North Carolina Students Charged for Senior Prank

Local news with video suggested by George Jefferson with the following remark:

Alarm clocks equal terrorism in America welcome to the police state‏

South Iredell High School was evacuated Tuesday morning after police say a senior prank prompted a bomb search.

Dan Farrell's daughter Shannon Farrell is one of two students arrested.

He said, "I was called by my younger daughter saying my older daughter was taken away by the cops."

Farrell says his daughter told him about the prank to put alarm clocks in the unused locker and have them go off at different times. He said he thought it was harmless.

Troutman Police Chief Matthew Selves said, "We take this pretty seriously."

Seniors Shannon Farrell and Lekia Hall now face a felony charge of hoax by use of a false bomb in a public building, a "Class H" felony and obstruction of justice.

The Answer to Anarchy

via Criminal Wisdom

Lionel on the Police

via Fuck Conservatives

What I was wondering is where are all the gun owners. Don't they continually tell us they are the last line of defense against tyranny? What the hell are they waiting for?

The fact is they are powerless to stop the terrible slide which is ongoing. The United State is less free than it has ever been and all their guns are useless to stop it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

No White Cops in Miami?

When the Police Revolt

I think I'm finally beginning to understand.  If the private citizens aren't armed to the teeth, that would leave only the police and the military.  They would be the ONLY ONES. Is that it?

Las Vegas Cops

Fox5Vegas reports on the latest cover-up, well actually it's not even covered up, it's right out in the open.

The coroner's inquest into the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Las Vegas Metro police officer has ruled the shooting justified.

Authorities said Det. Bryan Yant, 34, shot and killed Cole when he made a sudden move during a search of Cole’s apartment the night of June 11. Yant and other officers suspected Cole was dealing marijuana from the residence.Cole was unarmed and his family has argued that he was not a threat, and wasn't the major drug dealer police were after.

Yant, who joined Metro police in 2000, has been involved in two other officer-involved shootings.The coroner's inquest was made up of a jury of seven who could reach three conclusions -- the death was justified, excusable or criminal.

In 34 years, only one case was ruled criminal in a coroner's inquest in the county.

That's bad. Those are some dangerous cops. They don't even dress it up as "lunging with an object in his hand." For these guys a "sudden move" is enough. And their superiors and the coroner's jury, everybody condones it.

Maybe this goes back to the days when Vegas was young and ruled by criminal mobs. Justice was swift and unquestioned. Perhaps that's evolved into what we have today with the police. Based on their record, it sounds like the Vegas Law Enforcement people have a license to kill.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Sentencing Disparity

Two headlines:

Man gets 15 years for fatal club shooting

Man gets 30-year sentence for shooting at cop

I realize there are many variables, one's in Florida, one's in Iowa, not to mention the backgrounds of the offenders. But I couldn't help but notice that the life of a cop is so much more valuable that actually killing someone who is not in law enforcement gets you half as much time as just shooting AT a cop.

What's your opinion? Is something wrong with that? Please leave a comment.

More on "Draconian"

I received this alert in my e-mail inbox which made me think we might want to talk a bit more about "draconian," and the ideas TS mentions in his comment.

TS has left a new comment on your post "Private Sellers":

MikeB, I am responding to the "Meaning of Draconian" thread here because that one might be a little stale.

MikeB: "TS told us about the California gun owner who failed to turn his allen wrench a couple times and became a felon as a result. "I’d call that “cruel”. How about you, MikeB?"

I wouldn't say "cruel" as much as "excessive." I'd even call it abuse of power on the part of the cop."

I read about this on a police officer’s forum. Many of the other cops were calling him out on it, calling it “excessive” and mean. The thing is, he was following the letter of the law, and I have a much bigger problem with the law that allows him to make that arrest, than the cop who didn’t give the gun owner a pass. This is why we protest laws like this. We shouldn’t have to leave it up to the discretion of a cop to be a “nice guy”. I wouldn’t think CA’s “assault weapons ban” is draconian if it weren’t for the fact that they make it a felony. That is life altering. Not only do you go to jail, but you lose your gun rights forever, lose your job, lose your whole career, hell- maybe even lose your marriage... that’s draconian.

