Nicholas Stix, Uncensored

Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger Sympathizes with Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood & Her Mother, While Ignoring Victim Jayna Murray and Her Mom

2012-01-31T03:16:00.001-05:00

Murder victim Jayna Murray

Jayna Murray’s parents, Phyllis and David Murray

By Nicholas Stix

Reason and decency would require that an essay entitled, “Brittany Norwood, the Lululemon murder and a mother’s worst nightmare,” be about the suffering of Jayna Murray and the grief and rage of her mother, Phyllis. Then again, such an essay would be entitled, “Jayna Murray, the Lululemon murder, and a mother’s worst nightmare.”

The Washington Post’s Melinda Henneberger writes,

“Does Norwood deserve another chance? She showed no remorse during the trial, and no emotion when the verdict was read. So no, she probably doesn’t. But I can’t help hoping she gets one anyway, if only because I can’t bear the thought of another mother whose daughter is never coming home.”

Henneberger sounds like she’s engaging in an exercise in moral equivalence, which would be outrageous enough, but just as apparent double standards often hide something else, so, too, apparent moral equivalence often masks the elevation of evil above virtue.

Henneberger seems to be saying that Mrs. Norwood has as much right to see her daughter come home one day as Mrs. Murray. But that can’t be right. Mrs. Norwood’s daughter is a sadistic, racist, torture-murderer. Mrs. Murray’s daughter was the victim of the other woman’s daughter, and was, by all accounts, a splendid human being.

Henneberger’s exercise includes a picture of the killer and quotes from her mother, but no picture of the victim, or quotes from her mother.

Henneberger either suppresses or is ignorant of essential facts about the killer’s dark past, while exaggerating supposedly sunny aspects of it. She tells us that the killer had “no history of violence,” and that she “started a babysitting business and had just the day before walked through a rainstorm to retrieve her nephews from school, because their physician mom had to work late.”

Henneberger is quoting from the killer’s lawyer’s argument for granting her the possibility of parole, but lacks the decency to tell her readers that. Thus, unless they have studied the case, they may think that Henneberger is giving them an objective recitation of Norwood’s life, whereas if they knew she was parroting the killer’s attorneys, they’d know to take such sophistry with a grain of salt.

Even so, to paraphrase at least one Washington Post reader, who cares? How does Norwood’s having started a babysitting business as a teenager bear on whether she should be eligible for parole? Likewise, regarding her helping her sister the day before. Her sister is black; the person whom she tortured for 16 minutes, and on whom she inflicted at least 322 wounds using half-a-dozen different weapons was white.

Henneberger even goes so far as to suggest, surreally, that the area in Bethesda, where Norwood committed the murder, was as dangerous as diversitopian Baltimore.

The store is in a heavily trafficked suburban area, on a street The Post called “upscale,” a street where my kids come and go with their friends. They’re mean enough streets, though, that in the Apple store right next door to the Lululemon, employees heard Murray’s shrieks as the attack was in progress, and carried right on with their business.

“Mean enough streets”? Henneberger must have been writing those lines, in order to confuse readers from outside the region, and in order to pander to black racists, who fantasize that law-abiding whites are really all heinous criminals. Those Bethesda streets were among the safest in the region, until Lululemon transferred a black employee it suspected of being a thief from another store, instea dof firing her.

The managers—Jana Svrzo and Ricardo Rios—at the Apple store next door didn’t fail Jayna Murray because they were used to hearing people shriek in pain and beg for their lives on the Bethesda street outside, but because they, especially Rios, who was the senior manager, were despicable.

And yet, what if Bethesda did have “mean enough streets”? How would that excuse not calling the police to try and save someone you hear being murdered?!

As for Norwood’s history of violence, or lack thereof, she showed enough of her dark side to the white soccer teammates at SUNY Stony Brook that she stole from, to terrify them. Maybe, just maybe, they were on to something.

Later, she stalked an ex-boyfriend.

When Henneberger does quote Norwood’s attorneys with attribution, it is their specious claim that the killer is “neither a calculating killer or [sic] a deranged psychopath.” I don’t know about deranged, but Brittany Norwood is absolutely “a calculating killer [and] psychopath.” She planned the murder, lured her victim back into the store, tortured her in a way reminiscent of Saddam Hussein and his sons, spent all night putting together an elaborate cover-up, in which she and Jayna Murray were both victims of two masked men, and then tried to sell it all to the police.

Norwood clearly overestimated her own intelligence. Like so many blacks, she suffers from toxically high levels of self-esteem, which caused her to screw up.

On the thread following a previous Washington Post article on the case, a racist (presumably black) reader, “margaretthompson1,” maintained that Jayna Murray caused her own death. A black conservative reader, gbooksdc wrote a powerful rebuttal to her.

gbooksdc
1/26/2012 12:14 PM EST
I remember what you posted.

Jayna had an _absolute_ right to her life. Absolute. Inviolable. Don't forget, she'd left the store for the day -- Brittany tricked her into returning on a pretense and instead of telling Brittany, you are just short, I'm going home, she returned. To help Brittany, out of the goodness of her heart. Because she was sweet and kind. But some people -- I know them, you appear to be one of them -- interpret sweet and kind as stupid and soft. And to them, the stupid and soft are weak, they are prey in this jungle of a world, they deserve whatever fate befalls them. But that is not the sentiment held by civilized people, that is a sentiment harbored by the antisocial. The pathological.

People like Jayna, regard her as naive if that works for you, are precisely the people that most need society's protection simply because we DO have so many people who are predatory and regard such people not only as easy victims but as deserving victims. Without people like Jayna, we actually do become a jungle. And when we catch a predator, we need to put them in serious, serious check to hopefully deter other predators from hurting more who are sweet and kind and trusting. In any event, I understand why you show _no_ sympathy towards Jayna. Being exposed to so much violence and hardship simply hardens a person. When you see the kind and trusting hurt and killed, you learn not to be kind. Take my advice, move away. Where you are is killing your soul.

I think gbooksdc gave margaretthompson1 too much credit. You don’t have to grow up in a diversitopia, in order to be so vicious. You can be a child of privilege, like Melinda Henneberger.

Henneberger didn’t engage in moral equivalence; rather, she put Brittany Norwood above Jayna Murray. She tries to sound kind and caring, but she is as hard-hearted in her way as the margaretthompson1s of the world are. Henneberger wants Norwood to have the opportunity to kill again.

Henneberger’s problem is not a lack of knowledge or experience. As a racial socialist and disciple of the Devil, her loyalty is firmly with the savage, racist, black killer, rather than her white victim.

It is heartening to see that, even at the Washington Post, of the 18 readers (not counting yours truly) whose comments the censors posted, only the last one supported Henneberger.

Brittany Norwood was a mother’s worst nightmare—the mother of her victim!

[Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“Bethesda Cops: Black Yoga Store Worker Murdered White Colleague, Made Up Story about Masked Rapist-Killers, in Order to Avoid Jail for Thefts”;

“Black Bethesda Yoga Store Worker Brittany Norwood is Charged with Killing Her White Colleague, Jayna Murray: Five Videos”;

“Trial Date Set For Britanny Norwood, in Non-Hate Crime Murder in Bethesda, Maryland, lululemon athletica Store”;

“Reader Who Claims to Have Known Jayna Murray, Whose Killer Smashed Her Skull in for 20 Minutes in lululemon athletica, Has Compassion for the Killer, but None for Those Who Would Judge Her”;

“In Web Posts and Emails, Friends of Brittany Norwood, the Racist Lululemon Killer of Jayna Murray, Paint Mutually Contradictory Portraits of Norwood”;

“In 2007, Ex-Boyfriend Charged That Lululemon Murderer Brittany Norwood was Stalking Him”;

“Already in August, Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood’s Lawyer was Playing the ‘Crazy Card’”;

“New Details in Grisly Lululemon Murder: Brittany Norwood Used at Least 4 Different Weapons to Kill Jayna Murray; Prosecutor: Crime was ‘Pre-Meditated’”;

Lululemon Trial of Brittany Norwood, for the Murder of Jayna Murray, Day 1: The Defense is Not Using the “Crazy Card,” but the “She Lost It Card”;

“The Desperate Struggle of Jayna Murray: Lululemon Murder Victim Tried to Escape, and was Alive Through Most of the Horrific Beating Brittany Norwood Inflicted on Her, Sustaining 322 Wounds (Washington Times)”;

“Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 2: A Bloody Video, in a Tear-Filled Courtroom”;

“The Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 3: The Apple Employees Who Heard the Murder, but Did Nothing”;

“Lululemon Trial: Is the ‘Crazy Card’ Off the Table for Jayna Murray’s Racist Killer, Brittany Norwood?”;

“Lululemon Trial: Rotten Apple; Computer Giant’s Employees Listened to the Murder Through a Shared Wall … and Listened … and Listened”;

“Lululemon Verdict in: Brittany Norwood Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder, for Killing Jayna Murray! Ice-Cold, Calculating Killer Faces Up to Life Until Parole”; and

“Racist, Savage, Remorseless Killer Brittany Norwood Inflicted 322 Wounds on Jayna Murray, but Killer’s Family Says She Has ‘a Heart of Gold.’”

“The Murder of Jayna Murray: Killer Brittany Norwood’s Family, Friends, and Defense Attorneys Made Ludicrous Attempts to Justify Granting Her the Possibility of Parole.”]

Houston’s Dekaney High School is Riot High

2012-01-31T01:41:00.002-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

On the bright side, though principal Delic Loyde is black, she and many parents agree that matters have degenerated to a state of emergency. So, often the people running diverse schools deny that things are as bad as they are, and you can't fix something you won't admit is broken.

Dekaney's demographics are not surprising: Its student body is 62 percent non-Hispanic black, and 31 percent Hispanic.

Students: Another 'outrageous riot' at Dekaney High School

by Kevin Reece & Rucks Russell/ KHOU 11 News & KHOU.com staff

khou.com

Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:47 PM

Updated Friday, Jan 27 at 11:40 PM

Related:

SPRING, Texas – Police were called to Dekaney High School in northwest Harris County Friday after a brawl broke out in the cafeteria.

Spring ISD officials said the fight started between four students. But cell phone video obtained by KHOU 11 News clearly shows a chaotic scene with a lot more than four students involved.

Students who were in the lunchroom at the time said it was more like a riot.

"All these people came and just started hitting everybody," said Maya Rodriguez, a student. "After a while, I got hit and everybody just started fighting. So I hit back..."

Students were jumping on tables, yelling and throwing things.

"They had a riot at B lunch and it got outrageous," said Everiel Johnson, a student. "They started throwing milk. Innocent people were getting hit for no reason."

Dekaney's principal said she has seen enough.

"We have to have immediate solutions. We know that. We know that we have to do something quickly," Delic Loyde said.

Dekaney students and parents say they're fed up with the problems at the school and they don't think it's safe.

"We feel like this is getting out of control, way out of control," said one mom who didn't want to show her face. "And we just don't know, as parents, what to do or who to talk to."

The woman said her son was jumped in a Dekaney hallway on Thursday. She said another student had to be sent to the hospital, so she didn't let her son go to school on Friday.

"I feel like we're gonna lose a life if somebody doesn't do something to prevent these fights that are going on every day," she said.

Cell phone videos of several small-scale riots at Dekaney were posted to the Internet last year.

That's why Willie Mayes pulled his son out of Dekaney and sent him to private school.

"I'm coming home and there's news vans out here once a week. Apparently not being tough enough," said Willie Mayes. "I'm paying for him to go to private school just to be away from this."

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]

Forbes: Home of Weenie Men and Affirmative Action Dominatrices

2012-01-31T01:05:00.000-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

"Saturday's Mass Murder: 'Stop Snitchin'' and Demographics Make Buffalo a Diversitopia!"]

Back in August, 2010, in writing on the black-on-black mass murder outside a Buffalo club, I first encountered and reported on Wikipedia-like political correctness at Forbes. The respected business magazine had claimed that diversitopian Buffalo was one of the 10 best places to live in America. It had done this via the sleight of hand of confounding the violent, black-and-Hispanic-dominated city of Buffalo with its law-abiding, white suburbs.

Today, I took a wrong turn and once again stumbled onto Forbes' turf. It seems the magazine has an entire affirmative action ghetto just for women, called "ForbesWoman." The "ForbesWoman team" consists of women hired solely because … they are women, and who agitate for a business world in which women are hired solely because … they are women.

The topic at hand was Carol Bartz, a woman who was hired to be CEO of Yahoo, based on her eminent qualification of having, or once having had ovaries. Unfortunately, Bartz proved to be an ovarian cancer on the firm, which had already been in trouble before her hiring.

As soon as Bartz was fired, the usual suspects screamed "sexism!"

A Forbes staffer named Jeff Bercovici undertook to write on Bartz' firing, but he's so terrified of being called the "s"-word that he invited affirmative action Forbes hire, Jenna Goudreau, to chaperone him and take over the discussion, during which his deference got him a figurative kick in the groin.

I posted the following comment.

Jeff Bercovici,

You shouldn't have done this piece at all. You ooze fear at being called the "s"-word, and your fear makes you incompetent. After all, disagreeing with the party line could get you fired for "sexual harassment."

If anything, Bartz would have [been] fired sooner, had she been a man. The board held off, because it knew feminists would play the gender card, and weenies like you would go along, to get along.

So, we can't say that Bartz or any other woman failed as CEO, until we have a huge affirmative action program for unqualified females? And after we have increased the ranks of female CEOs by a factor of, say, 17, and men have spent years getting used to biting their tongues and never condemning incompetent females, while women circle the wagons for every incompetent female CEO, men in the media—neutered men like you, Jeff Bercovici—are suddenly going to grow a pair, and call a spade a spade?

And now, to Jenna Goudreau:

"JENNA: Studies have shown that assertiveness in women often reads as aggressiveness (read: 'abrasive,' 'bitchy,' etc.) and in men as strength."

You mean like the "studies" that show that women make 59 cents an hour for every dollar men make? Or the "studies" that show that one out of every four women will be the victim of either a rape or an attempted rape in college? Or the "studies" that show that there's an explosion of men beating their girlfriends and wives on Super Bowl Weekend?

English translation: Feminist propaganda has "shown that assertiveness in women…," blah, blah, blah.

And in the time-honored tradition of the feminist hack, after Bercovici submitted, you still gave him a lash ("flippant").

Forbes has gotten so PC!

Jeff Bercovici, Forbes Staff

I cover media, technology and the intersection of the two.

+ Follow on Forbes

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9/07/2011 @ 12:19PM |5,455 views

Was Sexism A Factor In Carol Bartz's Yahoo Firing?

+ Comment now

Carol Bartz. Image via CrunchBase

You can practically set your watch by it: A powerful but polarizing woman loses her footing on the corporate ladder and the "Sexism!" cries begin. It's happening already with Carol Bartz, who got an unceremonious phone call yesterday notifying her that her tenure as CEO of Yahoo is over.

Like Cathie Black and Martha Stewart, Bartz is a strong-willed figure whose assertiveness has made her a target for detractors when things haven't broken her way. Might things have turned out differently if she had a power donut instead of a blond bob? Am I committing sexism right now by bringing up the bob? Do gender-influenced schadenfreude and actual discrimination always go hand-in-hand? I'm in treacherous waters here, so I'm bringing in a guest navigator who knows the shoals: my colleague Jenna Goudreau, part of our ForbesWoman team and a frequent commentator on these types of questions.

Move up Move down

11 images Photos: 10 Most Powerful Women In Media

JEFF: Jenna, does sexism need to be part of the discussion here? It's pretty hard to build a performance-based case for Yahoo keeping Bartz any longer than they did. The stock has been comatose. The strategy has been so amorphous that the board now has to hire consultants to figure out what it ought to be. How do you get from there to "scapegoating a woman"? Isn't the job of the CEO, male or female, to be the one who takes the fall when things go south?

JENNA: The unfortunate truth is that there are so few women leading major U.S. companies that when a woman as well-known as Carol Bartz is shown the door, sexism is one of the first words to surface. We all guessed this was coming. Investors weren't happy. In her defense, when I reached out to Bartz for inclusion on our recently published World's 100 Most Powerful Women list (she was No. 37), she highlighted what she had accomplished at Yahoo, saying that in 2010, it doubled operating income, operating margin and return on invested capital. That said, I think the sexism argument might also arise because of the conversation surrounding Bartz. Jeff, even you referenced her "salty" language in the lead of your piece yesterday.

JEFF: So I did. But her language is salty! Whatever they may sound like on the golf course, most CEOs don't tend to drop F-bombs on earnings calls or at tech conferences, as Bartz was known to do. And that seemed to work out for her for a while. It was kind of her calling card. The problem wasn't so much the language as the attitude that went with it. "Abrasive" and "alienating" were words that got used a lot to describe her management style. I know those are red-flag words, that there are a lot of male CEOs who are less than cuddly and don't get dinged for it. And I have no doubt her manner was in part a response to swimming in that world and competing with those tough-talking alpha males. Still, I'm at a loss for how to talk about an unusually sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed female executive who was genuinely unpopular with her employees without coming off as at least a little bit sexist. And I'm also wondering: Is it possible that sexism informed the way people talked about/wrote about Carol Bartz but wasn't a real factor in deciding her ultimate fate?

JENNA: Studies have shown that assertiveness in women often reads as aggressiveness (read: "abrasive," "bitchy," etc.) and in men as strength. [N.S.: This line used to be a mere talking point in feminists' rants. I don't know when it was promoted to the level of "scientific truth."] I honestly don't know if sexism played a part here. Her departure may have been a bit unceremonious, though, if reports are true: A sudden firing by phone with no replacement lined up. What I'm more interested in is the macro perspective. The numbers have been pathetic for years, but now with Bartz out only 2.8% of the 500 largest companies in the U.S. are run by women. That's ridiculous. Seen another way, men run 97.2% of our biggest companies. Yesterday was just a bad day for America's leading ladies. BofA's Sallie Krawcheck, often called "the most powerful woman on Wall Street," also left her post.

JEFF: That's a pretty astonishing figure. I didn't realize it was quite that low. Covering the media business, it seems like I come across relatively a lot of female CEOs. Covering tech, not so much. One thing I think we can agree on: The more we enlarge the sample size of female business leaders, the easier it will be to tease out the instances of genuine sexism from those of garden-variety failure.

mayesolisShe seems to have managed to turn Yahoo into Compuserve. http://bit.ly/ohF6ZF

19 comments, 14 called-out

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Baloo: At the Post Office, the Customer is Always Wrong!

2012-01-30T23:15:00.001-05:00

Visit the cartoon page of the incomparable Baloo here, and his gift page here.

Mass Murder in Birmingham: Five Dead in Apparent Drug Rip-Off

2012-01-30T18:25:00.006-05:00

Ravenn Carlton, center, wife of one of the five people found dead is comforted by Nakia Carlton, left, and Khalena Carlton, right, near the scene where five people were found dead inside a house in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Jan 29, 2012. Birmingham police discovered the bodies when they arrived to investigate a robbery call. Sgt. Johnny Williams said the incident happened about 3:30 a.m. (AP Photo/The Birmingham News, Jeff Roberts)

A Birmingham police car sits in the drive way as police investigate the scene where five people were found dead inside a house in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Jan 29, 2012. Birmingham police discovered the bodies when they arrived to investigate a robbery call. Sgt. Johnny Williams said the incident happened about 3:30 a.m. (AP Photo/The Birmingham News, Jeff Roberts)

By Nicholas Stix

Since Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper said, “It obviously appears to us this horrific crime was not a random act of violence,” that tells you that it was black-on-black crime. The authorities almost always tell us that obviously targeted black-on-white violence is “random”; that’s the giveaway that it’s black-on-white.

The tip-off that it was probably a drug house is the statement by neighbor Brenda Houston, 64, who said “her street was a quiet one filled with older residents who were friendly with each other. She said there was a constant stream of visitors coming in and out of the home, but that the residents never seemed to cause any disturbances.”

The oddest thing about the article, to me, is Houston’s statement, “They never had any trouble over there. I never seen the police over there. This was really strange that this happened. It wasn't like they were real rowdy.”

She should have seen the police over there. Were the entrepreneurs inside paying off the cops, or is the PD in black-run Birmingham that negligent?

* * *

Officers checking robbery find 5 dead in Ala. Home
January 29, 2012 2:52 p.m. ET
AP/Dallas Morning News

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Police found five people dead inside a Birmingham home when they arrived early Sunday morning to investigate a possible robbery, authorities said.

Birmingham Police Sgt. Johnny Williams said officers arrived at the house around 3:30 a.m. Sunday after getting a call that a robbery was in progress and soon discovered the five victims. He told reporters that investigators are interviewing potential witnesses but so far have made no arrests.

"Someone out there knows more information," said Williams. "We know someone is going to do the right thing."

The victims were not immediately identified, nor was the cause of death released. Birmingham authorities launched a homicide investigation and police believe more than one person was involved in the crime.

"It obviously appears to us this horrific crime was not a random act of violence," said Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper.

Brenda Houston, who lives across the street from the west Birmingham house where the bodies were found, said the house had been rented for about a year and a half by a woman in her late 40s and her son and brothers.

"They would speak to us, and that's all we knew," she said. "We didn't know their names but they were always friendly."

Houston, 64, said her street was a quiet one filled with older residents who were friendly with each other. She said there was a constant stream of visitors coming in and out of the home, but that the residents never seemed to cause any disturbances.

"Most people are in a state of shock. They never had any trouble over there," Houston said. "I never seen the police over there. This was really strange that this happened. It wasn't like they were real rowdy."

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]

Fort Worth: Left-Handed Killer Kwame Rockwell Sentenced to Die for Murdering Daniel Rojas and Jerry Burnett in 2010 Convenience Store Robbery

2012-01-30T12:34:00.016-05:00

Murder victims Daniel Rojas, above, and Jerry Burnett, below

Convenience store killer sentenced to death in Fort Worth
By Dianna Hunt
dhunt@star-telegram.com
Posted Friday, January 27, 2012
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH -- Convicted killer Kwame Rockwell was sentenced to death by injection Friday for the slaying of a 22-year-old store clerk in a pre-dawn robbery.

The jury of seven women and four men deliberated for about 14 hours over two days before rejecting defense attorneys' request that Rockwell be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The Rojas and Burnett families

Rockwell sat silent and unmoving -- as he had through most of the trial -- as his sentence was read. Many of the jurors were in tears.

Relatives of the victims wept, too, including the parents of store clerk Daniel Rojas and the widow and sister of Jerry Burnett, a Mrs Baird's deliveryman who was fatally wounded.

Rockwell's relatives sat quietly as Rockwell's mother silently left the courtroom.

"This was a particularly senseless and coldblooded crime," said prosecutor Kevin Rousseau, who tried the case with Sean Colston. "I think the decision reached today was the only one that made sense under the law."

Rockwell, 36, part-owner of a used-car lot next to the Valero convenience store on the Mansfield Highway, was convicted last week of capital murder in the slaying of Rojas.

Key evidence against him was a chilling surveillance video that showed the hardworking Rojas and Burnett moving through their early-morning chores on March 23, 2010.

Three men wearing ski masks and dark clothes burst into the store; two were carrying guns, and one was carrying a gas can.

"It was probably the single most abhorrent piece of evidence we had," Rousseau said.

A left-handed gunman took just a few steps into the store before shooting Burnett in the head. The men chased Rojas into the store office, where they forced him at gunpoint to collect a bag of cash from a store freezer and from the store's two cash registers.

