Gibson was raided a couple of years ago over the use of “illegal” wood. Although no charges have been filed the company’s seized property has yet to be returned. Strangely enough is appears one of their competitors, Martin, uses the same wood but hasn’t been raided. It’s nice to see yet another case of the government selectively enforcing the laws it passed.
Category: Corruption Corner
Terrorism in the United States Since 9/11
Bruce Schneier points out an analysis of attempted terrorist attacks since 9/11. I think Schneier’s summary explains everything:
So few of them are actually real, and so many of them were created or otherwise facilitated by law enforcement.
Most cases of so-called terrorism involve government agents finding gullible people, egging them on to perform an act of terrorism, and then enabling those people by providing knowledge and materials required to perform the act of terror which has usually devised by the government agent. They aren’t keeping us safe, they’re creating the problem.
Several Justice Department Employees’ Kids Probably Have New Guitars Now
Sebastian over at Snowflakes in Hell pointed out that Gibson, a well-known manufacturer of guitars, is a little pissed off that their property was stolen by the government without reason:
The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.
It’s nice to see the government enforcing its interpretation of laws in foreign countries. Heck the Indian government didn’t even need to be consulted because our federal government is efficient like that. So what’s required to investigate a guitar manufacturer for potentially violating the United States government’s interpretation of Indias law? Apparently machine guns and theft but not criminal charges:
In 2009, more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons invaded the Gibson factory in Nashville. The Government seized guitars and a substantial amount of ebony fingerboard blanks from Madagascar. To date, 1 year and 9 months later, criminal charges have NOT been filed, yet the Government still holds Gibson’s property. Gibson has obtained sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government and these materials, which have been filed in federal court, show that the wood seized in 2009 was legally exported under Madagascar law and that no law has been violated. Gibson is attempting to have its property returned in a civil proceeding that is pending in federal court.
A dozen agents with machine guns are absolutely necessary to raid a guitar manufacturer, they’re a dangerous lot after all with their thin wood strips and guitar strings.
This probably all went down because the head of the Justice Department wanted to give his kids guitars for Christmas.
The State Protects Its Own Again
Remember the Ohio police officer who threatened to murder a person who was legally carry a concealed weapon? Obviously after such an egregious incident the officer was criminally charged right? Nope! As wizardpc shows us the officer in question is getting the usual punishment:
In a letter to Harless, Police Chief Dean McKimm said after reviewing the report, he finds there is evidence that the officer violated the three rules cited by internal affairs. Harless faces punishment ranging from 30 days off work to being fired, McKimm said.
Bill Adams, president of the Canton Police Patrolmen’s Association, said he would decline comment on the case until the disciplinary hearing takes place.
Harless was put on paid administrative leave in June and more recently went on sick leave. Harless is using his allotted and accumulated sick days, which is paid time off work, McKimm said.
He may lose his job… perhaps. But until the hearing is held (where he’ll be allowed to keep his job I’m sure) he’s on paid administrative leave. That’s right, he threatened to murder a person he’s supposedly charged with protecting and the taxpayers have to pay for this vacation. Isn’t that nice? The state always watches out for its own at the expense of those it rules over.
Jerry Doyle Fired for Pointing Out the Media’s Ignoring of Ron Paul
Did you know Jerry Doyle had a radio show? I sure as the Hell didn’t which is rather surprising since he played one of my favorite characters (Michael Garabaldi) on my favorite television show (Babylon 5). Still he had a radio show in which he apparently talked about conservative topics with at least some libertarian ideals. You’ll notice that I keep using past tense when referring to his radio show, that’s because the day after he brought up the fact that the media is blatantly ignoring Ron Paul he was slated to be replaced by a new show staring three neo-cons.
This shit is getting deep. I’m actually surprised Jon Stewart still has a show after pointing out the same thing.
