Sleepless in Midland

NY mobster planted GPS tracking device on girlfriend's car -- apparently that's all that was necessary for government to obtain wiretap authorization

This story comes to us by way of Naked Security in GPS tracker from stalked woman’s car led to indictment of 20 mobsters. The DOJ news release tells us this:

As alleged in the indictments and the government’s detention letters, the investigation began in November 2016 when a GPS tracking device was found concealed on an MTA bus.  Amato had earlier obtained the device to surveil his then-girlfriend and boasted about the resources at his disposal to keep her under close surveillance.  ... His then-girlfriend discovered the device on her vehicle and removed it, and it was subsequently attached to and recovered from the MTA bus at a depot n Staten Island.  Thereafter, the government obtained court-authorization to intercept communications over various cellular telephones used by the defendants.

As detailed in the government’s court filings, Amato and members of his crew used violence and threats of violence to earn illegal proceeds and solidify the crew’s reputation and standing. ...

The court-authorized wiretaps also captured the defendants’ scheme to fix an NCAA college basketball game.  To further the scheme, defendant Benjamin Bifalco offered members of a college basketball team thousands of dollars to intentionally lose the game.

That the girlfriend located the tracker and sent it off on a bus ride is interesting enough. But the shocker is that that's all it took to get a cell phone wiretap warrant. There must be more to the story than what we're told.

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3:34 PM 10/8/2019

David Charles Wilson case -- mirror image of Amber Guyger case

Amber Guyger dominated the headlines recently as the guilty verdict was rendered in the murder case against her. You will recall the facts of that case. She entered the wrong apartment thinking it was her own. Being a trained police officer, upon seeing a stranger sitting on the couch she drew her weapon and gave the stranger instructions. He didn't comply, and she shot him dead.

The David Charles Wilson case now pending in Midland, Texas, is the mirror image. Mr. Wilson was in his home when he shot and killed a police officer at his door.

The prosecution side of the argument will contend that the police officer was responding to investigate an automatic burglar alarm, opened an unlocked front door, identified himself, and was shot by the homeowner, Mr. Wilson.

Wilson was charged with manslaughter. And we learned in September that his attorneys have filled a motion to dismiss. Caitlin Randle describes a brief filed to support the motion in Court brief: MPD was mistakenly alerted. Here are some excerpts from that MRT article:

MPD was alerted about an alarm breach in the Wilsons’ pool house, according to the brief. The Wilsons’ have separate alarm systems in the pool house and the main house.

Heidelberg and the other officer first checked the backyard, but the gate was locked, the brief states. The officers then proceeded to the front of the house where they tried the front door and found it to be unlocked.

Once the officers opened the front door, a door alarm chimed, according to the brief. The chime woke Wilson’s wife, who then woke him and said she thought someone was in the house.

“Mr. and Mrs. Wilson can hear and see silhouettes outside with flashlights,” the brief states. “But they have no idea who is outside, what they are saying, or what they are doing. There were no red and blue police lights.”

It continues, “No one has contacted the Wilsons in any way to tell them it is the police outside. All they see are surreptitious silhouettes lurking with flashlights outside their home after midnight.”

The brief states that after seeing unidentified figures outside with flashlights, Wilson frantically retrieved his gun and ran from his bedroom at the same time Heidelberg fully opened the front door and shined his flashlight inside. It does not say that Heidelberg entered the home.

Wilson fired one shot before closing the door and calling 911, according to the brief.

The brief filed Thursday was in support of a motion by Wilson’s defense lawyers to dismiss the indictment.

Mistakes were made on both sides of that early morning mishap. We'll see whether this goes to trial.

Previously on these pages: Cop shot by homeowner in Midland fearing home invasion

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2:46 PM 10/6/2019

Local media caught off guard when active shooter struck Odessa

So I clicked on the TV Saturday mid-afternoon in Midland, Texas, and heard on a cable station about an active shooter in "Midland/Odessa." (Actually, the two cities are roughly 20 miles apart. But that's not important.)

My thought was that a local channel would be right on top of it. Nope. CBS7 was the only one trying to cover it, but they were woefully lacking in information. They were getting their information from CNN and New York Times.

Their studio was in an Odessa mall, and at a couple of points they reported that armed law enforcement officers were walking through the mall. That prompted the news readers to go hide. So they went somewhere off screen leaving the audience staring at the empty space they just left. They kept on talking through their wireless microphones, so we knew they were there, somewhere. They were never in danger, but they didn't know that at the time.

But that seemingly forced abandonment of the broadcast desk became news for the cable outlets. The local broadcasters made themselves part of the story without actually doing anything but hiding.

The killing was tragic, but the local media were disappointing.  Their reliance on the major news outlets demonstrated that local news outlets may be able to add drama, but not much else.

Update: This article at OAOA.com was an Associated Press update as of 4:46 am, Sun Sep 1, 2019: 5 dead after man stopped by Texas troopers goes on rampage.

