If You Loathe Commercial Air Travel, You’re Not Alone…

Air carriers are falling over each other on their way to our nation’s bankruptcy courts.

I think the reasons are obvious. Today air passengers are first assaulted by the TSA gauntlet that emulates the military checkpoints manned by Nazi or Communist countries. I say assault because we’ve fought wars to prevent what we now allow our own government to do to us.

Most Americans were not yet born when air travel was a pleasant adventure. There was no frisking of passengers and no identification was required to fly. The service was wonderful, as the beautiful young and well paid women flight attendants treated passengers like they were special. I used to go out of my way to fly rather than drive.

Today unhappy passengers suffer the privacy invasion and other indignities at the hands of all powerful TSA workers. We are forced to play a sick game of Simon Sez with the hard corps unemployed placed in the TSA jobs program.

Later the passengers are face to face with low paid airline employees who now have to cope with those traumatized by the TSA. The mood is far less than it should be and can be. We find ourselves in an environment where nearly all courtesies and smiles are faked.

Next the specter of airline horror stories of being trapped in a plane on the tarmac with overflowing toilets, no food, lost luggage and more TSA misadventures like when they re-screen an entire airport full of passengers.

Today I find any excuse not to fly and drive whenever possible. The airlines respond to me and my fellow passengers by lowering prices and cutting more corners on already, really bad service. They just don’t get it.

I’d train and arm every pilot and many flight crew members. I would also invite all trained and sworn law enforcement officers to fly armed at half-price air fare or better.

We’ve traded away our freedom and liberty in order to obtain security and as Benjamin Franklin warned we now have neither. Today I’d much rather see the TSA and their trashing of the Fourth Amendment ended for good. I will take my chances with terrorists any day.

A Giant Has Died…

A true American, an actor and the Omega Man of our time, Charlton Heston has passed away today, he was 84 years-old. Heston was elected President of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and served for several two year terms. Heston stepped down when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to a family spokesman Heston died in his Beverly Hills home.
Here is my favorite line Heston ever delivered

Must have fashions For Big City Gang-Bangers!

It’s here! A bullet proof hoodie to wear when you’re out druggin’, robbin’, & killin’! Imagine how you’ll never worry about cops again! You will have better protection then they do with this little number. The girls will think you’re really cool when you can be like Superman!

Remember folks, if it only saves one gang-bangers life it was worth it! Thanks to Second City Cop for the heads up.

Read more about the new fashion trend here.

TSA Set To Brief Congress On Pilot's Gun Accident

The TSA is set to bring their findings and excuses for the accident to the Congressional Homeland Security Committee next week. The question is, will the TSA accept responsibility for the accident or make a scapegoat of the pilot?

In December the Crimefile News blog broke the story about the unorthodox, padlocked holster required for armed Federal Flight Deck Officers. The holster in conjunction with a common padlock was adopted and mandated by the TSA for transportation and storage of loaded guns on commercial aircraft by flight deck officers.

The problem is that long standing safety rules mandate that trigger locks, fingers and foreign objects don’t belong on the trigger of loaded firearms. The holster alone is a well made and safe item but the same cannot be said for the utilization of a padlock with the holster.

A video written and produced by Crimefile News has been seen in hundreds of airline, government and Congressional offices and has been heralded by gun safety experts for exposing the danger. The video replicates the actual discharge of the weapon by the padlock shackle. Pilots, flight deck officers, and TSA employees are precluded from talking about the holster or firearm handling procedures.

Congressman John Mica of Florida is convinced after a briefing by TSA officials that the accident was caused by the TSA mandated procedures and padlock.

So far the TSA remains silent on the cause of the incident or plans to prevent similar accidents in the future.

Let’s hope that the responsibility for the FFDO program is shifted away from the politicized TSA to a competent law enforcement agency where it belongs.

Read more about this here.
The Video:

Releasing Prisoners Because Of A Government Fiscal Crisis

This is a no brainer for me. We all know that dangerous and violent criminals are young. As criminals age their crimes decrease accordingly. A purse snatcher for example can’t do those escape sprints at 45 or 50 like he could at 25. Maturity also tames those who like to engage in risky behavior.

Life in prison is supposed to be just that. However the truth is life or at least the quality of life is really over for prison inmates and everyone for that matter when, disease, blindness, hearing loss and the inability to simply walk brings disability.

Our prisons have become nursing homes with significant health care costs. That’s over and above the cost of security over senior citizens behind bars.

The solution is simple if prisoners are so old or so disabled they are no longer a threat let them out. That’s far better than letting out a 25 to 45 year old burglar, robber or rapist early. That means people like Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, other high profile ageing convicts will get their diapers changed in a nursing home.

