.....It *is* the appropriate instrument for the burning of Rome, is it not?
Ok, maybe that's a bit negative, but given recent events it does kind of feel like our great nation is in deep trouble.
There is a certain smug satisfaction in knowing I was right. When Bush first started using executive orders to do blatantly unconstitutional things, I said this whole thing would get ugly. I was shouted down by Republicans who believed that Bush's use of said EOs were perfectly ok and would in no way ever be abused. I wonder what they're thinking now?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
I never thought I'd say this....
...but this russian guy slaps this right outta the park.
Americans: Never give up your guns
Wow. The comments have the usual shitbag full of gun grabbing fuckwits, but you can't swing a stick without hitting one of those idiots.
It's definitely good food for thought, but I doubt it'll sway the hardcore Feinstein lover, after all, they don't live in reality.
Americans: Never give up your guns
Wow. The comments have the usual shitbag full of gun grabbing fuckwits, but you can't swing a stick without hitting one of those idiots.
It's definitely good food for thought, but I doubt it'll sway the hardcore Feinstein lover, after all, they don't live in reality.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
"I fired more shots than needed...."
Minn. man says he 'fired more shots than I needed'
By | Associated Press – Mon, Nov 26, 2012Enlarge PhotoThis Nov. 23, 2012, photograph …
Enlarge PhotoIn a Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012 photo, …
LITTLE
FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota homeowner who shot two unarmed
teenagers in the midst of an apparent Thanksgiving Day break-in told
authorities he feared they had a weapon, but acknowledged firing "more
shots than I needed to" and appeared to take pride in "a good clean
finishing shot" for one teen, according to investigators.
Byron David Smith, 64, was charged Monday with two counts of second-degree murder in a criminal complaint that was chilling for the clinical way investigators said he described the shootings.
Smith told investigators he shot 18-year-old Haile Kifer
several times as she descended a stairway into his basement, and his
Mini 14 rifle jammed as he tried to shoot her again after she had
tumbled down the steps.
Though Kifer was "already hurting," she
let out a short laugh, Smith told investigators. He then pulled out his
.22-caliber revolver and shot her several times in the chest, according
to the complaint."If you're trying to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again," Smith told investigators, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.
Smith was also charged in the death of Kifer's cousin, 17-year-old Nicholas Brady.
Minnesota
law allows a homeowner to use deadly force on an intruder if a
reasonable person would fear they're in danger of harm, and Smith told
investigators he was afraid the intruders might have a weapon. However,
Smith's actions weren't justified, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel
said."The law doesn't permit you to execute somebody once a threat is gone," he said.
Smith told investigators he was fearful after several break-ins at his remote home in Little Falls,
a central Minnesota town of 8,000 people. The sheriff's office had only
one report of a break-in, on Oct. 27. Smith reported losing thousands
of dollars in cash, gold coins, two guns, photo equipment and jewelry.
Wetzel
said that while the shootings happened on Thursday, Smith waited until
Friday to report the deaths, explaining that "he didn't want to trouble
us on a holiday."
In the
complaint, Smith said he was in his basement when he heard a window
breaking upstairs, followed by footsteps that eventually approached the
basement stairwell. Smith said he fired when Brady came into view from
the waist down.
After the teen fell down the stairs, Smith said he shot him in the face as he lay on the floor.
"I want him dead," the complaint quoted Smith telling an investigator.
Smith
said he dragged Brady's body into his basement workshop, then sat down
on his chair. After a few minutes, Kifer began coming down the stairs
and he shot her as soon as her hips appeared, he said.
After
shooting her with both the Mini 14 and the .22-caliber revolver, he
dragged her next to Brady. With her still gasping for air, he fired a
shot under her chin "up into the cranium," the complaint says."Smith described it as 'a good clean finishing shot,'" according to the complaint.
The next day he asked a neighbor to recommend a good lawyer, according to the complaint. He later asked his neighbor to call the police.
A prosecutor called Smith's reaction "appalling."
"Mr. Smith intentionally killed two teenagers in his home in a manner that goes well beyond self-defense," Morrison County Attorney Brian Middendorf said after Smith appeared in court Monday morning. Bail was set at $2 million.
