Dog Brothers Public Forum

Can she at least sign into law an act that creates a magical aura around all public buildings that transforms guns into frogs or candy, because that'd be really cool!

Concerning the AZ bill, as we all know, polictical conversations can get rather warm sometimes and the idea of some or all carrying guns does make me a bit leery.

Really? Ever lose your cool in an arguement and stab someone with knife you had on your person?

No offense taken, sir. :3 I'd still surely appreciate it if anyone in the LA area would be able to tell me a bit about...well, the LA area.

Imagine they paved hell, only with more evil and pollution. Oh, and palm trees.

All:  What do we make of the AZ bill?

Knowing only what is in the above article, I'd tend to support it.

Sounds interesting. If I didn't read this review, I'd never look it up. I met a few Brazillian cops about 12 years ago at a seminar in Quantico. I got the impression from some things they said that they had done things that would get an officer in the US imprisoned and it seemed like part of their police culture. It was interesting getting their take on the Jon Benet Ramsey case, to say the least.

I'm always a couple of years behind in my film-watching, so I apologize if this has been discussed before, but has anyone seen "Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within"? It's available on Netflix streaming video in subtitled format.

It sounds like a cheesy sequel to an even cheesier Jean Claude Van Damme movie from the 1980s, but it's an absorbing, exciting, gritty  Brazilian film from 2010 starring Wagner Moura as an officer from the Brazilian military police's SWAT team BOPE, who gets a disciplinary transfer (which turns into a promotion) from BOPE to the internal intelligence service that oversees BOPE after a controversial shooting of a cartel leader inside prison.  It's a very exciting (and violent) action film from the writer of CITY OF GOD  that also explores the nature of police corruption, the interplay of politics and media in Brazil, trying to stay connected with one's family after a divorce, and especially, the law of unintended consequences.  Kind of like THE WIRE set in Rio de Janeiro. It's a sequel (unsurprisingly, from the number in the title) to an earlier film that I haven't yet seen but want to check out. It won an award at the Berlin Film Festival.  Well-done firearms sequences, fairly realistic if brutal hand-to-hand, even a couple of BJJ scenes (Moura and his son at a Rio BJJ tournament, and drilling with his son at the BOPE matroom) which advance the plot in some interesting ways.

Also available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Squad-The-Enemy-Within/dp/B005TZFYUM/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_b

Well-worth seeing if you haven't yet, and as I said, free for the viewing if you have Netflix streaming.

www.forcescience.org
 

 

 
 
Training note: Please note that registrations ARE still being taken for the Force Science Certification Course scheduled for May 21-25, 2012 in Hillsboro, OR. We will be accepting an increased number of students to this course location. Click here for registration instructions and course details. You can also e-mail us at training@forcescience.org for the class location and discounted hotel arrangements.

Special protocol for ExDS response is valuable liability shield

With the symptoms and dangers of excited delirium now well-publicized and solidly confirmed by numerous research studies, agencies that fail to have a response protocol in place are inviting needless liability problems, according to a day-long presentation recently at a training seminar sponsored by the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn.

"Usually administrators start to take notice of this problem when they have a sudden in-custody death," said the featured speaker, Lt. Michael Paulus, a certified Force Science Analyst and 25-year veteran of the Champaign (IL) PD. "But that's too late. Agencies need to change their approach and get ahead of this problem in order to have different results.

"It doesn't cost big bucks to put an effective protocol in place, it doesn't require new equipment, and it's much more cost-effective than settling or losing a lawsuit. As education about excited delirium spreads, it gets harder for agencies to say they didn't know about the problem and the need to address it."

To illustrate how a "model" program might be developed and put into practice, Paulus drew on the experience of his own department and surrounding agencies, whose procedures he also described during a panel on excited delirium syndrome (ExDS) at the annual conference of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police last fall. He credits Force Science instructor Chris Lawrence, a recognized authority on ExDS, with helping to craft those policies.

As is often true in law enforcement, the measures were reactive to unfortunate controversy, Paulus explains. In a series of violent encounters across a 7-year period, 2 "extremely agitated subjects" died in custody in Champaign and neighboring Urbana and others were "near-misses" for fatal outcomes after intense struggles with police, not uncommon occurrences in the history of documented ExDS cases.

After whip lashings by the media and, in one case, a significant payout to settle a lawsuit, Paulus persuaded his administration to let him organize planning and training on the ExDS issue before another "HSM" (Holy Shit Moment), as he terms it, rained blame on the department.

It took him 9 months to complete the assignment, but since the countywide protocol was instituted, Paulus said there have been 27 "incident responses" in the area--with no subject deaths occurring. Here are what he considers the system's key components:

Multidisciplinary involvement. "Would you send the fire department to handle a burglary in progress or EMS to a bank robbery? No!" Paulus declares. "But what on a cop's belt lets him handle metabolic acidosis, hyperventilation, or hyperthermia, conditions believed to be common to extremely agitated subjects?

"We are not sending the right resources to deal with a life-threatening medical emergency that presents itself as a law enforcement problem and we wonder why these subjects end up dead?"

An effective protocol requires multidisciplinary input, training, and support--"a paradigm shift in thinking," Paulus says, "because the police alone can't likely get the best results."

To win essential stakeholder buy-in for a new, coordinated approach, Paulus recruited more than 40 decision-makers from a panoply of interest groups throughout his county for briefing sessions on the nature of ExDS and "best practices" for managing these challenging events.