11 More Violent Crimes Linked to ATF Operation Fast and Furious
Remember the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’s (ATF) fiasco with Operation Fast and Furious? Probably not if you only follow major media outlets as they seem to be more than happy to help the Department of Justice (DOJ) sweep the entire fiasco under the rug (I say this, ironically, as a point out an Fast and Furious article on a major media site). But for those of you who are outraged that your government provided guns to violent Mexican drug cartels we have some more bad news; firearms linked to Fast and Furious have been linked to 11 more violent crimes:
Firearms from the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious weapons trafficking investigation turned up at the scenes of at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S., as well as at a Border Patrol agent’s slaying in southern Arizona last year, the Justice Department has acknowledged to Congress.
The department did not provide details about the crimes. But The Times has learned that they occurred in several Arizona cities, including Phoenix, where Fast and Furious was managed, as well as in El Paso, where a total of 42 weapons from the operation were seized at two crime scenes.
The government is in a unique position as they are able to pass laws, enforce laws, and disregard laws as they see fit. Even though the owners of various gun stores were going to refuse sales to people they thought seemed sketchy (i.e. they were going to obey the law) the ATF said they had to allow the sale (because the ATF suspect the buyers were linked to illegal activity which made the sale illegal, meaning the ATF knowingly broke the law).
Double standards, another service provided by the government.
Judge Sentenced for Selling Children to Juvenile Detention Centers
The title isn’t an exaggeration, a judge in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for selling children to juvenile detention centers. Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. accepted $1 million in bribes from Robert Mericle, the man who built the two juvenile detention centers that Ciavarella was sentencing kids to.
The bribery isn’t the only evidence showing Ciavarella was corrupt, many of the kids he sentences were prosecuted for very trivial crimes:
Ciavarella, known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanour, filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes.
Putting a 10 year-old kid in juvenile detention for petty theft makes nothing but sense right? If we don’t put him away now he’ll just become a hardened murdering drug dealer! It’s not like a parent can bring their 10 year-old to tears by berating them for committing an act of petty theft or anything.
Seriously, how the fuck did that judge get away with this for so long? Didn’t somebody find it a little suspicious that children were going away to juvenile detention for first time offenses of minor crimes? Didn’t that raise any red flags?
This case also demonstrates a couple of flaws with of our “justice” system. First of all judges have too much power as they can literally hold you in prison for life (contempt of court), sentence minors to juvenile detention without any oversight, and can flat out rule whether a law is legal or not (supreme courts).
The second flaw that is pointed out by this case is how our “justice” system doesn’t deliver justice but simply punishments. In the case of theft justice would be the return of the stolen property, payment by the thief to the victim for the cost of recovering the stolen property, and the value of the stolen item as the thief really deprived the victim of their rightful property and thus should lose the right to an equal value of property as punishment. Instead our system tosses the thief in prison at taxpayer expense and rarely returns the stolen property, or at least the value of the stolen property, to the victim. This is a side effect of our country moving away from treating crimes as offenses against individuals to offenses against society.
In the end those who were wrongfully sentenced by Ciavarella are the real losers. Depending on their sentences they’ve potentially lost years of their lives. Those kids will never get those years back. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the wrongfully sentenced kids turned to lives of crime simply because they developed a view that they’re going to be punished whether they remain lawful or do criminal activities. When somebody feels as though they’re going to be punished whether or not they do something wrong that person will often just do the wrong thing.
On The Kahr Arms Lawsuit
Kahr Arms was recently sued by the family of a man shot by one of their firearms. Kahr settled and ended up paying the family a sum of $600,000. Why was Kahr responsible? Because they hired a guy who was stealing guns from their production line:
The lawsuit alleged that Kahr employee Mark Cronin — who had a drug problem and a criminal record — stole the gun before it had a serial number stamped on it and sold it to Robert Jachimczyk for a gram of cocaine. The man charged in the shooting, Edwin Novas, then bought the gun from Jachimczyk for some heroin, according to the lawsuit. Cronin pleaded guilty to the gun theft and was sentenced to two years in prison. Novas was never caught; he is still listed on the Worcester Police Department’s website as being wanted in the unresolved killing.
