The Plot Thickens – Unpossible I Tell You!

So last Friday I made a post regarding an incident of an unpossible nature.  Well today the plot thickened!

A man was arrested Thursday morning in Pullman for assault in the first degree and unlawful possession of a firearm.

For those who aren’t aware, here is the beginning of RCW 9.41.040:

(1)(a) A person, whether an adult or juvenile, is guilty of the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree, if the person owns, has in his or her possession, or has in his or her control any firearm after having previously been convicted or found not guilty by reason of insanity in this state or elsewhere of any serious offense as defined in this chapter.

It continues on this way throughout the entire law.  This is basically the state equivalent of “felon in possession” and would be listed as prohibited by the state of Washington.

So it begs the question where did he get the weapon?  Not that it really matters because it is yet another nail in the coffin of “laws controlling criminals.”  The fact is criminals don’t care about the law, it is only the law abiding that actually pay attention.

So here’s the skinny, we have a college bar, next to a college campus that forbids concealed carry.  When I say next to, we’re talking a block from the WSU Presidents house, 2 blocks from the WSU Campus Police station and the main bust stop for campus, 2 blocks from numerous on campus dorms, and centered smack dab in the middle of Greek housing.  The state forbids carrying firearms into bars, as well as being intoxicated while carrying a weapon.  Lastly this individual was a prohibited person under Washington State law.

Tell me, what in the name of god would another law have actually done in this instance?  All those laws have effectively done is ensure that any responsible person that would be in that area would be disarmed and lacking the most effective tools when criminals don’t bother to play by the rules.

That’s right, not a damn thing.

(Misc Rant/Story/Joke)

As an FYI, that area on campus is by no means my favorite.  I had friends that went to many of the bars in the area but for the most part I just went to friends places when they had parties.  The reason being is because one should avoid dangerous situations and those bars are exactly that.  When I spent some time with Pullman PD and did a couple ride-alongs I found out how bad that little part of campus really is.  There are numerous people who hang around the area to prey upon people leaving the bars.  Now I’m going to leave the user to apply the term prey how they would like because it applies to both genders.  Assault is the main issue, but other incidents abound as well.

About the only way I’d go in those dives is with a bunch of buddies from back in the unit, mainly two particular Sergeants come to mind.  One of whom is the only man that has ever really intimidated me.  That man made our Gunny look like a baby and that’s just not right!  The other one got kicked out of Burma while he was a Embassy Guard.  Yeah, I had some awesome friends going through my college career.

Though me and some other friends did think it would be funny to come out of some of the college hill bars acting drunk and kick their ass.  We just realized it would be pretty hard to explain it all away after.

Cop: So why were you all at the bar?

Us: Because the food is that awesome!

Cop: This is a campus bar, wanna try that again?

Because: We were studying human physiology?

Cop: You’re all stone sober yet everyone said it looked as if you were drunk as you all left?  They also said you left one by one headed in the same direction with regular spacing, why?

Us: Well we wanted to blend in!

Cop: Why?

Us: Umm, would you believe us if we said so you’d follow us instead of our drunk buddies driving away?

Cop:Wanna try again?  Besides, you were all armed in different manners as to remain legal, why?

Us: Because we were playing a game!

Cop: And what game is that?

Us: Induced Victim Selection Failure

Cop: What the hell is that?

Us: It’s where you try and get a wolf to go after a sheep-dog thinking it’s a sheep.

Cop: What happens to the wolf when he bites?

Us: Well that’s his own damn fault, should have just stayed his ass out of the kitchen if he can’t take the heat!  All he had to do was let us walk on by!

Yeah, I don’t think I would have been able to stay out of a jail cell if we tried that.  I have a feeling it would be treated as hunting over bait.  Not to say it wouldn’t have been worth it.*

*As an extra note, these assaults were done predominately by 3 to 4 individuals with one person leading the attack.  As one group leaves Pullman another one usually fills its place.  Seriously the group could be considered along the misfits from A Clockwork Orange and for that reason if we did it, I wouldn’t have shed a tear.  Again, that wouldn’t have been good for my court appearance.

