Los Angeles, CA—Today a jury decided that James Fayed, 48 should pay for the killing of his wife with his own life.
James Fayed, a shady gold dealer was facing an expensive and difficult divorce with the victim, Pamela Fayed, 44. The FBI was investigating Fayed’s unlicensed business and Pamela Fayed began cooperating with investigators.
James Fayed was convicted of Special Circumstances Murder. The plot involved, his paying $25,000.00 to a trusted employee who conspired with two others to slash and stab Pamela Fayed to death outside of her car on the third floor Century City parking garage after she met with attorneys to settle the divorce.
The defense of James Fayed became hopeless when he was recorded admitting the murder to a jailhouse informant while attempting to contract for the murders of his co-defendants. The recording was played for the jury.
The other three men are still awaiting trial.
The trial judge is not bound by the jury’s recommendation but it would be highly unusual for a judge to not follow the directive at the formal sentencing.
Fayed will now deal with perhaps decades of appeals from a Death Row cell with 711 other men and women waiting for their date with the executioner. The last person executed in California was Thomas Thompson in 1998. Condemned men are kept in three units at the San Quentin prison.
I can’t help but to think of the hundreds of thousand of Americans who gave their precious lives so we would have the free nation. Today those who have given this nation zero have eagerly relinquished the hard won freedom in favor of a nanny police state. That is a crying shame.
I was required to answer my country’s military draft and did so paying my price as an American. I can’t help but feel some guilt for being the only member of a 200 man Light Weapons Infantry Company to be sent to Germany. I proudly served as a medical corpsman during the Cold War. It was a lesser sacrifice but two years of my young life seemed like a lot back then.
We must remember our brave veterans by fighting any curbs on our freedoms by enemies of our Bill of Rights. Unfortunately these foes are inside our government and Whitehouse. This fight will take all the courage we can muster.
Washington, DC—George Bush was a terrible president indeed. The Republican Party in America had lost its way with the RINOs that controlled the leadership. We became a nanny nation mired in debt. Conservative voters were disenfranchised as the Republican Party slated that Leftist, John McCain to run as president. Conservatives boycotted the polls.
Chicago’s Daley/Burke Democratic Corruption Machine pushed a Black, Hyde Park neighborhood “community organizer” turned Senator to head the Democratic ticket. He was a, Saul Alinsky/Karl Marx disciple that seemed by many to offer an alternative to the Bush disaster. Today however, Barack Obama is a clear and present danger to America and enabling its rapidly disappearing freedom.
Obama showed promise, at least to hopeful Liberals of running a transparent government that would get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Somehow the Liberals felt he’d get rid of the hated and misnamed Patriot Act, and perhaps make an effort to end the federal death penalty. Not only has Obama dramatically divided this nation as he became a true Liberal’s worst nightmare.
Obama has taken the TSA and turned them into a civilian security force of thugs he’s handed ever increasing power and jurisdiction. The TSA has expanded their liberty poison to trains and now even high school proms. The have no limits today.
Waiting for the next election to end this tyrannical Reich is too dangerous for our freedom. We must remove Obama today. This despot and his un-vetted, unelected and invisible Czars have dictated public policy secretly and governed behind a Whitehouse Iron Curtain. That alone should strike terror into American’s hearts. Despots can only thrive under secret government.
Every dictator behind every holocaust in world history survived to commit mass murder because they were not stopped before their crimes against humanity. We can’t allow Obama to continue.
The sad truth to all of this is on Memorial Day we give thanks to all who gave the greatest sacrifice while fighting the very kind of Police State Obama has been assembling.
Chicago, IL—Most people see the danger of police work only involving death or injury in the line of duty. Interrupting armed-robberies, burglaries or entering the scene of a domestic disturbance can be dangerous. There are other risks that can ruin you life.
More cops by far are victimized by life changing lies and injustice than being injured or killed. Cops can’t get a fair trial these days in Cook County should they be accused of a crime. The jury pool is loaded with cop haters and waiving a jury is no bargain when the judges are all beholding to prosecutors for political reasons.
Being a cop requires becoming embroiled in disputes, temper tantrums and real violence, that is, if you do your job.
The late Democratic Congressman Roman Puchinski had a drug-addicted son who was a prolific burglar. No less than six Chicago cops were lied about, fired by the Chicago Police Board and disgraced over a five-year period. Their transgression was to simply arrest the younger Puchinski for his very real crimes.
Police commanders simply considered anyone who’d arrest Puchinski’s son too stupid to be a Chicago cop. Finally the younger Puchinski ran out of clout coupons he could cash in to get out of jail free and went to prison. He died young
African-American criminals playing the race card too often target cops with the help of local community leaders. There is a very real race war going on in Chicago. In Chicago most cops are white and the vast majority of criminals are African-American.
Any cop who risks his life, reputation or freedom to serve and protect will eventually have to hire lawyers, defend against bogus allegations and stand a real chance of being victimized.
The Cook County State’s Attorney ran on a platform of prosecuting cops and the mainstream Chicago media is not known for kindness when it comes to cops. Every accused cop can count on getting smeared by public officials garnering votes with the eager help of the local media.
The moral of this story is for cops to simply avoid conflict. Let those domestic disturbances either cool down or end violently before you get there. Learn how to simply write reports and avoid making arrests at all cost.
Being a cop is not what it used to be. GPS surveillance, thugs with cell phone cameras and a miserable political climate has made the job undesirable. A few parking tickets, perhaps a meaningless contact card or two and some creatively written reports about the unknown offenders that got away will help keep you out of danger.
Why risk anything for an ungrateful community and its despotic politicians?
Warning—there are plenty of graphic details in this story.
Chicago, IL—It was May 25, 1979 at 3:15 in the afternoon. Weather in the Windy City could not be nicer. We were just told to switch to short sleeves in a uniform directive.
I was on a one-man car mail delivery run and in the vicinity of West Touhy Ave near O’Hare Airport. I heard an officer come on my radio with emergency traffic saying that a DC-10 airplane was going down. There was genuine panic in that officer’s voice.
Back then, I did not know a DC10 from Piper Cub, just that it was an airplane. I felt warm air hit my left arm that was out my car window. I saw a mushroom shaped cloud appear nearby. I snapped on my lights and siren and raced about two blocks to the scene.