I agree with Jay G, this settlement is a bunch of malarkey:
Since dirtbag drug addicts don’t have deep pockets – but Kahr does – they wound up on the wrong end of a wrongful death suit.
Kahr didn’t kill Mr. Guzman, Edwin Novas did. Kahr was a victim of theft plain and simple. Of course Novas was never found and even if he was I doubt he has a sum of $600,000 lying around.
It’s a liability to be successful in this country. When a crime is committed the criminal isn’t the one targeted for punishment, whoever has the most money that can be tied to the criminal act in any way is targeted. When somebody is killed by a scumbag that scumbag usually becomes a secondary concern to punishing the company that produced whatever weapon was used to commit the murder. Why? Because we don’t have a justice system in this country, we have a monetary exploitation system. If you’ve been successful in life by providing a good that consumers want you will likely be sued some day because your product was used by a criminal in some illegal capacity.
Now that the family of Mr. Guzman has $600,000 from Kahr they may want to look into whether or not Novas used a vehicle to flee the scene of the murder. Who knows, maybe the family will be able to get another $600,000 from Ford, Chevy, Toyota, or Volkswagen.
The Ever Evolving Corruption of Operation Gunwalker
I’m frankly amazed at the amount of government corruption that’s been involved in Operation Fast and Furious. What started at simply as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) allowing guns to be smuggled across the border by known drug cartel members is now blowing up into an inter-agency fiasco:
In a separate development, congressional sources have learned that not only was U.S. taxpayer money being used to buy guns that were later sent to Mexico, but the main target of the investigation was actually a FBI informant and former drug dealer who had been deported years ago.
[…]
The alleged coverup involves three law enforcement agencies: the ATF, FBI and the DEA, or Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to sources, unbeknown to the ATF, the target of their operation was a FBI confidential informant, a fact that only became known to them in April of this year after an 18-month investigation that cost millions of dollars of tax dollars.
“They were going after someone they could never have,” a source in Washington told Fox News. “The Mr. Big they wanted was using government money to buy guns that went to the cartels. The FBI knew it and didn’t tell them.”
How deep can a rabbit hole go? Not only was the government allowing firearms to be illegally smuggled across the border to Mexico, not only were two border patrol agents murdered by firearms the ATF allowed to be smuggled, but the target of the ATF’s investigation was an Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) informant who was using taxpayer money to buy the guns being smuggled across.
By Thor in Valhalla. Why the fuck does anybody think the government is legitimate? Not only to the make and enforce laws against non-violent behavior but they also use money taken from the people to arm cartels who are murdering said people. On top of that not two agencies in the government’s law enforcement arm are apparently capable of communicating with one another. I’m sure the ATF would have loved to know that their target was a fucking FBI informant when they first found him.
Now millions of taxpayer dollars have gone into investigating this mess while an untold number of taxpayer dollars have gone to arming the Mexican drug cartels. Fuck everybody involved with this mess… in the ass… with a retractable baton!
That’s Not Really a Victory
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have been buy arming Mexican drug cartels which has lead to a hearing. As with most government hearings on the illegal actions of government I expected these hearings to go nowhere and accomplish nothing of consequence. It appears as though I was right:
The Justice Department is expected to oust the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to people familiar with the matter, amid a troubled federal antitrafficking operation that has grown into the agency’s biggest scandal in nearly two decades.
Moves toward the replacement of Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, could begin next week, although the precise sequence of events remains to be decided, these people said.
Yup. The ATF actively arms Mexican drug cartels, claims that they need more authority to stop the traffic of firearms going from the United States to the drug cartels, and now the only thing that will happen is the head of the ATF will be replaced. That should teach them (sarcasm for those who didn’t catch it).
This is one of many reasons that government agencies remain unaccountable. When a government agency does something naughty we have a different government entity rule on the validity of the agency’s actions. Since the entity judging the agency’s actions is also a part of the government generally the agency’s actions are deem legitimate. When the actions are deemed illegitimate nothing of consequence happens and instead one or two people are shuffled around so the next person can continue doing illegitimate shit for a while until he or she is caught red handed as well.