Wrong Way To Build An Igloo

LC Sentry at the Rott gave me this:

In Detroit, a man was found frozen underneath several feet of ice with just his lower legs hanging out. He was discovered by a group of men who were playing ice hockey in the basement of an abandoned warehouse.

DETROIT -- This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.

"He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.

A bumsicle.

UPDATE:

I have been thinking that this was not just an ordinary: "wino falls asleep" story. He probably was not alive at the time he was frozen. Dumping a DB (dead body) unceremoniously down an elevator shaft in an abandoned building is not a bad way to get rid of an unwelcome stiff in an expeditious fashion.

His sneaks and socks look fairly clean (no mud on them nor on his pants cuff) so I the chances of him being just a homeless wanderer are not as great. I really don't think that this was his living area and he drowned in it. Homeless persons are not without possessions and they usually have them arranged near where they are staying. I see nothing of the sort here.

Obviously the water was not frozen when he came to rest else he would have bounced. And if there were a foot or more of water in the shaft, then what was he doing there in the first place (if he was there of his own volution)? The area where the pillow lies seems to be an island of some sort above the water level. Or it could be that these items were floating on the water.

I wish the photo was larger but it seems that there is some sort of fabric covering him, perhaps a garbage bag with piece of paper over that.

We have no idea how long he had been dead. Since the socks have not been disturbed by scavengers getting at his flesh, I'll say he hasn't been there that long before the ice froze him in. The ice will preserve the remains for an autopsy to be performed to determine the cause of death. I'll go sixty-forty that this is a homicide. Right now the Detroit PD is checking its Missing Persons file.

Idiot Olympics

Vying mightly for the Bronze in Synchronized Bail Jumping, Stosh and Stanley screw up their dismount.

The Black Widow

This week we had two murder trials in progress at the same time in our office. The Collins trial ended yesterday with a guilty verdict and the Castor trial is still underway. Castor is a real piece of work.

She has allegedly killed two husbands by poisoning them with antifreeze. When forensic examinations indicated that their deaths were actually murder, she was arrested. Two weeks after her arrest, she tried to divert suspicion by poisoning her own daughter, Ashley Wallace, in a faux suicide attempt complete with a suicide note where Ashley admitted that she killed her father.

These murders and attempt murder occurred over a seven year period; her first husband, Michael Wallace, died in 2000, her second husband, David Castor, died in 2005. She has not been charged in the murder of her first husband. From WSYR:

The 41-year-old Castor, of Clay, faces a maximum of 25 years to life if convicted of second-degree murder in the August 2005 death of her husband David.

She's also accused of trying to kill her 21-year-old daughter, Ashley Wallace, with an overdose of drugs and vodka in September 2007.

The defense rested this afternoon after the Onondaga County DA, Bill Fitzpatrick, tore Castor a new one during his cross examination. We just watched part of the trial on News Channel 10. Castor admits that she didn't see her daughter, Ashley, for 17 hours (after she poisoned her). The next time she saw her, Ashley was being carried out by the ambulance crew and she was drooling.

Bill jumped in with both feet; "And this normal? So she was drooling normally? You have two husbands who died from being poisoned and your daughter was drooling normally?"

The summations are Monday. Perhaps the jury will start deliberations on Tuesday.
This gives a nice overview of the case.

I believe this woman, Stacey Castor, has no soul.

The Brits Are Waking Up - Too Late

The Brits Have been betrayed by their own politicians and bureaucrats. Ordinary citizens and even the police are more at risk from armed thugs than they were twenty years ago.

The lie of gun control has become too apparent to many Brits, but is it too late?

Guilty

This afternoon an Onondaga County jury found Roosevelt Collins guilty of Murder 1st Degree in the beating death of 61 year old Ann Davis.

SYRACUSE, NY - A jury this afternoon found Roosevelt Collins guilty in the murder of Ann Davis.

Collins, 42, was convicted of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and assorted larceny charges.

Davis, 61, was found beaten, stabbed and asphyxiated in her home Sept. 29, 2007 at 313 Hutchinson Ave.

Collins is a scum sucking low life who was occasionally hired by Ann Davis to do odd jobs around her house. Until he murdered her.

The ADA who prosecuted the case is Bob Duncanson, a real sweetheart of a guy. He is an unassuming family man; very modest and a vet to boot. The DA Investigators assisting him on the case were Henry "Down Town" Brown and Joanne Renauld, both retired Syracuse detectives. I think I even had a very small (teeny, tiny) piece of this one. Gotta check tomorrow to see what homicide that work was on.


Ann, I hope you are resting easy.
One of the posters to the newspaper's web site has this to say about Collins.

I grew up with the Davis family. I was sickened when I heard of Mrs. Davis' death. They were a great family. She actually helped this piece of crap and he murdered her. City folk, please think twice before you hire these nasty, scummy, worthless wastes of space to do "odd jobs" around your house. They do that so they can case your house and check out your schedules. They now know they have a place to go when they need a fix or feel the need to beat someone to death. A neighbor of mine let's the nasty people come and take their bottles etc, and it makes me cringe. May that man rot in jail, get raped til there's no tomorrow, get beat like there's no tomorrow, and then a nice way to finish him off would be to hoist him up in his cell with a rope or sheet and pull the chair out from under his sorry a**.

Works for me.

Murder Uno. You're going away for 25 to life Rosey. Enjoy.

UPDATE: I forgotted - since since the NYS Supremes gutted the death penalty, they added a little wood to Murder 1 sentences - life without the possibility of parole.

Rosey is now a prison beeyotch for life.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Evil incarnate was invited to show his loathsome presense in San Francisco at St. Mary's College yesterday (28 JAN 09). He was greeted by those who are much less impressed by his contributions to society.

Bill Ayers, the former leader of the radical group The Weather Underground was interrupted several times. He quoted Dr. Martin Luther King and lectured on ethics and democracy, while a crowd outside called him a terrorist for his anti war activities.

"We will hound Bill Ayers to the gates of hell," said Melanie Morgan, from Move America Forward.

Hopefully it will be a short trip for this piece of filth. I hope some one nails a pound of bacon to his ass so that the hound finds him faster.

Ayers was charged with conspiracy to destroy government buildings, including the San Francisco park police station, in 1970, where a bomb killed a police sergeant.

"I think he's a loathsome despicable gutter crawling rat," said James Pera, a former San Francisco Police Officer.

The charges against Ayers were dropped because of illegal FBI surveillance.
"Now that's being blown into dishonest narratives about hurting people, killing people, planning to kill people. That's just not true. We destroyed government property," said Ayers.

"Did you make bombs?" asked ABC7 reporter Alan Wang.

"I'm just not going to talk about it," said Ayers.

Larry Grathwohl, an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated The Weather Underground, claims Ayers told him where to plant bombs. He says Ayers was bent on overthrowing the government.

"The thing the most bone chilling thing Bill Ayers said to me was that after the revolution succeeded and the government was overthrown, they believed they would have to eliminate 25 million Americans who would not conform to the new order," said Larry Grathwohl, a former FBI agent.