Mug shot of killer Kwame Rockwell

Throughout, Rojas cooperated fully and raised his arms. But the robbers took him back to the office, and the left-handed gunman shot him in the head at nearly point-blank range.

As they left the store, the third robber scattered gasoline around the store and onto Burnett. He tried in vain to start a fire, and the men fled as a customer drove up.

Rojas died instantly, but Burnett was able to call 911 for help. Jurors heard the tape of his call.

"I've been shot," a raspy-voiced Burnett, 69, of Joshua, told the dispatcher. "I'm bleeding to death. ... Hurry up. There'll be a bread truck outside."

He then asked police to call his wife, Sue Burnett. He lapsed into unconsciousness at the hospital before she arrived.

Kwame Rockwell in court

Also key was testimony from co-conspirator Chance Smith, 25, of Fort Worth, who was a lookout man. In a deal with prosecutors, Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in exchange for his testimony.

Smith identified Rockwell -- who is left-handed -- as the gunman and said Rockwell planned the robbery for weeks because he believed that the store owners kept as much as several hundred thousand dollars on hand for their check-cashing service.

Smith said Rockwell planned an elaborate scheme, at one point following the owner in a vehicle because he believed that he was going to the bank. Rockwell eventually set the man's house on fire in the night to force the couple to take their cash to the store, Smith testified.

In the end, the robbers got less than $3,000, Smith testified.

Defense attorneys Mark Daniel and Tim Moore sharply questioned Smith, pointing out inconsistencies in his statements to police that suggested he was covering up the depth of his involvement.

During the punishment phase of the trial, the defense presented witnesses who testified that Rockwell was a kind, hardworking man whose only prior brush with the law was a domestic violence case.

Rockwell had apparently been having money problems, however. His car business was failing, he owed $30,000 in back child support, and he had recently been hit with an $80,000 civil judgment, prosecutors said.

Rockwell's father, Kenneth Rockwell, made an emotional plea to the jury Wednesday.

"I'm asking you to let him live," he said. "Let God take care of this."

The jury spent 45 minutes Friday watching the video again before reaching their decision.

"It was a very senseless crime," Colston said. "The victims were going about their business, and when you see this brutal killing..."

Three co-defendants are awaiting trial. Prosecutors have indicated that they will seek the death penalty against the men believed to be in the store: Randy Siebel, 37, of Granbury, identified as the other gunman, and Tyrone Thomas, 25, of Fort Worth, identified as the man with the gas can. They won't seek the death penalty for Timothy Thomas, 23, of Fort Worth, who Smith said stood watch at a nearby police station.

The case was heard by visiting Judge Elizabeth Berry after the sitting judge in Criminal District Court No. 4, Mike Thomas, became ill.

Dianna Hunt, 817-390-7084

Twitter: @diannahunt

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]

Meet Tremaine Leigh, Another Face of Revolving-Door Justice in Atlanta

2012-01-29T17:42:00.011-05:00

Fulton County Sheriff's Office

By Nicholas Stix

On March 31, Tremaine Leigh shot and almost killed West Georgia University student Brandon Griffith, 21, and robbed Griffith of his money and his car. Leigh had no business being on the street free.

But that’s an old story in Atlanta. When racist mass murderer Brian Nichols went on his bloody killing spree on March 11, 2005, he was a prisoner being retried in Fulton County Court for kidnapping, raping, and sodomizing his ex-girlfriend.

Although Nichols was found to be in the possession of ten pounds of marijuana and two assault weapons when he was initially arrested, he was tried for rape, sodomy, and kidnapping, but not for weapons or drug offenses. Perhaps due to Fulton County DA Oaul Howard’s twin biases in favor of black felons and black athletes, the jury never heard about the weapons or the drugs, and Howard’s incompetent, lazy ADAs provided them with little corroborating evidence, even though they had access to massive amounts of evidence. That caused an open-and-shut case of kidnapping, rape, sodomy, weapons and drug offenses to deteriorate into an exercise in “he said, she said.” As a result, the jury almost acquitted Nichols, deadlocking with eight jurors out of twelve voting to acquit.

It was during Nichols’ 2005 retrial that he beat little grandmother-jailer Cynthia Hall almost to death, disarmed her, and went on the racist rampage in which he murdered four people, and carjacked, kidnapped, and wounded several others.

(Nichols left Deputy Hall with “severe and permanent brain damage.”)

Had Howard’s ADAs done their jobs in the first trial, Nichols would have been convicted, and thus unable to kill any of his four murder victims, maim Deputy Hall, or harm any of the other people whose paths he crossed in March, 2005.

Atlanta: A Felons’ Paradise

When Nichols was arrested following his mass murder spree, he claimed that criminal justice is a case of “systematic slavery” against black men. In reality, Atlanta is closer to paradise for the city’s predominantly black felons, though not for their majority-black victims. In recent years, tens of thousands of crimes have gone unprosecuted due to “lost” 911 calls, “disappeared” crimes by police, and incompetence and preferential treatment given certain classes of suspects (athletes and clergymen) by DA Paul Howard.

Days after Nichols’ murder spree, Denise A. Sorino, who worked in Howard’s office for three years, and who supports the movement to have him recalled, told me that in 1999, she and her colleagues were working on thousands of cases going back as far as 1994, all of which were dropped, and thousands of which never even reached the indictment stage.

There are over 80 ADAs, and each one of them has over 100 cases to plea and arraign…. This is a guess, but 90 percent of these indictments, each of these defendants had more than one page of priors, and it was incredible that half of these people were still walking out on the street.

Why the backlog? When Howard was elected DA in 1996, most of the DA’s staff consisted of experienced, white attorneys. According to Sorino, who is white, Howard fired most of the whites, and replaced them with blacks who were inexperienced, and often incompetent.

Other critics of Howard have made the same charge, though in more circumspect language. Local white talk show host and former Atlanta Journal Constitution writer Dick Williams says, for instance, that “the District Attorney’s Office under Paul Howard has fallen apart, ‘cause he replaced all the old guys and brought in his people.”

In the current case of Tremaine Leigh,

Leigh has been in and out of the Fulton County Jail since 2005, records show. Charges have included drug possession, armed robbery, kidnapping, hit-and-run, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Long before trying to kill Brandon Griffith, Tremaine Leigh was a serious bad guy. And we can only imagine what delights are to be found in his sealed juvi record!

If he was convicted on the armed robbery charge alone, he should have gotten 10 years; if he went down for the kidnapping, he should have gotten anywhere from 20 to life, depending on the aggravating factors (weapon used, how he otherwise treated his victim, etc.), and where the crime stood chronologically in Leigh’s crime parade.

Was he convicted of any of those many previous felony charges? Did he get probation, instead of prison time? Didn’t DA Paul Howard care? Didn’t the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution care enough to find out, or to highlight DA Howard’s tradition of revolving-door justice, and the unnecessary victims it spawns?

Those were all rhetorical questions.

Criminal Justice System Media Indifference is Matched by Media Indifference

All I could find on Leigh’s conviction was one brief AJC news story that follows below, and one blog item recounting said news story. That’s it.

DA Paul Howard is a corrupt, incompetent, racial socialist black Democrat, and the AJC, though white-owned, is a racial socialist Democratic rag. They’re a match!

* * *

Man who shot University of West Georgia student gets life
By Christopher Seward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An Atlanta man who shot a University of West Georgia student in the chest while the victim shoppedat [sic] a Texaco gas station on Northside Drive last year has been sentenced to life without parole plus 35 years. [N.S.: Pay no mind to the official sentence; Leigh will likely be paroled 10-20 years down the road.]

A Fulton County judge sentenced Tremaine Leigh of Atlanta to life without parole plus 35 years for shooting a West Georgia University student at a gas station on Northside Drive.

After shooting Brandon Griffith, 21, on March 31, Tremaine Leigh chased the student around the store as the victim gasped for air, according to a news release from the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors say Griffith had entered the store to buy snacks but soon was confronted by a gunman. Leigh shot Griffith when he didn’t move quickly enough.

Leigh stole Griffith’s wallet and cell phone, then his car. U.S. Marshals captured the suspect in May.

Leigh has been in and out of the Fulton County Jail since 2005, records show. Charges have included drug possession, armed robbery, kidnapping, hit-and-run, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

A Fulton County jury on Thursday convicted Leigh of armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, theft by taking and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Superior Court Judge Kelly Amanda Lee handed down Leigh's sentence.

Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Brian Nichols in Atlanta: PC Kills… Again”;

“A Veteran Prosecutor Blows the Whistle on How Fulton County DA Paul Howard’s Racism and Corruption Facilitated the Brian Nichols Massacre in Atlanta”;

“The Atlanta Child Murders Case: Convicted Killer Wayne Williams Takes a Polygraph Test” ;

“The Georgia NAACP: We Love Raceless Carjackers!” ;

“As Atlanta’s Super Star Educators Get Hired Away Across the Country, the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal Follows Them.”]

A Veteran Prosecutor Blows the Whistle on How Fulton County DA Paul Howard’s Racism and Corruption Facilitated the Brian Nichols Massacre in Atlanta

2012-01-29T15:58:00.002-05:00

[N.S.: Following the publication of my investigative report on Brian Nichols’ racist, March 11, 2005 massacre in Atlanta, veteran former Fulton County (Atlanta) prosecutor, Denise A. Sorino, contacted me, and submitted the following exposé, which I was proud to publish one week after the massacre.

http://www.peachpundit.com/2011/04/18/fulton-da-paul-howard-to-be-challenged-by-superior-court-judge-doris-downs/
Unfortunately, Howard is still Fulton County DA, and is, if anything, more powerful than ever. He hasn’t updated his Web page in at least seven years, because he feels no need to be responsive to the public. Howard’s mismanagement of the DA’s office has maintained the revolving-door system of justice that Denise Sorino lamented in 2005, has caused constant conflicts with Fulton County judges, and led even the racist black hacks he has hired ever since taking office in 1997, to flee him in droves.

Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Brian Nichols in Atlanta: PC Kills… Again”;

“The Atlanta Child Murders Case: Convicted Killer Wayne Williams Takes a Polygraph Test” ;

“The Georgia NAACP: We Love Raceless Carjackers!” ;

“As Atlanta’s Super Star Educators Get Hired Away Across the Country, the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal Follows Them.”]

Court House Murders Reflect Long History of Fulton D.A. Failures: Former Assistant Prosecutor to D.A. Paul Howard Speaks Out
By Denise A. Sorino, J.D.
A Different Drummer
March 18, 2005

(Editor's Note: Denise Sorino prosecuted crime as Assistant D.A. in Paul Howard's office for three years. Currently she assists GAP, the Government Accountability Project in Washington, DC to expose corruption and protect whistleblowers. Sorino also performs casino legal development for Onnam Gaming, Inc. in Atlantic City, N.J.)

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Like all Americans, my heart goes out to the families of the tragic Atlanta victims. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is right that the most important thing is that Brian Nichols is in custody. The police and SWAT teams were remarkable, and I thank God for the cool thinking of the rescued hostage. But now, the nation must know this was completely avoidable. This is but one of the long list of blunders made by Fulton District Attorney, Paul Howard. Now, as Brandeis would say, it is time to apply the public disinfectant on a very real threat to the Fulton public.

Paul Howard's fatal lapse was criminal. Incredibly, Howard's ADA told CNN "we had no reason to believe he [Nichols] could be violent." No reason! Nichols was on trial for rape with weapons assault, and had brought weapons to court the day before. Please! Judge Barnes had a meeting with the Prosecutor to increase security. Howard's people knew very well they were dealing with an extremely dangerous man.

The buck stops with Paul Howard. The Fulton sheriff, prosecutors and deputies all ultimately report to Howard. As a former assistant DA who worked under Paul Howard, I am sorry to say Paul Howard has a pattern as to allow criminals, especially former athletes, to flout the law. While I worked for him, thousands of felony cases were not processed. Incredibly, Howard consistently blamed his predecessors for this backlog that occurred solely on the Howard watch.

Victims groups, legal experts, feminists and the media excoriate Howard for repeated failure to prosecute the real crimes of Fulton County. The jury foreman in Nichols' first rape trial told CNN that the jury wanted to write to Howard to "express our frustration at how poorly both the police investigation and the district attorney's office had conducted the investigation and trial." Had Howard done his job in the first place, Nichols would have been behind bars, not shooting citizens.

Nichols is but one of hundreds of criminals Howard failed to prosecute competently. Incredibly, members of Howard's own office have been arrested on drug-related offenses, but were never prosecuted.

Judge Barnes, the tragic victim of Nichols and revered superior court judge, knew Howard's incompetence intimately. Barnes had presided in the trial of 34 year-old Carissa Ashe, who murdered her daughter, Destiny. Many former Howard Assistant District Attorneys, including Southeastern Legal Foundation's Shannon Goessling, have urged citizens to recall Howard. Goessling, veteran former Chief Senior District Attorney, resigned from Howard's office in protest. "Paul Howard is a politician, not a prosecutor and, as a result, hundreds of society's most vulnerable victims - children - receive little justice and even less protection."

Another former ADA, attorney N.G. (name withheld on request), writes, "I was also made aware by the lead ADA in the Ray Lewis case that there was enough evidence to convict him, but Paul Howard chose not to present this information to the jury and the public."

While this charge against Howard is shocking to the point of being hard to believe, at least three members of Howard's office have backed this up. The fear of retaliation is all too real. I too have received anonymous phone threats telling me to stop assisting investigations.

Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly denounced the Atlanta Journal Constitution for its cover up of Howard. I can say from personal experience that the AJC indeed frequently refused to expose Howard's failures, even when highly documented. The disinfectant of public exposure needs to be applied to the media as well. An open letter to the AJC last summer asked the AJC "when will reporters be allowed to report?" on Howard and related violators of the public trust. We need open government, but we also need open media.

Howard is currently under ethics investigation for stonewalling my investigation of Georgia Senator Charles Walker, who was finally indicted by federal investigators on 142 felony counts for stealing from Georgia's poorest citizens, including at Grady Hospital. Federal authorities have stated that the co-conspirators of Walker need to be looked at by Fulton. Four years ago, I personally presented Howard with two boxes of evidence regarding the Walker/Grady corruption. Howard refused to investigate, and then finally retaliated against me. The DA office now claims to have "lost" the evidence. Howard's office continues to falsely claim they have no knowledge of the Walker/Grady corruption.

There is a four-year paper trail showing Howard stonewalling for Charles Walker and co-conspirators.

This is the beginning of Sunshine Week, and I salute all papers for shining the light on the need for Open Records. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis is right that sunlight is the best of all disinfectants.

Had sunlight been shone on Paul Howard earlier, it is likely that the tragedy of last week and many other tragedies could have been avoided. It is horrible that the very judge who presided over many of Paul Howard's worst blunders should have been killed.

It is sad that a District Attorney has covered up for some of the worst crimes of the decade. We owe it to this judge, and to all other victims of Howard's terrible follies, that Paul Howard be made to resign or be recalled immediately.

Please join former assistant District Attorneys, including Sorino and Goessling, in calling for Howard's recall. Effective crime enforcement saves lives. The life you save by recalling Howard may be your own, or it may be a loved one's.

The Murder of Jayna Murray: Killer Brittany Norwood’s Family, Friends, and Defense Attorneys Made Ludicrous Attempts to Justify Granting Her the

2012-01-29T03:53:00.007-05:00

Murder victim Jayna Murray

Possibility of Parole
By Nicholas Stix

Jayna Murray’s parents, Phyllis and David Murray

The family of remorseless murderer Brittany Norwood is asking for a life sentence with the chance of parole

In their letters to the judge made public Wednesday, they write of the daughter, sister and teammate they once knew. For the Norwoods, in advance of sentencing set for Friday in Montgomery County, they take up the best argument left to them: Give her a life term but with a chance at parole.

[N.S.: I guess there weren’t any letters from the soccer teammates at SUNY Stony Brook who experienced her as a constant thief, a charming, pathological liar, and as a very scary customer whom they were afraid to confront.]

The raw, heart-rending memos now sit at the top of three fat folders of legal records in the Norwood case. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that life in prison is the appropriate sentence. The battle is whether Norwood should be jailed forever.

[The defense has no choice but to concede the point. If they could fight it, they would have.]

Prosecutors contend that Norwood has shown no remorse since the body of her co-worker, Jayna Murray, was found March 12 in the yoga store. She is beyond rehabilitation, prosecutors say.

[Rehabilitation is irrelevant. That ship has sailed. This is about punishment, not rehabilitation. If Norwood had remained merely a thief, we could talk about rehabilitation.]

Not so, writes [sic] the relatives who know her as a competitive soccer player and a teenager who ran a babysitting service. They also write of an aunt, who, the day before the killing, walked through rain to pick up her nephews from school when their physician-mother had to work late in an operating room.

She ran a babysitting service as a teenager. And the relevance of that is ... what? And she had no problem switching from helping out her sister the doctor one day, to planning the murder of a white colleague, and beating and stabbing the woman over 320 times for 16 minutes, and then covering up her crime, the next.

“I love my daughter more than words can say and I know she is worthy of a chance,” Earl Norwood wrote. “No one should ever have to experience” the pain the Murray family is enduring, he wrote. But the sixth of his nine children “has always been a person of a true caring nature and I know she still is.”
[“... and I know she still is.”As do we all!]

Norwood’s mother, Larkita, wrote that “this terrible tragedy is incomprehensible to me” [But not to those of us who see such racist savagery constantly committed.] but that her love has not wavered. “From the day the doctor told me I was with child and through all her life to this day, I have loved her as I love her now.” Given a chance, she can again be an asset to the community, her mother wrote.

[Lady, when was your daughter ever “an asset to the community”? Or are we perhaps using the word “community” in different ways? After all, when she stole from her soccer teammates at SUNY Stony Brook, her victims were all white, weren’t they? And the businesses she stole from were all white-owned, weren’t they? And the woman she bludgeoned and stabbed over 300 times ...]

Under current law, that chance at parole could not come before 25 years at the earliest, Norwood’s attorneys say.

Norwood’s attorneys argue that she is “neither a calculating killer or a deranged psychopath” and did not meet the legal definition of insane. A psychiatric evaluation of Norwood done at her attorneys’ request and filed with the court says that she has a case of major depression that would benefit from medication.

She is absolutely “a calculating killer [and] a psychopath,” though I’m not sure about the “deranged” part. As for her “depression,” facing spending one’s life in jail can do that, assuming her doctors weren’t merely conjuring up a diagnosis for a price.

The motive for the attack that left Murray, 30, with more than 330 injuries was not stated at trial before Norwood’s conviction in November. The prosecution’s suggestion that Murray had caught Norwood shoplifting “was hardly a motive for murder,” Norwood’s attorneys wrote in their memo, which was filed along with the letters from the Norwood family.

The position they took at trial, they wrote, “provides the best explanation . . . Norwood became overwhelmed with emotion during a confrontation, and before she could regain her composure, she committed the unthinkable.”

Their position violates the first law of lying, which is plausibility. Norwood didn’t snap, or become “overwhelmed with emotion”; she planned the murder.

The killer called her victim on her cellphone after they had closed up the shop, in order to lure her back to her death.

And I do not believe that Murray started arguing with Norwood about the latter’s theft, at least not after they had returned to the store. Based on what Apple employees next door heard, my understanding is that Norwood demanded that Murray tell her what was going on. She was trying to squeeze Murray for information—probably after she had already bludgeoned her a couple of times—as to what higher-ups knew about Norwood’s thefts, before killing Murray.

The reason for Norwood’s m.o. was that if she killed Murray prior to locking up, a customer might come in, or a manager might call, and interrupt her. Instead, she did it after the store had officially closed.

Norwood “understands the severity of the situation,” wrote one of her older sisters, Heather Norwood, who said her sister has “a heart of gold.”

Norwood unsderstands that she is in danger of spending the rest of her life in prison. She has no understanding of the moral severity of the situation; she has refused to even admit that she murdered Murray. When she expressed “sympathy” to her victim’s family, she said that they would always know her as the woman who was “convicted” of killing Jayna, not as the woman who actually murdered her. She is acting as if she were innocent! As for her having “a heart of gold,” the less said, the better.

Family asks for a chance at parole for yoga-store killer
By Mary Pat Flaherty, Published: January 25
Washington Post

In 20 pages of impassioned pleas, family members of Brittany Norwood urged a judge to give her a chance of one day being free — the family’s first sustained public comments since the 29-year-old was convicted of killing a co-worker in November.

They do not claim to understand what triggered the violent attack at the Bethesda Lululemon Athletica store, nor Norwood’s extensive lies as she spun a tale of masked attackers and rape.

The Crime Scene

In their letters to the judge made public Wednesday, they write of the daughter, sister and teammate they once knew. For the Norwoods, in advance of sentencing set for Friday in Montgomery County, they take up the best argument left to them: Give her a life term but with a chance at parole.

The raw, heart-rending memos now sit at the top of three fat folders of legal records in the Norwood case. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that life in prison is the appropriate sentence. The battle is whether Norwood should be jailed forever.

Prosecutors contend that Norwood has shown no remorse since the body of her co-worker, Jayna Murray, was found March 12 in the yoga store. She is beyond rehabilitation, prosecutors say.

Not so, writes the relatives who know her as a competitive soccer player and a teenager who ran a babysitting service. They also write of an aunt, who, the day before the killing, walked through rain to pick up her nephews from school when their physician-mother had to work late in an operating room.

“I love my daughter more than words can say and I know she is worthy of a chance,”

Earl Norwood wrote. “No one should ever have to experience” the pain the Murray family is enduring, he wrote. But the sixth of his nine children “has always been a person of a true caring nature and I know she still is.”

Norwood’s mother, Larkita, wrote that “this terrible tragedy is incomprehensible to me” but that her love has not wavered. “From the day the doctor told me I was with child and through all her life to this day, I have loved her as I love her now.”
Given a chance, she can again be an asset to the community, her mother wrote.

Under current law, that chance at parole could not come before 25 years at the earliest, Norwood’s attorneys say.

Norwood’s attorneys argue that she is “neither a calculating killer or a deranged psychopath” and did not meet the legal definition of insane. A psychiatric evaluation of Norwood done at her attorneys’ request and filed with the court says that she has a case of major depression that would benefit from medication.

The motive for the attack that left Murray, 30, with more than 330 injuries was not stated at trial before Norwood’s conviction in November. The prosecution’s suggestion that Murray had caught Norwood shoplifting “was hardly a motive for murder,” Norwood’s attorneys wrote in their memo, which was filed along with the letters from the Norwood family.

The position they took at trial, they wrote, “provides the best explanation . . .
Norwood became overwhelmed with emotion during a confrontation, and before she could regain her composure, she committed the unthinkable.”

Norwood “understands the severity of the situation,” wrote one of her older sisters, Heather Norwood, who said her sister has “a heart of gold.”

She also wrote: “As much pain as I feel for my sister, I feel a deeper pain in my heart for the Murray family. . . . There isn’t a day that goes by that every time I pray for my sister I say a prayer for their family as well.”

[Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“Bethesda Cops: Black Yoga Store Worker Murdered White Colleague, Made Up Story about Masked Rapist-Killers, in Order to Avoid Jail for Thefts”;

“Black Bethesda Yoga Store Worker Brittany Norwood is Charged with Killing Her White Colleague, Jayna Murray: Five Videos”;

“Trial Date Set For Britanny Norwood, in Non-Hate Crime Murder in Bethesda, Maryland, lululemon athletica Store”;

“Reader Who Claims to Have Known Jayna Murray, Whose Killer Smashed Her Skull in for 20 Minutes in lululemon athletica, Has Compassion for the Killer, but None for Those Who Would Judge Her”;

“In Web Posts and Emails, Friends of Brittany Norwood, the Racist Lululemon Killer of Jayna Murray, Paint Mutually Contradictory Portraits of Norwood”;

“In 2007, Ex-Boyfriend Charged That Lululemon Murderer Brittany Norwood was Stalking Him”;

“Already in August, Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood’s Lawyer was Playing the ‘Crazy Card’”;

“New Details in Grisly Lululemon Murder: Brittany Norwood Used at Least 4 Different Weapons to Kill Jayna Murray; Prosecutor: Crime was ‘Pre-Meditated’”;

Lululemon Trial of Brittany Norwood, for the Murder of Jayna Murray, Day 1: The Defense is Not Using the “Crazy Card,” but the “She Lost It Card”;

“The Desperate Struggle of Jayna Murray: Lululemon Murder Victim Tried to Escape, and was Alive Through Most of the Horrific Beating Brittany Norwood Inflicted on Her, Sustaining 322 Wounds (Washington Times)”;

“Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 2: A Bloody Video, in a Tear-Filled Courtroom”;

“The Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 3: The Apple Employees Who Heard the Murder, but Did Nothing”;

“Lululemon Trial: Is the ‘Crazy Card’ Off the Table for Jayna Murray’s Racist Killer, Brittany Norwood?”;

“Lululemon Trial: Rotten Apple; Computer Giant’s Employees Listened to the Murder Through a Shared Wall … and Listened … and Listened”;

“Lululemon Verdict in: Brittany Norwood Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder, for Killing Jayna Murray! Ice-Cold, Calculating Killer Faces Up to Life Until Parole”; and

“Racist, Savage, Remorseless Killer Brittany Norwood Inflicted 322 Wounds on Jayna Murray, but Killer’s Family Says She Has ‘a Heart of Gold.’”]

Jayna Murray Murder: Unrepentant, Racist Killer Brittany Norwood Gets “LWOP”

2012-01-28T01:15:00.008-05:00

Murder victim Jayna Murray

Jayna Murray’s parents, Phyllis and David Murray

Murderer Brittany Norwood

Norwood Tortured Murray with 322 Wounds

By Nicholas Stix

In practice, "life without the possibility of parole" (LWOP) means life until parole, as most killers sentenced to LWOP parole will eventually be paroled, but the possibility obtains that Brittany Norwood will do a few more years for murdering Jayna Murray under a sentence of LWOP, than she would have, had her sentence provided for the possibility of parole.

That Norwood's family loves her, shone clearly through their arguments on behalf of her getting the possibility of parole. Their claim however, that if paroled, she would be a contributor to society as she was before she committed murder, was surreal. This was a woman who had been a thief her entire adult life, whose soccer teammates/victims at SUNY Stony Brook were terrified of her, who had caught every possible break from employers who had never pressed charges against her, and who had more recently stalked an ex-boyfriend.

One of the killer's defense attorneys, Douglas Wood, tried in vain to sell the jury a "she snapped" argument on behalf of the possibility of parole. Wood's argument ran contrary to the known facts about Norwood's ice-cold planning and execution of the murder and the cover-up, and he was unable to racially stack the jury, so as to have jurors who would ignore both the facts and the law.

Speaking of Norwood's lawyers, one of them, Harry Trainor Jr., momentarily drew this writer into the action on Thanksgiving Day, when Trainor bombarded me with comments at my main bog, and sent me one email, all seeking to intimidate me into retracting factual statements I'd made saying that a Washington Post article "suggested" that he had missed a crucial filing deadline related to playing the "crazy card." Trainor charged me with making "absolutely false and defamatory" statements about him. As I countered, however, since I was repeating statements made by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg and Washington Post reporter Meredith Somers, he'd best make his charges against them, and see where that gets him.

Ultimately, without a racist, non-white jury, Norwood's attorneys had nothing to work with. All of the facts of the case—the heinous violation and torture of Jayna Murray, the damning forensic evidence, and Norwood's pathetic cover-up—pointed to Norwood not only being guilty as hell, but being a sadistic, ice-cold, calculating, remorseless sociopath.

Brittany Norwood sentenced to life without parole

By Richard Reeve

January 27, 2012 - 4:49 p.m.

WJLA

One of the most high profile murder cases in Bethesda came to a close Friday after a judge sentenced convicted killer Brittany Norwood to life without parole.

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More on this story

Brittany Norwood family asks for parole in life sentence

Brittany Norwood guilty of first-degree murder

Evidence in the Lululemon murder trial

Norwood found guilty in Lululemon murder trial (Photos)

A jury in November convicted Norwood of first-degree murder for killing Jayna Murray, her co-worker at the Lululemon yoga store.

"It was absolutely the right sentence under Maryland law," said David Murray, the father of Jayna Murray, after the sentencing.

Eight relatives and friends of Jayna Murray told a judge Friday how their lives have been affected by Murray's death last year.

"There are aspects of this death I cannot accept," said Phyllis Murray, Jayna Murray's mother. "Until I can get over the pain and suffering I know my daughter went through, my subconscious will not get over it."

The murder shocked the area because of the brutality of the March 11 slaying and the twists and turns of the case. Norwood initially portrayed herself as a victim before police discovered holes in her story and arrested her.

Norwood's lawyer had earlier said Norwood lost control and grabbed whatever weapons were within her reach. But he argued during the trial that the crime lacked the premeditation required for a first-degree murder conviction.

Norwood simply "lost it," her attorney, Douglas Wood, said during the trial.

But the slaying devastated Jayna's Murray's family, who spoke out after the sentencing hearing.

"I hate the pain she (Jayna) went through. I hate the person who inflicted it," said Hugh Murray, Jayna Murray's brother.

SEE evidence in the Lululemon slaying.

During the six-day trial, prosecutors described the brutal attack that left Murray with more than 300 wounds. Norwood used a hammer, a knife, a wrench, a rope and a metal pole in the slaying.

"Grief is always with you," Phyllis Murray said, adding, "I know Jayna does not want us to shed a tear."

Short URL: http://wj.la/xlWf9f

[Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“Bethesda Cops: Black Yoga Store Worker Murdered White Colleague, Made Up Story about Masked Rapist-Killers, in Order to Avoid Jail for Thefts”;

“Black Bethesda Yoga Store Worker Brittany Norwood is Charged with Killing Her White Colleague, Jayna Murray: Five Videos”;

“Trial Date Set For Britanny Norwood, in Non-Hate Crime Murder in Bethesda, Maryland, lululemon athletica Store”;

“Reader Who Claims to Have Known Jayna Murray, Whose Killer Smashed Her Skull in for 20 Minutes in lululemon athletica, Has Compassion for the Killer, but None for Those Who Would Judge Her”;

“In Web Posts and Emails, Friends of Brittany Norwood, the Racist Lululemon Killer of Jayna Murray, Paint Mutually Contradictory Portraits of Norwood”;

“In 2007, Ex-Boyfriend Charged That Lululemon Murderer Brittany Norwood was Stalking Him”;

“Already in August, Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood’s Lawyer was Playing the ‘Crazy Card’”;

“New Details in Grisly Lululemon Murder: Brittany Norwood Used at Least 4 Different Weapons to Kill Jayna Murray; Prosecutor: Crime was ‘Pre-Meditated’”;

Lululemon Trial of Brittany Norwood, for the Murder of Jayna Murray, Day 1: The Defense is Not Using the “Crazy Card,” but the “She Lost It Card”;

“The Desperate Struggle of Jayna Murray: Lululemon Murder Victim Tried to Escape, and was Alive Through Most of the Horrific Beating Brittany Norwood Inflicted on Her, Sustaining 322 Wounds (Washington Times)”;

“Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 2: A Bloody Video, in a Tear-Filled Courtroom”;

“The Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 3: The Apple Employees Who Heard the Murder, but Did Nothing”;

“Lululemon Trial: Is the ‘Crazy Card’ Off the Table for Jayna Murray’s Racist Killer, Brittany Norwood?”;

“Lululemon Trial: Rotten Apple; Computer Giant’s Employees Listened to the Murder Through a Shared Wall … and Listened … and Listened”; and

“Lululemon Verdict in: Brittany Norwood Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder, for Killing Jayna Murray! Ice-Cold, Calculating Killer Faces Up to Life Until Parole.”; and

“Racist, Savage, Remorseless Killer Brittany Norwood Inflicted 322 Wounds on Jayna Murray, but Killer’s Family Says She Has ‘a Heart of Gold.’”

Racist, Savage, Remorseless Killer Brittany Norwood Inflicted 322 Wounds on Jayna Murray, but Killer’s Family Says She Has “a Heart of Gold”

2012-01-27T16:34:00.007-05:00

Murder victim Jayna Murray

Jayna Murray’s parents, Phyllis and David Murray

The family of murderer Brittany Norwood is asking for a life sentence with chance of parole

Brittany Norwood family asks for parole in life sentence
January 26, 2012 - 11:02 a.m.
WJLA

The family of Brittany Norwood, who was convicted in the killing of her co-worker last November, has made a series of pleas urging against giving Norwood a life term without the chance of parole.

Her sister says Norwood has a "heart of gold."

Norwood, 29, was convicted of killing her co-worker Jayna Murray at the Lululemon Athletica store. The family presented 20 pages of pleas urging against a life penalty without parole, the Washington Post reported.

“I love my daughter more than words can say and I know she is worthy of a chance,” Earl Norwood wrote, according to the Post. “No one should ever have to experience” the pain the Murray family is enduring, he wrote. But the sixth of his nine children “has always been a person of a true caring nature and I know she still is.”

The pleas do not attempt to explain Norwood's behavior. The letters, which were made public by the judge Wednesday, tries to characterize Norwood as a loving member of the family.

The plea comes ahead of Norwood’s sentencing, set for Friday in Montgomery County.

Norwood was convicted of first-degree murder of the March 11 murder inside the store.

The jury took only one hour to find Brittany Norwood guilty of first-degree murder.

The murder shocked the area because of the brutality of the March 11 slaying and the twists and turns of the case. Norwood initially portrayed herself as a victim before police discovered holes in her story and arrested her.

“I know the trauma our family has been through I want no other family to go through this,” Jayna's mother Phyllis Murray said after Norwood was convicted.

Short URL: http://wj.la/ySg4VL

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this article.

Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“Bethesda Cops: Black Yoga Store Worker Murdered White Colleague, Made Up Story about Masked Rapist-Killers, in Order to Avoid Jail for Thefts”;

“Black Bethesda Yoga Store Worker Brittany Norwood is Charged with Killing Her White Colleague, Jayna Murray: Five Videos”;

“Trial Date Set For Britanny Norwood, in Non-Hate Crime Murder in Bethesda, Maryland, lululemon athletica Store”;

“Reader Who Claims to Have Known Jayna Murray, Whose Killer Smashed Her Skull in for 20 Minutes in lululemon athletica, Has Compassion for the Killer, but None for Those Who Would Judge Her”;

“In Web Posts and Emails, Friends of Brittany Norwood, the Racist Lululemon Killer of Jayna Murray, Paint Mutually Contradictory Portraits of Norwood”;

“In 2007, Ex-Boyfriend Charged That Lululemon Murderer Brittany Norwood was Stalking Him”;

“Already in August, Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood’s Lawyer was Playing the ‘Crazy Card’”;

“New Details in Grisly Lululemon Murder: Brittany Norwood Used at Least 4 Different Weapons to Kill Jayna Murray; Prosecutor: Crime was ‘Pre-Meditated’”;

Lululemon Trial of Brittany Norwood, for the Murder of Jayna Murray, Day 1: The Defense is Not Using the “Crazy Card,” but the “She Lost It Card”;

“The Desperate Struggle of Jayna Murray: Lululemon Murder Victim Tried to Escape, and was Alive Through Most of the Horrific Beating Brittany Norwood Inflicted on Her, Sustaining 322 Wounds (Washington Times)”;

“Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 2: A Bloody Video, in a Tear-Filled Courtroom”;

“The Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 3: The Apple Employees Who Heard the Murder, but Did Nothing”;

“Lululemon Trial: Is the ‘Crazy Card’ Off the Table for Jayna Murray’s Racist Killer, Brittany Norwood?”;

“Lululemon Trial: Rotten Apple; Computer Giant’s Employees Listened to the Murder Through a Shared Wall … and Listened … and Listened”; and

“Lululemon Verdict in: Brittany Norwood Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder, for Killing Jayna Murray! Ice-Cold, Calculating Killer Faces Up to Life Until Parole.”]

In New Orleans, Raceless Hero is Murdered by Raceless Car-Jacker

2012-01-27T11:11:00.004-05:00

An image of Mike Ainsworth from an ID card

Man dies after attempt to stop car jacking in Algiers

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Seven at New Orleans Times-Picayune Win Duranty-Blair Award
for Journalistic Infamy”:

4,000-word version; and

9,600-word version.]

By Nicholas Stix

Well, here’s an Algiers Point murder that the anti-white denizens of the MSM can celebrate!

The MSM have been waging war on the neighborhood since late August, 2006, when genocidal black supremacist propagandist Spike Lee promoted the hoax, whereby there was no black violence before, during, or after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in late August-early September 2005, but there was murderous white racist violence committed exclusively against blacks. This hoax was later picked up and repeated by The Nation and the New York Times. This hoax was created as revenge against the white residents of Algiers Point who successfully defended themselves during the anarchy, and thus saved their own lives and those of their loved ones, as part of a strategy seeking to get them railroaded into prison on state (murder, attempted murder, etc.) and/or federal civil rights charges.

Spike Lee also promoted the hoax first spread in a big way by Nation of Islam leader, Min. Louis Farrakhan, and repeated by black columnist Gregory Kane, asserting that whites had dynamited the levees in the Ninth Ward, in order to murder blacks.

* * *

Family of Slain Good Samaritan Says He Wanted to Help Others
Reported by Meg Gatto
Email: mgatto@fox8live.com

1/25 5:34 p.m.
Updated 1/25 6:57 p.m.
Fox8/WVUE New Orleans

New Orleans -- Police hunt for a brazen criminal who shot an Algiers man to death in front of his two children.

It happened in the 500 block of Vallette Street, as the man was trying to stop a carjacking in progress.

Billy Ainsworth can't hold back his anger at his brother’s attacker.

“Pray the cops find you before I do,” Ainsworth said Wednesday morning. He tells us he's shocked at the way his brother was murdered, saying, “He was just trying to help.”

Police say Mike Ainsworth was trying to protect a woman being carjacked when he became the victim.

The woman's nephew, Brett Geiseler, explains, “She was getting in her car to go to work, she said a gentleman approached her to ask what time it was, and she rolled down the window and he showed her a gun, and she started screaming.”

Ainsworth, standing at the bus stop just a few feet away with his two kids, heard the screams and came running. Police say the man opened fire on Ainsworth. He stumbled to a yard across the street, and collapsed. That's where Al Schmidtt, the carjacking victim's neighbor, found him.

“I saw somebody laying on the ground with two little boys beside him, crying their eyes out,” Schmidtt said.

Mike Ainsworth died in the front yard. “It’s one of those things you can never imagine. Horrible,” Ainsworth’s friend Richard Pavlas said.

The shooting happened in front of a school, but officers say no one else was wounded.

Ainsworth's family say he was a member of Cops 8, a local organization that worked to drum up donations for the NOPD. His friends say he was dedicated to improving the safety of his neighborhood, so they're not surprised he stepped in to help someone in need.

“He tried to stop it, and he would be that type of person to try to stop something like that from happening,” Pavlas said.

But Mike Ainsworth paid the ultimate price. His family says the only consolation they have is that he died a hero.

[Thanks to reader-researcher “W” for this sendalong.]

Obama Unconstitutionally Imposes Sanctuary City Status on All Localities, Nationwide, Through Intimidation of Law Enforcement

2012-01-27T10:22:00.009-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Were Obama’s Mass Arrests of East Haven, CT Cops Intended as a Message to Crush All Local Enforcement Against Illegal Aliens?”]

Media cover the destruction of East Haven, CT, by illegal aliens. [Correction: “Media wait in the courtyard in front of Bridgeport federal court while East Haven Police officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari, and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller are arraigned Tuesday afternoon on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges.”] Photo: Autumn Driscoll/Connecticut Post

U.S. Attorney David B. Fein (left), and Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, speak about an indictment charging four East Haven police officers with federal civil rights offences during a press conference in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday, Jan. 24th, 2012. Sgt. John Miller and Officers David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo are accused of harassing and intimidating Latino residents in East Haven, including their advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct. Photo: Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post

U.S. Attorney David B. Fein (left) speaks, while Perez listens

Perez speaks, while Fein listens. The media were clearly under instructions to give these guys equal billing. If you didn't know better, you'df think these two mopes were Hollywood stars, each of whose agent demanded that his client be presented on equal terms with his co-star.

Illegal alien accomplice “Father James Manship, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven, talks about his arrest while videotaping an East Haven police raid at Chacon's store in 2009.” Why wasn't this mope arrested? Photo: WTNH/CT

“East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo speaks at a November press conference announcing changes in police leadership. Federal authorities announced Jan. 24, 2012 that four East Haven police officers had been arrested on charges of racially profiling Hispanic residents.” This is the guy the feds and their media henchmen have in their sights now. His crime: Being insufficiently treasonous.

Retrial Begins in Tracey Biletnikoff Murder

2012-01-27T04:53:00.003-05:00

Murder victim Tracey Biletnikoff

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Mischief by Ninth Circus Leads to New Trial for Mohammed Haroon Ali, Who in 1999 Confessed to Killing Fred Biletnikoff’s Daughter, Tracey; Defense Attorney Seeks to Re-Define Murder Without Premeditation (2nd Degree) as ‘Manslaughter’”; and

“Jury Selection Begins in Tracey Biletnikoff Murder Trial.”]

By David in TN

On Wednesday, the retrial of Mohammed Haroon Ali began in San Mareo, California.

Ali is charged with the murder of Tracey Biletnikoff, daughter of pro football Hall of Fame receiver Fred Biletnikoff.

The trial will determine how long Ali is incarcerated. The first trial resulted in a “life” sentence. It was overturned, after an appeals court ruled prospective black jurors had been dismissed for racial reasons.

The defense is arguing for a verdict of voluntary manslaughter. If this happens, Ali will probably be released with time served.

Incidentally, Ali had a conviction in 1995 for abducting and beating an ex-girlfriend. What was the punishment? Probation.

Ali and Biletnikoff met at a drug treatment program and began dating. When she rebuked him for falling off the wagon, Ali strangled her and threw her body in a ravine.

Tracey Biletnikoff's murderer, Mohammed Haroon Ali

Baloo: King Newt at the Convention with an Empty Dance Card?

2012-01-27T03:28:00.001-05:00

Visit the cartoon page of the incomparable Baloo here, and his gift page here.

Anonymous False Rape Accuser of Fox TV Host Greg Kelly: ‘He Got Me Pregnant, and I Had to Get an Abortion’

2012-01-27T02:59:00.006-05:00

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, wife, Veronica, and son Greg.

By Nicholas Stix

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Greg Kelly, Co-Host of Fox’ Good Day New York, and Son of Legendary Current NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Accused of Rape!”]

Now we know that Greg Kelly is innocent of the rape charges being hurled at him by a vengeful woman who is able to hide in the shadows. She was drunk and he took advantage of her. That’s her story. It’s a fake “morning after rape,” only we’ll have to call this one a three months after rape.

And if she was already in a long-term relationship with another man, how does she know that it was Kelly who got her pregnant? Has she proven that she was pregnant?

No matter. Pregnancy is no proof of rape. This was consensual sex, but thanks to feminism, a woman can have consensual sex, and still cry rape.

Females’ privilege of being able to publicly accuse men of rape, while keeping their own identities secret, must end!

Like the New York Post readers I cited yesterday, Daily News readers also supported Kelly by about a 20-1 margin. Given that Daily News Internet commenters are notorious for their stupidity and viciousness, especially one who spent at least 12 hours on the board spewing witless vitriol (he was the only one I saw that thought Kelly was guilty), the comments I have re-printed below are not representative. (Witty vitriol would have been another story entirely.)

Note that the article below was pulled a little before 10:30 p.m. and later re-posted by the Daily News; I could find no difference between its original and its “updated” versions.

• VIVAFUZZY08:21 AM
Jan 26, 2012
You know former Governor Spitzer is saying " Thats why I paid for mine. "

• DJCAMP08:44 AM
Jan 26, 2012
I'm sure when all is said and done he will acquitted of all these charges....sounds to me like she got busted by her boyfriend or they are both in cahoots to try and get money out of him....
•
• MARTINJSXX08:41 AM
Jan 26, 2012
It is scary that you can meet a woman, have drinks with her, go with her willingly back to her office at night, stay in touch with her for three months, then have her cry rape and destroy your career and reputation.

• JERIMART09:07 AM
Jan 26, 2012
I only have questions - If she is in a relatonship why was she out drinking with Gregg? Why did she go back to her office with Greg? Just saying.

• BELLADONNAA09:32 AM
Jan 26, 2012
That's why you should have ppl sign consent forms before AND after sex these days... I know it's unromantic and spontaneous. But even then they can still say they were forced to sign papers or their signature was forged. You just can't win I guess.

• MR.HOTTEETH09:28 AM
Jan 26, 2012
My hearing may be a little off before my first sip of coffee this morning but this sounds to me like some bullsht...

• MICHELE09:26 AM
Jan 26, 2012
Wait she has drinks with him, goes back to her office, and reports it how long after. Good luck proving rape. This looks like an attempt to discredit or extort cash. If a woman is raped ther should be an amount of time to report it, and I understand a lot go unreported, but there are too many shady things with this story. It's sad that someone's life is destroyed.

• MARCDONATO09:25 AM
Jan 26, 2012
This "crime" is like Christmas Eve in an Italian household - smells fishy!

• SICKDOCTORJOE09:53 AM
Jan 26, 2012
So the police commissioner's son hosts a morning show with a Mafia don's daughter. The only thing missing is the cash-filled envelope changing hands....

• NJCORRUPTSTATE09:56 AM
Jan 26, 2012
When's the perp walk gonna take place? It shouldn't matter that he is innocent before proven guilty right Commissioner Kelly? Doesn't matter who you are either. Everyone gets the perp walk right? It should matter that the accused gets dragged through the mud while the alleged "victim" gets to remain anonymous even before the accused gets day one in court, but it doesn't matter does it Mr Kelly Sr? Hmmmmmmmmm, still waiting for an answer....

• THEKINGFISH09:59 AM
Jan 26, 2012
Lets see now, a woman with a boyfriend goes out bar-hopping, meets an attractive celebrity and has drinks with him, asks him back to her office that night and then 3 months later when there is no physical evidence, she cries RAPE!! Hmmmm, what took her so long? Shades of Tawana Brawley making up a story as to not get in trouble with her mother, or in this case, her boyfriend Only thing missing here is Al Sharpton. How much money will she be trying to extort from Kelly?

• NEUTRONJAKE10:08 AM
Jan 26, 2012
She knew it was rape when the check bounced!