I did not know it but I was about to arrive at the largest airplane disaster to date in U.S history. The crash of American Airlines, flight #191 happened on takeoff from O’Hare to Los Angeles. A wing engine fell off, due to maintenance shortcut mechanics used to reattach the engine to the wing using a forklift. The plain rotated in the sky and landed upside down on a somewhat small open field located at 400 West Touhy Ave.
As I arrived firemen were spraying foam on a field. They were just across the street and wasted no time getting there. I began looking for the plane or at least a fuselage but could see none. The smoldering ground around me was apparently burned. This was as a result of a flash fire and about every 15 or 20 feet I could see human body trunks. It was nothing less than a war scene. There were smaller body parts such as arms and legs strewn around the area.
Digesting the magnitude of this disaster was surreal. Being one of the very first officers on the scene gave me the closest parking spot. My squad car would be trapped there for days by so many other emergency vehicles.
I looked for survivors and there were none anywhere. Ambulance crews arrived with IV bags in their hands. The look of utter horror was on nearly every face I saw.
The medical responders quickly learned they served no function but for a single Chicago cop.
The Chicago Police K-9 training center was right up against the crash site and the cop was standing nearby as the fully fueled plane came down in a huge ball of fire. He had singed hair and suffered a nasty sunburn-like injury to his face and arms. He appeared traumatized by the experience but thrilled to be alive.
Police and fire units appeared from jurisdictions throughout the area. The crash site was unincorporated Cook County and was the responsibility of the Sheriff’s Police. They could not handle this alone. There were in addition, Chicago, Schiller Park, Forest Preserve, Franklin Park, Rosemont and Illinois state police assisting.
Other than to protect the crash site with plain rope there was little to do (yellow crime scene tape had not yet been invented).
I quickly had to deal with a feisty WMAQ-TV reporter and crew walking on the sparsely protected site. It was veteran reporter Dick Kay and he would not budge from the scene until he saw me reaching for my handcuffs. Kay was first on the scene and wanted to earn another Emmy. Kay retreated but was close enough to report on the action. Kay was somewhat unhappy with me.
From my time of arrival until two hours had passed the police command structure formulated the plan to deal with this massive calamity. They did not teach plane crash 101 in the police academy. I was in for a learning experience. In reality the crash was treated like a massive traffic accident.
There was a junkyard and a trailer park that became part of the scene. I found a man’s left arm sticking out of a broken trailer window. He had an expensive blue pinstriped suit and a French cuff with a gold cufflink and a fine looking watch. It was just the arm with no body attached. The arm belonged to a young professional man for sure.
I could see the tail engine resting on what was the head of a naked woman. She has a great body with little injury other than the appearance of sunburn. I could not guess what happened to all her clothes. Her body could not be removed until some piece of heavy equipment could lift the engine.
Standing out in the field were two metal boxes just yards apart. They had bright diagonal stripes on them and we quickly determined they were the “black boxes” or the flight voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
The plan was formulated to pass out wooden stakes and body bags. Officers were given numbers to mark the stakes and corresponding bags. We were put into teams of three. One to write about what we were bagging, another to photograph the remains and the other for the labor connected with filling the bags. The whole process was, well organized and moved slow but smoothly.
Officials that today I call, tourists arrived. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Terry Sullivan was there but I don’t have a clue why to this day. A U.S. postal inspector claiming to be looking for mail and the newly elected Chicago Mayor, Jane Byrne with her newly appointed police superintendent, Richard Brzeczek. Someone should have told the Mayor to wear sensible shoes for walking of the debris-laden field. Brzeczek was apparently trying to protect her from seeing me holding a young woman’s severed head with my hand by the hair as she passed by.
The sun had set and soon we were working by flashlights and lighting trucks brought to the scene. I found myself tangled in what seemed to be miles and miles of fine wire. I was in the area where the cockpit and it’s instrument panel had landed. Soon I saw a blue jacket sleeve with horizontal stripes near the cuffs. It was a pilot’s Hart, Schaffner& Marks brand jacket with the name “LUX” printed with a blue ballpoint pen above the inside pocket. It was the jacket of the captain, Walter Lux. His body and two more required some extra effort to remove the wire and instruments from their remains.
Later we had worked our way to the junkyard and located the charred remains of workers that sought refuge under tow trucks. There was one badly burned body trunk inside the bed of a tow truck.
Later I found my regular partner, that arrived. He couldn't normally deal very well with blood and gore. He handled his duties well in the mess but he was unable to deal with the inappropriate gallows humor some used to better deal with the unthinkable.
We had missed dinner and were starving. There was no way to take the car and get a bite to eat. But a Brown's Fried Chicken catering truck arrived after midnight with 2,000 pieces of crispy fried chicken.
We had been breathing burned jet fuel for hours and could barely taste the food. Of course there were the bad jokes about extra crispy chicken to go with the extra crispy victims.
There were no cell phones in those days and calling our spouses and girlfriends was impossible until Illinois Bell Telephone brought a wired trailer with pay phones to the scene. We made the calls and learned everyone figured out we were working the crash since it was all over the news.
I continued to bag human remains throughout the night. In one case I found a young mother holding her tender aged child tightly. I put both of them in the same bag because it was obvious they belonged together. I just used one stake, bag but used two numbers.
Finally after an exhausting night it was 4:30 AM and they told me to go home. They had arranged for officers to give us taxi service to our homes.
My uniform was destroyed along with my new Corfram duty shoes. The sharp aluminum debris cut through everything.
For the next couple of days I could only smell or taste jet fuel. It had taken over my airway and sinuses.
I had a trip to Phoenix, Arizona on American Airlines, planned in just two days. I took my trip and as we left the runway I looked down at the site and could still see my stranded squad car blocked in by so many other vehicles.
The investigations and litigation went on for decades after that crash. 273 souls were taken on this day 32 years ago.
UPDATE: May 15, 2019 Ive been asked to attend the 40th Anniversary Memorial Service planed for May 25, 2019. So many fellow first responders have since died. I think I should not miss this service.
Chicago, IL--I get a lot of requests as to why the defense needs to do an investigation on behalf of someone charged with a serious crime. After all they tell me, the police have already done this and made reports that get turned over in the legal discovery process.