Included were representatives of law enforcement, corrections, EMS, fire/rescue, telecommunications, hospital ER staffs, mental health/behavioral services providers and consumers, the local state's attorney, the coroner, the medical examiner--even, eventually, the media so that procedures could be explained to the general public.

"Everyone was encouraged to offer input to the ultimate plan," Paulus says. "Then these leaders spearheaded training for their own constituencies to instill the skills they needed to make the 'big picture' work, and to understand everyone else's role as well." All LEOs in the county, for example, received 2 hours of classroom instruction and 2 hours of hands-on exercises, with dispatchers getting 2 hours' training of their own.

Simultaneous dispatch. Dispatchers are critical to the success of the protocol. They are trained on when it's appropriate to probe 911 callers for indications of possible ExDS at a trouble scene, such as subjects shedding clothing; breaking glass; raving incoherently or seeming delusional; displaying "superhuman" strength; acting highly agitated, aggressive, paranoid, or confused.

"EMS needs to be dispatched at the same time as law enforcement, preferably with an advanced life-support ambulance," Paulus says. (In some communities by law, a fire/rescue truck must also be sent on any EMS dispatch.)

If officers call in from a scene having encountered a suspected ExDS situation without prior warning, dispatchers get EMS en route immediately.

Police role defined. "Ideally, everyone should get to the scene at the same time," Paulus says. "If police arrive first, they should try to contain the situation, talk to the subject in an effort to calm him, and--if possible--wait for EMS before laying hands on. This is a medical crisis and the medics should be regarded as the primary responders."

The role of the police will be to "capture, control, and restrain" so that medical attention can begin, Paulus says. If they unnecessarily intervene too soon, "they may make the problem worse."

Restraint cooperation. At the scene, officers and EMS confer briefly to develop a plan. The medical team needs to park where they can observe the subject, to assess his level of agitation. If paramedics are authorized to inject a sedative (they aren't in all jurisdictions), they decide whether they are willing to do so once the subject is restrained.

There's little to no chance that ExDS subjects can be talked into cooperating, Paulus says; "they're unresponsive to language and logic." The effectiveness of OC, given their imperviousness to pain, is dubious. Weighing results vs risk of injury for all involved, Tasering is probably the best choice, Paulus believes. But if physical force is the only option, it needs to be fast and overwhelming, with a vascular neck restraint possibly considered as part of the package.

"The struggle needs to end ASAP," Paulus explains. "The longer it lasts, the more intensely the subject will fight back, perceiving that he's fighting for his life, and the worse his medical risk will become."

However the subject is brought to the ground, Paulus favors an MOTC (Multi-Officer Control Tactic) taught by Chris Lawrence and his fellow DT instructors at Canada's Ontario Police College for restraint. Optimally, it involves the coordinated effort of 5 officers, all trained in the technique to use their weight and leverage to tightly control the subject's limbs and head. "The tactic can be adapted to work even with 3 officers, with a lot of communication and coordination," Paulus says.

"If there aren't enough cops, our protocol calls for firemen or EMS personnel to get involved." Given the usual, well-known reluctance of EMS personnel even to get close to any police action, Paulus says, "when we showed them what we needed them to do to help, I was shocked at the cooperation we got. They understood that this is a dire medical emergency and that police can't resolve it alone."

Fast sedation. Once the struggling has been minimized, that's when field sedation may occur. The sedative is injected, through the subject's clothing, into the butt or thigh.

"Rapid sedation is the field treatment for excited delirium," says Dr. Thomas Scaggs, EMS medical director for Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana who shared the IACP panel with Paulus. Tranquilizing the subject will stop the adverse effects of struggling and "will start to reverse acidosis, muscle breakdown, and hyperthermia. It's one key thing that may save the subject."

The sedative selected needs to be "effective, reliable, safe, deliverable intramuscularly, and produce a fast onset (within 3-4 minutes)," he said. His choice is ketamine, which he described as "the drug for this syndrome." First used as a field anesthetic during the Vietnam War, "it has no contraindications--does not suppress breathing, for example--and if it turns out the subject is not experiencing excited delirium, there's no harm done."

(If sedation is not administered at the scene, it certainly will be in the ER, to make treatment possible.)

Special handcuffing. While the subject's positioning is not important for the field injection, EMS ultimately wants him supine for treatment during ambulance transport, Paulus explains. However, he's handcuffed on the ground while prone. At least 3 sets of swivel-style cuffs are linked in a daisy chain behind his back, so he can lie with his arms at his side when he's face up. His legs are bound with a hobble to prevent him from kicking.

Once he's hooked up, the subject is turned on his side, a backboard is placed so he can be rolled back down onto it, he's strapped down and then loaded into the ambulance. "An officer rides along and takes notes to document any procedures EMS administers or changes that occur with the suspect en route to the hospital," Paulus advises.

Medical follow-through. In their training to support the protocol, medical professionals are thoroughly briefed on the challenges they'll likely confront with ExDS, from the extraordinarily high body temperature to the strong probability of cocaine intoxication.

Yet even with the broadest knowledge and the best efforts of all involved, the subject may still die at any point without warning. About 200 suspected ExDS deaths occur each year, Scaggs estimates. "The first sign of impending death in such cases is death itself," he says. "And these subjects can never be resuscitated."

The medical examiner's staff needs to be trained in the special autopsies that are required after these fatalities, in order to discover the findings most relevant to cause of death, Paulus explains. "They need to look for much more subtle cues than just the obvious physical damage that may have occurred during a struggle with the police."

