Bloody 17 Hours In Chicago--32 Shot, 6 Dead

Windshild of an unmarked Chicago police sedan.

In a prelude to another exciting Chicago summer local criminals were out controlling the population again. The squad car pictured above was the target and thankfully the officers escaped with their lives. Others weren’t so lucky

Chicago like Washington DC has a total prohibition on handguns. Statewide there is every kind of control from a special state purchased ID card before a law-abiding citizen can own or purchase firearms or ammunition. Besides waiting sometimes months for the ID card there are still onerous waiting periods for each purchase and additional background checks. The state ID card closes every, what gun-rights hating politicians call loopholes.

Illinois criminals arrested and charged with violent gun crimes never have the required card. Illinois and Chicago politicians live in a dream world where they believe that guns only come from licensed dealers at gun shows.

The gunrunning networks are simple. Criminals are supplied by burglary proceeds, stolen police and military weapons. Drug dealers often accept payment in guns as well as cash later selling the guns at a profit. Despite the heavy-handed federal, state and local gun law enforcement criminals in Chicago will never be disarmed.

Still, Mayor Richard M. Daley and his cronies demand new gun laws every time the state legislature meets. The results of Daley’s efforts are only more gun violence.

The Chicago Police Department’s management made sure that the city’s murder statistics were under-reported by reclassifying unsolved murders as ongoing death investigations. They willfully concealed the Medical Examiner’s cause of death rulings in an obvious effort to suggest that Daley’s gun control really worked.

Gun control is a failure in every free society in the entire world. Governments can only control citizens that obey the laws and gun prohibitions. Gun control laws do little but help criminals gain total and absolute dominance over the law-abiding citizens.

The most obvious areas of failure were the creation of criminal, free-fire zones also know as Gun Free Zones. Airports, schools and malls will always remain killing Zones until America wakes up.

Read about Chicago’s 17 hour bloodbath here.

Count Me In With CNN’s Jack Cafferty On His China Remarks

China is a Communist Hell Hole run by goons and thugs. Slavery and assembly line capital punishment for minor offenses that offend Chinese government, Bolshevik sensibilities is normal there.

I will never understand why we trade with this monstrous totalitarian nation. It was the one thing I hate about the Regan Administration's efforts. We should be helping counter-revolutionaries destroy this scourge.

Today thousands of Chinese-Americans picketed the Hollywood, Sunset Blvd. offices of CNN in protest to Cafferty's remarks. I can see where these demonstrators have their loyalty. Perhaps they should be deported so they can live there under the government of their choice but they are busy sending money to American political candidates of the far Left Wing. These enimies of America are conquering us with propaganda and bloody Chinese money.

I don’t think our athletes or any American should travel to China for any reason. I have nothing against the Chinese people, I just want them to be free and happy. As far as I’m concerned the only good Communist is a dead Communist.

The TSA Must Be Stopped Now!

The TSA has become the most loathed government agency in American history. The horror stories of this agency’s brain-dead workers forcing women to drink their own breast milk and use pliers to remove nipple rings and such never end. Thefts of passenger’s property are common as too many of these otherwise unemployable people snoop rather than search for harmful items.

I can remember watching TSA operatives singling out actress, author and former Good Morning America host, Mariette Hartley for a secondary screening at New York’s JFK Airport. They tossed Hartley’s carryon bags contents displaying her underwear for all to see. Actor Paul Sorvino was also on that flight and they somehow let him escape that indignity as did the four, 20-something Muslim men traveling together on this same flight.

The TSA has bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bomb detection equipment that is easily defeated and their X-Ray imagining equipment just cannot see what will or will not explode.

The equipment works to discover guns left in bags by permitted but sometimes absent minded and normally law-abiding citizens who are instantly turned into convicted felons.

The TSA cites concerns that profiling passengers may violate the Constitution. I guess these same bureaucrats forgot to read the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition that restricts government from unreasonable searches and seizures absent probable cause or a judge’s warrant. The TSA claims that passengers voluntarily submit to the frisking is pure hogwash. We have to travel by air in the normal course of everyday life and there is no viable alternative.

