Governor Jerry Brown’s nutty views on incarceration are getting police killed:
He started his criminal life as a juvenile, authorities said, selling marijuana before graduating to more serious offenses.
He racked up 11 arrests, two of which landed him in state prison, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell.
On one occasion, he pointed a handgun at an off-duty USC security officer near campus and robbed him of his wallet, cellphone and watch.
When LAPD officers caught up with him a week later, he was still wearing the stolen watch.
On Thursday, authorities identified Trenton Trevon Lovell, 27, as the man who shot and killed a sheriff’s sergeant responding to a burglary call in Lancaster earlier this week.
Lovell used a stolen handgun to wound Sgt. Steve Owen, then executed the lawman by standing over him and pumping four more bullets into his body, McDonnell told reporters at a news conference.
I realize that going through the absurdity that is California prison reform is fairly eye-glazing, and not something that one would expect in the News Roundup, but this is important. This is they sort of thing that has a devastating impact on a community on a daily basis, unlike a lot of the fluffy crap that your local cable channel wants to spoon feed you. Not only is this important, but it’s coming to a state near you, so strap in and bear with me.
Attempts to reform the California prison system have gone back decades, but the movement really gained steam with a federal class-action lawsuit filed in 2001, Plata vs. Brown, claiming that overcrowding had resulted in violation of the eight amendment to the Constitution and the Americans with disabilities act. Essentially, the state was accused of prison overcrowding that led to a lack of proper heath care. This lawsuit bounced around the various lower courts until finally, in August of 2009, a three-judge panel of the Federal Ninth circuit court of appeals ruled that California must cut 40,000 prisoners from it’s state population of around 150,000.
Now, a normal person might have said, “Whelp, I suppose we should build another prison.” But since this is California we’re talking about, this never happened.
Instead, noticing that the county jails seemed to have a lot of room, the California legislature then passed Assembly Bill 109, which would shift state prisoners to the local county jails. Obviously, the counties balked, protesting that they weren’t set up for long-term prisoners. Along with the shift, the legislature also “re-defined” almost 500 different felonies that could only be served in county jail. Essentially, the state legislature said all “non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual” crimes MUST be served in county jail. The catch? Often, only the LAST conviction was looked at, despite assurances to the contrary. In other words, if a guy had committed two armed robberies, but was last convicted for shoplifting, he qualified. This led to the state prison population dropping almost 18%, the largest drop in the California prison population since Ronald Reagan (bet you didn’t know that!) let out 34% of inmates.
Encouraged by this drop, reformers then put a proposition on the ballot for 2014, Prop 47. This further redefined felony crimes to misdemeanors, most often drug and property crime. It would make theft of anything under 950$ a misdemeanor, and remove felony drug possession, regardless of how many times one had been arrested. Sounds great on paper, right? Your humble, intelligent author, knowing the laws of unintended consequences, voted no. Sadly, many other Californians did not, and prop 47 passed easily, with 60% of the votes saying “yes.” This removed the “carrot and stick” weapon that the DAs had, which was to order people to attend drug rehab or face felony charges. Listen to this county judge:
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling said his drug court in Pasadena had long used the threat of a significant time behind bars to encourage offenders to enroll. After the measure passed, many drug offenders declined to enroll, preferring a short stint in jail to the longer treatment program.
Or this criminal:
Sina said he rejoiced when he first heard about Proposition 47. He said he didn’t start stealing bicycles until the proposition raised the threshold for a felony theft to $950.
“Proposition 47, it’s cool,” Sina said. “Like for me, I can go do a [commercial] burglary and know that if it’s not over $900, they’ll just give me a ticket and let me go.”
He was sentenced to rehab five times this year but did not show up for a single session.
See, the soft-headed liberals who pass these laws really think that these people are harmless. They just sit in their trailer doing their meth and everything’s fine, and who are you to judge their alternative lifestyle? Except that’s not how it works. These people have to steal constantly to keep up with their addiction. Property crime and larceny have soared across California:
But along with the successes have come other consequences, which police departments and prosecutors refer to as the “unintended effects”: Robberies up 23 percent in San Francisco. Property theft up 11 percent in Los Angeles. Certain categories of crime rising 20 percent in Lake Tahoe, 36 percent in La Mirada, 22 percent in Chico and 68 percent in Desert Hot Springs.