Among other things, he says, pathologists need to know the purpose and value of promptly forwarding brain samples to the University of Miami's Brain Program, under the direction of Dr. Deborah Mash (see: www.exciteddelirium.org), where submissions can be examined for evidence of ExDS.

Investigators will also want to conduct what Paulus calls a "psychological autopsy," which includes rebuilding the subject's life back to a minimum of 72 hours before the incident to reconstruct what led up to the confrontation at the scene.

Legal understanding. When the outcome of an ExDS encounter isn't favorable, having prosecutors also educated in excited delirium characteristics and the complexity of a proper response will help guard against the convenient but treacherous assumption that "whoever last touched a stricken subject is the one who killed him," Paulus believes. And an in-place protocol can also help an agency's defense in civil suits.

Another of Paulus's copanelists at IACP was Force Science Analyst Laura Scarry, a popular police attorney from Chicago and Wheaton (IL). Scarry told the chiefs:

"The vast majority of excited delirium cases will result in litigation. By putting a protocol in place, you're getting ahead of potential disaster. Jurors want to hear that you have policy and procedure on this subject. They favor education and training. They will appreciate the fact that you respond to people in medical crisis as patients rather than as criminal suspects.

"You can't always respond as you'd want in a perfect world, but jurors will appreciate communication and cooperation among groups toward a common goal. They won't appreciate a disconnect among agencies."

Toward that end, Paulus told Force Science News he is willing to help agencies formulate a protocol tailored toward their particular needs. "Wherever you are in the world, if you have people in your jurisdiction who are abusing drugs and/or have mental health issues, you have a near-certainty of this problem arising," he says. "The time to plan how to deal with it is not when you're standing face to face with an out-of-control subject who's on a freight train to death."

Just 4 days after the finished protocol "went live," it was put to the test in Champaign, he recalls. "We got a call of a mentally ill female...sweating profusely...breaking a glass coffee table...rolling around in shards of glass.

"True to their training, the responding players performed as we had hoped and in this case the stricken subject did survive."

For more information, Paulus can be reached at: michael923@yahoo.com; Chris Lawrence at: chris.lawrence@policeone.com; and Laura Scarry at: lscarry@deanoandscarry.com.

For a recent report on ExDS, see the article "Stop the Madness" by Sgt. Joel Johnston in Blue Line magazine, which can be accessed free on the Force Science site by clicking here or visiting www.forcescience.org/blueline.pdf Johnston, a 27-year veteran of Vancouver (BC) PD, a certified Force Science Analyst, and a member of an international panel of experts on ExDS convened by the U.S. NIJ, corrects 6 persistent myths about the syndrome that have resulted in law enforcement being unjustly blamed for high-profile in-custody deaths.

[Our thanks to the president of the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn., Chief Jeff Chudwin, for facilitating our attendance at Lt. Paulus's seminar.]
 

A sign of how our society has lost contact with reality. California being the leading edge, of course.

**Of course, this was before he was a "white-hispanic".

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/04/daniel-zimmerman/quote-of-the-day-narrative-destroying-edition/

Quote of the Day: Narrative Destroying Edition

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Dan Zimmerman



 
“You will recall the incident of the beating of the black homeless man Sherman Ware on December 4, 2010 by the son of a Sanford police officer. The beating sparked outrage in the community but there were very few that stepped up to do anything about it. I would presume the inaction was because of the fact that he was homeless not because he was black. Do you know the individual who stepped up when no one else in the black community would? Do you know who spent tireless hours putting flyers on the cars of persons parked in the churches of the black community? Do you know who waited for the church-goers to get out of church so that he could hand them flyers in an attempt to organize the black community against this horrible miscarriage of justice? Do you know who helped organize the City Hall meeting on January 8, 2011 at Sanford City Hall?? That person was GEORGE ZIMMERMAN.” – from a letter to Turner Clayton of the Seminole County NAACP written by “a concerned Zimmerman family member”

Quote from: G M on March 31, 2012, 08:44:26 PM

Quote from: Crafty_Dog on March 31, 2012, 05:31:04 PM

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/20/deaths-nearly-triple-since-stand-your-ground-enacted/

According to state crime stats, Florida averaged 12 “justifiable homicide” deaths a year from 2000-2004. After “Stand your Ground” was passed in 2005, the number of “justifiable” deaths has almost tripled to an average of 35 a year, an increase of 283% from 2005-2010.

Yawn.

Did the overall homicide rate increase? Without looking, I'll bet 35 homicides a month in greater Miami is typical.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/floridas-crime-rate-was-its-lowest-in-four-decades-in-2010/1166168

Florida's crime rate was its lowest in four decades in 2010

 By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
 In Print: Wednesday, April 27, 2011



Florida's crime rate sank to a four-decade low in 2010, Gov. Rick Scott announced Tuesday.

There were 4,105 crimes reported for every 100,000 residents in 2010, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That's a drop of 7 percent from the year before and the lowest crime rate on record since 1971.

In 2010 the total number of violent crimes (murders, assaults, robberies and forcible sex crimes) fell 10 percent while property crimes (burglaries and auto thefts) dipped 6 percent. The data are culled from 410 police agencies statewide.

"The numbers are certainly encouraging," St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon said. "But we still have work to do."

Though crime was down, it was as devastating as ever. Last year, two Tampa police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty. Three St. Petersburg officers have been shot and killed on the job this year.