The problem is police usually get half the real story or even less. They only focus on gathering enough evidence to charge someone with a crime.
Let me say this I have yet to find a case where the government witnesses tell the truth. People lie just because they can. There are little lies and of course total fabrications. When someone’s entire life is threatened with decades behind bars a real effort must be made by the defense to learn the truth.
Complainants accuse people of crime because they really happen but also for some nefarious reasons. The majority of reported criminal allegations are in fact true however the victims and witnesses tend to exaggerate the facts.
Then there are the allegations made for fun, profit or revenge. Those are the sort of cases I thrive with. In high profile cases where there is lots of publicity a significant portion of the population seems to want in on the act. They do so to the point of making things up. The so-called victims can’t wait to tell their friends and acquaintances their exciting adventures with fame. Here is where the stories told really get the extra-dramatic treatment.
With simple interviews of those acquainted with the witnesses and complainants you can break out the truth.
Sometimes there are companion civil cases brought that can potentially payout millions of dollars. The complainants all but spend the money with the anticipated settlement or awards through their braggadocio.
Defense lawyers can count on witnesses and complainants to change their story at every opportunity.
The key to getting the information from the best sources is to ask for it. Of course there are many other ways to legally obtain information that are what I call, tricks of the trade I don’t share.
Witness and complainants that tell the truth have nothing to fear. I enjoy nothing more than exposing liars that try to destroy the lives of others.
Witnesses that have agendas to thwart justice can be counted upon to avoid defense interviews. On the contrary there are those that freely share their memory of whatever happened. You can easily guess which kind of witness seldom gets impeached or embarrassed in a courtroom.
I have been often criticized for my aggressive efforts by prosecutors and their witnesses but I have no apology for my diligence. My clients pay for my best efforts and I have an absolute duty to provide them.
I can’t change the truth or real evidence but I sure have watched complainants plead guilty to charges of perjury, evidence tampering and witness tampering with glee.
Remember L.A.P.D Detective, Mark Fuhrman, the only person to be convicted of a felony crime in the entire O.J. Simpson murder case? Ask him or his lawyer what private investigator found a certain Marine Corps recruiter in Arizona that could remember and truthfully testify about Fuhrman’s unfortunate remarks.
I love to count my trophy heads of famous former complainants and witnesses.
Los Angeles--The United States Supreme Court has spoken and now 46,000 bogymen must be released from California prisons. With no jobs available as it is, the prospects for honest work for these proven thugs is simply non-existent. The majority of these criminals are drug addicted and will do anything to pay the cost of feeding their habits. California is about to see a firestorm of crime like never before.
A more logical way to deal with this is through ending the drug prohibition and letting out only drug offenders. Burglars, robbers, rapists and such need to stay put. With legalized drugs, their cost will fall to that of sugar or tea. These addicted convicts, won’t need to rob and murder to sustain their chosen condition.
Those in prison for possession, manufacture, sale or trafficking in drugs can be released. The Drug Lords, Drug Czars and such will be forced out of business in a single day. Selling drugs will have no better profits than selling tacos.
We can still maintain laws against driving under the influence and discriminate against the drug dependent for employment.
The death toll from the failed Drug War far exceeds that of the drugs themselves. Thousands of innocent people have died directly because of bungled crimes and drug enforcement efforts and that too will end.
It’s illogical to assume that legalization will cause us all to start sticking needles into our arms. Thankfully most of us will continue to have no interest in this very dark side of life. Ending the Drug War will produce an amazing quiet in America like the years between the Alcohol Prohibition and the Drug Prohibition. Government can’t afford to continue as a nanny controlling vice.
With the tax dollar savings of ending the $100 Billion a year on the Drug War dangerous people can continue to be safely segregated from society in prisons where they belong.
The drug related business can be zoned far enough away from residential neighborhoods and local parks as to prevent additional blight.
I suspect that our politicians won’t see the error of their ways and we will see criminal anarchy on our streets like never before. Police will never be able to deal with the new carnage we will be forced to experience. The law-abiding better rethink their personal security and take whatever steps are necessary to avoid a trip to the Medical Examiner’s Office on gurneys.
Washington, DC—Today the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a massive release of California prisoners to relieve prison overcrowding. Prisoners had overstuffed the facilities creating a cruel and dangerous climate.
Of course now the public will be at risk in the Golden State with an invasion of unemployable dangerous criminals. In a good economy these thugs would be hard-pressed to find gainful employment. We all know what they will do to make ends meet and it won’t be pretty.
Burglaries, robberies and thefts are sure to skyrocket along with violence being directed at the victims that the thugs encounter along the way.
Don’t be a victim, get trained and armed while you still can. You have much more that a right to keep and bear arms, but a duty to do so. It is you who must protect yourself and family. The police will never be able to deal with this wholesale criminal invasion.
California’s unconstitutional gun bans must be ignored. Leftist politicians have played God with your life long enough. If you shoot call a lawyer rather than 911 and say nothing to police.
Today we live in a world where there are video and audio recorders everywhere. You probably have one in your pocket or purse right now if you own a cellular telephone. The problem is a patchwork of inconsistent, illogical and complicated laws that vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Many states do not restrict one-party consent recordings. Others either limit or prohibit using your cell phone capture what your own ears can lawfully hear.
For example you witness a crime being committed or expect to see one unfold in your presence. What better tool could you use to document an objective and accurate record of the event than your cell phone?
Of course you could try and commit what you hear to memory or even take notes. The crime in many states is simply getting that accurately accomplished through objective, cheap and available technology.
The Illinois Appellate court ruled some 20 years ago that use of a recorder was nothing more than enhanced note-taking and therefore legal.
The real reason may be because lawmakers are involved in criminal activity such as soliciting bribes, committing extortion and strive to make any discovery or apprehension difficult or impossible. They have even made this objective kind of evidence inadmissible in our courts!
Does one-party consent recording compromise anyone’s privacy? I suppose it could if the person recording and publishing the conversation was your own lawyer, physician, priest or spouse.
Other confusing and impossible to understand legal expectations of privacy are involved. A telephone chat or conversation conducted inside a private office or dwelling can be different than one in an apartment house hallway, street corner; busy restaurant or at a public meeting. Good luck figuring that out.