One thing that comes to mind right away is this, if something is against the law, the people doing that thing are responsible for their actions. They can choose to do it or not. If they choose to do it, only they are responsible for the consequenses. This is different from the many cases of shared responsibility we often talk about when the offenders are kids or impaired adults. Generally speaking, people make choices and to call the laws "draconian" is to shift the focus from those people to the laws themselves.

What do you think?

What about the point TS made when he said, "We shouldn’t have to leave it up to the discretion of a cop." We need clear laws that can be enforced in all situations, says TS.

Is that practical? Is there really such a thing as clear laws that can be applied in all situations? Don't we need to rely on police discretion? Isn't that part of the trust we place in our law enforcement people?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Wiretapping With No Warrent Upheld

Thanks to Weer'd World Arrrr regular commenter, Queenfan04 for the link. The New York Times reports that a secret federal court upheld the constitutionality of warrentless wire-tapping.

In a rare public ruling, a secret federal appeals court has said telecommunications companies must cooperate with the government to intercept international phone calls and e-mail of American citizens suspected of being spies or terrorists.

Where are we, for crying out loud, Saudi Arabia, North Korea? What is this "secret" business anyway? Plus, weren't we supposed to be getting away from this kind of thing now that we're on the threshold of a new era?

After much debate about whether this actually violates the 4th Amendment's Guarantee to the Right to Privacy, the court decided it meets the criteria for an exception.

Coming in the final days of the Bush administration, the ruling was hailed by the administration and conservatives as a victory for an aggressive approach to counterterrorism. The Justice Department said in a statement that it was “pleased with this important ruling.”

Didn't Obama promise to lessen the power of executive privilege? Didn't he criticize President Bush for secretly ordering the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of American citizens without the approval of Congress or the courts? I guess we'll soon see if he sings a different tune as President.

What do you think he'll do? Do you think he'll live up to his promises? Do you think this is too much power invested in one branch of government and therefore too much temptation for abuse?

Please feel free to comment.

It Happens in England too

CNN reports on the resignation of UK's top police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair.

Two weeks after the bombings, four bombers tried but failed to carry out similar attacks on London's transport system, putting the city and country even more on edge. Officers staking out a suspect's home in south London saw and followed Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, wrongly believing he was a suspect.

The officers trailed de Menezes as he traveled on a bus and into a subway station, where they chased him and shot him dead.

Immediately the Blue Wall of Silence went up, or in this case it was the old Blue Wall of Coverup. Blair announced that the suspect had refused to stop when the officers ordered him to. This turned out to be false. Last December police anti-terror chief, Andy Hayman, resigned claiming that he was responsible for not informing his superiors, but it looks like that wasn't enough to protect his boss. Blair still claims he wasn't given the whole story until the following day.

What do you think about the responsibility of officers for the actions of their men? In a case like this, should the trigger-happy foot soldier be let off with a reprimand and his bosses fired? Or, is it right to fire these guys for trying to coverup what was a legitimate mistake?

Leave a comment if you like.

Is Fascism Coming to the United States?

According to Naomi Wolf it's already here, almost. In a thought-provoking article the Star News Online describes the dire situation as Wolf sees it. (h/t to Patrick in California)

Comparing coups from the Nazis' rise to power in Germany to the Pinochet regime in Chile, Wolf identified key 10 steps in the fall of democracy. Among these: the invoking of a terrifying external threat, the creation of secret prisons, a rise in domestic surveillance, the harassment of citizens' groups, a crackdown on the press and the treating of dissent as treason.

It would certainly be hard to deny the signals she cites, but does that mean we're headed down the path to the kind of government control described so forcefully in George Orwell's 1984? Even folks who break no laws and have never suffered harassment of any kind have noticed the frightening and ever-increasing video surveillance.

The first video talks about The List which is ostensibly maintained for airport security. The second video describes how Blackwater has been mandated for domestic security work.

Watching these from the vantage point of Europe makes me wonder if I should come home to the US, change my stance on personal weapons and prepare for the upcoming fight or if perhaps I should move even farther away. What would you do if you were me? Do you think this is paranoia? Isn't there too much money invested in America's capitalism to allow something like the government taking over? Is it a valid comparison to say the US today is like the Germany of 1931?