Cops

NY and GOA: A Larger Issue?

There is a case in NY that is important, where the U.S. Northern District Court ruled in Higbie v. James that New York’s concealed carry laws are violating the Second Amendment rights of nonresidents by making it nearly impossible for nonresidents to obtain a concealed carry license. It was sponsored by Gun Owners of America.

The plaintiffs in this case argued that they each have firearms licenses which permit them to bear arms in public in their respective states “and across most of the country.” They also claimed that New York does not permit them to carry their firearms while they are in New York solely because they are not residents or employees of the State. They argued that New York’s licensing scheme is an extreme outlier among the states because at least 27 states do not even require a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public, while the vast majority that do require permits will issue permits to out-of-state residents. The US District Court agreed, and struck down NY’s complicated and overly onerous regulations as being unconstitutionally designed to deny nonresidents their constitutional rights under the Second Amendment. The court ruled that state lawmakers can not restrict concealed carry licenses to maintaining residency, property ownership, or business interests in the state.

The tyrants of NY government attempted to make the argument that their licensing measures were not entirely prohibitive for non-residential applicants, saying certain guidelines allowed for those who owned habitable property or a business stake in the state to apply for such a license. In essence, they claimed that, because they allowed one nonresident to have a permit, this excused violating the rights of the rest of them. In essence, they are relying on the “token negro” defense. The court rightly called them out on this. 

Look, this case will have no direct impact upon the reality of CCW for nonresidents in New York. We all know that, because those ass clowns will simply find another way to violate the rights of US citizens while bleating loudly about the rights of illegal immigrants to take a dump on New York city streets. Even those residents who have permits nominally have to have criminal background checks, a mental health professional sign off on the permit, and multiple references.

The reality is that New York’s scheme is all about who you know and political payoffs when deciding who gets a permit. I know someone who has a New York carry permit. He also has a state police license plate, which starts with 1SP. He began telling me that the state police union had a series of special plates made, and they are only available through Hamilton county in New York. He claimed that this plate was given to “friends” of the police union, and the lower the number was that followed the 1SP, the more important you were to the cops. He said that this plate routinely gets him out of traffic and parking tickets. Not because he paid for it, nor did he jump through hoops. It’s because he knows someone, or as he puts it, “I’ve got a guy.”

This sounded like a lload of BS to me, so I activated my Google skills. What I found was that handing out special plate numbers is a common practice in New York. and I quote:

To some recipients, special license plates issued by the Saratoga County clerk are a symbol of county pride. For others, they are an inherited treasure passed on by a family member or loved one.
For many who have them — a list that ranges from county workers to state Supreme Court judges — an unwritten rule is that a lower number may indicate a special driver.
Indeed, an examination of the recipients of the special plates, which carry an “SP” prefix, shows they are coveted by a select group of government employees and elected officials, including judges, prosecutors, town supervisors, attorneys and political party leaders. The spouses and children of those people are also among those, estimated to be in the hundreds, who have the plates.

Now the SP prefix goes to Saratoga County. The 1SP prefix, which I can find little about, belongs to the State Police. This is how things are done there, from Concealed Weapons Permits to License plates, corruption and special favors rule the day.

They claim it is for “county pride” but I am sure there are not that many people who believe that. This is a way of announcing to the police that you are politically well connected and should receive special treatment.

The real impact of the Higbie case is that the noose is closing. The era of violating people’s rights to bear arms is closing through the courts. That doesn’t mean the fight os over. Evil, corruption, and man’s quest for power to rule others never ceases. That’s why the fight can’t either.

Donate to the GOA or the FPC. They are doing the work of patriots.

By Divemedic, ago

Warrants

The left is running around saying that it is illegal for ICE to arrest people unless they have a warrant. The idiots are injecting themselves into the situation by confronting police and demanding to “see the warrant.”