Oh, and that “theft of item under 950$?” That also included firearms, if you can believe it:
There was also the known gang member near Palm Springs who had been caught with a stolen gun valued at $625 and then reacted incredulously when the arresting officer explained that he would not be taken to jail but instead written a citation. “But I had a gun. What is wrong with this country?” the offender said, according to the police report.
Which all leads us to the killers of the California police officers last week. First, the killer of Los Angles County Sheriff’s deputy Steve Owen, a piece of shit named Trenton Treyvon Lovell. Lovell had a long history with the police, including armed robbery of a USC security guard in 2008. He was sentenced to six years in prison, and, of course, was paroled early. Then, last year, he pleaded no contest to DUI and “causing injury to another person.” This should have resulted in his parole being revoked and returning to prison. However, according to highly-respected KFI Los Angeles radio reporter Eric Leonard, orders have come down from the top, the top in this case being Jerry Brown. The order is simple: Nobody returns to prison. Obviously, there will be no smoking gun of a direct order. It is simply understood that this is what the boss wishes.
Then we have the killer of the two Palm Spring police officers, Leslie Zerebny and Jose Vega. John Felix was arrested in 2009 and charged with attempted murder, assault with a firearm, and criminal street gang activity. Remember what was happening in 2009? All three of these felony charges were plead down to a single charge, assault with a deadly weapon. He was convicted and sentenced to 4 years in prison. Paroled early, he then was arrested in 2012 for possession of an opium pipe and got 76 days in local jail. In early 2013, he was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor of resisting arrest. Then, in 2014, he was charged with DUI and sentenced to a DUI first offender program and a work-release program, because, again, nobody goes back to prison. He was a no-show for both the DUI and the work-release, which should have sent him back to prison. And, CRAZILY ENOUGH, both Felix and Lovell both managed to get their hands on firearms, despite California having the strictest gun laws in the nation! WEIRD.
This shouldn’t be shocking to anyone. After all, it’s happened before. Except the officers escaped with their lives:
A man who had two prior felony convictions reduced to misdemeanors under Proposition 47 and was subsequently released from custody was arraigned Friday on charges of attempted murder on a peace officer, the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
The Orange County Grand Jury on Thursday indicted Jimmy Hoang Truong, 28, of Santa Ana, on numerous felony charges in connection with a November vehicle chase in which he shot at police officers, prosecutors said in a statement. He had two prior convictions for drug-related crimes.
Now? We are set to release even more dangerous prisoners, because California has yet another measure to vote on in November. This time, it’s ballot proposition 57, which would again redefine “non-violent” crimes, reducing the prison population even more. Victim’s rights advocate Marc Klaas, father of murdered child Polly Klaas, has a helpful list here of what would be considered “non-violent.” Notably, among them is “Posession of a weapon of mass destruction,” and “Supplying, Selling, or Giving a Firearm to a Person to Commit a Gang Crime, and the Person Commits the Gang Crime and is Convicted of It.” You should see the rest of the list.
Of course, every newspaper editorial board was all for AB 109, Prop 47, and now prop 57. Their reasoning is all the same. They keep chanting this mantra of “We have TOO MANY prisoners!” This is an absurd argument. It’s like saying “We have TOO MANY stars in the sky!” There are neither too many, nor too few prisoners. There are exactly as many as exist. But the CA legislature is completely enamored with this new “criminal justice reform” movement that seems to be taking hold, which is nothing more than letting people out of jail. And the people who vote are being duped with visions of a guy rotting away in Pelican Bay because he was some hippie who never hurt anyone and just had a couple ounces of weed. This is…. not accurate.
This isn’t really that complicated. Ever wondered why the 80s and 90s were dangerous, and the 2000s saw a huge drop in crime? Because we put people in jail. The Black Lives Matter freaks are chasing Hillary Clinton around because her husband instituted the “tough on crime” measures that led to historically low crime rates, which they hate for some reason. And the leftist newspapers wring their hands over prison overcrowding like nothing I’ve ever seen. Hey, I don’t believe in cruel punishment. But these weirdos never even MENTION the alternative: Build more prisons if they’re so overcrowded. We seem to have plenty of money for things like that RIDICULOUS high-speed rail program, after all.