Americans have allowed their politicians to trade freedom, liberty and privacy along with their dignity for the mere illusion of security. I’d much rather take my chances with terrorists any day.

America has become a nation of sheep allowing a few goats to treat them like criminals as they take them through the meaningless and demeaning security rituals.
Playing Simon Sez with the unwashed and unemployable that was hired for the TSA jobs program is beyond insulting.

Why would President Bush appoint a political hack like Kip Hawley to head this agency when he has no law enforcement training or experience?

Sheriff Joe Run Out Of Arizona Town Before Sundown--Not Quite.

Click On Picture To Enlarge.

Just a little Southeast of Phoenix Is the Town of Guadalupe. The town has a population of poor and ignorant Hispanic and Yaqui Native American Indians. Since America’s Drug War began there has always been an over abundant population of Illegal Aliens here along with a high crime rate.

Guadalupe has a local government with a history of corruption. They had their own police department run by criminals and the local magistrate could and would fix anything.

After a law enforcement crises in the 1980s they disbanded what was left of their police force and contracted for law enforcement services with the Maricopa County Sheriff.

Recently, Sheriff Joe Arpaio known for being America’s Toughest Sheriff has been attacked by town politicians, clergy and citizens for enforcing the law of the land. The town’s politicians want to select what laws will or won’t be enforced.

I have my own issues with the sheriff about the treatment of prisoners in his jails who have yet to be convicted of anything. That’s the people accused of crimes who are unable to post bail and be released during the one to three years it takes to get their day in court. Often the lies of supposed victims and witnesses are exposed at trials and the former suspects are set free. Sheriff Joe punishes everyone in his jails.

The other issue I have is Arpaio’s publicity stunts are often over the top. Examples are the pink underwear, prison stripes and chain gangs. Again being tough on innocents accused along with convicted criminals is wrong.

The latest rhubarb is over Immigration Law violations. Guadalupe’s politicians think Arizona is part of Mexico. Of course they demand welfare, education and medical benefits meant for American citizens and lawful aliens.

Guadalupe wants Sheriff Joe to turn his head and wink at the violations while taxpayers are soaked paying for medical care, schools, food and imprisonment of dangerous felons who sneaked across our borders.

Sheriff Joe has given the town 180 days to find alternative police services to their liking.

I’m firmly with Sheriff Joe on this one. Guadalupe deserves what they get.

The following is a press release from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office:

Recent actions and statements made by the Town of Guadalupe against the Sheriff's Office are unjust and ignore the professional law enforcement services provided by the Sheriff's Office for the past 30 years. These criticisms are not only a disservice to the deputies serving the Town but reflect poorly on the community as a whole. The current law enforcement contract provides 1.66 beats which includes patrol, responses to emergency calls, arrests of suspects, traffic enforcement and accident investigations, investigation of alleged crimes, property and evidence safekeeping, up to date reporting systems, dispatch and police communications services for a total charge to the Town of $1,186,000. At no additional cost, the Sheriff's Office provides canine, SWAT, posse and helicopter search and rescue. As with all law enforcement contracts, the Sheriff's Office only charges the Town for actual cost recovery. Neither the Sheriffs Office nor Maricopa County profit from the payment received for law enforcement services to the Town.

The Office has provided the community with proactive crime suppression enforcing all laws of the State of Arizona on a quarterly basis. These additional enforcement activities have been successful in reinforcing the safety of the community. Our recent activity resulted in 45 individuals arrested and booked. Of the 45 arrests, 18 individuals were warrant arrests (a total of 28 warrants were cleared); 6 individuals were arrested for drug violation; 9 individuals, after being interviewed, were determined to be illegal immigrants; 12 individuals were arrested for miscellaneous other charges. In addition, 22 misdemeanor citations and 120 traffic citations were issued.

The Sheriff's Office is not a sanctuary law enforcement agency. The Office does not pick and choose which laws it will or will not enforce. The Sheriff's Office is totally committed to enforcing all laws fairly and equitably. Statements made by you and the Phoenix mayor reflect a disturbing discrimination and selective enforcement agenda that certain laws passed by the legislature and voted upon by the citizens of Maricopa County should not be enforced. As the position of the Sheriff's Office is one of dedication to full law enforcement and the Town's position is one of selective and self serving law enforcement, the Sheriff's Office has decided to invoke the termination clause of its law enforcement agreement with the Town of Guadalupe.

