Archive for the ‘California Über Alles’ Category

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Banana republicans watch: April 8, 2014.

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

Samuel In used to be a building inspector in LA.

Samuel In pled guilty to taking $30,000 in bribes while on the job. Samuel In is now serving a 2 1/2 year federal prison sentence.

Samuel In is receiving, and will continue to receive, a $72,000 yearly pension.

Two years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure requiring public employees convicted of a felony to give up retirement benefits earned during the period when their crimes were committed.
But the forfeiture requirement doesn’t apply to Los Angeles because it is governed by the City Council under a voter-approved charter, and the City Council manages its own pension systems.

And:

On top of his $6,030-per-month pension, In receives a monthly healthcare subsidy of $1,459, said Tom Moutes, the top executive at the City Employees’ Retirement System.

Also on FARK, but noted here for the record: Antenna Gate.

With a total of about 160 antennas installed in Southeast Division vehicles, 72 had been removed, Smith said. Twenty antennas from cars in other divisions were missing as well.

Gee, Officer Krupke, if you have nothing to hide, why are you afraid of being recorded?

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

Your Yee update.

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Mike the Musicologist forwarded an amusing article from the Sacramento Bee about indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.

Among other things, “Uncle” used campaign funds for his trips to the Philippines, where he allegedly tried to arrange his illegal gun deals:

“Senator Yee said when he arrived, he was surrounded by numerous armed guards carrying automatic rifles,” the affidavit said. “Senator Yee advised the Philippines was a very corrupt country and (the agent) needed to be prepared to pay people at every level during the lifecycle of the deal. Senator Yee reiterated he had been to Mindanao and had an opportunity to shoot some of the weapons discussed with (the agent.)”

Also interesting: “Uncle” spent a total of $62,000 in campaign funds at the New Asia restaurant in San Francisco. I believe this is the New Asia in question.

Last week’s criminal complaint mentions the restaurant as the venue for many events hosted by Chee Kung Tong, an alleged criminal group headed by Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, who also was arrested.

Yeah, you were waiting for “Shrimp Boy” to show up, weren’t you? And by the way, the owner of New Asia is charged with receiving and transporting stolen property: specifically, 15 cases of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

Edited to add: I was finishing up this post as I was coming off my lunch hour, so I pushed research duties to Mike the Musicologist. For those of you (like me) who aren’t that up on your Johnnie Walker label colors, Blue is at the highest end of the Walker line in regular production (as opposed to the occasional special edition/one off runs). Wikipedia says it goes for $200 – $300 a bottle, but the prices Mike and I turned up were more like $1,000 for a case (six bottles). So we’re talking $15,000 worth of blended Scotch. Not exactly something to sneeze at, for sure, but it seems kind of petty compared to “Tell me about the rockets, Leland!” and contract killers.

Plus, you know, this probably puts New Asia’s liquor license in danger. And what’s a liquor license in San Francisco worth? I bet a lot more than $15K.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

FAQ 2.

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

“Who’s Packing What: The Weapons in the Leland Yee Scandal”

Or, as we’ve taken to calling him, indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.

By way of Mike the Musicologist, who observes that indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee and his friends have bad taste in weapons.

“Chow described how he like to carry two 9mm and a .45 caliber [pistols],” the affidavit reads. “Chow described that a .22 caliber is an assassin’s gun, but he liked carrying something that had real power and would stop someone if you had to use it on the street.”

Two 9s and a .45? I wonder how loud the clank was as he walked.

Also. (By way of Robb Allen.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee, Politics | Comments Closed

FAQ.

Friday, March 28th, 2014

In case you’re coming into the Leland Yee/Raymond “Shrimp Boy” scandal late, and haven’t been reading this blog or Battleswarm, the LAT has a handy guide to the affair, which answers many of the burning questions (such as “why is he called ‘Shrimp Boy’?”).

(I cannot tell a lie: I enjoy typing Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. Almost as much as – no, strike that, I enjoy it even more than typing Robert “Ratso” Rizzo.)

Also, in case you were wondering, the California state Senate has suspended Sen. Yee without pay. The same august body has also suspended Sen. Roderick White, who was convicted of perjury and voter fraud, and Sen. Ronald Calderon, indicted on bribery and corruption charges.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

Random notes: March 28, 2014.

Friday, March 28th, 2014

Man is released from death row after 46 years, after courts rule that his confession was coerced and evidence against him was fabricated.

Williamson County? No. Texas? No. Japan.