* * *

Greg Kelly Rape Accuser Says She Got Pregnant, Had Abortion as Result of Attack: Police Sources
‘GOOD DAY NEW YORK’ CO-HOST IS NO-SHOW ON PROGRAM
Comments (241)
By Rocco Parascandola, Richard Huff, and Tracy Connor
New York Daily News
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 7:49 a.m.
Updated: Friday, January 27, 2012, 12:55 a.m.

The paralegal who accused TV host and top-cop son Greg Kelly of rape told police she became pregnant and had an abortion as a result, two police sources said.

It’s unknown if the 30-year-old woman gave investigators any medical records to show she had been pregnant — or whether she had told Kelly about it.

Kelly, 43, the co-host of “Good Day New York” and the son of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, “strenuously” denied the rape charge through a lawyer.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating the allegation, and Kelly has not been charged with any crime.

The woman told cops she met Kelly on the street and later had drinks with him at the South Street Seaport on Oct. 8.

She explained that they went back to her Wall St. area law office because her boyfriend was home.

One police source said her story is that she was “out of it” from too much booze and Kelly forced himself on her.

A second source said Kelly claims to have records of calls and text messages that will show any sex was consensual.

The woman did not make a formal report until Tuesday when she walked into the 13th Precinct stationhouse, sources said.

Detectives interviewed her and notified the Chief of Detectives Office when they learned the accused was Greg Kelly.

The case was then turned over to Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. — the right call, according to Mayor Bloomberg.

“Everyone has a right to have their complaints investigated,” Bloomberg said Thursday.

“And I also point out that as far as I know, Greg Kelly's not been charged with anything. So I don't know how that's going to turn out.”

Kelly was a no-show on “Good Day New York,” and Fox 5 said he had “requested some time off.”

Co-host Rosanna Scotto expressed support for her colleague as she walked into the E. 67th St. studio about 5:30 a.m.

"I love Greg. That's all I can say," Scotto said.

“Good Day New York” ran reports on the rape allegation and noted Greg Kelly’s denial but did not disclose his status with the program.

Although the woman waited more than three months to file a report, her boyfriend alluded to the accusation when he approached the police commissioner at a recent public event.

“He said, ‘Your son ruined my girlfriend’s life,’” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

“The commissioner said, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ He said he didn’t want to talk about it here, so the commissioner told him to send a letter.”

Browne said it does not appear the man ever sent a letter.

In a statement by his lawyer, Andrew Lankler, Greg Kelly denied “any wrongdoing of any kind, and is cooperating fully with the district attorney’s investigation.

“We know the district attorney’s investigation will prove Mr. Kelly’s innocence.”

With Melissa Grace, Tina Moore and Mark Morales

Greg Kelly, Co-Host of Fox’ Good Day New York, and Son of Legendary Current NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Accused of Rape!

2012-01-26T12:42:00.009-05:00

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Greg Kelly at the 32nd Annual New York City Police Foundation Gala at The Waldorf-Astoria on March 16, 2010.

By Nicholas Stix

Call it the curse of Jodi Applegate! Back in 2008, Fox5NY dumped Jodi Applegate, the beautiful, brilliant, magnetic host of Good Day NY, and replaced her with the team of the station’s 20-year-reporting and news reading veteran Rosanna Scotto, and Greg Kelly, who was a non-entity to me. It soon became clear to me that he is the son of NYPD Commish Ray Kelly—Greg looks like a younger, larger version of Ray. (Applegate had a co-host, but he was forgettable, and so I ... forgot him.)

I liked Greg Kelly from the start, always liked Rosanna Scotto, and the two have good chemistry, in the Regis-Kathie Lee/Kelly mold. He never talked about women in his life, which had me wondering whether he liked girls.

With that said, I have never had any dealings, professional or personal with any of the aforementioned personalities.

This is a classic “he said, she said,” with the exception of the three months the accuser waited to press charges.

Ray Kelly is a New York City legend: The milkman’s son who made good. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the War in Vietnam, joined the New York City Police Department almost 50 years ago (he was permitted to put off joining the Police Academy to serve in the Marines), graduated first in his class, work days as a cop, while going to law school at night, and piled up impressive degrees. He was appointed Commish in 1992 by black socialist Mayor David Dinkins. When the incompetent, racist Dinkins was defeated after one disastrous term in 1993 by Rudy Giuliani, Kelly was hired to run the U.S. Customs Service. Mayor Michael Bloomberg then brought him back, in 2002, making him the first New York City police commissioner ever to do two separate hitches.

In his second hitch, Kelly has been New York City’s top cop for 10 years. He has been rumored to be considering running for mayor, to succeed Bloomberg, who is in his third and last term, and his name has also been bandied about as a possible successor to Robert Mueller as FBI director. The rape accusation could cost Ray Kelly the mayoralty.

Greg Kelly followed in his dad’s footsteps into the Marine Corps, where he was a fighter pilot for nine years, between the War in Kuwait and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He then went into journalism.

The anonymous accuser claims that she and Greg Kelly met on the street on Saturday, October 8, went out to the swanky South Street Seaport for drinks, and she brought him back to the closed law office where she works, where she worked, and where he raped her.

According to her boyfriend, she has been a wreck ever since, and the boyfriend reportedly confronted the elder Kelly at a police function at some point. The alleged victim only went to the authorities a week ago; the investigation is being handled by the Manhattan DA’s Office, due to the NYPD’s conflict of interest.

At the New York Post, readers support Greg Kelly at a rate of at least 20-1, with almost all of them—men and women alike—believing that the accuser got caught cheating by her boyfriend, and concocted the story, in order to look good in his eyes, and/or that this is a shakedown.

The fishiest part of the accuser’s story is the part where she invites Kelly up to her locked office on a Saturday night. For what possible reason would a woman invite a strange man she’d just met and been drinking with to her locked office? I’ve been out of circulation for a long time, but I wasn’t always married.

But as one poster observed, Kelly’s toast. If he manages to beat the rap, he’ll still have to leave town, and maybe find a new profession. Unless…

Another New York City morning host, ABC’s Steve Bartelstein (who co-hosted with Lori Stokes), was accused nine years ago by two separate men of stalking them, but he just kept coming to work, as if everything were copacetic, and his lawyer made the charges “go away.” But Bartelstein had an incalculable advantage over Kelly: He was gay. And so, Bartelstein wasn’t fired until he slept through a scheduled newsbreak in his office one day.

* * *

NYPD Commissioner's son being investigated for allegedly raping woman
By Jamie Schram Police Bureau Chief
Last Updated: 9:02 a.m., January 26, 2012
Posted: 12:54 a.m., January 26, 2012
New York Post

[N.S.: Greg Kelly’s employer, Fox 5 New York, and the New York Post both belong to NewsCorp, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.]

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s newsman son, Greg, is being investigated for allegedly raping a woman, law-enforcement sources told The Post early today.

The woman filed an official complaint Tuesday against the younger Kelly, claiming the co-host of Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” attacked her last October, the sources said.

The allegation is being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office because of the inherent conflict of interest in an NYPD probe, according to the sources.

Greg Kelly’s lawyer, Andrew Lankler, said his client “strenuously denied” the allegation.

“Mr. Kelly is aware that the New York County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an investigation,” Lankler told The Post.

“Mr. Kelly strenuously denies any wrongdoing of any kind, and is cooperating fully with the district attorney’s investigation. We know the district attorney’s investigation will prove Mr. Kelly’s innocence.”

A police spokesman referred all questions to the Manhattan DA. A spokeswoman for DA Cyrus Vance Jr. declined comment.

Rosanna Scotto, Kelly's "Good Day New York" co-host, said "I love Greg, that's all I can say."

Kelly was absent from this morning's program.

The woman, in her late 20s or early 30s, went to the 13th Precinct station house with her sister sometime after 8 p.m. Tuesday to file the complaint, sources said.
She told police she met Greg Kelly, 43, on a street Oct. 8 and they went for drinks at the South Street Seaport, the sources said.

Then, she claimed, they went to the lower Manhattan law firm where she works — it was not clear if she’s a lawyer— and the alleged assault took place there.

Greg Kelly and the woman continued to communicate after the alleged incident, according to the sources.

She told police her boyfriend got furious when she related her story to him, and he approached the police commissioner at a public event.

It wasn’t immediately clear when that was.

The boyfriend told Ray Kelly that Greg had sexually assaulted the woman and that the alleged attack had “ruined my girlfriend’s life,” according to The Post’s sources.

The commissioner, hoping to prevent a scene at a public event, told the man to write him a letter, the sources said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if that letter was ever written.

It’s also not clear why the accuser waited three months to make an official report.

A close friend of the alleged victim told ABC News that the woman has been “an emotional cripple” since the incident.

The friend added that the boyfriend picked the accuser up at her office after the alleged attack and, “she was distraught.”

A spokeswoman for Fox 5 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Greg Kelly began as co-anchor of “Good Day” in July 2008.

Prior to his stint on the morning program, he worked at Fox News Channel, where he was a White House reporter from 2005 to 2007.

He also served as a war correspondent during the Iraq invasion in 2003.

He earlier worked as a reporter for the NY1 cable news network, where he covered politics and the attacks on 9/11.

Before entering journalism, he served as a fighter pilot in the Marines for nine years.

During his service, he flew over Iraq, enforcing the United Nations-imposed “No-Fly Zone.”

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Fordham University.

Additional reporting by Tim Perone and Laura Italiano

Cannibalism in Connecticut: Warning: This Story is Graphic!

2012-01-26T00:43:00.008-05:00

43-year-old Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez's severely decomposed body was found at about 9:30 Friday Jan. 20, 2012 in an abandoned, burnt-out third-floor apartment at 216 Brooks St. in Bridgeport, Conn. Tyree Lincoln Smith, 35, a Florida man has been arrested and charged with the murder of Gonzalez in a Bridgeport apartment and then mutilated the body.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 35, a Florida man has been arrested and charged with murder after police say he hacked Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez to death in a Bridgeport apartment and then mutilated the body. He was being held in Florida pending extradition to Connecticut.

Tyree Lincoln Smith during his salad days

Man charged in gruesome ax murder
By Daniel Tepfer
San Antonio Express News
Updated 10:56 p.m., Wednesday, January 25, 2012

More Information
Editor's note: Some details of this story may be disturbing to readers.

BRIDGEPORT -- The day before police said Tyree Lincoln Smith hacked to death a homeless man in an East Side apartment and then cannibalized the body, he told his cousin he had a "lust for blood."

"He said he had gotten a rare steak at a restaurant in Florida and when he had tasted the blood it had given him a sexual sensation," recalled Nicole Rabb, who helped police get a confession from Smith to the crime.

Police said Smith killed 43-year-old Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez with an ax on Dec. 15.

On Tuesday night the 35-year-old Smith, who grew up in Ansonia, was arrested at a friend's home in Lynn Haven, Fla., and charged with murder in Gonzalez's death. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bond pending extradition to Connecticut.

Rabb, who grew up with Smith, has been acknowledged by police as their main witness against her cousin.

In an interview with the Connecticut Post, she lamented that she didn't act immediately to stop her cousin hours before the death of Gonzalez after he told her he was going to kill someone. But she explained at the time she didn't think what he was threatening was anything but crazy rantings she was used to hearing from him.

"Who the hell would think you could be related to someone like this," she said. "I mean, I've heard of Hannibal Lecter, but I never thought I could have someone in my family who would actually eat someone."

Rabb said she blames police for not acting faster after she said family members informed them Smith had confessed to killing someone in the Brooks Street apartment. "Police told his (Smith's) mother they just couldn't go into the Brooks Street apartment building to look for a body," she related.

Police didn't immediately return calls for comment on Rabb's assertions.

Gonzalez's body was found Friday in a vacant third-floor apartment on Brooks Street. Police said he was found lying across a mattress fully clothed with severe facial and head injuries.

An autopsy determined Gonzalez died from blunt head trauma.

After graduating from Ansonia High School, where he played football, in the early 1990s, Smith moved to California, where he got into modeling, Rabb said. She said his photograph was featured on several billboard advertisements. Prior to that, she said her cousin had been treated for psychiatric problems.

"He said he was hearing voices," Rabb said. "One time, the voices told him to get out of bed in the middle of a snowstorm and walk barefoot across town. He spent several months in a hospital."

While other family members kept their distance from Smith, Rabb said she remained close. "We had grown up like brother and sister," she said.

On Dec. 15, Rabb said Smith showed up at her Seaview Avenue apartment, carrying a large book bag and appearing out of sorts. She said he was drinking from a bottle of sake and showed her a small ax that he pulled out of the bag.

"He was talking about a book he was writing that was all about murder and rape and about Greek gods," she continued. She said she became concerned when Smith began talking about needing blood and being on a mission to get blood. She said he told her he was going to Beardsley Park and later intended to camp out on the porch of their old home on Brooks Street, where Gonzalez's body was later found.

But later that night Smith was back, banging on her apartment door complaining that he had blood all over him. She said she refused to let him in and he eventually went away.

He returned the next evening. Rabb said this time she let him, in only to see that Smith had blood all over his jeans. There was also blood on the small ax he was carrying.

She said he took a bath in her apartment and then stuffed his bloody clothing into a plastic bag. Then, sitting down at the dinner table with Rabb and her two young sons, she said he announced, "I got my blood."

Rabb said Smith related how he had gone to Beardsley Park looking for victims but didn't find anyone there. "He complained that Bridgeport wasn't the same city anymore, where people went to the park at night," she said.

But Smith had gone to the Brooks Street house, where a kindly Gonzalez, concerned that Smith would suffer from the cold if he slept outside, invited him to share the vacant apartment where Gonzalez was squatting.

"A voice told him, `this is your blood,' " Rabb said Smith later told her.

She said he then told her he then ate pieces of Gonzalez's brain and an eyeball as he stood over Rabb's brother's grave at Lakeview Cemetery, washing it down with the sake.

"He said the rush he got from doing that was something he had never experienced before," she said.

Rabb said she kicked her cousin out of her apartment and called his mother and told her what Smith had said. Meanwhile, the book bag with the bloody ax remained in her apartment. When she looked in the bag, she saw it also contained a roll of duct tape, a rope and a list of names, including those of Smith's mother, father and sister.

Rabb said she eventually gave the bag back to Smith in an effort to keep him away.

After news broke that Gonzalez's body had been found, Rabb said she went to police and told them what Smith had related to her. She said police then had her call Smith, who by that time was back in Florida, and try to get him to confess to Gonzalez's death.

In the phone call, which Rabb said was recorded by police, she said Smith confessed to the murder but then became concerned that she was talking to police and tried to retract his confession.

Smith has prior misdemeanor convictions in Connecticut, but has never served prison time here. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to interfering with an officer and second-degree breach of peace in New Haven. In 2005, he was convicted of interfering with an officer.

Bridgeport Police Capt. James Viadero said it appears that Smith has only a minimal criminal record around the country. He said at this point they have no information that he was treated for mental illness.

"At this point it is still very much an open investigation," he added.

On Wednesday, Odalys Vazquez greeted the news that a suspect was under arrest for her stepfather's slaying somberly.

"All I want now is justice," the 25-year-old Vazquez said. "Here it is that my dad was trying to help this guy, telling him to come inside from the cold. If my father was helping him stay warm, what kind of person is it who does this, who repays him by swinging an ax at him and hitting him so hard it blows his brains out?"

[Story provided by reader-researcher RC.]

Baloo: The Price of Democracy

2012-01-26T00:01:00.001-05:00

Visit the cartoon page of the incomparable Baloo here, and his gift page here.

Detroit: Family of Murder Defendant Jacob Wells, Threatens to Murder Family of Murder Victim, Claudia Benson—on Camera!

2012-01-25T18:45:00.005-05:00

Murder victim Claudia Benson

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU, on this case:

“Blackberry: Detroit’s Murder Bar—Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, and Now, Claudia Benson Last Seen Alive There”;

“Detroit: Secret Suspect Arrested in Blackberry Club Murder of Nursing Student Claudia Benson”; and

“Detroit: Mystery Suspect in Blackberry Murder of Claudia Benson, 21, Named: Jacob Welcome Wells, 35.”]

By Nicholas Stix

When I read the following reader comment at the Detroit News a few days ago, I thought, I this is crazy. It can’t be true. But it was.

• Pat Robinson • North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
I was just watch the suspects family attack Claudia mom out side the court house, the mom had no protection leaving the court bldn. and the court didn't send out anyone to help her, this woman's child is dead, and this other family the offenders mom attacks the victims mom, MJ had an escort, all the stars come out with armed guards, its as if the court is so black N white they could see a crime about to begin, a mom whose son says he didn't do it, and a mom whose daughter is dead, how grey do we have to be. to see what we need is protection for the victims family, these outragous non moms who cant see the fire for the trees. give me a brake..Patricia Robinson, SC.
Reply • 2 • Like
• Monday at 7:28pm

My legman, David in TN, notified me separately about the incident, and sent me the following story.

* * *

“Fight breaks out after arraignment; tripod broken and used as weapon”
1/21/2012
By Michael Rosenfield

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Chaos broke out after an arraignment Saturday afternoon at 36th District Court in downtown Detroit.

Words were exchanged between the families of the victim and the defendant as they exited the courthouse.

A woman connected to the defendant grabbed a Channel 7 tripod, slammed it into the cement, and ripped one of the legs off.

As the argument rolled on, the woman brandished the tripod leg and then made a threat.

"Stand back cameraman, because I'm going to kill these [EXPLETIVE]", the woman said.

The wild scene took place minutes after 35-year-old Jacob Wells was arraigned on murder charges. He is accused of shooting and killing 21-year-old nursing student Claudia Benson last weekend outside a Detroit bar and grill.

The families of both the victim and the defendant were in court.

No punches were thrown, and there were attempts to quell the fighting. Eventually both sides went their separate ways.

Court security would not come outside, telling Action News that outside the building is not their responsibility.

911 was called, but the fight had broken up by the time Detroit Police arrived.

"She attacked us," said Alecha Benson, Claudia Benson's mother. "They're a bunch of maniacs and animals to do this, no remorse at all."

The woman who destroyed the tripod was last seen walking down Madison Street twirling the tripod leg.

Action News did fill out a police report.

"I just want justice," Benson said. "I want them to throw the book at him for what he did to my daughter."

[From WEJB/NSU’s Detroit File:

“Detroit: No-Name Clearances of No-Name Murders”;

“Detroit: New Crime Stats Fail Smell Test; How Could Crime Go Down 7% Overall Last Quarter, While Homicides Went Up 31%?”;

“Are White Gangs Making It Impossible to Drive City Buses in Detroit? Inquiring Minds Want to Know”;

“Detroit: Buses are So Dangerous and Unreliable That Disabled Mom of 6 Traded Her House for a Minivan”;

“Detroit: Three Men in Their 20s Allegedly Kidnapped and Gang-Raped Girl, 13, for at Least Three Days”;

“Mysterious, Anonymous Detroit News Story About Arrest of Triple Shooting Suspect, Nasir Banks”;

“Happy New Year, Detroit-Style: Club Manager was Killed, Trying to Break Up a Fight; FREEP Writer Knows Facts, but Refuses to Report Them”;

“Detroit: Serial Killer is Murdering Prostitutes Who Advertised Online in Pairs, and Stuffing Them in Car Trunks”;

“Blackberry: Detroit’s Murder Bar—Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, and Now, Claudia Benson Last Seen Alive There”; and

“Detroit: Murder Up 12%, but ‘Serious’ Crime is Down; Broken Windows Policing is on the Way.”]

Were Obama’s Mass Arrests of East Haven, CT Cops Intended as a Message to Crush All Local Enforcement Against Illegal Aliens?

2012-01-25T16:16:00.006-05:00

Media wait in the courtyard in front of Bridgeport federal court while East Haven Police officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari, and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller are arraigned Tuesday afternoon on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges. Photo: Autumn Driscoll/Connecticut Post

FBI arrests four East Haven cops
Tom Cleary, Staff Writer
Published 11:36 p.m., Tuesday, January 24, 2012

BRIDGEPORT -- The FBI arrested three East Haven police officers and the local police union president Tuesday on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, saying the men had engaged in a campaign of civil rights abuses against Latino residents.

The arrests come as part of a "long-term and ongoing" federal investigation into actions by members of the East Haven department against members of the Latino community, said U.S. Attorney David B. Fein.

Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari, and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller are accused in a 10-count indictment of executing unreasonable searches and seizures, using unreasonable force during five arrests, arresting five people on false pretenses and then using intimidation and creating false reports to conceal their actions.

The four officers, wearing suits and not handcuffed, were arraigned Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport and all entered not guilty pleas.

"The four police officers charged today allegedly formed a cancerous cadre that routinely deprived East Haven residents of their civil rights," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk of the FBI's New York Division.

"The public should not need protection from those sworn to protect and serve. In simple terms, these defendants behaved like bullies with badges."

Fedarcyk's division led the investigation because of the potential for a conflict of interest with Connecticut agents.

The investigation into the 50-officer police department began in 2009. The Latino community has doubled in recent years, and advocates claim racial tensions led to poor treatment of Latinos by police.

The indictment was handed down Jan. 18 by a federal grand jury seated in Bridgeport.

Zullo was the only officer not released from custody. He was taken to the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, pending a bond hearing set for Thursday. Cari was released on $100,000 bond, and Miller on $200,000 bond, both with stringent restrictions. Miller, the president of the union local, is not allowed to return to East Haven while on federal release. After a lengthy hearing, Spaulding was released on $300,000 bond and will be in the custody of his father-in-law in New Haven.

The four men will be in court in Hartford on March 15 for jury selection.

The arraignment and news conference drew media from across the state and from New York, creating a circus atmosphere on Lafayette Boulevard outside the Bridgeport courthouse.

"There is no place for excessive force in a police station or on the streets," Fein said during a news conference Tuesday. "There is no place for false statements in a police report. No person is above the law and nobody -- even a person arrested for a crime -- is beneath its protection. An officer who violates his oath betrays his fellow officers, members of the public and his town, state and country."

The four officers -- who worked together on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift -- have been suspended with pay and have turned in their badges and guns. Mayor Joseph Maturo said the men were arrested around 6 a.m. at their homes and at the police department.

The indictment alleges more than 30 acts by the four men from 2007 to 2010 contributing to the conspiracy.

The acts often included assaults on unarmed suspects already in police custody, sometimes handcuffed, typically at, or near, Latino-owned businesses.

The indictment also alleges the four officers intimidated East Haven police officers who were believed to be cooperating in the federal investigation, and intimidated East Haven police commissioners who were investigating the arrest of Father James Manship, the priest at a predominantly Latino parish in town who spoke out against alleged abuses against members of the community.

Even after the four men were arrested, Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel said, the "blue wall," remained raised. She said a new message was posted on a bulletin board in the union room at the police headquarters telling officers to stay as a team and not speak.

The case remains under investigation and more arrests could be made, Fein said.
Miller's attorney, Donald Cretella, said his client has been honored with awards and risked his life in shootouts.

"John Miller is a hero in East Haven," he said. "He's decorated. He's a wonderful family man. Hopefully, we'll clear his name."

Frank Riccio Jr., Spaulding's attorney, said his client is an exemplary police
officer.

"At this early stage it's our position Mr. Spaulding is not guilty of the charges.
He's been nothing but an exemplary police officer. That's why this is shocking."
The attorneys for the other two officers declined comment.