This letter will serve as the 180 day written notice. This should give the Town sufficient time to study and research the law enforcement needs of the community and explore other law enforcement alternatives.

Sincerely,
Joseph M. Arpaio. Sheriff

Chicago’s Great Big And Now Dead Puddy Tat

I held off dealing with this story as long as I could. Chicago police officers from the 19th district shot and killed a 150 pound for real mountain lion in Roscoe Village near Lane Tech High School.

I’m an animal lover from way back and think God’s four legged creatures are a lot more tolerable than most of the two-legged animals inhabiting the Windy City right now especially those in City Hall.

Here the police ran out of options to control a dangerous predator and resorted to gunfire. You’d think the cops murdered a beautiful young high school cheerleader listening to the hordes of critics and cop haters.

I learned a lot of useful things in the old O’Brien Street police academy but I’m sure I must have slept through that class on lion hunting or lion control.

You can’t escape the fact that mountain lions always move at lightning speed and are a serious threat if they are cornered or hungry. The same critics would be whining if the cat killed a child or senior citizen.

Today local politicians, media and a large percentage of residents of Chicago hate cops. The us vs. them mentality has never been worse in the city with “much smaller shoulders.”

It's more obvious everyday that Chicago cops have lost their desire to do more than survive and collect a paycheck. The awful appearance of today’s Chicago cop reflects the lowest possible morale.

I don’t see a fix for what ails my hometown. Perhaps bringing in thousands of these mountain lions and letting them roam free may be the ultimate solution.

TSA’s Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley Is Bad Government

In case you are wondering just who the patronage hack is that's mismanaging America’s airport and air line security, it’s a career railroad, government contractor boss and bureaucrat named, Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley.

Appointed by President Bush in 2005 to head the troubled agency Hawley has wasted our money faster than it can be printed on things and programs that at best give a really poor illusion of security.

How can a man with no law enforcement training or experience be appointed to run such super sensitive operations as America’s Aviation Security?

Hawley obviously hates pilots as he has fought arming them and done everything possible to obstruct and or destroy the Flight Deck Officer program.

I question Hawley’s allegiance to America despite his long history has a Republican political creature. Hawley has done everything possible to keep America’s air transportation a soft target for our enemies.

The TSA is a rogue government agency and Hawley is at the helm.
Rather than take suggestions from law enforcement officials Hawley finds a way around them. The stonewall attitude and arrogance of any agency begins with its lack of leadership.

Airline Scapegoat’s Termination Proceedings Begin

US Airways has started termination proceedings seeking the dismissal of veteran pilot James Langenhahn according to Flight Deck Officer’s Association Vice President, Mike Karn.

The firing is in connection with the gun accident in the skies over Charlotte, NC last month as Langenhahn was stowing the gun contained inside a padlocked holster. The TSA dangerously dictated that pilots place a common padlock across the trigger of a loaded gun. The inevitable happened when the gun went off as a result.

I warned of this problem here at Crime, Guns and Videotape last December.

The pilots were and are precluded to publicly talk about or criticize the holster or insane locking procedures that were the obvious cause of the accident.

The TSA has been able to cloak their incompetence and other failings under National Security. That is until I learned about the foolish procedures and exposed them

After the accident I have placed my video recreation of the actual accident that has been viewed thousands of time and shown on national television.

I fully expect Langenhahn to sue his airline for any contract breech and the TSA for their negligent administration of this most sensitive and important area securing our skies from terrorists.

The pilots need to stick together on this one since it’s a matter of safety. Perhaps a job action is in order to get the program taken from that rogue government agency, The Transportation Security Administration.

May I be the first one to suggest that fellow pilots and concerned citizens contact the Federal Flight Deck Officer’s Association and donate money for all of Capt. Langenhahn’s legal Expenses and lost wages.

Until Langenhahn in reinstated to his job with back pay I will avoid booking flights on UA Airways.