More on Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. And more. Since I made the observation the other day:

His grandmother coined the “Shrimp Boy” nickname on account of his small stature. Clocking in at 5’5 today, the name stuck.

(And you should also be reading Battleswarm: Lawrence has been able to devote a little more time to his coverage than I have.)

I stumbled across this while looking for “Shrimp Boy” links:

Marilyn Hartman, the 62-year-old woman busted three times for trying to sneak onto a plane at San Francisco International Airport — and arrested another time for hanging around the food court — is back in custody yet again.

I have nothing to say about this story, I just want to insert an obscure reference here:

(Perhaps they could give her a job: maybe keeping people from hanging around the food court.)

Item: Bronze window frames. Bill: $2.38 million. Fun fact: The cost was supposed to be half that. But Tebartz-van Elst, the report shows, really wanted his window frames to be bronze.

(Previously. WP article also contains yet another photo of the bishop’s residence that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but at least this one wasn’t taken with a fish-eye lens.)

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It just gets better and better.

Thursday, March 27th, 2014

More information about the charges against Leland Yee is trickling out.

As you may recall from yesterday’s post, Senator Yee advocated “tighter restrictions” on “semi-automatic weapons”. Well, guess what? The charges against Senator Yee include “conspiracy to traffic in firearms”.

The full complaint is available from the SFGate site. By way of Overlawyered, we found a summary from San Francisco Magazine (complete with bonus “The Wire” references!):

…he offered to set up an arms deal with Islamic rebels for $2 million in cash.

[The agent] asked about the availability of shoulder fire missiles or rockets. Senator Yee responded ‘I told him about the rockets and things like that.'”

Tell me about the rockets, George Leland!

“In addition to his relationship with Chow and the Chee Kung Tong, Jackson is also a close associate with, and has a long-time relationship with, Senator Yee. Keith Jackson owns and runs a business called ‘Jackson Consultancy,’ a San Francisco based consulting firm. During the time frame from at least May 2011 through the present, Keith Jackson has been involved in raising campaign funds for Senator Yee.”

I single that out because Keith Jackson is apparently a well known “political consultant” and political figure. And he was a former president of the San Francisco Board of Education. And the charges against him, other than gun trafficking and “wire fraud of honest services”, include involvement in a “murder for hire” conspiracy.

I didn’t link to Overlawyered earlier because I wanted to save the best part for last: Yee was named to the “Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll” by the Brady Campaign. Seriously, I am not making this stuff up.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

Flames! Flames!

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

State Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco was arrested Wednesday as part of a public corruption probe after a series of raids by FBI and gang task force officials Wednesday, a law enforcement official told The Times.

Of course, these are just charges, and Senator Yee hasn’t been convicted yet. But I wanted to make note of this arrest, and:

Dan Lieberman, Yee’s press secretary, told The Times his office would not comment on the FBI raids, which were reportedly linked to the arrest Wednesday morning of Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

I didn’t insert “Shrimp Boy”; that’s in the actual LAT article.

I’d really like to know how he got that nickname.

More from the SFChron, which describes “Shrimp Boy” as “a notorious former San Francisco gangster”.

In 1992, the Hong Kong-born Chow was indicted with two dozen others on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in everything from underage prostitution to the international heroin trade.
Chow was subsequently convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2003, however, he was released after he cut a deal with the government to testify against a high-ranking associate.

So “Shrimp Boy” served time on gun charges, and is apparently a close friend of Senator Yee. By the way:

Yee has drawn both praise and controversy for his efforts to tighten restrictions on semiautomatic rifles.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: February 27, 2014.

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

Somebody has been looking very closely at California police departments.

Five San Francisco police officers and a former officer have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including extortion, dealing drugs, stealing computers and other property from suspects and searching residential hotels without legal justification.

The criminal indictments appear to be a result of this series of events:

Officers Arshad Razzak, 41, Richard Yick, 36, and Raul Eric Elias, 44, all formerly assigned to the Southern police station at the city’s Hall of Justice, are accused of conspiring to threaten and intimidate residents of single-room occupancy hotel rooms by entering them without legal justification by using a master key.

Razzak and Yick are also accused of falsifying incident reports.

Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, Officer Edmond Robles, 46, and former Officer Reynaldo Vargas, 45, of Palm Desert, engaged in “multiple criminal conspiracies,” including dealing marijuana, stealing money, a $500 Apple gift card, and other items from suspects, and stealing money, drugs and other valuable items that were seized on behalf of the city, the indictment said.