  • The leftist isn’t involved in the case. Random people can’t walk up to police and demand to see anything. The cops are under no compulsion to show you a warrant, nor to explain themselves to randos on the street.
  • The cops don’t have to be in physical possession of the court order or warrant in order to make an arrest. All they need is to know that the warrant or order exists. That’s why they call in the identification of people they are in contact with. If they call in your ID and are told there is an arrest warrant, it isn’t a “get out of jail free” card if they don’t have the physical warrant.

Stop being morons.

By Divemedic, ago

In The Finest Tradition

Cop takes cover behind a woman. I applaud shooting the robber, but any man (especially a cop) who takes cover behind women and children is a pussy.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to say this. Remember the time cops in South Florida hid behind cars filled with soccer moms?

EDIT: Comments here have crossed the line and are generating more heat than light. With that, comments on this post are now closed.

By Divemedic, ago

Property Taxes Again

Governor DeSantis is pushing to have a ballot initiative on Florida’s 2026 ballot. The initiative would be to eliminate property taxes.

Those who oppose this claim that counties, school boards, and other government entities rely on this to provide essential services. That’s a load of crap. On average, counties only rely upon property taxes for 18% of their expenditures. Of course, if you ask the counties, they play a bit of a shell game with the facts:

“If you want to get it from sales tax, well, it’s really going to disproportionately hurt lower income,” Kroll said.

Each year Kroll’s offices collect more than $700 million from property taxes, he said.

“The majority of it goes to the school board that that’s about $248 million,” Kroll said.

The remaining revenue goes to the Seminole County Board of Commissioners and Kroll said they use most of that money to fund the budgets for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Rescue.

  • It isn’t going to disproportionately affect lower income. See, lower income will buy less stuff, so they will pay less in taxes. If a person spends ten times as much, they will pay 10 times more in taxes. That’s how proportionality works. What they really mean is that the poor are now paying nothing, while those who aren’t poor are paying for bullshit that isn’t necessary. There are so many carve outs and exemptions, that nearly half of the people in my small town pay NOTHING in property taxes. More on that in a minute.
  • Don’t look now, but $248 million isn’t most of $700 million
  • The Seminole county school board has an annual budget of just over $1 billion. Only 1 in 3 households in Florida has a school aged child, yet we are each paying thousands to send those kids to school, even though education is a giant failure. It’s a huge drain of resources.

Seminole County’s proposed 2025 budget is $1.2 billion, which includes a potential property tax increase for 2025. That amount also doesn’t include the money that goes to the school board, because that is a different budget. In fact, they are increasing the milage rates for property taxes by 10% over 2024 levels, as well as increasing the county gas tax from 6 cents to 11 cents per gallon, and increasing taxes on electric, cable, and telephone.

With property values climbing, there is no need to raise taxes, but they do like them some tax and spend. Government officials always like to blame the services that are popular for tax increases, even though there is plenty of room to cut other, unneeded services. People don’t want to see the fire department cut, so they fund things like free needles for drug addicted transgender unwed mothers, then cry poor when there is no money left for the fire department.

Let’s take a look at the Seminole County Sheriff’s budget: There is plenty of waste here. The SWAT team has 20 members, and spends $4.5 million a year on it. That is a lot of money. Perhaps there is some room for cuts there. The sheriff’s office is paid $4.4 million per year to provide school resource officers to Seminole county schools, but actually providing those officers costs the Sheriff’s office $9.9 million per year. The cheaper way to go is to have the schools participate in the Guardian program, allowing teachers who volunteer to go through the training to be armed at school. Most counties in Florida who are part of the Guardian program accept the grant money, but then pay cops to fill the roles while not allowing teachers to participate. It’s a HUGE waste of money to have cops there when so many teachers would do it for free. Then they are spending all of that cash, only to find out that school resource officers aren’t required to do a damned thing if, God forbid, there actually IS a shooting at their school.

I pay over $6,000 a year in property taxes. 28 percent of that goes to the county, another 33 percent to the town, 31 percent to the school board, and the remainder to police, fire, EMS, hospital, and the water authority.

Overall, the loss of property tax revenue would mean that government agencies would need to get rid of some luxury items and perhaps learn to stop wasting money. If I could vote more than once to get rid of property taxes, I would.

