Archive for the ‘Cops’ Category

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Random notes: July 24, 2013.

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

Man, this is a day for sad sports stories in the NYT.

George Sauer Jr. passed away in May.

He caught eight passes in the Jets’ upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In six seasons with the Jets, Sauer caught 309 passes for 4,965 yards and 28 touchdowns. But after the 1970 season, when he was 27, George Sauer retired, criticizing a sport that he described as having a “chauvinistic authority,” “militaristic structure” and that he termed “inhumanly brutal.” He briefly returned to play with the New York Stars of the World Football League three years later, but after that, Sauer’s football days were over.

What makes this story interesting is that Sauer, according to people who knew him, was a really smart guy who may have never wanted to play football in the first place; what he really wanted to be was a writer.

On a slightly more upbeat note, there’s an interesting piece by Frank Bruni in the paper of record. Vetri, a very well regarded Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, transformed itself for three nights into Le Bec-Fin, a legendary restaurant that closed (temporarily?) in 2012.

I like the idea of recreating legendary restaurants for a few nights. I’m not sure what Austin restaurant I’d like to see do this; I think that needs some more consideration than I am currently able to give it.

And since this isn’t behind the paywall, i’ll link to it: the Austin Police Department has fired another officer. What did he do? Well…bad guy broke into someone’s home and stole their pickup and gun. Police chased the bad guy. Bad guy wrecked the truck, fled on foot, and broke into another house.

As police converged on the home, he began backing out of the garage in the homeowner’s car.
In a disciplinary memo, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said [Christopher] Allen [the fired officer – DB] fired four shots into the car’s window as it backed out of the driveway before chasing the car down the street on foot while firing an additional 10 shots, forcing other officers to take cover.

This has gone to the arbitrator:

According to the opinion, Allen acknowledged that he shouldn’t have fired all 14 shots but contended that he complied with the department’s deadly force policies because the suspect was an imminent threat to the public.

And the arbitrator said:

…that sustained violations of use of force policies have consistently resulted in termination, and that Allen should have been expected to avoid approaching the vehicle containing a possibly-armed suspect.
Though he said Allen seemed like a “thoroughly decent individual and dedicated police officer,” he decided there was no justification to overturn his termination.

I think the take-away here is: hit what you aim at. And always be sure of your target and what’s behind it:

The chief said Allen’s actions violated several departmental policies, including determining the objective reasonableness of force, and that he was a more of a threat to the public than the suspect.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Food, Guns, Law, NFL, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: July 23, 2013.

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

Do you remember the “Bait Car” incident? In brief, an LA County sheriff’s detective swore under oath that he’d read a suspect his rights; that testimony was contradicted by video taken of the arrest for the “Bait Car” TV series.

Now:

Prosecutors concluded that Det. Anthony Shapiro “willfully, knowingly and intentionally” made false statements when he claimed to have fully read suspects their Miranda rights, according to a memo obtained by The Times. Footage shot by television cameras for the TruTV program “Bait Car” shows that Shapiro never fully read the suspects their constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning, prosecutors said.

And what is the DA’s office going to do about this? Not a damn thing.

Despite the findings, the district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against Shapiro. The office concluded that Shapiro’s false statements did not amount to perjury because they did not play a key role in the decision to arrest the men or in the outcome of the preliminary hearing where Shapiro testified, according to the memo.

Meanwhile, in the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon, Bruce Malkenhorst used to be the city manager. He resigned (and was later convicted of misappropriating public funds). As city manager, he took home $911,000 a year; his pension was the largest in California, more than $500,000 a year.

At least it was until the California pension board cut it back to $115,000 a year, stating that some of his salary was improperly obtained.

So now the 78-year-old Malkenhorst is suing Vernon to make up the difference. His lawyers are making a novel if improbable argument: Because it paid him a high salary, the city is responsible for keeping his retirement benefits at the higher level even though CalPERS balked.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law, TV | 3 Comments »

Random notes: July 5, 2013.

