Law Enforcement
A Decade Gone
After 10 Years In Prison, Cory Maye Comes Home
This party was a long time coming. Maye was arrested in 2001, the day after Christmas, for killing Prentiss, Mississippi, police officer Ron Jones during a botched drug raid on Maye’s home. Maye, now 30, was convicted in 2004 of capital murder, or the intentional killing of a police officer. He was sentenced to death. Maye says he was asleep as the raid began at 12:30 a.m. and had no idea the men breaking into his home were police. The police say they announced themselves. Maye had no prior criminal record, and police found all of a marijuana roach in his apartment, which under other circumstances would bring a $100 fine.
The man who lived next door to Maye in that bright yellow duplex, Jamie Smith, already had drug charges pending against him and appears to have been the actual target of the police action that night. The police found a significant supply of drugs in Smith’s apartment, though Smith has never been tried.
Via Instapundit, who writes
I don’t think he should have spent a single day in prison. It’s sad that this counts as a victory for justice.
ATFE Investigates U.S. Army’s Lost AK-74s
We’ve heard plenty about the ‘seepage’ of arms from the Mexican army and police forces into criminal hands, but we’re not quite so used to it happening here at home. When twenty-six AK-74 rifles and one Dragunov sniper rifle went missing from a U.S. Army storage depot at Fort Irwin, California, however, Army officials knew just who to call: the ATFE.
After all, no other Federal agency has more experience with losing rifles than the ATFE
How did she even get a gun in Chicago?
Woman’s bullets fell out of gun just before she tried to shoot cop
Shandra Kidd didn’t realize her gun was empty when she tried to shoot a Chicago Police officer.
All the bullets fell out when she was running from the officer.
Unfortunately for her, the officer’s gun was loaded. And the officer shot her in the buttocks.
That was in 2007. She tried twice to shoot the cop at point-blank range. Kidd was just sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Predictable comment:
Again, I say, GUNS MUST BE BANNED.
And as for this jai term-55 years seems excessive.
Um, in Chicago guns ARE banned.
The commenter thinks a more “reasonable” jail term with “education and counselling” would be a better way to go.
‘Why Take Chances?’
Some moron calling himself (herself?) MkyMtn on Mlive:
Whenever I see someone with a concealed weapon……I know, most of you think you’re pretty clever, but you’re really not…….I call the police. I have no way of knowing if they are a “legal” nut, or just a common garden variety nut. Why take chances? That’s what the police are for.
Right. That’s why anyone seeing a black person should call the police. Maybe he’s not a criminal, but why take chances? And people driving fancy cars….maybe not drug dealers, but why take chances? Also, call the INS whenever you see a Hispanic person…maybe he’s not an illegal immigrant, but why take chances. Same goes for Muslims…maybe not terrorists, but why take chances. See someone driving fast? Call the cops…maybe the driver isn’t fleeing the scene of a crime, but why take chances?
That’s what the police are for.
(That’s all sarcasm, folks.)
Anyway, I wonder how often MkyMtn really calls the police about people carrying concealed guns. I’m guessing “never” or “just about never.”
And despite his ability to spot concealed guns so easily, I’m also guessing he misses virtually every single one he encounters. Whether it’s concealed legally or illegally.
The Iron River
The amazing thing to me is that the administration is sticking to its narrative, e.g. the “Iron River” of guns flowing into into Mexico, even though the “Fast and Furious” Congressional investigation and subsequent revelations have proven conclusively that they only Iron River flowing into Mexico is the one being run by the U.S. government.
How I explain it echoes this sentiment, at least when I’m in my most charitable they-messed-up-but-I-don’t-think-they-were-trying-to-torpedo-the-2nd-Amendment mood. (A mood which is becoming less and less common as more and more details emerge, BTW.)
I describe it as an attempt to uncover, infiltrate, and destroy the underground networks that were allowing US guns to flow into the hands of criminals on both sides of the border. When they determined that there weren’t any networks, they tried to jump start their own so they could sting the bad guys. And they couldn’t even do that right. They managed to bumble their way into allowing some guns to flow into the hands of criminals, but it got too complicated after that part.
Hanlon’s Razor vs. Fast and Furious
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Murdoc usually substitutes the word “incompetence” for “stupidity” when using this, because he usually uses it in reference to the government. And, well, duh…even when run by otherwise-intelligent people the government usually seems so imcompetent.