Defense attorney Gregory Larson declined comment.
John Lange, who described himself as Smith's best friend, said Smith shouldn't be in jail.
"You have a right to defend your home," Lange said. "He's been through hell."
But
Liberty Nunn, a Little Falls resident who said she knew Nicholas
Brady's older sister, said Smith could have simply shouted at them to
stop. She said she hopes Smith goes to prison "for a very, very long
time."
"Those are two young lives that were taken," she said. "It's just not right."
Minnesota
sentencing guidelines call for a range of roughly 21 to 30 years in
prison for a person convicted of a single second-degree murder count.
Smith's brother, Bruce Smith, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune his brother had retired after a career as a security officer with the U.S. State Department.
Bruce
Smith declined to talk to an Associated Press reporter Monday outside
his brother's home. A makeshift barricade blocked the driveway and a
board leaning against it bore the spray-painted words "Keep Out."
Brady's
sister, Crystal Schaeffel, told the Star Tribune that Kifer had stolen
prescription drugs from her home before. Little Falls police records
show Crystal Schaeffel reported a theft Aug. 28, but the department said
the report was not public because that investigation was continuing and
because it named juveniles.
Schools
in Little Falls, about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis, made
counselors available, though classes weren't in session Monday. In
nearby Pillager, where classes were in session, a few students sought
help from school counselors and local clergy members available at the
school Monday morning, said Superintendent Chuck Arns.
Fucking wow.
THIS is the face of someone the antis just love to rant about. This worthless douchebag motherfucker is one of the biggest threats to our 2nd amendment rights, bar none. Why, you might ask? Simply because he's completely not someone you can sympathize with.
Ok, shooting someone who's home invaded you, I have no problem with. Those that really know me might even say I'm rather in favor of it.... But once they're down and NOT PHYSICALLY A THREAT, you're supposed to stop shooting. Walking up to someone and FIRING A FINISHING ROUND INTO THEIR HEADS is NOT self defense, I don't give a flying fuck what anyone says.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Just when you think you've facepalmed all you can facepalm....
Greenbrae shooting defendant sues 90-year-old man who was shot
Posted:
10/23/2012 02:26:10 PM PDT
Greenbrae
resident Jay Leone, 90, waits outside court earlier this year before
testifying against his alleged shooter, Samuel Cutrufelli. At right is
one of his tenants, Sara Navon, who was in the house when the
shooting occurred.
(IJ photo/Gary Klien)
Related
- Greenbrae burglary shooting
- Oct 4:
- Greenbrae shooting trial opens with defense jab at 90-year-old accuser
- Jul 31:
- Greenbrae shooting suspect denied late bid to hire private lawyer
- Mar 23:
- Novato man denied dismissal of charges in Greenbrae gunfight
- Feb 17:
- 'Now it's my turn': Greenbrae man, 90, testifies about shootout with suspect
- Jan 5:
- Greenbrae man, 90, says gun battle was 'very traumatic'
A 90-year-old Greenbrae man who was shot in the head during an alleged burglary has been sued by the alleged burglar.
Samuel
Cutrufelli, who was also shot during the incident, claims Jay Leone
"negligently shot" him during the confrontation inside Leone's home.Cutrufelli, 31, claims Leone caused him "great bodily injury, and other financial damage, including loss of Mr. Cutrufelli's home, and also the dissolution of Mr. Cutrufelli's marriage."
Cutrufelli shot Leone once in the face during the alleged burglary, and Leone returned fire, hitting Cutrufelli several times. Both men were hospitalized for an extended period after the gun battle.
Cutrufelli, whose charges include two counts of attempted
Samuel
Cutrufelli appears in court on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, in San Rafael,
Calif. He is accused of attempted murder and burglary after allegedly
exchanging gunfire with Greenbrae resident Jay Leone.
(IJ photo/Frankie Frost )
"He's the one who busted my door in," he said. "I'll just countersue him then. That's what I'll need to do."
The incident occurred at about 10:45 a.m. Jan. 3 at Leone's home on Via La Cumbre. Authorities said Cutrufelli entered the home, put a gun to Leone's head, tied his hands with a belt and rummaged through his bedroom for valuables.