Other high points:

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

You come at the King (City), you best not miss.

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

The LAT has a second-day story on the King City PD arrests, noted in this space yesterday.

There are several interesting new aspects to the story:

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

Banana republicans watch: February 25, 2014.

Tuesday, February 25th, 2014

A top Monterey County prosecutor confirmed Tuesday that a group of former and current King City police officials — including the longtime former chief and acting chief — have been arrested in connection with a district attorney’s investigation.

Former chief Chief Nick Baldiviez is being charged with embezzlement. Bruce Miller, who was serving as the acting chief, is charged with bribery. Bobby Carrillo, who was a sergeant with the King City PD, is charged with “conspiracy to commit a crime and bribery by a public officer”. Officer Mario Mottu Sr. is charged with “embezzlement by a public official”. Officer Jaime Andrade was also charged, but the charges against him are not stated, and it is unclear if he has been arrested. There are also claims that a sixth officer, who has not been named, is also charged. The King City PD, according to the LAT, has 17 officers.

I’m trying to find information from sources closer to King City, but neither of the San Francisco newspapers seem to have anything. (King City is a little south of Salinas, putting it closer to SF than LA.)

However, I did turn up this story that I’d previously missed: Stephen Tanabe is going to serve 15 months of federal time. Tanabe was a deputy with the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department: he was convicted of “multiple felonies including conspiracy and extortion” in the “Dirty DUI” case, which I have written about previously.

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Banana republicans watch: February 21, 2014.

Friday, February 21st, 2014

You may recall that last year, members of the city council of the notoriously corrupt city of Bell stood trial. One member was completely acquitted of the charges against him; the other five were found guilty on some charges, and had mistrials declared on others. The prosecution had indicated it planned to retry the cases that ended in mistrials.

However, the LAT is reporting that the prosecution is playing “Let’s Make a Deal” instead:

Five former Bell council members accused of looting the small city are scheduled to be in court Friday to consider an offer of a maximum four-year prison term in exchange for their guilty pleas.
The former leaders already face possible eight-year prison terms after being convicted on related corruption charges last year, making the four-year offer attractive.

It isn’t clear from the article, but my assumption is that the four-year terms would run concurrently with the eight-year ones, so the council members wouldn’t actually serve any additional time. But first they have to agree to the plea deal, and that doesn’t sound like a sure thing.

Edited to add: Indeed. The LAT is now reporting that only one out of five former council members expressed any desire to take the deal; the prosecution says either all five take the deal, or

Anyway, the lawyers have asked for more time, and it looks like the next hearing will be April 3rd. Watch this space for updates.

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

My humps, my humps…

Friday, February 14th, 2014

A camel that escaped from a Palmdale property and began charging people and cars is now in the custody of animal control officials.

Thoughts:

1. I admit I’ve written some bad Perl code. But I don’t recall writing any that ran away. SQL queries, yes, but not Perl code.
2. “Runaway Camel” sort of sounds like a stunt organized by those truth jackasses.
3. I have a “primates” tag; do I need a “mammals” tag?

Edited to add: I think I do need a “mammals” tag, and an associated “camels” tag. But even though primates are mammals, I don’t feel right moving the “primates” tag under the “mammals” tag, so I’m keeping them separate for now.

Posted in California Über Alles, Camels, Clippings, Cops, Geek, Law, Mammals, Perl, Programming Languages | 1 Comment »

The LAPD eight.

Thursday, February 6th, 2014

A brief followup:

Eight Los Angeles police officers who violated department policy when they mistakenly opened fire on two women during the hunt for Christopher Dorner will be retrained and returned to the field, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a department-wide message Wednesday.

More:

“While I understand supervisors and officers were required to make split-second decisions regarding the perceived threat presented before them I found it to be very concerning that officers fired before adequately identifying a threat; fired without adequately identifying a target and not adequately evaluating cross fire situations,” Beck said.

And:

If Beck does discipline the officers, the penalties are expected to be warnings, written admonishments or similarly light punishments, the sources said.

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From the files of Captain Obvious.

Tuesday, February 4th, 2014

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has found that eight officers who opened fire on two women in a pickup truck during a search for Christopher Dorner violated the department’s policy on using deadly force, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the case.

You do remember the pickup truck story, don’t you?