Is the use of voice to text software also prohibited by states when the voice itself is not captured?
Why must this protect criminals that are engaged in criminal conspiracy, extortion, intimidation, fraud, threat-making, harassment, and indecent solicitation?
Lawyers, private investigators, paralegals and insurance adjusters for example must interview witnesses that they suspect will later change their stories or even falsely accuse them of witness tampering or even sexual assault. Prohibiting one-party consent recording actually could cause grave and life-changing injustice. Conversations must be examined and evaluated in ridicules and completely unnecessary courtroom swearing contests.
One-party consent needs to be legal everywhere. Certainly there should be a defense for anyone recording criminal activity or if they could foresee that the recording is necessary to prevent false allegations to surface later. Protecting criminals is horrible public policy.
The Indiana Supreme Court recently ruled that citizens cannot resist police invading their homes without warrants. That’s a great ruling that will make deadly home invasions a lot easier for police impersonators.
In Pima County, Arizona a SWAT team just put some 60 rounds through an Iraq War veteran that served two tours of duty there protecting America. Frankly I don’t give a rat’s ass what the cop’s claim was that justified that kind of a response. The result was frightening and just what people in a Police State should expect.
We have allowed the menace of drugs to be replaced with a much larger menace of bucket helmeted, armed thugs acting under color of law to wage war on Americans. The Drug War has become far more dangerous than any and all outlawed drugs.
The majority of crime in America is related to the Drug War. People are killed in police raids including innocent bystanders together with children and senior citizens. Then there are the people victimized because the addicted must pay the hugely inflated price of drugs because they are illegal.
Cops, snitches, suspected snitches, robbery victims and innocent bystanders die every day for the Drug War.
Next are the turf wars between drug traffickers and of course massive official corruption among bad cops, prosecutors and judges. Our crooked politicians love the kickbacks paid by government contractors that equip the drug warriors.
Last on the list is the beating that our Bill of Rights has taken during the four decades that the Drug War has been fought. The Drug War is a massive and expensive failure. We can put the Drug Lords and drug Czars all out of business in a single day through legalization.
Too many Americans insist on ruining their lives with drugs and will continue to do so regardless of the amount of drug laws on the books or the penalties. Enough is enough. Imagine the freed up cash that can be used for voluntary drug treatment and research to find a real cure.
Los Angeles, CA—Pamela Fayed was savagely slashed and stabbed to death in a Century City parking garage in 2008. Her husband, James Fayed was under federal investigation for running a unlicensed gold trading Ponzi scheme. Pamela Fayed was divorcing her husband and cooperating with the FBI in their investigation when she was murdered.
Today a jury convicted James Fayed who now may face the death penalty for this crime. The jury was told a horrible story of James Fayed's recruiting and paying a trusted employee who recruited two gang members that carried out the killing. They drove a red Suzuki SUV that was rented by James Fayed that was caught on surveillance tape with the killers at the garage.
That evidence was overshadowed by the testimony, a jailhouse snitch that was cooperating with authorities and recorded the hapless James Fayed’s admission on tape.
The remaining trio of suspected killers will stand trial separately for their roles in this saga of unbridled greed and contracted mayhem.
The ever-popular practice of cops and prosecutors to issue press releases, mug shots and to parade criminal suspects before media cameras is a throw back to medieval times. The public loves to celebrate an infamous arrest and prosecution as they direct their rage towards the accused.
The ever-changing media has made perpwalks more exciting than Hollywood film premiers. Everybody wants to see the latest bogeyman on public display. It’s a source for instant gratification for the morbidly curious media consumers. There is no public policy benefit to anyone as a result of the present practices. On the contrary there is great harm.
The perpwalk and pretrial publicity has made television infotainment programs that channel fear and hate to every person suspected of an infamous crime. The problem is that this vile practice destroys the presumption of innocence and guarantees an unfair trial to the accused.
The practice in so many jurisdictions of letting cameras into courtrooms creates a circus complete with performers rather than a setting where truth and justice is sought.
We do need open courts where the public is welcome to observe every aspect of legal proceedings. I’d even want to see secret Grand Jury rooms opened for public inspection. We don’t need or want Star Chamber Proceedings in America.
We have a free press and what they learn or care to publish is their right. The media should be free to attend court and report on whatever they wish. They can do this without the cooperation of the prosecutors and courts acting as guides to the cases under review. Why should government create the conditions that insure injustice and falsified or exaggerated testimony?
I have no problem with our courts video recording every trial and sharing the events with the media or even posting them online once the trial with a final verdict is over. The public through the media can get to know hate the defendants all they want after the case has been adjudicated. That’s fair enough.
When our founding fathers made the rules for trials they did not have TV, film, video, radio or YouTube. I don’t think they ever took into account that these things we take for granted today would have ever been invented.
Having circus like show trials complete with media pundits is anything but fair or even dignified. Frankly what we do is sometimes downright disgraceful. It’s all fun until you or someone you love has been wrongfully accused. We must change or ways if we are to continue to claim we are a nation of freedom and liberty.
Munich, Germany— John Demjanjuk like all Ukrainian able-bodied men were rounded up by the Nazis during World War Two and forced into slavery. Demjanjuk was forced to work as a guard at the Sobibor, Poland concentration camp where thousands perished from untreated diseases, old age, starvation and of course mass murder.
There were other prisoners forced into the same guard duties at Sobinor but they were Jewish Kappos. Although a few more notorious kappos were beaten or killed by camp survivors when the Russians liberated them, none were ever put on trial for war crimes.
Demjanjuk was simply a tool used by our own government’s Office of Special Investigations to justify their existence. OSI was funded to identify and locate war criminals that were suspected of fleeing from justice and hiding in the United States. Their record at success was dismal.
In the Demjanjuk case the OSI falsely identified him as a notorious criminal dubbed as Ivan the Terrible and nearly got him hanged in Israel. OSI produced a phony identity card that finally was exposed as a blatant forgery by the well-respected document examiner Bill Flynn of Phoenix, Arizona. The sentence of death and conviction was reversed and Demjanjuk was set free to the major embarrassment of the OSA agents.
OSI simply made another case against Demjanjuk and got him prosecuted as a different person this time in Munich. Again the OSI won a conviction. Okay, we must hold our nose because of the foul odor here.