Now if the same FBI agent instead had quoted a conservative radical who said that 25 million liberals would have to be eliminated in order to cleanse the nation, the MSM would be leading the pack screaming for his blood to be spilled. I truly doubt any college would be inviting him to speak at a forum.

They Own It

The House Republicans showed that they have a spine for the first time since .... forever, it seems. They told jugears to shove his stimulus package where the dollar don't shine - it is now a completely Democratic pork roll without Republican peas and mashed potatoes on the side.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs cast the administration's inability to pick up any Republican votes as a reflection of the politics Obama campaigned against — not a repudiation of a president who worked the Republican side of the aisle even harder than he did his own party's side.

"Of course we're disappointed that it's going to take longer to change the way Washington works than just a little more than a week, but the president feels good about the efforts that he's made to reach out to people to work with them," Gibbs said in an interview quickly set up after the vote.

What's new about that? The Dems say "our way or the highway - it is what it is" and the pubbies are supposed to roll over.

No jugears, the dems own this dead baby that they tried to leave on someone else's doorstep. No matter how nicely it was swaddled, it's still a corpse.

Nice try.

The Obama Hop

It appears that the appointment of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-D) is giving liberal Democrats a case of agita. From the NY Post:

Gov. Paterson yesterday named upstate Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to be the state's new US senator - but the press conference took a bizarre turn when Republican mega-lobbyist Alfonse D'Amato moved front and center.

Talk about taking a dump on the dance floor at your cousin's wedding.

Democrats statewide were aghast to see the former senator and GOP power broker standing close to Gillibrand on stage throughout the nationally telecast news conference that Paterson called to unveil his surprise replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The panic-stricken caterer rushed out with a cleaning crew but it was too late.

[...] "Twenty-two years ago, [Gillibrand] was an intern in my office," D'Amato told reporters before being rushed off stage by Paterson aides after the news conference.

The wedding guests were outraged. They were all bitterly disappointed; they were so looking forward to doing the bunny Obama hop together and now the magic is gone.

The liberals are suspicious of her for bucking party leaders and taking right-leaning positions on gay marriage, immigration and gun rights.

"It's the wrong message that she's sending out by having Alfonse D'Amato there," said Assemblyman Peter Rivera (D-Bronx), who called Gillibrand "anti-immigrant."

"The message is that she's still to the right and is going to continue to stay to the right."

Oh, I hope so. And the list of agita afflicted dems is impressive.

Sources told The Post that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Paterson Thursday night to express displeasure with his choice, multiple sources said. Her spokesman strongly denied the claim and insisted they talked about politics.

Mayor Bloomberg blasted Gillibrand for opposing "common-sense measures to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals."

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of liberals.

Law Enforcement Here And There

From down under, a heart rending story of livestock gone bad:

POLICE in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery. Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Yeah, okay - but for one thing. They still have the goat in custody. Bail was denied but straw was granted.

From Houston, an eye popping story:

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye and told authorities he ate it. Andre Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.

"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

A Real Shame

In a post several days ago, I explored how terrorists exposed to the bubonic plague (BWOT) most likely died from septicemia - a condition that indicates that a bacterial infection has entered the bloodstream.

Unfortunately a beautiful, 20 year old Brazilian model, Mariana Bridi da Costa, has also just died from septicemia.

Brazilian model Mariana Bridi da Costa, whose hands and feet were amputated in
bid to save her from a deadly and little-known illness, died early Saturday, two friends of the model told CNN. She was 20.

[...] Da Costa had been in an induced coma suffering from necrosis, caused by septicemia. Triggered by a bacterial infection, septicemia causes insufficient blood flow, which leads to organ failure.

Doctors were forced to amputate both her hands and feet and later extract part of her stomach and both kidneys as the disease took over.

Septicemia is the 10th leading cause of death in the US. Not to get morbid or anything, but these are the top ten causes of death in the US:

Heart disease: 652,091
Cancer: 559,312
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
Diabetes: 75,119
Alzheimer's disease: 71,599
Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
Septicemia: 34,136

Junk Status For All

The following is a photo of Caroline Kennedy's alleged paramour, Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger - the NY Times Chairman of the Board, as he appears in the New York Post's article on how:

The New York Times Co.'s efforts to complete the sale of its Midtown headquarters took on greater urgency yesterday after Moody's Investors Service joined Standard & Poor's in downgrading the troubled newspaper company's debt to "junk" status.

So this guy has managed to participate in the trashing of the NY Times and Caroline Kennedy's reputation. From the photo it appears that somebody perhaps has manifested their displeasure with Mr. Sulberger's actions.

True Colors

Over at the Red State (go there!) Erick Erickson has written an unbelieveable post about a back stabbing McCain staffer who sabotaged Sara Palin's vice presidential campaign.

It was Palin's own press manager, Nicolle Wallace, appointed by McCain, who apparently provided the media with personal attack information. Wallace is now quoted as saying:

Obama deserves our thanks for letting Republicans root for him, as well. He has created a space within his wide net of support for those of us who fought for John McCain’s candidacy by honoring the McCains at a dinner the night before his inauguration and by listening to McCain’s ideas on national security, climate change, and government reform.

The Obamas have also returned the civility and warmth directed at them by president and Mrs. Bush in a way that sets this transition apart from others in recent history. This generosity of spirit has had a ripple effect throughout Republican circles. Two former senior aides to President George W. Bush said to me over the weekend, “I expect him [President Obama] to be there for eight years.”

This is truly sickening. How in the world can we trust the Republicans for anything anymore?

And The Winner Is...

The newest Senator from the State of New York is Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, a blue dog conservative Democratic Congresswoman who has been endorsed by the NRA.

Cue in the frothing, liberal outrage in 3...2...1...

We'll see how conservative she is and how much a NRA supporter she'll continue to be after she no longer needs them to get reelected now that she will be running on a state-wide platform.

But of course there's this:

Gillibrand was an official in the Housing and Urban Development Department during the administration of former President Bill Clinton. She worked as a lawyer before challenging Republican John Sweeney in 2006 to represent New York's 20th District. Her upset win came after a police report was leaked shortly before the election that showed Sweeney's wife had called 911 in what appeared to be a domestic violence incident. [emp. mine~Sig94]

*sigh*
She'll fit right in.

This reminds me of a mayoral election here in Syracuse where the sealed arrest record of the Republican candidate (he was 17 when arrested) was leaked to the press right before the election. Of course there's a big investigation by the Chief of Police (D) and no suspect is ever identified and the candidate from the opposing party is handily reelected.

There must be a democratic club with secret handshakes and everything for this kind of crap.

Busted Stuff

For years the democrats bellowed and blew steam about how Iraq was a quagmire and how we need to get out. Even one death is a terrible loss, but we are at war. In 2008, according to the icasualty.org website, a total of 314 GI's were killed in Iraq. Again, we are at war. Iraq is in the process of becoming unbusted.

Last year in Chicago (pop. 2,833,321), where there is no war, there were 508 homicide victims. This is a 15% increase in murders since the prior year. No quagmire here in Obama land.