The Federal Air Marshal Program Is A Mess

To become a law enforcement officer you need two things, academy training and experience with handling criminals. State and local police departments include several weeks of field training in busy areas before academy graduation. Then you are only a green recruit for a year or two until you become the real police.

The most difficult part of police work is dealing with violators. Police work is the art of not turning littering into armed robbery and not missing dangerous tricks pulled by career criminals.

Unless air marshals have prior police experience their effectiveness will be limited significantly. The air marshal candidates and applicants lack the basic tools to handle the job even after training.

Do you really want to see a green air marshal engaged in close quarter combat with a trained and experienced terrorist? Of course the rub here is that this may well be the first time the air marshal ever had a real fight. Cops on the other hand deal with the best of street fighters and barroom brawlers.

The job of air marshal is boring, and swallowed in lots of government bureaucracy.

Remember the air marshal is the man or woman that is not listening to IPOD, watching DVDs, chatting with other passengers, reading or sleeping. The air marshal is breathing bad air and eating too much expensive and really bad airport concession food. This has to be a lonely and miserable life.

Years can go by before an air marshal is called into enforcement action. An air marshals experience on the job is as worthless as being unemployed everywhere in the American job market.

The truth is they air marshals are quitting as fast as they’re being hired. It’s so difficult to find qualified candidates they lowered hiring and training standards and are giving the jobs to the screeners these days.

We have a much better force and that’s encouraging trained, certified and fit off duty cops to fly armed for free or at greatly reduced ticket prices.

I’d set up a one day training session and vetting process for the volunteer cops wanting to participate.

Armed pilots and off duty armed cops are the best prospect for keeping Americans safe where air travel is concerned. It’s not only cost effective but the only effective way to deal with these issues.

Here is more about the TSA and their problems from CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin.

My Magical Monday Night In Culver City

Click on picture to enlarge.

Retired Chicago police sergeant, Andy Murcia was a vice dick turned into a 23rd District supervisor. He had a part-time gig as the house dick at the swank Ambassador East Hotel on the Gold Coast. Andy met more than a few celebrities there including the incredibly beautiful and talented, Ann Jillian. When that happened sparks flew and the two have been married ever since. I’m very blessed to have them as friends. I was invited by Andy and Ann to attend a staged reading of 'In Love--With the Music of great Antonio Carlos Jobim' at the Culver City Jazz Bakery.

The play was narrated by the Love Boat Skipper, Gavin MacLeod. Along with MacLeod the singers/actors were Amic Byram (playing the rich and sophisticated older man) Debi Nova (playing the very yummy, Girl from Ipanema) and Will Collyer (playing the idealistic cabana boy). They all did real justice to the great Jazz-Samba-Bossa Nova music of Jobim.

I have to single out Debi Nova who performs well beyond her 22 years. Nova knew just how to flirt with her co-stars and the audience as she amazed me with her voice, charms and talent. Jobim created a true fantasy girl from Ipanema and Nova filled that vision perfectly. I don’t want to slight Byram and Collyer here but I think they’d understand that my infatuation with Nova is a “guy” thing.

Music director/pianist Bill Cantos, guitarist Pat Kelley and drummer Michael Shapiro expertly showcased their rich talents for this production.

The story line was cute, contrite, fun and perfectly crafted around Jobim’s timeless music.

The concept and play was the work of Ernest Chambers, a long time Hollywood producer who spent many years working with the late entertainment legend Merv Griffin. Special material was provided by Ken and Mitzi Welch.

I look forward to getting my hands on the cast album as this ambitious and exciting show moves forward.

I want to thank Andy, Ann, Andrew along with the entire cast and crew for a wonderful evening of first rate entertainment.

I found a YouTube offering from that Costa Rican firecracker, Ms. Nova you can see here:

CNN Takes Aim At The TSA Over Pilot Gun Safety.

Today CNN’s investigative correspondent, Drew Griffen reported on the unsafe holster padlock procedures that I believe caused the accidental discharge of a pilot’s weapon on that UA Airways flight late last month.

Here again I demonstrate just how the the TSA turned a safe and reliable defensive weapon into a deadly booby-trap.

