- Can’t really speak to the merits of the lawsuit. But the notion that it’s it’s your own fault if you get murdered while in public housing is … novel, to say the least.
- This should hardly need saying. Flipping off a cop might not be the smartest thing someone could do, but it’s still free speech.
- Job of government: keep business people from succeeding.
- Now this is weirdly interesting: you cannot ride the backward-brain bicycle.
- Via A.G. in comments: What refugees carry in their bug-out bags.
- Concealed carrier stops a bank robber.
- A very sensible take on Ahmed and his clock. Neither a “bomb” nor a devious Islamic fraud. Just a kid learning to tinker with electronics and getting more cr*p from teachers, cops, and now hysterical pundits than he deserves. (I’ve linked previously in comments to Brad’s similarly sane take: here and here.)
- So if Volkswagen had special code in its U.S. turbocharged diesels designed to fool emissions testing systems, just how did they get busted for their clever trick? Chemistry, apparently.
- I never even heard of Brian Sewell until he died. But I think I’d have liked this crusty British art critic. And his dogs.
- So does this mean that that ancient song “Happy Birthday to You” is finally (and it would be about darned time!) out of copyright?
(Big H/T to jb)
Murder victim should have known ‘risks’ of public housing
Surely this can’t be the same New York City where no one needs a gun because they should depend on the police to protect them?
A 14 YO should be much further along than that or he should constrain himself to Play Dough.
The man who shot the bank robber is a very lucky man. No idea if he deliberately aimed for extremities or not, but that is a very foolish thing to do. The only rational reason for pulling a gun in that kind of situation is to stop the threat, as fast and as completely as possible. The most experienced and professional people, such as Ayoob, tell us that shots to “center body mass” are the most likely to achieve that goal. And they warn that peripheral shots are far, far more likely to be missed, even at close range.
So, this person needs more training and range time either way. But kudos to him for stopping thief.
Re: Murder victim…
Well, yeah. But that, frankly, should be extended to everywhere. I don’t think any reasonable person expects the state to enforce pre-murder laws, but NYC is filled with unreasonable people. Still, I expect no different from the source. It’s inflammatory, it’s the NY Post being the NY Post, and they want to bash DeBlasio. (Which they should, but because he’s a statist nutbag, but not because of this.)
Re: Massachusetts (Framingham, specifically) cops…
Yeah, that’s par for the course. Some of our depts and officers are better, but most are not. The ones I’m familiar with are very firmly in the “there’s a war on cops and anyone who disagrees is my enemy” camp, and they’re very willing to force others to submit to their authoritaaaay. But given that some are willing to threaten to “put a hole in [a driver’s] head” over a wrong turn on an improperly marked rotary, after pulling said driver over using a personal vehicle, and then aggressively approaching the vehicle while out of uniform…And given that the FOP, the local police, and the AG refuse to investigate or prosecute…I suspect things will remain as they always have been.
Framingham PD is the dept that conducted the operation that killed Eurie Stamps.
For those that don’t remember him, he was an unarmed 68 y/o grandfather, killed likely due to officer negligence. SWAT officer probably had his finger on the trigger while covering Stamps, probably stumbled. However it happened, Stamps was shot in the neck. There was never any “officer safety” excuse given, and the matter never got any serious momentum in the local media.
More detail on how Volkswagen got caught:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-volkswagen-did-and-how-they-got-caught-2015-9
Ironically, it was by a private clean-air advocacy group that figured VW diesels would be good examples.
Not caught by the EPA or any state government.
I’d love to see the lease clause that says ‘you acknowledge that by living here you or members of your family may be killed, maimed, raped, robbed and any kind of other transgressions may be committed against you or members of your family by persons who are or are not residents of said building, and you acknowledge and agree to hold management blameless in said attacks.’ In every landlord dispute I’ve ever heard of, the resolution was ‘what’s in the lease?’.
Kombucha? This isn’t your father’s iced tea. (That had rum or bourbon in it.) But where does ATF get the authority to regulate something with less alcohol in it than that apple cider I let sit too long?
I actually thought the backward brain bicycle was a waste of time half way thru – but suddenly I saw the sense of the entire video – much like he suddenly learned to ride the bike.
The Ahmed story is pretty much what I thought was going on – a whole lot of stupid goin’ on (with apologies to Jerry Lee Lewis). Eee-say now. Wiggle it around just a little bit. I gotta wonder – when are Americans going to get tired of getting ‘all shook up’ by the stupidest little things that anyone can think of? Honestly, it’s getting to where I don’t give a rat’s ass WHAT somebody is complaining about if I didn’t do it.
M – I think most of us would recognize that the kind of actions and cover-ups you describe are the reason why we have the alleged ‘war on cops’ in the first place. It’s getting to where any thinking citizen would have to realize that someday they might be a victim of police ‘over-caffeination’ too, and might even need to defend themselves on the street or die.