Leone said he was able to wriggle his hands free, then convinced the burglar to let him use the bathroom. Then he got one of the five handguns stashed in his
bathroom, sneaked back to the bedroom and spotted Cutrufelli in his closet.Cutrufelli allegedly fired his gun, hitting Leone in the jaw area, and Leone fired back. Cutrufelli then wrestled his gun away, put it to Leone's head and pulled the trigger, but no bullets were left in the gun.
When police found Cutrufelli bleeding in his car a short distance from Leone's home, he said he had shot himself and needed medical attention, Twin Cities police said.
Cutrufelli could face life in prison if convicted of the charges. His lawyer, Sanford Troy, said Cutrufelli is a methamphetamine user, that the incident was a drug deal gone sideways, and that Leone shot him in the back when he was trying to flee.
Cutrufelli, a father of two, is a Petaluma resident with Novato roots.
News story from here.
This is yet another example of why laws like magazine limits are worse than merely insane. The tweaker in question decided to home-invade this gentleman's house, threatened to murder him, tied him up, and then when the old man tried to resist (somewhat successfully, ) shot him and fled.
Now, the robber is SUING the old man. Now, I DIDN'T have a blood pressure problem, but I think I'm rapidly developing one.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Oh shit, here we go again...
Wisconsin deputies on scene of shooting near suburban Milwaukee mall; multiple victims
Published October 21, 2012
Associated Press
BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Deputies in Wisconsin are responding to reports of a shooting near a major mall in suburban Milwaukee.
WISN-TV reports a mass shooting has taken place near the Brookfield Square Mall.
A spokeswoman for a local hospital says it has received four patients from the shooting, none critical, and expects three more.
A woman who answered the phone at the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department on Sunday told The Associated Press that deputies are looking for an active shooter.
WISN-TV reports a mass shooting has taken place near the Brookfield Square Mall.
A spokeswoman for a local hospital says it has received four patients from the shooting, none critical, and expects three more.
A woman who answered the phone at the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department on Sunday told The Associated Press that deputies are looking for an active shooter.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/21/wisconsin-deputies-on-scene-shooting-near-suburban-milwaukee-mall-multiple/#ixzz29xYZRlCT
--------------------------------
Once again, some maladjusted fuckwad decides to go apeshit and start shooting random people. Guess what's gonna get blamed?
Friday, October 12, 2012
Welcome to the police state
A 12-year-old girl suffered burns to one side of her body when a flash grenade went off next to her as a police SWAT team raided a West End home Tuesday morning.
"She has first- and second-degree burns down the left side of her body and on her arms," said the girl's mother, Jackie Fasching. "She's got severe pain. Every time I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes."
Medical staff at the scene tended to the girl afterward and then her mother drove her to the hospital, where she was treated and released later that day.
A photo of the girl provided by Fasching to The Gazette shows red and black burns on her side.
Police Chief Rich St. John said the 6 a.m. raid at 2128 Custer Ave., was to execute a search warrant as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation by the City-County Special Investigations Unit.
The grenade is commonly called a "flash-bang" and is used to disorient people with a bright flash, a loud bang and a concussive blast. It went off on the floor where the girl was sleeping. She was in her sister's bedroom near the window the grenade came through, Fasching said.
A SWAT member attached it to a boomstick, a metal pole that detonates the grenade, and stuck it through the bedroom window. St. John said the grenade normally stays on the boomstick so it goes off in a controlled manner at a higher level.
However, the officer didn't realize that there was a delay on the grenade when he tried to detonate it. He dropped it to move onto a new device, St. John said. The grenade fell to the floor and went off near the girl.
"It was totally unforeseen, totally unplanned and extremely regrettable," St. John said. "We certainly did not want a juvenile, or anyone else for that matter, to get injured."
On Thursday, Fasching took her daughter back to the hospital to have her wounds treated.
She questioned why police would take such actions with children in the home and why it needed a SWAT team.
"A simple knock on the door and I would've let them in," she said. "They said their intel told them there was a meth lab at our house. If they would've checked, they would've known there's not."
She and her two daughters and her husband were home at the time of the raid. She said her husband, who suffers from congenital heart disease and liver failure, told officers he would open the front door as the raid began and was opening it as they knocked it down.