Friday, July 5th, 2013

Everton Wagstaffe and Reginald Connor are serving time for the kidnapping and murder of Jennifer Negron. Ms. Negron was 16 years old when she was murdered.

Both Mr. Wagstaffe and Mr. Connor have maintained their innocence and, after years of fighting, were able to arrange DNA testing of every piece of physical evidence that could be found; none of it implicated them, and the DNA in hair found on the victim’s body came from at least one other person.

The main witness against the two men was a crack addicted prostitute who was “forcibly detained by the authorities in a hotel until she testified”.

In the case of Mr. Wagstaffe and Mr. Connor, no records were kept of police interviews with other important witnesses; there was no physical evidence to support the informant’s claims; one witness, a police detective’s daughter, who could provide a seemingly credible alibi for Mr. Wagstaffe, was never interviewed by police, prosecutors or defense lawyers; the owner of a car supposedly used in the kidnapping said she told detectives that she had it with her at church through the night of Ms. Negron’s death. There is no record of any interview of her, either, even though the car was cited as important evidence.

Is this our old friend Louis Scarcella? Is the Brooklyn DA reinvestigating this case?

No. And no.

The investigation into the death of Ms. Negron was led by a detective from a different squad, Michael Race of the 75th Precinct. His work with another informant led to the conviction of at least three innocent people.
Of 750 murder investigations that he ran, Mr. Race has said, only one was “done the correct way, A to Z.”

One. Out of 750. And three wrongful convictions.

Aye aye mateys, oh, come on the Pirate Radio
Land of the free and home of the brave
FCC crawl in your grave!

(Explained.)

Directors of Meade Instruments Corp., which has helped foster the consumer market with its easy-to-use telescopes and binoculars since 1972, may be tipping their hand by Monday on whether to recommend selling the company, plow ahead alone or possibly seek bankruptcy protection.

This sucks. I’ve wanted a good telescope for much of my life, even though I find it hard to use one with glasses and I really am not able to stay up late in order to do observational astronomy. Still, I’m sad to see the market shrinking, even though the technology gets better and better.

Verizon has a great idea for Fire Island. As you might have guessed, the island got the crap beat out of it by Sandy, and the phone system was devastated.

Verizon, the only phone company in town, wants most of the island and its 500 homes to go all-wireless, ending for good its century-old copper wire phone network. That means phone lines buried underground or strung between poles and then stretched into homes will go out of service and be replaced by an experimental wireless service that sends calls between cell towers and home receivers.

Sounds great, right?

Without phone lines, consumers don’t have the option of DSL Internet. Gone are faxes. Heart monitors that connect over phone lines to hospitals don’t work over wireless, either. And small businesses can’t process credit cards or operate cash machines without buying entirely new payment systems, as Verizon notes in its New York public filing.

Not mentioned in the article: Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) over copper works when the power is out. Will Verizon’s wireless system? The cell towers may have battery backup or generators, but do the home receivers?

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Geek, Law, Radio | 2 Comments »

I have no joke here. I just want to say…

Wednesday, June 26th, 2013

Police Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has been abruptly transferred to a new job in the department’s Community Partnership Office, effective immediately, so the department can refocus its “message,” Batts said in a news conference at City Hall.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Another Ranger.

Thursday, June 20th, 2013

This is the “front” side of the Armstrong family monument in Oakwood Cemetery.

armstrong1

This is the John B. Armstrong side:

armstrong2

Who was John B. Armstrong, other than a Texas Ranger? A serious badass, most famous for capturing John Wesley Hardin. Armstrong had been shot in the leg previously (according to his entry in the Handbook of Texas Online, it was a self-inflicted wound), and was using a cane:

When the train carrying Hardin came into the station, Armstrong entered the front of the coach. Switching his cane to his left hand, he drew his Colt .45 with his right and confronted Hardin and four members of his gang. One of the men drew and shot at Armstrong who returned the fire killing the man. Hardin’s gun had hung up on his suspenders allowing the Ranger time to hit Hardin over the head, knocking him unconscious. He unarmed the other three men.

