A Geek With Guns

Many police officers in the United States seem to think Tasers are a non-lethal weapon system that can be deployed whenever the desire to teach a suspect a lesson about respecting authoritah is desired. In North Carolina a police officer decided it would be a jolly good time to Taser a person riding down the street on his bike when he didn’t stop upon the officer’s command. That man is now dead and the officer is on paid leave and, as is common for these of cases, will likely be allowed to return to work once this entire mess blows over:

Scotland Neck Police Chief Joe Williams said they received a call Monday night about a man who fell off of his bicycle and injured himself in the parking lot of the BB&T bank, 1001 Main St. The caller was concerned that the man was drunk.

When Officer John Turner arrived, he saw Roger Anthony pedaling away along 10th Street. He followed Anthony in his patrol car, briefly put on his sirens and lights and yelled out of the window for him to stop, but Anthony continued to ride away, police said.

Williams said Turner then saw Anthony take something out his pocket and put it into his mouth. At that time, Turner got out of the car and yelled for Anthony to stop. When Anthony didn’t stop, the officer used a stun gun on him, causing him to fall off of his bike.

I forgot to mention the most important detail of this case, the man was hard of hearing:

Freeman said her brother was disabled, suffered from seizures and had trouble hearing. She said he was riding his bike home from her house on Sunday night. Anthony lived alone in an independent living community.

The reason the man didn’t stop upon command is probably due to the fact he didn’t hear the command. I believe Tasers should be treated the same as firearms (with the acknowledgement that they’re less effective) and thus only be deployed in self-defense situations. When a person is riding his bike and refusing to stop because some asshole with a badge demands it there is no need for the deployment of weapons.

Instead of being intelligent about the situation and attempting non-lethal intervention the officer instantly went for a weapon and initiated an attack. The man is dead because, through hearsay, the officer suspected the biker may have been drunk while riding a bicycle. Police officers should be taught that Tasers are lethal weapons and thus should only be deployed in response to violant acts because the consequences of using one is often deadly.

Thailand has never been a bastion of free speech as far as their royalty is concerned. You can end up facing some very real jail time if you insult their king and now you can also face jail time for liking criticism of the kind on Facebook:

Thailand has warned users of Facebook that they could face prosecution under harsh lese-majeste laws if they press ”share” or ”like” on images or articles considered unflattering to the Thai monarchy.

The prosecution of a Thai-born US citizen who has pleaded guilty to translating a banned biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej has signalled that authorities are also targeting lese-majeste offences committed overseas.

Talk about a man who can’t take criticism. I’m probably going to make myself a prohibited person in Thailand for saying this but their kind (royalty) is a worthless piece of shit who should sodomize himself with a retractable baton. What asshole thinks so highly of himself that he feels it’s a jolly good idea to imprison anybody who saying something unflattering about him?

Suppression of speech is a disgusting thing that requires the use of real violence in order to censor mere words. If their king’s ego is so fragile that he can’t take a little criticism perhaps Thailand should look into getting a new king, or better yet abolishing the monarchy.

EDIT: 2011-11-29 18:40: Placed a disclaimer after “their kind” as it was pointed out by Jim that the language could be used to construe my statement as racist. I’d rather not deal with false accusations of racisms so the statement has been clarified.

Every year Black Friday rolls around and further destroys what little faith in humanity I have left. While others are piling up in front of stores readying to stampede upon the opening of doors I try to be as far away from civilization as possible. With people getting trampled to death and pepper spray flying I’d rather spend a little extra money on my products than face the hoard of ravenous shoppers:

A woman shot pepper spray to keep shoppers from merchandise she wanted during a Black Friday sale, and 20 people suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

The incident occurred shortly after 10:20 p.m. Thursday in a crowded Los Angeles-area Walmart as shoppers hungry for deals were let inside the store.

Police said the suspect shot the pepper spray when the coverings over the items she wanted were removed.

I’m not even remotely surprised although I would like to know the thought process that preceded this act. How did the lady come to the conclusion that dousing the area in pepper spray was going to turn out to her benefit? If she didn’t get burning eyes from her own stunt she had to know her arrest was imminent after unleashing her bright idea.

I’m sure most of you have seen the video of the police officer pepper spraying a group of peaceful protesters at the University of California Davis:

As is usual when an officer is caught doing something naughty this officer has been put on leave and will likely resume his duties after this entire mess has blown over.

