Gun-Sniffing Dogs in Miami

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Sleeping 9-Year-Old Boy Shot During Drive-By In Miami

Huffington Post

A 9-year-old boy was shot in the face during a drive-by as he slept inside his Miami home Friday morning.

"It's a sad situation when a child can't be a child, when at 3:00 in the morning a kid can't sleep comfortably in his bed," said Miami Police spokesman Delrish Moss.

Investigators say a light-colored SUV drove down the 800 block of 55th Terrace in Liberty City and sprayed the house with bullets, Local 10 reports.

"I heard about 30 rapid gunshots, they went bop, bop, bop, bop, real rapid, about 30 of them," said a neighbor.

One of those bullets reportedly struck the boy in the cheek at an angle. He was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center in serious condition, police said.

This is good news for the gun nuts. In cases like this they don't have to embarrass themselves with cold-hearted ratios and rates of child deaths to the total number of guns in the country.  That's what they do when little Johnny finds dad's gun and kills himself or his little sister. In these cases they can simply point out it was criminals doing their thing and the resultant damage that happens.

The one thing they will never admit is that proper gun control would lessen the number of these tragic incidents. First they say, the gun accidents are too few to worry about, then they say the inner-city violence that kills kids is not their fault and gun control cannot prevent it.

Both are lies. Gun accidents that harm kids are not too few to worry about and proper gun control laws would have a direct impact on criminal gun activity for the simple reason that all guns start out the legal property of lawful gun owners. Proper legal constraints on those legal gun owners would make guns harder to get in the gang and drug circles where they are plentiful now.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shooting on Miami School Bus - Girl Dead, Boy Arrested

The Miami Herald reports

Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus hopped onto her bus Tuesday morning, but never made it to school. The cheery 13-year-old, who loved music, dancing and art, was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow student who had carried a gun onto the school bus. 

Miami-Dade police late Tuesday charged 15-year-old Jordyn Alexander Howe with manslaughter and carrying a concealed firearm.

On the way to school Tuesday, Jordyn pulled the gun out of his backpack and displayed it, according to an arrest affidavit. The gun went off once, striking Lourdes in the neck.

If we had proper gun control laws in place, we could see in a jiffy is young Jordyn had taken his daddy's gun, or maybe his older brother's.  But the way it is, we don't even ask the question. We'll probably charge the kid as an adult and put him away for a good long time to get some rehabilitation, and never even try to find out where the gun came from.

What's your opinion?  Please leave  a comment.

Miami Funeral Home Shooting - 2 Dead 12 Wounded

US News reports

At least one gunman opened fire on a crowd or mourners gathered at a Miami-area funeral home, killing two people and injuring 12, authorities said.

The shooting happened Friday night at Funeraria Latina Emanuel in the North Miami area. More than 100 people were gathered outside the funeral home when a car drove by and at least one person inside the vehicle fired shots, reportedly with a high-powered weapon.

Gun-rights fanatics will tell us this has nothing to do with the easy access to guns. Bad guys will always find ways to get them, they keep telling us. Yet, about the UK, they say knife crime has increased because guns are harder to get.

The reason they lie about this, and lie so stupidly that they contradict themselves about the situation in England, is because they're scared to death that they'll be held accountable for the damage their policies and lack of restrictions are causing.

Another contributing factor, it seems to me, is the attitude of never having to back down when you have a gun. This has been in the news lately with all the discussions about stand-your-ground laws, but it's an attitude that runs much deeper than that. It is a macho, bully-boy state of mind that works exactly the same in the "lawful" gun owners supposedly protecting his property as it does in the teenage gang member taking revenge at a funeral for having been disrespected.

The solution is obvious: strict gun control which would prevent unfit people from getting guns legally and choke off the gun flow from truly law-abiding to the criminals.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Trigger-happy Miami Cops at it Again

The Miami Herald reports

The shooting happened shortly after noon Wednesday in the 12900 block of Northwest 13th Street. The events leading up to it began in the area, with police doing surveillance of a crime suspect, Baez said. 

Officers spotted Santana driving a white 1993 Toyota but when they tried to stop the car, the man drove away into a wooded area, according to police. A female passenger, 57, was in the car with him, Baez said.

Near the 12900 block of Northwest 13th Street, the car reached a dead end street and stopped. According to police, the man got out, a confrontation followed, and officers fired.

Santana died at the scene. Police did not know if the suspect was armed. They also did not know how many officers fired.

The passenger wasn’t hurt. She was in police custody Wednesday and being questioned by officers, Baez said.

I'll bet the cops will get commendations and the female passanger will be charged with felony murder. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Miami Domestic Shooting

Another one of those cases in which an man, angry at a woman decided to use gun violence on her. The gun defenders will tell you it's rare and that, for the most part, gun owners are responsible and law abiding, which I guess is true depending on what you mean by those terms.

