Winds of change

Recently, the theme of  training at my school has been a review of how teachers should be reacting to an active shooter. Our school resource officer was the instructor for the training. He had some interesting facts to share. For example he told us that my county, which is fairly rural, has three people living in it who have pledged their support for Isis.

He also provided a link to the FBI report (pdf warning) on active shooter incidents. It makes for interesting reading.

After the training was over, the floor was opened up for questions. The first question was asked by a math teacher, who wanted to know what the deputy thought of the proposed law that would allow teachers to carry weapons on campus. The deputy replied that he used to be opposed to citizens carrying weapons, because he feared that responding police officers might mistake an honest armed citizen with the shooter, and shoot the citizen by mistake. (The obvious hypocrisy here is stunning: so I shouldn’t be allowed to carry because of your irresponsibility?) The deputy then went on to say that he has since changed his opinion, because the evidence is mounting that armed good guys are the key to defending against armed bad guys. He said that all of the active shooter incidents that he is aware of occurred in areas where the intended targets were unarmed.

The deputy also revealed that, should the law pass, they are looking at a system where selected teachers  would be trained and certified by the sheriff’s office to carry weapons on school property. The sheriff’s department will place locked, secure cabinets at strategic locations on campus. These lockers will be opened by fingerprint locks that are keyed to the authorized teachers’ fingerprints, and will contain a handgun, spare magazines, and pale blue body armor with the word “Teacher” on the front and back. Responding deputies will be trained to look for the body armor before mistakenly blazing away at any armed people who aren’t law enforcement officers. While I have several issues with this plan, this is much better than the “only one” attitudes that law enforcement has had in the past.

In the group discussion that followed, another teacher at my table spoke up and said that this idea made her nervous, because she didn’t think that a teacher having a gun around children was a good idea, because in a shooting confrontation, this children could be hit in the crossfire. I sarcastically told her that I agreed, because after all, it would be better to have the shooter lining the children up and shooting them 20 at a time without having to worry about people shooting at him. The other teachers at the table laughed. Ridiculing these stupid ideas is, in my opinion, the best way to shut the idiots up.

Winds of change, indeed.

Catching Crackers

In a continuation of the “race war” that many blacks seem to be waging, and many whites seem to be pretending doesn’t exist, a couple went out and attempted to “catch a cracker” – slang for robbing a white person. When they didn’t find a suitable white person, they robbed a black man.

In Florida. Didn’t the recent Zimmerman case teach the criminals in this state what happens when you attempt to rob people?

Military throwback to the Carter years

Robb at Sharp as a Marble had this to say about disarming troops while on base:

A Marine, trained in the art of rifles, with a Secret clearance, fully background checked and given access to real, military grade hardware, could not own something as simple as a handgun while on base.

Do you want to know why such rules happen? Here is why, according to the FBI:

Many street gang members join the military to escape the gang
lifestyle or as an alternative to incarceration, but often revert back
to their gang associations once they encounter other gang members in the
military.
Other gangs target the U.S. military and defense
systems to expand their territory, facilitate criminal activity such as
weapons and drug trafficking, or to receive weapons and combat training
that they may transfer back to their gang.

~ In
Iraq, armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls have
served as canvasses for spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about
185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with
“GDN” for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang’s six-pointed
star and the word “Chitown,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

~ In Germany, a soldier is being prosecuted this week for the murder
of Sgt. Juwan Johnson, beaten to death on July 4, 2005, allegedly during
a Gangster Disciple initiation in Kaiserslautern.

~ In September, Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Europe
warned teachers and parents to watch out for signs of gang activity,
including the deadly MS-13 gang. At the time, DODDS-Europe public
affairs officer David Ruderman said there had been two incidents in the
past 18 months that involved students fighting, wearing gang colors or
claiming to be members of gangs. In one of the incidents, a student’s
family member may have been a gang member, he said.

~ Earlier this year, Kadena Air Base on Okinawa established a joint
service task force to investigate gang-related activity involving high
school teens linked through the Web site MySpace.com.

When I joined the military in the mid-eighties, I arrived at my first command, and I was told stories by the “old timers” about how things were in the late seventies. They told me stories about people doing lines of cocaine right on the tables in the lounge areas of the ship. They told me stories about how the officers would not enter the enlisted berthing areas without armed escorts. Drug use and drug dealing were widespread.

