SSCC #146 – Richland County

This one goes in the count for much the same reasons as #143.

Richland County deputies have arrested a uniformed Columbia police officer and charged him with prostitution.

How nice, he made sure to made sure to do this while he was being paid by the taxpayer.  But wait there’s more!

Officers say they found a 17-year-old female in the room and charged her with prostitution. Deputies say Cornish was located a few blocks away.

Not sure what the age of consent is in the state of South Carolina, but frankly when it comes to something like this I don’t really care.  Many who find themselves in that type of environment are victims in their own right.  This is like a tv telecast though because we’re not done.

CPD officers say Cornish is a school resource officer at W.A. Perry Middle School and has been with the Columbia Police Department since May 2009.

How nice.  He had a thing for the young one’s and his job provided him ready access as a predator.  The fact that he has been busted and already fired from his job says it’s not fully what this count was designed for.  Yet at the same time his job allowed him predatory access to his prey.  For that it still qualifies.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 146 – Mark Cornish

Because if you’re a high school resource officer, the thing to do is to hit on all the young ladies since you’re in a position of power… right?

SSCC #144 – Poulsbo WA

Deputies have arrested a former police evidence clerk accused of stealing at least two guns from the evidence room of the Poulsbo Police Department.

How did she possibly steal them out of the evidence lockup I hear you cry?  Quite elementary my dear Watson.  

Dixon, 23, of Kingston is accused of stealing a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun, which was recorded as having been destroyed in May. Dixon, an employee of the Poulsbo Police Department at the time, had signed the departmental records indicating she’d witnessed the destruction.

Then, when you think this situation couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Dixon’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Jacob J. Bryant, was driving Dixon’s car at the time of the crash. Bryant, a convicted felon, was arrested for investigation of illegal possession of a firearm.

See, that is what firearm “destruction” programs bring to the table.  The ability to provide black market firearms to people who are otherwise ineligible for ownership.  This wasn’t the first time this individual did that, and I’m sure she is by no means the first person to ever do such a thing.  She certainly won’t be the last.

If under the current law* someone becomes ineligible to have their firearm returned to them, the department should sell it to an FFL.  At least selling it to an FFL would provide a paper trail to follow with independent verification.  Please note, you do not actually have to have committed a crime with a firearm to have it confiscated and taken into evidence.  What’s worse is they can confiscate your firearms when you are charged with another crime.  In those cases a person loses thousands of dollars in property, while due process is followed, that’s a property loss a non-firearm owner doesn’t deal with.  How silly could a situation like that be since a person who would loose his rights to firearms must be a violent criminal, right!?.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 144 – Amanda M. Dixon

Because if a guns being destroyed, just save it for your felon boyfriend, I mean who’s going to notice, it was destroyed after all.

*My personal feeling is if you are deemed to be safe enough to be walking out among the general public, you qualify to own a firearm as self-defense is an undeniable right.  If you can’t be deemed to be safe with a firearm, you can’t be safe with a car, saw, or any other tool that just as easily works as a weapon.  But that’s not the law as it currently sits.

via Ry.

SSCC #143 – Bedford Co. VA

A former Bedford County sheriff’s deputy charged with taking indecent liberties with a child has been released on bond.  Ernest William Grubbs was released on a $5,000 bond.  Grubbs is due back in court on November 2nd to advise about his attorney.

Considering he was fired from his job immediately and is currently awaiting trial it is hard for me to call him a full criminal since he’s not going to get away with it.  That was until the following.

Grubbs was a School Resource Officer at Liberty High School.

He was responsible for watching out and protecting those kids.  Yet he was a predator.  A predator put there at the command of the state, provided with the perfect cover to be browsing for victims.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 143 – Ernest William Grubbs

Because what better way to hide as a child predator than in plain sight and have the state put you next to your prey.

via Jake

SSCC #142 – ICE

A deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona state police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled, the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.

Now he got caught and it appears they’re actually going to punish him for it, the problem is he was still using government resources to do it.  Not to mention he used his status as a law enforcement officer to accomplish it.

The informant, whose identity was protected, said that he or she was involved with Lowery and another man in a “rip” crew in which Lowery used his status in law enforcement to help steal marijuana from illegal immigrants, wrote Brian Gamberg-Bonilla, a special agent with the DPS’s Office of Investigations.

At the end of the chase he wrecked the truck he was using that was paid for by the US taxpayer.  So good news folks, this entire incident was funded by the US goverment just like Fast and Furious.  He just didn’t get buy a out first.  

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 142 – Jason Alistar Lowery

Because if you’re going to do something like this give your superiors a cut to make it an “operation”.