In fact, while murder dropped statewide and nationally in 2010, it rose in three Tampa Bay counties: Hernando (from four to nine deaths), Hillsborough (56 to 65 deaths) and Pinellas (27 to 35 deaths). Only Pasco County saw a decrease (12 to 10 deaths).

Murder is traditionally known as the toughest crime to prevent.

Ok, it looks like Dade and Broward counties together averaged 23.9 homicides a month in 2010.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/20/deaths-nearly-triple-since-stand-your-ground-enacted/

According to state crime stats, Florida averaged 12 “justifiable homicide” deaths a year from 2000-2004. After “Stand your Ground” was passed in 2005, the number of “justifiable” deaths has almost tripled to an average of 35 a year, an increase of 283% from 2005-2010.

Yawn.

Did the overall homicide rate increase? Without looking, I'll bet 35 homicides a month in greater Miami is typical.

GM, of course I get the point about knives, distance, time, etc.  Duh.  However in that time is precisely what is in question here, how is it that the police had the time to holster their taserS and then draw their guns?  Tis curious , , ,

Also, you continue to avoid the matter of there NOT being marijuana in his system though I have presented it to you point blank a number of times.

And I responded.Quote from: Crafty_Dog on March 28, 2012, 07:35:40 PM


They say they are taking the man's child away because he smoked pot in front of the child, yet there are no traces of pot in his system.  As both of us know, pot takes months to clear out of someone's system, so how can this be?

Does this not strike you as very odd?



"The attempted removal of the minor child came after a police officer who came to the scene on a call earlier that same day reported that he smelled marijuana and reported the incident to CPS authorities, who decided the child needed to be removed."

So, reading the line from above, I'm guessing there was an odor that the officer detected from the residence. Perhaps the source wasn't the father in the case, but another person in the residence at the time.

http://www.dailymercury.com.au/story/2011/10/04/taser-fails-on-aggressive-patron/

Taser fails on aggressive patron
 

Melissa Grant | 4th October 2011 12:00 AM


POLICE thought deploying a taser gun at Matthew Bierton's chest would be enough to stop him behaving in a threatening manner, but they were wrong.
 
The two officers would have realised this when Bierton said: "Is that the best you (expletives) have got?"
 
Bierton said he didn't feel anything when a police officer tasered him at a Slade Point tavern on May 12. The 33-year-old was tasered because he behaved in a threatening manner towards police when they tried to question him about a domestic dispute at a Slade Point residence.
 
Prosecutor Constable Janelle Young said police went to a tavern on Pacific Esplanade to talk to Bierton about the dispute in which he damaged a vehicle. When they approached him he told them to "(expletive) off".
 
At this point, Bierton turned around on the bar stool and stood up.
 
He adopted a fighting stance and because there was glass nearby one officer produced and deployed his taser gun, Const Young said.
 
Bierton pleaded guilty to obstructing a police officer, wilful damage and breaching a domestic violence order in the Mackay Magistrates Court yesterday.
 
Duty lawyer John Aberdeen, of Legal Aid Queensland, said Bierton could remember wearing handcuffs and being tasered that evening but couldn't recall threatening police.
 
"The taser shot at him - apparently it didn't work," he said.
 
"My client didn't feel anything."
 
Mr Aberdeen said Bierton was unemployed and stressed at the time and had issues with relationships, anger management and alcohol. In court Bierton said he was on prescribed medication at the time of the incident.
 
Magistrate Athol Kennedy said there was no excuse for Bierton's actions.
 
"Police are not there to be abused. None of us are," he said. Bierton was sentenced to 12 months' probation and ordered to pay $300 compensation to the police officer he kicked in the chest during the dispute.

http://www.policeone.com/news_internal.asp?view=113907

In Part 1 of this special series we reported on how the 21-Foot Rule, one of the core training components of edged-weapon defense, stands up when assessed against landmark findings about action-reaction times documented by the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato. We explained:
 
1. Because of misinterpretation, the 21-Foot Rule has been dangerously corrupted, but
 
2. When properly understood, the Rule is still valid in certain circumstances.

Now in this final installment of our 2-part series we discuss additional conclusions regarding edged-weapon defense, namely:
 
3. For many officers and situations, a 21-foot reactionary gap is not sufficient.
 
4. Weapons that officers often think they can depend on to defeat knife attacks can't be relied upon to protect them in many cases.
 
5. Training in edged-weapon defense should by no means be abandoned.
 
Here's what FSRC's executive director and selected members of the Center's National and Technical Advisory Boards have to say on these topics:
 
3. MORE DISTANCE. "In reality, the 21-Foot Rule--by itself--may not provide officers with an adequate margin of protection," says Dr. Bill Lewinski, FSRC's executive director. "It's easily possible for suspects in some circumstances to launch a successful fatal attack from a distance greater than 21 feet."

Among other police instructors, John Delgado, retired training officer for the Miami-Dade (FL) PD, has extended the 21-Foot Rule to 30 feet. "Twenty-one feet doesn't really give many officers time to get their gun out and fire accurately," he says. "Higher-security holsters complicate the situation, for one thing. Some manufacturers recommend 3,000 pulls to develop proficiency with a holster. Most cops don't do that, so it takes them longer to get their gun out than what's ideal. Also shooting proficiency tends to deteriorate under stress. Their initial rounds may not even hit."