Be Prepared…

For what? Oh any old thing.

So far it’s not clear why the man police say is Joel Neveraz, a wedding guest, encouraged his pit bull to attack the bride and also attacked the woman himself.

I had a two fold protection for that at my wedding.  One, I was strapped.  Second I had a tiger pit at the reception.

Just because it is supposed to be a happy day, and it should be dream like, not everyone may be sympathetic to your view.  Carry your guns and be prepared, you never know when trouble will come to your door step.

ICHH – The Kind I Hate

Normally TMW does these posts, she hasn’t been as active about it lately though.  Also when we do them it focuses on people’s belief that it can’t happen here.  Usually someone says a variant of the following, “I never thought it could happen here.”

Well this one close enough to home for some of us that it should drive the point home.

Everything that has just occurred took place, not in minutes, but seconds.  From the initial observation of the man… to his strange question… to the attack… and finally to the assailant running off took a total of maybe less than ten, not more than fifteen seconds.  The sheriff’s department was called… the young gal… all of sixteen… was taken to the hospital for treatment… and the assailant was caught… found lying on the ground under another camper not far away… apparently under the influence of drugs.

Go read Dann’s post, seriously, it is a prime example of how quickly the world can change, and no place is safe.  This particular incident occurred at a County Fair, with her parents close by and a friend sitting next to her.

Many of us exercise risk management and the thing is, like firearms, “Is Life, Is not Safe.”  Everything in life has risk, some things are lower risk that others.  Ultimately though your number can be called.  It may be an unlikely event, but it very well could be called out.  It can happen without warning and without cause.  It can happen there, it can happen here.  It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

I carry a gun, among other tools because I won’t get a warning if my number is going to be called.  I could very well only have seconds to identify my number is up and to react.

Attempted “Gun Death” with a Pocket Knife

Normally I kick these over to Weer’d for his “Gun Death” files.  This one though wasn’t successful but it shows how pointless prohibition and laws are at actually stopping stupid behavior.

The Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office is still on the lookout for a Lewiston man who allegedly stabbed a man in the chest on Saturday.

Unsurprisingly though the roots of this incident come back to something all too common.  Something we regularly see or hear about when it comes to “Gun Deaths”.

"I can’t say that a couple of drunks got into a big fight and somebody got stabbed, because we’re not really sure," said Madison. "We know that it was present, we know it was consumed, we just don’t know how much."

So we have alcohol being a factor, witness claim one was quite intoxicated but the other was sober and hadn’t been drinking.  No matter how hard you try, no matter how many laws you pass, you will not stop people from doing stupid things and exercising poor judgment.

You can ban and outlaw “X” but people will either resort to other means, or obtain the items outside the law.  All it actually serves to do is prevent those who do exercise good judgment and those who would use the tool properly from using “X”.

Outlawing concealed carry doesn’t stop those who exercise bad judgment from carrying.  Just the same, outlawing firearms doesn’t actually stop people from doing stupid things.  What it does do is stop those who do not exercise bad judgment from being able to carry an effective tool for self-defense.  Banning knives stops people who carry them for their utility, it doesn’t stop someone from using it in poor judgment or in violation of the law to commit assault or murder.  Someone who is willing to commit murder gives no extra thought to the legalities of the tools.

The War on Nouns is doomed to failure.  The war on Alcohol failed miserably and proved that prohibition of any kind was impossible to enforce.  Prohibitions on any noun never benefit the law abiding, quite far from it.  The enforcement of the prohibition as well as the actions of the criminal enterprises place the law abiding in the middle.  The reasonable and law abiding suffer from these choices and it provides no actual benefit to their situation or safety.  In the end, the side effects of the cure end up being considerably worse than the disease.

Another Incident with Wild Animals

Wild animals are making the rounds as of late.  It started off with a man attacked by a bear, then another one got into get in a pissing contest with a Bison.  Then information came out about a coyote problem in Seattle.  Now we have an incident involving some of our tree-dwelling cousins.