The indictment refers to the three officers who worked under Miller as "Miller's Boys," but Fein said it doesn't indicate he was a ringleader.
Maturo said he backs the police.

"I stand behind the police department," he said. "We have a great police department."

Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division, said Tuesday he looks forward to working with the police department to establish a system to prevent future abuses from occurring.

Perez helped lead a civil investigation that concluded in December and found a pattern of discrimination within the department.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Thanks to reader-researhcer RC for this article.]

Jesus, Juan! Career Thug Charged with Pouring Gasoline on Man, Setting Him on Fire, Burning 85 Percent of His Body

2012-01-25T10:08:00.003-05:00

Mug shot of Juan Jesus Robles, 37 (Bexar County Sheriff's Office).

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“In Harris County, Texas, Over 100 Killers Convicted of Murder Have Received Only Probation; ‘Tough,’ Proposed Texas Law Will Have No Effect.”]

Note the gang-style tattoo on Robles’ neck. The poor quality suggests he got it inside. Note, too, what an old-looking 37 he is. Stupid-looking, too. This guy has been around the block a few times, as in cell block.

San Antonio Express-News reporter Michelle Mondo writes that the victim, Richard Rodriguez Jr., “began fighting with three men,” who “told police they beat him up and left him on the ground.” I believe the part about them beating him up, but the part about him “fighting with” them also sounds like their story. While there are some pretty crazy guys in the world, particularly Mexicans in San Antonio, usually when three guys beat the h-e-c-k out of one guy, it was a case of their attacking him, not of his “fighting with” them. This abuse of “fighting” is a standard media tack, designed to let off bad guys.

If Rodriguez survives, which looks unlikely, with 85 percent of his body burned to a crisp, and Robles is convicted, Robles’ll deserve 30. If Rodriguez dies, Robles ought to get the death penalty. Given the sorry state of increasingly Mexicanized Texas justice, however, I would not expect Robles to get anywhere near those punishments.

* * *

Man Charged with Setting Another on Fire
By Michelle Mondo
Updated 9:31 p.m., Monday, January 23, 2012
San Antonio Express-News

Man doused with gasoline set on fire

San Antonio police charged a man Monday with attempted capital murder after witnesses said they saw him pour gasoline on Richard Rodriguez Jr. then set him on fire.

Juan Jesus Robles, 37, was already in Bexar County jail on a different charge, officials said. Rodriguez, who turned 23 in the hospital, was burned over more than 85 percent of his body, and remains in critical condition, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

Rodriguez was carrying a gas can when he began fighting with three men he encountered at Guadalupe and South San Marcos streets the night of Jan. 7, an arrest warrant affidavit said. Those men told police they beat him up and left him on the ground, but then tried to stop Robles, who they saw rob Rodriguez, pour gas on him and set him on fire, the affidavit said.

Several people tried to help extinguish the fire with a garden hose, including those who fought with him, the affidavit said. A San Antonio police officer who spotted the flames rushed to the scene and used the fire extinguisher in his patrol car to put out the fire.

County records show Robles was jailed on Jan. 13 to serve a sentence on a theft charge.

mmondo@express-news.net

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]

Detroit: Mystery Suspect in Blackberry Murder of Claudia Benson, 21, Named: Jacob Welcome Wells, 35

2012-01-25T02:44:00.003-05:00

Murder victim Claudia Benson

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Detroit: Serial Killer is Murdering Prostitutes Who Advertised Online in Pairs, and Stuffing Them in Car Trunks”;

“Blackberry: Detroit’s Murder Bar—Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, and Now, Claudia Benson Last Seen Alive There”

“Detroit: Secret Suspect Arrested in Blackberry Club Murder of Nursing Student Claudia Benson”; and

“Detroit: No-Name Clearances of No-Name Murders”]

By Nicholas Stix

Typically, when one hears of a woman being murdered, one expects to hear that she was set upon by a crazy young black man in the middle of the night while alone, in a desolate area. Conversely, note of this case:

Victim Claudia Benson was murdered at 12:30 a.m., which is not terribly late for a Saturday night;

She was murdered in a busy area, right in front of a popular bar;

She was murdered while being escorted by friends; and

The alleged killer was not some high-string, dopey teenager or 20-year-old, but a 35-year-old career felon.

This is Detroit, where 13-year-old girls get kidnapped off the street at 7 p.m., and gang-raped for days.

What’s the point of a “first-degree premeditated murder” charge—not to mention all the other charges—against a guy with multiple prior convictions for violent crimes involving a firearm, if the most he can get is life? And he is unlikely to even serve that much.

As Dostoevsky said, in Detroit, anything is possible.

On a positive note, at least there was an arrest.

Given that no suspect was named in earlier reports, and the Detroit PD’s fondness for mysterious press releases reporting the arrests of nameless suspects for the murders of nameless victims, I suspected that the Detroit PD was just blowing smoke, in order to try and make the public believe it was on the job.

* * *

Detroit man charged with killing student during purse-snatching
2:25 p.m., January 20, 2012
By Tammy Stables Battaglia
Detroit Free Press

A 35-year-old Detroit man suspected of shooting a college student in the head during a purse-snatching has been charged with first-degree murder, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

Jacob Welcome Wells is accused of shooting 21-year-old Claudia Benson of Detroit outside the Blackberry Lounge on Jan. 14, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office.

“An innocent victim was out to enjoy the city with friends on a Saturday night,” Worthy said in a release about the charges. “Instead, she was robbed and violently killed. Now a family is without a daughter, her friends are mourning the loss of a good friend, and we have lost a young college student who was poised to be a productive member of our community."

Investigators say Benson and her friends were in the 20500 block of Grand River about 12:30 a.m. when the gunman walked up to her, grabbed her purse and fatally shot her. Police say they believe Benson was the third purse-snatching victim in the area that night.

Wells has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, armed robbery, two counts of assault with intent to rob while armed, felon in possession of a firearm and second-offense felony firearm. He is expected to be arraigned at noon Saturday, according to the prosecutor’s office.

He faces life in prison without parole if convicted on the most serious charges.

[From WEJB/NSU’s Detroit File:

“Detroit: No-Name Clearances of No-Name Murders”;

“Detroit: New Crime Stats Fail Smell Test; How Could Crime Go Down 7% Overall Last Quarter, While Homicides Went Up 31%?”;

“Are White Gangs Making It Impossible to Drive City Buses in Detroit? Inquiring Minds Want to Know”;

“Detroit: Buses are So Dangerous and Unreliable That Disabled Mom of 6 Traded Her House for a Minivan”;

“Detroit: Three Men in Their 20s Allegedly Kidnapped and Gang-Raped Girl, 13, for at Least Three Days”;

“Mysterious, Anonymous Detroit News Story About Arrest of Triple Shooting Suspect, Nasir Banks”;

“Happy New Year, Detroit-Style: Club Manager was Killed, Trying to Break Up a Fight; FREEP Writer Knows Facts, but Refuses to Report Them”;

“Detroit: Serial Killer is Murdering Prostitutes Who Advertised Online in Pairs, and Stuffing Them in Car Trunks”;

“Blackberry: Detroit’s Murder Bar—Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, and Now, Claudia Benson Last Seen Alive There”; and

“Detroit: Murder Up 12%, but ‘Serious’ Crime is Down; Broken Windows Policing is on the Way.”]

Baloo: Consistently Crazy Congress Critters

2012-01-25T00:42:00.001-05:00

Visit the cartoon page of the incomparable Baloo here, and his gift page here.

Quinceanera in Antioch, CA: Nothing Says “Sweet 15” Like a Gunfight! 6 Wounded, as Young as 13

2012-01-24T16:47:00.002-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

Antioch Sweet 16 Shootout Leaves 6 Injured
By Henry K. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, January 23, 2012

Six people, including a 13-year-old boy, were wounded when a shootout erupted at a sweet 16 party in Antioch, police said Sunday.

The shooting occurred in the garage of a home on the 500 block of Wilmont Court at about 10:35 p.m. Saturday, said Antioch police Lt. Scott Willerford. The cul-de-sac is in the Dallas Ranch neighborhood, an area not known for such violence, authorities said.

The residents of the home were having a party for their 16-year-old daughter, and about 30 to 40 people were in the garage when an argument broke out between two groups, Willerford said.

"Weapons were brandished and numerous shots were fired from multiple guns," Willerford said. The shooters were three to four boys or young men, he said.

Six people were wounded: a 13-year-old Antioch boy, two 16-year-old Antioch boys, an 18-year-old Brentwood man, an 18-year-old Antioch man and a 21-year-old Antioch woman. The victims were taken to various local hospitals.

Their injuries ranged from superficial graze wounds to a possible broken leg and an abdomen injury, Willerford said. Some victims have been released, he said.

When police first got word of the shooting, officers were told that many partygoers were seen running away, authorities said. Antioch police requested the assistance of Pittsburg and Brentwood police and Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies to help manage the scene and identify the people involved, Willerford said.

Investigators were following up on leads in the case, he said.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this find.]

Four Men Sought in Suitland Home Invasion; No ID of Perps, Which Means That They are Registered Democrats

2012-01-24T11:24:00.003-05:00

County police officers stand guard outside the Suitland apartment building where the invasion occurred. (Photo: ABC7)

Four men sought in Suitland home invasion
By John Gonzalez
January 24, 2012, 5:19 a.m.
WJLA

Investigators are looking for four men involved in a Monday night home invasion in Suitland.

Prince George’s County Police say two men wearing dark-colored North Face jackets broke into an apartment, located in the 3500 block of Silver Park Drive, at about 8:40 p.m. while two others waited in a getaway car. The suspects stole cash before they fled.

There were three people inside the home, but police say no one was hurt. Police say that the robbery was drug related and the victims may have been targeted.

The suspects in the robbery are still being sought.

Short URL: http://wj.la/xwvrdt

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for the article and the headline.]

Michael Baxton was Convicted of Felonies, and Then Served as Alorton, and then E. St. Louis Police Chief—but Got Convicted Again;

2012-01-24T10:54:00.008-05:00

Michael Baxton

Now He’s Back in Jail
By Nicholas Stix

[Warning! Both video boxes below will go on, as soon as the page opens. You need to go to them and stop them.]

Michael Baxton Sr. was convicted of felonies in 1982, and so when he wanted to become a police officer, he simply lied about them. Besides, most black folks have nothing against felon-cops—nobody’s perfect, right? And everyone’s got to eat, right? And everyone’s got a right to work for a living, right?

The ban on hiring convicted felons as lawmen is not a judgment call. It’s not something to be settled on a case-by-case basis. It’s an absolute criterion. People who oppose the ban simply do not believe in law enforcement; they believe in the rule of crime.

And the ban on hiring convicted felons is only a part of good administration. One must also refuse to hire applicants who have declared bankruptcy, or who have associates or immediate family members who are known criminals. (It is not necessary for the individuals to be convicted, either.)

A well-run department must not only require that an applicant pass a background check, but pass rigorous intellectual, psychological, and physical tests. And once an applicant is accepted to the academy, and once he graduates and becomes an officer, he must always be properly supervised, to ensure that he does not deviate from the “thin blue line.”

Blacks and their allies have always opposed the aforementioned standards. And as economist John Lott showed, hiring more black cops increases crime.

Most blacks do not believe in enforcing the law. The movement to bring in more black cops during the 1960s was not a cry for fairness, as it was often depicted. It was not a cry for more efficient crime-fighting, as it was often depicted. It was a cry for the rule of crime. Most blacks see control of police departments as a license to steal, and a weapon in their race war on whites.

When “King” Coleman Young was elected mayor of Detroit in 1971, he said that making the Detroit Police Department blacker would make it better.

Instead, he hired black felons right out of prison, and crime exploded, making Detroit the murder capital of the country in 1974. Dedicated, decorated, veteran white cops were run out of town, when they weren’t railroaded into prison, as Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers were.

Note that the Village of Alorton and City of East St. Louis, in Illinois, both of which hired Michael Baxton to be their police chief, are both 97 percent black. (East St. Louis may be the most violent city in the country.) Ninety-two percent black Highland Park, Michigan, hired LaNesha Jones, a violent, convicted criminal who had been fired by the Detroit PD, to be its deputy police chief.
The correlation between black-run police departments and corruption is off the charts, and correlation does mean causation in this case.

Time and again, we see that a black-run department is a corrupt, inefficient department. Are all black-run departments equally bad? Of course, not. Are all white departments towing the thin blue line. Of course, not. But the connection between blackness and corruption problem is a strong correlation, and in this case, correlation is causation.

* * *

Former East St. Louis police chief arrested

Former East St. Louis police chief Michael Baxton pleads guilty
3:22 AM, Jan 20, 2012 | 8 comments
Written by Kevin Held

East St. Louis, IL (KSDK) - NewsChannel 5 has learned that the former head of the East St. Louis Police Department pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday morning.

Michael Baxton Sr. stepped down as police chief Wednesday afternoon, citing personal reasons at the time. He pleaded guilty to felony charges of stealing evidence and making false statements to federal investigators.

Baxton, 49, posted bond later in the day and is awaiting sentencing, set for April 27.

In May 2011, Baxton was hired by the Village of Alorton to serve as the police chief. The previous Alorton police chief, Robert Cummings, pleaded guilty to unrelated federal tax crimes. Baxton served as Alorton police chief until October 14, 2011, when state authorities decertified Baxton as a police officer after discovering he had at one time received two felony convictions from 1982.

On November 17, 2011, a St. Clair County judge reinstated Baxton's law enforcement credentials. Shortly after being reinstated, Baxton was hired to be the next police chief of East St. Louis, a position her served in from November 30, 2011 to January 18, 2012.

Baxton resigned as part of his plea agreement to the charges against him.

Meanwhile, a federal investigation was underway into allegations of corruption within the Village of Alorton by various public officials.

In the months following Baxton's appointment as police chief, several officers in the Alorton Police Department complained to federal investigators that Baxton showed favorable treatment to arrestees who were family members or associates of certain Alorton residents or of Baxton himself. Officers further accused Baxton of failing to send evidence to the Illinois State Police crime lab for testing, or of stealing evidence fron the secured evidence room within the chief's office.

Federal agents arranged an undercover sting operation against Baxton. They abandoned a federally-owned covert vehicle and reported it stolen, registered to a fictitious Illinois business.

Baxton and another officer, working with the FBI in an undercover capacity, responded to the call of an abandoned vehicle. They found five Xbox 360 video game consoles inside the car. Baxton took four of the consoles and told the other officer to take the fifth one for himself.

Agents with the IRS and FBI interviewed Baxton on January 5. He denied ever taking anything while working as a police officer. At one point, Baxton blamed another officer for the theft, saying that officer took all the devices. When confronted with evidence that authorities knew he took the devices, Baxton apologized and assisted in recovering the four consoles he stole.

Baxton faces up to 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release on the theft of government property charge. The crime of making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer is punishable by up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Arkansas: Lifer Latavious Johnson, Who Had Already Murdered His Father, and Has Now Murdered a Female Prison Guard, May Face Charges

2012-01-24T02:59:00.005-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

“Latavious.”

I seem to recall a song called, “A Boy Named Latavious” from my childhood. Maybe Johnson murdered his father for naming him that. Why not just name a kid, “Killer”? Then there’s the Marianne Bertrand-style explanation: He suffered such terrible racial discrimination over his name from unenlightened whites that he was driven to kill, and kill again. [“Are You an Evil Racist If You Balk at Hiring Someone Named ‘S—tavious’?”]

What was a female doing working as a guard in a men’s prison?

There are so many reasons why women don’t belong in such a facility. [See my report, “Aiding and Abetting: Feminism and the Brian Nichols Case.”]

The only possible reasons I can see for having women working in a men’s prison would be: 1. To make it easier to escape; 2. As rape-bait; and 3. As punching bags.

Why does this situation exist? Thanks to feminism and communists such as the SPLC. Like other forms of totalitarianism, Marxism, including its feminist variant, has no learning curve.

Brian Nichols was able to pull off his racist murder spree in Atlanta on March 11, 2005, because a 5’1” grandmother was assigned to guard him. The 6’1,” 210 lb. body builder and former linebacker beat her so badly that she suffered brain damage. [See my investigative report, “Brian Nichols: PC Kills…Again.”]

Arkansas gets a bad rap. Brain-dead Northern socialists and communists have for generations assumed that the South is backward. Would that it were so. Unfortunately, much of the South is in the grip of racial socialism.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ignored the advice of prosecutors, and commuted the sentence of racist psychopath Maurice Clemmons, who was then paroled and went on to murder four white cops in Lakeview, Washington, outside of Seattle in 2009. Huckabee had previously arranged behind the scenes for the parole of convicted rapist Wayne DuMond, who went on to rape and murder two women in separate attacks.

In the ongoing Pearcy Massacre case, criminal justice officials declined to seek the death penalty against mass/serial killer Samuel Lee Conway, who has been convicted of murdering five people so far, and is charged in one more murder, and counting. [See my reports, “Never Heard of the Pearcy Massacre? One Guess Why Not!,” and “‘Don't Raise Your Voice at Me!’ [Click!] ‘Read a Law Book!’ [Click!]—A Pearcy Massacre Update.”]

And Arkansans couldn’t get enough of Bill Clinton, whom they elected attorney general and governor, and who would have been the longest-serving governor in state history, had he not chosen to change jobs.

If Arkansas were the sort of backward state that it is in media and academic myth, why, Latavious would have been lynched by now. Instead, he may not even be punished for murdering Sgt. Barbara Ester, 47. That’s right, he might be getting a freebie.

Arkansas Department of Correction spokeswoman Shea Wilson “said authorities would turn over their information to prosecutors, who will determine whether to file charges against the inmate.”

Not whether to seek the death penalty, which is the only way the state could possibly punish Johnson at this point, but “whether to file charges” at all. Nosiree, Arkansas is a modern, liberal state…damnit!

* * *

Prison Guard Killed While Checking on Inmate
Updated on Friday, 20 January 2012, 9:38 p.m. EST
Friday, 20 January 2012, 9:38 p.m. EST
AP/Fox Philly

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A convicted murderer stabbed a female guard to death at an east Arkansas prison Friday while she was investigating whether he had an unauthorized pair of shoes, a prison spokeswoman said.

Sgt. Barbara Ester, 47, was stabbed in the side, abdomen and chest at about 12:30 p.m., said Shea Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Correction. Ester died about 3 p.m. at a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., about 40 miles away.

Ester, a 12-year veteran of the correction department, was a property officer who investigated whether inmates had contraband items. Wilson said the guard had received a report that Johnson had a pair of contraband shoes.

"This is obviously very difficult for the department when something tragic like this happens," Wilson said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Sgt. Ester's family.

These officers — it's a tight-knit workplace. They look out for each other and are there together for a lot of hours of the day, so this is very difficult for everyone."

Wilson said the prison was locked down after the attack and that the inmate, Latavious Johnson, was being moved to the state's maximum-security unit at Varner. She said all the other inmates have been accounted for.

Johnson, 30, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder out of Jefferson County. He was sentenced in 2000 for killing his father. Prosecutors said Johnson was 18 at the time of the crime.

Wilson said Johnson had had several disciplinary infractions, including one this week for not obeying orders, but hadn't previously attacked a guard.

"We will move him to the supermax (prison) so he will be out of that environment ... He needed to be out of that environment," Wilson said.

Arkansas State Police and the prison's internal affairs staff were investigating the stabbing. Wilson said authorities would turn over their information to prosecutors, who will determine whether to file charges against the inmate.

Seattle: Blacks Account for 7.7% of Residents, Yet They Seem to Have Taken the Entire City Prisoner

2012-01-24T00:08:00.006-05:00

Danny Vega died after a street robbery half a
mile from the attack on Thai.

By Nicholas Stix

[See: “De-Policing in America’s Cities: Erasing the ‘Thin Blue Line.’” Seattle is where the de-policing story began.]

Man shaken by robbery much like Vega killing
Nhan Thai was robbed while walking home from the Othello Light Rail station on Sept. 15, two months before Danny Vega, a 58-year-old hair stylist, was viciously beaten at a location about a half-mile away.
By Sara Jean Green
Originally published Friday, December 9, 2011 at 8:58 PM
• Comments (45)
Seattle Times

Nhan Thai Mark Harrison/The Seattle Times

Nhan Thai was attacked in September by two young robbers in a case frighteningly similar to the fatal Nov. 15 assault on Danny Vega.

Top comments
I am so sorry for what happened to this young man. We need to take back our streets... (December 9, 2011, by wheresthejustice)Read more
The crimes of thieves are rewarded by those who knowingly buy the goods they steal. ... (December 9, 2011, by NURBS)Read more
Certainly time to take back the streets. If the overly delicate SPD can't do it then it... (December 9, 2011, by seahawkrostermanreturns)

Nhan Thai was a few steps from his front door when he was punched in the face and grabbed from behind. He felt a blow to his neck, his jacket was torn from his body and he was knocked to the pavement with a kick to his back.

Thai rolled over in time to see two black teenagers running off with his jacket and gym bag. He didn't see their faces and could tell police only that they were dark-skinned and young, probably 15 or 16. One wore an orange jacket or sweatshirt.

Thai's wallet, house keys, cellphone, iPod and camera were stolen in an attack that lasted only a couple of minutes but has had a lasting impact on his sense of security, so much so that he's altered his daily routine.

A disease investigator for Public Health — Seattle & King County, Thai, 29, has spent a lot of time working on the streets and inside the King County Jail. Even in those high-risk situations, "I was able to sense when it was not safe," he said.
The robbery was a different story. "The loss of security was huge ... I'm still trying to make sense of it. It took a toll on me," he said.

Thai was robbed while walking home from the Othello Light Rail station on Sept. 15, two months before Danny Vega, a 58-year-old hair stylist, was viciously beaten about a half-mile from where Thai was attacked.

Vega, who was robbed of his jacket, cellphone and keys on Nov. 15, died 12 days later at Harborview Medical Center. Seattle police have since released surveillance photos of three young, black men who are considered persons of interest in Vega's homicide investigation.

Vega's family has suggested Vega may have been targeted because he was openly gay. But Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said police don't know the motive for the beating and robbery, though they do know items were taken from Vega.

Vega, a prominent member of the city's Filipino community, was attacked from behind and beaten unconscious during an evening walk near South Othello Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. When he woke up, he managed to walk to his home nearby, where his housemates called 911. Vega was disoriented and in so much pain that he could provide only vague descriptions of his assailants.

While there's no known connection between the attacks on Thai and Vega, there are similarities in geographic proximity, the items taken and the manner in which the robberies were committed.

"Robbery isn't theft — it's a violent crime," Whitcomb said. "This is intimidation, it's fear, it's violence and it's a serious deal."

According to Seattle police reports, there have been roughly 30 street robberies or attempted street robberies in South Seattle since Sept. 1, a number that includes the attacks on Thai and Vega. Though it's unknown if there's been an increase in South Seattle, Whitcomb said, robberies have dipped 3 percent citywide this year compared to 2010. Still, Seattle officers respond to an average of 110 robberies a month, he said.

In the South Seattle street robberies, some assailants have been armed with handguns or knives, while some used fists and feet.

While most victims weren't badly injured, a few required medical attention, including a man whose head was repeatedly smashed into the side of a building during a robbery Nov. 2 on Rainier Avenue South.

