Criminals

When seconds count

 the police are twenty minutes away. That’s right, this store was being robbed and the thieves were in the store for over twenty minutes, going through drawers and looking for money. The robbers herded the clerk and the customers into the back of the store and made them lie on the floor.Tera Mitchell, the clerk at the store was convinced that the armed criminals were going to shoot her while she was lying helpless on the floor.

Fortunately for Ms. Mitchell, the criminals didn’t kill anyone. This time. Do you really want to trust your life to the armed felon who is robbing you at gunpoint while you lie helpless on the floor? The anti gun crowd will tell you, “Just give him what he wants,” and have you depend on the mental stability and good will of an armed felon.

If I am armed with a weapon, I have a choice. I can choose whether or not I will hand over my wallet. I can choose whether or not to be herded into the back room. I can choose whether or not to watch as the gunman kills others in the restaurant. Or forces the women to strip naked, and cuts the throat of the cook.

People ask me whether or not I would kill someone over the $50 or so that is in my wallet. My answer to them is that the robber is willing to, or he wouldn’t be robbing me at gunpoint. I am not going to shoot to take his life, I am choosing to shoot in order to save my own.

Others tell me that carrying a gun won’t help, that I will probably get killed anyway. Perhaps, but if nothing else, I have at least marked my killer in a way that will help him get caught. He will be the guy that you find somewhere between the scene of my murder and the closest emergency room with at least one 200 grain, .45 caliber hollowpoint lodged in his chest cavity.

By Divemedic, ago

Where do Mexican crime guns come from?

According to the Washington Post, they come from the United States:

No other state has produced more guns seized by police in the brutal Mexican drug wars than Texas. In the Lone Star State, no other city has more guns linked to Mexican crime scenes than Houston.

Of course, that is a bit of a misdirection, as others have shown. However, why isn’t anyone talking about taking the guns away from the US Border Patrol, in light of this story?

A Mexican woman is under arrest after agents at the Andrade Port of Entry discover a stolen gun in her possession.

The 25-year old woman was taken into custody on Saturday after agents at the border discovered the woman had a gun they say belongs to the US Border Patrol.

By Divemedic, ago

Don’t bring a Taser to a gun fight

Brandon Lyles’ first record of wrong doing came to the attention of authorities in 1999, at the age of 18. Since that time, he has been arrested for 7 felonies on seven different occasions, and convicted four times. Lyles spent 8 of the 11 years of his adult life in jail. The third time was for armed burglary, theft, and dealing in stolen property. The crimes were committed while he was still on probation. He was sentenced to six years in prison. He served less than a year, and was released on parole. Counting “time served” during the trial, he was out less than six months after being convicted. Of his third felony. (It’s all here: look up the record for yourself)

Just a couple of weeks after being released, he was arrested again, for burglary, two counts of theft, and misdemeanor criminal mischief. He was convicted and sentenced to ten years. Seven years later, he was again released. A year after that, he was stopped for a traffic infraction by Brandon Coates. No one really knows exactly what happened after that, but what is known is that Deputy Coates tried to use a Taser, and was shot twice in the head and died. Brandon Lyles was later found dead of an apparently self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Some observations:

1 A man convicted of four felonies is still getting out of prison early? Even if one is armed burglary? The reason is because jails are overcrowded with non-violent offenses for owning the wrong plant. Get rid of drug laws, so the animals can be in cages where they belong.

2 If he is willing to kill a cop, what would that armed burglar do to you or your family?

3 Gun laws do not work to prevent criminals from getting weapons.

4 A gun will not help you if you are complacent and are not ready to be more ruthless than your opponent. When the time comes, do not hesitate. Shoot him as many times as it takes to put him down.

By Divemedic, ago

Free house?

Probably not, but here is my story:
I bought my home in April of 2007 for about $240,000. I was intending to live there once I married my fiance. Together, we were making $110,000 a year, and we could easily afford the $1800 a month payments. The problem was that the bottom fell out a year later.