On Meeting The Incomparable Jackie DeShannon

Tonight at the Culver City Jazz Bakery I met the voice, charm and beauty behind the International Love Anthem written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, “What The World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love.”

Rather than performing Jackie was in the audience. The gifted singer/songwriter was just a couple of seats away from me at the still in development, Ernie Chambers jazz musical called, In Love.

Jackie has a web site but her appearances are too rare these days for my liking.

Over the decades Jackie really rocked me with such hits as, “Needles and Pins” and of course, “Put a Little Love In Your Heart.”

I have to tell you first hand Jackie is a total babe and still has it, all of it!
Pay A visit to the Jackie DeShannon website and rediscover her great sound.

Here are two great clips of this star!

Gun Rights Infringements Press Ahead despite Supreme Court’s Impending ruling

Gun rights hating members of city councils, county boards, state legislatures and Congress are working harder than ever. They seem to be pushing forth every kind of scheme to separate law-abiding Americans from the means to defend themselves and their country.

I predict that most gun laws will begin falling in America after the Supreme Court rules one Monday morning within the next couple of months.

I’m no lawyer but I just can’t envision a ruling that says keeping and bearing arms is an individual right and then allowing any government infringement on the right.
Many Americans think that licensing guns and owners like automobiles and drivers are somehow constitutional. The cases involving Poll Taxes and Literacy Tests for voters settled that kind of requirement long ago.

Waiting periods, fees, taxes, purchasing limits, testing and training requirements will end. Next laws limiting certain types of firearms or magazine capacity must fall. Laws banning machineguns, short barreled rifles and shotguns cannot survive. I also see the impending death of the Gun Free Zones in America. Finally laws restricting the carrying of firearms by Americans will end for good.

Firearm registration will survive despite two previous Supreme Court Ruling barring prosecution of convicted felons for their failure to register on Fifth Amendment grounds. If you can’t require felons to register their guns, what’s the point of registration?

I anticipate no changes in the prohibition of felons from possessing firearms because the felons lose rights as part of their punishment for crimes.

The gun laws won’t just fall on their own in most cases as that will happen as prosecutions are challenged in criminal courts. There will also be challenges in civil courts as citizens ask that standing gun rights infringements be struck down. This time the gun-rights defenders will have the courts on their side.

I further expect to see more cowardly criminals lose the protection that gun laws have provided them. Crime will decrease as the good guys exercise the rights wrongfully taken from them.

As for the hand-wringing pacifists and gun-rights haters, they will be mounting a campaign to abolish the Second Amendment though the normal process or ask for a Constitutional Convention. Then there’s always the United Nations.

Master Gun Scribe Joins Blogosphere

I have a gun expert friend that has written books about firearms and a truckload of magazine articles. I was surprised to learn long ago that he was a serious Indiana corn farmer in addition to writing about firearms. Frank W. James is one of the country’s best gun writers.

I don’t know how Frank can do all he must and find time to keep up a blog. Gun writers like Frank James have a following of fans that grew up reading his books and articles. I trust that they soon find Frank's new blog.

Farmers all have a problem and that’s controlling God’s creatures that devastate crops. I’m sure we will see expert advice offered here to deal with them too.

I hope the word gets out and the advertisers for “Corn, beans, spent brass, an empty page and a deadline” bury Frank and his farm with cold hard cash.

You can Read his blog right here…

Despicable YouTube Teen Beating

At first blush YouTube should delete this kind of video because they encourage crimes. The reality is bullies do this crap every day without creating perfect evidence for the courtroom. In nearly every similar case without taped evidence the attackers always lie and claim they were just defending themselves. It’s almost impossible to get a conviction when all the witnesses are also the offenders.

I can just imagine jury members watching the YouTube horror show returning with a “Guilty On All Counts” verdict in record time.

The incredibly brutal and stupid central Florida teenagers involved in last week’s taped torture and kidnapping deserve long adult prison terms for their YouTube production.

These sadistic YouTube contributors wanted to show the world their deed. Now the world can watch these creepy kids spend the best decades of their lives where they belong, behind bars.