Wallets, cellphones, purses and bags were typically taken, though several victims' gold chains were snatched from their necks, and a couple of medical-marijuana patients were robbed immediately after purchasing pot, according to the reports.

Many of the victims reported being robbed by two or three black teenagers or young men. One police report from early September noted that "there are numerous gang members that loiter in the area of Rainier Avenue S and MLK Jr Way S on a daily basis."

Robbery detectives have launched undercover investigations into at least two jewelry stores along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South where they have recovered stolen gold jewelry and personal electronics, according to search warrants filed in King County Superior Court.

At one of the jewelry stores, police found Thai's cellphone and iPod, and returned the items to him, Thai said. The store owner has not been charged with a crime, court records show.

Around 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday in September, Thai — who works downtown and frequents a gym there — returned to his neighborhood in Seattle's Rainier Valley. Another man got off at the same station and walked about 10 paces ahead of Thai. The man eventually hung a right, and Thai turned left. The teens jumped him from behind moments later.

Thai, who lives with his mother, sister and aunt, said no one in the family got much sleep that night. They wedged chairs under door knobs and put sticks in their windows, worried the robbers would come back and get inside the house with Thai's stolen keys.

The next day, Thai stayed home from work while his locks were changed.

Looking back, Thai said the other man's presence on his walk home gave him a false sense of security.

"My guard was way down. I was completely not aware at all," he said.

Like Vega, Thai is openly gay. But he believes his size — he's 5 foot 2 and 125 pounds — made him a target, not his sexual orientation. He also thinks his assailants watched him, perhaps for days, because they seemed to know his routine and his route home.

Now, Thai comes home at a different time every day and sometimes takes a bus instead of light rail. He's gone door-to-door to warn his neighbors, and in the process has learned of other victims of street robberies.

He's still angry about Vega's death and doesn't want it to be seen as an isolated incident. Thai attended a recent community meeting with South Precinct police commanders. Vega's relatives were there, too.

"I saw his family and my heart just broke to pieces," Thai said. "I could've been Danny, and it could've been my family sitting there."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

[WEJB/NSU’s Seattle file:

“De-Policing in America’s Cities: Erasing the ‘Thin Blue Line’” ;

“Why is James Paroline Dead?” ;

“Three Race Murders in Seattle” ;

“Race Hustler Alert at Wikipedia! Someone Has been Making Mischief Regarding Maurice Clemmons’ Lakewood Massacre”;

“Seattle: Diversity Trainers Wage War on Policing”;

“Ex-Cons May Gain Affirmative Action Status in Madhouse Seattle”;

“Seattle's Meanest Streets (Updated!) ”;

“Seattle Cop Rails Against Affirmative Action Policing”;

“Seattle: Baby-Faced ‘Tuba Man’ Killer, Billy Chambers, Strikes Again”;

“Stone Killer Billy Chambers, Who Murdered Seattle’s Beloved ‘Tuba Man,’ Edward McMichael, is Undercharged Yet Again in His Newest Alleged Crime”;

“War on Competent, White, Male, King County, WA Prosecutor James Konat Continues Apace: NAACP Demands His Dismissal, and He is Removed from Two Murder Cases”;

“Is It Possible for Blacks to Have a Good Time Without Bloodshed? Seattle Reader Asks if ‘Bite of Seattle’ Festival Could Become Blood of Seattle”;

“A Riot in San Francisco, with More to Come! Cop Shoots Innocent Black Honor Student (from Seattle), Kenneth Wade Harding, 19, in the Back; the Brothers are (as Always) on War Footing”;

“Seattle Blacks Believe That They Can Resist Arrest, and Aid and Abet Those Resisting Arrest with Impunity Against White Policemen…”;

“Billy Chambers, Racist Killer of Seattle’s Beloved ‘Tuba Man,’ Edward McMichael, Pleads Guilty, Gets Minimal Sentence, in Attempted Murder of Witness”;

“One of Tuba Man’s Killers Goes to the Big House, but for a Mere 22 Months for Attempted Murder”;

“For Alleged Reporter Levi Pulkinnen at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, There are No Black Murderers of Whites, Only ‘Accused’ Ones”; and

“AOL/Huffington Post and AP Manage the Black Air Jordan Riots Story”;

“Seattle: Since Blacks Support Black Criminals, City Needs Surveillance Cameras Everywhere”;

“Seattle: Nameless, Faceless, Raceless Suspect Arrested for Murder of Faceless, Raceless Victim in Belltown”;

“Belltown Murder: Still Raceless and Faceless in Seattle”;

“Cause and Effect? Seattle Reader Writes on Military Academy Diversity and Rape, and the Seattle Air Jordan Riots”;

“Seattle’s Good Nazis Watch Racist Black Mob Attack Couple for 4 Minutes, Without So Much as Calling 911; Racist Blacks Perform for Bus Cameras”;

“Seattle: The Raymel J. Curry Story”; and

“WA Wants to Solve Crime by ‘Disappearing’ Videos; ‘Security’ Wants to Watch; Violent, Career Felon, Aiesha Stewart-Baker, 15, Wants Ghetto Lottery.”

Six Shot Saturday Night on Chicago’s South Side; One Dead, as Crime Continues to Drop!

2012-01-23T18:14:00.009-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

In the following story, reporter Peter Nickeas tried to dilute the concentration severity of the crimes by saying that they were committed “Saturday night and Sunday morning,” but 2:30 a.m. still counts as Saturday night in my book. Five, six a.m. you can count as “morning.” At least the headline writer descried the five survivors as “wounded” rather “injured,” which makes it sound as if someone suffered an accident.

* * *

South Side shootings leave 1 dead, 5 wounded
January 22, 2012
By Peter Nickeas
Chicago Tribune

Six people were shot on the South Side on Saturday night and Sunday morning, according to police.

One man, who appeared to be in his 20s, was killed on the 600 block of East 90th Place in the Burnside neighborhood, police said. He was found in the street about 2:30 a.m.

Police notified the Cook County medical examiner's office of the death but authorities weren't able to provide additional details.

About the same time in McKinley Park neighborhood, a 28-year-old man was shot muliple [sic] times in a suspected drive-by shooting, police said.

That shooting happened on the 1800 block of West Pershing Road. A witness heard shots, went outside to investigate and found the man lying on the ground with multiple wounds.

The witness called for help and attempted to stop the victim's bleeding until paramedics arrived. The victim was taken in serious-to-critical condition toJohn [sic] H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where his condition has stabilized, police said.

A car was seen fleeing, but there was no description immediately available, police said.

Two people were shot at a party on the 6900 block of South Calumet Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood about 12:45 a.m. Sunday, police said.

A 20-year-old man was shot in the foot and taken to St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center and a 23-year-old man was shot in the wrist and taken to Stroger Hospital, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said. Both were in good condition, he said.

Shortly before midnight, a 20-year-old man was shot in the ankle in the South Chicago neighborhood, police said. That shooting happened on the 7500 block of South Exchange Avenue. The man was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition had stabilized, police said.

About 6:30 p.m. Saturday, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the ankle on the 7200 block of South Wolcott Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood, according to police. He was shot by someone from inside a passing vehicle. Police couldn't describe the vehicle.

He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition, police said.

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.

From WEJB/NSU’s Chicago Files:

“Getting’ Paid”;

“Barack Obama, Race Man”;

“Barack Obama, Man of Faith”;

“Ruthless People: Rathergate Producer Mary Mapes, CBS News, and the Chicago All-Stars”;

“John Kass: It’s a Wonderful, Liberal Life”;

“Chicago Preacher-Politician: ‘America’ Must Pay Me to Stop Using the ‘N’ Word”;

“Can Conservatives be Eloquent?”;

“Black Columnist Tells Whites, ‘Leave Obama and Wright Alone!’ An Exercise in Reading Black”;

“Obama, Saint or Nihilist? The Politician, the Preacher, and the Grandmother”;

“Obama’s Terrorist Connection”;

“The Barack Obama Thrown-Under-the-Bus Club”;

“Chicago Priest ‘Killer’ Pfleger Stalks the Pews Once More”;

“John Kass, Rahm Emanuel, and the ‘Chicago Way’”;

“A Proud Illinois Tradition: Another Governor Under Arrest”;

“Instant Revisionism: Will Blagojevich Soon be Cropped Out of All ‘Obama’ Pics?”;

“Should Obama be Sworn in, or Arrested?”;

“The Reporter as Counter-Intelligence Officer”;

“Illinois Sentencing Guideline for Robbery + Assault + Attempted Murder by a Black on a White: One Year;

“Chicago: 21-Year-Old Shoots 84-Year-Old for ‘Disrespecting’ Him (with a Surprise Ending!)”;

“Vote for Alexi Giannoulias, The Outfit’s Banker, for U.S. Senate”;

“Remorseless Killer of Two Illinois Cops, Shooter of Four Other Cops and One Civilian, Granted Parole by Feds”;

“Chicago is Enriched by ‘Jaliscan’ (or is It ‘Arizonan’?) and ‘African’ Diversity”;

“Raceless Honeybee Killer, Driving a Colorless Chevy Pickup and Wearing a Green Windbreaker, is Headed Towards Gary”;

“Shooting at Whitey: Running the Gauntlet in Chicago Public Transportation”;

“Jack Cashill’s Deconstructing Obama: Barack Obama’s Political Success and ‘Genius’ Cult are Both Based on His Literary Fraud”;

"‘Obama's’ Response to Nationwide Black Mayhem? Arrest the Police!”;

“Amish Gone Wild: Chicago Police Brace for ‘Flash Mob’ Attacks”;

“Walter Williams: America's new racists”;

“Chicagoland ‘Mystery’ of How 3 ‘Good Kids’ Died in Car Crash”;

“Chicago: Fifty-Strong, Black Robbery Mob Hits Walgreens on the Magnificent Mile”;

“Obama’s Chief of Staff Bill Daley Calls Administration Regulations ‘Indefensible’; Outside of Washington Post, Socialist MSM Suppress Story”;

“Illinois Kills Three Birds with One Stone: Abolishing Writing Skills Test Will Save Money, Make Test Fraud Easier, and Help Abolish the “Black-White Test Score Gap”!;

“The Great Chicago Memorial Day Gang Attack Cover-Up”;

“Convicted Murderer to Chicago Tribune’s Dawn Turner Trice: ‘I’m Not a Murderer’”;

“One Act of Memorial Day Weekend Violence That Neither the Chicago Police Department Nor the New York Times Tried to Cover Up”;

“Cognitive Dissonance in Chicago: Last Weekend, 20 People were Shot and 5 Killed of All Ages and in All Situations, Yet Crime is Dropping Like a Rock!”;

“Chicago Tribune Editor to Readers: It’s None of Your Damned Business, Who’s Racially Targeting Whites and Asians for All of These Ceaseless, Brutally Violent Crimes!”;

“Chicago Tribune’s Reporting is Just Reinforcing Negative Stereotypes” (Ramzpaul);

“Speaking Truth to Black Power in Chicago”;

“Edward Vincent Hanrahan (1921-2009): He Helped Kill Fred Hampton”;

“Air Conditioner Attacks Chicago Sister, Causing a Brother’s Murder”;

“Lynch Mob of Seven Blacks Rob, and Try to Stomp to Death Raceless 18-Year-Old in Chicago’s Chinatown”;

“Feminists Manufacture Yet Another Rape Hoax, and Seek to Destroy an Aspiring White Male Comic, and Drive Him to Suicide”;

“DADT/Due Diligence, Diversity-Style: For Years, Illinois State Program Did No Background Checks, and Paid Black Convicted Rapists to be Baby-Sitters”;

“Chicago Tribune Political Chameleon Steve Chapman: Obama Should Not Run for Re-Election”;

“The Black Wall of Silence: Harvey, IL, Police Department Conspired for at Least 14 Years to Protect Black Rapists; County Prosecutor’s Office Had to Raid Local PD, in Order to Rescue Stashed Rape Kits”;

“Madame Michelle Promotes Multi-Billion-Dollar Mommy Track/Affirmative Action Scam in Science, ‘STEM’ Diploma Mills for Unqualified Hispanic Females, at Expense of Taxpayers, Science”;

“Video: In Racist Attack in Chicago, Two Huge, Fat, Black Sisters, 17 and 18, Jump Skinny Spanish Girl, 14, in Bio Class, Beat Her for 6-7 Minutes, Leaving Her with a Concussion and Internal Injuries; Frightened, Helpless,White Teacher Does Nothing”;

“Communist Party U.S.A. in Solidarity with Occupy Chicago”;

“12 Shot in 11.5 Hours, as Violent Crime Continues to Plummet in Chicago”;

“In Chicago: Happy Birthday … You’re Dead!”;

“7 Dead, 3 Injured Out of Ecuadorean Extended Family in Minivan; Van Hit Deer, was Hit by Semi; No One Wore Seatbelts”;

“The Kelli O'Laughlin Slaying: The Crazy Card, Again”;

“Media Alchemy: Sun-Times, Fox News Staffers Transform a Robbery into “a Fight over a Cell Phone”;

“In IL, Racist Black Moron Allegedly Stalks Brilliant, Humble, ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ White Master Mechanic for His New Car for 3 Months, Murders Him, and Promptly Dumps Car”;

“Federal Judges Thwart Justice, on Behalf of Cop-Killers… Again”;

“Black Northern Illinois U. Senior Goes to Off-Campus Party, Gets Shot and Killed”;

“Chicago Tribune Breaks with Policy, and Racially IDs Perps in Home Invasion!”;

“The Gouger II: Exulam I. Holman Allegedly Gouged Out Uncle’s Eyes Over TV Remote”;

“Chicago Cops Release Photos of Negro Execution-Killers Celebrating Christmas”;

“Here’s a Mass Murder That Not Only the Nat'l MSM, but Even the Local Chicago Tribune Doesn’t Want Known: Cedric Anderson Murdered 4 Yesterday”;

“Chicago: Spree-Killer Dante Simmons Murders Troy Cameron, 22, Anton Sanders, 15, Shoots Up Chicago Walgreen’s, City Bus, Then Does Taxpayers a Favor”; and

“Chicago: Rogers Park Gang Hit at Traffic Light Claims Lives of Dion Miller and Jonathan Bell; Killings Follow Pair the Previous Night.”]

Houston Chronicle: “See Video of Crimes [sic] Stoppers Robbery Suspects,” Because We Refuse to Describe Them to You

2012-01-23T17:36:00.004-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

I’m sure that Crime Stoppers gave the Chronicle proper descriptions of the robbers, but the newspaper then censored the most important single item: Race. The paper is just doing its self-appointed job of looking out for the welfare of black armed robbers.

***

See video of Crimes [sic] Stoppers robbery suspects
By Robert “See No Evil” Stanton
January 23, 2012 at 10:09 a.m.

Crime Stoppers of Houston is asking the public’s help to track down three suspects who brandished weapons at store clerks during robbery attempts this month.

The most recent case involved an armed man who tried to hold up a Family Dollar store on Wednesday in north-central Harris County:

A clerk at Family Dollar store near the 5200 block of Aldine Mail Route told investigators that a man entered the store about noon on Jan. 18, inquired about hair clippers and left, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect returned about a hour later and waited for other customers to leave before approaching the checkout counter. The man placed a small brown bag and a knife on the counter and demanded cash from the register, investigators said.

The 38-year-old store clerk wasn’t about to give in without a fight, however.

“The victim grabbed a small electronic device from the counter and told the suspect she would hurt him if he tried hurting her,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “The suspect picked up his bag and knife and fled the store on foot with no cash.”

Surveillance cameras captured the incident. The suspect is described as being about 25-35 years old, from 5-foot-7 to 5-10 inches tall, and weighing about 170-190 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark-colored jacket, a dark-colored ball cap and eyeglasses.

Investigators also released surveillance photos of an aggravated robbery at a payday loan store in west Harris County earlier this month:

The heist occurred at the loan store in the 2300 block of Fry Road about 12:50 p.m. Jan. 11, according to sheriff’s investigators. No injuries were reported.

Deputies said a man walked into the business and asked the clerk about loan. Then he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the worker. He demanded money. The clerk gave him some cash. The man then forced the clerk to the store’s office and demanded more cash. Then he left.

The store’s surveillance camera recorded images of the man. He is described as between 18 years old and 25 years old.

He is about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and he weighed between 150 pounds and 175 pounds. He wore a gray, hooded sweatshirt, a white, striped shirt, dark pants and white shoes. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information that leads to the filing of felony charges or arrest of the suspect.

Authorities are searching for a third robbery suspect as well. The man was caught on video wielding a knife as he robbed a beauty supply store earlier this month in north Harris County:

The incident took place at the business near the 5200 block of Aldine Mail Route around 2:45 p.m. Jan. 10.

The suspect entered the store and walked around before approaching the counter and pointing a knife at the cashier, authorities said. The victim gave cash to the suspect, who then fled in a dark-colored, four-door passenger vehicle.

Surveillance video shows the suspect wearing a dark-colored cap and jacket, sunglasses and a gray hooded sweatshirt.

Anyone with information about any of the men’s identity is asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713 222-TIPS or online at www.crime-stoppers.org. Tips can also be sent by text message. Text TIP610 and information to CRIMES (274637).

All tipsters remain anonymous.

Robert Stanton. Dale Lezon and Louis Casiano

[Thanks to reader-researcher “W” for this article.]

Chicago: Rogers Park Gang Hit at Traffic Light Claims Lives of Dion Miller and Jonathan Bell; Killings Follow Pair the Previous Night

2012-01-23T17:03:00.005-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

It remains to be seen if there is any connection between this double-murder and a double-murder from the previous night. Dante Simmons had murdered 15-year-old Anton Sanders in Rogers Park, and security guard Troy Cameron, 22, in the River North Walgreens 30-45 minutes apart. Simmons then committed suicide.

* * *

2 Shot Dead Inside SUV in Rogers Park Neighborhood
By William Lee
2:29 a.m. CST, January 23, 2012
Chicago Tribune

Two men were shot and killed this morning as they sat in an SUV stopped at a traffic light in the Rogers Park neighborhood, Chicago police said.

The 26-year-old driver and his 27-year-old passenger were shot at about 12:46 a.m., causing the vehicle they were riding in to strike a tree in the 7600 block of North Sheridan Road, police said, citing early reports.

They were identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office later in the morning as Dion Miller, of the 6200 block of North Francisco Street, and Jonathan Bell, of the 7400 block of North Ashland Avenue.

Both men had been stopped at a traffic light when the shooting occurred, said Officer Ron Gaines, a police spokesman. But it appeared they attempted to drive off after being shot, but crashed a short distance away.

The driver Miller, who was shot in the leg, was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Early reports originally said he was in fair condition, police said.

Bell was dead at the scene.

Police didn't have a description of the shooter and didn't speculate on a motive for the double slaying as Belmont Area detectives begun their investigation.

No arrests had been made.

wlee@tribune.com

Twitter: @MidNoirCowboy

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this article.

From WEJB/NSU’s Chicago Files:

“Getting’ Paid”;

“Barack Obama, Race Man”;

“Barack Obama, Man of Faith”;

“Ruthless People: Rathergate Producer Mary Mapes, CBS News, and the Chicago All-Stars”;

“John Kass: It’s a Wonderful, Liberal Life”;

“Chicago Preacher-Politician: ‘America’ Must Pay Me to Stop Using the ‘N’ Word”;

“Can Conservatives be Eloquent?”;

“Black Columnist Tells Whites, ‘Leave Obama and Wright Alone!’ An Exercise in Reading Black”;

“Obama, Saint or Nihilist? The Politician, the Preacher, and the Grandmother”;

“Obama’s Terrorist Connection”;

“The Barack Obama Thrown-Under-the-Bus Club”;

“Chicago Priest ‘Killer’ Pfleger Stalks the Pews Once More”;

“John Kass, Rahm Emanuel, and the ‘Chicago Way’”;

“A Proud Illinois Tradition: Another Governor Under Arrest”;

“Instant Revisionism: Will Blagojevich Soon be Cropped Out of All ‘Obama’ Pics?”;

“Should Obama be Sworn in, or Arrested?”;

“The Reporter as Counter-Intelligence Officer”;

“Illinois Sentencing Guideline for Robbery + Assault + Attempted Murder by a Black on a White: One Year;

“Chicago: 21-Year-Old Shoots 84-Year-Old for ‘Disrespecting’ Him (with a Surprise Ending!)”;

“Vote for Alexi Giannoulias, The Outfit’s Banker, for U.S. Senate”;

“Remorseless Killer of Two Illinois Cops, Shooter of Four Other Cops and One Civilian, Granted Parole by Feds”;

“Chicago is Enriched by ‘Jaliscan’ (or is It ‘Arizonan’?) and ‘African’ Diversity”;

“Raceless Honeybee Killer, Driving a Colorless Chevy Pickup and Wearing a Green Windbreaker, is Headed Towards Gary”;

“Shooting at Whitey: Running the Gauntlet in Chicago Public Transportation”;

“Jack Cashill’s Deconstructing Obama: Barack Obama’s Political Success and ‘Genius’ Cult are Both Based on His Literary Fraud”;

"‘Obama's’ Response to Nationwide Black Mayhem? Arrest the Police!”;

“Amish Gone Wild: Chicago Police Brace for ‘Flash Mob’ Attacks”;

“Walter Williams: America's new racists”;

“Chicagoland ‘Mystery’ of How 3 ‘Good Kids’ Died in Car Crash”;

“Chicago: Fifty-Strong, Black Robbery Mob Hits Walgreens on the Magnificent Mile”;

“Obama’s Chief of Staff Bill Daley Calls Administration Regulations ‘Indefensible’; Outside of Washington Post, Socialist MSM Suppress Story”;

“Illinois Kills Three Birds with One Stone: Abolishing Writing Skills Test Will Save Money, Make Test Fraud Easier, and Help Abolish the “Black-White Test Score Gap”!;

“The Great Chicago Memorial Day Gang Attack Cover-Up”;

“Convicted Murderer to Chicago Tribune’s Dawn Turner Trice: ‘I’m Not a Murderer’”;

“One Act of Memorial Day Weekend Violence That Neither the Chicago Police Department Nor the New York Times Tried to Cover Up”;

“Cognitive Dissonance in Chicago: Last Weekend, 20 People were Shot and 5 Killed of All Ages and in All Situations, Yet Crime is Dropping Like a Rock!”;

“Chicago Tribune Editor to Readers: It’s None of Your Damned Business, Who’s Racially Targeting Whites and Asians for All of These Ceaseless, Brutally Violent Crimes!”;

“Chicago Tribune’s Reporting is Just Reinforcing Negative Stereotypes” (Ramzpaul);

“Speaking Truth to Black Power in Chicago”;

“Edward Vincent Hanrahan (1921-2009): He Helped Kill Fred Hampton”;

“Air Conditioner Attacks Chicago Sister, Causing a Brother’s Murder”;

“Lynch Mob of Seven Blacks Rob, and Try to Stomp to Death Raceless 18-Year-Old in Chicago’s Chinatown”;

“Feminists Manufacture Yet Another Rape Hoax, and Seek to Destroy an Aspiring White Male Comic, and Drive Him to Suicide”;

“DADT/Due Diligence, Diversity-Style: For Years, Illinois State Program Did No Background Checks, and Paid Black Convicted Rapists to be Baby-Sitters”;

“Chicago Tribune Political Chameleon Steve Chapman: Obama Should Not Run for Re-Election”;

“The Black Wall of Silence: Harvey, IL, Police Department Conspired for at Least 14 Years to Protect Black Rapists; County Prosecutor’s Office Had to Raid Local PD, in Order to Rescue Stashed Rape Kits”;

“Madame Michelle Promotes Multi-Billion-Dollar Mommy Track/Affirmative Action Scam in Science, ‘STEM’ Diploma Mills for Unqualified Hispanic Females, at Expense of Taxpayers, Science”;

“Video: In Racist Attack in Chicago, Two Huge, Fat, Black Sisters, 17 and 18, Jump Skinny Spanish Girl, 14, in Bio Class, Beat Her for 6-7 Minutes, Leaving Her with a Concussion and Internal Injuries; Frightened, Helpless,White Teacher Does Nothing”;

“Communist Party U.S.A. in Solidarity with Occupy Chicago”;

“12 Shot in 11.5 Hours, as Violent Crime Continues to Plummet in Chicago”;

“In Chicago: Happy Birthday … You’re Dead!”;

“7 Dead, 3 Injured Out of Ecuadorean Extended Family in Minivan; Van Hit Deer, was Hit by Semi; No One Wore Seatbelts”;

“The Kelli O'Laughlin Slaying: The Crazy Card, Again”;

“Media Alchemy: Sun-Times, Fox News Staffers Transform a Robbery into “a Fight over a Cell Phone”;

“In IL, Racist Black Moron Allegedly Stalks Brilliant, Humble, ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ White Master Mechanic for His New Car for 3 Months, Murders Him, and Promptly Dumps Car”;

“Federal Judges Thwart Justice, on Behalf of Cop-Killers… Again”;

“Black Northern Illinois U. Senior Goes to Off-Campus Party, Gets Shot and Killed”;

“Chicago Tribune Breaks with Policy, and Racially IDs Perps in Home Invasion!”;

“The Gouger II: Exulam I. Holman Allegedly Gouged Out Uncle’s Eyes Over TV Remote”;

“Chicago Cops Release Photos of Negro Execution-Killers Celebrating Christmas”;

“Here’s a Mass Murder That Not Only the Nat'l MSM, but Even the Local Chicago Tribune Doesn’t Want Known: Cedric Anderson Murdered 4 Yesterday”; and

“Chicago: Spree-Killer Dante Simmons Murders Troy Cameron, 22, Anton Sanders, 15, Shoots Up Chicago Walgreen’s, City Bus, Then Does Taxpayers a Favor.”

