reduce violent crime.

Q15 - 61% said that if they were a sheriff or chief they would not enforce more restrictive gun laws.

Q19 - 91.3% said they supported concealed carry by civilians who haven't been convicted of a felony or been deemed psychologically or medically incapable.

Q22 - 80% thought that a legally armed citizen present at the shootings in Newton and Aurora could have reduced casualties.

Those are interesting survey results, and it shows a lot of common sense among those who participated in the survey. Many of those responders were probably state and local police officers, not employees of the federal government. And some of them might fear they too could be negatively affected by some of the anti gun sentiment prevalent today in the White House.

Anyway, take a look at the survey results and draw your own conclusions.

a smart phone breathalyzer attachment

Now there's an innovation -- a breathalyzer smart phone attachment that will tell you whether or not you're drunk. Actually, a person will likely know when he/she is drunk, but to the law, there's a very clear line between drunk and sober. And the limit is so low that someone slightly over the legal limit might be sober enough to drive but drunk enough to go to jail.

A few years ago breathalyzer manufacturers were fighting tooth and nail to keep the process secret. I had not been paying attention to it, so now I'm Rip Van Winkle waking up to the fact that the cat's out of the bag. And boy, have things changed.

Now there's a big market for the consumer version of portable breathalyzers. TheBreathalyzerStore.com appears to sell nothing but breathalyzers and breathalyzer paraphernalia. They seem to have sold out of the key chain version, but others appear small enough to fit in a purse or pocket.

One drawback is the need for calibration every one to twelve months costing between $20 and $25. That would be a nuisance. But it might be a small price to pay considering the cost of a DUI.

I wonder if the results from one of those consumer products were ever used as a defense against a police breathalyzer that produced an over-the-limit result. "But officer, my phone said I was sober!"

It's a safe bet that a bold print legal disclaimer comes with the consumer version.

Addendum. I was gonna post that crazy mug shot of Nick Nolte here, but I'll just let you click to see it at your option. You can thank me later.

"I've been shot!" -- Katie Lawson, OK City cop, survives gun battle

It was a routine patrol for Oklahoma City Police Officer Katie Lawson. It was around 10:30 on the night of August 29, 2010, when she heard a sheriff's deputy radio for assistance. He had been trying to pull over a DUI suspect who wouldn't stop. The suspect drove home but then wouldn't exit his car. Officer Lawson responded to the call, and she and the deputy persuaded the suspect to get out of the car.

Meanwhile the suspect's two adult sons and hysterical wife were in the front yard talking away in a foreign language. The deputy handcuffed the suspect and put him in his patrol car. The deputy said he didn't need any more help, so Officer Lawson proceeded to drive away. She turned the corner and spotted a suspicious looking person in an open space outside the fenced yard of the DUI suspect's house. They spotted each other at the same time.

He turned his back as if to walk away. Then he whirled around with an AR-15 pointed right at her face.

------

Let's take a breather at this point in the story. Katie Lawson is now a sergeant, and she was the keynote speaker last night at the Midland Police Department's 21st Annual Awards Banquet. Chief Price Robinson and the other members of the command staff presented awards to members of the MPD who did outstanding police work last year. Some of the awards were for routine matters, such as physical fitness or marksmanship. But four officers stood out, Margarita Strahan, Nathan Lane, Earl Davis and Todd Stanley, for saving a drowning man's life. Kinda makes a person proud of the MPD, doesn't it?

------

Anyway, back to the story. Oklahoma City Police Officer Lawson was in her patrol car and a guy was pointing a AR-15 at her face. He started shooting, and muzzle flashes lit up the night. Bullets hit the car door, the mirror, the windows, the head rest, and her.

As soon as the shooting started she leaned away from the car window. Her training kicked in, and she drew her gun and rose and shot back, 11 times without hitting him. He turned and ran back toward the house. She got out of the car to chase him. But she noticed that she was wet and weak, and she realized she had been hit. “I thought I might pass out and fall to the ground and never wake up.”