The video:

OBama’s “Bitter” Gaffe…

It’s no secret that Barack Obama loathes the Second Amendment and supports a total ban or firearms for Americans. It’s also quite evident that he and his wife sympathize, socialize and worship with anti-American and anti-White bigots.

The gun control issue places Obama on the side of the Ku Klux Klan that supported the first gun control laws in America. Those laws barred Blacks from owning guns through subjective permit schemes that favored White folks. Allowing Blacks to protect themselves was and is counterproductive to Obama and the Klan’s goals. Obama is the ultimate, “Uncle Tom”.

You can argue that the Klan is gone but it has been replaced by armed criminal aliens and minority membership street gangs that are killing Blacks today like never before. This is happening in the Gun Free Zones of places like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Law-abiding Black Americans are victimized at a much higher rate than any other ethnic group.

Obama’s rejection of rural Pennsylvania’s voter’s clinging to religion must be because they don’t because they don’t pray in churches run by the likes of his own favorite pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Anyone who believes that Hillary Clinton has turned into a gun rights tolerant, moderate is living in a fantasy world for sure. Clinton was lock-step with Sarah Brady and Rosie O’Donnell who want to guarantee only the government and criminals have firearms.

Obama certainly knows how to alienate and divide Americans as well as the Clintons have done. Obama wants to deprive Americans of their basic rights to protect their families under a Constitutional right that too many Left Wing extremists want to destroy.

The TSA’s Response To Gun Accident is Deafening!

The TSA has muzzled their trainers and administrators as they throw good money after bad. Rather than give up their obstructionist ways the TSA is searching for yet another unorthodox, Rube Goldberg style gun locking contraption.

The TSA is hoping for anything at all, regardless of cost to separate FFDO pilots from their guns or a way to claim the program should be scrapped as unworkable. They just refuse to adjust to the law of the land that mandated armed pilots.

TSA officials will do anything and everything they can to aid terrorists and leave the public unprotected. I know and they know that we are no better off than we were on September 10, 2001.

The TSA has their head in the sand as they know full well that there are explosives that will defeat their screeners and technology. They are also aware just how passengers can improvise deadly weapons with legal everyday items once onboard planes.

The TSA has no reliable contingent plans to deal with a terror attack from the tarmac level at our airports. Their entire program is only very expensive smoke and mirrors. The scam is to fool the public with their privacy and dignity invasions.

As always, we can count on government’s arrogance, incompetence and ineptitude rather than a real solution like fully trained and armed pilots to protect lives and assets entrusted to them.

They need to retire the booby-trap holster padlock idea and instead rely the experience of millions of law enforcement officers that have learned how to safely retain their weapons and deploying them only to save lives.

Watch my booby-trap holster video one more time!

Adoption Duty Day For This Private Investigator/Terminator

Chino, CA--It’s a beautiful day as I enter the grounds of the California Institution For Men. I’ve got an adoption case assignment involving an inmate here.

For the most part I enjoy these assignments I do on behalf of couples seeking to adopt infants to raise as their own children. In many adoption cases the natural parents have a sad life of drug addiction, poverty and crime. These people are just not equipped with the skills or motivation to raise children in a happy or safe environment.

For the birth-fathers to be, I bring an end to the prospect of child support, medical bills and responsibilities. I bring them paperwork that ultimately terminates their parental rights to the child.

If the birth-fathers don’t sign the paperwork, I serve them with court documents that will force termination on the grounds that the birth-father is not a fit nor proper person to raise the child because of his criminal history and imprisonment. No matter what, the results are the same but going through court termination proceedings take a lot longer.

Many of the birth fathers I deal with are not in prison but they have many of the same problems.

Even imprisoned birth fathers have the power to put the adoptive parents through many months of additional expense, uncertainty and worry if the men don’t agree to the adoption. The upside of signing the papers is good will and a guarantee their babies will get the good life with financially stable if not wealthy adoptive parents.

The reality is these babies have won the lottery. The’ve won loving parents that will provide for their needs and educational tools along with a new birthright.

