Search Results for: node/It takes a good prosecutor to convict a guilty man

On the Blogger Roll

It’s not because I hate or dislike those on my Blogger Roll.  I’ve actually been meaning to go and update it and add those who have added me recently.

For some reason the filter at my place of employment, which as I have stated will remain nameless, has become a bit aggressive.  The upshot was it alerted me to a issue with a friends site

Going back to the filter though, it blocks sites which contain links to sites it has deemed “malicious”.  So in other words my site is guilty by “association” by linking to their “malicious site”.  The thing is that’s a great way to block a bunch of sites merely because they link to what is normally an honest site but has been hacked. 

Well I have discovered that someone in my blogger roll is also one of those “guilty by association” type links.  I think I have found who it is, and I will email them if it’s confirmed tomorrow.  I have reposted the blogger roll with the potential link disabled, if my blogger roll disappears tomorrow it means my hunch wasn’t successful.

That said, my site is currently off everyone’s radar and I’d rather keep it that way, so I’m not about to email to bitch and cause my site to appear on a radar.  I wish there was a utility with this particular filters site to plug in a url and have it list the offending links.  Instead it just blocks, no feedback, and you’re stuck guessing which site is the bad link.  Which is why I’m not a fan of WebSense.

Know Why I Run the State Sponsored Criminal Count?

Via Uncle we have a perfect example of why I run the this thing.

The city police officer fired for a pattern of verbal abuse and making threats is trying to get his job back.

Patrolman Daniel Harless is proceeding with the arbitration process,
said Kristen Bates Aylward, an assistant city law director.

Yes that is the same Daniel Harless, Officer Roid Rage, that can be seen in the count at #7.  This man had a history of behaving like this and it was documented on video in at least three separate incidents.  Even with that behavior though he is attempting to be reinstated as a police officer.

Here’s what this whole roid-rage incident teaches the public.  This behavior is acceptable as long as it does not end up being distributed to the public.  Don’t believe me?  If OCC had not obtained a copy of the video and released it do you think anything would have happened to officer roid-rage?  He had two previously documented incidents and nothing happened.  There was a city councilman that attempted to come to his defense trying to justify his behavior.

His argument to the arbitrator is going to center around the fact that his dismissal was due to public pressure, not because he did anything wrong.  Think about that for a second.  The fact we found this piece of black toxic mold and shined a heavy UV light on him is a reason for him to remain.  For you see if it hadn’t been for that UV light he would have never been dismissed.  Never mind the following fact:

The incident was reviewed by an outside prosecutor who concluded
Harless’ actions weren’t serious enough to warrant criminal charges.

If you or I had done anything like that we would have gone to jail and spent a bunch of time in front of a judge.  If we escaped without jail time it would have been miraculous given the fact that we threatened and intimidated and individual, while armed.  The only difference between him and us is the fact that he is sponsored by the state.

Still think the majority of police departments want to weed out the bad eggs?  For the most part they’re forced into retaining them, because unless you do something really egregious, you’re just a state hired thug.

Today’s Lesson

My dad drilled something into my head growing up and the following reminded me of it:

One of the more depressing things in the life of being an activist for rights is that more often than not, rights are lost because people didn’t want to defend the bad guy. It’s easy to look the other way when Scummy McScumbag has his rights violated because… well because scumbag!

To which another person stated the following which further rung the bell:

But his legal rights were violated in the name of Justice. And as Robb points out, the violation of this man’s legal rights is a loss of rights for everyone. It gets easier to break the rules once you’ve done it once, and in this case, when you’ve been officially blessed by the Powers That Be.

Here is today’s lesson folks, it is simple and only a single sentence:

There is no correlation between the law and justice.

Did everyone get that?  Please read it out loud and repeat it to yourself a few times because it is very critical you remember and understand it.

It is important to understand because that line succinctly describes both the positive and negative in the justice system.  On the one hand you have the issue as Robb pointed out with Mr. Scumbag.

Mr. Scumbag gets a pass because his rights were violated, this boils back to the principal of protecting the innocent.  This principal is important and is one that as a free people we should never lose sight of.

The second side of this is that the law can just as easily screw someone who doesn’t actually need screwing.  It’s pretty darn unjust to annihilate someone’s rights and make them a felon over what really amounts to something that isn’t an actual danger to society.

We must remain vigilant for that exact reason.  As our “elected betters” create laws, there is nothing actually guaranteeing that those laws are just.  This especially holds true  when the phrase above is tied in conjunction with the following:

The purpose of the law is to keep those who have money and power with the money and the power.

Lets also not forget about prosecutors and how they also fit into this entire mess.  They provide yet another prong in the long illustration how there isn’t a correlation between the law and justice.