And Murdoc’s been saying this over and over in regard to the ATF’s biggest clusterfuck. But the more that comes out, the more it appears that there really was a fair amount of malice intended from day one:
Operation Fast and Furious is looking more and more like a set up from the beginning to push Obama and Holder’s radical anti-Second Amendment agenda as they used law abiding gun shop owners to enable government officals to break the law, then turned around and blamed the very same gun shops for illegal gun trafficking, despite those shops being forced by ATF to help ATF agents carry out Operation Fast and Furious, and now, those shops are being punished through new Justice Department gun control measures.
I know a lot of you have been saying this since the story broke, and at this point Murdoc’s starting to feel a little embarrassed that he gave the government enough credit to not instantly assume it was all some sort of nefarious plot.
This crowd seems to be using the fog of assumed incompetence to geth their work done. It seems hard to believe that Obama and his team are not the clueless inexperienced boobs that they appear to be, but maybe they are really a lot more brilliant than we give them credit for. Or at least a lot less incompetent.
Murdoc notes that, using Hanlon’s Razor, if they aren’t “incompetent” they must be “malicious.” And Murdoc has no doubt about that. He’s just disappointed that they’re so competently malicious.
If this really was a serious attempt to ramrod gun control through rather than a botched attempt to sting gun runners, it really is one of the biggest political scandals in American history.
Murdoc wants to be wrong about that.
Columbus, New Mexico
New Mexico town dissolves police dept after gun smuggling scandal
The town has been upended since federal authorities arrested Police Chief Angelo Vega, Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Village Trustee Blas Gutierrez and nine other residents for conspiring to smuggle hundreds of guns to drug cartels over the border in March. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty, and their trial is expected in October, according to the Las Cruces Sun News.
Shocking Revelation
Email Confirms ‘Gunwalker’ Known Throughout Justice Department
While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunwalker, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within the Department of Justice was briefed on Gunwalker, including the AGAC, which has the formally ordered functions of giving U.S attorneys a voice in department policies and advising the attorney general.
It strains credibility to claim that the assistant attorney general, the AGAC, the directors of the five major DOJ agencies in charge of law enforcement, and all the U.S. attorneys in the Southwest region were privy to Gunwalker, but that the attorney general himself was unaware of the operation. It suggests that either Holder is being untruthful about what he knew about the operation, and when he knew about it, or that he is so out of touch with a major operation conducted by his key law enforcement agencies that he is too incompetent to fulfill his official duties.
Murdoc isn’t quite ready to claim that ‘Fast & Furious’ was simply an outright attack on American gun owners as some seem to be. This sort of operation, handled carefully and correctly, could yield results. The biggest problem is the utter incompetence with which it was run, and the apparent unwillingness to pull the plug when it started to look like it wasn’t going to get results, let alone do far more harm than good.
The more facts that come out, though, the less and less credibility the “it could have worked” theory has.
Whatever the intention, whether it was an honest (or even half-honest) attempt to root out gun traffickers or an assault on American gun owners, the results demand that justice be served. There needs to be some real results to all this.
But Murdoc ain’t holding his breath.
ATF: Reforming is maybe too good for it…
The number of negative incidents involving ATF seems to be growing; yet the agency itself is still expanding. Expansion means increased regulation, which is a concern – especially in regards to firearms.
Last November, President Obama nominated Andrew Traver to become the new ATF director. But, confirmation of that nomination by the Senate is not likely soon, considering the significant opposition by gun rights advocates and senators concerned about Traver’s support of greater regulation of firearms and the firearm culture.
Complete with Keystone Kops graphic.
It would be nice to see that those in power recognize that utter lack of faith in those who enforce the law risks, well, everything. And that they’d do something about it.
It would also be nice to see perpetual motion machines provide all the electricity the world needs.
I keep hearing people say that Fast and Furious is the death knell for the BATFE, but I have yet to see even the slightest evidence that such an outcome is even possible, let alone likely.
Not that Murdoc would mind being wrong…
Not so Fast and Furious
While the investigation continues into the U.S. operation that helped send thousands of guns south of the border, Mexican lawmakers say they’ll press for extradition and prosecution in Mexico of American officials who authorized and ran the operation.
“I obviously feel violated. I feel my country’s sovereignty was violated,” Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. “They should be tried in the United States and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico since the incidents took place here. There should be trials in both places.”
Murdoc doesn’t necessarily agree, but he’s going to insist that those involved get the full treatment here. He’s also prepared to be quite disappointed.
Also:
Mexico doesn’t completely understand Operation Fast and Furious, the American plan to help send assault rifles and revolvers to Mexico as a means of exposing the gun trafficking rings that operate along the border.
It ain’t just Mexico that ‘doesn’t completely understand.’
Via Instapundit, who writes
They told me if I voted for John McCain we’d see demands for the extradition of Administration war criminals. And they were right! They just didn’t tell me it was the war on guns. . . .