Now on the ground, conscious, and with the shooter in retreat, she focused on her radio expecting to hear all kinds of chatter about what was happening. But to her surprise there was no radio traffic. There she was all by herself, and no one knew what was going on. So she called for help, and it seemed like forever before anyone arrived. A police colleague arrived first. He pressed on a wound. "You're hurting me," she said, and he replied "I'm trying to stop the bleeding!"

She had been hit a total of six times -- in the chest, in the back, in the buttocks, and one bullet grazed her cheek and pierced her ear. She had on a protective vest, but as we've demonstrated before, vests by themselves don't stop AR-15 bullets. However, many of the bullets passed through the car door first which slowed them down. Bullet fragments and pieces of the car flew around inside the car like shrapnel.

The shooter was the original DUI suspect's oldest son named Hector Escalante, and the family was afraid that if daddy was arrested he would be deported. Some strange family or cultural value told them the solution to their problem was to shoot it out with that one police officer. But once she shot back the suspect retreated and tried to hide the rifle. The police got a warrant, searched the house, found the rifle, and arrested all three.

The mom, Vilma Escalante, the other brother, Alex Mercado, and Hector were charged with conspiracy. At trial, Hector got life plus 10 years. A life sentence in Oklahoma is 25 years. Alex got three years, and Vilma was acquitted. Daddy got deported.

And last night Katie Lawson, alive and well, told a riveting story.  She kept the audience on the edge of their chairs as she told of her experience. As we watched and listened, several times before she finished her story I had to remind myself that since she was standing right there in front of us, she did make it through that horrifying event.

In case you were wondering, yes, she was wearing a protective vest the whole evening.

Links:
TV news report shortly after the shooting;
TV news report which replays a portion of Lawson's radio call for help;
Newspaper trial coverage.

Newspaper to Sheriff: If President say confiscate guns, confiscate guns

Many American gun owners are worried by President Obama's gun control blustering, and they're thinking about what they might do should Obama either sign a law or issue an executive order commanding gun owners to turn in their guns to the government.

Not surprisingly, some of those gun owners are planning a little civil disobedience. After all, we are descendants of a people who fought hard for our constitutional freedoms.

Midland County Sheriff, Gary Painter, recently said in a speech that he would not enforce an executive order to confiscate guns. [Note: He is one of many sheriffs who said they will stand up to Obama on gun control.]

So it was interesting to see the opinion piece in the local paper warning the sheriff that the writer expects him to enter homes and confiscate guns if President Obama did in fact issue such an executive order. They are talking about an executive order from President Obama, mind you, not a law passed by both houses. Recall that one of the President's solo acts - a recess appointment - was declared unconstitutional by a Federal Court just the other day and is on its way to the Supreme Court.

The editorial writer wants law enforcement officers to exercise a zero tolerance for violations of executive orders and laws. That's radical. LEOs must be able to exercise some discretion or the whole system would collapse. The public wouldn't tolerate speeding tickets for traveling one mile an hour over the speed limit.

An executive order that immediately makes criminals out of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens is bad law. And a wise LEO wouldn't attempt to enforce it, especially an executive order that is unconstitutional on its face.

Here's a question for the workers at the Midland Reporter Telegram. Have you ever used a radio scanner to listen to police or fire radio transmissions? And if so, did any information you got from that transmission benefit your work? If the answer to both of these is "yes," then you've violated the city code. Please go turn yourself in. If anyone short of a judge in your trial attempts to dismiss you, then insist on zero tolerance.

Speaking of gun grabbing governments, it happened in Australia. And it spawned a joke. Here goes. Question: Why do Australians oil their lawns? Answer: To keep their guns lubricated.

Hmm. I guess it lost something in translation.