Germany has suffered the guilt of the 12 year Nazi regime for 66 years to date. The children and grand children of Germany had made every possible concession they could to the world’s Jews and continue to do so. Trying suspected war criminals on weak or meaningless evidence is just another way to satisfy the German debt to the Jews.
Of course when it came to war criminals that the United States needed there was no OSA nor was there extradition nor trials anywhere. Was there a double standard? There always is a double standard in the real world.
Demjanjuk’s trial began on November of 2009 and ended today with a forgivin five year prison sentence. At its very best this was a case of symbolism over substance since the frail Demjanjuk will be spending the limited remaining years confined to a nursing home. Now it may be at the expense of the German government.
With respect to any appeal the reality is that would take more time than Demjanjuk has left.
This is the last chapter in a 30 year effort by the OSI to scapegoat Demjanjuk. The power of government is indeed awesome.
This also seems to be the last legal chapter in a monumental crime against humanity. It was not the German people but some committed Nazis operating with a tyrannical secret government responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and nine million Germans.
In an act of mercy the court odered Demjanjuk freed because of his health and age. The question is where does he go from here since his American citizenship was revoked? Is Demjanjuk a man without a country today? Will Germany deport him? Munich is not a bad place to spend remaining years at all.
Chicago, IL—The Reverend Michael Pfleger stood at the helm of the African-American attended St. Sabina Church. He’s currently suspended and can’t preach there after he was insubordinate and disobedient to Cardinal Francis George.
Pfleger is a political gadfly preaching his ideology. Rather than to save the souls of his parishioners he has an agenda of ministering their political beliefs. He’s 99 percent political and only one percent religious. Pfleger never met a TV camera he didn’t love and when he talks it’s about political and social issues of the lunatic Left.
Pfleger, a gun control zealot targeted DSA Arms in Barrington. They make high end rifles and carbines for a law enforcement and military market. They simply don’t sell their products to the general public. Pfleger brought a busload of parishioners there to picket and parade in front of media cameras. The rub here is DSA Arms does not make an affordable product that would interest Chicago’s street gangs. I guess it’s all about symbolism and not substance.
Pfleger had reportedly threatened to leave the church altogether if he could not play into Chicago’s politics. That’s hardly in keeping with a catholic priest’s vows. Pfleger has even tried to enlist parishioners in his fight with the church leadership. Ugly does not begin to describe Pfleger’s conduct here.
The Pfleger mess is not going to go away anytime soon. The presence of Pfleger behind the pulpit may well be at a needed end. In Pfleger’s world only Socialists can go to heaven. I don’t think that’s what God had in mind…
Berlin, Germany—During a major crisis of unemployment, massive national debt and starvation two political parties, Communism and National Socialism fought for power. Their plans to redistribute wealth and control private enterprise, was identical to what Karl Marx envisioned. We know the National Socialists or the Nazis won that political battle.
The Nazi leader, Adolph Hitler had secret plans to capitalize on the unpopularity of Jews and others to the point of mass murder. So began a 12 year administration of terror, corruption and mass murder. Before it was over six million people mostly Jews were annihilated by this criminal regime. What they never talk about is that the Nazis were also directly responsible for the deaths of nine million good Germans.
What’s amazing was the rise to absolute power of a man who was considered a great new progressive world leader. He was a man who’d grace the cover of our own Time Magazine as, “Man of the Year”, Adolph Hitler. Hitler exists today in every nation. He’s waiting to get absolute power from naive people that love and trust him. Hitler will rise again to unleash more horror if we don’t stop him.
We must always remember, what’s past is Prologue.
I had the pleasure to live in Germany during my military obligation during the Viet Nam War. I’ve also been back several times since. I speak German and know my way around this beautiful country.
Over the decades, I have studied Nazis, Hitler and the Third Reich carefully out of a morbid curiosity of trying to learn how a nation would allow tyranny to rule. Frankly, I still have more questions than answers. I only know this can and will happen again.
This criminal/political phenomenon is amazing to say the least. It is an intriguing study to say the least. I’m in the planning stages of organizing a tour in Germany of people that want to devote three weeks to visit the historical sites of the Third Reich.
The trip must begin in Munich, the site of the deadly and failed, November 8th 1923, Beer Hall Putsch where it all began it must end in Nuremberg where Nazi war criminals were tried and hanged.
The must see locations are in or near Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, and Obersalzberg.
The sites include:
The 8 Prinz Albert Street, Berlin headquarters of the Gestapo and SS operations where investigations, began that included torture and ended in a trip to the People’s Court. A terror museum stands there today next to the ruins of the original building.
Berlin’s German Resistance Museum is located at the Bendlerblok. This place is dedicated to the thousands of Germans murdered by the Reich for resisting Hitler and National Socialism. This is the site where Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg worked and plotted Hitler’s assassination attempt of July 20, 1944. It is also the site where he and his co-conspirators were put before a firing squad.
The Sony Center site is the location where the People’s Court tried and condemned Germans to death for trivial things such as passing out anti-Hitler leaflets. Here you will learn about Judicial Tyranny and the ringmaster of the People’s Court, Dr.Roland Friesler.
Berlin’s Plotzensee Prison’s death chamber memorial is where the men and women that resisted the Nazis were beheaded or hanged on piano wire. In just a single night nearly 300 people were hanged in this somewhat small room.
The beautiful Lake Wansee Villa is where in 1942, 15 elite Nazis gathered to formulate the Holocaust over a two-hour luncheon that was documented in a captured stenographer’s transcript.
The site of the Spandau Prison is where Nazi war criminals who escaped hanging served lesser sentences they were given at the Nuremberg tribunals. Rudoph Hess was the last prisoner held here until he hanged himself in 1989.
The University of Munich is where the group known as The White Rose met and distributed leaflets. Dr Roland Friesler flew in from Berlin to preside over their trial. Among the murdered was 21 year old Sophie Scholl who along whith her brother Hans Scholl and their friend, Christoph Probst who were beheaded at the Stadleheim Prison.
The Memorial Site for Dachau Concentration Camp is also near Munich. The remains or the Berghoff and the Eagle’s Nest high in the mountains at Obersalzberg are where Hitler commanded his Total War. The view here is breathtaking to say the least.