Beyond that, there's the well-established fact that a suspect often can keep going from momentum, adrenalin, chemicals and sheer determination, even after being shot. "Experience informs us that people who are shot with a handgun do not fall down instantly nor does the energy of a handgun round stop their forward movement," states Chris Lawrence, team leader of DT training at the Ontario (Canada) Police College and an FSRC Technical Advisory Board member. Says Lewinski: "Certain arterial or spinal hits may drop an attacker instantly. But otherwise a wounded but committed suspect may have the capacity to continue on to the officer's location and complete his deadly intentions."

That's one reason why tactical distractions, which we'll discuss in a moment, should play an important role in defeating an edged-weapon attack, even when you are able to shoot to defend yourself.
 
"When working with bare-minimum margins, any delay in an officer responding to a deadly threat can equate to injury or death," reinforces attorney and use-of-force trainer Bill Everett, an FSRC National Advisory Board member. "So the officer must key his or her reaction to the first overt act indicating that a lethal attack is coming.
 
"More distance and time give the officer not only more tactical options but also more opportunity to confirm the attacker's lethal intention before selecting a deadly force response."
 
4. MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. Relying on OC or a Taser for defeating a charging suspect is probably a serious mistake. Gary Klugiewicz, a leading edged-weapon instructor and a member of FSRC's National Advisory Board, points out that firing out Taser barbs may be an effective option in dealing with a threatening but STATIONARY subject. But depending on this force choice to stop a charging suspect could be disastrous.

With fast, on-rushing movement, "there's a real chance of not hitting the subject effectively and of not having sufficient time" for the electrical charge--or for a blast of OC--to take effect before he is on you, Klugiewicz says.

Lewinski agrees, adding: "A rapid charge at an officer is a common characteristic of someone high on chemicals or severely emotionally disturbed. More research is needed, but it appears that when a Taser isn't effective it is most often with these types of suspects."
 
Smug remarks about offenders foolishly "bringing a knife to a gunfight" betray dangerous thinking about the ultimate force option, too. Some officers are cockily confident they'll defeat any sharp-edged threat because they carry a superior weapon: their service sidearm. This belief may be subtly reinforced by fixating on distances of 21 or 30 feet, as if this is the typical reaction space you'll have in an edged-weapon encounter.
 
The truth is that where edged-weapon attacks are concerned, "close-up confrontations are actually the norm," points out Sgt. Craig Stapp, a firearms trainer with the Tempe (AZ) P.D. and a member of FSRC's Technical Advisory Board. "A suspect who knows how to effectively deploy a knife can be extremely dangerous in these circumstances. Even those who are not highly trained can be deadly, given the close proximity of the contact, the injury knives are capable of, and the time it takes officers to process and react to an assault.

"At close distances, standing still and drawing are usually not the best tactics to employ and may not even be possible." At a distance of 10 feet, a subject is less than half a second away from making the first cut on an officer, Lewinski's research shows. Therefore, rather than relying on a holstered gun, officers must be trained in hands-on techniques to deflect or delay the use of the knife, to control it and/or to remove it from the attacker's grasp, or to buy time to get their gun out. These methods have to be simple enough to be learned by the average officer.

**Use techniques to "Die less often", to use a phrase I've heard before.

With the passage of AB 962, anybody purchasing handgun ammunition in California will have to register with the state starting on February 1, 2011. What this means to gun owners in California, and the rest of America, will have repercussions for years to come.
 
California consumers will have to provide their name, address, date of birth, and right thumbprint to the seller in order to complete the transaction. The seller must maintain these records for at least five years and make them available to inspection for any law enforcement official conducting an investigation where ammunition records may be relevant.
 
All transactions must be conducted in person, so mail order sales will be banned.
 
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), California consumers buy about 1.2 billion rounds of ammunition annually, about 12% of the total U.S. market. While some of this is rifle ammunition, there’s some vagary in the new law which may result in rifle ammunition purchasers being included under the new law:
 
Where ammunition or reloaded ammunition may be used in both a rifle and a handgun, it may be sold to a person who is at least 18 years of age, but less than 21 years of age, if the vendor reasonably believes that the ammunition is being acquired for use in a rifle and not a handgun.
 
This reasonability test creates a gray area, and considering California’s anti-rights history, any doubts will likely side towards the seller requiring your personal information. For example, people with .22 rifles may have to register, because of all the .22 target pistols that fire the same rounds.
 
Bottom line: If rifle owners believe they have somehow escaped unscathed, they are only fooling themselves. Also, there is nothing stopping the legislature from revising this law to include all ammunition in the future.
 
Impact on ammunition availability
 
Cabela’s is already on record that they will discontinue California ammunition sales when AB 962 goes live. Between high demand, and the hassles created by the new law, Cabela’s has no motive to continue selling there. This drop in supply will raise prices for California consumers, but supply redistribution will benefit ammunition buyers elsewhere, possibly resulting in price decreases.
 
The NSSF predicts that California ammunition costs will “dramatically increase” under the new law, but they see no negative impact on prices elsewhere.
 
AB 962 may also result in ammunition inventory issues nationwide through next June. The NSSF says that ammunition manufacturers are already working at full capacity. As far as manufacturer’s deciding whether the last year’s increased demand is an aberration or trend, NSSF says “the jury is still out.” This means that there are no planned increases in production in the foreseeable future.
 
Page 2: Interviews of two of the largest online vendors, and impact of this bill on all gun owners.


Continue reading on Examiner.com California's new ammunition law: Costs and consequences - Austin gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-austin/california-s-new-ammunition-law-costs-and-consequences

If people sign up for the live fire class I will be able to order enough ammo and have it drop shipped to the training site. It will not be included in the price. that will be a separate deal altogether and I can probably beat the ammoman.com's prices. but it will be a prepaid order in the name of the person who signed up for the class.