Also of note: in 2007 the Chicago PD confiscated 13,658 firearms (2007 Annual report page 32), a ten year high, of which over 6,000 were purchased in a gun buy back program. It did absolutely nothing to stop the violence. For the past ten years firearms have been used in about 75% of all Chicago homicides. Nothing has changed.

The citizens of Chicago could have been spared some of their tax dollars if their police executives and politicians had invested some time in reading this report published in 2001: Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General.

Chapter Five of this report details some of the popular violence reduction strategies that aren't worth a fart in a pew.
Among them:
D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
Gun Buy Back Programs
Boot Camp Programs
Individual Youth Counseling Programs

And in Tijuana, Mexico (pop. 1,483,992), US Marines stationed in nearby San Diego have been ordered not to go to this city for R&R (or for any reason for that matter) due to the incredibly high levels of violence there. Last year 843 people were slaughtered in Tijuana as compared to 337 the year before. Many of them were beheaded.

As bad as things seem to be in Chicago - they have improved; the murder rate in Tijuana is over three times as bad.

Mexican gun control laws are far more draconian than any liberal bastion here in the States. God help you if you have some much as a bullet in your possession when stopped by a Mexican cop.

Unlike Canada where you're likely to be turned away at the border if you have unauthorized firearms or ammo, unwary visitors to Mexico have languished in Mexican jails for five years due to a single spent casing in their vehicle.

Mexico is totally busted. And seeing how many Mexicans are leaving the US and heading home now that the jobs in the States are disappearing, look to see it become even worse.

Maybe Our Last Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy has told Gov. Paterson that she has withdrawn her name from any consideration for this position.

Now if Commodore Buick holds to his schedule, in a bit the Senate will be a Kennedy Free Zone.

From the NY Post:

Caroline Kennedy has told Gov. David Paterson that she is withdrawing her name from consideration to replace outgoing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate, The Post has learned.

Kennedy cited "personal reasons," according to sources.

Her stunning move comes as sources revealed that Paterson had intended to appoint her to the now-vacant seat today.

She's holding out for Secretary of Silly Walks. Less work, same pay. Right up her alley.

He's In

Obama is now our President.

I refuse to panic although I will engage in some grousing, bellyaching and bitching. It may or may not be the end of the USA as we know it, but the USA ain't what it used to be anyway and it never will again.

The generation replacing ours is not us. Nor are we our parents'. Our country and our culture reflect the mores and values of its citizens. In that respect, we are truly screwed.

Welcome to the 21st century.

And it is our fault.

Mars - The "Guy" Planet

Scientists have now determined that Mars is emitting gases, methane gas to be precise.

NASA announced Thursday that its researchers and university scientists found methane in the Red Planet's atmosphere. The finding suggests biological or geological activity.

NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope showed prisms that separate white light into a rainbow and showed three lines that indicate the presence of methane.

"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

Mumma, who authored a paper on the finding for Science Express, said that Mars releases methane "at a rate comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, Calif." during its northern midsummer."

So Mars is indeed a manly hunk of rock - nay - a "guy" planet, the Homer Simpson of the Solar System, eating chile and drinking beer with his feet propped up on the Asteroid Belt breaking Solar Wind out of a butthole the size of Chicago, ogling the two nudie moons that prance around him and catching zzz's whenever the mood strikes.

If NASA ever catches sight of huge flames erupting, we'll know Mars got bored and is lighting farts to amuse the kids. I know my own got the surprise of their lives when I did it. They thought I exploded.

As the next closest neighbor to Mars (about 340 million miles) Jupiter prolly catches a lot of this activity and that's why there is an angry Red Spot the size of Earth on ole Jupe. We're much, much closer to Mars (36 to 250 million miles depending on where we are positioned on our orbits) but Mars doesn't seem to bother with us much.

Now that is one pissed-off looking spot. Jupe built the Asteroid Belt as a fence to keep Mars out of his backyard.

Colorless, invisible gas is one of the signs whereby God lets us know that He is not only merciful but that He also has a sense of humor.

Can you imagine the grief if everytime someone farted, a nasty green or brown cloud drifted out from their butt? Life would be intolerable. Especially in elevators.

BWOT

It seems that there many also be a Biological War On Terror. The Black Death has made an appearance at an al Qaeda training camp located in Algiers.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops. Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Also known as Bubonic Plague or simply "The Plague", this disease is transmitted through insect bites, such those given by fleas, who feed on an plague infected host (such as a rat). The flea bite then transmits the deadly microbe to a human host.

It is called bubonic plague because the early signs of the disease are buboes (bubo is Greek for "groin") which are swollen, infected lymph nodes - they appear as large blisters near where the flea bite occured.

Bubonic Blisters or "Buboes"

Centuries ago, medical practice was to lance and drain the buboes which only placed the sufferer at greater risk of infection and actually helped spread the disease faster. Other preliminary symptoms included fever, headache, bloody diarrhea and nausea/vomiting.

The following is from eMedicineHealth:

Plague is a term applied to an infectious disease that spreads easily and, without antibiotics treatment, can be fatal. The plague has caused more fear and terror than perhaps any other infectious disease in history. It has killed nearly 200 million people and has produced monumental changes, such as marking the end of the Dark Ages and causing the advancement of clinical research in medicine.

Although still debated by historians, the plague has been responsible for multiple epidemics and at least 3 great pandemics (epidemics that are spread over a large region or multiple sections of the world).

The first plague pandemic spanned from the Middle East to the Mediterranean basin during the 5th and 6th centuries, killing about half the population of those areas.

The second pandemic struck Europe between the 8th and 14th centuries, destroying nearly 40% of Europe's population.

The third pandemic started in 1855 in China and spread to every major continent.

[...] Pandemics have succeeded in spreading the plague to every major continent, with the possible exception of Australia. Unlike smallpox, the plague cannot be wiped out. It lives in millions of animals and on billions of the fleas that live on those animals. The plague is a disease of the desert, the steppes, the mountains, and the forest.

In the US, an average of 18 cases per year has been reported during the last few decades. These cases are the mildest form of the illness, and they occur mostly in the Southwest. Prairie dogs of the southwestern plains had once died from the plague. A certain type of squirrel may be vulnerable to contracting the plague in some western states, such as New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and California. Only one case of imported plague has been reported since 1926.

Outside the United States, the World Health Organization has reported an annual average of 1,666 cases from 1967-1993. The number of actual cases is probably much higher because many countries fail to diagnose and report the plague. The following countries have reported the most cases of humans infected with the plague since 1979 (in order of most reported cases): Tanzania, Vietnam, Zaire, Peru, Madagascar, Burma, Brazil, Uganda, China, and the US.

As the disease progresses, other symptoms appear that indicate the presence of septicemia, which occurs when the plague bacteria enter the bloodstream of the victim. These symptoms also include the fever, headache, bloody diarrhea, nausea/vomiting as above, but now also include rapid pulse and delirium.

Bubonic plague is most deadly when it invades the lungs, (pneumonic plague). Ten to twenty percent of plague victims will develop pneumonic plague and of this population, seventy-five percent will die even when receiving treatment. It is a miserable way to die as the symptoms indicate that you probably drown in your own juices.