Nurnberg Hall of Justice where the primary Nazi war Crimes trials were held. The prison and site of the hangings are nearby.
Hotels, great food, and some important free days must be part of this trip.
I also have some must see films to suggest that recreate the historical events at the various locations.
If you’re interested in taking this tour click on my picture on the right side of this blog and e-mail me.
Now sit back as watch a few videos I put up that show some of these sites:
Chicago, IL—During a recent trip to Chicago involving a criminal trial I wanted to take my blog visitors inside the historic criminal courthouse. This is where the infamous mobster, Al Capone was tried and convicted for Income Tax Evasion. Long ago the Federal Judiciary used some of these facilities for their business too.
The movie, The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford was filmed is a courtroom here too. It’s a rare day when cameras are allowed in and never during court proceedings.
In 1971 a violent and dangerous criminal, Eugene “Iceman” Lewis’ attempted a daring escape from Judge Earl Strayhorn’s 7th floor judge’s chambers.
Lewis, a well know militant Black thug was already under one well-deserved death sentence and was about to receive another for the cold-blooded killing of a Thillen’s Security guard servicing the Sebring Jukebox Company’s payroll more than a year earlier.
Lewis took a bailiff and assistant state’s attorney hostage with a gun provided by a court clerk who was enamored with the killer. She placed the gun in a hollowed out book for Lewis. Lewis was kept in the chambers handcuffed under guard by an armed bailiff. Concealed inside Lewis’ mouth was a homemade handcuff key from a ball point pen refill. He used the key to slip one wrist from the cuffs and dashed for the gun inside the book.
Lewis then disarmed the bailiff and with a revolver in each hand grabbed the hapless prosecutor and bailiff and began his walk to freedom.
An Area Four detective, Crosette "Lee" Hamilton heard the commotion and concealed himself behind the gray steel freight elevator outside door. In the years since this even that large steel door was removed and no longer exists. Hamilton waited for the trio to pass and fired the first shot. Two uniformed officers assigned to the court from the Marquette District (010) opened fire on Lewis as he fell to the ground.
Lewis managed to wound the state’s attorney in the hand and another shot struck local lawyer, Leonard Karlin in the butt.
When we lifted Lewis’ body from the floor there was a flattened .38 standard 158 grain lead bullet on the floor, under his head. that bullet never even penetrated the killer’s head!
Within a few minutes of the shooting I personally saw, Black Panther Party, founder and now Congressman Bobby Rush was on the scene visibly angry and shaken up. To this day I believe that Rush was involved in the escape plot and was perhaps waiting in a car outside on California Ave. If Rush was an accomplice he still could be charged with felony murder of Lewis since there is no statute of limitations on that crime.
I attended the post mortem examination of Lewis and counted 22 holes from as many 18 gunshots. The Iceman would never hurt anyone again.
Within a day the presiding criminal judge, Joe power told me he was ordering big changes. Power had ordered the Cook County Sheriff, Joseph I Woods to provide his police to search everyone entering the building. Power concluded that people entering the building, are doing it as a matter choice and that the search was then consensual. For the next month 35 guns per average day were taken from court visitors surprised by the search. Thousands of knives and an astronomical amount of narcotics were recovered. There were no prosecutions of these people most of which were already convicted felons. Instead we confiscated the contraband during a three-month grace period. After that, arrests were finally being made.
This is when and where courthouses all over America suspended the Fourth Amendment and 40 years later that suspension has become a defacto revocation. The searching of courthouse visitors has spread to nearly every court in America.
Washington, DC—The saga of the invasion of Pakistan and killing of Osama Bin Laden has been spun out-of-control by Barack Obama and his handlers. They have lost all credibility with their inconsistent stories and multiple staged photographs. That infamous propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels would have at least gotten the stories somewhat straight as he arranged the parades and ceremonies.
Obama’s secret government is something out of an Orwellian nightmare. It’s un-American and just plain wrong. Of course Obama’s supporters want to ignore Obama’s redundantly broken promises for an open and transparent government.
This is just another serious sign that Obama has an agenda that’s anything but in the interest of America or even the people that supported him. What else is cooking out of sight in the kitchen of our Whitehouse? We’d better find out before it’s too late.
Every dictator, despot or corrupt politician in the world came on the scene with a big friendly smile and firm handshake. We somehow forgot that Adolph Hitler was chosen as Man of The Year for our own Time Magazine. In the first two years of his Reich he was considered a masterful and progressive leader. Everything that led up to the deadliest war in history was done in secret. Secret government must be shut down where and whenever it’s discovered.
Obama’s deceptions are a clear sign of a much larger breach of our trust. We must stop him while we still can.
New York, NY—The United Nations was created and exists with the promise of giving nations a place to debate and settle their differences without mortal combat. That was the grand theory.
Instead the UN has become a puppet of the voting majority. Larger nations with dismal histories of human rights never get sanctioned. The majority pursues policies that make genocide and enslavement easier for despot leaders.
One only has to study the last 60 years of African nations to see that slaughter after slaughter was ignored and ratified by UN inaction. When the UN arrives it’s always too little, too late.
Today the UN as we know it wants to strip the people (individuals) of the world any right to possess firearms. This is the number one enabler of genocide as we know it. There is no holocaust on earth anywhere people have the right to keep and carry firearms. On the contrary, preceding every case of mass murder governments first stripped the people they murdered of firearms.
In every case, before they murdered the despots always claim to the people they’d later kill that the gun grabbing was for their own safety. This more than ever proves that what’s past is prologue.
The UN needs to either reassess their goals or disband. Their existence has become fraudulent since they enable the misbehavior of governments rather than improve anything at all.
The goal of the UN should be to train and arm every Law-abiding citizen on earth so they can defend themselves, families and nations. This would give parity to the formerly defenseless and stop genocide cold. Instead the UN seeks to turn their citizens into unarmed frightened sheep ripe for government atrocities.
Today the UN wants only favored governments to possess any arm at all. They are on a major march to disarm and prevent ordinary people to resist the despicable slaughters throughout the world. This effort is setting back Human Rights in a way that would make Adolph Hitler proud.
The UN is run by government leaders living high on the backs of their citizens. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Under today’s UN policy governments leader are handed absolute power when there are no armed citizens to resist tyranny.