Be sure to check on the People's Republic of Kalifornia's laws, as it's my understanding that ammo for non-PRK residents and PRK subjects are different and potentially a real headache.

Not my area of expertise, but I'd double check on things before moving forward.

They say they are taking the man's child away because he smoked pot in front of the child, yet there are no traces of pot in his system.  As both of us know, pot takes months to clear out of someone's system, so how can this be?

Does this not strike you as very odd?

"The attempted removal of the minor child came after a police officer who came to the scene on a call earlier that same day reported that he smelled marijuana and reported the incident to CPS authorities, who decided the child needed to be removed."

So, reading the line from above, I'm guessing there was an odor that the officer detected from the residence. Perhaps the source wasn't the father in the case, but another person in the residence at the time.

Very odd that the man had no traces of marijuana when that was the foundation of taking his son away from him , , ,  Instead you offer a  , , , very predictable response.

Predictable, as in pointing out the flaw in the post decrying the "war on drugs"?

He got shot, not because of marijuana or the lack thereof, but by threatening officers with deadly force.

So, again, if a subject was shot after being stopped for DUI, would that be a casualty of the "war on drunk driving" ?

If then, is the answer to legalize drunk driving?

**Do the stupid and evil thing!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/spike-lee-zimmerman-tweet-567891


Elderly Couple In Fear Over Spike Lee Tweet

Star erroneously linked Floridians to man who killed Trayvon Martin

MARCH 27--With Twitter and Facebook continuing to explode with posts purporting to contain the address of George Zimmerman, property records and interviews reveal that the home is actually the longtime residence of a married Florida couple, both in their 70s, who have no connection to the man who killed Trayvon Martin and are now living in fear due to erroneous reports about their connection to the shooter.
 
The mass dissemination of the address on Edgewater Circle in Sanford--the Florida city where Martin was shot to death last month--took flight last Friday when director Spike Lee retweeted a tweet containing Zimmerman’s purported address to his 240,000 followers.
 
The original tweet was sent to Lee (and numerous other celebrities like Will Smith, 50 Cent, and LeBron James) last Friday afternoon by Marcus Davonne Higgins, a 33-year-old Los Angeles man who uses the online handle “maccapone.” Higgins included the direction, “EVERYBODY REPOST THIS.”
 
Higgins, pictured at right, first began disseminating the Sanford address to his Twitter followers last Wednesday, including the claim that Zimmerman “Like the fat punk he is, he still lives at home with mommie & daddy.” In a simultaneous post to his Facebook wall, Higgins told his 4000 friends, “FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT & TOUCH HIM.” He also claimed in another post that, “REAL TALK MY PEOPLE OUT THERE IN FLORIDA JUST TOLD ME GEORGE ZIMMERMAN IS NOT AT HIS HOUSE THEY OUT THERE RIGHT NOW.”
 
Higgins’s dissemination of Zimmerman’s purported Edgewater Circle address was not, however, limited to cyberspace. At a protest rally last Thursday in an L.A. park near his Crenshaw home, Higgins held a sign containing Zimmerman’s name, address, and phone number.
 
Except, of course, none were accurate.
 
The man who shot Martin is George Michael Zimmerman. Higgins has repeatedly identified him as “George W. Zimmerman.”
 
The residence on Edgewater Circle is actually the home of David McClain, 72, and his wife Elaine, 70. The McClains, both of whom work for the Seminole County school system, have lived in the 1310-square-foot lakefront home for about a decade, records show.
 
In an interview tonight, Elaine McClain told TSG that she and her husband were “afraid” due to the online linking of her address to Zimmerman. “We're keeping everything locked,” she said. McClain added that the couple was particularly unnerved by a letter mailed to them at their home. On the envelope, she said, were printed the words “Taste The Rainbow,” the slogan for Skittles. Martin was carrying a pack of Skittles and a can of ice tea when he was gunned down by Zimmerman.
 
McClain said her husband returned the envelope unopened to the post office.
 
The McClains only became aware that their address was being widely circulated online two days ago, when a TV reporter arrived at their home asking for “George.” Bewildered by their sudden--and erroneous--connection to Martin’s killer, the elderly couple’s distress can only be heightened by posts made by Twitter and Facebook users who threaten to visit their residence in search of Zimmerman. Or other posts that goad followers to vigilante action.
 
Higgins has not responded to numerous TSG messages, so it is unknown where he came up with the information tying Zimmerman to the McClains's home. A check of Zimmerman’s residential history shows no connection to the Edgewater Circle property, which is about four miles from his actual home in Sanford.
 
So how did Higgins screw things up?
 
Besides overlooking the different middle initial, perhaps that answer is connected to an old voter record for a “William George Zimmerman” at the Edgewater Circle property. That registration, which dates back to 1995, is for a 41-year-old man. The Zimmerman who shot Martin is 28.
 
Elaine McClain identified William George Zimmerman as her son, noting that he has not lived at the Edgewater Circle residence for seven years. “He is six-foot-five and thin as a rail,” McClain said of her son, who now lives elsewhere in Seminole County. McClain said she was previously married to a man named Zimmerman, but that he was not related in any fashion to the Zimmerman who shot Martin.
 
When told that Twitter posts containing her address continued to pour in this evening, an exasperated Elaine McClain remarked, “Maybe we should get a lawyer and send a cease and desist letter to Spike Lee.”