When the grenade went off in the room, it left a large bowl-shaped dent in the wall and "blew the nails out of the drywall," Fasching said.
St. John said investigators did plenty of homework on the residence before deciding to launch the raid but didn't know children were inside.
"The information that we had did not have any juveniles in the house and did not have any juveniles in the room," he said. "We generally do not introduce these disorienting devices when they're present."
The decision to use a SWAT team was based on a detailed checklist the department uses when serving warrants.
Investigators consider dozens of items such as residents' past criminal convictions, other criminal history, mental illness and previous interactions with law enforcement.
Each item is assigned a point value and if the total exceeds a certain threshold, SWAT is requested. Then a commander approves or rejects the request.
In Tuesday's raid, the points exceeded the threshold and investigators called in SWAT.
"Every bit of information and intelligence that we have comes together and we determine what kind of risk is there," St. John said. "The warrant was based on some hard evidence and everything we knew at the time."
But Fasching said the risk wasn't there and the entry created, for her and her daughters, a sense of fear they can't shake.
"I'm going to have to take them to counseling," she said. "They're never going to get over that."
A claims process has already been started with the city. St. John said it's not an overnight process, but it does determine if the Police Department needs to make restitution.
"If we're wrong or made a mistake, then we're going to take care of it," he said. "But if it determines we're not, then we'll go with that. When we do this, we want to ensure the safety of not only the officers, but the residents inside."
No arrests were made during the raid and no charges have been filed, although a police spokesman said afterward that some evidence was recovered during the search. St. John declined to release specifics of the drug case, citing the active investigation, but did say that "activity was significant enough where our drug unit requested a search warrant."
Fasching said she's considering legal action but, for now, is more concerned about her daughters.
"I would like to see whoever threw those grenades in my daughter's room be reprimanded," she said. "If anybody else did that it would be aggravated assault. I just want to see that the city is held accountable for what they did to my children."
Ok, first and foremost: Who the BLOODY FUCK thought it would be a good idea to let a CLEARLY untrained asshole operate the distraction devices? He "didn't know" there was a delay on the fucking grenade? So, his plan was to shuck the fucking thing off the end of the pole into the room, and load another?
Hey, how about this? How about, instead of dropping the fucking UNEXPLODED ORDINANCE inside what is SUPPOSED to be a fucking meth lab, how about throwing it out into the street for later disposal?
Another thing, this was supposed to be a raid on a METH LAB. SO WHY THE FUCK WERE THEY USING FLASHBANGS?!?!?!?
This department should be made to pay, both for the damage to the house and the injuries to the little girl.
This bullshit is going too far. Enough already.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
So much for "The Only Ones well trained enough"
By N. R. KLEINFIELD
- Font:
In the early hush of Friday morning, the manager and his young
employee had finished another long shift, shuttered their Bronx bodega
and headed home. But the young assistant had forgotten to grab a bar of
soap that he needed. They went back, and when they unlocked the door,
the thing so feared by those who work in neighborhoods contaminated by
crime followed them in.
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Before the criminals could finish, an arriving customer saw what was happening through the window and called the police.
In one of those chilling split-second dramas that become tragedy, the manager got out unharmed but his assistant was killed by a police bullet. The authorities said it was the result of an accidental discharge when the young man collided with a police officer in his frightened haste to escape the criminals.
Father was killed by muggers The dead man was identified as Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, a nephew of the store’s owner. He had worked in the bodega for six months and was helping to support a 3-year-old daughter in the Dominican Republic. Two years ago, his own father was shot to death in the Dominican Republic trying to ward off muggers wanting to steal his jewelry.
Mr. Cuevas’s killing was the third high-profile fatal police shooting in four weeks, although the circumstances on Friday were quite different from the previous two deaths, of a knife-carrying man near Times Square and of a man who killed a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building.
Empire State shooting: Bystanders hit by police rounds
The episode Friday began shortly before 2 a.m. at the Aneurys Deli on Franklin Avenue at East 169th Street in Morrisania. Felix Mora, 43, the store’s manager for nine years, and Mr. Cuevas had barely opened the door to fetch the soap when the three men descended on them, one of them holding a gun.