Yeah, at times it sucks when you think about the fact you have to defend some dude who truly should go to jail.  The thing is, he would have if law enforcement played by the rules and the prosecutor did his job correctly, making sure to charge him with the applicable crime.

h/t Uncle

Quote of the Day – Massad Ayoob (12/30/2012)

For one thing, defensive firearms are meant to be “equalizers,” force multipliers that can allow one good person to defend against multiple evil people.  To allow one good person to defend against a single evil person so much stronger and/or bigger and/or more violent than he or she, that the attacker’s potentially lethal assault can be stopped.  History shows that it often takes many gunshots to stop even a single determined aggressor. Most police officers have seen the famous autopsy photo in the cops-only text book “Street Survival” of the armed robber who soaked up 33 police 9mm bullets before he stopped trying to kill the officers.  Consider Lance Thomas, the Los Angeles area watch shop owner who was in many shootouts with multiple gang bangers who tried to rob and murder him.  He shot several of them, and discovered that it took so many hits to stop them that he placed multiple loaded handguns every few feet along his workbench.  That’s not possible in a home, or when lawfully carrying concealed on the street: a semiautomatic pistol with a substantial cartridge capacity makes much more sense for that defensive application.

(Emphasis mine.)
Massad AyoobWhy Good People Need Semiautomatic Firearms and “High Capacity” Magazines
December 29th, 2012


[First it’s worth reading the whole thing.  My usual response currently about why do you “need” currently is, “It’s a bill of rights not a bill of needs.”  Massad does a fantastic job of destroying their “need” argument.  As Massad points out: If semiautomatic rifles and pistols with high-capacity magazines are so ineffective for defense, why do police carry them?  If all they can do is aid in criminal activity, why are the police allowed access?

Our opponents will admit a gun in the right hands is a net positive.  They will not argue to disarm representatives of the state.  So how does taking a firearm from an innocent law-abiding citizen, the right hands, fix the negative of criminals gaining possession.

Ultimately gun control has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with control.  Crime has been decreasing even with an increase in firearms ownership in America.  There is no causation despite what they claim.  Never mind that the numbers say this is quite unlikely to occur.   That isn’t to say it isn’t a tragedy, it’s just not worth throwing freedom and liberty away for ineffective measures to try to stop a statistically unlikely event.

So in the end, why would anyone want to limit access to that effective equalizer? -B]

Adventures in Venture Capitalism

It’s been known for a while that green-energy is suspect and has serious issues.  Yet our fearless leader has shoved more money at failed projects that most could comprehend.  If this man ran a venture capitalist firm his clients would have left long ago because he was driving them to be broke.

What exactly am I talking about, well here’s a list of companies that have failed that received funding from Obama.

  1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
  5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
  6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
  8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
  13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
  14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
  15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
  17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
  19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
  27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
  29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
  30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
  31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  32. Vestas ($50 million)
  33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
  34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  35. Navistar ($10 million)
  36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Total waste?  $8.108 Billion dollars.  Yes that’s billion with a B.  People keep insisting that to fix the budget problem we need to make massive cuts to the big pieces of the pie.  What people don’t seem to understand is that the biggest pieces are all the small tiny pieces added together.

Look at all that money that’s been wasted.  Debt that has now been laid upon our children and working class.  For what?  So that some donors to the Obama administration can go buy a new vacation house?  So that some leftist can feel good about his view on the environment and forcing others to pay for his moral views?

Seriously, why is anyone even thinking about continuing to vote for a man who so willingly and blatantly has been robbing the American public blind.  Not only is he robbing them but selling your children into slavery.  There is no such thing as a free lunch yet everyone seems to think they’re getting one.

That stimulus so heavily lobbied for has $80 billion in politically tied energy projects.  Yet we see how those projects actually worked, not to mention how it actually delayed existing projects.  Over 1900 investigations have begun to look into waste, further costs to the American tax payer.

To put this into even greater perspective, 10% of the funding for energy projects provided by the stimulus is nothing but waste.  That’s to a cost $25.82 per every man, woman and child, just in waste.  If you just count the tax payers, it’s an extra $70.81 in cost.  If you don’t believe me, do the math yourself.  Here’s where I got the numbers for population and taxpayers.  To take it further we have another 6 trillion in debt overall, that comes out to be another $51,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child.  The overall debt burden in this country is enough for most people to buy a house, again, every man, woman, and child, even babies.

Lets look at the issue in another way focusing on spending during 2012 overall:

Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

Joe also put it really well a while ago before we ended up even further in this hole:

If your family income were $50,000 then:

Now that has brought the spending problem into a better perspective, let me ask, why is the out of control spending and economy not at the fore front of the presidential race?  I hope all of you who continue to not see a problem with this reckless spending and endless growth of government are happy selling your soul and children’s soul into slavery.  Because you honestly have no business writing checks your ass can’t cash and putting your kids name or my name on it.  Period.

SSCC #394–Spring Valley

This one is a good one:

An investigation was under way Monday into a deputy-involved shooting in which a Spring Valley woman was shot by a deputy who was checking her backyard for a masked man. 

