Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

Philly Police Union Looks To Oust Retired Cop

The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police is looking to strip a retired captain of his union membership, because he had sex with a 14-year-old girl illegally raided immigrant-owned bodegas across the city, then stole from and threatened their owners illegally arrested and nearly killed a man for legally carrying a firearm beat his girlfriend and threatened to ?stamp? her ?heart out? sexually assaulted three women during drug raids . . . hmm. It appears to have been none of those.

So what could he possibly have done?


The retired Philadelphia police captain committed an act so heinous, so unforgivable in the eyes of the FOP, that union president John McNesby filed a rare grievance that could result in Lewis being permanently expelled from the FOP and stripped of union benefits such as life insurance and free legal assistance.

?It?s quite unusual. We had to dig into the books to see what we could do and couldn?t do,? said FOP pension director Henry Vannelli, who made the motion to refer Lewis? case to the union?s grievance committee. ?We don?t want that guy around.?

Lewis? inexcusable offense?

He wore his police uniform to the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park last year. He wanted to show the world that the economic-equality movement is not just the pink-haired potheads and scatterbrained anarchists that some media outlets tend to focus on. He makes sure to tell people he?s retired.

?They thought everyone thought of them as dirty hippies. I made their concerns legitimate to the masses,? said Lewis, 60, explaining how he was greeted by the protesters last year. ?Their gratitude was overwhelming.?

Lewis, who wore his police uniform to Southwest Philadelphia?s Elmwood Park on Tuesday for a May Day rally with Occupy Philly and labor leaders, became somewhat of an Occupy celebrity, appearing in Time magazine and on cable news.

All of which continues to infuriate McNesby and other FOP officials. The grievance committee could complete its Lewis investigation by the end of the month.

?He?s not respecting the uniform,? McNesby said. ?People died for that uniform. It?s not Halloween.?

Not only should Lewis be punished by the union, McNesby said, he ?absolutely? should be locked up every time he sets foot in Philly with his uniform on.

Only problem: Nothing Lewis did was illegal.

Also, here?s a bonus, fun glimpse at police union logic:


But if it?s all about the uniform, why doesn?t the FOP take issue with Philadelphia lawyer Jimmy Binns? The wannabe cop has been photographed with a Glock on his hip in a look-alike Philadelphia police uniform on a Harley-Davidson that says ?police? on the side and is nearly identical to those ridden by city cops.

Simple, the FOP?s Vannelli says: ?Binns is a very good friend of police.?

:nazibanned::coplight::bangin:

edited to add the strike throughs that did not copy.
 
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You might want to copy the strike-throughs over as well, else the first paragraph makes no sense whatsoever.
 
There are about ten billion ways to kill people and create terror that don't involve the expense or effort of hijacking air travel. Either Al Qaeda is as inept as G.I. Joe's Cobra or all this is bullshit.

Typed from the public school I work at which has no security whatsoever.
 
What is it with Terrorists and under pants FCS. Do you think that this is all an elaborate excuse for some fondling and playing with undies?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17994493

Just another shitty attempt...

:drums:



There are about ten billion ways to kill people and create terror that don't involve the expense or effort of hijacking air travel. Either Al Qaeda is as inept as G.I. Joe's Cobra or all this is bullshit.

Typed from the public school I work at which has no security whatsoever.


I just think they think it is funny to make the TSA fondle everyones crotch.
 
The thing about all those controls is, that they only create annoyance in those effected and a false sense of safety in those who aren't. Do they really believe, that an intelligent terrorist will fly in from overseas and land in New York with a bomb in his luggage?

The USA don't have a terror problem, they have a fear-of-terror problem. 9/11 was 10 years ago and I'm quite sure, that in that time more Americans were murdered by Americans, than died in those Twin Towers.

Protection is an illusion. You cannot effectively protect a country from purposeful intruders, that has thousands of miles of unguarded borders. If stuff like the TSA is to have any effect at all, you consequently have to build a 10 meter high wall around the USA and secure it with mine fields. Otherwise it just has a placebo effect.

If the terrorists will ever get their hands on a nuke, they will probably simply stick it into a container, send it to New York and blow it up 1 mile away from the city. Job done.
 
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Yes, it is not difficult to blow stuff up with a nuke like that.

I saw a play on TV in the 1960s about a nuke that had been delivered in the 'diplomatic bag' to a fictitious country?s embassy. It was about trying to stop it going off - they failed - that was supposed to be in London and it struck me then that you do not need missiles, just a boat/ship.
 
So the UK government is reversing the only decent decision made in our 2010 defence review:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/17/f35_carriers_plot_by_bae_and_raf/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/09/government-u-turn-fighter-jets

So not only will we be getting two wildly overpriced aircraft carriers, but we will also be putting the least capable version of an already wildly overpriced and substandard aircraft on one of them (because the other will be immediately mothballed). Mind boggles.
 