There are thousands of dangerous young criminals that society needs protection from. We should not waste valuable prison real estate on anyone who is feeble and helpless.

Will The TSA make Pilot James Langenhahn A Scapegoat?

US Airways pilot James Langenhahn’s gun went off as he was stowing it away. Placing the TSA mandated padlock through a hole in the holster against the trigger of a loaded gun was a deadly idea that the TSA ordered all FFDO pilots to do after entering and before leaving the cockpit. That action was the apparent cause of the pilot’s gun discharging.

Firearms trainers all over the country were shocked to find out about this very risky policy from my December revelations of the secret and unorthodox procedures created by the TSA. The fact that there are not similar accidents every day with this policy is a monument to the pilots who have volunteered for the training and duty.

Revealing classified information was the only way to expose the danger and force the TSA to eliminate the unnecessary and dangerous handling of the FFDO’s service weapons. With last weeks’ accidental discharge and exposure of the problem there’s a good chance the TSA will see the error of their way and retire those padlocks. Thankfully nobody was killed or injured.

I expect to see some quick Congressional action on this issue. I also expect to see the involved pilot cleared of negligence, returned to his job with an apology and any back pay in light of the failed TSA procedures.

Why Politicians Need So Much Protection In Today’s America

Being an American President is a very dangerous job. The likelihood of being shot while holding office is higher than ten percent. But for a single attack on the House of Representatives Puerto Rican separatists our presidents by and politicians have only suffered assaults by a few disenfranchised or mentally ill Americans.

Today’s politicians are very afraid of the American people as they have stepped up their personal security and insisted anyone allowed near them be searched like criminals. The politicians most concerned are the ones with their hands in their fellow American’s pockets as they regulate them to death. With each intrusion into our lives another layer of politician security is put in place.

There must come a time when politicians forfeit their lives for stealing American’s freedom, liberty and money. American politicians are clueless about the ability, ingenuity and resources of the population they victimize. Politicians seem to forget that the Americans who make the vary weapons they use to make war can redirect their efforts on traitors.

The three current top Presidential contenders are a Black man that embraces and supports a church run by an anti-American hatemonger, a corrupt former First Lady and a pretend Conservative that votes most often with the other two would be Presidents in the Senate. All three candidates have demanded we give away our educational, medical assets and jobs to illegal aliens. No matter which one of these sorry politicians wins this time Americans will lose.

Perhaps the young American Experiment has ended as America embraces the failed ideals of Karl Marx. We can’t continue to run on corruption, greed and printed money backed by nothing at all.

It appears America may be on the verge of a great depression. I don’t expect our population to withstand an interruption in their food or gasoline supply for very long. That’s especially true of the millions currently receiving government assistance.

Perhaps the best course of action for worried politicians is to embrace the idea of returning liberty and stay out of our pockets. Our founding fathers were really bright fellows.

What Will It Take For The TSA To Retire The Holster Padlock?

Under poorly thought out directives this padlock shackle must rest across the trigger of every flight deck officer’s service pistol. This lock clearly causes accidental discharges.

No trigger lock maker has ever made a device for use on a loaded gun. Using this padlock as a trigger lock was a poor and dangerous idea for anyone much less pilots of our air carriers. Requiring pilots to lock and unlock the padlocks on airplanes is very risky. The locks turn the FFDO's defensive weapon into a deadly booby-trap.

Must someone be killed first? This is really very simple to correct by recalling the padlocks and ordering the FFDO pilots to quit using them.

The proper way to insure that the pilot’s guns stay safe and secure is for them to keep them in a belt or shoulder holster at all times. That would end the unnecessary handling of the firearms altogether. It’s such a simple concept even a TSA director should be able to understand.

The Training Of Federal Flight Deck Officers (Armed Pilots) And the TSA Spin Doctors.

The TSA public relations spinners are out in full force defending their deadly, booby-trap FFDO holster design. They want to suggest that the solid week of intense training does not qualify the pilots to carry and retain guns like other federal officers.

One weeks training is shorter than agencies like the FBI but pilots don’t need the additional training on criminal law, evidence collection, rules of evidence and investigative functions. The actual FFDO firearm and tactics training is equal to that of any other federal officer’s.

I can’t even imagine a real firearms trainer teaching FFDO pilots to use any piece of equipment that allows or invites a foreign object like their “safety padlock” to come into contact with the trigger of a loaded firearm. Any self-respecting trainer would walk off the job first. The only reason this danger was not leaked to the public and press sooner is because the TSA classified the procedures as National Security. Nobody wants to risk prison. Pilots and trainers were all quietly holding their noses and going along with a dangerous and unworkable program.