(Some accounts say the bullet fired by Hardin’s man went through Armstrong’s favorite hat, seriously pissing him off, and that Armstrong’s blow knocked Hardin unconscious for two hours. These accounts are not well sourced, so I would take them with a grain of salt.)

Armstrong was also involved in the capture of Sam Bass, which is probably worthy of another post and some more photos next time I’m out near Round Rock.

Armstrong’s Texas Ranger Hall of Fame page. Armstrong on the “Badass of the Week” site (a little overwrought, but entertaining). Handbook of Texas online.

Posted in Cops, History, Law, Photography, Texas Rangers | Comments Closed

Another Ranger.

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

haley

Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Texas.

Information about George Wesley Haley is hard to find online. If I dig up anything else, I’ll do an updated post.

Edited to add: here’s a second photo that I think I like just a bit better. Both of these were taken with the Nikon and 18-55 lens, but the second one used aperture priority instead of the auto setting.

haley2

Posted in Cops, Law, Photography, Texas Rangers | Comments Closed

One Ranger.

Monday, June 17th, 2013

hamer_1

Grave of Frank Hamer, Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, Austin, Texas.

For those of you unfamiliar with the late Mr. Hamer, obviously he was a Texas Ranger, and perhaps one of the most famous of the Rangers. Among other things, Mr. Hamer led the posse that took down Bonnie and Clyde.

American Rifleman profile of Mr. Hamer. Jeff Guinn’s Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, which I have previously recommended, also has considerable background on Hamer. Hamer’s Wikipedia entry.

Here’s a second picture that I actually like a little better than the first. It was taken with a different camera (the first one was taken with my Nikon D40X and the 18-55 kit lens). Note that I haven’t done anything to these two photos except crop them: I haven’t manipulated exposure, contrast, or anything else.

hamer_2

Posted in Books, Cops, Law, Photography, Texas Rangers | Comments Closed

Random notes: June 13, 2013.

Thursday, June 13th, 2013

Gun control works! How can a bunch of people with rifles and handguns defeat a heavily armed military? Just ask Syria!

Across northern Syria, rebel workshops like these are part of a clandestine network of primitive arms-making plants, a signature element of a militarily lopsided war.
Their products — machine-gun mounts, hand grenades, rockets, mortar shells, roadside bombs and the locally brewed explosives that are packed inside — help form the arsenal of a guerrilla force that has suffered serious setbacks this year in its effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

More on our pal Louis Scarcella, the former NYPD detective whose cases are being reinvestigated: gee, there’s awfully similar language in many of the confessions he obtained.

In at least four more murder cases, suspects questioned by Mr. Scarcella began their confessions with either “you got it right” or “I was there.”

NYT obit for Iain Banks.

Noted without comment:

“Ann,” Holland Taylor’s solo show about the former Texas governor Ann Richards, will close on June 30 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, two months before its scheduled closing date of Sept. 1, the show’s producers announced on Wednesday. Directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein, “Ann” opened on Broadway in March to mostly positive reviews and was extended once. But weekly grosses never surpassed $400,000, and in recent weeks it has never played to more than 50 percent of its capacity at the Beaumont.

Since Lawrence and I have both touched on this story, I thought I’d link to the followup: the “psychic” who claimed there was a mass grave in Liberty County has been ordered to pay $6.8 million in damages to the property owners. If I understand the HouChron correctly, this was a default judgment, as the psychic didn’t appear in court. (Insert your favorite psychic joke here.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

Quickies: June 5, 2013.

Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

Omar Bradley will not be the new mayor of Compton. (Previously.)

Former NYPD officer Ali Oklu could have had…

…a great career and a good future,” he said in a recent phone call. “I’d be studying for the sergeant’s exam right now.”

What happened?

Mr. Oklu is to report to prison on Wednesday to begin a 46-month sentence, in part because of accepting that “side job”: transporting an array of contraband — including from untaxed cigarettes and guns — at the direction of undercover F.B.I. agents. The resulting arrests were ultimately hailed as one of the largest corruption cases involving city police officers in years.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Bad week for the APD.