Taking into account the questionable hygienic practices of Islamic terrorists, this disease could be very effective in reducing the population of these vermin.

The Black Death:
God's Biological Thermobaric Bomb delivered by the flea, God's F-16.

Seven, Oh What The Hell, Eight Things

Cookie tagged me (again) and I am supposed to tell seven things about myself that people may or may not know about me. Here goes.

1) My sister, my brother and I were adopted. My birth certificate is dated 1958; I was nine years old. Don't ask about the sperm donor that I refuse to call my father.

2) The very last memory I have of the sperm donor is while I was playing on the front porch of my grandfather's house. Two huge cops in dark blue uniforms were looking for him. I think I was about five or six. A shrink could have a ball with that given my chosen occupation.

3) I have a dead brother named Michael. He had red hair and blue eyes. He was allegedly a SIDS death but after years of police work and my knowledge of the sperm donor, I suspect that Michael may have been shaken and stirred like a freaking martini before his death.

4) The man I call Dad once told me that he fell in love with the three of us before falling in love with my mother. I remember having a tiny little fishing rod - I used to sit on his lap and fish in his bellybutton while he was dating Mom. He died in 1990.

5) My Mom and Dad came from NYC, they lived only two blocks apart in Brooklyn but they never knew each other. My grandparents (on my mother's side) moved to Merrick, Long Island when she was young. My grandfather was a conductor on the Long Island RR for many years.

6) I graduated at the top of my class in the regional police academy in 1974. I was also the best pistol shot.

7) I once made two burglary-in-progress grabs in one day. The first grab was my first call out of the barn at about 2315 hrs. The jerk tried to coldcock me with a bicycle when I cornered him on a porch. The second grab was the last call of the day at about 0615 hrs.; this guy was armed with a handgun.

8) Oh hell, here's one more. I was working vice and I was the bait for the whore detail. I was in a downtown dive and I made the deal for a bj with some blonde hooker. I walked out of the bar with her and gave the high sign to the cover car down the block where another vice detective was sitting, waiting for me. As he pulled away from the curb, the hooker made the car and got a little panicky.

She grabbed me by the neck and said "It's a cop! Maybe he'll think you're my boyfriend!" She then planted those God-awful lips on mine. I thought I was going to puke. I wanted to wash my mouth with battery acid. She got arrested. I never asked her what she was doing with her lips before she kissed me nor how many times she had done it.

Rules For A Gunfight

I have seen this before but I just like it a bunch and it bears repeating. The pictures come from the original thread at Freerepublic.com.

DRILL SERGEANT JOE B. FRICK'S RULES FOR A

GUN, KNIFE, BASEBALL BAT OR FIST FIGHT

1. Forget about knives, bats and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.

2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive

3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.

5. Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)

6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and a friend with a long gun.

7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.

8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running. Yell "Fire!" Why "Fire"? Cops will come with the Fire Department, sirens often scare off the bad guys, or at least cause then to lose concentration and will.... and who is going to summon help if you yell "Intruder," "Glock" or "Winchester?"

9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

11. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

12. Have a plan.

13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work. "No battle plan ever survives 10 seconds past first contact with an enemy."

14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible, but remember, sheetrock walls and the like stop nothing but your pulse when bullets tear through them.

15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

16. Don't drop your guard.

17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. Practice reloading one-handed and off-hand shooting. That's how you live if hit in your "good" side.

18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)

19. Decide NOW to always be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.

20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet if necessary, because they may want to kill you.

22. Be courteous to everyone, overly friendly to no one.

23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

24. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".

25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.

26. Practice shooting in the dark, with someone shouting at you, when out of breath, etc.

27. Redardless of whether justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperatire.

28. The only thing you EVER say afterwards is, "He said he was going to kill me. I beleived him. I'm sorry, Officer, but I'm very upset now. I can't say anything more. Please speak with my attorney."

Finally, Drill Sergeant Frick's Rules For Un-armed Combat.

1: Never be unarmed.

2: If you have your hands, your feet, your mind and your Spirit as an American Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Coastie, you are never unarmed.






H/T to Charlie the Chicago cop.

Just What We Need

Stan Lee, the creater of Spider Man, has announced that he intends to release a new super hero - a homosexual super hero.

Lee has reportedly created a character called Thom Creed, a high-school basketball player who is forced to hide his sexuality as well as his superpowers.
It is not known what kind of powers Creed will display.

Lee, the former head of Marvel Comics - who also created the Hulk and the X-Men - will unveil Creed in an hour-long television special made in the US.

If he proves popular with audiences, the programme will be shown in Britain. Lee developed the idea of a gay character from the award-winning novel Hero by Perry Moore, the Sun reports.

A television industry source told the paper: “It was only a matter of time before we had our first gay superhero. And if there is one man who can make him a success it is Stan Lee.

I really don't want to try to wrap my head around this.

It is unknown what his superpowers will be.
Maybe he can pick up a fiver and count out change with his butt.

What do we call him? Assessory Man?

Look!
Up in the sky!
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
I don't know!
But he looks absolutely fabulous!

And You Think We Have Problems

I was looking for a link to the video of a police shooting that I posted yesterday. Ryan left a comment that it happened late last year in El Paso. So, while merrily surfing and googling for something to use, I kept running into snippets about Juarez, Mexico, which is right across the river from El Paso in western Texas, and how bad the crime is. So I opened up this article in the El Paso Times.

You have no idea. It is awful, simply flipping awful.

The new year began much as the last one ended in Juárez - three homicides on new Year's Day.

Juárez had its most violent year in memory in 2008 as extortion, street shootings and beheadings became an almost daily occurrence because of a crime wave fueled by a war among drug cartels.

Chihuahua state police spokesman Arturo Sandoval said that a final tally on the number of homicides last year would not be available until later this week. But unofficially, 2008 ended with more than 1,600 homicides around Juárez.

Juárez officials said the city police force is in better shape than it was a year ago. It fired 300 officers deemed untrustworthy, grew to more than 1,600 officers and acquired needed firearms from the federal government.

The City of Juarez is a sister city of El Paso has a population of almost 2 million and is the fourth largest city in Mexico. El Paso has a population of about 607,000.

In that respect Juarez may be somewhat smaller than Houston, TX, (estimated 2007 population of 2.2 million) but it's homicides are more than double that of the entire State of New York.

In fact, you would have to add all the homicides committed in Pennsylvania (723) and New York (801) during 2007 to arrive at a figure almost as high as Juarez' homicides this year. Bear in mind that NY (19.3 million)and PA (12.4 million) have a combined population of 31.7 million souls.

The official travel guide site for Juarez tries to portray a very different portrait:

I say The Juarez Mexico Travel Guide is the only balanced source of information about Juarez Mexico currently available in the English language because the city has been demonized by the American press as the "City of Death", when the whole truth is much more complicated.

Every effort to bring the crime issue and the tragic reality of the serial killings here into perspective has been made on these pages: The People, Your Safety, and Great Evil Torments a Great People.