I say domestic violence is far too prevalent in America and gun availability makes it much, much worse.

And, I'm not the only one who believes guns are bad news for women.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Miami Eviction Shooting

Miami's been in the news a lot lately for shootings.  This one was interesting to me because it reminded me of that old "molon labe" nonsense.

On Monday morning, an eviction team including Miami-Dade police, movers, a locksmith and a laborer, knocked on the door of Unit 211 to take possession of the apartment.

Police said Richer opened fire, fatally wounding laborer Carlos Alberto Gomez, 61, of Miami.

What do you think? Isn't it embarrassing for folks to bluster such nonsense as the pro-gun guys often do? The really hard-core claim to comprise 3%. I seriously doubt if it's even that high.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Miami Man Disrespected - Again

28 years is a bit heavy for manslaughter. What would he have gotten if the 2nd-degree-murder charge had stuck? But the best thing about this story is how it closely parallels what many consider a legitimate DGU. Take away the drug-deal part and definitely remove that "disrespected" part, lawful gun owners don't deal in that, and what you've got is the classic DGU.

Prosecutors say McReynolds shot Troy Absher in October 2008 when Absher tried to use the front yard of McReynolds' Valrico home for a drug deal.

McReynolds claimed he was acting in self-defense after Absher and his drug dealer blocked his van with their cars.

Prosecutors say Absher was unarmed and that McReynolds was upset because the other men had disrespected him.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Mass Shooting in Miami - Again

The Miami Herald reports on the shooting which took the life of one and wounded twelve, two of whom are critical.

Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones admitted the solutions she offered were all too familiar.

''The reality is we must all take responsibility to face this madness,'' she said. ``No more excuses. No placing the blame.

''We already played this story on Jan. 23,'' she added, referring to a January mass shooting in Liberty City in which two died and seven were wounded.

Spence-Jones urged residents not to retaliate against suspects and to send letters supporting a federal ban on assault rifles, one of which was used in Monday's shootings outside a birthday party that attracted hundreds. She also asked police to implement zero-tolerance practices in Overtown, saying small infringements of the law lead to bigger crimes.

In the video, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz repeats the Commissioner's plea. "Until we have a Federal Government that is willing to do something to get these weapons off of our streets, unfortunately we're going to be right back here or somewhere else talking about the very same thing."

What's your opinion? Are the Mayor and the City Commissioner misinformed, are they ignorant? When we discussed the Liberty City shooting in January, which left two dead, it seemed the local politicians, the local residents and even Al Sharpton were all in agreement that the easy availability of weapons in Miami is the problem. Yet, I don't see anything being done about it.

It's a sad state of affairs when the gun control folks can boast of a success only in the "guns on campus" fight, but the inner cities continue to be war zones. The AK-47 and the 9 mm pistols used in this shooting were probably purchased legally from a licensed gun dealer at some point. Then, somehow they passed into the criminal world. There are only so many ways that can happen, all of which can he stopped or severely diminished by proper gun control. When this type of gun flow takes place, there are so-called lawful gun owners involved, one way or the other.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Cool Building

The Miami Herald has the story of the Bacardi Headquarters on Biscayne Blvd.

Miami is moving to designate the famed, mural-adorned Bacardi headquarters on Biscayne Boulevard as historic, an action that would bar demolition or alteration of the landmark blue-and-white tiled tower and its square-annex companion.

Murder - Suicide in Miami

The Miami Herald reports on the latest in what's becoming a fairly common phenomenon.

Miami police on Monday released the names of five people killed in a murder-suicide over the weekend.

Police said Guillermo Lopez, 48, barged into a birthday party and fatally wounded four people, including his estranged wife, Lazara Mendez, 50.

Also killed: Mendez's daughter Nayla Canfux, 19; Francisco Casas, 27; and Casas' grandmother, Maria Lefran Christ, 77. Casas' connection to the Mendez family is unclear.

About 20 people were celebrating Casas' birthday -- he turned 27 on Sunday -- at the home in the 2800 block of Southwest 38th Court.

After the shooting, Lopez took off in a red pickup truck. He shot himself to death after setting his home and car on fire.

Unlike some of the recent cases we've discussed, here and here, this one does not seem to be in the same category. The others were supposedly tied to the economic crisis, the fact that the shooters had recently lost their jobs and could no longer support their families. That, of course, brings up some fascinating questions about men who think their families would be better off dead than without them. But that's another discussion.

Today's discussion is about the Miami man who seems to fit into that other all-too-common category: men who express rageful anger by killing people in crimes of passion. The weapon of choice in these cases is, not poison, not knives, not baseball bats, but firearms, of course.