Bank robbery in the 21st century

There are still some bank robbers who do it the old fashioned way - threatening a teller, demanding money. But the ones after the big haul use sophisticated malware. The U.S. Attorney, S.D., New York, issued a press release the other day explaining how one modern day gang of bank robbers operated. From the press release:

The Gozi Virus

The Gozi Virus is malicious computer code or “malware” that steals personal bank account information, including usernames and passwords, from the users of affected computers. It was named by private sector information security experts in the U.S. who, in 2007, discovered that previously unrecognized malware was stealing personal bank account information from computers across Europe on a vast scale, while remaining virtually undetectable in the computers it infected. To date, the Gozi Virus has infected over one million victim computers worldwide, among them at least 40,000 computers in the U.S., including computers belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), as well as computers in Germany, Great Britain, Poland, France, Finland, Italy, Turkey and elsewhere, and it has caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to the individuals, businesses, and government entities whose computers were infected.

The Gozi Virus was distributed to victims’ computers in several different ways. In one method, the virus was disguised as an apparently benign .pdf document which, when opened, secretly installed the Gozi Virus on the victim’s computer. Once installed, the Gozi Virus – which was intentionally designed to be undetectable by anti-virus software – collected data from the infected computer in order to capture personal bank account information including usernames and passwords. That data was then transmitted to various computer servers controlled by the cyber criminals who used the Gozi Virus. These cyber criminals then used the personal bank account information to transfer funds out of the victims’ bank accounts and ultimately into their own personal possession.

The bold was added to highlight, among other things, the fact that the virus was initially undetectable. That is what is so frightening. Computer users periodically run anti-virus software then relax thinking the computer is malware free. But in truth, all we know for certain is that the software didn't find anything.

At least Bonnie and Clyde were visible to the naked eye.

With friends like that ...

Two pals were watching a game on TV. One of them got the hiccups. The other one decided to scare the hiccups out of him. So he got his gun and shot the guy dead. Hiccups stopped. From Elpasotimes.com:

Myers told police he thought the weapon had dummy rounds and was trying to scare his friend so his hiccups would stop.

A military tribunal sentenced the shooter to 3.5 years for involuntary manslaughter.

With friends like that -- all together now -- who needs enemies?

Addendum:  Memo to gun controllers: they were soldiers at Ft. Hood, so don't get all knee jerky.

Hackers got New York Times passwords - China suspected

This comes to us by way of Graham Cluley at Naked Security:

The New York Times has reported that for the last four months Chinese hackers have been infiltrating its networks, broken into the email accounts of senior staff, stolen the corporate passwords for every Times employee and used those to gain access to the personal computers of 53 employees. ...

Malware was planted on users' computers which opened backdoors for the hackers to gain remote access to connected systems - including a domain controller that contained usernames and hashed passwords for all of the New York Times' employees. ...

In all, 45 custom-written malware samples are said to have been found on the network.

The hacking appeared to have begun after reporters started snooping into the wealth accumulations of Chinese government officials. But they can't prove who actually did it at this time.

Surely the New York Time had top-of-the-line security in place. So their vulnerability in spite of that suggests that everyone with access to the internet is vulnerable. I've often wondered if we all have some form of virus on our computers that's invisible to the off-the-shelf antivirus programs but which just sits there like a sleeper cell waiting for instructions.

Horrific crime story from Southern Florida

The link goes to a story written 14 years ago, but age doesn't lessen the shock.

It happened in South Florida in the mid nineties and involved a gang whose M.O. involved kidnapping well to do individuals, torturing them until they had turned over all their wealth, then killing them. The story was so fantastic that dismissive police officers refused to investigate when a surviving victim tried to get them to take action.

Here's the link to Pain & Gain. Pete Collins, the Miami New Times reporter who wrote this, did a remarkable job of transforming interviews and transcripts into an interesting narrative. Don't want to read a long article? Just wait for the movie.

Via Newmark's Door.