“He pointed the gun at us and was saying, ‘Get on the ground!’ ” Mr. Mora said. “We got on the ground.”
The gunman hit Mr. Mora in the head with the butt of the gun. Mistaking the relationship between the workers, he shouted at Mr. Mora, “If you move, we’re going to kill your son.”
The gunman began rooting through Mr. Mora’s pockets, while the two other men went behind the counter to fill the backpack with lottery tickets and the money Mr. Mora kept in a cigar box.
Officers arrive Within minutes of the customer’s 911 call, the authorities said, two officers from the local precinct house and two housing officers converged on the scene.
One of the housing officers peeked through the bodega’s window to assess the situation.
The gunman saw him, Mr. Mora said, and leapt behind the counter with his accomplices and shouted, “Policía, policía, policía!”
Two of the robbers retreated to the rear of the store.
Mr. Mora said that sensing an opportunity, he ran out the front door with his hands up and confirmed that a robbery was in progress. A moment later, he said, Mr. Cuevas sprinted past him on the sidewalk.
“He came out scared,” Mr. Mora said. “Running.”
A gunshot sounded. Mr. Mora looked and saw Mr. Cuevas crumpled on the ground, his right hand pressed against a bleeding wound. A policeman dragged Mr. Cuevas away by the arm. Mr. Mora met Mr. Cuevas’s eyes.
“He said, ‘Ah!’ He put his hand to his chest, and he just looked at me,” Mr. Mora said.
Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner, said an officer with his gun drawn was waiting outside the door when the two workers came out. He said Mr. Cuevas “ran full speed into the officer; the two became entangled, at which point we believe the officer accidentally discharged his weapon.”
The bullet struck Mr. Cuevas in the back of his left shoulder. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, where he was pronounced dead. The single bullet had traced a harsh trajectory: it managed to damage the left lung, heart and major blood vessels, the medical examiner’s office said.
Suspects arrested The arrests of the three suspects took an additional four hours.
The authorities said that Christopher Dorsey, 17, trailed the two employees out of the store and surrendered. The other men — Orlando Ramos, 32, who the police said was the gunman, and Ernesto Delgado, 28 — remained holed up inside.
About 5:30 in the morning, Mr. Delgado emerged and claimed he had been held hostage, but the police did not believe him and arrested him.
According to the authorities, officers from the emergency services unit then went into the store and found Mr. Ramos tied to a pole with yellow rope, also pretending to be a hostage.
Mr. Kelly would not identify the officer who shot Mr. Cuevas but said that he had been on the force for seven years and had never before fired his gun. The officer was placed on administrative duty, Mr. Kelly said, pending an internal investigation.
“The tragedy here, of course, is that Mr. Cuevas was shot,” Mr. Kelly said, “but I see nothing wrong with the procedure.”
At a news briefing at Police Headquarters, Mr. Kelly played videos from the bodega’s security cameras. They showed the workers being held inside at gunpoint, their flight from the store and the collision between Mr. Cuevas and the officer.
Later in the afternoon, Mr. Kelly met with Ana Cuevas, Mr. Cuevas’s mother, to express his condolences.
The police charged the three suspects with robbery and with second-degree murder, because the crime led to a death. All three have criminal records, and the police said that Mr. Ramos had a prior robbery arrest.
In a related event, a police officer responding alone to the robbery crashed into a car stopped at a red light not far from the store. The authorities said he sustained a broken left femur and a possible fractured nose and underwent surgery; the civilians in the other car had minor injuries.
Once Mr. Ramos, the accused gunman, was unmasked, Mr. Mora said he recognized him as someone who worked for a while at a neighboring bodega. At 2 o’clock Thursday morning, he said, Mr. Ramos came by as Mr. Mora was leaving his deli.
Mr. Mora said Mr. Ramos told him, “I’ll get you tomorrow.”
Reporting was contributed by Daniel Krieger, Colin Moynihan, Wendy Ruderman and Nate Schweber.
This article, headlined "Just After Closing Time, a Fatal Split Second," first appeared in The New York Times.
Copyright © 2012 The New York Times
This is *EXACTLY* why gun bans don't make any sense. These men would have likely been better off defending themselves with their own weapons rather than waiting on the cops to "rescue" them.
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