You’re a stupid one, Mr. Grinch
Friday, May 27th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
A West Virginia man was arrested for wearing a Grinch mask. When an officer asked him to remove the mask and told him that it was illegal, he put it back on saying he didn’t believe it. (I wonder if being booked and processed made him a believer?)
Wearing a mask or hood in public is a misdemeanor under West Virginia law, punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to a year in jail, or both. Prosecutors say masks can hinder efforts by law enforcement officials to identify criminal suspects.
Actually it probably has little to do with bank robberies or hold-ups. Most anti-mask laws were put in place to combat organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. For some reason, those racist terrorists are less emboldened when they can’t hide behind anonymity.
Carry cash and cigarettes and go to jail
Friday, May 20th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
Remember, simply carrying ‘large amounts of cash’ is considered a crime and your cash can be seized on nothing more than suspicion. Granted getting caught with $60,000 and a trunk full of cigarettes looks really suspicious. But a mere 28 cartons doesn’t quite add up to huge amounts of cash, even in New York. At $5 a pack, that’s only $1400 worth of smokes. These guys appear to be guilty of petty smuggling at the very least, but they should still be given due process.
For the sake of the argument, let’s say you are selling your car to a guy in the next state over. You drive your car over there to deliver it and rent a car to drive home. When you deliver the car, are you going to accept a check? Even cashiers checks carry the risk of forgery. If you’re speeding on the way home, you might find yourself pulled over by the cops, in a rental car, with $5,000 in cash in your pocket. In the United States, that is often enough to have it seized by local police. Then you’ll find yourself in the position of fighting to prove your innocence get it back.
Time might tell if these guys are really guilty of something? But keep this in mind the next time you’re traveling with more than $1000 cash on you.
Chasing Hillary
Thursday, May 12th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
Considering how many people close to the Clintons end up dead, in prison, or under indictment, I’m surprised they can get anyone to work for them. Dick Morris, writing for the sometimes reliable New York Post, notes that the indictment of Senator Clinton’s Campaign Finance Director, David Rosen, could sink any possibility of a Presidential campaign. Especially since he is a little tired of being made the fall guy, and the evidence against him is starting to mount.
Rosen has been indicted for deliberately reporting that the cost of an August 2000 Hollywood fund-raising gala was only $400,000 when the actual tab was $1.2 million – a step that let Mrs. Clinton spend $800,000 more in “hard money” for her campaign. (After Hillary and opponent Rick Lazio agreed to ban soft money, both camps were scrambling to maximize their hard money on hand). . .
. . .David Rosen calls himself a “guinea pig” for Clinton’s lawyers, noting that “the former Clinton White House wanted to hire, or to argue the [Rosen's] case in a certain way.” The indicted former finance director said, “And I did it for them. Like, I bit the bullet and went in as a guinea pig and argued their argument for me. Instead of freeing’ and runnin’ and coverin’ my ass, I was a good soldier.”
Then Rosen adds, ominously, “So far it’s worked out, but I coulda done it a lot different.”
Morris thinks that as the evidence against Rosen starts to pile up, he may try to cop a plea deal and implicate Hillary. Assuming of course that he doesn’t take a lonely walk through Fort Marcy Park.
Police Taser pregnant woman
Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
First she refused to sign a speeding ticket and then she refused to get out of her car. So police took her down and spared no expense with the Taser.
She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn’t think she deserved.
So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts…
Officer Donald Jones joined Ornelas in trying to persuade Brooks to sign the ticket. They then called on their supervisor, Sgt. Steve Daman.
He authorized them to arrest her when she continued to refuse.
The officers testified they struggled to get Brooks out of her car but could not because she kept a grip on her steering wheel.
And that’s when Jones brought out the Taser.
Brooks testified she didn’t even know what it was when Jones showed it to her and pulled the trigger, allowing her to hear the crackle of 50,000 volts of electricity.
The officers testified that was meant as a final warning, as a way to demonstrate the device was painful and that Brooks should comply with their orders.
When she still did not exit her car, Jones applied the Taser.
In his testimony, the Taser officer said he pressed the prongs of the muzzle against Brooks’ thigh to no effect. So he applied it twice to her exposed neck.
Afterward, he and the others testified, Ornelas pushed Brooks out of the car while Jones pulled.
She was taken to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, the officers testified.
She delivered a healthy baby girl on January 31.
World’s Smallest Violin
Monday, May 9th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
Despite facing decades in “federal ‘pound me in the ass’ prison” for bank fraud, twenty-one year old Hakan Yalincak didn’t seem to realize the gravity of his situation.
A New York University student was charged with bank fraud after depositing $43 million in bogus cashier’s checks into Swiss and American accounts and trying to withdraw the money, prosecutors said Friday.
Hakan Yalincak, 21, also faces civil charges that he convinced two investors to sink $2.8 million into a nonexistent hedge fund and spent the money on luxury items and university donations.
He wept in court as U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan Margolis ordered him jailed until a detention hearing Thursday. “I have a graduation on Wednesday,” Yalincak said.
The futility of bans
Monday, May 9th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized •
Metal detectors didn’t prevent a Virginia Tech student from being stabbed at a local night club.
Police say the student, 23-year-old Frank Amponsah, worked at the tavern and was escorting a group outside when someone came from behind him and stabbed him.
No one saw the attack.
The tavern’s owner says about 200 people were inside, and all of them went through a metal detector at the door. The tavern is the only bar in Blacksburg with one installed.
We can’t keep knives out of our prisons, what makes them think they can keep them out of public places?
Smile!
Monday, May 9th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized • Comment
Two 16-year-old boys were robbing a school and took a lot of valuable stuff. They found a digital camera and before they stole it they took some pictures of themselves. As they were robbing the school they forgot the camera and the next day the police arrested them.
Okay, how about a pretzel?
Monday, May 9th, 2005 • Filed under Uncategorized • Comment
A masked man ran into the supermarket and demanded all the cash in the cash register.
The man behind the counter responded by thwacking a large pipe on the counter. Shaken, the masked man blurted out “J-Just give me twenty dollars”
The man glared silently.
“Can I take a bag of chips?”
When the man behind the counter shook his head, the masked man left the store