It wasn't Zimmerman, but he was Hispanic!
"A gunman set fire to his South Florida apartment, killed six people, and took two others hostage before a SWAT team stormed the building and killed him early Saturday, police said. Police had no motive for the attack, and did not immediately identify the victims. Miriam Valdes, 70, who lives on the top floor of the building, and other neighbors said the shooter lived in the building with his mother, but police would not confirm that information or other details on the gunman."
Was he on prescription pharmaceuticals?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Florida apartment gunman described as lonely, angry
It was 'roid rage?!?
Related: Mass shooting in Colorado offered lessons for Brigham
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Aurora Anniversary
From A to Z:
"Trayvon Martin’s mother issues call to action" Associated Press, July 27, 2013
PHILADELPHIA — The mother of slain teenager Trayvon Martin told a National Urban League gathering in Philadelphia on Friday to use her tragedy to stop the same thing from happening to another child, and blamed Florida’s ‘‘Stand Your Ground’’ law for allowing her son’s killer to go free.
Sybrina Fulton issued a call to action against ‘‘Stand Your Ground’’ self-defense laws and told the audience that she believes God is using her and her family to make a difference.
Fulton said she was heartened when, on the way to the civil rights organization’s annual conference, she handed a card bearing her son’s photograph to a driver and he told her, ‘‘That’s my son, too.’’
‘‘So my message is coming across, and it’s coming across the right way,’’ Fulton told the audience.
The message, she said, is to use her son’s story to prevent other children from dying the same way.
Fulton supports an investigation into whether her unarmed son’s killer could be charged under federal civil rights laws.
That may well be true, but according to testimony he did jump George.
And why were we never told about this?
How a Miami School Crime Cover-Up Policy Led to Trayvon Martin’s Death
Newspapers are not a court room. Had to hear that from a friend.
Two weeks ago, a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting last year.
The right, but wrong, decision.
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In the name of Trayvon!
"Back-to-back crimes threaten Hollywood’s appeal; Police increase presence after robbery, killing" by Adam Nagourney | New York Times, July 24, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood Boulevard is the West Coast equivalent of Times Square, an urban reclamation project that transformed a strip once notorious for crime, drug-dealing, and prostitution into a tourist destination, a thriving night life district, and the home of movie premieres and the Academy Awards.
But over the past month, two high-profile crimes — a fatal stabbing of a tourist by a homeless person and a robbery spree by a gang that bounded past people gawking at the Walk of Fame — have threatened this carefully cultivated and civically critical reinvention, worrying community leaders and presenting an early challenge to this city’s new mayor, Eric Garcetti.
On paper, at least, Hollywood Boulevard — with the TCL Chinese Theatre, famous star-studded sidewalks, and open-top tour vans filled with out-of-towners — is as safe as ever. Reports of major crimes are down 17 percent over the past year.
But in this case, perceptions matter. And Hollywood visitors who already might have been disconcerted by the sidewalk hustlers dressed up as Spider-Man and Captain Jack Sparrow, the wandering homeless people, and the occasional boulevard fistfight have certainly taken notice of back-to-back crimes involving tourists....
Los Angeles, aware of how critical this strip of the city is to its international image and flow of tourism dollars, has moved to try to deal with the problem, real or imagined.
I'm starting to wonder who scripted the protests, yeah.
The size of the police force assigned to the Hollywood Entertainment District has increased to 60 from 40. In contrast with a few months ago — when it was possible to walk from one edge of Hollywood to the other without seeing a uniformed police officer — there were officers on foot, in patrol cars, and on horseback the other day.
This is the city.... watch where you step.
City officials are talking about imposing new measures on Hollywood Boulevard, including state legislation to bar street performers from wearing masks on heavily trafficked blocks in Hollywood....
Garcetti, who used to represent this neighborhood when he was a member of the City Council, went to the Loteria Grill on Hollywood Boulevard for a show-of-support dinner the night after the robberies, joined by the police chief, Charlie Beck, and two members of the City Council.
The mayor, in an interview, described the two episodes as “tragic events” but said they did not signal any change in fortunes.
“Crime is down in Hollywood — it is extremely safe statistically,” he said. “Isolated events can blow up in the media, because it’s Hollywood.”
The robberies appeared to be spontaneous, fanned by social media and involving a gang of up to 30 youngsters, ages 14 to 18, who thought the police would be distracted by a demonstration in the Crenshaw neighborhood in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting. Twelve people were arrested after they roared down the streets, stealing jewelry and cellphones, and knocking people down.
The attacks had added resonance because they came after the stabbing of a 23-year-old tourist last month by a homeless man who demanded that she pay him $1 after taking his photograph, police said.
Related: Bronx Tour Gets Bronx Cheer
Shouldn't they get some of the proceeds?
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Related: Arizona Riots Spreading
"LA police say teen led ‘bash mob’" Associated Press, July 25, 2013
LOS ANGELES — A 16-year-old has been arrested for allegedly using social media to organize a mob of teens to attack and rob pedestrians on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, police said Wednesday.
The teen is believed to have incited a chaotic crime spree, dubbed a ‘‘bash mob,’’ at the busy Los Angeles intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, Officer Bruce Borihanh said.
Bash mobs are like a flash mob, but instead of dancing a choreographed number in public places, a mob converges to steal and vandalize. Police have issued warnings ahead of possible future bash mobs.