Do you think there's a connection between the tremendous availability of firearms in American society and these bloody incidents? I do. I believe that if guns weren't so available, some, not all, but some of these incidents would be less costly and some wouldn't even happen at all.

Why do gun enthusiasts resist that idea so much? Why can't we agree on that and then talk about a solution? Is it because the pro-gun folks are afraid of what that solution might be?

What's your opinion?

Reverend Al Talks about the Liberty City Shooting

After that terrible shooting in Miami last week, there've been several meetings of community leaders and news conferences. The police say their investigation is no further along than it was on the first day. Here's a fascinating video of the Rev. Al Sharpton and other ministers addressing the community.




Sharpton said the idea of not snitching goes back to the civil rights days when black people were disobeying immoral laws. Nowadays, people are misusing that idea. He called those who would withhold information "traitors to the race," exhorting them to come forward.

What do you think about that? Are the histrionics helpful, do you think? Wouldn't the idea of not ratting out your friends predate the civil rights movement? I always thought it started with James Cagney movies.

Naturally they had a few things to say about the Assault Weapons Ban. From the local pastor we had this:

Don't wait till the bullet come in your door to do something about it... Long as them Uzis and AKs keep snappin' ... No community is safe long as a AK an' Assault Rifle is in our community. Our job is to fight to ban these type o' guns.

The Baptist-style crowd approval seems to indicate widespread agreement with the reverend, at least in this gathering. Do you think there's a growing movement across America to ban "these guns?"

There was one point unclear to me in the original story. Witnesses said the shooter pulled the gun out of his waist band and started firing. How could that be an AK-47? Aren't they too long for that kind of concealment? Why weren't they calling it an UZI or an UZI pistol or something that can be carried like that? Any ideas?

Please leave a comment.

Illegal Immigration

The Miami Herald is running a three-part story on illegal immigration. The series is entitled Illegal Immigration: Changing Course, the initial focus being on the economic downswing in the United States and how that has effected the illegals. One of the articles in today's Part I, Funds at risk for families back home, contains the following information which I found amazing.

INTIPUCA, El Salvador -- For almost two generations, residents of this rural community who emigrated to the United States have sent back tens of millions of dollars to support their families and bring prosperity to their once impoverished town.

Officials of Intipucá, 120 miles east of San Salvador, were so grateful for those remittances that they built a park to honor migrants, with a statue representing the first resident to leave for the United States back in 1967.

In a report on the outlook of remittance flows from 2008 to 2010, the World Bank said that remittances to Latin America will remain flat next year in the best-case scenario, but that in the worst-case scenario, they will decline to $58 billion from $61 billion.

Is it really possible that the cleaning lady who sends $50 a week home and the day laborer who sends $100 can add up to $60 billion?

You guys who like statistics can put a calculator to that one, but I just call it amazing. This is another example of the tremendous impact America has on the rest of the world. I would say with that much power to influence comes a great responsibility. These illegal immigrants aren't animals of a lower species. They're people like you and me who deserve opportunity as well as respect. In my personal order of things I place them one step above the rest of us who have had it easy by comparison.

What's your opinion? Should we close up the borders and keep these people out? Does our own economic survival depend on that? Is there any truth to the claim that illegals take jobs away from American citizens? I never understood it really. Don't they do a lot of low level jobs that more affluent Americans shun? And for middle and upper level jobs wouldn't their numbers only increase the competition? What's wrong with that?

Please leave a comment with your opinion.

No Murders in October in Miami

CBS News reports that for the first time since 1966, the city of Miami Florida had no murders for an entire month. But why? That's what I want to know.

Mayor Manny Diaz says zero murders in October is partly a result of good leadership at the police department and dedicated officers. "Here we are in a major city in America in a very difficult economic period and we were able to go over a month--my hats off to the men and women who risk their lives every day."

The Miami Herald reports it like this, with a different explanation.

Homicide detectives credit ever-improving emergency care with saving people who, perhaps 20 years ago, might have met their demise.

''It helps us tremendously,'' said Miami Cmdr. Delrish Moss, a spokesman and former homicide investigator.

"They don't become murder victim, they become witnesses and help us get the offenders off the streets.''

Bob S. in commenting on another thread pointed out that in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, there have been hundreds of murders this year compared to only 87 in Miami. He had this to suggest as an explanation:

Is the gun control laws in Chicago the only reason, probably not but Miami has Concealed Carry laws and Chicago doesn't.

What's your opinion? Why has Miami been able to do what seems inconceivable in the larger cities? None of the above explanations really works for me. The mayor says it's good leadership and dedicated officers. The former homicide investigator says it's the improved emergency medical treatment. Bob says it has at least partly to do with the fact that in Miami concealed carry is legal.

What do you think? Does the fact that ordinary citizens might be carrying guns legally, deter crime?