Congratulations, you are now more informed on this topic than 99% of Californians. Let’s see if CNN has a story on this…. Nope, they’re on their 78th panel discussion on what Trump said 10 years ago. Because this is complicated, and needs to be explained in detail, the media isn’t interested in this story. It’s a goddamn shame, because next time, it could by your family paying the price.
Follow me on Twitter for pithy observational humor:
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/786276550731628544
Active-duty sailor drives truck off Coronado bridge, killing 4:
SAN DIEGO – An active duty member of the U.S. Navy was arrested for a deadly accident under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in which his vehicle plunged off the expanse into a crowd below, killing at least 4 people.
In addition to the deaths, nine were injured Saturday when pickup truck nose-dived into a crowd gathered at a festival below, authorities said.
Look at truck that flew off of #Coronado Bridge injuring several, killing four. #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/p912Y923Wv
— Ashley Matthews (@ashleyNBC7) October 15, 2016
The truck driver, who was alone in the vehicle, struck a guardrail and fell 60 feet onto a vendor’s booth at Chicano Park, California Highway Patrol Officer Jake Sanchez said. He was taken to the hospital with major injuries and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence causing deaths and injuries, the officer said.
Authorities identified him as Richard Anthony Sepolio, 25, a U.S. Navy member stationed at the naval base on Coronado Island across the bay from San Diego.
Everything is sexual assault now:
Last Friday, the Washington Post published a leaked tape showing Donald Trump speaking to Billy Bush of Access Hollywood, describing groping and kissing women without their consent. Following the tape’s release, the Trump campaign saw falling poll numbers and a mass exodus of support from horrified Republicans. Trump responded to the onslaught of criticism by saying that what he described was just “locker room talk”—not a description of something he’d ever actually done.
But on Wednesday night, the New York Times published the accounts of two women who alleged that Trump had done precisely what he’d so lewdly described on tape—groped and kissed them without consent. Since then, 17 women have gone public with more tales of unwanted sexual touching or inappropriate behavior by Trump. During a speech on Thursday, Trump denied all of their accounts.
I figured that everyone had already assumed that Trump was like this. I was kind of taken aback by the outrage once that tape was released. I mean… isn’t this exactly how you pictured a billionaire playboy TV star surrounded by pageant queens to act? Is it only because we have the audio that everyone is so shocked? He’s EXACTLY as I imagined he would be talking in private. And I’m sure that he’s been doing this crap his whole life. Probably a lot of inappropriate shit, like not so subtly checking out a chick’s rack, and only hiring hot women. Things that rich men have been doing since the beginning of time and will do until the end of time.
But some of these stories are ridiculous. That miss Utah chick was literally breaking down in tears over the fact that, in her words, Trump gave her a “Quick kind of a peck (on the lips).” That was it. Boorish? Sure. A bit uncomfortable? Probably. Exactly how one would expect a billionaire pageant playboy to act? Yes. Sexual Assault? Come on. What, is that going to be prison time now? CNN has devoted HOURS of panel discussions on… that? This was in 1997, a peck on the lips, and twenty years later, you’re on TV breaking down in tears? Seriously, go watch the video. She can barely get the story out through her tears! And she was so traumatized by this act from 20 years ago, that she never told anyone until 3 weeks out from the election!
Jesus. We’re going to elect the biggest political criminal in the history of presidential politics because Trump (A billionaire playboy TV star) talked about pussy in a private conversation and gave a woman a “Quick kind of peck” 20 years ago. What a country! Sofrep ladies, please tell me if you’ve ever had a guy go in for a smooch which you did not wish to reciprocate. Serious question: Is that sexual assault now? Let me know in the comments.
On a side note, I’ve really gotten a kick out of some of the athletes, actors, and veterans on social media talking about how shocked they were at Trump’s “locker room talk.” VETERANS, for God’s sake. If you were in any combat MOS you’ve been around dudes talking about raping dead babies and shit. (They are not actually raping dead babies.) I’ve heard shit that would make your ears bleed. Stop with the act. Oh, and by the way, some of the ladies can save the phony outrage also. I’ve overheard a few conversations about dude’s penises and the effectiveness/futility of aforementioned penises from military/government women that made me blush. Spare me the Victorian nun routine.