Well that explains the blame game.

It appears our shooter had family working for the county. This prevented the local sheriff from prosecuting this nutjob over multiple death threats he’d made, each of which would have made it illegal for him to buy guns. – The Inconvenience

Apparently, the Pima County Sheriff knew about death threats from the shooter but didn’t do anything about them because a family member of Jared Loughner works for the county.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been dancing in the blood of the victims and blaming Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement, along with others, for the tragedy that took place in Tucson, Arizona on January 8th.  He knew full well that Loughner was very unstable, yet did nothing about it.

Pullman’s prospective new police chief

So I just found out that the choice for Pullman’s new police chief is a Captain from Claremont California. I have never had any issues in Pullman with concealed carry; however I have heard from other friends that have had issues with the chief but not with Pullman officers however. I was not able to attend the meeting however I wish I could have so I could have asked what his stance on concealed carry and his views on self-defense.

As the police chief is mainly a bureaucrat I’m not too overly worried about it, especially with how the officers themselves act and conduct themselves. We shall wait and see; if I end up running in to Commander Tennant at some point I’ll make sure to ask what his thoughts are on the new chief. I must say though I really would have preferred for Commander Tennant to become the new police chief from my experiences talking with him.

As I no longer live in Pullman however it doesn’t affect me too much though I do still work there.

The Bullet Counters and Self Defense

Thomas Sowell is an economist and excellent writer who frequently writes articles that are aligned with my view of the world. He recently wrote an excellent article on self-defense and the media repose. What really caught my attention was the following:

“People who are full of excuses for criminals– bad childhood, unemployment, unfair world– sit in the safety and comfort of their editorial offices and presume policemen to be guilty until proved innocent. And they concoct clever headlines about killing an “unarmed” person, as if someone trying to run you over with a car poses no danger.”

In a previous article I wrote about someone who charged the police with a pellet gun. In that case the media statement was to point out that it was a pellet gun in the title, but ignore the fact is was manufactured to look real. There was a response from the community based on 20/20 hindsight. Again something Mr. Sowell points out strikes me:

“Such people seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition, that there are times when decisions have to be made and acted upon immediately, whether or not we know as much as we would like to know or can carry out our decisions as perfectly as we wish we could.”

There is a reason it is called 20/20 hindsight. Often you learn and discover things after the fact that would have altered your actions and resulted in a different outcome. My problem is the same as Mr. Sowell’s; these people often speak without any knowledge of the subject, and refuse to be educated even though they realize they have no understanding. Often we have to act upon assumptions based on the data available. Often however you gain more data that charges the assumptions, however when this happens after the decision is made, only the information leading to it should matter.

For instance if someone breaks into my house in-the middle of the night I assume him to be armed. Here’s why: small cramped space with a single entry/exit. This makes the assumption he is armed because I have no way to retreat, and due to the cramped space I will have little reaction time. If he does what I tell him when I tell him, I will have no reason to shoot; if however I cannot see his hands and he doesn’t cooperate I must shoot because I have no other option to ensure my wife’s safety and my own. Because of the situation, a 20/20 scenario is likely, however if I don’t react I could easily end up dead. To those that think dead is an option, it is not, he came in my house and I am the one guaranteed to leave under my own power.

I used the above merely as an aid in illustrating how decisions must often be made by assumptions and not just pure data.

-B

Fish in a Barrel

So I woke up this morning to the news that Washington State University is now providing classes on what to do if an armed gunman comes on campus. It is to “educate students when to hide and when to flee.”

For those who don’t know me or the way my brain functions, this is what I heard; “when to be shot cowering in the corner, and when to be shot in the back.” My immediate response was to yell at the radio, “what about how and when to shoot back!?” The school has now all but blatantly admitted that they cannot prevent an armed person with criminal intent from coming on campus. Yet they still insist on disarming law abiding citizens with permits that carry every day. There is no magic line one crosses that makes a gun act on its own, much less makes the owner a crazed maniac. A firearm is a tool, and just like any other it by itself presents absolutely no threat. In this case it presents an equalizer that scares many who do not have the will or want to protect themselves. There is no negotiating with someone who wants you dead. I know many who carry every day, I have been to numerous events where people carry, and I have never seen an incident of violence.

My response to those who say you’re increasing your chances of something happening, I believe a buddy of mine said it best, “Well if you own a toaster you’re much more likely to be attacked by said toaster.” The possibility of being injured by accidental discharge is less than you dying by a heart attack or being struck by lightning. Stop forcing people to be victims for the sake of people’s dissolutions in security. Allow licensed permit holders the right to carry on campus.

I would like to thank and point out both of those images are by Oleg Volk.