And here's something interesting: "Active shooter incidents were also reported at Music City Mall, Midland Park Mall and Midland Memorial Hospital, but all were false, according to local police departments." Found at Odessa mass shooting leaves 5 dead, 21 injured. How do false reports like that originate?

Meanwhile, local news says the Odessa Police Chief will hold a press conference at noon today.

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9:20 AM 9/1/2019

RIP Officer Nathan Hayden Heidelberg

There was an impressive display of sympathy in the form of flowers, posters, and other items decorating his police vehicle in the front of the police station in Midland, Texas. It had been removed by the time I got there with my camera, however there were some memorials still on display in the station lobby.

Officer Heidelberg was killed in the line of duty the other day -- we talked about that in a previous post -- see Cop shot by homeowner in Midland fearing home invasion.

It was an unfortunate mishap, but regardless of how it happened, police officers come out in force to honor one of their fallen brothers. They form a tight, exclusive, fraternity.

Here are some photos of the lobby display.

For background, see Texas Police Officer Killed by Homeowner Who Mistook Him for Intruder and Midland community mourns loss of Officer Heidelberg.

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4:09 PM 3/11/2019

Cop shot by homeowner in Midland fearing home invasion

Texas homeowner's have a dilemma. Someone enters the front door at 1:00AM while shouting. The homeowner grabs a gun, fires a shot, and the potential invader is killed.

If the invader was a police officer, then the homeowner gets arrested, faces a grand jury, and may face trial for manslaughter.

That's what happened yesterday in Midland, Texas, according to the morning paper in Affidavit: Officer hears Heidelberg announce presence of police before shot was fired:

Midland Police Department officers who were dispatched to a residence early Tuesday morning with Officer Nathan Heidelberg heard a gun shot and then found Heidelberg face down, according to documents released late Tuesday night by the Midland County District Attorney’s Office.

Homeowner David Charles Wilson told Texas Ranger Cody Allen that he was inside the residence in the 3300 block of Eagle Cove and fired a handgun in the direction of Heidelberg, according to Wilson’s arrest affidavit.

Wilson faces second-degree manslaughter charges, according to the affidavit. He was released on a $75,000 bond, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article.

Heidelberg and Officer Victoria Allee were dispatched to Wilson’s home at about 1:16 a.m. Tuesday in reference to an alarm/panic alarm call. Upon arrival, officers walked the perimeter of the residence and did not observe anything out of the ordinary. Then Heidelberg noticed the front door of the residence was unsecure, according to the affidavit.

Another article provides Mr. Wilson's side of the issue:

"We would like to express our deepest sympathies to Officer Heidelberg’s family and the Midland Police Department for the events that lead to his death.

We are cooperating with investigators to attempt to learn all the material facts as soon as possible.

David Wilson believed that his family was experiencing a home invasion and only fired his weapon to protect his family."

There are some substantial questions so far unanswered. Was the police officer inside the house when the shot was fired? Other than shouting, was there anything else any of the police officers did to alert a homeowner that they were, in fact, police officers? Were the red lights on the police car flashing?

It's a homeowner's dilemma -- hold back and hope like hell that the person shouting is a police officer and not a home invader attempting to mislead the homeowner into compliance.

I've written about this issue at this blog. In particular, see this post from 2009 titled Citizen Police Academy about a question I asked of a SWAT team officer, who, by the way, is currently the Chief of Police. Here's that part of the post:

Here's one little tidbit that may or may not be helpful to know. A SWAT team leader gave a lecture and showed some of the gear they use. And he answered questions.

Sample question: "A Midland citizen is lying in bed at night, he's got his handgun by the side of the bed, and he hears a commotion at the front door. If it's the police he would comply with what ever they demanded. But how does he know whether it's a home invasion or the SWAT team?"

Long answer made short: "There have been home invasions in Midland where the invaders said they were police. ... You don't know."

So when a homeowner hears someone shouting and banging on the door, how does he/she know whether the potential invader is a police officer or a home invader intent on doing harm?

It would certainly help the homeowner if police car red lights were flashing in view of anyone occupying the house. If the counter argument is that the lights would scare away a burglar, well, that's one outcome, but it's preferable to the death of police officer or the homeowner.

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8:59 AM 3/6/2019

A woman made a business out of DNA research and family tree building

If like me, you are impressed with entrepreneurs who put together a new business using old and new techniques to serve their customers, you may like this article. It came out a couple of weeks ago. The Making of a DNA Detective, (Alternate link), is about CeCe Moore and her business of helping people find relatives and helping police solve cold case files.

Millions of people have taken DNA tests from the online companies, and Ms. Moore uses the data to help her clients.

Her method:

First, she uses an ancestry test to identify a distant relative—say, a third cousin. She then constructs a family tree, filling out branches with information from public records such as wedding announcements, obituaries and even social media.

