Government

The rest of the story

When I was a kid, Paul Harvey used to have a radio show called “The rest of the story” where he would do a short story about something that had occurred that “everyone” knew, and then would disclose the part of the story that was largely unknown. He would end the segment with “and now you know… the rest of the story.” With that out of the way:

Here is a tear jerking story about three young black people who were gunned down in their prime by evil, racist cops, when all they were doing was listening to the radio and “smoking.” What the story glosses over is that three handguns were found in the vehicle. What the story doesn’t mention is that at least one of them, Jaquan Kimbrough-Rucker, has a lengthy criminal record. He was convicted in 2018 for a felony in Indian River county (burglary), was sentenced to three years and wound up serving two years in prison for it (first year was credit for time served.) He was released early. He was involved in this case just weeks after being released from prison. Had he served his full sentence, this likely would not have happened.

The shooting can’t be interrupting him too much because he was arrested in December of 2020 for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and again in March of 2021 for possession of Fentanyl, Cocaine, Ecstacy, Xanax, resisting arrest, and intent to distribute.

Now without knowing whether or not they were business associates of this violent drug dealer, or merely in the wrong place, this wasn’t some young, innocent group of young people. The two young people who were killed were friends with this drug dealing violent criminal, and that is what got them killed. It wasn’t racism. It wasn’t out of control cops, it was another case of criminal black men that got them killed.

Now you know the rest of the story.

By Divemedic, ago

Police State

Across the US, police conduct more than 20 million traffic stops each year. This means that 50,000 times each day, a police officer stops someone in traffic. Less than half of those stops are for speeding, DWI, stop sign or stoplight violations. Instead, minor traffic violations are used as an excuse to initiate criminal investigations. This tactic fails to find any criminal wrongdoing 98% of the time.

I disagree with the thrust of the article- claiming that police are racist. The real reason why traffic stops disproportionally affect blacks is for two reasons: most police and most traffic stops happen in large cities, which are where most blacks live, and black neighborhoods tend to be where most of the violent crime is, so that is where most police spend most of their time. That is just a fact. We all know it. Go to any city and ask any person, no matter what race they are, to tell you where the most dangerous and crime ridden area of town is, and they will point to a predominately black neighborhood.

No, the real issue with police overreach isn’t racism- it is that the police have too much power to stop and search people. Let’s agree to start there.

By Divemedic, ago

Mass shooter stopped?

There are stories all over mainstream media about the man in Atlanta who was arrested in a Publix grocery store while in possession of an AR15, a shotgun, and half a dozen handguns. Reading all of the stories made me realize that something was odd about all of them.

Then I found it. It took a lot of searching, but I finally found the entire story. Here is a picture of the suspect:

Never mind, nothing to see here. It wasn’t a white guy, so that isn’t a story. Isn’t that odd, that big media always leaves race out of the story, unless the criminal is a white man?

The funny part here is that this man may not have committed a crime. He has a concealed weapons permit, and at least one version of the story says that police were called only after a man saw him with an AR15 in a bathroom stall. He was only charged with “Reckless Conduct,” which seems like a bullshit charge designed to allow the cops to confiscate his property.

By Divemedic, ago

Woke Chief in Boulder

Boulder, Colorado just had a mass shooting that resulted in a police officer being killed. In March of 2020, Maris Herold became the first female police chief of the Boulder Police Department. A graduate of Eckerd College here in St Petersburg, the online major is billed by the college as “the most inclusive of the social sciences.” Make no mistake, she was selected to be the chief because she is woke, not because she is competent. According to her Bio:

Herold has a background in social work, serving as a sexual assault investigator and as a psychiatric intake worker in a juvenile mental health facility.

Last year, she took a knee during the BLM protests to show solidarity with the rioters. She also swore to “to draw on best practices from around the world, importing some use-of-force guidelines from Europe.”

That is notable given the stark differences in policing — and criminal justice as a whole — between the U.S. and EU. Many European officers do not carry firearms; the populace they are policing, of course, doesn’t have the ready access to firearms that Americans do.

So an antigun “only one” type of woke police chief happens to have a mass shooting just when Congress needs one to make political points for their proposed AWB.