The divide between those who support and oppose the occupy movement is great and I’ve seen many of those in opposition saying the protesters got what was coming to them. To that I say bullshit. Whether you agree, disagree, or simply don’t care about the occupy movement it should be appalling to you that police officers would use force on non-violent protesters. These protesters were literally sitting with arms linked while the police decided it would be justified to first induce pain and then remove the offending individuals. Such gross displays of power make me sick.

The Constitution of the United States specifically declares the right of the people to peaceably assemble. Much of the time I spent writing has been directed at the Second Amendment but I believe all rights ascribed in the Bill of Rights must be equally defended. The University of California Davis is public property and the students were exercising their right to peaceably assemble. There is no excuse for the use of pepper spray in this instance yet here it is, and what makes me even more sick is that people are laughing about it. Somebody made an picture that perfectly described this scene:

That picture perfectly demonstrates the fact that pepper spraying non-violent individuals violates everything this country was founded on. It shouldn’t matter if you disagree with the occupiers, I disagree with a huge number of them myself, the actions taken by the officer should be appalling to any decent human being. Had the police simply arrested the protesters that would have been one thing but to actively enact pain upon them while the protesters themselves were enacting no pain on others is an escalation of force. Were I to do something similar to protesters on my property I’d likely be prosecuted.

When members of the occupy movement say something you disagree with then by all means speak out and explain why their statement is wrong. Many members of the occupy movement have advocating violence with such statements as expressing a desire to bring back the guillotine and those people should certainly be shouted down. Yet we must also realize that the First Amendment was put into place to protect unpopular speech as popular speech is in no need of protection.

Those who express a desire to protect the rights supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution should put aside their philosophical difference in this regard and contest the actions of police officers using force against those exercising their rights. Large number of occupiers are misguided but they still deserve equal rights under the law.

I’m very confused right now. On one hand we’ve been told that Gaddafi was an evil tyrant who butchered his people and suppressed human rights while on the other hand the United Nations was preparing to award Gaddafi for his respect of human rights in Libya:

Before NATO and the U.S. started bombing Libya, the United Nations was preparing to bestow an award on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and the Libyan Jamahiriya, for its achievements in the area of human rights. That’s right–the same man, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that NATO and the United States have been telling us for months is a “brutal dictator,” was set to be given an award for his human rights record in Libya. How strange it is that the United Nations was set to bestow a human rights award on a “brutal dictator,” at the end of March.

A copy of the United Nations report can be found here [PDF]. What’s even more interesting is the list of nations that praised Gaddafi includes those who were calling for the bombing of Libya including Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and Australia.

This raises further red flags about the reason Libya was bombed. It’s not like any ulterior motives exist or anything. No matter how you look at it mixed signals were certainly sent by the countries that commended Gaddafi for advancing human rights while also advocating the bombing of his regime because of human rights violations supposedly performed.

What do you get the authoritarian who has everything? A weaponizable drone of course! What could possible go wrong with giving the police drones that can mount Tasers:

A Houston area law enforcement agency is prepared to launch an unmanned drone that could someday carry weapons, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Conroe paid $300,000 in federal homeland security grant money and Friday it received the ShadowHawk unmanned helicopter made by Vanguard Defense Industries of Spring.

[...]

He said they are designed to carry weapons for local law enforcement.

“The aircraft has the capability to have a number of different systems on board. Mostly, for law enforcement, we focus on what we call less lethal systems,” he said, including Tazers that can send a jolt to a criminal on the ground or a gun that fires bean bags known as a “stun baton.”

“You have a stun baton where you can actually engage somebody at altitude with the aircraft. A stun baton would essentially disable a suspect,” he said.

This is such a great idea! It’s not like there is a record of people who have been killed by Tasers or anything. Who could possibly imagine this type of technology being abused?

Who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to build a drone that can mount weapons and sell it to law enforcement agencies? No, seriously I want to know who the fucker is that thought this was a good idea. Big Brother watching my every move is one thing but it becomes an entirely different game when Big Brother is not only following and watching me but also deploying weapons from remote controlled aircraft.

Militarizing the police has proven to be a very bad idea yet we continue down this road of idiocy. Why not just give police department some nuclear weapons while we’re at it? Perhaps they could use a few flamethrowers in case a perp locks himself in a house and the only option is to burn the building to the ground. Where does this insanity stop?

A couple spent a night in jail while their child was abducted by Child Protective Services (CPS). Obviously these two parents must have done something fairly heinous for end up in jail while their child was taken by the state right? Wrong:

“We walked a long way to the grocery store and I was feeling faint, dizzy, like I needed to eat something so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and eat them while we were shopping,” Leszczynski told the news station.

