Good cop, proper use of force

A woman is stopped for a minor traffic infraction. She had a tail light out. The cop wrote her a ticket. In this area, a ticket for faulty equipment will frequently be dismissed if you get the equipment repaired. Instead, this woman decides to escalate the situation and rolls her window up on the cop’s arm.

What follows is an example of why I think everyone will benefit from cops carrying body cameras:

The cop showed restraint, and this woman deserved to go to jail. Of course, she has filed a brutality complaint, and is claiming that she was arrested for “driving while black.”

To the officer: You are a calm professional, and I support what you did here.

Continuing Shenanigans

For those just joining us:
I had a house that lost its value in the real estate crash. I declared bankruptcy, and was going to turn the house over to the bank. The bank testified in court that they were the owner of the note and the mortgage, but I caught them lying. They had sold the note and mortgage to Fannie Mae, two year earlier. I sued, and we settled out of court for almost 10 grand. They then sold the note and mortgage again, this time to Nationstar mortgage. They recorded the sale in the county clerk’s office.

Then SunTrust tried to foreclose. The foreclosure was dismissed, and Nationstar claimed to not have any record of owning the mortgage.

The feds stepped in and sued the banks. I got another $4,000 in THAT lawsuit.

SunTrust continued to send me demands for payment, even though prohibited from doing so by the bankruptcy court, and the fact that they no longer own the note and mortgage. So after a few years of this, I got tired of it and sued again in May of this year (the hearing was in June). This time, the court awarded me $14,700 and instructed SunTrust to have no further contact with me.

The next day, SunTrust began sending letters and leaving notes on my door. Since that court date in June, I have gotten 2 letters, 5 notes on my door, and two phone calls.

Today, I get a letter from SunTrust, telling me that they have sold my note and mortgage, and effective October 1, 2013, I should send my payments to yet another bank. I am thinking that this is going to be my new career.

Bankruptcy is supposed to allow you to start over. It has been four years, and this bank STILL will not leave me alone.

In France

This article about a French Jeweler, who was being beaten at gunpoint during a robbery, is in jail for shooting the robber has a neat little factoid in it:

In a country where gun violence is rare but
armed robbery is increasingly common, the shooting – and the formal
charges of voluntary homicide – have placed the government in a
difficult position.

 So armed robbery isn’t gun violence? I thought that maybe the armed robbery was with a weapon other than a firearm, but no:


The robbery was carried out with a shotgun, he said. It wasn’t clear whether Asli and the accomplice both had firearms.

In fact, the article is filled with examples of firearm robberies. That can’t be. You see, the anti-gun crowd here in the US tells us that there is no gun crime in Europe because guns are illegal. 


Yet the sister of the 19-year-old who was killed says Turk shot him in the back and deserves prison.

“He shot a kid in the back. He’s a traitor, he’s a coward,” said Alexandra Asli, his older sister.
Asli,
who was shot dead in the street outside the jewelry store, had been
convicted 14 times in juvenile court, according to Eric Bedos, the Nice
prosecutor.

It seems that outlawing guns does indeed ensure that only outlaws will have guns.

Half an hour can last forever

Thirty minutes. That is how long the shooter in DC had to kill before police caught up with him. It was seven minutes before the first cops even entered the building. This is not a criticism of police, it’s just that they cannot be everywhere. I feel like they did what they could, and did it well. You are responsible for protecting yourself and your loved ones. Own a gun, and learn how to use it. Thirty minutes can be the rest of your life.

Naval Yard Security holes

When I was in the Navy, I was stationed at Norfolk Naval Operating base. There was a minor stir when I was there, and it had to do with Richard Marcinko and his Red Cell operation. Of course, this incident was rumor, but I believe it to be true. This incident explains what happened at Ft Hood and at the Washington Naval Yard pretty effectively.

Background

It was in the late 80’s, and the commander of SEAL team 6 had been given a new assignment: test the US Military’s ability to handle a terrorist attack. He hand picked a group of 12 SEALs and one Marine to play the part of a terror organization unofficially called “Red Cell.” The Cell was to stage mock attacks on Naval installations as a test of their security.
The tests were to be announced, and the plans for the attacks made known to the base commander of any installation beforehand. This reportedly irritated Marcinko, who felt it was not a true test if the commander of an installation knew when, where, and how an attack would come. So, he played fast and loose with the rules.
He was perhaps the most despised officer in the Navy, for the cardinal sin of making other officers look foolish. This is one reason why SpecWar is not highly regarded by most officers.

The incident

The Norfolk base was on alert for a Red Cell exercise. I was on duty that night, and we had been warned to be on alert for swimmer attacks. Extra watches were posted. Thinking this was a SEAL attack, the commanders assumed that the attack would come by sea. They were wrong. According to rumors at the time, the Red Cell members attacked an ambulance just off base as they were eating at McDonald’s. They stole their uniforms, and used the ambulance to enter the base, and stage a kidnapping of the Commander, Naval Forces Atlantic.

This was reportedly the incident that caused the ultimate end of the Red Cell program, according to rumor.

Instead of recognizing the true problem and fixing it, the military brass simply punished the person that exposed the problem. This is a typical response from bureaucrats that care more for their careers than they do for organizational success. That is the basic flaw of our military: it is more of a jobs program than it is a true fighting force.