Chicago: Spree-Killer Dante Simmons Murders Troy Cameron, 22, Anton Sanders, 15, Shoots Up Chicago Walgreen’s, City Bus, Then Does Taxpayers a Favor

2012-01-23T01:41:00.015-05:00

A photo from above the crime scene outside a Walgreens on the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue on Jan. 20. (Submitted to the Chicago Tribune)

By Nicholas Stix

23-year-old man killed at River North neighborhood Walgreens
By Peter Nickeas and Rosemary Sobol
January 21, 2012
Chicago Tribune

A 23-year-old man died after someone walked into the Walgreens on Chicago Avenue near Franklin Street and opened fire about 10 p.m. Friday, according to police.

He was shot in the head and body, police said.

Police found the body on the ground outside the Walgreens next to a garbage can.

A westbound Number 66 Chicago Avenue bus was parked outside the Walgreens in the Westbound lanes because a bullet struck its side, according to a CTA employee.

Chicago Police took photos of the bus as they worked at the crime scene.

Chicago Avenue is blocked in both directions from Orleans Street on the west to Franklin Street on the east.

Police said the shooter fled on foot and nobody is in custody.

The Cook County medical examiner's office was notified of the death.

A spokesperson for Walgreens wasn't immediately available to comment on the shooting.

Check back for more information.

pnickeas@tribune.com
rsobol@tribune.com

[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.]

* * *

Suspect in Walgreens Shooting Dead of Self-Inflicted Gunshot in Evanston
Updated on Sunday, 22 January 2012, at 11:00 a.m. CST
Sunday, 22 January 2012, 11:00 a.m. CST
Fox Chicago/Sun-Times Media Wire

Evanston - The man wanted for the fatal shooting of a security guard at a River North Walgreens Friday night has been found dead in Evanston, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Police were also looking into his possible involvement with the fatal shooting of a Skokie teen in Rogers Park Friday night.

The body of Dante Simmons, 33, was found in an alley in the 100 block of Clyde Avenue, according to Evanston police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Simmons was a resident of nearby Rogers Park, Evanston police said. A 9mm handgun was recovered by police at the scene.

Simmons appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police and the medical examiner’s office said. His body was found covered in snow.

Simmons was wanted by the Chicago Police Department for a homicide that occurred at a Walgreens at 315 W. Chicago Ave., in the River North neighborhood just before 10 p.m. Friday. In the Walgreens shooting, Troy Cameron, 22, of the 500 block of N. Avers Ave., was dead on the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Cameron was a security guard at the store, sources said. It was unknown if the man was the intended target.

While Evanston police said the detectives investigating the Walgreens shooting were also investigating another homicide that occurred Friday night on the 1800 block of West Juneway Terrace in Chicago, near the Evanston border just south of Calvary Cemetery, Chicago police said Saturday afternoon that no connection between those shootings has been established.

[N.S. Why bring up the second murder, unless they’re related?]

In that incident, a body was found near the corner of Chicago Avenue and Juneway Terrace, Evanston police said. The victim -- identified as Anton Sanders, 15, of the 4200 block of W. Golf Rd. in Skokie, according to the medical examiner’s office -- suffered several gunshots, police said.

Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger said, “We are deeply saddened by this incident, and our thoughts and prayers are with our employees’ family.”

Chicago police, in a statement issued Saturday afternoon, said Simmons was wanted for the shooting at the Walgreens store, but “any connection between (Simmons) and any other open homicide investigation has not been determined or verified at this time.”

Belmont Area detectives are continuing their investigation.

* * *

Evanston firemen clean up the scene at the 100 block of Clyde Avenue, after a body was found in the alley. (Brian Cassella/ Chicago Tribune)

Cops: Man suspected in 2 Chicago homicides found dead in Evanston alley
Staff report
January 21, 2012

Authorities are investigating the apparent suicide in Evanston of a 33-year-old man suspected in two Chicago slayings Friday night, one downtown and one in Rogers Park, a few blocks from where the suspect was found dead.

The man, identified as Dante Simmons, of Rogers Park, was found about 8:15 a.m. by a man shoveling snow this morning in an alley just west of Metra Tracks behind a 3-story apartment building in the 100 block of Clyde Avenue in Evanston, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner's office had been notified of a death at that location, but were confirming the man's identity because his family had not yet identified him.

Simmons appeared to have shot himself in the head, and investigators found a 9mm handgun nearby, according to a news release from Evanston police.

Simmons was wanted by the Chicago Police Department in connection with the slaying of a 22-year-old man at a River North Walgreens about 10 p.m. and in connection with another slaying, of a 15-year-old boy, near the Evanston border in the 1800 block of West Juneway Terrace, just south of Calvary Cemetery, according to a release from Evanston police. In that incident, a body was found near the corner of Chicago Avenue and Juneway.

Chicago Police, however, issued a statement later this afternoon that said Simmons was a suspect in the Walgreens' shooting, but did not confirm Simmons was a suspect in the Juneway homicide.

"Any connection between this subject and any other open homicide investigation has not been determined or verified at this time ... detectives are continuing their investigation," Chicago Police News Affairs said in a news release.

Authorities said Simmons lived in the 1600 block of West Juneway Terrace. Officials at first identified his first name as Donte, but later corrected the spelling, matching public records that give his name as Dante.

Earlier Friday evening, Evanston Police responded to a call of several shots fired just before 11 p.m. in the area of the 700 block of Seward Street. Evanston Police now believe the shots fired call on Seward was related to the homicide on Juneway, according to the release.

A 9mm handgun also was used in the Juneway shooting, Evanston police said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

[From WEJB/NSU’s Chicago Files:

“Getting’ Paid”;

“Barack Obama, Race Man”;

“Barack Obama, Man of Faith”;

“Ruthless People: Rathergate Producer Mary Mapes, CBS News, and the Chicago All-Stars”;

“John Kass: It’s a Wonderful, Liberal Life”;

“Chicago Preacher-Politician: ‘America’ Must Pay Me to Stop Using the ‘N’ Word”;

“Can Conservatives be Eloquent?”;

“Black Columnist Tells Whites, ‘Leave Obama and Wright Alone!’ An Exercise in Reading Black”;

“Obama, Saint or Nihilist? The Politician, the Preacher, and the Grandmother”;

“Obama’s Terrorist Connection”;

“The Barack Obama Thrown-Under-the-Bus Club”;

“Chicago Priest ‘Killer’ Pfleger Stalks the Pews Once More”;

“John Kass, Rahm Emanuel, and the ‘Chicago Way’”;

“A Proud Illinois Tradition: Another Governor Under Arrest”;

“Instant Revisionism: Will Blagojevich Soon be Cropped Out of All ‘Obama’ Pics?”;

“Should Obama be Sworn in, or Arrested?”;

“The Reporter as Counter-Intelligence Officer”;

“Illinois Sentencing Guideline for Robbery + Assault + Attempted Murder by a Black on a White: One Year;

“Chicago: 21-Year-Old Shoots 84-Year-Old for ‘Disrespecting’ Him (with a Surprise Ending!)”;

“Vote for Alexi Giannoulias, The Outfit’s Banker, for U.S. Senate”;

“Remorseless Killer of Two Illinois Cops, Shooter of Four Other Cops and One Civilian, Granted Parole by Feds”;

“Chicago is Enriched by ‘Jaliscan’ (or is It ‘Arizonan’?) and ‘African’ Diversity”;

“Raceless Honeybee Killer, Driving a Colorless Chevy Pickup and Wearing a Green Windbreaker, is Headed Towards Gary”;

“Shooting at Whitey: Running the Gauntlet in Chicago Public Transportation”;

“Jack Cashill’s Deconstructing Obama: Barack Obama’s Political Success and ‘Genius’ Cult are Both Based on His Literary Fraud”;

"‘Obama's’ Response to Nationwide Black Mayhem? Arrest the Police!”;

“Amish Gone Wild: Chicago Police Brace for ‘Flash Mob’ Attacks”;

“Walter Williams: America's new racists”;

“Chicagoland ‘Mystery’ of How 3 ‘Good Kids’ Died in Car Crash”;

“Chicago: Fifty-Strong, Black Robbery Mob Hits Walgreens on the Magnificent Mile”;

“Obama’s Chief of Staff Bill Daley Calls Administration Regulations ‘Indefensible’; Outside of Washington Post, Socialist MSM Suppress Story”;

“Illinois Kills Three Birds with One Stone: Abolishing Writing Skills Test Will Save Money, Make Test Fraud Easier, and Help Abolish the “Black-White Test Score Gap”!;

“The Great Chicago Memorial Day Gang Attack Cover-Up”;

“Convicted Murderer to Chicago Tribune’s Dawn Turner Trice: ‘I’m Not a Murderer’”;

“One Act of Memorial Day Weekend Violence That Neither the Chicago Police Department Nor the New York Times Tried to Cover Up”;

“Cognitive Dissonance in Chicago: Last Weekend, 20 People were Shot and 5 Killed of All Ages and in All Situations, Yet Crime is Dropping Like a Rock!”;

“Chicago Tribune Editor to Readers: It’s None of Your Damned Business, Who’s Racially Targeting Whites and Asians for All of These Ceaseless, Brutally Violent Crimes!”;

“Chicago Tribune’s Reporting is Just Reinforcing Negative Stereotypes” (Ramzpaul);

“Speaking Truth to Black Power in Chicago”;

“Edward Vincent Hanrahan (1921-2009): He Helped Kill Fred Hampton”;

“Air Conditioner Attacks Chicago Sister, Causing a Brother’s Murder”;

“Lynch Mob of Seven Blacks Rob, and Try to Stomp to Death Raceless 18-Year-Old in Chicago’s Chinatown”;

“Feminists Manufacture Yet Another Rape Hoax, and Seek to Destroy an Aspiring White Male Comic, and Drive Him to Suicide”;

“DADT/Due Diligence, Diversity-Style: For Years, Illinois State Program Did No Background Checks, and Paid Black Convicted Rapists to be Baby-Sitters”;

“Chicago Tribune Political Chameleon Steve Chapman: Obama Should Not Run for Re-Election”;

“The Black Wall of Silence: Harvey, IL, Police Department Conspired for at Least 14 Years to Protect Black Rapists; County Prosecutor’s Office Had to Raid Local PD, in Order to Rescue Stashed Rape Kits”;

“Madame Michelle Promotes Multi-Billion-Dollar Mommy Track/Affirmative Action Scam in Science, ‘STEM’ Diploma Mills for Unqualified Hispanic Females, at Expense of Taxpayers, Science”;

“Video: In Racist Attack in Chicago, Two Huge, Fat, Black Sisters, 17 and 18, Jump Skinny Spanish Girl, 14, in Bio Class, Beat Her for 6-7 Minutes, Leaving Her with a Concussion and Internal Injuries; Frightened, Helpless,White Teacher Does Nothing”;

“Communist Party U.S.A. in Solidarity with Occupy Chicago”;

“12 Shot in 11.5 Hours, as Violent Crime Continues to Plummet in Chicago”;

“In Chicago: Happy Birthday … You’re Dead!”;

“7 Dead, 3 Injured Out of Ecuadorean Extended Family in Minivan; Van Hit Deer, was Hit by Semi; No One Wore Seatbelts”;

“The Kelli O'Laughlin Slaying: The Crazy Card, Again”;

“Media Alchemy: Sun-Times, Fox News Staffers Transform a Robbery into “a Fight over a Cell Phone”;

“In IL, Racist Black Moron Allegedly Stalks Brilliant, Humble, ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ White Master Mechanic for His New Car for 3 Months, Murders Him, and Promptly Dumps Car”;

“Federal Judges Thwart Justice, on Behalf of Cop-Killers… Again”;

“Black Northern Illinois U. Senior Goes to Off-Campus Party, Gets Shot and Killed”;

“Chicago Tribune Breaks with Policy, and Racially IDs Perps in Home Invasion!”;

“The Gouger II: Exulam I. Holman Allegedly Gouged Out Uncle’s Eyes Over TV Remote”;

“Chicago Cops Release Photos of Negro Execution-Killers Celebrating Christmas”; and

“Here’s a Mass Murder That Not Only the Nat'l MSM, but Even the Local Chicago Tribune Doesn’t Want Known: Cedric Anderson Murdered 4 Yesterday.”

Baloo: It Doesn’t Take a Bahrain Surgeon!

2012-01-23T00:56:00.001-05:00

Visit the cartoon page of the incomparable Baloo here, and his gift page here.

Groping, Peeping, Stealing Administration: Miami TSA Agent Michael Pujol and his wife, Betsy Pujol Salazar, Charged with Stealing from Passengers

2012-01-22T19:27:00.002-05:00

Miami TSA officer and his wife charged with stealing from passengers' luggage
January 21, 2012
Fox NewsCore

MIAMI – A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker at Miami International Airport was charged with grand theft after allegedly stealing from passengers' bags and hiding the items in a special constructed pocket added to his uniform jacket.

Michael Pujol and his wife, Betsy Pujol Salazar, were released on bond Friday, the Miami Herald reported, after the pair were arrested Thursday and charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property.

Pujol, who was apprehended after an iPad he was accused of stealing was traced to a Craigslist sale, has been suspended from duty and a Feb. 17 trial date set.

A police spokesman said Pujol stowed the stolen goods in a secret jacket pocket that was big enough to conceal a laptop computer.

"We examined another TSA jacket and that pocket was specifically added," he said.

Pujol Salazar admitted that she and her husband have been stealing goods and on-selling them for three years, the Herald reported.

[Thanks to reader-researcher “W” for this catch.]

Everywhere Black Connell Carroll Goes, He Leaves a Trail of Dead White Women in His Wake

2012-01-22T19:02:00.011-05:00

Murder victim Danielle Blackburn

Suspected killer Connell Carroll, Lee County Sheriff’s Office Mug Shot, November 4, 2004

Suspected killer Connell Carroll, Lee County Sheriff’s Office Mug Shot, May 31, 2011. He cut off his dredlocks, for help fleeing the police. And that I can say.

By Nicholas Stix

Connell Carroll likes ‘em white … and dead. Consider his two best-known girlfriends:

Danielle Blackburn: Murdered on February 10th, 2009.
Nicole L. Smith, 22: Murdered on May 29th, 2011.

Carroll is a graduate of the Ten Strikes and You’re Out School of Florida justice.

Mind you, he hasn’t been convicted of murdering either woman yet, and thus enjoys the presumption of innocence, but even if he were convicted of one or both murders, for all we know, he’d only get probation.

The second article below reports,

Carroll has an extensive history of violence, with nine prior arrests in Lee County. Born and raised in Fort Myers, Carroll was arrested in 2003 for burglary and aggravated assault, in 2006 for kidnapping/false imprisonment and battery, in 2007 on a bench warrant for battery charges, and again in 2007 for violating an injunction for protection against Danielle Blackburn.

What about convictions? Was he acquitted of all of these violent crimes?

He was certainly convicted at least once, because he was arrested on November 4, 2004, for violating his probation. Did he do any time for that violation? Back when probation meant something, violating it automatically got it revoked and the offender imprisoned. Today, under the regime of diversity, where black men are concerned, the authorities speak of “serious” violations, which seem to be limited to murder, in which case “probation,” and the conviction it supposedly addresses mean, in practice, the same as dropping charges altogether.

And what about Carroll’s 2007 arrest for violating “an injunction for protection against Danielle Blackburn”? What about all of the beatings he gave Blackburn before that? He doesn’t seem to have done any time for them.

Where were the feminists who care so much about protecting women, and who get all sort of anti-male rules and laws passed? Oh, right, they only care about railroading innocent white men (here and here). When black men victimize white females, feminists are nowhere to be found.

What was Danielle Blackburn’s cause of death? And who was the father of these women’s babies? Was Carroll their father? The news stories on the murders were written by people who fill them with “human interest” material, but who treat the essential facts of the crimes as if they were state secrets.

Finally, did each of these white women have a death wish?

Uploaded on Mar 6, 2010, by SWFLCrimeStprs, who wrote,

A young mother is killed in her home, and police say she knew her attacker. The man who police suspect in the killing is sitting in jail this weekend on other charges, but unless someone can come forward with information to link him to the killing, a young man may get away with murder.

[N.S. That was almost 15 months before Carroll allegedly murdered Nicole L. Smith, and no one has listed what he was charged with.]

If you have information on this case, you can remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 780-TIPS.

* * *

Fort Myers shooting suspect connected to 2009 murder
Sunday, May 29, 2011 6:52 p.m. EST
Updated: May 30, 2011 6:23 p.m. EDT
NBC2

FORT MYERS -

A woman has died after being shot in the leg during an argument on Sunday afternoon.

Fort Myers Police responded to a home on 1400 block of Brookhill Drive just before 4:00 p.m. on Sunday to find 22-year-old Nicole Smith suffering from the gunshot wound.

EMS responders were unable to stabilize her, and she died as a result of her injury.

Neighbors say Smith was holding her newborn when she was shot.

Fort Myers Police are looking for her boyfriend, 32-year-old Connell Carroll, saying he's wanted for second degree murder.

"Our investigation has revealed that the victim, Miss Smith, and her boyfriend, Connell Carroll, had gotten into an argument and she received a gunshot wound that ultimately led to her dying," said Detective Peter Tarman.

Connell Carroll was also connected to the murder of Danielle Blackburn on February 10th, 2009.

He was never arrested.

Danielle's family says they weren't shocked when they heard the news.

"I knew it was gonna happen. I've been telling people it was going to happen," says Danielle's father Don Blackburn.

Danielle was murdered while her daughter slept in the next room.

"He took two young mothers. That's two children without a mother," Don says.

Crysten Blackburn is Danielle's sister-in-law. She had met Carroll on several occasions and says he was quiet and reserved.

"Was he the type of person who would inflict harm on women? When I met him I came to talk to Danielle and he didn't leave the room when I was speaking to Danielle. He was next to her the entire time," she says.

[In other words: ‘Hell, yes, he would harm a woman! He was a paranoid control freak.’]

After Danielle's murder, police couldn't find enough evidence to arrest Carroll.

Now, after another woman is dead, Danielle's family blames the judicial system.

Darin Blackburn, Danielle's brother, claims Carroll never completed a mandatory battery course that would have helped him.

"I told police that if they didn't do something it would happen again," he says.

Neither Danielle's nor Nicole's daughters were harmed during the shootings. Both are staying with family members.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Connell Carroll, you're asked to call the Fort Myers Police Department, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.

* * *

[Video report by Wink News’ Vanessa Ruffes here includes a picture of Nicole L. Smith .]

Fort Myers man accused of second-degree murder denied bond
May 31, 2011 at 12:02 p.m. America/New York
Wink News’

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- Connell Carroll made his first appearance Wednesday morning at the Lee County Jail and was denied bond.

Carroll, 32, who is accused of shooting and killing Nicole L. Smith on Sunday, has been arrested by the US Marshals Florida Regional Task Force.

Connell Caroll, 32, was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday by the US Marshals Florida Regional Task Force according to Paul Smith, the Task Force supervisor. The Task Force adopted this case Tuesday morning after being requested by the Fort Myers Police Department. The Task Force conducted interviews Tuesday morning and used surveillance on a complex on 2nd Avenue in Fort Myers. At approximately 3:30 p.m., a person fitting the description of Carroll crossed Michigan Avenue.

As the Task Force approached, he ran across Michigan Avenue, he ran into a canal. He jumped into the canal near High Street.

Carroll would not come out of the water and resisted the Task Force, so three members of the Task Force entered the water and brought him out.

Carroll was then arrested by authorities. Carroll had a shaved head at the time of his arrest.

Caroll [sic] was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday by the US Marshals Florida Regional Task Force according to Paul Smith, the Task Force supervisor.

The Task Force adopted this case Tuesday morning after being requested by the Fort Myers Police Department.

Carroll was added on Southwest Florida's 10 Most Wanted list Tuesday.

The Task Force conducted interviews Tuesday morning and used surveillance on a apartment complex on 2nd Avenue in Fort Myers.

According to authorities, a person fitting the description of Carroll crossed Michigan Avenue.

"They noticed someone that looked like him. He had shaved his dreads off," said John Kinsey, with the US Marshals Office.

As the Task Force approached, Carroll ran across Michigan Avenue and jumped into a canal near High Street.

He would not come out of the water and resisted the Task Force.

"The task force actually had to go in after him. After a struggle they finally got him into custody," Kinsey said.

He was originally taken into custody at the Fort Myers Police Department and later transferred to the Lee County Jail. He is expected to make his first appearance in court on Wednesday.

Carroll stands accused of the second degree murder of Nicole L. Smith, who was shot during an [sic] fight Sunday and later died as a result of those injuries.

Fort Myers Police named Carroll as their prime suspect in this case.

Carroll has an extensive history of violence, with nine prior arrests in Lee County.
Born and raised in Fort Myers, Carroll was arrested in 2003 for burglary and aggravated assault, in 2006 for kidnapping/false imprisonment and battery, in 2007 on a bench warrant for battery charges, and again in 2007 for violating an injunction for protection against Danielle Blackburn.