“You just keep building and building and building to find that intersection where these different families come together,” she says. “Most second great-grandparents—back then there were big farm and Catholic families. I run into it often where there’s between 15 and 20 children, and it takes a lot of time to build all of those people’s descendants forward.”

We applaud the detective work that goes into the capture of bad guys and gals. As for law abiding people who might just like to be left alone? Read on:

Ms. Moore is fiercely protective of individual privacy and doesn’t want DNA used without people’s consent. Yet making your own DNA public may impinge on your relatives’ privacy. Ms. Moore worries that such fears could deter people from taking ancestry tests and make it harder to put criminals behind bars.

As for the complaint that genealogy can draw innocent relatives of criminals into investigations, she notes that it can also exonerate innocent people who might needlessly be pulled into investigations. “There are hundreds or thousands of people that are investigated in crimes that are innocent,” she notes. “In all of the crimes I’ve worked except one, the [identified perpetrator] didn’t appear on their person-of-interest list.”

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3:53 PM 2/25/2019

Bias at the FBI -- they're soaking in it

Mark Steyn, once when talking about media bias, made the witty reference to the dish soap commercial in which the manicurist brags about how mild Palmolive soap is and tells customer Marge, "You're soaking it it."

The media are not the only ones soaking in it. The people in the top echelon of the FBI are too. While I haven't read the book put out the other day by the Inspector General, there are plenty of astute observers who have. See, for example, Kimberly Strassel's article Insubordination and Bias at FBI. Alternate link. Excerpt:

Be ready to hear the report absolves the FBI and DOJ of “bias.” Not true. It very carefully states that “our review did not find documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their text messages and instant messages to the specific investigative decisions we reviewed.” Put another way, he never caught anyone writing down: Let’s start this Trump investigation so we can help Hillary win.

But the bias is everywhere. It’s in the texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and those of three other employees who are routinely “hostile” to Candidate Trump. It’s in Ms. Page’s freak-out that Mr. Trump might win the presidency and Mr. Strzok’s reply: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” It’s in a message from an unnamed agent in November 2016 who writes that although the FBI found Clinton aide Huma Abedin had “lied,” it doesn’t matter since “no one at DOJ is going to prosecute.” To which a second agent replies. “Rog—noone is going to pros[ecute] even if we find unique classified.”

Related: Andrew C. McCarthy reveals how the IG's report adroitly avoided stating the obvious in The IG’s Report May Be Half-Baked.

Well, after all, they are soaking in it.

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1:53 PM 6/16/2018

Do police have a no legal obligation to run into an active shooter situation? No.

That deputy who stood around while a killer blasted away at students inside a school in Parkland, FL, has been roundly criticized for his inaction. But did he have a legal duty to enter the building? Unless there was a Florida statute demanding that he do so, then he was not required to anything other than what he did.

I use nighttime talk radio as a sleep aid, and here in Midland, TX, a local AM station plays a delayed broadcast of The Joe Pags Show. The other night a caller tried to discuss that absence of legal duty, and Joe Pags insisted that the caller cite the law. The caller couldn't.

Actually, it's a Supreme Court case which ruled in 2005 on civil liability for police inaction. The holding was in favor of the police. Without a state statute demanding action, then the plaintiff had no cause of action against the police. The facts of the case in Castle Rock v. Gonzales were horrendous. The plaintiff's estranged husband kidnapped her children and ultimately murdered them. The wife called the police several times after the kidnapping, but the police did nothing for several hours.

A moral duty can't be enforced. And without a statute that demanded action, the Parkland deputy really had no obligation to run into the gun fight. That said, police departments in many jurisdictions train the officers to go toward the gunfire in an active shooter situation.

Meanwhile, there's that nagging old saying, "When seconds count, police are minutes away." No wonder so many citizens are obtaining concealed carry permits. As of about a year ago, 6.6% of the adult population in the U.S. had a carry permit. However, only about 1.2% carry on a daily basis. That percentage probably ebbs and flows in proportion to the number of high profile shootings in the headlines.

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11:28 AM 3/18/2018

Crestview, FL, police given authorization to stop drivers who aren't breaking law

A friend once told about a DPS officer friend of hers who on occasion would pull over a car and thank the driver for driving safely. Sounded like it was well intended but also a good way to get some innocent person's blood pressure elevated.

Anyway, along comes this link found at Liberty Pen, specifically, Police Announce Program to Illegally Stop People for ‘SAFE Driving’ & Facebook Owns Them:

Crestview, FL — In an unprecedented violation of the right of citizens to be free from unlawful search and seizure, the Crestview Police Department in Florida has announced a most insidious program. Driving safely is now a reason for cops to pull you over—under the guise that you’ll be “offered free pizza.”

Maybe that road is paved with good intentions. But it seems awfully intrusive. Furthermore, it could serve as an excuse to pull over someone overheard on an illegal wiretap. "No probable cause needed, your honor, just wanted to reward that safe driver, but he acted nervous and so I searched his vehicle."