I’ve been staying away from politics on the roundup. I’m a lot more active over at my podcast. You can find it here at soundcloud, or go to iTunes podcasts and search for “BK.”
I’m not going to let you get away with that, Sir:
Six Americans won the Nobel prize this year in various sciences. ALL of them immigrants.
— Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) October 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/785683429656363008
This gets even funnier when you realize who the 6 immigrants were. First of all, they were all LEGAL immigrants. I feel like I need to capitalize/bold that since our disgusting media and the activists they enable always leave that part out when it comes to talking about immigration. Which, honestly, they would prefer we never do, save for in the most glowing terms possible. Secondly, five of the six were British men, with the sixth being from Finland. Last I checked, the United States didn’t really have a problem with overwhelming, massive numbers of illegal immigration from Great Britain or Finland. DERRRRRRRR.
But there is a purpose to this obfuscation. The purpose is to shut down debate and intimidate/shame people into silence. That is all. (Luckily, I’m impervious to both intimidation AND shaming.) The single biggest reason for Trump’s ascendency in politics is anger at illegal immigration, and the Republican party’s unwillingness to do anything about it. But for as huge as an issue as it is, it’s barely discussed. Has Hillary Clinton ever spoken about the negative impact of illegal immigration upon communities? Has she been challenged at a press conference about sanctuary city policies (which she aggressively supports?) Has she (or any Republican, for that matter,) EVER conceded even slightly that Americans who are concerned with this may have a point, without stupidly droning “Comprehensive immigration reformmmmmmmm?” No. It goes ignored, by Clinton, the entire Republican establishment, and the media.
Again, this is the point of the tweet. Talking about illegal alien crime is practically Verboten amongst the political/media complex. And you only have to do a quick google search to realize that the media is all on the same page here. Every story about the Nobel winners dutifully trots out this ridiculous canard about “all of America’s Nobel winners are immigrants.” Which led to my tweet. You want to cherry-pick data supporting your argument? Two can play at that game. And (although i haven’t seen any studiies,) I’m just guessing that there are a hell of a lot more criminal immigrants than Nobel Prize -winning immigrants. But Americans really don’t like to talk about illegal alien crime, because that’s racist or something, which is the greatest crime in America today. Check out this headline compilation. All of these were in 2016, and not a single Briton among them!:
In reality, nobody really knows the true extent of illegal alien crime. ICE doesn’t even keep statistics on how many illegal aliens are locked up in prisons, and the media desperately buries any reference to the immigration status of many criminals, preferring instead to write vanilla headlines like, “Man convicted of raping 6-year-old.” It’s only thru social media that we can get the true details of the cases. Ah well. Nobody cares. Gotta break a few eggs to make that delicious open-borders omelette.
Speaking of police shootings… I missed this one:
BOSTON (CBS) – An Army spokesman says Kirk Figueroa, who was killed Wednesday night in East Boston during a shootout with police, did not serve in the military as he claimed on his company’s website.
Boston Police say Figueroa opened fire Wednesday night inside his Gladstone Street home, injuring two responding officers before he was shot and killed.
Officer Matt Morris and Officer Richard Cintolo were both seriously injured during the incident. They remain hospitalized in stable but critical condition.
Figueroa was listed as the president on Code Blue Protection, and on the website for Elite Policing, he claimed to have served eight years in the Army Reserve.
Eight women have now successfully completed the Combat Endurance Test (CET) at the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course (IOC), the Basic School commander told the Defense Advisory Council on Women in the Services, Sept. 13. Colonel Mark Clingan said the CET is a screening tool used to weed out officers who are not likely to pass the course. However, none of the eight women who passed the CET graduated IOC…
…All eight who passed the CET were later eliminated during hikes when loads began to exceed 100 pounds. When committee members asked how it was that enlisted Marine women had been so much more successful in infantry training, they were told that infantry officers must be able to carry a “sustainment load” of up to 152 pounds for 9.3 miles at a 3-mile-per-hour pace in order to graduate from their course, while loads are much lighter (62 pounds) for enlisted Marines. According to Clingan, basic enlisted infantry training trains Marines to a much lower bar with the expectation that once they reach their units they will be trained up to meet the 152 pound, 9.3 miles at the 3-mile-per-hour standard.