I'm reminded of a traffic stop where a DUI suspect tried pulling a knife from concealment and narrowly avoided getting shot. Would that have been a casualty of the war on drunk driving?

http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/narrative-interrupted-george-zimmerman-a-registered-democrat/

Narrative Interrupted: George Zimmerman a Registered Democrat


Posted by Jammie on Mar 27, 2012 at 12:43 pm





I knew there was something suspicious about this Zimmerman character. Heck, if I didn’t know any better I’d say he could pass for Obama’s brother. One thing’s for sure, this rarely-seen  photo just goes to show how old the usual photo we see of Zimmerman is.
 

The individual at the center of the controversial Trayvon Martin shooting is a registered Democrat.
 
George Michael Zimmerman, born Oct. 5, 1983, registered as a Democrat in Seminole County, Fla., in August 2002, according to state voter registration documents.
 
It is unclear whether he voted for President Barack Obama in 2008.
 
Some in the media have sought to blame Republican politicians and conservative activists for Martin’s death.
 
“[Republican politicians] reinforce and validate old stereotypes that associate the poor and welfare as criminal behavior with African-Americans and people of color, calling us lazy, undeserving recipients of public assistance. In the case of Trayvon, those festering stereotypes had lethal consequences,” said MSNBC political analyst and Democratic fundraiser Karen Finney.
 
According to the document, Zimmerman’s race is officially listed as Hispanic. The son of a white father and Peruvian mother, he has been described as a “white Hispanic” in most media reports.
 
So we assume the media will from here on accurately call Zimmerman a Hispanic Democrat, right?

SANFORD -- Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin was suspended from school in October in an incident in which he was found in possession of women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that a schools security staffer described as a “burglary tool,” The Miami Herald has learned.

Trayvon, who claimed that an unnamed friend had given him the jewelry, was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.

A lawyer for the dead teen’s family acknowledged Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but said the family knew nothing about the jewelry and the screwdriver, calling the information in the report an attempt to “demonize” the youth.

According to the report, on Oct. 21 staffers monitoring a security camera at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School spotted Trayvon and two other students writing “W.T.F.,” an acronym for “What the f---,” on a hallway locker, according to schools police. The security employee, who knew Trayvon, confronted the teen and looked through his bag for the graffiti marker.

Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described the screwdriver as a burglary tool.

Trayvon was asked if the jewelry, which was mostly women’s rings and earrings, belonged to his family or a girlfriend.

“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.

School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.

“Martin was suspended, warned and dismissed for the graffiti,” according to the report prepared by Miami-Dade Schools Police.

That suspension was followed four months later by another one, in February, in which Trayvon was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it, the boy’s family’s attorney has confirmed. A schools police report obtained by The Miami Herald specifies two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a “marijuana pipe.”

The suspension was the third for the teen. On Monday, the family also acknowledged Trayvon had earlier been suspended for tardiness and truancy.

The reports of the suspensions surfaced as a more complicated portrait of Trayvon began to emerge Monday. Trayvon was shot to death in Sanford on Feb. 26 during a scuffle with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. He was suspended from school at the time.

Reacting to the new schools police report, Ben Crump, an attorney for the parents, said they “never heard anything like this about a bag of jewelry….And anyway, it’s completely irrelevant to what happened Feb. 26. They never heard this, and don’t believe it’s true. If it were true, why wouldn’t they call the parents? Why wasn’t he arrested?”

“We think everybody is trying to demonize him.”

Trayvon, who was 17 when he died, had never been arrested, he said.

His mother, Sybrina Fulton, said her son never had any problems with gangs or the police. In fact, she said, when she transferred him out of Carol City High School to be closer to home, the school wanted him to stay at Carol City because they liked him and he was a good student, she said.

“They killed my son and now they are trying to kill his reputation,” she said.

Another lawyer for the family said she didn’t put much credence in the report about the jewelry and the screwdriver.

“This is someone in a school writing a report, rumor as far as I’m concerned,” said attorney Natalie Jackson.

At a press conference held Monday after a town forum in Eatonville, near Sanford, the parents, flanked by their attorneys along with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, addressed the report about the empty marijuana baggie.

“If he and his friends were experimenting with marijuana, that is still completely irrelevant,” Crump said. “It is one of the things the family has said: ‘What does that have to do with him killing my son?’

Sharpton said he warned the family from the start that anything negative about Trayvon would be dragged out in an effort to make him out to be a “junkie and a thief.” He knew that would happen, he said, because it’s occurred in every similar case he has ever been involved in.

“The only thing that’s relevant is what Zimmerman knew,” Sharpton said. “Let’s not play this double standard of trying to damage who is dead and sanitize who is the cause of the death.”

The teen’s family and their supporters spoke after the Orlando Sentinel reported that Zimmerman told authorities that Trayvon beat Zimmerman’s head against the sidewalk.

Trayvon was killed while serving out the 10-day suspension for the marijuana baggie in Sanford, where his father’s girlfriend lives. Zimmerman, a community watch volunteer who thought Trayvon looked drugged and suspicious called police and later wound up in a fight with him. The two scuffled and Zimmerman shot Trayvon, killing him. He has not been charged.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/v-fullstory/2714778/thousands-expected-at-trayvon.html#storylink=cpy

SD,

I think it's difficult to say if this was a legitimate shoot or not given the lack of solid information. I hope the PD did a good investigation.