Can't expect anything good from a Kenyan Muslim Communist Terrorist I guess :dunno:
You forgot ateist.

:nazibanned::coplight::bangin:

edited to add the strike throughs that did not copy.
Police unions are a serious issue in terms of officer accountability in the US. That said, they're also redicilously idiotic in cases like this.

In other news, there are some indications that the student fee riots may not have been as black and white as certain wannabe-Thatchers in the Queen's govenrment might have believed.

the Guardian; Nadine El-Enany: Anti-fees protesters' trials are putting policing in the dock

Courts are seeing an abundance of footage of police violence and intimidation as two more student protesters are acquitted

Two more student protesters, brothers Christopher and Andrew Hilliard, have been acquitted of charges of violent disorder relating to the anti-fees demo of 9 December 2010. The unanimous verdicts, which the jury took only two hours to reach, came hot on the heels of similar not-guilty verdicts for three other defendants. This brings the total to 11 acquittals in violent disorder cases relating to that one demo. This high rate of acquittals together with the disproportionate number of hung juries resulting from the protest cases demonstrate that the CPS is failing to prove that students engaged in unlawful violence at the 2010 protests.

Instead, courts are being treated to abundant footage of police violence and intimidation, involving containment, the indiscriminate use of batons and horses charging peaceful, static, kettled demonstrators with nowhere to run.

The Hilliard brothers were accused of pulling a mounted police officer off his horse at the demo. In 2009, Christopher Hilliard had visited parliament as part of an NUS delegation and secured the pledges of many MPs not to increase tuition fees. Much about the Hilliards' case exemplifies the politicised nature of the prosecutions of the student protesters. David Cameron himself risked influencing the outcome of the legal process when he publicly drew attention to the case, insisting that police had been "dragged off horses and beaten". The reality is that young people have not only been denied access to education and jobs through the abolition of the education maintenance allowance and the rise in tuition fees, but they are also being injured, demonised and criminalised when they protest about it.

Much of the Hilliards' defence benefited from a vast amount of footage located by the defendants themselves. The court was shown footage of a mounted officer pulling Christopher Hilliard's hair so hard that Hilliard is forced on to the tips of his toes in the moments before the officer comes off his horse. The defence argued that it was this, along with the officer's failure to follow the normal procedure of tightening the girth on his horse, that led to his unseating. Despite eight police officers alleging they witnessed the four or five seconds during which the officer became unseated, all said they happened to be looking away in the moments leading up to this. The disparity between the mounted officer's version of events and what the footage showed prompted Andrew Hilliard's barrister to tell the jury, he "must think you don't have eyes in your head".

The Hilliards are now investigating the possibility of having criminal proceedings initiated against the police.

What have we learned from the trial? That public order policing today is in a state of deep crisis, from the death of a bystander at the G20 protest in 2009, the serious head injury suffered by a student at the 9 December 2010 demo, to the numerous protesters wrongly charged with violent disorder.

The Hilliard brothers' victory is a victory not only for the acquitted protesters, but also for all those fighting to defend the right to protest. There's no greater feat in court than successfully disputing the word of a police officer, but the student protest cases, along with the recent, but by no means exceptional, spate of allegations of racism and corruption in the Met, are steadily undermining the perception in much of the public's mind that the police are necessarily a trustworthy, peaceful force for good.

I know this is a comment piece, but it sums it up pretty well, so why the hell not.

In other news, the Met might have to bring out kettling again, as a bunch of anarchists highly trained in the use of violence, will come to London to protest.

Guardian: Gloucestershire chief constable to join police protest march
 
Wether it's random or even political might be up for debate, but what the heck.

Gunnar S?nsteby died today.
701px-GunnarS%C3%B8nsteby.jpg


Norway's most decorated citizen, recipient of the War Cross with three swords, Commander of the St. Olavs Order, and the Destinguised Service Order, mr. S?nsteby was known by his wartime alias "Kjakan" or "number 24" in Norway.

Mr. S?nsteby was one of the driving forces behind the Norwegian resistance movement during the last war, leading the famous Oslo gang, and participating with among others Max Manus in different restiance acts.

He had success in the post-war years as a business man, as did many resistance heroes. He spent much of his time traveling around Norway speaking to school pupils about his experiences in the war, with a strong emphesis on the futility of hate. Mr. S?nsteby was well regarded in Norway.

What really unites and forms the soul of a society, or even a nation, is a shared history. For Norway, as for other nations, the most vivid parts of history is often conflict and strife, among those we find the second world war.

As the forces of darkness decended on my nation, some 72 years ago, most Norwegians were struck with fear and bevildering confusion. Some went off to fight, some faught well, but after two months, my land was occupied, and would stay that way for the next five dark years.