Post Script. I wonder why none of those hot movie makers ever made a movie about that the murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Kathy Bates, call your agent.

Police doing a great job in Midland, Texas

The City of Midland released the crime stats compiled by the MPD which compare 2012 with 2011. As follows:

Crime	2011	2012	Change
Murder & Manslaughter by Negligence	4	4	0%
Forcible Rape	20	23	15%
Robbery	58	52	-10.34%
Aggravated Assault	252	321	27.38%
Burglary	715	559	-21.82%
Theft	2,435	2,313	-5.01%
Auto Theft	137	136	-0.73%
Total Part I	3,621	3,408	-5.88%

Note that aggravated assaults are up. That has to be a hard one for the police to get a handle on. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to commit an assault. But an aggravated assault means the assault must have caused serious bodily injury or involved a deadly weapon. (Picture a drunken brawler breaking a bottle on the bar and wielding it as a weapon. I know, I know, I watch way too much TV.) Anyway, that's behavior that's hard to foresee and prevent.

Burglaries are down significantly. And the police department should get accolades for that. It probably took a lot of policing to catch the burglars they caught. And for every burglar sitting in the slammer, that's a number of burglaries that didn't happen.

Keep up the good work you guys and gals in blue.

Stingray technology - spy tool mimics cell phone tower to capture call info - used by cops in L.A.

Many people were predicting that the tools developed and laws enacted to counter terrorism would be used by police in non-terrorism cases. They were right.

Stingray technology allows a portable device to mimic a cell phone tower. This link goes to a simple illustration showing how it works. Someone with a Stringray device will drive around with a computer and an antenna. They can either point the antenna in any direction and pick up information about phones within range. Or they can try to isolate a particular phone number by pinging it, then driving around to get enough information to triangulate the phone, thereby getting the phone's location. Source: How ‘Stingray’ Devices Work.

LA Weekly reports that the devices were obtained by the LAPD with funds provided by a Homeland Security grant for terrorism investigations. But they are now being used in routine criminal investigations to bypass cell phone service providers.

The problem is that the technology captures information not just about the phone belonging to the person investigated but about all the phones within range. And the issue is whether a full search warrant or some lesser court order should be required before the technology is used. At least one federal Magistrate thinks the technology, along with cell phone tower dumps, provide too much information about innocent people in the vicinity and its use should require probably cause and a search warrant.

Filed in "Nothing is private anymore."

Links:
LAPD Spied on 21 Using StingRay Anti-Terrorism Tool
LAPD using controversial spy tool in routine crime cases
LAPD Spy Device Taps Your Cell Phone
LAPD’s use of “Stingray” cell-phone monitoring tool revealed by FAC public records request
'Stingray' Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash
How ‘Stingray’ Devices Work
FBI Documents Shine Light on Clandestine Cellphone Tracking Tool
Judge Questions Tools That Grab Cellphone Data on Innocent People
Fighting unconstitutional stingray phone surveillance that tracks innocent people

Calm down about that Illinois precious metal purchasing act

It's just a way to help police recover stolen property.

Zerohedge.com is calling attention to a proposed Illinois law which would require purchases of precious metal to identify the seller and make record of the sale. (Via Instapundit.)

The fear is that the government of Illinois may then have an easy way to confiscate that precious metal from private owners. Maybe Illinois residents have reason to fear their government. But residents of other states aren't quite that paranoid, at least of their state governments.

In fact, the state of Texas has had a similar law on the book for almost a decade. With the price of precious metals near their peaks there is a steady market. Transient precious metal buyers will set up shop in a hotel and advertise for people to come sell their jewelry. Seems like an easy way to unload stolen property.

House burglars will look for anything of value. But let's assume the burglar made off with a bag full of expensive jewelry. Unless he just likes to give jewelry away to his many girlfriends, gifts that carry a definite risk, he probably wants to turn that hot merchandise into cash. Along comes a precious metal buyer who may just want to melt down the gold or silver to sell in bulk. And it's a perfect crime.