Ah, interesting!

http://pjmedia.com/blog/treyvon-martin-scant-evidence-already-a-verdict/?singlepage=true



Trayvon Martin: Scant Evidence, Already a Verdict

Expect no clean resolution to the Trayvon Martin shooting.



by
Jack Dunphy

Bio




March 22, 2012 - 10:17 am


Little but the most rudimentary facts are known about the shooting: On the night of February 17, Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old boy, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. (Some news accounts have described Zimmerman as Latino.) Prior to the shooting, Zimmerman, who was active in his gated community’s neighborhood watch, phoned the Sanford police department and reported a suspicious person whom he described as a male black wearing a dark “hoodie,” jeans or sweat pants, and white tennis shoes. Exactly why Zimmerman found Martin worthy of suspicion remains unclear, but he told the police dispatcher there had been some break-ins in the neighborhood, and that “this guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”
 
Moments after the call to police ended, Zimmerman shot Martin once in the chest, killing him. But why?
 
Zimmerman, who was licensed in Florida to carry a concealed weapon, told police he had fired in self-defense, but the details of his statement to investigators have not been made public. The dearth of details has not prevented an outcry calling for Zimmerman’s arrest for murder. So intense is the political pressure on prosecutors that Zimmerman will almost certainly be charged with a crime, but there is little chance he’ll be convicted of one, certainly not murder.

 
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The death of Trayvon Martin is simply not one that will lend itself to a tidy resolution in the criminal justice system. This is not a case in which some homicidal predator killed someone in the course of a robbery. On the other hand, Zimmerman’s critics have painted him as an overzealous vigilante who stepped beyond the customary limits of the neighborhood watch member by pursuing a person who had done nothing more than behave suspiciously.
 
Indeed, Zimmerman seems an easy figure to caricature. At National Review Online, Robert VerBruggen calls him “a classic cop wannabe.” Zimmerman, VerBruggen writes, “lov[ed] the thought of himself as a police officer, and witnessing a spate of break-ins in his neighborhood, he decided to patrol the streets in his SUV — carrying a gun (as he was licensed to do) and calling the cops 46 times in the course of a year to report ‘suspicious’ activity.”
 
Most police officers will recognize the archetype that VerBruggen assumes Zimmerman to be: the guy who wants to be a cop but for some reason cannot, but who nonetheless acts as a sort of watchman for his neighborhood, calling the police for any perceived breach of good order. And calling the police 46 times in a single year would indeed seem excessive if not psychotic. But, as Andrew Cohen reports at the Atlantic, Zimmerman’s 46 calls to police came over the course of 11 years, not one, with the confusion owing to a typo on a report released by the Sanford police. And given the level of crime in the area, an average of four calls per year may not be an inordinate amount at all. (The website Crimemapping.com lists 282 crimes within a mile of the site of the shooting within the last six months, including three burglaries within the gated community itself.)
 
Much has been made of the claim the Zimmerman “pursued” Martin against the advice of the police dispatcher. On the tape of Zimmerman’s 911 call, the dispatcher asks if Zimmerman is following the suspect. Zimmerman replies that he is. “We don’t need you to do that,” says the dispatcher.
 
Note that the dispatcher’s words were something less than imperative. But even if the dispatcher had expressly directed Zimmerman not to follow the suspect, would Zimmerman have been legally bound to follow such a direction? No, he would not.
 
And there is reason to question whether Zimmerman was actually pursuing Martin. Prior to being cautioned about following the suspect, Zimmerman can be heard breathing heavily into the phone as though running. But after the dispatcher’s admonition, Zimmerman’s breathing returns to normal, and he calmly converses with the dispatcher about how the responding officers can contact him by phone and find him within the complex.
 
My own inference from listening to the 911 tapes is that Zimmerman stopped running after Martin during his call to police, but then followed Martin’s path in an attempt to see where Martin had gone. Note that at the beginning of the 911 call, Zimmerman is seated in his truck, apparently in the area of the complex’s clubhouse near the gated entrance. But the shooting occurred on a walkway running past the rear yards of the townhouses, an area where Zimmerman would not have been able to drive his truck. Why did Martin walk back there? Did he come upon Martin unexpectedly, and if so, which of them initiated the physical confrontation?
 
Zimmerman reportedly sustained a bloody nose and a gash to the back of his head, injuries that may bolster his claim of self-defense. But it may also have been the case that Martin, on being followed by a stranger whom he also regarded as suspicious, acted in self-defense when that stranger approached him with a gun. On one of the 911 calls to Sanford police, a voice can be heard screaming for help prior to the gunshot, but it has not been established if that voice is Zimmerman’s or Martin’s. A grand jury will attempt to resolve these questions next month, but even if it hands down an indictment on Zimmerman, I fail to see how prosecutors can win a conviction unless they can produce some damning evidence not yet revealed. Some have suggested Zimmerman used a racial slur during his call to police, indicating a possible racial animus that may have influenced his decision to shoot, though it’s far from clear what he actually said.
 
Trayvon Martin’s death was tragic, but it is a tragedy that will not find a neat resolution in the criminal courts. The only certainty is that the tragedy will be rendered into farce by the cast of characters who will use it to raise their own questionable profiles. And the first man up, as you might have expected, will be the most questionable of all: Al Sharpton descends on Sanford today.
 

“Jack Dunphy” is the pseudonym of an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-01/buying-prisons-require-high-occupancy/53402894/1

"At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years."

There should be no such thing as private prisons, IMHO.