Vietnam, and the seemingly directionless leadership had stripped the military of honor and left the United States with a hollowed out force. That is not to say that everyone that entered the military was a drug abuser. No, like a bad neighborhood, many of the people that are there are good people, but there are still more troublemakers than average.

I think we are seeing the same thing now: The bad economy, combined with the leadership that is lacking for our military, has combined to recreate the hollowed out shell of a military that we had in the 1970s. Instead of a fighting force, our military has become a type of welfare– a jobs program, if you will. A jobs program that doesn’t care about your honor, your background, or your mental state. After all, Aaron Alexis joined the Navy on a criminal background waiver. Eighteen percent of recruits joining the Army need criminal history waivers.

In 2007 more than half of the Army’s 511 convictions were for thefts, ranging from burglaries to bad checks and stolen cars. Another 130 were for drug offenses. The remainder included two for manslaughter; five for sexual crimes, including rape, incest or sexual assault, and; three for negligent or vehicular homicide. Two received waivers for terrorist threats including bomb threats in 2007.

Even the Marines are not exempt. 235 of the Marine Corps’ 350 waivers were for various types of thefts in 2007, and another 63 were for assaults or robberies that may also have included use of a weapon. The remainder included one for manslaughter in 2007; four for sex crimes; and five for terror threats, including bomb threats.

Without honor, of course the powers that be are afraid of giving you weapons. How many more people that are as crazy as Alexis, and have an even worse record? I am betting that there are more than a few.

Fraud

In response to Graybeard’s comment on my post about job prospects in the EMS field:

Yes, fraud is running rampant. In 2002, Medicare reimbursement for ambulances was less than $1 billion. In 2009, it had more than doubled, despite the fact that the amounts paid for each trip had not changed. I can tell you that the linked article’s claim that 80% of interfacility ambulance rides are fraudulent doesn’t surprise me one bit. I think that number is spot on.

The Feds are cracking down on this, but they are not even catching a fraction of the fraud. As the Affordable Care Act is implemented, it will only get worse.

Culture

In reference to the shooting that I mention here and here, the older brother of the would-be burglar has a Facebook page. According to the page, he is 23 years old, and graduated from Miles College in 2010. Miles college is a liberal arts black college that receives funding from the United Negro College Fund.

Here are a few examples of this college graduate’s writing:

Let
me tell who don’t no boots in da Sommer is a no no lol i saw a nigga
with some polo boots on with some shorts on then i saw a somebody with
some Tims on do you no how dum u look it 100 degrees out side in you got
this shit on 3,words kill your self

and this little gem:

 Man
it’s time 4 me to do wat I have to do I can’t be happy cause of all da –
shit around me I’m ta dat point wat aver happens happens I’m killing my
self. 4 da last 3 n a 1/2 week my head been pound I’m lose in a lot of
wight I can’t go back n play ball cause dis n dat on my mind wat ever
happens from here da man above no wats best 4 me.

Do you want to know why the black culture is failing? This is why. This man is the male role model for his younger brother, the one he looked up to, the one who raised him. This is a broken culture, and saving the lives and futures of blacks, as well as lowering US crime, is going to have to start with fixing this broken culture.



More on the Louisiana shooting

I posted yesterday about a man that shot a teen that had scaled a 5 foot tall fence to enter the shooter’s driveway, was confronted by the homeowner, and was shot. The homeowner, who was standing next to his back door, states that he told the intruder to freeze, the intruder (who has a history of burglaries and thefts) turned toward the homeowner with his hand in his waistband, and was shot. Here is a picture of the driveway:

The state has charged the homeowner with attempted second degree murder. In Louisiana, there are only four ways that the state can prove second degree murder. Two of them have to do with the sale of drugs, and don’t apply here. A third involves death as a result of a violent felony, and also doesn’t apply. The final way involves a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. In other words, they have to prove that he intended to severely injure or kill when he shot the lad.

One would think that the act of shooting someone in itself proves intent, but that is not the case. A killing can not be second degree murder if the shooter
possessed a belief that he must use deadly
force in self-defense, even if that belief turns out to be unreasonable, rather than the intentional mental state of
committing a murder. Like the Zimmerman case, prosecutors are overcharging what is clearly a manslaughter case, ar the most.