Blackburn secured an initial injunction against Carroll in 2006 after enduring several beatings, and then a second injunction against him in 2008. Blackburn was found murdered in her Fort Myers apartment just a few months later, however, no arrests have yet been made in that case.

Tuesday afternoon, her father, Don Blackburn, said he was elated by the news of Carroll's arrest.

"I'm relieved," Blackburn said.

"He's finally off the street and not going to hurt anybody else. I'm very happy about that."

[A tip ‘o the night stick to Nicawawa at Black racism and race hatred of non blacks]

Vicious NYC Ayatollah Bloomberg, DAs, Kidnap Visiting Licensed Gun Owners

2012-01-21T21:38:00.005-05:00

By Nicholas Stix

Note that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg goes nowhere within the U.S. without a gun. He always has an armed bodyguard with him, as he will after leaving office. He just believes the little people have no right to the privilege he takes for granted, the Constitution be damned.

Are Tennessee and California going to have to negotiate the release of their citizens from New York City, the way America negotiates the release of citizens seized by dictatorships like Iran?

Should New York tourists have their lives destroyed because of concealed carry laws?

By John Lott

Published January 17, 2012

| FoxNews.com

Just a few days before Christmas, Meredith Graves made a mistake that could end her medical career and send her to prison for at least 3 ½ years. The 39-year-old fourth-year medical student was carrying a permitted concealed handgun when she saw the sign at the 9/11 Memorial saying "No guns allowed." She did the responsible thing and asked a security guard where she could check her weapon. Unfortunately, while her Tennessee concealed carry license is recognized in 40 states, New York isn't one of them. Meredith was arrested.

Just a week earlier, Californian Mark Meckler told LaGuardia Airport officials that he had licensed handgun in a locked safe in checked baggage. At virtually any other airport in the country, checking a gun locked in a box wouldn't be a problem. Meckler was arrested and charged with second-degree possession of an illegal weapons. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

Even New York's second most powerful Democrat and a strong gun control advocate, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver thinks that tourists who accidentally break the state's strict carry laws shouldn't have their lives destroyed. "Her actions show a clear indication that she didn't know she was breaking the law, and when she saw the sign, she said, 'OK, I do have a gun. Take it from me.' There was no criminal intent," said Silver.

As the Tennessean newspaper (Nashville) put it: "[Meredith's] arrest highlights the confusing patchwork of concealed weapons laws across the nation."

But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the local District Attorneys don't seem interested in showing mercy. They take a zero tolerance approach towards these mistakes. Indeed, a week after Graves arrest, Mayor Bloomberg attacked her at a press conference claiming: "Let's assume she didn't get arrested for carrying a gun, she probably would have gotten arrested for the cocaine that was in her pocket." But that same day the Manhattan District Attorney's office acknowledged that Graves did not have any cocaine.

At the Republican presidential debate last night in South Carolina sponsored by Fox News, Republican candidates competed with each other over demonstrating who was the strongest supporter of letting Americans have the right to defend themselves. It is an issue that President Obama's consistent opposition to gun ownership makes him particularly vulnerable on.

But last night no one took up the cause of Graves, Meckler, and the others who have their lives risk being destroyed by New York City's laws.

For decades, treating licenses for guns like those for cars was the mantra among gun control advocates. Yet, you don't need a driver's license to drive a car on private property, merely on public roads. And once you get a license, you are allowed to drive any car on any public road anywhere in the United States. You are responsible for obeying the different traffic regulations in different states, but as long as you do, you are fine.

As the four individuals mentioned above learned, current gun laws are much more restrictive than those that apply to cars and drivers. Not only do many states regulate guns when they are on your own property, a license to carry a concealed handgun won't let you travel the way a driver's license does.

The proposed National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act passed the US House this last November by a 272 to 154 vote contains two provisions: if your state issues a concealed handgun license, that permit will let you travel to other states. Of course, you also have to follow the rules in the state you visit, so for Illinois -- the single state that still bans concealed handguns -- an out-of-state license wouldn't let you carry a concealed handgun there.

If this proposed law had been in effect when Graves or Jerome visited New York, they would have been fine. New Yorker permit holders would have had to obey the signs and turned in their guns. That is precisely what Graves and Jerome tried to do. The only difference is that they didn't have a New York permit. Similarly, Benedetto and Meckler would have had no problem checking their locked and safely stored unloaded guns on their planes.

Gun control advocates warn that letting people carry concealed handguns constitutes a "dangerous measure" and "harmful legislation." But we now have extensive experience with concealed-handgun permit holders. In 2011, about 7 million Americans hold permits that allow them to carry concealed handguns, and only one state, Illinois, still bans concealed carry.

Over the last couple of weeks, the New York Times has launched an attack on the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, apparently worried that it will become law (see also here). So what's their evidence? They claim that in North Carolina over a five-year period about 40 permit holders a year committed some type of gun or weapons related offense and 12 are involved with some type of weapons related offense. With over 240,000 permit holders, those cases come to annual rates of 0.017 and 0.005 percent, and even the Times concedes that this represents "a small percentage of those with permits."

The New York Times refuses to share its data and won't provide more details, but if North Carolina follows the typical pattern of states that detailed data is available for, the vast majority of these cases probably don't involve guns and, even when guns are involved, the guns are unlikely to have been used to harm people – e.g., such as in cases where a permit holder accidentally carried a permitted gun into a gun-free zone.

The same pattern has been observed in state after state. Take Florida. Between Oct. 1, 1987, and July 31, 2011, Florida issued permits to over 2 million people, many of whom renewed their permits multiple times. Only 168 had their permits revoked for a firearms-related violation -- about 0.01 percent.

The Times focused on its finding that North Carolina sheriff departments mistakenly didn't revoke permits for some permit holders who had committed crimes. The obvious concern is that these individuals might have used their permits to commit another crime. But despite the mistakes and the understandable fears, the story couldn't identify a single such case over the five years that were studied.

The newspaper also claims that "a few independent researchers" find benefits from right-to-carry laws, and that "many other studies have found no net effect of concealed carry laws or have come to the opposite conclusion." But that is simply false. Overwhelmingly, academic research supports the benefits from these laws. Among peer-reviewed academic studies by criminologists and economists, 18 find that right-to-carry laws reduce violent crime, 10 claim no effect, and just one claims one type of crime increases slightly (an older date list of research is available here).

The incidents with Graves, Meckler, Benedetto, and Jerome shouldn't keep happening. What is clear is that if the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act passes, just like the original ruckus over passing concealed handgun laws, the fears about allowing people to travel with guns will soon be forgotten.

John R. Lott, Jr. is a FoxNews.com contributor. He is an economist and author of the third edition of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2010).

Philadelphia: 2 Hispanics, 1 Black Arrested for Racist, MLK Weekend Murder of White Kevin Kless; Cops’ Cover Story Collapses

2012-01-21T19:41:00.017-05:00

Murder victim Kevin Kless, 23

[Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“White Man Beaten to Death in Philly on MLK Weekend—“by 3 Middle-Eastern Men”?; and

“Update on Philly MLK Weekend Beating Murder of Kevin Kless: It Looks Like the Killers were Hispanics; $15,000 in Reward Money on the Table.”]

Suspect Kenneth Santiago, 19

By Nicholas Stix

After “three Middle-Eastern” men beat white Kevin Kless, 22, to death with no provocation, the Philadelphia police came up with the sort of loopy, idiotic cover story you’d expect from a felon with an IQ in the 70-80 range. (I’ve heard white, NYPD supervisors—sergeants and lieutenants—with IQs probably in the 110-120 range come up with even dumber cover stories for felons; multiculturalism functions like a drug that kills brain cells.)

Suspect Steven Ferguson, 20

Suspect Felix Carillo, 23

We were supposed to believe that the victim had yelled at a taxicab driver for passing by with passengers and his lights on, and the killers thought he was yelling at them, and therefore took umbrage at him. The new story sounds a lot more credible: The killers saw the victim with his girlfriend and a second female the couple were friends with, tried to pick up the women right in front of him, and when that didn’t work, decided to murder him.

The Philly PD insists that it s”100 percent sure” that these are guys, and that they have no prior records.

Nowadays, a 19, 20, or 23-year-old man can have done an awful lot of damage, without having a (n adult) criminal record. Note that the oldest, hardest-looking face of the three suspects belongs to 19-year-old Kenneth Santiago.

* * *

Three men charged in Philadelphia beating death
January 21, 2012
(Fox) NewsCore

PHILADELPHIA -- Three men were facing murder charges Saturday in connection with the fatal beating of a Philadelphia man last weekend, police said.

Felix Carrillo, 23, Stephen Ferguson, 20, and Kenneth Santiago, 19, were arrested Friday and charged with the murder of Kevin Kless, WTXF-TV reported.

Kless, 23, was trying to hail a cab for himself and two friends when the attack occurred in Philadelphia's Old City after bars let out in the area in the early hours of last Saturday.

Kless' companions said an available taxi did not stop to pick them up and Kless gestured at the car.

Police surmise that his attackers thought he was making gestures at them when they jumped out of a car and began to beat him. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later.

One of the suspects confessed to the crime, a police source told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A $20,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the assailants, WTXF-TV reported.

Kless, a 2010 graduate of Temple University, was a Warwick, N.Y., native and had just returned to Philadelphia to start a new job, according to the Times Herald-Record. A memorial service was held Friday in Warwick.

* * *

3 People Charged In Old City Killing (Updated)
Updated: Saturday, 21 January 2012, 6:13 p.m. EST
Friday, 20 January 2012, 5:00 p.m. EST
Fox Philly WTXF

Three men are now charged with murder in the fatal beating of Kevin Kless in Old City last weekend.

Steven Ferguson, 20; Kenneth Santiago, 19; and Felix Carrillo, 23, all of Philadelphia — are charged in the killing of 23-year-old Kevin Kless last weekend.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said at a news conference that the break came after police got a tip, and that authorities are positive they have the men responsible.

The men are in custody and it was not immediately known if they had obtained attorneys.

"It's just a senseless, tragic incident," Clark said at police headquarters. "We are 100 percent sure we have the right three individuals." [N.S. It was neither “senseless” nor “tragic,” Captain. You know better than that.]

Ferguson is from the 1100 Block of Sally Street, Santiago is from the 3800 Block of Dungan Street. Carrillo is from Fairhill Street.

The Philadelphia police impound lot is where a green 1994 Toyota Camry investigators is now sitting in connection with the investigation.

On Friday, police obtained a search warrant and were checking the car for DNA and finger prints.

The case remained cold for a week until Friday. Police believe the $20,000 reward drove people to now speak up and help them track down Kless's alleged killers.

* * *

Police 100 Percent Sure in Kless Case
By Omari Fleming
Updated Saturday, 21 January 2012, 6:27 p.m. EST
Saturday, 21 January 2012, 6:24 p.m. EST
WXTF Fox Philly

Three men are now charged with murder in the fatal beating of Kevin Kless in Old City last weekend.

Felix Carillo’s family wasn’t talking to us after they left a hearing where Carillo was denied bail.

But Larry Harris felt compelled to open up and defend his long time 23-year-old neighbor who's now charged with murder.

“He's a compassionate kid. A good kid [sic] he's been helping to take care of his mom and go to school and working,” Harris said.

Carillo is one of three men charged with the beating death of 23-year-old Kevin Kless.

Kenneth Santiago, 19, and 20-year-old Steven Ferguson also charged with the crime.

The deadly assault happened last weekend in front of the Second Bank Of United States in Old City.

Kless, his girlfriend and another female friend were trying to hail a cab on Chestnut after a night out at Lucy's on Market.

Investigators say after drinking and partying [sic] the three suspects drove up in a green Toyota Camry and beat Kless to death after trying to talk to the girls.

A tipster led police to the suspects after the case appeared to go cold for days. Marshalls arrested them Friday night.

We've learned Ferguson was [sic] valet for the Sheraton at Society Hill.

His neighbor saw him enjoying his last moments of freedom Friday at his Fox Chase home.

Police also confirmed the three suspects don’t have prior criminal records.

[The WEJB/NSU Philly File:

“The Philadelphia Story: When the Cops are Crooks;

“Solving Philly Crime with an Eraser: The “Good Irishman” and the Race Man”;

“Sadism and Race”;

“Whistleblowing, Former DOJ Civil Rights Division Lawyer, J. Christian Adams, Fights Continuing Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice in AG Eric Holder’s DOJ in 2008 New Black Panther Party Philadelphia Voter Intimidation Case”;

“Powerline Blog's Republican Writers Finally ‘Report’ on New Black Panthers' White Disenfranchisement Campaign—Over One Year Later than NSU!”;

“More on the Justice Department Civil Rights Division's Conspiracy to Disenfranchise Whites, Violate Their Civil Rights, and to Obstruct Justice”;

“Diversity is Strength: It’s also a Black Serial Killer Raping and Strangling Raceless Women in Philadelphia’s Kensington Section”;

“Philly's Kensington Serial Killer Suspect Caught”;

“‘I Really Miss My Mom,’ Says 16-Year-Old Killadelphian Who Murdered His Mother”;

“Forty Raceless Philly Teenagers Organized ‘Flash Mob’ Ransacking of Upper Darby, PA, Sears Store via Social Media, Took El Train to Target”;

“In Story on Raceless, 40-Strong, Teenaged Philly Robbery Mob That Hit the Upper Darby PA Sears on June 23, Philly Daily News Killed … Even the Word, ‘Comments’!”;

“Hey, That’s Not Funny! In Yet Another Philly Mob Attack, 350 Raceless Youths Riot, and ‘30 to 40 Men’ Break Onion Editor's Leg; Police Cover-Up Aids and Abets Attackers”;

“Philadelphia: Don’t Mess with Penny Chapman! Ridin’ the Bus in Killy”;

“Before Troy Davis, There was (and Unfortunately, Still is!) Racist Black Cop-Killer Wesley Cook, Better Known as ‘Mumia Abu-Jamal’”;

“In Killy, a Game of ‘Get the Old Geezer,’ or ‘Get the Old White Geezer”?;

“Philly: Illegal Alien Held on $1 Million in Kensington Rape Spree”;

“Philadelphia: Black Racist Attack on White Man at Center City PATCO Station”;

“Two Arrested in Philly PATCO Racial Attack; Black Facebook Commenters Variously Celebrate Attack, and Deny Attackers are Black”; and

“Philadelphia Hate Crime: Mob of 5 Black, 1 Poss Hispanic 15-18 Year-Olds Suckerpunch White, 64-Year-Old, Disabled Vietnam Vet, Almost to Death; One Suspect Arrested.”

Would Forcing All Refugees to Settle in Oakland Solve Our Refugee Problem…or Our Oakland Problem?

2012-01-21T16:29:00.018-05:00

SFC: “Now moved to the Tenderloin, Iraqi refugee Ghazwan Al-Sharif was mugged in the Fruitvale district.” Photo: Mike Kepka/ The Chronicle

By Nicholas Stix

The answers are “No,” and “No.”

After the passing of the Immigration Act of 1965, many businessmen got the idea that they could solve their Negro problem by importing millions of Hispanics—by hook or by crook—from South of the border. Instead of solving one problem, that only created a second problem. Immigrant Moslems have since created a third problem, Indians a fourth, and refugees make for a fifth problem.

Note the compassion Chronicle reporter Jordan Gerstler-Holton has for Moslem refugees qua refugees living in a racist, violent, black neighborhood. Millions of white Americans have endured as bad or worse at the hands of racist blacks, and yet, I don't recall ever seeing the Chronicle show them any compassion as a collective.

* * *

Refugees find Oakland can be worse than Iraq
Jordan Gerstler-Holton
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The San Francisco Chronicle
__________________________________

After the Iraq war broke out, Ghazwan Al-Sharif went to work translating for the U.S. military - a job that paid well but subjected his family to repeated violence, including a brutal attack on his sister.

Scared for his life, Al-Sharif accepted the government's offer to come to America as a refugee, one of thousands relocated to this country since the war began. In June 2008, he moved in with two other Iraqi refugees, sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood - a situation arranged by the nonprofit International Rescue Committee.

It wasn't long before Al-Sharif said he learned that there were parts of Oakland where violence rivals what he escaped in Iraq.

One night, he decided to walk home alone. Two men attacked him, bashing him in the face with a metal object and robbing him of some money, his cell phone and his ID.
He was left screaming on the ground, his face gushing blood.

He said the police never identified his attackers.

SFC: “Iraqi refugee Ghazwan Al-Sharif sits in his tiny Tenderloin apartment. He was relocated after attempting suicide following a mugging in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood.” Note the shadows: Refugees, like illegal aliens, “live in the shadows.” Photo: Mike Kepka/The Chronicle

Al-Sharif, 40, is one of more than 50 Iraqi refugees who have been moved to East Oakland by the International Rescue Committee. The nonprofit's officials say they won't settle refugees in unsafe neighborhoods, but Al-Sharif and dozens of other Iraqis blame the organization for exposing them to an unfamiliar type of violence - one perpetrated by gangs rather than political militants.

Al-Sharif admitted it wasn't smart for him to walk home alone at night. And committee officials say they warned Al-Sharif, and all refugees the group resettles, to heed safety precautions.

The nonprofit's officials say they've distributed flyers on safety issues, stepped up efforts to work with local police and no longer place refugees in jobs with swing and graveyard shifts. The group has stopped placing refugees in Fruitvale and other of Oakland's most dangerous neighborhoods, although some refugees continue to live in these areas. [N.S.: Note that there is no help being provided to whites marooned in such neighborhoods.] Al-Sharif has since moved to San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.

Like many of his fellow Bay Area refugees, Al-Sharif does not believe the International Rescue Committee has done enough. [They’re fast learners!] "Why are you putting them in Oakland and letting them suffer?" he said, referring to his fellow refugees. "I want to be safe. ... I can find work and manage to survive, but I need to be safe."

Oakland as refuge

Oakland has a long history of hosting immigrants from around the world.

Affordable housing, easy access to city services, efficient transportation such as BART, and an accepting, multicultural society make the city a great place for refugees, said rescue committee spokeswoman Melissa Winkler.

But the nonprofit receives only $1,800 in federal funding to provide each refugee with housing, employment and other basic needs. That doesn't go far in the Bay Area, and refugees are expected to be financially self-sufficient within four months.

That's why the IRC chose to resettle many of them in Oakland, where housing is often inexpensive.

"It's key for us to ensure that refugees are able to keep paying their bills after the financial support ends," said Don Climent, who used to head the now-dissolved San Francisco chapter. [“Now-dissolved”; I like the sounds of that. Let a thousand chapters dissolve!]

Unfortunately, the city also has one of the country's highest crime rates, according to federal statistics and other studies.

Beth Schlachter, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department, said government guidelines for relocating refugees don't consider crime rates. The requirements for "decent, safe and sanitary housing," she said, extend only "from the apartment itself to the building or apartment complex they're living in."

Since the start of the Iraq war, nearly 60,000 Iraqi refugees have settled in the United States, including almost 14,000 in California.

Keeping safe

Some Iraqi refugees, such as Harith Al-Kaiate, 47, consider safety a matter of personal responsibility. An auto mechanic from Baghdad, his family resettled in the Fruitvale area in January 2010. Al-Kaiate dismisses Oakland's crime as normal for big American cities, and he doesn't regret coming to the city. He's happy with its familiar climate, urban lifestyle, easy access to public schooling, and the fact that he was able to find work.

"There are a lot of places you shouldn't be," he said, adding that criminals have never targeted him, his wife or his three children. Even so, he hasn't forgotten the time a nighttime gunfight near his home left his car, which was parked outside, riddled with bullets. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Ragheed Abdulameer, 32, another recent arrival, blames himself for being robbed at gunpoint earlier this year just a few blocks from his home at East 24th Street and 14th Avenue.

"I made the mistake of not looking around before getting into my car," he said. "Now I know better."

SFC: “Ragheed Abdulameer was robbed at gunpoint: ‘I made the mistake of not looking around before getting into my car.’” Photo: Mike Kepka/The Chronicle

Yet not all refugees agree. One of Abdulameer's friends has yet to bring his wife and children from Iraq, believing they're safer in Basra. The friend declined to be interviewed or identified for this article, saying he fears retaliation from federal authorities and the rescue committee.

More than a dozen Iraqi refugees who have been resettled in Oakland say they live in varying degrees of fear.

"Had I known about this place, I'd never have agreed to come," said Oday Fatah, 33, who comes from near Baghdad and lived in a building on the 3400 block of 12th Avenue until a few months ago.

SFC:“Iraqi refugee, Ragheed Abdulameer [sic] stands near his Fruitvale neighborhood apartment on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 in Oakland, Calif. When Abdulameer fled Iraq by-way-of [sic] Jordan, the International Rescue Committee placed him [sic] like many other Iraqi refugees [sic] in a crime ridden [sic], low income [sic] neighborhood in Oakland. This fall he was robbed at gunpoint in front of his apartment and just a few weeks ago his father, also and [sic] Iraqi refugee, was robbed on a sidewalk just a few blocks away. ‘Its [sic] like a fight between good and bad. When you are scared, they win.[sic]’ said Abdulameer.” Photo: Mike Kepka/The Chronicle

Hard to move

It isn't easy for refugees to move to safer areas, particularly in the first few months after they've arrived.

That's because under the resettlement program, refugees who refuse to accept their "assigned U.S. destination" or move to another location may not receive "the same level of services and/or cash assistance," according to the State Department.

This was confirmed by Husam Abdulkhaleq, lead therapist at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn, Mich. When refugees move away from where resettlement agencies "want them to be," he said, they lose federally funded benefits, often their only income in those first few months.

SFC: “Passing many homeless individuals along the way, Iraqi refugee, Ghazwan Alsharif [sic] heads to work on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. When Alsharif fled Iraq in 2008 [sic] the International Rescue Committee placed him like many other Iraqi refugees in a crime ridden, low income neighborhood in Oakland. Shortly after his arrival there [sic] he was robbed and severely beaten. He soon moved to the tenderloin in San Francisco where, despite the neighborhood's rampant homeless problem, he feels it is still safer that [sic] the part of Oakland the IRC had placed him in originally.” Photo: Mike Kepka/The Chronicle

Then there are obstacles that remain after the government assistance runs out.

Most refugees earn around minimum wage, which can make it difficult to save the money for a deposit on a new apartment. Even if a refugee can find the money, their nonexistent credit histories discourage landlords.

"So the only solution for you is to get beaten or mugged and then you can get out," quipped Al-Sharif, who says he became depressed and attempted suicide after he was mugged. His condition persuaded the International Rescue Committee to help relocate him to San Francisco.

The rescue committee agreed to move another refugee and his family after he was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting outside a Fruitvale mini-mart earlier this year, Climent said.

Iraqi refugee, Ragheed Abdulameer draws the blinds on his Fruitvale neighborhood apartment on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Mike Kepka/The Chronicle

It's nearly impossible to be accepted as an Iraqi refugee to the United States, which means the ones who do make it almost certainly suffered horrendous trauma in their home country.

"They've survived, and they've come to the U.S. to start a new life, and if you settle them in an environment like that, you bring back all these things," Abdulkhaleq said.

E-mail Jordan Gerstler-Holton at metro@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Nicholas Stix, Uncensored

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Would Forcing All Refugees to Settle in Oakland Solve Our Refugee Problem…or Our Oakland Problem?