During the break, I asked one of the Marine representatives how often Marines actually carry 152 pounds that distance and he said “infrequently.” I was still curious, so I polled a few Marine infantry officers to find out how often they had carried loads of 95 to 152 pounds during their deployments. I was a bit surprised by the responses because I thought the requirement might at least come close to some operational example. However, one infantry officer with two combat deployments, one as a weapons company commander said, “I’m trying to imagine the type of fighting and tactical task that requires you to move around administratively in an AO with 150-plus pounds on your back… Nothing is impossible, but trying to come up with a situation, mission and METT-T where this would be required is… a unicorn in my opinion.”
The ex-NCIS agent who traded sensitive information to a foreign contractor in exchange for cash, travel and prostitutes was sentenced to 12 years in prison today.
John Beliveau, a former supervisory special agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Services, pleaded guilty nearly three years ago to working with Malaysian national Leonard Francis, also known as Fat Leonard, to thwart NCIS investigations into Francis’ company, a private foreign contractor called Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA).
Francis, who was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty two years later, bilked the Navy out of tens of millions of dollars through GDMA, which provided American ships in-port services like refueling, laundry and waste disposal at ports throughout Asia. After he was caught, Francis told investigators he had roped “scores” of Navy servicemembers into his conspiracy. The servicemembers allegedly provided Francis with classified information on ship movements, steered their ships toward his ports or otherwise aided in Francis’ long-running scheme.
Historical accuracy is now Problematic:
The U.S. Navy deleted a propaganda poster it shared on social media to celebrate its 241st birthday which caused an uproar in Turkey, saying it was not meant to insult the people of Turkey.
The poster posted on Thursday was depicting American sailors killing troops under the Ottoman flag, which is very similar to modern Turkey’s national flag.
“The painting in question depicts an event that occurred in 1804. It was painted by artist Dennis Malone Carter 54 years later in 1858. Obviously the artist was not in Tripoli when the event occurred, so he used information known at the time about the event to form the painting, ” the U.S. Navy said in statement released to Daily Sabah…
..Anadolu Agency reported that hundreds of Turkish Twitter users reacted to Thursday’s post, saying that the U.S. Navy was giving Turkey a subliminal message at a time when tensions between the two allies are high.
The Navy dismissed the allegations and said the intent of the graphic is to convey the toughness of American Sailors who fough to right a wrong against an established world power more than 200 years ago.
Jerry Brown would just give him parole:
A teen has been arrested in the weekend slaying of a 64-year-old Army veteran and City of Birmingham retiree.
Birmingham police today announced a capital murder warrant against 18-year-old Joseph Cook Jr. He is charged in the Saturday night death of Calvin Gunn, 64.
Gunn was shot to death Saturday, Oct. 8, in the driveway of his Ensley home in the 1000 block of 41st Street.
West Precinct officers responded to the home on a report of a person shot. Once on the scene, they found a wounded Gunn on the ground near his driveway. He was rushed to UAB Hospital by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service, but later pronounced dead shortly before midnight.
Gunn’s wife, Merle, had gone out of town overnight Friday and her husband of 35 years had picked her up and brought her back home. While they were in their driveway, a black male approached them.
Merle Gunn said she didn’t want to give too much detail about what happened next, but she and Birmingham police said Calvin Gunn was shot during a robbery and died protecting her. “I was there,” a grieving Merle Gunn said Monday at her home. “I encountered them first. He was shot multiple times.”
Former Ranger officer/kinesiology expert destroys Army’s new PT test:
The current standard for combat arms, according to the OPAT, requires you to have the lower body power of mediocre 12-year-old, the upper body power of an elite 14-year-old, the strength of an average 13-to-15-year-old who works out, and the endurance level of a fit senior citizen.