Any self-respecting law enforcement firearms trainer would want the FFDOs to carry their weapons concealed and handle them only in an emergency just like any cop. The TSA's insane locking and unlocking procedures with a dangerously designed and unproven “safety padlock” was asking for a failure.

The FFDO holsters are otherwise well constructed but the padlocks must be recalled and used elsewhere. FFDO rules must change so they can carry their firearms while at work and commuting. This will also reduce thefts and the loss of the pilot’s weapons along with accidents.

Watch the video of the recreated accidental discharge...

We get Letters!

I got this comment on my TSA booby-trap holster video and it was too good not to share with all of my readers.

I guess the fine folks at the TSA don’t like the First Amendment any more than the others in our Bill of Rights!

Mr. Huebl.
Your disgraceful and insulting remarks about the fine men and women who keep you safe at the TSA should be a federal offense.

Releasing classified information as you have is a serious offense.
I think you should be taken to Guantanamo Bay detention camp and water-boarded until you confess just who provided you with that TSA Flight Deck Officer’s, gun, holster and safety padlock.

You and your gun-slinging pilot pals all need a long vacation in a federal cooler for treason.

The FAA and TSA have been doing a fine job of protecting Americans from the National Rifle Association.
Sincerely,
The TSA

Spector’s Trial Specter Is A Long Way Off

After Judge Larry Paul Fidler was forced to declare a mistrial at Phil Spector’s murder trial he beat his chest and told Spector and his lawyers he was going to force the re-trial to begin in 60 days. I was wondering just what the good judge was thinking when he was making unreasonable time requirement demands on a man who was on trial for his life.

Lawyers can’t prepare for a trial where the evidence and its interpretation is of such a highly technical nature on any kind of fast track. You have to balance the monumental tasks assigned to the lawyers and their experts against their professional schedules.

In addition to a pending 44 page defense moition seeking to oust Judge Fidler for his continually demonstrated bias, Spector’s lawyer, Doron Weinberg said he was filing a separate Writ sometime today.

At some point in the coming months the challenge to Judge Fidler’s continued participation in the case will have to be fully briefed and argued. Of course a ruling must follow.

A September trial date was discussed but that’s not realistic either. Perhaps in December or January the stars may align for The People Vs. Phil Spector-Take Two.

Disclaimer:

I have followed this case since the day Lana Clarkson died from that inter-oral gunshot wound. Until after the first trial I was never acquainted with Phil Spector or any of his lawyers.

I have made myself available as a licensed private investigator for defense purposes because the evidence indicates Ms. Clarkson died by her own hand. To date they have not utilized my services.

Most defense attorneys won’t work with an investigator they don’t know. Defense teams can be infiltrated by people really working for clients other than the accused. That, in fact happened already to Phil Spector during this investigation and litigation.

I strongly belive that Spector only became a suspect after Alhambra Police unnecessarily resorted to shocking Phil Spector, a senior citizen twice with Taser stun gun.

The subsequent indictment against Spector did cloak the City Of Alhambra with immunity from any lawsuit.

I make no secret that I ardently support Spector as a man wrongfully charged with murder because of a flawed investigation and prosecution.

I’m not now nor have I ever been Spector’s employee, friend, public relations flack or investigator. I’m simply an investigative blogger demanding that Phil Spector gets a fair day in court.

I’m keeping my options open to help with the defense of Phil Spector in any future civil or criminal proceedings.

U.S. Airways Pilot In Gun Mishap ID’d By TSA Bungling

TSA officials released pilot, James Langenhahn’s name to the media by accident. As they were redacting sensitive information they left his name visible on a police report provided to the Charlotte Observer.

The TSA is working hard to evade their own responsibility and turn the career pilot and Air Force veteran into a scapegoat for the accident. The video I made shows just how a FFDO following the goofy TSA gun handling regulations can have a deadly accident.

The TSA and the other opponents to the armed pilot program are spinning this incident to absolve the agency and destroy Langenhahn’s name and career.
Read the news story here.

See Crimefile’s video here.

Video of the Dangerous Firearm policy of The TSA

This video will show you the obvious cause of the accidental discharge of a Federal Flight Deck Officer's Service weapon. The cause was a flawed and dangerous policy requiring redundant and unnecessary firearm handling by the pilots and an equipment design disaster. You don’t place foreign objects next to a trigger of a loaded gun!

The AIRLINE PILOTS SECURITY ALLIANCE Reacted to the Gun Mishap on That US Airways Flight

They’ve echoed what I have been saying all along.
Read the APSA Press Release here.