By Divemedic, ago

Protecting and Serving the Shit Out of You

A woman called police. When they arrived, she claimed that a man kicked in her door, beat her, and fled into the woods on foot. She named him, said he was her boyfriend who had just broken up with her, and was upset over the breakup. The police got a warrant for his arrest for domestic violence.

The only problem? He was a married paraplegic and had been confined to a wheelchair for the past 25 years. Instead of actually conducting a further investigation, the cops arrested him and told him that if he could bring proof that he was actually paralyzed to his trial, he could then prove his innocence. They arrested him and accused him of faking his medical condition to get out of going to jail. Watch for yourself:

The cops inform him 13 minutes into the video that he needs to get a lawyer so he can establish his innocence. Since when has that ever been the law? The cop even admits “She says you kicked down her door, but it doesn’t look like you can kick down anything.” So why are you still arresting him, you fucking idiot? This officer also admits that he spent nine months investigating this. How good is he at investigating when he didn’t even know that the guy he swore a felony arrest warrant for has been confined to a wheelchair for nearly three decades? He even says it’s been in his driving record that he requires a wheelchair and has a handicapped permit.

To make matters worse, the woman had an arrest record for lying in previous cases. This cop, his sergeant, and his lieutenant are all incompetent.

This is one area where Trump and I disagree. Cops don’t need more immunity, they need less. Qualified immunity needs to go away, and cops should be forced to carry malpractice insurance like other professions. I have a one million dollar policy that only costs me $150 a year, but then again, I am not an incompetent idiot who doesn’t know how to think for myself. They can get a policy, too.

To those who would say “Well, there was an arrest warrant, they have to follow it,” that is bullshit. I get written orders from doctors all of the time that I refuse to follow because they are stupid. Just last night, I had a doctor order me to conduct a pregnancy test on an 84 year old woman, and a second doctor wanted me to give a medication to someone when it was right there in the chart that they are allergic to that medication. I can use my brain and refuse to carry out an order that doesn’t make sense. So can cops.

It’s why they make us go to school and have a license. They expect you to not be a complete dumbass.

This story and others like it is why I won’t cry any time a cop gets killed.

By Divemedic, ago

Useless

Check out these young adults in Minneapolis trying to bait cops into chasing them:

When questioned about it, the police chief had this to say:

“If a vehicle is simply stolen, there’s no force, violence or gun involved, police are not allowed to chase stolen cars. Period,” said O’Hara, “The police department’s policy does not allow for a vehicle pursuit simply because the car is stolen. The car would have to have been taken by force, some sort of violence, there would have to be a gun involved or some other serious crime. If an individual is trying to just bait the officer into a pursuit, it’s not going to get safer once this, once the cop starts chasing them… The cops did their job. They had zero discretion in that case,” he continued. “It is just not worth the risk of endangering everyone’s lives, especially if, at the end result, even if no one’s hurt, we arrest a couple juveniles, we bring them downtown, and they’re immediately released. It is completely senseless.”

In the meantime, local residents and business owners voice complaint after complaint that the police do nothing. If the cops aren’t going to even try to catch criminals, there is no reason to have cops. This is a case for an immediate 50% cut to the police budget, to correspond with a matching tax cut for the residents of the city.

In the meantime, remove the plates from your car and simply refuse to pull over for any and all traffic stops. They can’t chase you. Period.

By Divemedic, ago

It’s a street in a strange world

Maybe it’s the third world. Two border patrol agents have been caught taking thousands of dollars in bribes to allow people to enter the country through the nation’s busiest port of entry without showing documents. Both men were paid thousands for each vehicle they waved through.

While Almonte was in custody, investigators allegedly seized nearly $70,000 in cash they believe his romantic partner was trying to move to Tijuana. Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Almonte is potentially facing additional charges for money laundering and obstruction of justice..There have been five US Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the San Diego area to face similar corruption charges in the last two years.

Keep telling me how we need to defend Federal workforce jobs.