Please read them before you make up your mind about Juarez, Mexico.

I read those highlighted articles and I am sure that Juarez can be and is a lovely vacation/tourist destination and I am equally sure than many thousands of Americans have had a lovely time in Juarez.

But I also see that one of the problems is this: public safety in Juarez is drastically underserved.

Juarez has roughly 1,600 police officers.

Houston, which has a population fairly comparable with Juarez, maintains a police department staffed with 4,892 sworn officers and 1,446 civilian employees.

In 2007 Houston had 351 murders, just 22% those of Juarez (estimated at over 1,600). I do not believe that there was a single beheading in Houston that year.

Granted, we are dealing with 2007 homicide figures for American cities and States and 2008 Mexican estimates - but how far off can they be?

And how far off is help when you need it in Juarez? As stated in the article, the Mexican federal government had to supply the Juarez PD with firearms. If these poor cops didn't even have sidearms, what about police cars and mobile communications?

I shudder to think...

And The Beat Down Goes On

First, a video that demonstrates counter battery capabilities developed by the US Army. Just a few incoming mortar rounds are needed for devastating fire to be directed back at the source.

Another terrorist propaganda video turns into a country western song:

If you're watching this,
Shed no tears for me please.
'Cause the infidels have turned me into bloody cream cheese.

Second, the chief rocket scientist for Hamas is being fitted for his virgins after firing one too many munitions at the Israelis. As reported in the UK Times:

Amir Mansi, an engineer who commanded cells responsible for firing Grad rockets supplied by Iran, died after coming under attack from a helicopter.

Elton John should do a eulogy for this character. Mebbe something like "Rocketman"?

And I think it's gonna be a long long time,
Until my family finds my liver and spine.
I'm scattered all over from Gaza to the Seven Seas.
Oh no no no. I'm a busted rocket man!
Rocket man! You won't find anything above my knees!

This Side Up, Or Out?

From 1961 1952 through 1971 my Dad, my sister, my brother-in-law and I all worked for Grumman's in Bethpage, Long Island, at one time or another. My brother is president of the local Experimental Aircraft Association and sent me this story about a Grumman plane that was being developed for the Navy in the 1930's.

EAA Chapter Chapter 44 in Rochester, New York had the good fortune to have Slim Reddig as one of its members. A veteran of the early days of aviation, his engineering expertise made him one of the Golden Age of Aviation's best known designers. A shining example of his work is the classic Fleetwings Seabird amphibian. Jim was an active member of Chapter 44, and Hugh Jones and fellow members recognized what a treasure they had in their midst. Jim passed away in 1994.

In the mid-30s the Navy was supporting development of three types of variable-pitch propeller the Hamilton-Standard hydraulic controlled system, the Curtiss Electric propeller, and the SMITH propeller that was operated entirely mechanically. The pilot had a manually operated control in the cockpit by which, through mechanism, he could vary the pitch of his propeller blades. Early Grumman biplane fighters joining the fleet were equipped with SMITH propellers. Remember those pregnant looking fat-bellied airplanes with retractable landing gear? And one of these,taking off from an aircraft carrier out of San Diego suffered loss of power on launch and went down into the sea directly ahead of the oncoming carrier. They had the good fortune to be able to get a line to the floating aircraft; legend leaves some doubt that the pilot even got his feet wet.

The airplane was promptly hosed down with fresh water and, brought ashore, was soon packaged onto a railroad car and shipped to the Naval Aircraft Factory at Philadelphia Navy Yard for cleaning, repair and refurbishment, inspection, flight test and return to the fleet. This included complete tear down examination of the SMITH propeller and re-assembly with the blades carefully reset to their proper pitch.

The reassembled airplane was test flown at Mustin Field, inspected and signed off for return to San Diego. While the assigned Navy ferry pilot had never flown one of the exciting, new Grumman fighters, no one seemed to have felt concern in the matter. Wa-a-ay off schedule, he staggered into the Great Lakes Naval Air Training station in Chicago and plunked the thing down.

Everybody was saying, 'Where the hell have you been,' etc. And he says, 'Guys, this is the first Grumman I've ever flown, and if this is the 'GREAT Grumman' I've been hearing so much about-it stinks.'"Well, now, Ensign, what's the trouble?"'It won't take off, it won't climb, it's got no ceiling, it runs hot and it vibrates like hell.'"Well, obviously, you don't know how to fly a Grumman, 'cause that's a great airplane. You stand down and get the Lieutenant here to take it onto the West Coast."

So again, way behind schedule, this Lieutenant makes it on into San Diego, but he has the look of being wrung out when he checks in. And he says, Guys, that airplane is all wrong. I have had it checked at five airfields on the way out here. TWA mechanics were good enough to come over and they went over it. And I've been in and out of it and there's something definitely wrong. It stinks! I had to land on the road and taxi across the Rocky Mountains! It didn't have enough ceiling to get over!

'They turned to some old aviation chief there and said, "Go look at the guy's airplane."He's back in 10 minutes, lit up like a lamp and he says, "Excuse me Lieutenant, you said you checked that airplane?"'Oh boy, have we checked it!'"You say TWA checked it, and American checked it, etc . ?"'Yeah.'"If I'm not asking too much Lieutenant," he says, "will you come out and look at the airplane with me?"They go out and the chief says, "Just look at it."'Yeah, well ... ?"

He couldn't' see anything wrong."Lieutenant, will you please step over and pull the engine through?"The minute he put his hands on the propeller, he lit up! He knew! His hands were curled over the rounded leading edge of the propeller! The SMITH was perhaps the only propeller in history where you could get the blades in backwards! The pitch of the blades had been set accurately at Philadelphia, on the big steel surface plates with big protractors and everything, but they were 180 degrees around!

And this thing had flown across the continent with the sharp trailing edge plowing ahead and the rounded part on the back. Of course, in the Navy, every incident gets written down on a piece of paper. The form was known as a Trouble Report. Roy (Grumman) had this thing, this Trouble Report saying, Propeller blades in backwards' framed and displayed for many years. His wonderful new airplane had just crossed the country with the propeller blades on backwards!

This is the aircraft in question, the Grumman F3F.

This is a classic plane because the Grumman F3F-3 was the last biplane fighter produced for the US Navy. The final version of this aircraft, the F3F-3:

came about because of delays in the development of the F4F. It incorporated a smaller diameter propeller, a modified cowling and a cockpit canopy similar to that used on the F4F. Only 27 of this version were ordered with the first aircraft being assigned to the carrier USS Yorktown (CV- 5). The entire series carried the same armament of one .30 cal. and one .50 cal. Browning machine gun mounted in the cowl.

By the end of 1941 none of the aircraft were in operational service, but 117 of them were distributed to various bases around the country for training and transport duties. The last plane, an F3F-2, was retired from flying service in November 1943.

Following the F3F, Navy fighters were monoplanes: the first of these were the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Brewster F2A Buffalo. These planes saw action in the opening years of WWII, but were both outclassed by the Zero.

F4F Wildcat

F2A Buffalo

What A Difference A Continent Makes

Remember this strutting, posturing fool?