First of all, why didn't the cops go stop it? That right there shows you this was all agent provocateur garbage, and damn may well have been a Hollywood script (as we have seen with so much of the "news" lately).
Related:
"The event had been previously planned as a “Cash Mob,” a grass-roots effort organized via social media that sends crowds to local businesses to stimulate patronage, but with the stabbing of the 21-year-old mother, it was also dubbed “A Random Act of Kindness.”"
Do you really know what you are seeing and reading is real anymore?
Police said the incident followed George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, when resources were deployed to protests around the city.
WTF?
Some peaceful protestors were reported present at the Hollywood location.
And the ones who gave them a bad name?
Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said Wednesday it was unacceptable for the criminal behavior to taint the purpose of those who were lawfully and peacefully protesting.
That's the word I was looking for, and who benefits?
So what department do they work in, chief?
Nine other teens are facing robbery charges in the incident, and all have pleaded not guilty.
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Gee, the provocateur protesters managed to advance the tyranny. How about that, huh?
Good thing government is watching all that social media. Would have thought they could have prevented this. At least alert the police.
And here is what I have been typing about:
"US has increased scrutiny of police" by Erica Goode | New York Times, July 28, 2013
NEW YORK — When Justice Department officials announced the results of a two-year investigation into civil rights violations at the Miami Police Department this month, it was the 11th time in two years that the federal government had put a local law enforcement agency on notice that it must change its ways or face a federal lawsuit.
Cities from New Orleans and Seattle to Missoula, Mont., and East Haven, Conn., are grappling with similar federally mandated changes after investigations into their police departments.
In Miami, the Justice Department found a pattern of the use of excessive force — in an eight-month period in 2011, eight young black men were shot and killed by the police.
And I didn't see the Justice Department organizing protests over that, nor did the mouthpiece media make a big deal of it. Instead it's been Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman, Zimmerman, a PRIVATE CITIZEN with a gun.
This month, the Justice Department announced a sweeping settlement forcing Puerto Rico to change 11 areas of policing, including the use of excessive force, searches, stops and the handling of domestic violence. It was, the department said, “among the most extensive agreements ever obtained.”
Civil rights violations by police departments have been subject to investigation by the federal government since 1994, when Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. But federal intervention has become far more common and much broader in scope under the Obama administration, a development proudly highlighted on the Justice Department’s website.
And now it is being proudly highlighted by my newspaper!
During Obama’s first term, the department initiated 15 investigations into troubled law enforcement agencies, almost twice the number carried out in the last four years of the Bush administration.
He's also tripled the number of whistleblower investigations since the founding of the Republic, so what's your point?
While early investigations focused narrowly on the use of excessive force and racial profiling, recent inquiries have taken on a host of other issues, including the treatment of the mentally ill, the handling of sexual assault cases, and unconscious bias on the part of police officers.
I'm not saying police offices in this country are perfect, far from it; however, is the Justice Department really the best investigator of such things given the FBI's track record?
Last year, the department extended its purview further, announcing its intention to investigate a district attorney’s office over the handling of sexual assault cases. The Missoula County attorney, Fred Van Valkenburg, has so far declined to cooperate, arguing that under state law, the Justice Department has no standing to investigate his office.
“In my mind, these people have never run into somebody who told them ‘no,’ ” Van Valkenburg told an audience at a City Club Missoula luncheon in June. The National District Attorneys Association has sent a letter objecting to the investigation to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
See: Just Another Montana Monday
It is Sunday!
Civil rights lawyers and criminal justice experts have hailed the Justice Department’s increased activism.
“Justice Department litigation has really set a national standard,” said Samuel Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and the author of “The New World of Police Accountability.” He said the investigations — and the resulting settlements, known as consent decrees — sent a message to police departments that “there are some minimal things you have to do to be professional, and here are the things you need to do in order to achieve that.”
That's so over the top I don't know where to begin.
And some police officials whose departments have been the target of Justice Department investigators say the consent decree that resulted was beneficial. “I think they’re extremely effective,” said Robert McNeilly, a former chief of the Pittsburgh Police Department, the first agency to enter into a consent decree after the 1994 law was passed.
To comply with the decree, the department increased accountability and increased training. Among other things, it instituted an early warning system to identify officers who were at high risk of using excessive force.
But the federal intervention has also caused frustration among some police chiefs, who say the government should work to find a cheaper and more efficient process. Consent decrees, they say, can drag on for years and impose huge cost burdens on cities that are least able to afford them.
In Detroit, which declared bankruptcy July 18, a consent decree imposed to correct a range of serious problems including the use of excessive force, false arrest, illegal detention, and failures in investigation and training is in its 11th year.
See: Detroit Declares Bankruptcy
Yeah, thanks for helping out, DOJ.
In New Orleans, city officials asked the Justice Department to come in but are now contesting the consent decree, saying its measures are too expensive to carry out.
See: Mardi Gras Mayhem
I heard the cops would be distracted by Zimmerman.
“We don’t disagree with the objectives at all,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, an organization based in Washington that conducts research on policing and recently issued a report on federal civil rights investigations into police departments. “What we find issue with is the mechanics of the process.”
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The only solution, sadly, may be to take all the guns away from law enforcement authorities.