As the vehicle approached the house, officers opened fire, unloading a barrage of bullets into the truck. When the shooting stopped, they realized their mistake. The truck was a different make and model. The color wasn’t gray, as Dorner’s was, but blue. And it wasn’t Dorner inside the truck, but a woman and her mother delivering copies of the Los Angeles Times.

And, of course, the unarmed women never fired on the cops or displayed a weapon…

This is priceless:

A panel of high-ranking police officials that reviewed the shooting urged Beck to clear the officers of wrongdoing, said the sources, who spoke on the condition that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

They shot up a pickup truck with two unarmed women in it, and “high-ranking police officials” wanted them cleared?

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Random notes: January 28, 2014.

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

Yeah, yeah, Pete Seeger’s dead. A couple of reactions I liked: Tam. Travis McGee Reader.

One additional thing you have to like Pete for: giving a name to one of the great combat aircraft of our time.

How unethical do you have to be in order to be denied a law license in California? This unethical.

Or do you? I’ve seen a fair number of people posing this as Glass being unfairly denied a shot at redemption. After all, his crimes were nearly twenty years ago, they argue, and for the past ten years he’s not only kept his nose clean but done “exemplary” work as a clerk for a law firm.

And I’m not unsympathetic to the “shot at redemption” argument. I don’t hold any brief for Glass, or his behavior, and it bothers me a little that I’m more willing to give him that shot than I was Michael Vick. I need to search my soul a little more over this.

But the hand wringing is a little more offputting. Those arguing in favor of Glass seem to be missing some key findings:

The record also discloses instances of dishonesty and disingenuousness occurring after Glass’s exposure, up to and including the State Bar evidentiary hearing in 2010. In the New York bar proceedings that ended in 2004, as even the State Bar Court majority acknowledged, he made misrepresentations concerning his cooperation with The New Republic and other publications and efforts to aid them identify all of his fabrications. He also submitted an incomplete list of articles that injured others. We have previously said about omissions on bar applications: “Whether it is caused by intentional concealment, reckless disregard for the truth, or an unreasonable refusal to perceive the need for disclosure, such an omission is itself strong evidence that the applicant lacks the ‘integrity’ and/or ‘intellectual discernment’ required to be an attorney.” (Gossage, supra, at p. 1102, italics added.)

And:

Our review of the record indicates hypocrisy and evasiveness in Glass’s testimony at the California State Bar hearing, as well. We find it particularly disturbing that at the hearing Glass persisted in claiming that he had made a good faith effort to work with the magazines that published his works. He went through many verbal twists and turns at the hearing to avoid acknowledging the obvious fact that in his New York bar application he exaggerated his level of assistance to the magazines that had published his fabrications, and that he omitted from his New York bar list of fabrications some that actually could have injured real persons. He also testified that he told his lawyer to work with Harper’s Magazine to identify his fabrications, yet evaded questions concerning whether his lawyer had done so, while insisting that he took responsibility for an inferred failure to follow what obviously were significant instructions. He asserted that he had been too distraught to recognize that the list of fabrications The New Republic gave his lawyer was incomplete — or that in his response he had denied that articles including the egregious Taxis and the Meaning of Work were in fact fabricated — while acknowledging that within a few days of his firing he made arrangements to reschedule a final examination for the end of the exam period and did well on the exam he took within a week of his exposure. Indeed, despite his many statements concerning taking personal responsibility, and contrary to what he suggested in his New York bar application, it was not until the California Bar proceedings that he shouldered the responsibility of reviewing the editorials his employers published disclosing his fabrications, thus failing to ensure that all his very public lies had been corrected publically and in a timely manner. He has “not acted with the high degree of frankness and truthfulness” and the “high standard of integrity” required by this process.” (Gossage, supra, 23 Cal.4th at p. 1102, italics added.)

This strikes me as being less “a bunch of snobs who don’t want to let a reformed man in” and more “we found ongoing evidence of dishonesty and deceit by this person who is supposedly reformed and asking us for special consideration”.

I totally missed this one until today:

A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday convicted state Sen. Roderick D. Wright on all eight counts in his perjury and voter fraud trial…
In a trial that began Jan. 8, prosecutors accused Wright of faking a move to a rental property he owned in Inglewood so he could run in what was then the 25th Senate District.
They accused him of lying on voter registration and candidacy documents and of casting ballots in five elections he was not entitled to vote in from the Inglewood address.

(Sen. Wright’s party affiliation is actually mentioned in the second paragraph, which I trimmed for space reasons.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Media, Music, Obits, Planes | Comments Closed

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