Here's how it's supposed to be done.

Quickly, professionally and without the extraneous BS.

This police shooting occured somewhere in the USA (still looking for the actual location).

It goes down very quickly, all done in seconds.

Keep your eyes on the perp's right hand.

This is more in line with cop shootings. Not the loony s*** you see in the movies and on television. If you're lucky you have seconds to make a decision whether or not to shoot. I was really fortunate in that every shoot/no shoot situation I was in, I had more time than what you see here.

H/T to Charlie the Chicago Cop.

Charlie - you have any idea where this happened?

Gary Graham

There is a new, conservative, Hollywood based blog out there. It is called Big Hollywood and it is a creation of Andrew Brietbart. Here, conservative actors, screenwriters and other people who work in the entertainment industry can air their opinions. One of them is Gary Graham.

Gary has written a piece that is a must read. He is pissed!

I’m an American. This has always been my favorite label, but of late even that has seemed to mean less and less. Being called an American used to carry with it a certain pride and esprit de corps that now apparently is dated and passe. How else can one explain the rash of America-haters in our midst who only claim pride in America if a Leftist resides in the White House, and can only back a war effort if the decision to go to war was that of a Democrat.

I’m a Conservative. And I am also an actor who lives and works in Hollywood. Many of my friends advise me to keep that on the down-low, advise me to not speak up lest I scuttle any future employment prospects, so predominantly liberal is the entertainment biz. And yet I persist.

You see, I’m one pissed-off dude.

And so am I.

Read Gary's column. It is well worth the time.

Rocking In The ER

When I was in uniform I had some pretty exciting times in various hospital emergency rooms. Victims and their relatives come into the ER all boozed up and smokin' mad. The fact that you may have a minor injury does not translate into ER staff jumping through a hoop to serve you. And this pisses some people off.

My oldest daughter is an RN. She works part time at one of our area hospitals; usually in the ICU but sometimes in the ER. Last night (4 JAN 09) she was in the ER when the following occured.

Some knucklehead walks in with his sister and wants service right away - a non-critical admission. He does not get immediate satisfaction from the ER staff so he does what any right thinking citizen would do.

He pulls a gun.

Idiot.

Thomas Lefler, 58, of 753 James St., was with his sister in the emergency room when he became dissatisfied with the speed of service, and pulled out a .32 caliber handgun and pointed it at a security guard, Sgt. Tom Connellan said. The guard was able to grab Lefler's wrist and point the gun away, Connellan said. Another guard helped subdue Lefler, who was taken into custody. The gun was not loaded, police said.

Lefler was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon and misdemeanor menacing.

The confrontation occurred at about 4 PM in the ambulance foyer to the ER. Notice the fresh looking bruise on the idiot's face. Hopefully the guards introduced Lefler to Mr. Ceramic Floor - several times. I have had several occasions where the services of Mr. Floor came in rather handy. We've had some battle royals in that ER in the past.

My daughter called me a few hours later later. She sounded fine and wanted me to watch the news.

UPDATE:

I talked to my daughter again today. She was less than 10 feet away when this incident happened. The ER was packed. Someone was yelling "Gun! Gun!" and most treated it as an exciting diversion. My daughter ran for another room. She was treating the suspect's sister when it happened. Apparently alcohol is a contributing factor to the idiocy and stupidity that motivated this fiasco.

Gore's 401k Is Starting To Unravel

Since everyone else's retirement plans are in the crapper, it is only fitting that the climate scam fueling Al Gore's 401k is hopefully coming apart at the seams. Over at the Rott one of my favorite pervs, BC - The Imperial Babysitter Torturer, has put together a post that flagellates Gores from an unusual source - The Huffington Post.

You are probably wondering whether President-elect Obama owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming. The answer is, not yet. There is one person, however, who does. You have probably guessed his name: Al Gore.

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that “the science is in.” Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

What is wrong with the statement? A brief list:
1. First, the expression “climate change” itself is a redundancy, and contains a lie. Climate has always changed, and always will. [...]

2. Mr. Gore has gone so far to discourage debate on climate as to refer to those who question his simplistic view of the atmosphere as “flat-Earthers.” This, too, is right on target, except for one tiny detail. It is exactly the opposite of the truth. [...]

3. What the alarmists now state is that past episodes of warming were not caused by C02 but amplified by it, which is debatable, for many reasons, but, more important, is a far cry from the version of events sold to the public by Mr. Gore.

4. This mechanism has never been shown to exist. Indeed, increased temperature leads to increased evaporation of the oceans, which leads to increased cloud cover (one cooling effect) and increased precipitation (a bigger cooling effect). [...]

If not carbon dioxide, what does “drive” climate? I am glad you are wondering about that. In the short term, it is ocean cycles, principally the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the “super cycle” of which cooling La Niñas and warming El Niños are parts. Having been in its warm phase, in which El Niños predominate, for the 30 years ending in late 2006, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation switched to its cool phase, in which La Niñas predominate.[...]

P.S. One of the last, desperate canards proposed by climate alarmists is that of the polar ice caps. Look at the "terrible," "unprecedented" melting in the Arctic in the summer of 2007, they say. Well, the ice in the Arctic basin has always melted and refrozen, and always will. Any researcher who wants to find a single molecule of ice that has been there longer than 30 years is going to have a hard job, because the ice has always been melted from above (by the midnight Sun of summer) and below (by relatively warm ocean currents, possibly amplified by volcanic venting) -- and on the sides, again by warm currents. Scientists in the alarmist camp have taken to referring to "old ice," but, again, this is a misrepresentation of what takes place in the Arctic.

More to the point, 2007 happened also to be the time of maximum historic sea ice in Antarctica. (There are many credible sources of this information, such as the following website maintained by the University of Illinois-Urbana: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.anom.south.jpg). Why, I ask, has Mr. Gore not chosen to mention the record growth of sea ice around Antarctica? If the record melting in the Arctic is significant, then the record sea ice growth around Antarctica is, too, I say. If one is insignificant, then the other one is, too.

The commentary was written by Harold Ambler. Go to HuffPo and read this, there is a lot to it.

If you are of a scientific persuasion, also go to this site, Watts Up With That. This site was just nominated as a final for the 2008 Weblogs Award for Best Science Blog. The owner of this blog has some meteorological chops and is also not amused by Gore's insane rantings.

What Not To Do...

The Seattle Times carries this story about a 22 year old college student who, when the police knocked at his door, greeted them with rifle in hand.

Seattle police shot and killed a University of Washington senior who was dressed in a World War II-era German uniform and who officers say was brandishing a long rifle with a bayonet early Thursday in his University District apartment.

The student, identified by friends as Miles Allen Murphy, was well-known on campus as a smart, eccentric history buff who loved to participate in WWII re-enactments and would even show up to class, at times, dressed in a historic uniform.

My first impulse was to yell "Loon" and go on to better things. But then I started to read the comments and I could hardly believe my eyes.