Leszczynski, who is 30-weeks pregnant, her husband, Marcin, and daughter Zophia bought $50 worth of groceries — but forgot about their two chicken salad sandwiches.

“It was a complete distraction, distracted parent moment,” Leszczynski told KHON.

As the family left, they were stopped by store security, who asked for their receipt.

“I offered to pay, we had the cash. We just bought the groceries,” Leszczynski told the station.

Instead, the expectant mother told KHON that the Safeway manager called police. They were taken to the main Honolulu police station where they were booked for fourth degree theft. Then Zophia was taken into custody by Child Protective Services.

All of this over two $5.00 sandwiches. While I’m not one to ever defend theft I think it’s pretty believable that the parents simply forgot to pay for the sandwiches considering they paid for the other $50.00 of groceries. They also offered to pay for the sandwiches before the police were called, if I were the store owner I’d have simply taken the money for the sandwiches and called it a day. Really, how wants to get the police involved over $10.00? It’s going to cost far more than $10.00 in taxpayer money by the time the police drive to the store and investigate the matter.

Hell if I were the police officer who arrived at the “scene” I would have simply told the couple to pay for the sandwiches and get the fuck out of my sight. The overreaction of our society is getting out of hand and it’s costing use a fortune in money and unnecessary stress. A little common sense, ladies and gentlemen, is what we desperately need.

A short while ago the White House spent a fuck-ton of taxpayer money setting up the We the People Petition site. It was marketed as a website people could submit and sign petitions for government action. While the government promised to look at any petitions with an arbitrarily selected number of signatures I suspected they would simply issue easily predictable statements against taking action related to the petitions. Well, my suspicions were right. The White House responded to a handful of the petitions with the most signatures, including the petition to legalize marijuana, and the responses were exactly as expected. For instance here is part of their response to the petition asking the federal government to legalize marijuana:

When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug’s effects.

According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world’s largest source of drug abuse research – marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment. We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms. Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20′s. Simply put, it is not a benign drug.

Basically the response to the petition was to link a bunch of previous studies that were performed to justify the prohibition against marijuana. While most of those studies have been proven wrong by third-party research that’s irrelevant because the government wants marijuana illegal and by Thor in Valhalla it will remain illegal!

When people kept linking to pet petitions I ignored them because I knew the federal government wasn’t going to take any of the petitions seriously. Those in office don’t give two shits what you and I think, we’re just uneducated peons who need every detail of our lives planned, managed, and controlled for our own good.

There is a connection between SWAT raids and dead pets. I could never figured out the precise reason SWAT members always sought out household pets during raids and riddle them with bullets whether or not that animal posed a threat or was in a kennel minding its own business. My answer has been found:

The Army is redoubling its search for anyone who might have been bitten by a wild animal in Iraq or Afghanistan following the Aug. 31 death of a soldier from rabies, the service’s public health command stated Wednesday.

The Army is partnering with the other uniformed services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find and treat servicemembers and civilians who were bitten by stray dogs and animals while deployed, according to a command news release.

I’m guessing one of those “other uniformed services” are domestic police forces. These guys even have propaganda posters punched up and everything:

There you have it, it’s safer to riddle pets with bullets than risk it biting you and contracting rabies… even if the animal is in a kenel, had all its rabie shots, and is unable to post a threat of any kind. Better safe than sorry and all that nonsense.

Also note I’m not saying this advice is poor for soldiers deployed overseas. This rant is entirely related to the rampant string of household pets murdered by police officers for not reason whatsoever.

The amount of time that is spent by our government coming up with retarded acronyms must be astounding. If you thought Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, or USA PATRIOT, Act was bad wait until you get a load of the new name for the formerly PROTECT IP Act:

Oh, and because PROTECT IP wasn’t enough of a misleading and idiotic name, the House has upped the ante. The new bill is called: “the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act” or the E-PARASITE Act (though, they also say you can call it the “Stopping Online Piracy Act”).

Emphasis mine. Somebody in Washington D.C. is getting paid to come up with this shit. Our tax money is being spent to come up with catchy fucking names to make bills sound more appealing and thus get popular support when it goes to pass. These are probably the same fucks who were paid to come up with the PROTECT Act which is a backwards acronym for Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today.

If those idiots in Washington spent half as much time educating themselves on the subjects they’re passing laws against as they do coming up with stupid acronyms we may have a free country built on liberty instead of a fascist state.

Oh, and you know what else? The PROTECT IP E-PARASITE Act is still a horrible piece of shit. You can’t polish a turd and expect anything other than a turd when you’re finished.