The Texas law requires that dealers of crafted precious metal mail a description of the property along with the name of the seller to the chief of police or sheriff within 48 hours after the description is supplied to the dealer.

Yes, I suppose that does impinge on a person's privacy when the police have a description of jewelry that just changed hands. So it's a trade off. Sellers have to give up information. And police have a way to recover stolen property.

 

On a related note, way back in 2010 a guy was arrested for robbing a Cash America Pawn Shop in Lubbock, Texas, after he tried to sell jewelry he stole to a precious metal buyer in Florida.

Sometimes the good guys win.

Gay, Black, Jew at most risk for hate crime in 2011 -- FBI stats

The hate crime stats tell us something about what's going on in the country that might not be obvious. Determining what a "hate crime" is isn't easy. And many of us were against the passage of "hate crimes," because they were redundant. An assault would seem to hurt just as much regardless of the assailants frame of reference. But not being in one of the hate crime victim classes, I'm in no position to compare the pain.

In any event, here's how the FBI does it:

Because motivation is subjective, it is sometimes difficult to know with certainty whether a crime resulted from the offender’s bias. Moreover, the presence of bias alone does not necessarily mean that a crime can be considered a hate crime. Only when law enforcement investigation reveals sufficient evidence to lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that the offender’s actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by his or her bias, should an incident be reported as a hate crime.

The FBI has bunches of tables available for downloading, including stats per city -- see tables 13 and 14 -- but the easiest way to get started is at the summary page.

There we see that there were 6,222 hate crime incidents in 2011, and in those incidents there were 7,254 offenses committed. (They make a distinction between single-bias and multiple-bias incidents. However, there were only a handful of multiple-bias incidents, and their effect on the percentages would be insignificant.) Here are some of the salient stats:

• 47.9% of the offenses were caused by racial bias, and 72.0% of those were anti-black;

• 20.8% were motivated by sexual-orientation bias, and 57.8% percent of those were anti-male homosexual;

• 18.2% were caused by religious bias, and of those 62.2% were anti-Jewish.

So in terms of hate crime victim-hood, a gay, black, Jewish guy is at the highest risk.

Some other interesting statistics --

• 63.7% were crimes against persons, and of those 45.6% were intimidation;

• 36.0% were crimes against property, and of those 81.4% were acts of destruction, damage or vandalism.

Finally, there's one hate crime category that's a head scratcher,

Crimes against society --
There were 20 offenses defined as crimes against society (e.g., drug or narcotic offenses or prostitution).

Apparently, offenders can be so biased against society that they use illegal drugs or have sex for money. Those hate criminals are a mysterious bunch.

The great escape from Chicago jail

Make the jails more humane, they said. Put the cells high up in a skyscraper, they said. Put windows in it, they said. What could possibly go wrong?

It was like a plot out of an old movie -- a convicted bank robber named "Banks," 600 large still missing, makeshift dummies to fool guards, a tight squeeze through a six inch window, a 15 story slide down braided sheets, hailing a cab at 2:30am, a desperate visit to momma's for clothes, Feds offer $50,000 reward.

See photos of the sheet/rope at Barnorama.com.

Backgrounder for the movie: "Banks' prolific bank spree as the Second Hand Bandit -- so named for the discount clothes he wore to his robberies -- earned him headlines. He was an aspiring clothing designer when he started knocking off banks."

You can't make this stuff up. Quentin Tarantino, call your office.

Newtown shooter was a coward -- could have been easily frightened

Not only did he choose the most defenseless targets he could find, Adam Lanza shot himself as soon as he knew the cops were coming. See Gov.: Gunman shot self as 1st responders closed in.

The guy was deeply disturbed, but a proper diagnosis is something for the shrinks to excavate from the rubble of his pathetic life. However based on what the reporters are saying, he was not a brave person. When he heard the police, his fear kicked ink, and he checked out.