Murphy was killed about 2 a.m. Thursday when police responded to neighbors' complaints that several men were shooting vintage, military-style rifles and shotguns into a dark alley near the 5200 block of 17th Avenue Northeast, police spokesman Jeff Kappel said.

When police were called, Kappel said, neighbors pointed out an apartment in a large white house. When police knocked on the door, one of the suspects opened the door brandishing a long rifle with a large bayonet attached.

Uniformed police officers warned the man several times to drop his weapon. He didn't, Kappel said, and he pointed it at one of the officers. Two officers shot him several times. He died at a hospital Thursday morning, Kappel said.

This student may have had a quirky, eccentric in a brilliant way personality, but answering the door with a rifle in your hands when on the other side are standing armed, uniformed police is not eccentric or quirky. It is suicidal.

I've been accused of being a cop hater on this blog. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think that, generally speaking, police officers have above average integrity and courage. Not all of them, but in my view most do. I have a problem with these two guys firing seven bullets at this kid. I know that police have to be exceptionally careful and I certainly support that, but wouldn't one or two shots have rendered the kid harmless. I question the two officers' courage and integrity. Posted on January 3, 2009 at 10:29 AM.

In my view the two officers are trigger-happy, cowardly thugs. Seven shots? Seven shots? Seven shots? Disgusting. Posted on January 3, 2009 at 4:18 AM.

Two cowardly, trigger happy cops. Pay the police more money, I say, so we can get better policemen. The two scums that murdered this kid should be thrown off of the police force. Posted on January 2, 2009 at 3:26 PM.

We need to pay the police a higher salary, so we can get officers with some courage and judgement. I view this killing of the student as a murder by two cowardly and stupid cops. Posted on January 2, 2009 at 7:13 AM.

Those two cops are disgusting murderers. Posted on January 2, 2009 at 3:33 AM.

Knowing the SPD, they just wanted to get a good start on their "murder by cop" quota for the year. Posted on January 2, 2009 at 2:00 AM

Hmmm... seen this scenario before. Cops gunning down people in their own homes. Standard practice is for the police to say that the shooting victim leveled the gun at the officers and all we have is the words of the cops who blew the guy away. From the languages he spoke to the many instruments the man could play he sounds like was a really intelligent guy, what a tragedy. Posted on January 2, 2009 at 6:46 AM

I think I'm having an out of body experience. Seattle is LA in 1995. Kill first, call the coroner and then find the facts. I'm sickened by this and will think twice before calling the police. They will shoot anyone, even the person who called. Is this really the law enforcement we want here?Posted on January 2, 2009 at 9:26 AM

There were about 175 comments on this article when I read it. I commented thus:

Looking at the tables compiled by the FBI, for the last ten years (1998 - 2007) 549 police officers were murdered in the US. Of these, 508 were shot to death - 368 by handguns, 101 by rifles and 38 by shotguns. Another 33 were run over intentionally. Stats are available here: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2007/data/table_27.html

Cops are aware of the risks they take on every call. Cops get killed when they become complacent or too trusting. As a retired LEO in a medium sized city I have been in situations where I had the opportunity to shoot on several occasions. Thankfully I never did. The overwhelming majority of my fellow officers feel the same way. We join because of a desire to provide safety to our community. No one I knew suited up for work hoping they would kill someone. But we all shared the same thought when we responded to a high risk situation - we want to return home to our wives and children in the same condition as we left them.

I am simply appalled by some of the discourse on this thread for several reasons. First - it appears that many of you people accept as gospel everything you read in the papers. Please do not make this mistake.

Second - there are incredible misconceptions about what police can and should do. We are trained to respond in certain ways in certain situations. We only retreat when we see that an armed response will endanger others who are not a threat. We are the police. We are not the Boy Scouts or your attorney or your best friend. We are the last hope for many people who find themselves in desperate situations; retreat for the most part is not an option for us.

We accept a certain level of risk, it is inherent with the job. But we are not idiots.

A military rifle is a high powered weapon that will go through your typical police issued Threat Level II or IIA soft body armor like crap through a goose. These vest will stop .38 cal., 9mm, .45 cal and most shotgun rounds. It takes Level IV armor to stop a milspec round traveling in excess of 3000 fps. For the most part, that armor is much too heavy and much too restricting to be of practical use.

The above scenario occurred in a few seconds.

You are at a door, standing in a narrow hallway. You are mostly likely backlighted. There is no cover or concealment. You knock on the door. The door opens. You see the weapon pointed at you. Your heart goes into impossibly high gear, you scream a warning at the top of your lungs to drop the gun - once, maybe twice - wondering if the crazy SOB is going to blow your brains out.

You open fire at close range (probably within seven feet) , two to center mass and once at the head - just as you've been trained.

Or you don't open fire, hoping that he ain't all that crazy.

All this in about five seconds.

You have no idea on how smart this jackass is, or how dumb, what his parents and friends will think if you kill him or what a shame that this potential history teacher will never teach a single student.

What you do know is that some people called the police about someone shooting rifles and now you have some guy dressed in a WWII German Army uniform pointing a rifle at you.

Go ahead, you have seconds to make your decision as whether to shoot or not to shoot. And don't worry about it, we'll all be here safe and snug in our living rooms days later to criticize you.

Third - there are some incredible morons out there who have access to computers and an ISP.

We're Winning

With no effort at all (other than shoveling all this white crap) Syracuse has increased its lead in the Upstate NY Golden Snowball contest to 15.5" - we've had 73.7" of snow so far this season.

That's just over six feet.

Oh whoopee.

Forensic Technology

I worked uniform patrol for twelve of my twenty-fours as a cop. For eight of those twelve years I was an evidence technician. I processed hundreds and hundreds of crime scenes, took thousands of photographs and dusted thousands of items for latent prints. So when I read this over to the Barking Moonbat Early Warning System I got a little excited.

Wiping the gun clean has long been considered best practice for villains but may soon become a quaint custom as researchers have developed a way to ‘visualise fingerprints’ even after the print itself has been removed by measuring the corrosion of the surface by deposits from the fingerprints. The technique can enhance – after firing– a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small calibre metal cartridge case before it is fired. The technique promises the ability to reopen many cases and solve cold cases around the world because the “underlying print never disappears” according to the scientists.

This gets my old forensic juices going simply because so much work is involved in the investigation and prosecution of firearms cases. Without a cooperating witness(es) your case is solely dependant on physical evidence, especially in New York State where the rules of evidence are stacked in favor of the defense.

So when you can lift a latent (fingerprint) from a gun or cartridge casing your case is greatly strengthened. You can impeach a witness - particularly when so many witnesses (and victims) from a night club shooting or drug deal gone sour are just as big an asshole as the person doing the shooting. But it is much more difficult to impeach physical evidence. Instead, the defense attacks the premises under which the evidence was collected - the constitutionality of the seizure.

But a shell casing left at the scene is a wonderful piece of evidence. And if a latent is left on the casing, it further implicates the shooter in that it also shows intent - the sucker not only shot at the victim but even loaded the weapon. It can also implicate others in the chain of evidence, someone else stored and maintained the weapon. People with prior felony convictions are suddenly facing another felony - this time as a predicate felon - and it is amazing how much a gangbanger suddenly knows when he is facing q seven year minimum bid (flat prison term - ya gotta do the lower end before eligible for parole). We can roll these people.

