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Category: Police

  • Officers in Alvarez Shooting Not Indicted

    Well I guess since nobody was indicted, we can all shake and go home.

    But seriously… it would have been horrible if the officers were indicted for doing their job. Though the fact that Alvarez also gets to walk bothers me less since he already survived his “trial by ordeal.” I mean the guy was shot 23(!) times, “27 holes,” and four bullets in his body. Let’s just count that as time served.

    From the story in the Times:

    Mr. Alvarez had gotten into a fight with another man, Luis Soto, who Mr. Alvarez said had shot at him.

    The police had accused Mr. Alvarez of shooting at them as they converged on the fight. In a frantic span of about 10 seconds, with about 500 people swarming the block, four officers fired, and Mr. Alvarez received 23 gunshot wounds.

  • In case you were wondering…

    In case you were wondering–I sure was–what happened to Marisol Valles García, the 20-year-old Mexican woman/criminal-justice student who became police chief in a town because nobody else wanted the job… here’s an update in the Times. Nothing too revelatory… but at least she’s still alive. Though there’s also a chance she hopped over the border.

    Update, March 7: I just heard on the NewHour that she was fired. Turns out she did cross the border “for personal reasons.” Well, it was fun while it lasted. …I wonder how she did before the left?

  • This is America

    This is America

    Hopefully just a very small part of it.

    Shame on us.

    I try not and make the Nazi comparison lightly, but people, this is American fascism. You know you’re a fascist when:

    You wrap yourself in an American flag to call another group of Americans terrorists, killers, and pure evil.

    You wish another group of Americans an early death for no other reason than their religion.

    You tell people born in this country to “go back home” (Only native American Indians should be allowed to use that line).

    Any others you can think of?

    And in some ways these idiots are worse than the Amerikadeutscher Bund of the 1930s. Sure they’re all ignorant, hate-filled, nativists who wrap themselves in the American flag.

    But at least The German American Bund of the 1930s, wanted to keep us outof war. And at least the old-time haters were kind enough to carry around swastikas, making them much easier to spot. Oh, look, there they are parading in New York City:

    I’m not certain what these new extremists want (many of whom are elected Republicans) want, even if you could peel away the hate.

    I hate Illinois Nazis.

    Since now England seems to be the bad guy, ever since they’ve fallen under Sharia Law (note: they haven’t), can we have Freedom Muffins for breakfast?

  • Mexico Frustrated at US Inability to Control Border

    At least when it comes to our guns and demand for drugs. Calderon and Obama met, and seemed to accomplish nothing.

    Of course the border can’t be sealed, not if we want free trade. So we’ll keep getting their drugs, because we want them and have money. And they’ll keep getting our guns, because they want them and have money. That’s the way the free market works.

    In a show of confidence in Calderon’s efforts, the Obama administration said it would continue to send aid to support Mexico in the drug war. A senior administration official said the U.S. plans to speed up implementation of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, with $900 million to be doled out by the end of the year.

    I didn’t realize that we haven’t actually honored our word to give them the money we promised to give, back in 2006. That was when we told then President Fox that we would give him billions if only he backed down from his rational idea to end the drug war. He did. We didn’t. “Here’s your money… Psych!” What a sucker. He believed us!

    I imagine it went something like this. Let’s pretend Fox’s first name were Bob, and that he’s a fan of country andwestern music. The US “Good Ole Boys” of A are like The Blues Brothers. The location, naturally, is the Bunker Country de Bob:

    Mexico: You know you boys owe me a lot over money for that war on drugs you want me to fight goddamnit.

    US: We loved playing here. My brother’s writing out an American Express travellers cheque to cover the extensive tab.

    Mexico: Well, I sure would appreciate it.

    US: I’d better check up, see how he’s doing, see I have to sign it too. I usually sit in the car and write it out on the glove compartment lid. Okay?

    [US walks towards the car and feels jacket pockets.]

    US: Need a Pencil!

    [US get in the car, quickly starts it and zooms off toward the border.]

    Mexico: Them boys owe me 1.4 billion dollars!

    US: Our lady of blessed acceleration don’t fail me now.

    The drug war got ramped up and turned Northern Mexico into a killing zone.

    Today’s article also says that current President Calderon has been worried that “politicians could be tempted to return to a tacit policy of tolerating the gangs.” Short of legalizing and ending the drug war, isn’t that we want? Then at least we might be able to turn back the clock to 2006 before all this deadly nonsense, when there were just a few hundred prohibition deaths each year.

  • The Headline You Never See

    “An Angry Man Is Met by a Smart, Experienced Police Team”

    But this headline is real. And it’s not from the Onion.

    It’s from the New York Times. The story is by Al Baker. I did not know, as his bio says, that he’s the son of a police officer. Maybe that’s why his stories are generally more nuanced and intelligent than your average reporter’s.

  • Alvarez is no Ham Sandwich

    A grand jury didn’t indict Angel Alvarez. This is surprising, given how they say a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.

    Here’s what I wrote about his shooting back in August.

  • Fewer Cops = More Crime

    That’s the news from Camden.

    Though I should point out that were it not for the layoffs (almost half the department!), the chief would probably be boasting that homicides are down. But everything else is up, including shootings. Hmmm, maybe there’s a correlation between fewer cops and bad aim?

  • How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam

    Here’s an interesting article by Meg Stalcup and Joshua Craze in The Washington Monthly. The subtitle is: “There aren’t nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America’s police–So we got these guys instead.”

    Despite their different backgrounds, the counterterrorism trainers we interviewed have a remarkably similar worldview. It is one of total, civilizational war–a conflict against Islam that involves everyone, without distinction between combatant and noncombatant, law enforcement and military. “Being politically correct inhibits you,” Hughbank said. “I know Islam better than my own religion. Some things need to be called a spade.”
    …
    On one occasion, we asked a student whether gangs–a more conventional subject of police attention–weren’t a more pressing issue for cops than terrorists.

    “Yeah, the gangs are a threat,” answered the officer. “But they don’t have 1.5 billion members.”

    Many of these classes are paid for by tax dollars, taught by people without law enforcement background, exaggerated military backgrounds (John Giduck, author of Terror at Beslan), and are “accredited” by people such as Keith Flannigan (the certification chairman of the scammy “Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board”) who seems to make up his own college degrees.

    Of course a couple people faking their C.V. isn’t a big deal. What is a big deal is that this bigoted war-like approach to fighting terrorism in dangerous. Real, effective, anti-terrorists efforts are not helped by cops learning B.S. profiling to spot the “terrorists among us” by, say, looking “at the owners of convenience stores.”

    Plots get foiled because people talk to cops:

    In counterterrorism, as in most areas of intelligence and law enforcement, vital information often comes from those closest to the suspected perpetrators–from neighbors, friends, even family members. It was an anonymous handwritten note from an Arab American in Lackawanna, New York, a small city outside Buffalo, that led the FBI to arrest six men.

    Same with the foiled plot described in Jennifer Hunt’s excellent Seven Shots. Teaching cops that 1.5 billion Muslims are potentially terrorists is not the answer.

  • Ha!

    Read this column by Thomas Friedman and this satire.

  • On Unions

    A level-heading analysis from David Leonhardt in the New York Times:

    Fat and happy government workers, however easy the caricature may be, are not the cause of our looming federal and state deficits. Neither are spineless politicians.

    The cause is Americans’ collective desire for low taxes and generous government benefits. We want our politicians to promise us tax cuts, a strong military, safe streets, good schools and unchanged Medicare and Social Security. And promise it all they do.

    Eventually, we will have to pay for the government we want, regardless of what happens in Wisconsin.