By Divemedic, ago

Dept of Precrime

Two days ago, I posted about the new tactic of the NYPD, where they would be knocking on people’s doors in order to have a conversation with people who say mean things on the Internet.

Via Miguel, we now see that the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office is taking up that mantle. They are knocking on people’s doors to question them about crimes that they have not committed, based purely upon things that they have said on the Internet about politicians.

It appears like the police have chosen where their loyalties lie, and it isn’t with the citizens they are sworn to defend.

I said then that my answer would be: “Officer, I do not have discussions with police or answer questions unless my attorney is present. Come back with a warrant. Now if you will excuse me, I have better things to do than speak with Donut munching tyrants. If you have so little to do, maybe you should go read over the First Amendment. Now fuck off.”

Remember, don’t talk to the police. Here is an excellent lecture on that subject:

By Divemedic, ago

Kids in cages

Biden has kids in cages, with nothing more than potato chip bags as blankets:

The left screamed that Trump was evil because he was keeping kids in cages. I wonder why the left doesn’t seem to care that this practice began with Obama, and is continuing with Biden. It’s almost as though they only care about illegal immigrants when they can use them to make political hay, almost EXACTLY like shootings.

By Divemedic, ago

CDC’s job is to destroy businesses

The cruise industry has been stuck in limbo for the past year. They have been waiting for CDC guidance on exactly how, and with what procedures, cruise operators will be permitted to sail again. All they have gotten for months is a constant stream of changing rules, empty promises, and conflicting regulations.

If you can’t beat them, move elsewhere.

Cruise lines all over the world are finding ways to begin sailing again. The biggest way is for ships to either “cruise to nowhere,” in other words leave, sail around, and then return to the same port, or they set sail from a port, hit several ports within the same nation, then return.

Already, cruises have popped up in Singapore and will begin in May in Israel, countries where virus rates are low and vaccine rates are high. The UK recently determined ocean voyages for domestic passengers could resume in May, leading lines such as P&O, Cunard, Fred. Olsen, MSC, Princess and Viking to announce domestic, “round Britain” cruises exclusively for UK residents.

The United States cannot allow this, because of a pair of little known laws that were passed over a century ago in order to guarantee the profits of the robber barons and their railroad empires: The Passenger vehicle Service Act and the Jones Act.

The Passenger Vehicle Service Act states that passengers traveling between U.S. ports must do so on ships that were built in the U.S., are owned by U.S. companies (ensuring that they pay US taxes), and that adhere to the strict U.S. Coast Guard regulations to be registered (flagged) in the United States. The Jones Act prohibits the transport of goods between two U.S. ports by ships that are not owned, built and flagged in the U.S.

What this means is that ships can’t cruise from one port to the other within the US, and the CDC is no longer allowing ships to go from any US port to another country, because COVID.

Since they cannot cruise out of ports in the US, cruise lines are taking their show on the road. Crystal Cruises is sailing out of the Bahamas, Celebrity is sailing at least one ship out of St Maarten, and Royal Caribbean will soon be sailing out of the Bahamas. Plans are already in the works to homeport more than one cruise line out of Cozumel.

The longer the CDC delays on its industry guidance, the more this trend will continue. As long as cruising remains on-pause within the United States due to the CDC’s long-standing No-Sail order, it is clear that more and more lines will go abroad to restart operations. And that will hurt U.S. homeports and American workers.

The United States is increasingly making themselves irrelevant in the cruise industry. Since 9/11, the primary focus for the cruise industry has been American cruise ports that do not require domestic flights for a majority of passengers. These homeports and their related itineraries haven’t measurably changed in two decades.

All of that is changing because of Government action, or rather, inaction. Until the CDC begins working more proactively with the industry, providing technical guidance on restart that still has yet to be delivered to cruise lines nearly five months after they were promised, things will not improve.

The lines are continuing to seek dialogue with the government, to no avail. Cruise lines are also subject to extensive regulations from the CDC that do not apply to other businesses or forms of travel, including hotel, resort or airline industries. Many of the protocols put in place by the cruise lines, like a vaccination mandate for both guests and workers, as well as robust and mandatory PCR testing, are not required for other forms of travel or high risk industries.

By Divemedic, ago