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3:45 PM 2/27/2018

Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events -- CRASE

After the non-stop coverage of the active shooter situation in Florida, civilians are no doubt hungry for advice on how best to keep from being one of the victims, should they ever be in such a situation.

There's a course being taught called Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE). Police departments across the nation are putting them on for citizens in their jurisdictions. And there are a few videos online where computer uses can watch a class. Here are two, one from Arundel, Maine and one from Fort Worth, Texas. They are both about an hour long and similar but for the local cop stories told by the instructors.

A PDF of the video aids can be found here. Here's an outline of the salient points:

Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events

The background science of how people behave in high stress events
Denial
Deliberation
Decisive Moment

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Stage one, Denial --
•Don’t Deny
•Hear Gunshots
•Go straight to deliberation

Stage two, Deliberation --
•Calm yourself
•Combat breathing
•Shift your emotion
•Mental Scripting

Stage three, Decisive Moment --
Avoid
• maintain Situational Awareness
•Leave ASAP
•Know your exits including Secondary Exits
•Call 911
Deny the shooter access
•Lock the door
•Lights out
•Out of sight
•Barricade
–Heavier = Better
–More = Better
–Doorstops = Better
•Outward opening
–Ropes
–Tactical Cinch
Defend
•Positioning
•Grab the gun
•Fight

Priority of Work
•Stop the Killing
•Stop the Dying
•Evacuate the Area

When the Police Arrive
•Follow commands
•Show your palms
•Do not move

Medical
•EMS Delay
•People Need Help
•Seek training

Plan ahead
•Risk Assessment
•Work with local police

Personnel Issues
•Expect mental trauma
•Develop a critical incident stress management plan

Schools
•No curriculum/one answer fits all!
–“It depends”
•Accountability
–Next to impossible
–Kids are smart
•Practice!
–Regular and at odd times
•Situational awareness
–Strategize

One important point the officer who conducted the class I attended said was that when police arrive at an active shooter situation -- I'm paraphrasing here -- it's not like in the TV shows where the cops have a standoff with shooter demanding that he drop the gun. They will shoot anyone holding a gun. Citizens who are armed and innocent should keep that in mind when deliberating about whether to try to be a hero.

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1:31 PM 2/16/2018

Police Chief wants driving simulators for officers -- how about one for citizens?

There have been some high profile vehicle accidents involving police officers here in Midland, Texas, lately. And the police chief may be right to suggest the officers need more training. And a driving simulator may be the best way to create hazardous driving situations minus the hazard. The morning paper tells us about it in MPD chief requests ‘driving simulator’.

But maybe those of us out here in citizen-land need something similar. As people get older their reactions slow down. But maybe they could keep that edge with practice. I've long thought that a driving simulator might be a way for drivers to practice, and thus help to keep their skills at high level. But the only way I've been able to come up with involves the simulators sold as games for Xboxes and PlayStations.

So if the Chief is successful in getting the city to invest in a simulator, maybe by renting out time to citizens the city could recoup some of the cost as well as improve driver safety. It might be a smart move for vehicle insurance companies to contribute to such an effort.

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11:32 AM 2/11/2018

Giving a police car the right of way simply because it's a police car may give the officer a false sense of roadway entitlement

Most drivers will slow down and get out of the way of a police car, possibly to avoid the officer's attention. Of course, we are required to get out of the way when the lights and sirens are going, but in normal traffic we still do it. Should we? It's possible that that creates a false sense of entitlement to the driver of the police car.

This comes to mind upon reading about a local officer who just got indicted for criminally negligent homicide following a car crash. Here's an excerpt from DA: Former MPD officer indicted in connection with fatal wreck:

The indictment alleges that Neely’s death was caused by Abrahim “operating a motor vehicle in a manner unsafe for the conditions of the roadway and by operating a motor vehicle at an unsafe speed and by failing to activate the emergency equipment of the patrol vehicle and by failing to take corrective and evasive action to avoid a collision,” Nodolf stated in her email.

Could the officer have assumed the other driver would get out of the way even though there was no emergency equipment on? That's one possible explanation, although the officer's explanation did not make it into the news. If the case goes to trial we'll learn more.

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1:06 PM 1/25/2018

Predictive policing -- police efforts to predict crime work but with limits

"Predictions are tricky, especially if they are about the future." The source of that quote is unknown, but its truth is obvious.

There's a pretty good definition of Predictive Policing at this article from last year: Is Predictive Policing the Law-Enforcement Tactic of the Future?. To wit:

Known as predictive policing, the practice involves analyzing data on the time, location and nature of past crimes, along with things such as geography and the weather, to gain insight into where and when future crime is most likely to occur and try to deter it before it happens.

When police departments try to predict crime they are successful, up to a point. The mapping of crime hot spots has been around for quite a while. And police departments have used it successfully to highlight areas where more patrols might be useful.