Los Angeles, CA-- Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa with his appointed police chief, Charlie Beck along with other city politicians seem to love the silly idea of gun buy backs.
The program was recycled Saturday here at six locations by city officials. They offered gift cards from Ralph's Supermarkets or Visa. A mere handgun would fetch $100.00 while a so-called assault rifle would garner $200.00. As always, there were no questions asked as they handed over the plastic currency to the anonymous participants.
As always, most of the guns collected are worth far less than what officials paid for them. These buy backs attract gun dealers from everywhere who see the opportunity to make a small profit unloading what they can’t otherwise sell.
In some cases burglars were paid for the proceeds of their crimes turning the LAPD into an illicit fencing operation.
Close examination of the junk collected always shows rusted, broken and totally unserviceable firearms. Toys always somehow turn up in the collections. There are only a few exceptions where decent and even collectible firearms are turned in for the bounty.
Yes, there were cases of departed grandfather’s old guns being sold off. You could make a very weak argument that fewer guns are in closets that could be later stolen and misused.
The big question I always have that the media refuses to ask is, who pays for this expensive feel-good scam? The taxpayers nearly always eat this cost in most jurisdictions where these things are done. Of course this only happens in parts of the country where governments are run into bankruptcy by Liberal politicians. Any claim of corporate sponsorship rings hollow when you take into account their “charitable” tax breaks for their less than generous participation.
Do taxpayers still have the money for such meaningless and extravagant programs in this tough economy?
Springfield, IL—The majority of the Legislature here has agreed that law-abiding Illinois residents are entitled to carry concealed weapons. The rub is that Governor Pat Quinn, a gun rights hater only wants criminals armed. The vote requires a veto-proof supermajority to pass. The bill was only a few votes shy of knocking out Quinn’s unreasonable opposition.
Now the bill’s supporterS are jockeying around, looking to bring the bill back for another vote. Subject to peculiar Illinois rules it may be attached to another piece of legislation or as a strike-all measure take new life as a bill that was never sent to the floor for a vote.
The fact is with a new governor or a couple of changed minds shall-issue permits will be then law of the Land of Lincoln.
The fact remains that the people of the State of Illinois are tired of being victims. The resources to keep violent criminals at bay are spread too thin. The Supreme Court said that the states cannot infringe on the right to keep and bear arms in both the Heller and McDonald cases.
Studies have clearly shown that the permit holders in every other state behave remarkably well. The criminals never have the permits but never seem to be without their guns. The current Illinois gun prohibition only impacts the law-abiding citizens who bother to obey laws in the first place.
The members of the Illinois General Assembly must beware that their job security is not set in concrete. The people in need of reasonable and meaningful self-defense have long memories and they vote.
Los Angeles, CA—After a hectic couple of months that took me to Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Amsterdam, Chicago and Pittsburg it was indeed time for a break. I was invited to spend some time with my camera shy friends, Golden Globe winning actress, singer and dancer, Ann Jillian and her husband former Chicago police sergeant Andy Murcia at the beach in Pacific Palisades. They brought some wonderful tuna fish sandwiches with them.
I took a small walk along the beach to dream about my next trip to Germany. The elegant women, culture and lifestyle of Germany sends me into creativity. I so want to produce a television series for an America audience in Berlin.
This was a great break from the worries of what’s happening in our world today. I hope I can share a little of the break with you all. Sit back and listen to the late (died in 2003) great, singer, song-writer and attorney Ed Townsend sing his 1958 hit, For Your Love…
It’s happing in cities all over the United States. African-Americans gather as an army of robbers by texting or social media. They strike a store without warning and forcefully grab anything in sight. Often employees and customers are beaten during these crimes.
These brazen crimes cannot be dealt with by ordinary police patrols. This will take citizens fighting back using whatever force is necessary to halt the crime. Anytime there is a disparity of force with multiple offenders the use of deadly force such as shooting, stabbing or clubbing them is justified in all 50 states.
Should you happen to use deadly force hanging around and waiting for police is both dangerous and ill advised. Leave the area for your safety and don’t call or talk to police out of presence of a qualified criminal lawyer. You have no duty to do that and you also have an absolute right to remain silent.
As these crimes go unpunished they will become even more common. If you see a group of young African Americans gathering near businesses, that may indicate a crime in its beginning stages.
Washington, DC--Above the late Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson is prosecuting war criminals at Nuremberg. Is it time for another such trial based on these principals?
Barack Obama that campaigned on ending the two wars started by Bush? The same guy who wanted to close GITMO and give suspected terrorists Due Process and civilian trials?
By what authority did Obama order the invasion of a nation not engaged in war with the U.S. and kill anyone?
To enter sovereign Pakistan with soldiers and helicopters to make war on a criminal suspect, Osama Bin Laden and the members of his household is exactly what the Nuremberg War Crimes trials of October 18, 1945 were all about. One of the applicable charge that led to numerous hangings was, “Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace.”The deliberate cover-up of evidence and destruction of Bin Laden’s remains shows the conspiracy of deceit and obstruction of justice deserving of a lot more than simple Impeachment.
How many American mothers will never get the remains of their children killed at war because of Obama’s cruel order to deny Bin Laden’s family the ability to bury him? They can now cite Obama's handling of Bin Laden's remains as their guide.
I’m no fan of Bin Laden but the only information I ever got about his alleged crimes came from a government that’s not always candid with their people. Had there not been a rush to cover-up this event and destroy evidence America may have gotten the true story.
Barack Obama is a war criminal who now clearly deserves arrest, trial and punishment.
Geneva, Switzerland—As I left Geneva Airport bound for Amsterdam during my recent trip I was screened for weapons. I cannot complain here be cause I have no right to claim under the Fourth Amendment outside of the United States.
They searched me, and my carry-on bag allowing me to pass on to the boarding area. On my way I passed the duty free shops where all kinds of goods could be purchased. That included Victronix a Swiss Army Knife maker! I could now by a knife for my trip!
When I arrived in Amsterdam things were very different. They gave us the full TSA punishment including the Naked X-Ray. I would have had to place my new Swiss Army knife in my checked baggage there for sure. That is unless I chose to outsmart or outshoot the unarmed security workers.
As always the security is only as good as trained armed cops are allowed to make it. There was a shortage of them in Europe also.