This is also the reason why it will be our nation’s militarized police force that subjugates the American people, and not the military. A militia force in the US would do well against our own military. The police in this country are better armed than the Army. This is illustrated by the fact that an attack on a military base that houses the Chief of Naval Operations by a lone gunman was more successful that it would have been on any city police station.

Follow your instincts

During the recent shooting at the Navy Yard in our nation’s capitol, the powers that be decided to order the occupants of the building to stay where they are- to “shelter in place.” What this means is that the police want you to lock the door, and pray that they don’t have blasters.

Shelter in place is not put into motion for the benefit of the people
being sheltered. Primarily, it benefits the people who are charged with
controlling the disaster, who do not need large numbers of people
underfoot, getting in the way of rescue efforts.

I posted on this three years ago, and how this strategy cost many live on 9/11. Don’t listen to authorities if your hindbrain is telling you to run- run. The powers that be care only about resolving the incident, not about any individual in it.

Lawsuit?

Steve Bracknell, the Chief of the Lake Mary police, the town where George Zimmerman now lives, received a letter from a resident, demanding that he be arrested. The problem is that there is no evidence that Zimmerman has committed any crimes.
Read the police Chief’s response. This has gone far beyond enforcing the law, and is now a full blown persecution. I hope Zimmerman keeps these letters, because they will come in handy when it is time for the lawsuits. The chief states that Zimmerman is “another Sandy Hook waiting to happen.” This is the same police chief who said: “Man, it would be fantastic if you have an apartment out there [in California] for George Zimmerman.”
The police chief also made statements that “The guy just can’t stay out of the newsYou’d
think he’d get the heck out of Dodge.” It seems to me that Zimmerman could make the case that the chief is using his authority as a law enforcement officer to harass and intimidate him.

Sick

There is a reason why posting has been a little sporadic for the past few days. About three weeks ago, I posted about the state of Florida and the Army Corps dumping swamp water into the ocean. Three days after that incident, I got sick. Very sick. No one else in my house caught it, telling me that this was likely not the flu or anything.
My fever was high, my pulse racing, and it came with dizzy spells, vomiting, and diarrhea. My ears hurt. The illness lasted for two weeks. It was followed by a painful ear infection. On Friday, my left eardrum perforated, and for the next 24 hours, there was a green discharge coming from that ear. It still hurts like hell.
It is my belief that I caught whatever this was from being in that nasty swamp water. Stay out of that area of the Atlantic coast of Florida until they are finished dumping that swamp into the ocean.

Tipping

So the IRS has changed the rules for the automated tips that many restaurants add to the bill of a large party. This will increase the taxes that they must pay, so many are doing away with the practice. The comments on the story have caused me to revisit my feelings on tips.

A waitress or waiter server writes down what I want and reports that to the kitchen staff. After the staff cooks the food, the server carries it to my table. The other duties of my server include filling my glass and bringing me the check. For this job, the server receives a wage of about $5 an hour from their employer.

My sister works at a TGI Friday’s and tells me that she brings home about $150 a night in tips. I imagine that she doesn’t report all of her cash tips, because many servers do not. This means that she is getting a tax subsidy, and is likely taking home enough cash to equal a $25 per hour wage.

My son in law works as an entertainer for a dinner show in the area, and at this show, there is no ordering of food, as the menu is a preset meal where the only choice is what soft drink you want. He reports to me that the servers get irate if they make less than $100 per show in tips. The venue does one three hour show per night Sunday through Thursday, and two on Fridays and Saturdays. That works out to nearly $40 per hour.

Compare that to the following hourly wages in the Central Florida area:
Paramedics: $13.23
Firemedics: $12.86
Registered Nurse: $24
Vending Machine Repairman: $10.50
Theme park ride operator: $8.35
Security Guard (unarmed): $10.55
Security Guard (armed): $13.25

After thinking about this, I am going to amend my tipping policy. If my party is less than 6 people, my tip for adequate service will be 15% of the check to a maximum of $8. I feel like a table that size taking up about 1/3 of a server’s time for an hour is worth no more than $8. After all, that works out to a gross of about $29 an hour. More than fair.

For a table of more than six, I will divide the number in my party by the number of servers that are taking care of the party, and pay 15% of the tab for adequate service to a maximum of $8 times that number, on the theory that large parties take up a larger amount of the server’s time.

It isn’t my problem that her employer or the other patrons don’t pay them more. If the server has a problem with that, they need to take it up with them. I am just no longer willing to pay someone $40 an hour to carry food around.

Syrian backlash

Military personnel have apparently been participating in backlash against the President’s plan to fight for al Qaeda, and are posing with signs covering their faces in protest of the war.

The pentagon is attempting to figure out exactly who the servicemen are. I am assuming that the NSA will be tracking the internet trails left behind by these men. (It does appear to be all men in the photos)

The left is in an uproar, claiming that we should be behind the President, no matter what, and the right is in an uproar, protesting the move. Mysteriously, the celebrities that opposed war when a Republican did it are sitting this one out. Apparently, it is different when your guy does it.

Meanwhile, the Russians are sending a clear message to the Americans.