The BMEWS refers to a Gizmag article:

Forensic scientists at the University of Leicester, working with Northamptonshire Police, have announced a major breakthrough in crime detection which could lead to hundreds of cold cases being reopened.

Dr John Bond, Honorary Fellow at the University of Leicester and Scientific Support Manager at Northamptonshire Police said: “For the first time we can get prints from people who handled a cartridge before it was fired.”

"Wiping it down, washing it in hot soapy water makes no difference - and the heat of the shot helps the process we use.

“The procedure works by applying an electric charge to a metal - say a gun or bullet - which has been coated in a fine conducting powder, similar to that used in photocopiers.

“Even if the fingerprint has been washed off, it leaves a slight corrosion on the metal and this attracts the powder when the charge is applied, so showing up a residual fingerprint.

“The technique works on everything from bullet casings to machine guns. Even if heat vaporises normal clues, police will be able to prove who handled a particular gun.”

Dr. Bond’s initial findings, which prompted the joint study, have been announced in paper in the American Journal of Forensic Science.

The Incredible Indelible Latent. How sweeeet it is.

The following are reproductions of latent prints. If you look closely you can see what fingerprint specialists look for when presenting latent evidence during a grand jury or courtroom proceeding. Identifying marks are:
1) ridge endings - this is where the ridge just stops. It may pick up again or turn into an island;
2) islands (or dots) - this is a minute ridge segment that occurs usually in the middle of a longer ridge segment; and
3) bifurcations - where a ridge splits into two more ridges.

This is a loop (either ulnar or radial depending on which side - inner/radial or outer/ulnar - of the wrist the loop is coming from. The fingerprint is caused by friction ridges that are actually imprinted on the top layer of underlying bone cells for your hands and feet. Friction ridges allow you to grasp objects without them slipping through your fingers.

Fingerprint residue is what the powder clings to when a CSI type dusts for prints. Fingerprint residue is comprised of water, fatty oils and amino acids. The water evaporates first. Fatty oils last a long time. Amino acids even longer. In one case a passenger in a fatal aircraft accident was identified from prints lifted from one of her school books recovered at her parents' house. She had not handled those books in over forty years.

There are much more modern methods to developing a latent print image using chemicals (super glue reacts with fingerprint residue to produce an excellent image of the latent), lasers and now some kind of variation in charge (electrostatic?) that is produced by the corrosive effects of fingerprint residue.

I experienced something like this: about three years ago I forgot to wipe down an unprotected gun barrel after handling it (my Civil War replica Model 1861 Springfield). Several months later I noticed that the residue from several of my fingerprints produced a patch of light rust that reproduced my print pattern on the barrel!

Bank robber John Dillinger had the bones of his fingers scrapped to remove the imprinting layer and then had his fingertips grafted to the sides of his chest to replace the skin cut out by the doctor. But the doctor messed up and did not scrape Dillinger's fingertip bones enough. Some ridges came through the scar tissue - enough that a positive id was made again.

This is a loop coming from the other side. About 80-85% of the population has ulnar or radial loop fingerprints.

The other type of print is a whirl. This is a whirl. See the delta on the lower left of the latent? A delta is where it looks like the ridges are flowing into the whirl. If this whirl had a delta on both sides this would be a central pocket whirl. These are fairly rare.

We had an FBI tech spend a week training us in latent identification. I was glad I never had a job like that. I would go blind.

Oops. Forgot to add this. Prosecutors like to have at least twelve points of identification for trial. But I have seen them go as low as eight.

A Bad End To A Holiday

I'm sure that this occurs to a greater or lesser extent in many cities throughout the western nations, but for some reason Great Britain gets the rap for drunkenness and carousing. Perhaps they really are out of control (i.e., their soccer fans getting banned throughout Europe) or maybe we Anglos love to writhe and moan whilst we self excoriate ourselves for real and imagined sins.

In either event, the Brits are on a roll as alcohol-related emergency calls to ambulance services averaged one every seven seconds during London's New Year's Eve reveries. Some of the pictures included with this UK Daily Mail article are pretty gory. I have seen worse (one broken beer bottle assault in a west end Syracuse bar brawl left the victim with over 300 stitches).

One of the commenters on this article remarked that there were relatively few arrests for drunkenness so how bad could it have been? Believe me, when police are overwhelmed in any given situation, there are not many arrests simply because the cops feel it isn't worth the hassle. Why get your brains beat out by a bunch of drunks who don't want their friends arrested? Being that they are A) highly intoxicated; B) young and C) highly intoxicated, they will not hesitate in attacking a uniformed police officer. Given the hopeless state of Britain's criminal justice system, you have a better chance of doing a major bid in prison if you shoot a burglar theatening you in your own home than if you beat a cop half to death in a drunken frenzy. These examples are from a 2002 article:

In 1987 two men assaulted Eric Butler, a 56-year-old British Petroleum executive, in a London subway car, trying to strangle him and smashing his head against the door. No one came to his aid. He later testified, "My air supply was being cut off, my eyes became blurred, and I feared for my life." In desperation he unsheathed an ornamental sword blade in his walking stick and slashed at one of his attackers, stabbing the man in the stomach. The assailants were charged with wounding. Butler was tried and convicted of carrying an offensive weapon.

In 1994 an English homeowner, armed with a toy gun, managed to detain two burglars who had broken into his house while he called the police. When the officers arrived, they arrested the homeowner for using an imitation gun to threaten or intimidate. In a similar incident the following year, when an elderly woman fired a toy cap pistol to drive off a group of youths who were threatening her, she was arrested for putting someone in fear. Now the police are pressing Parliament to make imitation guns illegal.

In 1999 Tony Martin, a 55-year-old Norfolk farmer living alone in a shabby farmhouse, awakened to the sound of breaking glass as two burglars, both with long criminal records, burst into his home. He had been robbed six times before, and his village, like 70 percent of rural English communities, had no police presence. He sneaked downstairs with a shotgun and shot at the intruders. Martin received life in prison for killing one burglar, 10 years for wounding the second, and a year for having an unregistered shotgun.

If this is the way British police operate under normal conditions, why would you expect them to do something different under extraordinary circumstances?

Happy New Year

And a very Happy New New to all!

May God grant each and everyone of you peace, good health and good cheer throughout the next twelve months; for that is something that all the money in the world cannot purchase.

I have made only resolution, that is every morning upon awakening I will recite the Sh'ma (hear) and it can be found in Deut. 6:4-9. This covers our vertical relationships (between God and man) as well as our horizontal relationships (between men). Obeying these precepts is the surest means of bringing personal peace to our lives and is givest the highest priority by Jesus in Mark 12:28-34.

These are the greatest commandments that God has given to men.

DEUTERONOMY Chapter 6:4-9
4. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
7. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
8. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
9. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

MARK Chapter 12:28-34
28. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29. "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
32. "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.
33. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.