I thought you’d all get a kick out of the knife display at the Duty Free Shop anyway.
Washington, DC—Is Barack Obama just stupid or something much more sinister? I say it’s the latter.
I’ve always hated how Osama Bin Laden was singled out as the man behind the Sept 11 attack on America. This was an act of Muslim group think and was financed by others. Placing so much importance on Bin Laden made him a hero in the Muslim world. This also lessens the culpability of the rest of the terrorists responsible for the mass murder.
The killing Bin Laden will only bring a false sense of feel good to a few incredibly ignorant people. The same terrorism will now continue without interruption. Bin Laden’s death can only fuel the holy war rather than even slow it down.
Obama’s handling of this event and the burial at sea of Bin Laden was beyond suspect. The rush to make Bin Laden’s body unavailable for examination is in and of itself sinister.
To not turn over Bin Laden’s body to his family for proper burial invites the same treatment for Americans killed under the control of our enemies. America is supposed to be more civilized than this new cruel image created by Obama.
Barack Obama has only fueled conspiracy theories with his cover-up and evidence tampering. We are hearing different versions of the events leading to Bin Laden’s death from our government officials. They can’t keep their stories straight. There is a real conspiracy here, not just some wild guess of shenanigans.
Faked photos with the promise to release real photos and now no photos have denied the world any evidence of what really happened. This is yet another sad snapshot of Obama’s deceptive campaign promising transparency.
At a minimum the evidence and photos should have been preserved and shared with all 535 members of Congress.
Now we must suffer reasonable efforts by members of Congress to find out the truth behind the raid and killing of Bin Laden. The cover-up and evidence tampering should be both a criminal and impeachable offense.
Obama was a lawyer and knew better. Obama has acted like a third world dictator and thug. Obama must be held accountable.
Pittsburgh, PA—I was somewhat dumbfounded when I saw that Leftist firebrand, Rachel Maddow with a camera crew inside the NRA Gun Show here walking by the Eagle Grips booth. She was the last person I expected to see in such a Conservative lion’s den.
Many of the attendees of the NRA convention were somewhat shocked to see Maddow, but they remained polite and civilized. I saw this as an opportunity for the members present to invite her participation in education, shooting and gun ownership.
I have always enjoyed teaching my most Liberal friends about firearms, safety and tactics. Once they experience the defense side of firearms, years of misinformation, fear and loathing is replaced by a new understanding.
The truth of the matter, like everyone else Maddow deserves the right of meaningful self-defense. The NRA is a logical place to obtain the best available training and advice on this subject anywhere.
Surprisingly Maddow seems only favoring magazine size and extended background checks for gun owners. Those are easy and forgivable mistakes for people who don’t understand tactical considerations or how truly worthless background investigations are in keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Maddow can be educated!
If you somehow only think of violent criminals being armed with low capacity magazines and never working in gangs a 10-round limited magazine seems reasonable. The reality is different.
You can always tell who the novice shooters are at firing ranges. They take too much time to load magazines and don’t count their shots. You can tell the latter when you hear the tell-tale click as a hammer falls on an empty chamber.
The thought of multiple offenders like we see in liquor or jewelry store stickups never enters the minds of novice shooters. They somehow expect a fair gunfight and expect to win if they can place a few shots in their targets center mass. The thought of criminals with body armor never crosses their minds. I guess ignorance is bliss.
As for Background investigations most criminals can and do easily avoid them through illegal acquisition such as theft or criminal commerce that does not involve licensed gun stores or public gun shows. Felons of course can never be forced to fill out government forms for purchase or registration because the Supreme Court has twice ruled this violates their rights against self-incrimination.
Gun laws such as the magazine size restrictions and background checks will always only affect law-abiding citizens.
The only way to keep criminals disarmed is by imprisonment until they are too old to commit violent crimes.
In other matters, the sharp-tongued Maddow must now hate Barack Obama as much as George W. Bush. Other than his Socialist plans to confiscate and redistribute wealth, Obama has continued the most egregious government policies of Bush.
Obama has extended and given the hated Patriot Act yet more teeth. Instead of getting our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan he has gotten us into yet another untenable war. Likewise Obama has not lifted a finger to repeal the federal death penalty.
The fact is Maddow is simply a broadcaster that wants a well-paying career and needs to satisfy her audience. She like so many are performers and showmen enjoy getting paid for their ability to captivate her fans. I can’t fault her for that.
I’d hope no reader of mine would ever want to punish Maddow for exercising her rights under the First or Second Amendments to our sacred Constitution.
Pittsburgh, PA--I spent several days in the Steel City attending the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting and Gun Show. There were a lot of visitors and it seems the projected attendance of 70,000 may have materialized. The mood was mostly somber about the state of our nation. Most here believe our nation and its freedom is on the ropes.
Barak Obama and his Czars continue to be the greatest firearm and ammunition marketing agents of our lifetimes. The fear of gun confiscation has been replaced with potential for civil war. Politicians have been denouncing freedom by continuing to push their Socialist agenda. I guess they don't realize millions of Americans are more than willing shed blood protecting our Constitution and the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights if needed.
Extortionate taxation is enslaving working Americans that are now being victimized even more through skyrocketing gas prices that insures runaway inflation. The current energy crisis is the design of the Obama Whitehouse that refuses any efforts by Americans seeking to harvest vast oil sources within America.
Unemployment aggravated by fuel prices is a national emergency that will soon bring anarchy to our streets if it continues unchecked. Each tax, food or fuel price increase costs jobs and that's just what the Marxists of the world want.
Americans must survive the effort to turn this nation Socialist by any means necessary. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms was intended as a tool to keep our country strong and free. Perhaps the time has finally come when our government's tyranny is challenged since the politicians we've elected have become traitors.
The shocking revelations of the Whitehouse and BATFE conspiring to ship arms to Mexican drug traffickers as they blame our gun rights for Mexico's drug carnage were no small topic of conversation. That, while these same traitors backdoor a suspension of our freedoms through an ongoing United Nations treaty, power grab is beyond outrageous.
I have no crystal ball and can't predict the future beyond one thing that never changes, and that is, what's past is prologue.
Los Angeles, CA—Today a jury decided that James Fayed, 48 should pay for the killing of his wife with his own life. 