This is a common tactic for prosecutors: Overcharge, and push for a plea deal. If the person doesn’t take a plea, they must defend against the charge, and all of the lesser included charges. These two cases illustrate for me the need to do away with lesser included charges. I think that prosecutors should file the charge that the person is likely guilty of, instead of overcharging and hoping that a lesser charge sticks.

Anyway, the homeowner will likely use Louisiana’s self defense statute as a defense.

Use of force or violence in defense

A.  The use of force or violence upon
the person of another is justifiable when committed for the purpose of
preventing a forcible offense against the person or a forcible offense
or trespass against property in a person’s lawful possession, provided
that the force or violence used must be reasonable and apparently
necessary to prevent such offense
, and that this Section shall not apply
where the force or violence results in a homicide.
B.  For the purposes of this Section,
there shall be a presumption that a person lawfully inside a dwelling,
place of business, or motor vehicle held a reasonable belief that the
use of force or violence was necessary
to prevent unlawful entry
thereto, or to compel an unlawful intruder to leave the premises or
motor vehicle, if both of the following occur:
(1)  The person against whom the force
or violence was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcibly
entering
or had unlawfully and forcibly entered the dwelling, place of
business, or motor vehicle.
(2)  The person who used force or
violence knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible
entry was occurring
or had occurred.
C.  A person who is not engaged in
unlawful activity and who is in a place where he or she has a right to
be shall have no duty to retreat before using force or violence as
provided for in this Section and may stand his or her ground and meet
force with force.
D.  No finder of fact shall be
permitted to consider the possibility of retreat as a factor in
determining whether or not the person who used force or violence in
defense of his person or property had a reasonable belief that force or
violence was reasonable and apparently necessary to prevent a forcible
offense or to prevent the unlawful entry. (emphasis added)
Note that the law states that the force must be reasonable and necessary under the circumstances,
but does not explicitly limit the degree of force to non-deadly force.The law also states that a person lawfully in his residence can use force, if he holds a reasonable belief that force is required to prevent a break in, as long as two conditions are met: The person must be in the process of entering the residence, and must have reason to believe that an unlawful entry was occurring.

The presence of an unknown person immediately outside your backdoor at
2:00AM,where the intruder was required to scale a
fence, would seem to allow a reasonable
belief that an unlawful entry into the dwelling was occurring or about to occur.

Again, I think that this is a lawful shoot, but that will likely get me called a barbarian and a racist, like I was yesterday for my Zimmerman and Alexander opinions.

The rest of the story

Anti-gun forces and race baiters are trying to use the case of a black woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a “warning shot” at her reportedly abusive husband in contrast to the Zimmerman/Martin case as proof that blacks are being discriminated against under the law in Florida. Of course, the facts don’t support this, but anti-gunners and race baiters never let the facts get in the way when they are trying to score points.

Background 

Marissa Alexander was married to her (I think second) husband. The man she was married to had reportedly been abusive to a previous woman. They had been dating for approximately three years, and she claimed in September of 2009 that he had battered her. Nevertheless, they were married on May 14, 2010. Shortly thereafter, she obtained a domestic violence restraining order, and that order was in effect at the time of the shooting on August 1, 2010. In fact, she had not been living in the home since June of 2010. She was pregnant at the time of the marriage and separation, and gave birth to a baby sometime during the last half of July, 2010.

The events leading up to the shooting

On July 31, 2010, Ms. Alexander signed out of the hospital and left her newborn baby there, and arrived at the marital home, a home that she had not lived in for over two months, and where her husband lived with his two sons from a previous marriage. The husband that she was so afraid of that she sought a restraining order against. She parked her car in the garage, and entered the home. She spent the night.

The next morning, the husband arrived home with his two sons and entered through the garage to find his estranged wife there. He cooked breakfast, and they all ate. After breakfast, Ms. Alexander handed her phone to her husband, so that he could see pictures of the newborn child that was still in the hospital, and then entered the bathroom. While she was in the bathroom, her husband found evidence in the phone that she had a continuing relationship with her ex-husband Lincoln Alexander (whose last name she chose to keep) and questioned her as to the paternity of the child. A verbal argument ensued, and the husband told his sons to get dressed, and that they were leaving the home.