We’re cuffed for nothing, arrested and sometimes beaten for asking why, beaten in the street for filming cops in action, and in some states can be sent to prison for ‘interfering’ with ANY action a cop performs ‘while on duty’. So a guy in or out of uniform can say ‘I saw something suspicious’, break into your home, shoot your kid and rape your wife. If he says it was a bust, you go to prison for resisting – or spend all your money and up to 10 years of your life defending yourself and prosecuting him.
And they wonder why there’s ‘a war on cops’. Duh.
Well, since I’m being contrarian, I’m going to defend New York (!!) on this one. The city’s legal argument was, um, indelicately phrased (although it probably did need to be stated in that way for legal reasons), but the gist of it is that the city is no guarantor of people’s safety. And that’s a correct statement of the law. The woman’s suit is premised on the claim that the city breached some sort of duty when it couldn’t keep every would-be mugger out of the projects. I don’t think such a claim is sustainable. And without such a duty there is no proper cause of action, and no right to damages.
As to Ahmed and his clock, I agree that does seem to be the most sensible take on the whole matter.
“I don’t think such a claim is sustainable.”
I agree on that (thus my disclaimer about the merits of the lawsuit). I also agree that the city’s argument was very unfortunately phrased.
“Framingham PD is the dept that conducted the operation that killed Eurie Stamps.”
I had forgotten that! Terrible case. Irresponsible behavior from the get-go. Firearm handling by an “elite” SWAT cop so sloppy it wouldn’t be tolerated by a rank amateur on a gun range. And Stamps was killed after cops already had his grandson (the target of the raid) in custody outside the dwelling.
When I wrote for S.W.A.T. they allowed me wide latitude in topics. But generally the one thing I wasn’t allowed to do was criticize SWAT cops. Editor Denny did, however, allow me to write an article called “Why is Eurie Stamps Dead?” which covered that and several other egregious cases of harm done in cop raids. The deal was that we’d invite justifications from SWAT cops and print them in a future column.
We never did the future column because we got only (as I recall) three responses, and all of them agreed with me. Even cops wouldn’t defend Eurie Stamps’ killer.
I make Kombucha and consume it. Only homemade, nver store bought. I have never noticed alcohols in it. Same with the sourdough starter. ATF needs to be abolished.
The police chief in Detroit has suggested that citizens get concealed carry permits and arm themselves since the police can’t get to a location fast enough to protect them from home invaders, etc. An elderly lady recently shot a home invader five times as he broke into her bedroom. She wasn’t sure if one shot would stop him so she kept firing until he ducked and ran. He died on her front lawn. No charges were filed since a blood trail led from her bedroom and the thug was carrying one knife and dropped another as he fled. The chief cited this as an incident where the CCP, training, and having the gun at hand saved a life. Not to mention saving the cost of incarceration.
the gist of it is that the city is no guarantor of people’s safety. And that’s a correct statement of the law
True, and it’s a legal principle that’s gone to SCotUS several times with the same result.
But, dang it, a city that won’t let anyone have a gun for self-defense because they should rely on law enforcement for protection ought to be liable.
(One of several reasons I never would have survived law school.)
Yeah, typically not the smartest thing to do, but sometimes, it can pay off. Not sure it’s worth getting arrested though.
Thing that got my attention on the NYC murder article was the portable “security tower”. Wonder how many of those they have, and how quickly they can deploy them?
I’ve seen some old transister radio kits that looked as strange as Ahmed’s clock. It’s not what he produced, but the mind-set of today that’s dangerous… that allows Authority to assume guilt or ill intent without proof or motive… and sees danger in anything not immediately recognizable.
(This link, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/24/lantern-remnants-mistaken-for-nooses-at-university-delaware/?intcmp=hplnws , is not related to the clock, but it does show the same tendency to jump to conclusions. Some lantern hangings were *assumed* to be “nooses,” and communication was given out prematurely to the community. The proper authorities should have investigated quietly to determine the truth before speaking out. Instead, they promoted fear and/or anger, and fed social media’s inclination to jump into the issue.)
“…they promoted fear and/or anger, and fed social media’s inclination to jump into the issue.
Which I suspect is the actual goal, rather than an unfortunate side effect… at least in a lot of cases.
LarryA, you can survive most anything for 3 years! Anyway, most of law school is (or at least was, back in my day) taken up with unobjectionable (and boring) things like the rules of civil procedure, contracts, property law, rules of evidence, etc.
[The family of a college student murdered at her East Harlem housing project doesn’t deserve a dime from the city — because she should have known the “risks” of being on the dangerous grounds, city lawyers claim in court papers.
“I can’t believe they’re saying she’s responsible for her murder,” Olivia Brown’s mother, Crystal, told The Post Friday.
“Everybody has a right to be safe in their home…”
Ah, rights. A concept guaranteed to turn every argument into mush. 🙂
The City argument is correct. This mother should not get a dime of taxpayer money (nor should anyone else). What she should get is money out of the pockets of New York politicians for disarming the people. It won’t happen though…
It’s amazing how important cell phones are in those bug-out bags, but it makes sense if you think about it. Communication is important because it can hook you up with others who can help you. Anyway the weight penalty is small.
It’s weird, Claire, that Business Insider link about VW only lets me see the first 2 slides. I have a VW Passat diesel…