It has been well known for years that a small number of people commit most of the crimes. Those individuals become well known to police. (The issues of race and privacy permeate the atmosphere inhabited by police and citizens, but that's a topic for another day.) The issue of what to do to actually reduce crime is an ongoing problem.

Furthermore, new influences are emerging. Shibani Mahtani updates us on a recent development in Social Media Emerges as New Frontier in Fight Against Violent Crime. (It's behind a paywall but available here for free.) There we learn that police are grappling with the influence of social media on prospective murderers. It's not a good influence. Here's an excerpt:

Facebook and other platforms have emerged as new frontiers in the fight against violent crime that continues to grip major cities.

In Chicago, which is on track to have more than 600 murders for the second year in a row, a number it had been below for over a decade prior, community leaders and police say the immediacy of these platforms has played a major role in escalating disputes, while also providing more evidence that can aid arrests and convictions.

“It pours an accelerant on what was already there,” said Eric Sussman, the first assistant state’s attorney for Chicago’s Cook County.

The Chicago Police Department and prosecutors don’t keep data on how many instances of violence were provoked by an exchange on social media, but they say anecdotally that they are seeing a rise in the number of “petty conflicts that have leapt from social media platforms to violent crimes on the street.” A Wall Street Journal tally found at least 100 cases nationally where an act of violence was streamed on just one of these platforms, Facebook Live, since it was launched in early 2016.

“Unfortunately, in too many instances, these conflicts are resolved with a gun,” said a Chicago police spokesman.

Unfortunately, like so many law enforcement innovations, use of Facebook posts is more helpful in clearing crimes than actually preventing them. There are some who might suggest custom notification with warnings to people who pop up on the list of potential criminals. But if there is a disproportionate number of minorities in that group then it becomes problematic.

In any event, that quote at the top of this post still stands. Predictions are tricky, especially if they are about the future.

Jeff Darr is obvious choice for Midland Police Chief

Price Robinson recently retired from the MPD police chief's job, and three candidates are currently under consideration by the Midland, Texas, City Council. The morning paper contains a Q&A with each on them -- see it at Police chief candidates meet with community.

Deputy Chief Jeff Darr is the only applicant currently serving in the Midland Police Department. He is eminently qualified for the chief's job, and his local experience alone should win him the position.

Meanwhile the other two applicants are recently retired chiefs from other jurisdictions. And while they are certainly entitled to a job somewhere, citizens need to consider that they are probably already receiving a pension or equivalent remuneration from their old jobs and are currently looking for a retirement job.

In any event, Jeff Darr is the best choice.

Post Script. Here's something from the interview with one of the other applicants that jumped out. The former chief of St. Louis, MO, used the word "progressive" no fewer than three times in the short interview. Isn't that word a Democrat party dog whistle? Just wondering.

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11:20 AM 10/15/2017

If the protesting football players knew what they were talking about it might make a difference

The rationale for the professional players who refuse to stand for the national anthem is claimed to be that they are protesting police killing of blacks. If so, their reasoning is based on a flawed set of facts.

Walter E. Williams has a piece titled Blacks vs. Police cites research which says that in 2017 roughly 22% of people killed by police were blacks. (For those reliant on quotas, that's too high. But the numbers alone don't really prove anything about police attitudes toward blacks.)

Dr. Williams takes it further, or rather narrower, by focusing on Chicago where there have been 533 murders and 2,880 shootings so far in 2017 of which fewer than 13% have been solved. He suggest that crimes of black vs. black might be a better focus of concern.

I would suggest a focus on the educational system that appears to fail black significantly. Professional sports shouldn't be the only avenue for success for black people.

Anyway, regarding the kneeling as a form of protest at football, those guys are entertainers who don't entertain me. So they can do what they want.

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4:10 PM 10/13/2017

Books -- The Force and Blue on Blue

I just finished reading Don Winslow's novel "The Force" and can say it's a very entertaining book. It's about a crooked NYPD sergeant who happened to be the top dog in a task force they called "Da Force." The book started out slow, and was a little bit dull with all the background detail, but at the mid point it skidded over into the fast lane and didn't let up until the last page. A good book.

It could be a companion piece with "Blue on Blue," the non-fiction book by Charles Campisi who was the head of IAB at the NYPD for many years.  In that book he told stories of snaring crooked cops. It's a good counterpoint to "The Force" and should probably read last as a palate cleanser.

Both of these books were available at the public library in the modestly sized city of Midland, Texas. Otherwise they are available to non-cheapskates for purchase in various formats from Amazon.com.

That Pepsi commercial -- would a real cop drink out of an open container given by a stranger?

By now everyone has see that famous Pepsi commercial and heard of the controversy. Apparently, some political groups claim the exclusive right to protest in the street. And while the commercial shows a march for peace, love or some such, said groups took offense for reasons only a social justice warrior would understand -- cultural appropriation and privilege are the left's buzz words these days.