But it took the arrival of the police. And as the saying goes, when seconds count, police are just minutes away. So with that in mind, and while lawmakers get ready to slap some new emotion driven laws on us, let's do some speculating. If anyone at the school -- a teacher, a janitor, a visitor -- had advanced toward him pointing a gun the carnage might have ended earlier.

Hope poster artist Shepard Fairey punished for criminal contempt

This has to be a metaphor or something.

Shepard Fairey, who made the famous "Hope" poster featuring Barack Obama in 2008, has had all sorts of trouble from it. Seems that AP claimed the copyright of the photo from which the poster was made. Fairey sued for a declaratory judgment saying he didn't violate their copyright. That suit was settled with Fairey paying AP an undisclosed amount and agreeing to share the rights to the poster.

But it didn't end there. From BBC:

Shepard Fairey pleaded guilty in February to destroying documents and fabricating evidence in his legal battle with Associated Press (AP).

He had based his poster on an AP photo and later tried to hide the evidence.

Mr Fairey was spared jail but will do 300 hours of community service.

The charge carries a maximum custodial sentence of six months.

Give some people enough hope and they'll hang themselves with it.

There might be hope for British homeowners in their battle with burglars

When it was first reported, Andy and Tracey Ferrie were facing charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm by blasting away with a shotgun at two men. That the two men had been in the process of breaking into the Ferrie home in the early morning hours seemed inconsequential.

It appeared as though British laws about self defense were so progressive they turned common sense on its head -- turning victims into bullies and bullies into victims.

But wait just a minute. While this subject was simmering in my Pending file the Crown Prosecution Service announced that the Ferries would not be prosecuted. So there may be hope for Brits all.

Contrast that angst and anxiety with the state of mind in Kentucky where 92 year old WWII veteran Earl Jones heard burglars breaking in the door. He grabbed his .22 rifle. And when one of the intruders entered his room Jones fired a bullet into the guy's heart. The only people facing charges there are the dead guy's accomplices.

dirty keypad provides a tell

This looks like pretty good advice - clean the keypad.

They do this all the time in movies. Someone wants into a room that is secured by a keypad activated lock. They use a black light to see which keys are most used. But in this case, found at NedHardy.com, the dirt gives it away.

In the movies they get the sequence right on the first try. But in reality the uninvited entrant would still have to do some trial and error to get the numbers in the right order. And if the system sends an alarm after too many wrong tries, the potential thief might get to explain himself to the police.

But it's still a good idea to keep it clean.

Overheard on 911 call -- "Hide the gun in them woods."

Now here's a crime story ready for the dumb criminals category.

Burglary, trespassing and illegal hunting, these guys were up to no good. A drunken, armed land owner gave chase. Shots were fired. Vehicles were crashed. The burglars called 911. Here's the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department news release:

A Red River County game Warden and two Bowie County game wardens received information about a possible road hunting incident near a residence. The property owner and his wife were outside at the time and after hearing shots, the husband, who had been drinking, jumped into his vehicle and began to chase the hunters. While in pursuit, in an attempt to stop the hunters the man began shooting a pistol out of his window. The man rammed the hunters’ vehicle and in the process flipped his vehicle over and suffered serious injuries. The hunters had called 911 to report they were being shot at. When wardens contacted the suspected road hunters, they denied having weapons and shooting at anything. Unaware that their 911 call had not been dropped as they believed, in the background officials could clearly hear someone say, “hide the gun in them woods,” and “not that far, we’re gonna come back and get it tonight.” After hearing the 911 tape, the three hunters gave statements admitting to shooting at multiple animals from the road that day as well as committing multiple burglaries of habitations and storage buildings in the Dekalb area. Wardens also interviewed the hunters about a year-long investigation regarding the slaying of an 8-point buck last August in Red River County. The hunters admitted to being on the ranch illegally and shooting the buck leaving it to waste. A total of 24 cases were filed on the three individuals. Meanwhile, the overzealous property owner was filed on for DWI and deadly conduct.