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Another one down,
Another one down,
Another APD officer bites the dust…

Second firing in two days. Why did this one get the ax?

Police detained Officer Manuel Garcia about 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 2 at Fiesta Gardens on Comal Street in East Austin, where his car was parked in a dark, unlit parking lot known for drug use and prostitution, the memo says.

…

The woman told police that she and Garcia had “dated” several times and that they had agreed she would perform oral sex for $10, the memo says. Garcia was arrested for prostitution.

…

During an interview with internal affairs, Garcia said he lied to officers when he told him he knew the woman, and that he actually had never seen her before when she suddenly jumped into his truck and refused to get out, the memo says.

But he denied having an arrangement for the woman to perform oral sex on him, “despite evidence to the contrary, including but not limited to, the ten dollar bill that was found folded up in the air conditioning vent of his truck when he was arrested,” the memo says. Garcia said officers “put that into” the woman’s mind and led her on.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Random notes: May 31, 2013.

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Obit watch: Catholic priest and author Andrew M. Greeley.

“Sometimes I suspect that my obituary in The New York Times,” Father Greeley once wrote, “will read, ‘Andrew Greeley, Priest; Wrote Steamy Novels.’ ”

Also:

His niece Laura Durkin confirmed the death, saying he had died overnight in his sleep. She said he had been in poor health and under 24-hour care since suffering severe head injuries in 2008 when his clothing caught on the door of a taxi as it pulled away and he was thrown to the pavement.

I was not aware of this. What a lousy way to end your life.

Also: LAT obit for Jack Vance.

Julian Dawkins, a shuttle driver for “PBS NewsHour,” was found shot just before 1 a.m. on May 22 on Lynhaven Drive in Alexandria.

Police have made an arrest and filed charges in the case. The twist: the accused is a deputy sheriff.

The law of unintended consequences, continued: the city of Austin banned single-use bags effective March 1st.

Store managers and police say the ban, which went into effect March 1, has made it more difficult for them to distinguish between customers and shoplifters. They say people place items in their reusable bags while shopping and walk out of the store without paying.

(It is worth pointing out that reusable bags were common here even before the formal ban, and that there are no actual statistics as of yet showing an increase in shoplifting.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Said it before. Say it again.

Thursday, May 30th, 2013

If you’re going to scam, make it worth your while. Seven figures in front of the decimal point is a good start.

Don’t lose your job as a police officer for something stupid, like trying to scam free movie tickets.

(Especially at the Regal Westgate Stadium 11. But, as I’ve said before, I’m an Alamo Drafthouse snob.)

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Movies | Comments Closed

Scanners live in vain!

Monday, May 27th, 2013

A comment by friend of the blog Jake over at Curses, Foiled Again led me to check out the Broadcastify web site. I think this had been bubbling somewhere below the surface of my conscious mind anyway, but Jake provided the kick I needed.

Broadcastify basically collects radio feeds from scanners and organizes them by location. So you can browse the site, find your local area, and (assuming Broadcastify has a feed) click the bunny to listen to your local police or fire department traffic. There are several player options, including web-based players as well as iTunes, Real Audio, Windows Media, and Winamp.

Not every locality is there; there are some large gaps in coverage for Texas, to take one example. There are feeds for Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop counties; however, there’s no feed for the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department or Round Rock PD. On the other hand, this is free, and you get what you pay for.

For reference purposes, here’s the Travis County feeds page, which includes Austin/Travis County Fire and EMS and Austin Police and Travis County Public Safety.

Back a long time ago, I was an avid shortwave and scanner listener; I still have the equipment, but my scanner isn’t capable of following the newer trunked radio systems. I’ve flirted from time to time with the idea of purchasing a newer scanner, but now I don’t have to.

Thanks, Jake!

Posted in Cops, Law, Radio | Comments Closed

More on Kimber and LAPD SWAT.

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Last August, I noted an LAT article about allegations that LAPD SWAT members were purchasing specially made and marked LAPD SWAT Kimber pistols at a steep discount and reselling them on the open market. At that time, it was unclear if this violated any regulations or laws; LAPD conducted one investigation, which was badly botched, and had just started a second investigation when the LAT ran their report.

