Archive for July 2008
The Criminal Justice System of Gotham City
Not coincidentally, the Gotham City of the two most recent Batman films is based on Chicago, not New York City. This makes some sense, because Chicago residents are severely restricted in their methods of self defense. Masked vigilantes might be the only answer.
Assault Camera Ban in the UK?
Photographing thugs ‘is assault’, police tell householder snapping proof of anti-social behaviour
It’s the Daily Mail, but given the direction of things in Britain these days I’m buying it:
David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken.
But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile.
And he claimed that a Police Community Support Officer sent to the scene promptly issued a warning that taking pictures of youths without permission was illegal, and could lead to a charge of assault.
When he started taking pictures, one of them called the cops. That’s something right there, law-breakers asking the law for help. But the law sided with them.
Nothing to laugh about. This sort of thing is the natural next step after the right to defend oneself is outlawed. Note that I wrote that the right is outlawed, not removed. Big difference.
One thing worth laughing about is the Daily Mail’s alt text for the image they included in the story:
Picture of yobs taken by David Green
Why is it that Green is apparently being treated like the yob?
A Husband’s Revenge
Seems to be a pretty unreasonable situation, but the reaction is good.
Sometimes it’s okay to vote AGAINST someone
Anti-Gun Outdoor Writer to Run for NRA Board
Sebastian on Pat Wray:
Needless to say, he’d be a long shot.
Called his Bluff
An 18-year-old man armed with a BB gun was fatally shot while trying to rob the residents of a Franklinton home yesterday afternoon, police said.
Police arrested his two alleged accomplices, one of whom was his brother, and charged them with murder for taking part in a crime that resulted in his death.
The new Ohio castle doctrine law doesn’t take effect until September. The dead intruder apparently held the BB gun to the head of the homeowner’s girlfriend.
Don’t commit crimes. If you do, don’t do it with BB guns.
MacGuyver Gets Lazy
xkcd is awesome.
Dear Criminals
Please stop breaking into my car:
UPDATE: The image I had linked to was pulled (obviously all the traffic I sent swamped their servers) so I found it elsewhere and posted here. Thanks to the reader for the tip that it was down.
‘They will honor you because you are doing their work’
How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds
The “Flesh-and-Blood Defense”:
As officers of the court, all defense lawyers are really on the government’s side, having sworn an oath to uphold a vast, century-old conspiracy to conceal the fact that most aspects of the federal government are illegitimate, including the courts, which have no constitutional authority to bring people to trial. The defendants also believed that a legal distinction could be drawn between their name as written on their indictment and their true identity as a “flesh and blood man.”
Don’t forget the incidents of gun deaths in Baltimore.
More on the Police Photo Incident
Instapundit has a great post up on this insane incident which includes an email response from a reader claiming that part of the reason police are “hot-headed jerks” is because they “deal with hot-headed jerk citizens on a daily basis as a regular part of their job.”
I happen to agree with this statement, but he takes it a lot further, essentially making excuses for cops acting badly. This is the topper:
Police officers get lots of training on how to deal with citizens, while citizens get zero training on how to deal with police.
My response is simple:
1) You’re right.
2) SO WHAT?
Honestly, that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in a while. Cops act badly because citizens don’t get trained to interact with them properly?
That is utterly stupid.
‘He was threatening to beat him and kill him’
Neighbor killed after threats, home invasion
A Prairie Creek resident shot and killed a neighbor who had kicked in his door Tuesday evening and tried to assault him, police said.
Johnny Hawthorne shot Mekin Kantaphone with a handgun once in the head in self-defense inside Hawthorne’s home, Benton County sheriff’s Capt. Mike Sydoriak said.
The prosecuting attorney’s office will decide whether the shooting was justified, Sydoriak said.
Kantaphone, 34, sent threatening text and voice messages to Hawthorne, 25, earlier in the day, he said.
There are allegations that the shooter was having an affair with the shootee’s wife. The shootee’s brother tried to keep him from going in, but he couldn’t.
Arrested for taking a picture of a police officer
What happened seems clear to me: Conover annoyed the cop by taking his picture. When Conover refused to delete them, the cop got angry and arrested him. (After all, the photos might have been taken with the intention of policing the police – and how dare a mere mortal citizen do this? ) After the arrest, the officer scrambled to find some law, any law which would back up his actions.
The officer said he thought Conover was pointing a laser at him. But, um, if he thought it was a laser why did he tell him to delete the pictures?
Via Michael Silence and Instapundit.