Only in Texas my friends.  Only in Texas.

Via.

Maybe China should ban knives, too

You know, to supplement their strict gun control.

Yahoo News: Chinese teen kills nine in knife attack: reports.

Exonerated guy back in jail

Alan Crotzer was in prison much too long, almost 25 years, for something DNA testing eventually proved he didn't do. The Innocence Project took his case in 2002, and his conviction got dismissed in 2006. Like many other exonerated prisoners, he got a settlement from the state. From the Tampa Bay Times:

The former St. Petersburg resident received a $1.25 million settlement from the state in 2008 and inspired legislation to make it easier for the wrongfully convicted to collect compensation. He serves on the board of the Innocence Project of Florida. He mentors boys who are at risk of getting into trouble. He advocates for restoring voting rights to released felons.

It's heartwarming to know he used his new freedom to do some good and help others. Mentoring boys, too.  How nice.  But not so fast. Now he's in jail without bond for a drive-by shooting. From the same Tampa Bay Times:

Tallahassee police arrested Crotzer on an attempted murder charge after they say he shot into a car he was driving alongside, wounding Antoine Davis in his arm and leg.

According to police, the men had been arguing over a CD.

Davis told police Crotzer threatened him a couple of months ago after they had an argument over a CD he sold Davis' girlfriend. Davis said he saw Crotzer's car Sunday when he was leaving a Best Buy store.

Crotzer pulled up to him and fired through an open passenger window while both cars were going about 40 mph, police said. Police found Crotzer based on a description of his car, and he was arrested Monday after Davis picked him out of a police lineup.

Dang.  Some mentor.

The Innocence Project got him out once. But something tells me they won't put as much effort in it this time around. "Yo, Innocence Project. I need you to come get me out again. Hello? Hello? Anyone there?"

Via FiveFeetOfFury.com. Mug shot via WTXL.com.

Disclaimer. I'm having fun at this guys expense when he may very well be innocent this time, too. If that's the case, then let this serve as an apology in advance.

Complaint against James Eagan Holmes comprehensive but lacks charge for guns in gun free zone

The criminal complaint with against the Aurora theater shooter, James Holmes, was officially filed on July 27. Click complaint to read it.

The Deputy District Attorney is charging him with killing 12 people and attempting to kill the others with a total of 142 counts in the complaint. Counts 1 through 12 were for murder in the first degree under section 18-3-102(1)(a) C.R.S., and counts 13 through 24 were for murder of those same 12 people in the first degree under section 18-3-102(1)(d) C.R.S.

Colorado Revised Statutes can be found here. (You have to accept cookies.) And here's what the key statutes they cite say:

18-3-102. Murder in the first degree

(1) A person commits the crime of murder in the first degree if:

(a) After deliberation and with the intent to cause the death of a person other than himself, he causes the death of that person or of another person; or ...

(d) Under circumstances evidencing an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally, he knowingly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person, or persons, other than himself, and thereby causes the death of another; or

Note that the statutes are worded such that the prosecutor doesn't have to prove Holmes intended to kill the specific people he ultimately killed, just that he intended to kill someone and someone did actually die.

He's being charged in counts 25 - 140 with criminal attempt under 18-2-101 C.R.S. for the people who were wounded.  Count 141 is possession of explosive or incendiary device section under 18-12-109(2) C.R.S. And count 142 pertains to mandatory sentencing for violent crimes, 18-1.3 - 406(a)(1)(A) C.R.S.

This complaint, while it might be adequate for conviction, is lacking one important charge. He is not being charged with possession of firearms in a gun free zone. The only reason anyone could possibly give for having a gun free zones is to avoid violence. That certainly didn't work out too well this time. If there was ever a case that demonstrates the futility of laws supporting gun free zones this is it.