Today’s update: the investigation has expanded to include LAPD’s Special Investigative Section (SIS), who also had custom Kimber pistols made for them. And the FBI is involved.

…the company unveiled a new edition of its model 1911 pistol that had been designed for officers in the Special Investigations Section. The weapons were emblazoned with the SIS insignia, and the company made the .45-caliber handgun to address specific requests made by SIS officers. The guns, for example, were lighter than those typically carried by LAPD officers and could be cocked and fired with one hand, in case the other was injured or otherwise unavailable.

Yeah, I remember the Kimber SIS guns. I thought they were kind of neat looking, but:

  1. I need another .45 like I need another hole in my head. Not that that stops me from looking and drooling, but
  2. I already have one Kimber (from prior to 2000), and…
  3. This was the period when I heard bad things about Kimber’s quality control, especially on the smaller guns. (I understand the person who was in charge at Kimber during this time has since left and gone over to Sig Sauer. I don’t know if Kimber’s QC has gotten any better.)

Kimber appears to no longer sell the SIS gun. However, it continues to sell another version of the pistol that it says on its website is “identical to the pistol carried by LAPD® SWAT.”

Yeah, see my previous entry for more details on the LAPD SWAT gun. As for the SIS gun, here’s an example from GunBroker. N.B.: I am not the person selling this, I have no connection to that person, and the GunBroker link is for illustrative purposes.

Andrea Ordin, president of the L.A. Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD, declined to discuss the specifics of the investigation but said the decision to alert federal authorities was probably made because they would be better qualified than LAPD investigators to assess whether any of the country’s often arcane, complicated gun laws had been violated.

I’m sorry. Did the LAT, which has been calling for more gun control, just refer to Federal gun laws as “arcane” and “complicated”?

And here’s a small note that amuses me: this month’s American Handgunner (July/August 2013) has an article on the new LAPD SIS gun: the Glock 30S, which was custom built for LAPD SIS, but:

Good news travels fast, however, and it wasn’t long before members of a federal law enforcement agency caught a glimpse of the unique gun and requested a run for their agency as well. Convinced they were definitely onto something, Glock’s plan for a small run of off-catalog guns soon evolved into a plan to make the gun available as a standard model — the G30S.

More from the Glock website. I suspect this won’t be quite as controversial as the Kimber, only because Glock seems to have eschewed adding the “SIS” logo to the slide.

(And is there anyone out there who can explain to me why Glock’s .380 pistols are law enforcement only?)

Posted in 1911, California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law | 2 Comments »

Random notes: May 24, 2013.

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Obit watch: Steve Forrest. NYT. A/V Club.

Forrest knocked around movies and TV for a long time, but he is perhaps most famous for this:

I am not ashamed to admit: I loved that show when I was a kid. And I still think it has one of the greatest themes ever, right up there with the original Hawaii 5-0 and Mission: Impossible.

NYPD blues, part 1:

A veteran New York City police detective once assigned to the mayor’s security team was convicted of attempted murder and reckless endangerment on Thursday for shooting a man while off duty, the Queens district attorney said.

Part 2:

“Opening 50 cases is a herculean task,” said Pierre Sussman, a defense lawyer who represents two of the men whose cases will be reviewed. “The first challenge will be culling information from files that are two or three decades old and trying to find witnesses who were hard to find even then. These are not people with bank accounts, library cards and Facebook pages.”

(Previously.)

And for Robert Hill to win release from his cell at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, prosecutors would have to reconcile why he told a parole board that he was remorseful for a murder he now swears he did not commit.

That part seems easy to me. In the wrongful convictions I’ve read about, a recurring theme involves the wrongfully convicted being offered a chance at parole, and being turned down or refusing because they are expected to admit their crime and show remorse. If you didn’t do the crime in the first place, but you’re offered a shot at getting out of prison, do you maintain your innocence even if it costs you that chance? Or do you tell the parole board what they want to hear?

Posted in 1970s, Clippings, Cops, Law, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

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