It's a fictional scene in the commercial, but the thing that stands out is the willingness of the police officer to accept a container from a demonstrator and take a swig. We don't see him open it. So was it already open when he accepted it? Oh boy, that would be a dangerous undertaking. Heaven only knows what could have been in it.

Even if it was unopened the can's lip could have been smeared with LSD, or worse, the stuff that killed Kim Jong Nam.

Editor's note: At least we know it didn't contain Aspertame. Robo-ed.

12:58 PM 4/10/2017

Imagine if the police went on strike -- it's happening in Brazil

The Black Lives Matter movement has been notably silent lately. Someone must have shushed them -- their financial backers? The DNC? In any event, they didn't bring out the Obama coalition vote in November and have probably been abandoned by high powered supporters.

That aside, one needs to remember some of their goals which included disarming police or establishing police no-go zones in inner cities. What would happen if they had been successful?

A comparison with Brazil might not be exactly on point as Brazil has so many other problems the U.S. doesn't have. (See what Heritage.org says about Brazil to get a flavor of what ordinary Brazilians are up against.) What brings Brazil to our attention now is this item from WaPo, Police went on strike in a Brazilian state. The result was near-anarchy:

Shots punctured the eerie silence as thieves held up pedestrians for their cars and purses, local media reported. In commercial centers throughout the area, packs of looters drove trucks into shop windows and carried whole racks of clothes and appliances on their backs.

This wave of near-anarchy has engulfed the state of Espirito Santo, a picturesque region along Brazil’s northeastern coast, since Feb. 4. That’s when the state police announced a general strike, leaving the streets open to gangs and petty criminals alike. The state government said that 143 people were slain in Espirito Santo between Feb. 4 and Feb. 13, compared to just four people in all of January.

Sounds horrible. One has to wonder how many Brazilians are seeking refuge status in the U.S.

New Dodge cop cars use sensors and backup cams to detect someone sneaking up from behind

This seems like a good idea and a near perfect adaptation of existing equipment. Lawofficer.com reports that The Dodge Charger Pursuit will have some new features. See Dodge Charger Implements Ambush Detection On Police Cars.

Dodge worked with California-based vehicle control systems-maker InterMotive to repurpose the car’s rear parking sensors and backup camera to sense a person approaching from behind. If detected, the vehicle will flash its rear lights, lock all doors, roll up the front windows and display a video feed from the backup camera to the driver.

Blue lives matter.

push-ups for pot possession -- more like that, please

This was a good example of street justice dispensed by the police. See Arlington police officer allows teen do push-ups instead of jail time for smoking weed:

When he went out, he saw the teenager finishing a cigarette and discarding it, smelling marijuana as he approached.

"Marijuana gives [off] a distinct odor. He knew what the teen was up to," said Lt. Chris Cook with Arlington police.

Lt. Cook said the teen was respectful and realized he'd made a mistake. While Officer Ball could have arrested him, he decided to do something different.

"He said, 'You give me 200 push-ups, I won't put you in jail," said Lt. Cook.

Let's expand the concept. Instead of speeding tickets, the traffic officers should assign some workout routine. Not everyone could do 200 push-ups in a short amount of time, but surely there's some exercise that could be punitive yet exhilarating. Jumping jacks on the side of the highway, for example. The more humiliating the better.

Here's where it could get good -- abled people parking their cars in disabled spots. The ticket fine is sky high in Texas. If a healthy person uses one of those spots then a couple of laps around the parking lot seems appropriate.

They'd have a choice, of course. They could always opt to pay the fine.

BLM movement probably considers it a success when a COP take a beating rather than drawing a gun

This should be convincing evidence that the Ferguson Effect exists, at least in this one case.

There are a couple of reasons why the racial rioters come out in force after a police shooting of a black person. There may be some people who have a sense of justice that they feel needs fulfilling. But they often fall into the other two camps. One group is there for political reasons. Racial discontent might drive up voting among African Americans.  The Black vote is traditionally a reliable Democrat voting bloc.

The other is an effort by a smaller group with the intent of scaring police away so that war lords can rule the neighborhoods.

Anyway, to the story. Here's the headline: Chicago Police Superintendent: Officer Being Beaten Chose Not to Shoot Due to Media Scrutiny. According to the story, a man crashed his car into a corner liquor store, the police were called, and cops went to see if the driver was OK. The driver was combative, and a female cop tried to cuff him at which time he threw her onto the pavement. A police superintendent said this:

“This attack went on for several minutes,” he said. “As I was at the hospital last night visiting with her, she looked at me and said she thought she was going to die and she knew that she should shoot this guy but she chose not to because she didn’t want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on the national news.”

Blue lives matter. Maybe after the election the national news media won't be such active accessories in those BLM demonstrations.

Low prices, high crime at Walmart

A few years ago I did a ride-along with a police officer, and we responded to a call from a woman who said her boyfriend was headed to the Walmart parking lot where he was going to commit suicide.