I get that some will argue that these are the minimum physical performance requirements when correlated with basic soldier tasks in the combat MOS world. However, we are looking at the minimum standard the wrong way.
Right now, it’s being used as an access point, measuring when a soldier is at his or her best. Instead, it should be the minimum level of performance a soldier can maintain indefinitely when at his or her worst.
When these soldier tasks happen in the real world, is the individual well-rested, perfectly fueled and adequately hydrated? Probably not, so we need to start at a point where even on the worst day their power, strength, and endurance is at a level that leaves no question they can perform above and beyond the minimum requirement as long as needed.
Otherwise, the only test standard that should be raised is the number of shuttles: If an individual who barely meets the current strength and power standards happens to meet a fit prepubescent teen, they at least better be able to run.
Why don’t you go ahead and have a seat?:
A U.S. Army sergeant who was arrested in an FBI sting when he showed up with candy, cash, condoms and lubricant to have sex with two young girls, pleaded guilty to a federal sex charge on Wednesday.
Alexis Kirk Torres, 26, thought he was showing up for a sexual tryst with the fictional girls, ages 12 and 14, when he arrived at a Davie parking lot in July, FBI agents said.
But Torres had actually been communicating with an undercover officer, on and off for several months, after he replied to an online ad in January. Torres and the agent negotiated in detail about what sexual services the girls would provide and how much Torres would pay, according to court records…
…Torres pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal charge of enticing a child to engage in sexual activity. He faces 10 years to life in federal prison when he is sentenced sometime in the next few months in federal court in West Palm Beach.
Was she expelled for lying? And if so… why not?:
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A military judge acquitted an Air Force Academy cadet Thursday of sexual misconduct charges at a court martial.
Cadet 3rd Class Jackson Spalding, a Colorado Springs native who competed for the academy’s track and field team two seasons ago, had been accused of groping a female cadet while they were watching a movie in an on-campus classroom last year.
The allegations were made last December, and Spalding had been charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of abusive sexual contact, and one charge alleging Spalding had violated a military article for officer conduct.
Spalding opted to face a judge instead of a panel of officers, and Judge Lt. Col. Marvin Tubbs decided there were holes in the woman’s story and acquitted Spalding.
That old man shuffling around could skull-fuck you:
James Moschgat recounts the story as if it were yesterday. He was nearing graduation from the Air Force Academy and ready to start his life as a military aviator.
There wasn’t a lot of room for much else in his life. The people who prepared his meals and the old man who cleaned the toilets and swept the floors were bit players, not stars in the cadets’ lives.
And then one day while doing research, he had a revelation about the old man who scrubbed the floors and toilets of his cadet dormitory.
“Pvt. William Crawford, without orders and on his own initiative, moved over the hill under enemy fire to a point within a few yards of the gun emplacement and single-handedly destroyed the machinegun and killed 3 of the crew with a hand grenade, thus enabling his platoon to continue its advance.
When the platoon, after reaching the crest, was once more delayed by enemy fire, Pvt. Crawford again, in the face of intense fire, advanced directly to the front midway between 2 hostile machinegun nests located on a higher terrace and emplaced in a small ravine.
Moving first to the left, with a hand grenade he destroyed 1 gun emplacement and killed the crew; he then worked his way, under continuous fire, to the other and with 1 grenade and the use of his rifle, killed 1 enemy and forced the remainder to flee. Seizing the enemy machinegun, he fired on the withdrawing Germans and facilitated his company’s advance.”
The election continues to take it’s toll:
Travelers headed to work Friday morning may have gotten an eyeful from a man who was reportedly standing on the roof of Sonic, naked.
Blake Patton, of Morganton, said he was headed to work around 6:30 a.m. and stopped for gas on South Sterling Street across from Sonic Drive-In, just off of exit 105. He said that as he pulled into the gas station, he heard someone yelling.
“He said, ‘Hey! Over here! Over here!’ and I looked across the street and saw some guy standing naked on the roof of Sonic.”
Patton said the man was yelling obscenities, looked like he was swatting at something that wasn’t there and throwing something that Patton thought sounded like bottles.
“He was hollering something about the election.”
Now I really want a Sonic cherry limeade, AKA best drink ever. @BKactual.
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