I’m No Fan Of Gloria Alled Or Nipple Rings But…

TMZ.com is reporting that the Queen of Legal Bottom Feeders is finally going after a worthy target on behalf of a client. It seems that the weenies hired by the TSA forced a woman to use pliers in order to remove a pair of nipple rings before she could board her flight.

I say this is just another horrible example of millions of unnecessary privacy invasions that the TSA loves to get attention for doing. It’s their twisted public relations move to convince the flying public that we are somehow safe through their serious Fourth Amendment violations

Sic’em Gloria!

TSA and Their Dangerous Mismanagement Of America’s Airline Security.

Historically Vessel and Airplane captains are the chief law enforcement officers on their ships. The powers of the captains were absolute when it came to insuring the safety of passengers and crew. That’s no longer been the case since the FAA and TSA desk bound bureaucrats have taken over taken over total control.

9-11 would have been just another day in America if the pilots were simply trained and armed. Pilots were disarmed decades earlier by the political patronage hacks within the all powerful FAA.

Instead of allowing the captains on their ships during emergencies to decide their own course of action the FAA bureaucrats issued strict and inflexible regulations to cooperate with terrorists and hijackers. We all know how a bunch of small and skinny but well trained Muslim terrorists easily defeated the FAA’s billion dollars plus security program.

Instead of turning the sensitive security duties over to cops and pilots our politicians created the TSA jobs program filling the positions with the very same bureaucrats that presided over security before 9/11.

The public made demands on Congress to arm our pilots after the TSA rejected the concept altogether. The Congress passed legislation that became law overriding the embittered TSA administrators. The TSA’s response to the law of the land was constant obstruction and interference.

The TSA is still engaged in foot-dragging as they created absurd policies and rules for pilots who chose to endure the gauntlet of obstacles and become Federal Flight Deck Officers.

An FFDO may only carry and have access of a firearm within the confines of the tiny cockpit of the plane. Before the FFDO can remove his handgun from his carryon baggage he must be in the cockpit. The gun must be contained loaded in a holster secured through the trigger guard by a padlock until the cockpit door is locked. Next the FFDO must remove the padlock and put the holster on his strong side. Each time the FFDO leaves the cockpit for any reason he must remove the holster, and relock the padlock. Of course at the end of each flight he must go through this involved protocol.

The downside of this silly ritual is repeated and unnecessary handling of the firearm along with serious safety issues. The padlock lock actually touches the trigger of a loaded gun! That explaies only too well just how an FFDO's gun discharged on that U.S. Airways flight.

Pilots are and should be responsible for their entire ship not just the cockpit. Pilots should carry their firearms concealed in conventional holsters from the moment they are inside an airport.

An example of a security hole is the tarmac area of nearly every airport where pilots must inspect their plane. Pilots should be able to react to an attack by terrorists should that happen. The FFDO pilots are well trained and capable to handle these responsibilities.

Americans have been judging the quality of airline security by the rude privacy invasions by thousands of baggage and passenger screeners. The passenger screening is nothing more than a fraudulent and ineffective way to protect Americans.

Real security must begin with the placement of all passengers flying with passports from unfriendly nations on the No Fly List.

Every off duty peace officer with proper credentials should be allowed to fly while armed as they were allowed to do until recent times. There were two disarmed cops killed on separate hijacked 9/11 planes. If they were not disarmed by FAA bureaucrats many lives would have been saved.

The TSA has done nothing but hidden their incompetence and general failings by classifying their deeds and policy under the cover of National Security. Yes, I have written about things the TSA would strenuously object to me publishing. The First Amendment is a wonderful thing when it uncovers waste, fraud and bad government.

More information about the TSA padlock holster can be found here.

Help SECOND CITY COP Save The Chicago Police Department

I must say that the City of Chicago has lost most its luster. Crooked politicians and their contractors have bled the city bone dry as they magically escape criminal investigation or Indictment. . Chicago has become the most unattractive place to live and work for all but the super rich or government freeloaders.

The once proud police department has been decimated through affirmative action and the massive lowering of hiring standards. Clout provides sub-standard officers promotions and a job for life or at least until age 63. Clout always was a help but most officers needed at least a little of their own merits to succeed. Not anymore.

The morale of the department is reflected in the overall lousy appearance of the officers. The officer’s grooming and image today is beyond saddening.

The FOP is only a group of yes men for the politicians collecting inflated salaries forked over by working cops. The rank and file can’t seem to overcome residency requirements, mediocre pay and little hope for respect or any improvement at all.

One day along came an anonymous blogger who created a first rate communications system for all officers to be able to penetrate and expose corruption, favoritism and bad management.