Being an employee of local government, my income is based upon an employer who derives income from local property taxes. Since property values were falling like a stone, our hours were being cut. By September of 2009, we were making $20,000 a year less than we were when we bought the house. Worse, the house was now worth less than half of what it was when we bought it. To make matters worse, my wife’s student loans came due, and she lost her job a month later. Stuck with a falling paycheck and a depreciating asset, we made the decision to declare bankruptcy. During the bankruptcy, my mortgage bank provided copies of my promissory note and mortgage, stated that they were the owner of the mortgage and the note, and asked the judge for permission to begin foreclosing on the house. This is where things get interesting.

I had intended on returning the house to the bank as soon as they foreclosed on it. I figured that would take six months, at the most. They filed a foreclosure suit against me, and provided me with copies of the note and mortgage as proof to the court that they were entitled to foreclose on the house. The only problem? The note in the foreclosure was a different piece of paper than the one they gave the bankruptcy court. It turns out that my note and mortgage were sold to Fannie Mae in 2007, and my mortgage bank was just servicing the loan- that is, taking my payments and forwarding them on. Who knows which mortgage company Fannie Mae sold it to after that, no one knows. In other words, they committed perjury. (For my Republican/Conservative readers: Remember that perjury was considered to be enough of a crime to impeach President Clinton, so don’t lecture me on how requiring that a mortgager not fabricate things in court is just a “hyper technical” legal loophole.)

I sued my mortgage bank, and they have agreed to settle out of court. It looks like they are going to write me a large check. The rub here is that no one knows who owns the rights to foreclose on my home. Until someone can prove that they are the one with the right to foreclose, I live here for free. We are at 15 months and counting.

By Divemedic, ago

Banks illegally entering homes

The banks have been unable to win foreclosure lawsuits, because they do not have the proper paperwork. So what do they do? Kick in your door, change the locks, throw your possessions out into the street, and lock you out- even though they have not foreclosed on the house. 

As one of the owners of a company who specializes in “securing” or “winterizing” properties was recently quoted in the Palm Beach Post said, “Lawsuits don’t phase us anymore.”

In this 911 call, JP Morgan Chase hired people to break in to this woman’s house and change her locks.

Lawsuits may not phase you, but I bet buckshot will. If you are breaking into a house that isn’t yours, I don’t care how much money I owe you, you are sill committing burglary.

By Divemedic, ago

The 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the US

Wallet Pop just released the list of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States for 2010. The local press is making a big deal out of the fact that an Orlando neighborhood made the list, but there were no Los Angeles or Detroit neighborhoods on it. I am not sure why that is, but I do want to look at the demographics of the included neighborhoods:

1 Chicago, Ill. W. Lake St. 97.8% Black 1% White 1% Asian No issue
2 Cleveland, OH  Scovill Ave 98.7 % Black 0.8% White Shall Issue
3 Las Vegas, NV  Balzar Ave 89.5 % Black 6.5% White  Shall Issue
4 Las Vegas, NV  Scovill Ave 66% of the neighborhood does not speak English, 71% calls itself as “other” in the race category Shall Issue
5 Atlanta, GA  Carter St 97.1% Black 0.7% White  Shall Issue
6 Philadelphia, PA  N 13th St 93.7% Black 3.1% White Shall Issue
7  Atlanta, GA  Marietta St 69.5% Black 19.8% White Shall Issue
8 Las Vegas, NV  D St 66.7% Black 12.2% White  Shall Issue
9 Washington, DC L St SE 97% Black 2.6% White No Issue
10 Chattanooga, TN King St 75.5% Black 18% White  Shall Issue
11 Charlotte, NC  N Tryon St 81.5% Black 3.8% White   Shall Issue
12 Memphis, TN  Florida St 96.9% Black 0% White   Shall Issue
13 Charleston, SC  Echo Ave 75.8% Black 1.4% White  Shall Issue
14  Louisville, KY  E Beckinridge St 83% Black 11.2% White     Shall Issue
15 Fort Worth, TX  E Lancaster Ave 64.6% Black 11.7% White   Shall Issue
16 Winston-Salem, NC E 21st St 93.9% Black 1.3% White Shall Issue
17 Atlanta, GA Richardson St 75.4% Black 5.8% White  Shall Issue
18 Chicago, IL 4000 S Federal St 100% Black   No Issue
19 Memphis, TN N Danny Thomas Blvd 86.6% Black 11.5% White   Shall Issue
20 Cleveland, OH Chestnut Pl 98.9% Black 0% White    Shall Issue
21 Galveston, TX Church St 50.6% White 40% Black   Shall Issue
22 Atlanta, GA Humphries St 99.5% Black 0.5% White    Shall Issue
23 Kansas City, MO Independence Ave 61% Black 16.6% White    Shall Issue
24 Cincinatti, OH Moore St 89.9% Black 10.1% White Shall Issue 
25. Orlando, FL Neighborhood: Parramore 70.6% Black 16.7% White Shall Issue