The shooting

Ms. Alexander went to the garage where her car was parked. She claims that she tried to leave, but that the door would not open. There is no evidence to back up the claim that the door was inoperable. She retrieved a gun from the car, and reentered the house through the kitchen, and pointed the gun at her husband, who raised his hands in surrender. She then shot at him, and struck the wall next to his head. The bullet went through the wall, and entered the ceiling of the adjacent living room.

The husband and the 2 children fled to the back yard and called 911. The woman was arrested.

The aftermath

Ms. Alexander posted bail, and was ordered as a condition of her release that she have no contact with her husband or his children. She made contact with them anyway, and tried to convince them to lie at their deposition, to protect her. The husband changed his testimony to protect her, and was caught doing so. He later admitted that he had changed his testimony to help Alexander avoid prison.

In December, Alexander drove to the new house where her husband and his two children had moved after the shooting. That was when she attacked the husband, giving him a black eye, because he would not allow her to stay the night. She was again arrested and her bond was revoked.

Hardly self defense. she deserved every one of the 20 years that she got.

Here is my source.

Here we go again

Another black choirboy who has been arrested multiple times for burglary is shot while trying to burglarize a man’s house, this time in New Orleans. He was seen by others in the neighborhood earlier in the evening, riding his bicycle with another black teen, apparently casing the neighborhood. The people were afraid to call police, because they didn’t want to be accused of racism.

The person shot was a 14 year old with a criminal history:

Marshall Coulter, who had been on medication for attention deficit
hyperactive disorder, was awaiting trial for “stealing stuff,” his
brother said.
“He would steal — he was a professional thief,
sure,” David Coulter said. “But he would never pick up a gun, not in a
million years. He was too scared to aim a gun at the grass, let alone
aim it at a person. No way. Before he’ll ever pick up a gun, he’ll be
your friend first.

Who was caught on a security camera entering the fenced yard of a home, and leaving a second black youth on the street as a lookout.
Here is a picture of the “sweet, innocent, 14 year old boy” that was shot:

People, locking their doors and afraid to go outside because criminals own our neighborhoods and our streets. If you go outside, and are confronted by a person not of your race, you have to take a chance and let them rob you while praying that they are not armed and won’t decide to kill you. If you decide to defend yourself, the government will take everything from you and from your family. They will destroy you.

I predict a coming backlash against minorities, and a coming race war.

EDITED TO ADD: Here is a link to another article on the shooting.

Foreclosure scams

A new chapter in the Florida foreclosure mess has opened, as real estate scammers are renting out homes that are to be foreclosed, by posing as the home’s owner. In this case, a pair of cops were arrested for the scheme. This is possible, because it takes years to foreclose a home, thanks to the criminal activity of the banks themselves.

People who are caught up in the fraudulent foreclosure system, where the banks gave loans to people that they knew couldn’t afford them, so that those people could buy homes that were selling for far more than they were worth. The banks then paid appraisers to overstate the homes’ value, and sold the loans off to investors before the first payment was due by calling them mortgage backed securities. The securities were rated as top notch investments by ratings firms, even though they were subprime loans. They created a company called “MERS” to aid in obscuring the fraud by taking mortgage transfers out of the public record and hiding them in a maze of private files.

The homebuyers soon defaulted, crashing the economy, and the entire deck of cards collapsed. The banks moved to foreclose, but had destroyed the paperwork. A savvy lawyer working in Jacksonville discovered the lack of notes and mortgages, and people began fighting the foreclosures. The banks responded by “creating” and forging paperwork. Banks were reportedly calling this the “art department.”

They got caught, and lost quite a bit of money. In February of 2012, several banks came to a settlement with the federal government, where the banks paid $25 billion for wrongfully foreclosing on people’s homes. The agreement settles state and federal investigations finding that the country’s five largest
mortgage servicers routinely signed foreclosure related documents outside the presence of a notary public and without really knowing whether the facts they contained were correct.  Both of these practices violate the law. Federal and state governments received the lion’s share of the money, and only $1.5 billion went to reimburse the people whose homes were stolen through this fraud. The politicians are bought and paid for. Of course, the homeowners are still able to pursue their own court actions.

This had the effect of slowing the foreclosure process, because in many cases, the banks cannot prove that the homeowner owes them any money. So now the other scammers move in: people are posing as the homeowner of vacant homes (sometimes the banks themselves), and are renting them out and pocketing the money. It is an added slap in the face that some of the criminals doing this are also the very police that are supposed to prevent that sort of thing.