What brought that incident back to me was the recent reports that the crime rates are so high in and around Walmart stores. For example, see Bloomberg: Walmart's out of control crime problem is driving police crazy by Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos.

Police reports from dozens of stores suggest the number of petty crimes committed on Walmart properties nationwide this year will be in the hundreds of thousands. But people dashing out the door with merchandise is the least troubling part of Walmart’s crime problem. More than 200 violent crimes, including attempted kidnappings and multiple stabbings, shootings, and murders, have occurred at the nation’s 4,500 Walmarts this year, or about one a day, according to an analysis of media reports. Sometimes they’re spectacular enough to get national attention. In June, a SWAT team killed a hostage taker at a Walmart in Amarillo, Texas. In July, three Walmart employees in Florida were charged with manslaughter after a shoplifter they chased and pinned down died of asphyxia. Other crimes are just bizarre. On Aug. 8, police discovered a meth lab inside a 6-foot-high drainage pipe under a Walmart parking lot in Amherst, N.Y.

But why is it so much worse at Walmart than at Target?

Police departments inevitably compare their local Walmarts with Target stores. Target, Walmart’s largest competitor, is a different kind of retail business, with mostly smaller stores that tend to be located in somewhat more affluent neighborhoods. But there are other reasons Targets have less crime. Unlike most Walmarts, they’re not open 24 hours a day. Nor do they allow people to camp overnight in their parking lots, as Walmarts do. Like Walmart, Target relies heavily on video surveillance, but it employs sophisticated software that can alert the store security office when shoppers spend too much time in front of merchandise or linger for long periods outside after closing time. The biggest difference, police say, is simply that Targets have more staff visible in stores.

Security experts, as you might imagine, recommend that Walmart hire more security personnel.

As for the fellow from my own ride-along who was hell bent on offing himself in the Walmart parking lot, we circled the lot a few times but didn't find him. It wasn't funny at the time, but looking back on it it's almost laugh-out-loud funny. It's bad enough to want to end it all, but in the Walmart parking lot? Now that's crazy.

The dispatcher couldn't get the girl friend back on the line, so we can only guess what happened. Anyway, another call came along, and we left the Walmart area. If Walmart has the high crime rate Bloomberg says, we should have stuck around.

Candy-gram for Mongo -- robot bomb delivery for Dallas shooter

The active shooter situation in Dallas -- in which five police officers were murdered -- was resolved when the shooter was dispatched with a fist full of C4 delivered by remote control robot.

According to one TV report, CNN I think, the robot carried the explosive up to the opposite side of a cinder block wall against which the killer was leaning. The explosive was discharged, and the killer was killed.

For some reason commentators are concerned about what they perceive as an ethical issue. Apparently, they think a killer shouldn't be killed unless the police officer puts him/self at risk. Some ethical issue.

News flash: By ambushing his opponents, the killer essentially waived the gentleman's rules of dueling. Or more to the point, violate the rules of decency and all rules are off.

Meanwhile, long time readers of Sleepless in Midland will remember our fondness for police robots. See previously:
Fire in the Hole;
The 1st annual MPD Open House; and
MPD Open house.

See excerpt from Heather Mac Donald's book at Freebeacon.com

Disclosure: I haven't read the book. However, it certainly has received some good praise, and it's about as timely as humanly possible.

The name of the book is "The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe." There's an excerpt at Freebeacon.com which addresses Obama's embrace of the false media narrative of the Ferguson, Missouri, encounter Michael Brown had with the police. Here's a brief excerpt from the chapter excerpted there:

This kind of misinformation about the criminal-justice system and the police can only increase hatred of the police. That hatred, in turn, will heighten the chances of more Michael Browns attacking officers and getting shot themselves. Police officers in the tensest areas may back off of assertive policing. Such de-policing will leave thousands of law-abiding minority residents who fervently support the police ever more vulnerable to thugs.

Obama couldn’t have stopped November’s violence in Ferguson with his address to the nation. But in casting his lot with those who speciously impugn our criminal-justice system, he increased the likelihood of more such violence in the future.

President Obama didn't pull the trigger on those police officers in Dallas. But his racial divisiveness certainly didn't do anything to quell the violence. It's as if he wants a certain segment of the population fired up and ready so he can use that force for political will.

Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter paused to take a breath after the "lone gunman" killed the police officers in Dallas. Then they carried on as usual. War on cops, indeed.

Return of kill whitey

*How many shooters were there in ambush of police officers in Dallas Thursday night? Only one has been identified. He's now dead. Another person was taken in but released -- he was legally carrying a firearm.

But also, "Three people were said to be in custody and not cooperating with authorities." Source.

Is no-one asking "why do they hate us?" Here's a clue. Suspect in Dallas police shootings targeted white officers.

"Kill whitey" was a phrase popular in some circles back in the 60s when the progressives of the era saw racism everywhere and rationalized violent hate groups like the Black Panthers. And it certainly is discouraging to think we are returning to those days.