The reasoning behind the shooting:

Gore said the deputies thought Orey’s open gate looked suspicious, so they went into her backyard. The deputies ran into Orey, and one of them had a "spontaneous reaction."

Where I’m from, that’s called a Negligent Discharge.  When it strikes another person, you or I would be held criminally liable for negligence.  This man obviously violated 2 of the 4 rules and shot an innocent woman in the chest, who was unarmed, and had nothing in her hands.

Have no fear though:

Morgan said he believes the sheriff’s department is downplaying the shooting.

Of course they would, heaven forbid they admit that the anointed were criminally negligent.  Surely they will not fire that officer either, instead he will receive “extra training”.  Probably in some Panama City sailor want to hump hump bar.

Here’s the thing folks.  Yes people are human, yes people make mistakes.  But there is no calling a bullet back, there is no undoing shooting someone.  So if you screw up like that, you damn well deserve to go home permanently at a minimum.

Negligent discharges can and doe happen.  I am guilty of just such an offense.  The thing is it requires two rules to be violated to plug a person.  That is unacceptable and non-negotiable.  Go work at McDonalds sir because frankly you have no business being a cop.

State Sponsored Criminal #394: Officer John Doe

Because when a woman identifies her as a home owner as you are prowling her property without informing her you are doing so, you method of informing her should be a rapid deployment of hot lead into her body.

When to fight?

On Joe’s blog today Joe posted another question from Mark Philip Alger to go along with the “Just One Question“.

To summarize here:

When is it proper, for example, to use force to stop a legislator engaged in unconstitutional actions? Indeed, when is it required of those who have sworn oaths to… protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic…?

This is a question I have often asked myself over and over, and it is a very critical item. There have been numerous comments made on the subject and many have different feelings. Ultimately I think everyone has their own independent tripwire of what will “set them off”. Joe’s page on Civil Disobedience serves as a good resource to those who have never pondered the question.

I read that new post just after re-reading the Declaration of Independence. Now if you’re wondering why I would spend my free time reading that, or the Constitution or any other numerous items regarding history, it’s because I don’t want to repeat it. A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from other peoples mistakes. History gives you the ability to see events and what occurred because of them.

Back to the point however many only remember a few phrases, such as: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Many do not remember the laundry list of things that was done by the King that was presented as evidence. Now while many of these may not directly pertain to our present state of affairs, we should however also note other lessons that we’ve learned in the 20th century.

My personal thoughts on the subject is that the denial of the any specifically enumerated right of the people, most especially the right to keep and bear arms is a tripwire. Any and all attempts to prevent the people from being able to arm themselves properly for the defense of themselves, family, or property serve no other purpose to make us subservient to the state. This includes attempting to restrict ammunition by tax, or by requirements. A firearm without ammo is only an expensive club. While some would argue that you can stash weapons and use them at a later time, not everyone will be successful in stashing weapons. With restrictions on firearms, restrictions on travel and speech will exist limiting our ability to organize.

My definite words to live by are the lessons of the 20th century. When it came to New Orleans after Katrina, certainly shoot any soldier collecting weapons, nail the police chief, and the mayor too. At this point their sole goal is to be bigoted against us and kill us. To me it’s like negotiating with a terrorist who only wants you dead, what is there to negotiate? If it reaches this point you must trip and act. As for legislating it’s much harder to say. If someone actually starts collecting after legislation, they are definitely guilty, but who will hold them accountable.

These are just my thoughts on the subject, they’re very fluid and it’s a topic that is very difficult. It is not clear cut like someone attacking you in your house or stealing your property. However it is someone stealing your rights.

SSCC #149-153 – NYPD

Looks like Bloomberg has another loophole to close, called the NYPD loophole.

Five New York Police Department officers smuggled firearms and slot machines they thought were stolen and some even used bolt cutters to pilfer hundreds of boxes of cigarettes from tractor-trailer trucks as part of a 12-person theft ring that was under federal surveillance the entire time, authorities said Tuesday.

Since these officers were caught in a sting operation should I really count them.  The answer is an unequivocal yes.

Arresting fellow law enforcers in a corruption case “is a heartbreaking thing,” Bharara added.

It should be the opposite of heartbreaking.  The reason being is that law enforcement should be leading by example and that anyone willing to violate the law should be held equally accountable.  If Officer Joe Bob, and Plumber Joe Bob should receive the exact same treatment under the law and the prosecutor should feel no pain whatsoever about holding them accountable.  If there’s so many laws that officers are regularly breaking them, maybe the should be pulled off the books if they’re not really there for the public good.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 149: William Masso

150:  John Doe #1

151:  John Doe #2

152:  John Doe #3

153:  John Doe #4

Because smuggling guns is only legal if you’re the ATF or get their permission first.  In that case the guns need to be going to Mexican drug cartels too.

h/t Uncle.