Looking at the list, it immediately strikes you that there is a trend there. You would be called a racist by many if you took note of the fact that, with two exceptions, the top 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in America are at least 65% Black. Yet the same thing is done everyday by anti-gun forces who want guns made illegal, and this is seen as logical, even though the list above shows that there is less of a correlation with gun laws and crime than there is race and crime.

Take another look at the list above: every neighborhood above has a below average income and education. Ponder the cause and the remedy. It isn’t race, and  it isn’t gun control. It is a cultural problem.

Comments calling me a racist are missing the point, and will not be posted.

By Divemedic, ago

Bank of America admits fraud, just not in so many words

First, it was GMAC that had to suspend foreclosures because they were caught manufacturing the paperwork needed to take people’s homes.

Then, JPMorgan Chase was forced to do the same, citing problems with documentation. From the Chase article:

The Associated Press said that the company has acknowledged its employees “signed some affadavits about loan documents without personally verifying the files,” and said the bank has asked judges to hold off on entering judgments on the foreclosures in question until its review is complete.

Now, Bank of America is following suit. These banks, their employees, and their attorneys are being caught committing perjury, yet there are still people out there who are blaming this economic meltdown on the borrowers by accusing them of borrowing money they couldn’t afford to repay. They blame the Government for “requiring” banks to lend to people who couldn’t pay.

They blame everyone except the banks, who took in trillions in profits by making sub-prime loans, then got a government bailout when the loans collapsed, and are now committing fraud to take people’s homes.

Why aren’t people being put in jail for this? Why are these lawyers not being disbarred?

Another problem being overlooked is this: When a foreclosure is found to have been awarded because of fraud, that foreclosure is void or voidable. When a lawyer, who is considered to be an officer of the court, is found to have fraudulently presented facts to court so that the court is impaired in the impartial performance of its legal task, the act, known as “fraud upon the court”, is a crime deemed so severe and fundamentally opposed to the operation of justice that it is not subject to any statute of limitation. 

What does this mean for the future of Real Estate? That means that no one can issue title to a single piece of property without considering the possibility that someone can have a previous foreclosure voided, and that property returned to the previous owner. Think about the implications of this, and the effect it will have on prices.

The 10 largest mortgage lenders in the Nation control 78% of the mortgages. They are:
1 Bank of America- 26% market share – suspended foreclosures due to fraudulent documentation
2 Wells Fargo – 24% market share
3 JP Morgan Chase- 10% market share – suspended foreclosures due to fraudulent documentation
4 GMAC- 4% market share- suspended foreclosures due to fraudulent documentation
5 Citigroup – 3.5% market share
6 US Bank Home Mortgage – 3% market share
7 PHH Home mortgage – 2.5% market share
8 SunTrust – 1.75% market share
9 Provident Funding -1.65%
10 Branch Banking and Trust 1.6%

By Divemedic, ago

The happiest place on Earth

The Wonderful World of Pedophiles disarmed victims Disney has seen another employee of theirs arrested for possession of child pornography. This has been a growing trend.

Matthew Wendland was arrested in February of this year.
Tony Guerra was arrested August 31.
Darren Roberts was arrested September 21.
All of them were suspended without pay, pending the outcome of charges. Disney is worried about due process, which is all well and good. We wouldn’t want to accuse someone of breaking the law, only to find that they didn’t, right?

Then explain why a married couple who has an unloaded firearm in their car in the employee parking lot (completely legal in the state of Florida) both get terminated without question. To compound the error, Disney then lobbies the state legislature to strengthen laws allowing employers to search employee cars for weapons, stating that employers need the ability to search cars, so they can stop child pornography.

I think we all know that the real target here is law abiding gun owners- not child pornographers.

By Divemedic, ago