Thankfully most birth-fathers do the right thing once the options are properly explained to them. I rarely meet the adoptive parents but talk on the phone with them. Sometimes as they cry with tears of joy that the adoption is finally settled. These adoption assignments have a lasting feel-good effect on me. The results of this work I do has caused the social workers and attorneys to give me a special moniker, “The Terminator”.

International Extradition And The Death Penalty

Fugitive Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean was bagged by Mexican cops in San Juan De La Vina, Mexico. Laureau was on the lam after being accused first of rape and then later killing the very pregnant, Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20. Police believe the killing was an ill-fated attempt to silence Lauterbach’s testimony against Laurean.

There is a simple lesson for all people on the run from a capital offense in the United States. International extradition has a price in most of the civilized world. That price is there will be no extraditions without a guarantee that the death penalty wont be sought or imposed on the accused.

Most convicted killers don’t live to see a prison death chamber because of the decades long chain of appeals involved in these cases. However spending time on Death Row is really hard time compared to even super maximum state prison general population housing units.

Touching foreign soil did much more than save Laurean’s life. Even if he serves a maximum term he will have his custody status reviewed and reduced with good behavior. That would never happen if he was under a death sentence.

I won’t comment on just what Laurean deserves more than a fair trial and conviction only after guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Laurean has already been convicted by blood thirsty television and blog offerings in their usual rush to judgment.

Spending most or all of your useful life in prison has to be pure Hell with the crappy food, an end to hetro-sexual relations, and any form privacy. Being subjected to victimization at the hands of career criminals with nothing to lose does not enhance the quality of life. Life in prison may be much worse than death.

I hate the death penalty because it gives government the ability to kill its own citizens. Sooner or later that power gets out-of-control as we have seen in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in recent history. Can we trust the politicians we were never that fond of not to abuse their power?

I’m Stuck In A Giant Time Warp…

Click picture to enlarge.

Thanks to retired, Chicago Police Homicide Sergeant Johnny “North side” Northern, I was taken back more than three decades. North Side worked at Area Six in another now demolished building located at Damen Avenue and Grace Street.

North Side sent me this picture of the old Chicago police Academy. The non-descript building was used as a hospital during the Civil War and has the look of so many of Chicago’s public grammar schools. I guess one architect had the clout to design so many buildings during that period. I wonder whose political campaign he had to fund to get the job? The building served the city well for a very long time.

I can remember every day I spent in that building that had no air conditioning but for a single window unit in the training director’s office. Rank has its privilege. The classrooms were large and noisy. You could smell the Vienna Sausage Company’s products in the air from several nearby hot dog stands on Maxwell Street.

The sound of a fellow recruit’s wrist snapping still rings in my ears from the great training provided by a certain notorious defensive tactics instructor. The boiler room was used as small running track where we did the Duck Walk for many miles before we graduated.

Compared to my basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri the O’Brien Street Academy was an absolute country club. The instructors were the greatest as they gave me the building blocks to understand the job and also help me through a second career as a private eye.

The new academy on Jackson Street was finished the same year this picture was taken. It was new, modern much larger and lacked so much personality that the old school had.

Thanks for the picture John! If only I could be turned back into a kid and begin my training all over again…

We get letters! RE: Armed Pilots

I am FFDO and only joined the program so I wouldn't have to suffer the affront every time I went to work of being frisked by some guy named Mohammed, who couldn't hold a job at 7-11 or driving a taxi in Manhattan.

Only in America can you produce such an inept leadership of an orgination of morons who don't have the balls to work smarter...not harder. Let me see if I have this right; I'm in uniform with no gun, I have to go through same screening as regular passengers. Take my computer out as well as the gum in my shirt pocket. I carry a gun, I show two photo ID's, sign a book and NOTHING in my bag is searched! That makes a lot of sense.

When will this country wake up and stop all the insanity? If it is for the passengers, simply remind them that we are the most vetted employee group of almost any industry. And, if they are not comfortable, Greyhound and Amtrak would be more than happy to carry them safely to their destinations!

When will the pilots come together and say enough is enough and give the TSA 6 months to come up with universal access or we don't fly? Shut down the plans for one hour and they would have a solution in a week!

We are going to "politically correct" ourselves right up to another event that will make 9-11 look like a picnic!