The men who took up arms to fight the occupiers knew they would probably die, and they knew they would probably never be able to throw out the occupiers.

The mark of a great man is he who sees unbeatable odds, and still decides to do what he is able to do. Because when the odds are stacked against you, the only thing you can do is just that, do your best.

Mr. S?nsteby was a great man, one of few even in a conflict as great as the second world war.

He has my undying respect and admiration, his heritage must never be forgotten.

Mr. S?nsteby was 94 when he died.

Just my small and insignificant attempt at an homage to a great man. Rest in peace.
 
^ Must spread som WW2 heroes around... Can someone cover me on that...?

I was going to post something like that myself, but I see you made a much better post nomix. Kjakan is a true legend, his efforts made a truly big impact, may he rest in peace.
 
So the UK government is reversing the only decent decision made in our 2010 defence review:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/17/f35_carriers_plot_by_bae_and_raf/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/09/government-u-turn-fighter-jets

So not only will we be getting two wildly overpriced aircraft carriers, but we will also be putting the least capable version of an already wildly overpriced and substandard aircraft on one of them (because the other will be immediately mothballed). Mind boggles.

Not to mention they cannot take an adequate AWACS (a helo with a small radar hung out the is a piss poor way of doing things when you have such massive shipt) type aircraft or take any naval drones that are coming in the next few decades.
Also the USN was saying EMALS and the arrestor set would cost 500 million pounds installed with parts and crew training not that massive figure the UK government was quoting. This smells like a politically driven decision rather than a capability driven one.
 
You're still getting a better capability than the old class of carriers with Harriers. And for fighting piss poor nations that can't afford bread or find the keys to their armoured cars, that gives you even better capabilities to project force.

As long as you never find yourself in a war with Russia or China. Or the states. Or Argentina. Although you've probably done the software fixes to stop Exocet now.
 
Not to mention they cannot take an adequate AWACS (a helo with a small radar hung out the is a piss poor way of doing things when you have such massive shipt) type aircraft or take any naval drones that are coming in the next few decades.
Also the USN was saying EMALS and the arrestor set would cost 500 million pounds installed with parts and crew training not that massive figure the UK government was quoting. This smells like a politically driven decision rather than a capability driven one.

Pretty much, its summed up very well by The Spectator: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/f35_u_turn_idiocy/

tl: dr, BAE has the government by the nads by quoting a massively inflated EMAS conversion price because they know if its installed then they will lose a tonne of contracts down the road.

Farce.
 
"Without force, in fact, could one conceive of life?...Recourse of thought, instrument of action, condition for movement, that midwife is necessary for giving birth to progress. Shield of lords, rampart of crowns, battering ram of revolutions, it is responsible, in turn, for order and liberty. Cradle of cities, scepter of empires, gravedigger of decadence, force gives laws to peoples and rules their destiny."

I have been reading The French Army In Politics 1945-1962 by John Steward Ambler and this quote by Charles de Gaulle, written in 1932, is given as an example of the political thought of some higher ranking French military officials during the interwar period.
 
You're still getting a better capability than the old class of carriers with Harriers. And for fighting piss poor nations that can't afford bread or find the keys to their armoured cars, that gives you even better capabilities to project force.

As long as you never find yourself in a war with Russia or China. Or the states. Or Argentina. Although you've probably done the software fixes to stop Exocet now.

There is an expression in designing a ship "steel is cheap and air is free" however these ships weigh much more and are overall larger than the smaller yet superior French carrier.
Aircraft like Harrier or F-35B are great for a secondary capability like on US amphibs or on cheap and cheerful small carriers like the Invincible class or the Giuseppe Garibaldi but for something so massive? Typical British bespoke idiocy (same as the Nimrod AEW and Nimrod MR4, the original design of the Type 42 destroyer, the Chinook saga and the half asses design of the Type 45).

Pretty much, its summed up very well by The Spectator: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/f35_u_turn_idiocy/

tl: dr, BAE has the government by the nads by quoting a massively inflated EMAS conversion price because they know if its installed then they will lose a tonne of contracts down the road.

Farce.

The RN should of gotten a price quote for conversion from Newport News Virginia if only for a sanity check and to keep BAE honest.
 
Elections today in the federal State of Northrhine Westphalia ... win for the already governing Social democrat & green coalition, but now with a majority (was a minority goverment so far). Pirates 7.8% , "the left" (radical socialist) fell to 2.5% - and with that out of parliment.
Surprisingly the federal democrats (Liberals) stopped their downward spiral from the last elections and secured their place in parliment as the 4th strongest party. The Christian Democrats of Chancellor Merkel took a dive of minus 8%.
All not really surprising but sadly, not even 60% voter turnout. :(
 
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The only politician with character stopped the FDP downspiral a week earlier :p



English: Vote for whatever the hell you want.
 
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