By Divemedic, ago

Liars

I read this story about a former firefighter in the Keys who has been accused of making bombs. The cops found him with what they called an unregistered short barreled rifle. I don’t trust cops to know a machine gun from a shoestring, so there is that. Maybe it was a pistol AR with a brace. Because they could see part of the rifle in his backseat, they arrested him for open carry. So much for the incidental exposure part of the law, eh?

They used the short barreled rifle as an example of a threat to the public to get a red flag order, which they they used to get a search warrant for his house. Inside, they found “dozens of firearms” and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition. They also claim to have found bombmaking materials.

This sort of breathless fearmongering sets off my bullshit detector. We all know the ATF lies to make headlines. Read about this Navy guy who got 20 years for possessing unregistered NFA items when the ATF was able to replace the firing mechanism for some replica devices with the firing mechanism from real devices, which enabled them to fire them.

Now ask yourself if someone could take all of the items in your house and spin a tale of you being a danger to society. Do you have lamp timers? Pipe? Gunpowder? Fertilizer? Constructive possession, in the eyes of the ATF.

By Divemedic, ago

Cyberstalking Cops

From wirecutter, we see that a man saw cops doing donuts in a local parking lot and posted video to the Internet. The local police union has begun posting videos and pictures of the man, along with his identifying information. I was going to comment over there, but my thoughts became too wordy for a comment.

The cops get caught by a citizen doing something that they would ticket others for, and a citizen posts video of it. The cops get in trouble, and a social media war ensues. Here is the issue. You, as a public servant, are driving around in a highly visible vehicle that has a huge billboard painted on it. We had things like this happen to the fire department when I worked there. You know that you are being watched, you can expect to be in the spotlight, and you act accordingly.

At most, the officer involved would get a talking to about “don’t do that again.” That wasn’t what happened here. The police union decided to up the ante by posting in a public forum what amounts to public threats against the citizen who did the reporting. At best, the actions of the union are poor optics, discouraging citizens from reporting crimes for fear of retaliation. At worst, the posts of the man are thinly veiled attempts at intimidating a witness to police’s illegal acts, which makes this witness tampering, a serious crime in itself. Go with cyberstalking or even witness tampering

Cyberstalking is a crime in Texas. Texas law includes provisions that prohibit stalking and harassment through electronic communication. Including email, social media, instant messaging, and other forms of digital communication. Cyberstalking is defined as the use of electronic means to repeatedly harass, alarm, or annoy another person.

Under Texas law, cyberstalking cases can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. Depending on the specific circumstances of the offense. The penalties for cyberstalking in Texas can include fines, imprisonment. As well as a restraining order to prohibit the offender from contacting the victim.

A reasonable person would consider the statements made by the police through their union to be a threat. Here are some of the posts that they made, each of them included videos, photos, and links to the guy who posted the video of the cops:

Never post anything on the internet you don’t want to see on the news… or the internet.

If you are going to ghost ride your car, like Hamon Brown, make sure the doors aren’t locked when you climb on top.

Remember Hamon Brown? The hater that went on the news to run his mouth about police cars in the snow (in a parking lot)? #DontBeAHater #ComingDine #GotEeem

Tag local auto glass repair companies. We’re looking for someone who can help Hamon Brown get his broken windshield repaired. He didn’t get any Crime Stoppers money for s̷n̷i̷t̷c̷h̷i̷n̷g̷ tattling, so we need a good sponsor that can hook him up.

The police union also posted screen shots of the man’s criminal record.

Comments made by police officers to those posts include statements like:

  • I bet there is no weed smell coming from Hamon Brown’s vehicle
  • Throw stones at cops, expect cops to look at your glass house

In my book, that makes the police union (in this instance) a criminal conspiracy. To threaten a member of the public who reported criminal behavior, simply because it was a member of your organization, is no better than the mafia or the South American drug gangs. I hope this man gets a lawyer, and I hope he sues the police union, who by the way do NOT have qualified immunity. The loss in this lawsuit WILL come out of the police officer’s pockets.

By Divemedic, ago