Most white people these days bend over backwards to try to be non-racist. In fact, they're so serious about it that the avoidance of the appearance of racism might in itself be a form of racism -- the racism of low expectations. Ideally, we could treat everyone the same without regard to the person's race. But that too, is racist.

In any event, the violence against the Dallas police officers is certainly discouraging. The racial angle just makes it worse.

*UPDATE: They're saying the shooter acted alone even though others were brought in under suspicion of participating in the murders. Most people in the situation of those suspects would be shouting their innocence at the top of their lungs. By remaining silent they certainly exercised some extraordinary self control.

Carhartt jacket stopped NYPD bullets

Carhartt makes a popular work jacket, but this story certainly does add to Carhartt's already good reputation. NYPD checking ammo after knifeman’s jacket stops cops’ bullets.

Chris Baker at Luckygunner.com did a comparison of handgun ammo last year, and he said the FBI standard for bullet penetration into ballistics gel was 12-18 inches. See Handgun Self-Defense Ammunition Ballistics Test for a review of his test results, which, by the way, included four layers of fabric.

Presumably, the NYPD uses one of the ammo brands tested, and they'll probably be doing their own testing soon. But whichever ammo they used, that Carhartt jacket sure held up well. I knew there was a reason to like them.

The nypost.com article didn't say how many total shots the NYPD fired, only that four bullets didn't penetrate the jacket. The good news is that only one bystander was struck, and she was only grazed. She'll probably be shopping for a new jacket soon. Might I suggest Carhartt.

Number of reported rapes are up in Midland -- is it really a cause for alarm? Probably not.

The other day the Midland Police Department released its annual crime report which was duly reported in the morning paper at an article titled MPD: Reported rape up 27 percent in Midland. It states that forcible rape went from 36 in 2014 to 46 in 2015.

Is that cause for alarm? The MPD says no as there is no serial rapist stalking unaware women, these are cases in which the women accused acquaintances. Victims may still feel victimized, but there is a difference.

In "he said, she said" cases it's always smart to weigh additional evidence which is what every good law enforcement agency would do. In light of that, how many of those cases resulted in a conviction? We aren't told that.

The local police department conducts Women’s Self Defense, R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) classes to teach women physical defense tactics. It's a good bet that no woman who completed that class was among those statistics cited above. I imagine they emerge from the class with skills like those kick-ass young women we see in the movies -- able to vanquish armed attackers two at a time.

Meanwhile, see Brutal Female Bodyguards Training in China.

Here's why New York city mayor wants to keep citizens unarmed -- innocent victims of the spray and pray police shooters might shoot back

A friend sent this link (thanks PH) to Zerohedge.com's article about NYPD cops shooting multiple times at a suspect but hitting innocent citizens who got in the way of a police bullet. NYPD Cops Fire 84 Shots At Murder Suspect, Miss 83 Times.

It's tragic when an innocent person is injured or killed by a stray police bullet. But it seems almost like criminal neglect when the police are such bad shots that they can't hit a target but go ahead and unleash a barrage of bullets in heavily populated areas.

Then there are the strict gun control laws favored by the mayor. One almost suspects the mayor has given up on police overshooting and simply wants to prevent the citizens from shooting back.

With hackers gaining access to 20,000 FBI employee details, how safe can local police information be?

One would think that information technology at the FBI would be about as secure as such a thing could be these days. So it's disturbing to see headlines like this: Hacker dumps thousands of files of FBI, DHS employees online.

There must be thousands of local law enforcement agencies that are similarly vulnerable. And maybe it's just a matter of time before their employee files are corrupted or purloined by a thief biding his/her time for just the right moment to expose the information.

It's a small consolation, but at least the FBI hack only pertained to employee information and not pending case files.

In any event, with the ease displayed there, hacking into Hillary Clinton's email server was probably child's play by comparison.

Obama's community organizer view of police veers far from mainstream America

I was watching C-Span this morning, and a lady named Tracey Meares was giving a speech to an attentive audience while the TV crawl identified her as former member of President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

She set the tone by quoting James Comer's recent remarks about the "Ferguson effect," then she went on to dispute that theory. And what this did was highlight the difference between most Americans' view of the police and Obama's.

America is a nation of laws which we hope will protect people and their property. However, the honor system alone won't make it work. There has to be a way to enforce the law. And that's what the police do. Most Americans see the police as keepers of the peace. However, Obama and his people see the police as an occupying force bent on inflicting pain on suffering victims. There are undoubtedly some individuals who have suffered at the hands of police. But those instances are actually quite rare.

What the police do is provide a presence that conveys a message to would-be law breakers that there is a good chance they will be caught. What prevents crime is the knowledge that punishment would be swift and certain.

Unfortunately, we are living through a period in which many among us want to be seen as victims of police. And too often an easy way to accomplish that is to goad police into reacting to a perceived threat.