 The chimpanzees dragged the man for more than a mile, under a fence and into their enclosure at Jane Goodall Institute Chimp Eden near Nelspruit, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

Armed escorts were required for the paramedics who went to treat and rescue the victim.  But they’re just smaller animals that couldn’t possibly be a danger to humans right?

“These chimpanzees have six times the strength of a human being so you have to respect them and we certainly do,” he said.

So if you still think that wild animals, no matter their size, don’t present a threat or danger to humans, remember that’s your choice and opinion.  Facts state that humans are not on the top of the food chain by PFM.  They are there because of their tools and without them they are nothing but walking meat popsicle. If you choose to go into the wild unarmed, or even around suburbia, that is your choice and you can live with the consequences of your choice.  You have no right to force your moral choices though on anyone else.

SSCC #358/#359–Chicago

He bashed Luis Cordero Jr. over the head with a revolver over and over, cursing all the while, according to Cordero, his girlfriend and witnesses.

Then it was Cordero’s girlfriend’s turn for terror.

“He put his gun in my mouth and said: ‘You better shut the f— up, bitch, or I’ll blow your brains out,’ ” the girlfriend, Heather Rzany, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The man with the gun wasn’t a gangbanger, an angry relative or an armed robber.

He was an off-duty Chicago cop, far outside his Englewood district, getting involved in a noise complaint being handled by a private security guard on the Northwest Side, Cordero and Rzany allege. And now he’s being sued for brutality and investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority.

No worries though because this is in a place where despite Heller and McDonald it is still increasingly difficult to obtain a firearm.  So the probability of either of these citizens putting up a fight against this anointed tyrant was nil allowing him to operate without fear.

Now why would I put this in the sponsored count though?  Simple, because of the following:

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses an on-duty officer who responded to the beating of letting Gofron walk away — and of failing to document his name, badge number and where he worked.

Yup, it’s handy when your buddies can try and cover for you.  Isn’t Chicago great?

State Sponsored Criminal #358: Chris Gofron

359: Jason Burg

Because being a cop means you can get drunk while carrying a gun and do what ever the hell you want.

SSCC #348–Hopewell

A former Hopewell police officer was convicted Wednesday of sexually abusing three women he had been investigating for drunken driving or shoplifting offenses.

Now while he was convicted, the following must also be noted:

Mark D. Baggett, 34, of the 500 block of MacArthur Avenue in Colonial Heights entered Alford pleas in Hopewell Circuit Court to three counts of aggravated sexual battery. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is sufficient evidence for a judge or jury to find him guilty.

He certainly could get pegged for 20 years, and that would be a good start.  He is a Sponsored Criminal for the following reason though:

… Baggett used his position and authority as a police officer to elicit sex, or attempt to elicit sex, from three women in the their 20s and 30s in September and October.

This is by no means anything new, and it has come up plenty of times before in the count.  The department even upon discovering the information didn’t fire him, instead they allowed him to resign.  Maybe if the department wants a positive public image they should grow some balls and discipline their officers themselves and not just rely on the law.  There is this thing called morals and ethics that exist outside the law and you should make your officers exercise good judgment in both regions.

State Sponsored Criminal #348: Mark D. Baggett

Because the biggest mistake he made wasn’t doing what he did, it was getting caught.  That’s why we didn’t fire him, we just were going to suspend him without pay while he rotted in jail.

SSCC #347–North Carolina

A state trooper is back on the road after a two-day suspension given after a Winston-Salem motorist says he was shot with a stun gun and repeatedly kneed in the face for calling the trooper a derogatory name.

Save it for court, never argue on the side of the road it will just land you in trouble.  This however attracted my attention.

Gordon said Davidson’s cruiser was not equipped with a video camera. The patrol rebuffed a public records request from The Associated Press seeking the release of the report required when a trooper uses a stun gun or firearm or of the written statements given by the troopers involved in the incident, saying the documents are confidential under the agency’s interpretation of state personnel laws.

Imagine that, you gave an officer with no way to be held accountable committing assault.  Not just committing assault but getting away with it.

State Sponsored Criminal #347: Sean B. Davidson

Because you too can commit felonious assault and not get charged by merely joining the North Carolina State Patrol.