Every boss knows that stepping out of line will get him or her some well deserved attention. Second City Cop has given the street patrolman real power. 7000 people a day visit the site to find out what what’s going on and just how they may be affected in their professional lives. Officers commenting can reveal things that their bosses seek to cover up.

If the rank and file officers are to ever have pride again in their city and job it will because of Second City Cop and the other likeminded officers.

A concerted effort to get rid of Ed Burke, his puppet mayor and a truly worthless city council has to begin. Next their political hacks, and their cronies need to be removed. If all the cops would follow their oaths and expose the politician’s deeds they know about a great change would take place and the city may be a place working people would want to raise their families again.

Robert Cooley was a cop turned crooked lawyer turned white knight. He brought down a lot of slimy officials. If there were only ten Robert Cooleys instead of just one, we’d still have Meigs Field, far lower taxes and money to improve life in a dying metropolis.

Second City Cop is a true hero.

Secrecy Laws Protects TSA from Exposure of Their Incompetence

Saturday’s Federal Flight Deck Officer incident involving an accidental discharge was the result of administrative bungling rather than a case of a Barney Fife “quick draw” accident.

The first reaction of people to an accidental discharge of a firearm is the perception of deadly horseplay. The problem here is the public and press is being kept in the dark by the TSA, Federal Air Marshall Service and The FAA.

What they won’t tell you is how the TSA forced the specially trained FFDO pilots to use a piece of equipment that is defective in design to secure their side arms.

Any pilot would be fired and worse if he or she are caught talking to the press about the FFDO weapons, equipment or procedures. The TSA has “classified” the information and their stupidity as a national secret.

In the continuing TSA and FAA war against Congress’ law requiring some armed pilots the TSA created every roadblock to safe and effective implementation of the program. Such was the ridiculous padlocked holster that is inherently unsafe to use.

The FFDO procedures require that a combination padlock be placed inside the trigger guard of a loaded firearm. The problem is that the pilot can’t even see the trigger as he places the shackle through the small hole in the holster. If the gun is shifted even slightly the padlock can cause the trigger to be pulled. The holster has to be locked and unlocked every time the FFDO enters or leaves the cockpit. The unnecessary action increases likelihood of a tragedy and an end the FFDO program.

The TSA is not a law enforcement agency like the FBI or Marshall’s service. The TSA is a only political patronage outfit filled with dead end bureaucrats instead of cops.

The only beneficiaries of the bizarre and unorthodox TSA procedures are the enemies of America.

Gun Accident In U.S. Airways Airliner Cockpit Was TSA Engineered!

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—It was only a matter of time before there’d be an accidental, non-negligent discharge of a Federal Flight Deck Officer’s weapon. Saturday a U.S. Airways pilot’s gun discharged on Flight 1536, which left Denver at approximately 6:45am and arrived in Charlotte at approximately 11:51am. The Airbus A319 plane landed safely and thankfully none of the flight’s 124 passengers or five crew members was injured

The insane procedures required by the TSA demands that our pilots to lock and then un-lock their .40 side arms was and is a solid recipe for disaster. Did the TSA deliberately create this bizarre and unconventional Rube Goldberg firearm retention system hoping for this result? The sordid history of the FAA and TSA’s total resistance to the concept of arming pilots to protect Americans is in itself a scandal.

Putting a gun into a holster and then threading a padlock through the trigger and trigger-guard is required every time the pilots enter or leave the cockpit. This kind of silliness has never been forced on any law enforcement or security officers anywhere in the world until now. Before this holster padlock procedure pilots with guns were forced to carry them around in a cumbersome 22 pound vault. The vault caused problems in the confined space of most cockpits.

FFDO pilots need to carry their side arms in conventional concealed holsters and there is no reason for the unnecessary handling of their firearms in the cockpits.

More information can be found here.

Chicago Police Officers Look Like A Major Train Wreck!

Photo “borrowed” from today’s Sun Times…

On the mirrors at the old O'Brien Street, Chicago Police Academy and in all districts there was a slogan, “Does your appearance command respect?” I don’t recognize this dirty dozen but they look like the vagrants I used to lock up for safekeeping.

There’s nothing uniform about these officers except their shameful appearance. J-Fed needs to do what former Superintendant O.W. Wilson did and crack down on the officer’s personal image.

Protective vests should be under the uniform shirts or be less obvious. Those tragically and beyond ugly ball caps would make minimum wage security guards look bad if that's possible.

The proper Chicago Police field cap needs to return to properly groomed heads.

I believe that it’s long overdue for all Chicago officers including supervisors to wear dark blue shirts. Light blue and white shirts stand out like brightly lit targets at night.

I would ask that all the individual officers to please do what the department won’t make them do and clean up this mess on their own.