Aspiring Rapper Update: Lawsuit Accuses Seattle CHOP ‘Warlord’ of Pimping Hoes

Posted on | January 22, 2022 | 1 Comment

‘Raz’ Simone (right) during Seattle’s CHOP occupation.

Just in case anyone forgot the relevant definition:

Aspiring Rapper
North American euphemism for a member of the urban criminal class. This unusual occupation is usually mentioned in conjunction with the subject either being slain or being taken into custody for a violent or property-related crime. A relative of the subject usually points out that the subject’s demise or incarceration comes at an extremely inopportune moment, occurring just as the subject was “turning they(sic) life around.”

Solomon “Raz” Simone hasn’t been arrested or shot dead yet, and he’s had more career success than most aspiring rappers, but we can categorically include him as “a member of the urban criminal class”:

Seattle rapper Solomon “Raz” Simone is reportedly being sued by five women alleging sexual abuse and assault. According to KUOW, four of them say the 32-year-old sex trafficked and abused them. One of the alleged victims, identified only as Pearl, claims Simone sex trafficked her in Las Vegas for over a year, until she finally broke free in 2017.
Pearl paints a grisly picture of what she says she went through. When Simone felt she wasn’t being obedient, he would supposedly lock her in a confined space for days and force her to have sex. Veteran police detective Bill Guyer looked into Pearl and some of the other women who came forward with similar stories involving Simone but after over four years of waiting, the five women filed a civil lawsuit. . . .
Court documents reportedly state Simone targets “young, vulnerable women” who are involved in sex work or susceptible to it. The plaintiffs allege he “wins them over with affection, and pitches the relationship as a chance to grow, find success and be a part of his family.”
Once in Simone’s grip, they say he “imposed strict rules on what they could eat and how to act” while placing a money quota on them, meaning they must bring him a certain amount of money to stay on his good side. To make their quotes, the women say he’d pressure them to strip or perform sex acts, and then he’d take their money they made, using “coercion, threats and violence to make them comply.”

Andy Ngo reminds us that Simone was the “so called ‘warlord’ of the deadly 2020 Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), also known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP), where crime was rampant:

Simone was very visible … at the beginning of the occupation of 6 blocks of Seattle which began after the Seattle Police were ordered to abandon the East Precinct after multiple consecutive nights of riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
During the armed occupation, Simone led marches, gave speeches to the protesters and acted as spokesman with the media for the occupation.
During that time, he was videoed assaulting people in the zone and pulling out AR-15s from the trunk of a white Tesla and giving them out to anyone who would stand a post in the occupation.

It seems to be the belief of white liberals (and Seattle now rivals Boston as a focal point of white liberalism in America) that enforcing any law is a “civil rights” violation if a black man is arrested. And such is the implicit racism of their worldview that white liberals think black people are not shrewd enough to exploit the opportunities thus created. But the foundational belief of white liberalism, that black people must always be viewed as victims of “social injustice,” offers carte blanche to any clever hustler who can find ways to play the race card for strategic advantage. This is the synopsis of Al Sharpton’s entire career, really, and why shouldn’t the drug dealer/pimp “Raz” get some of that lucrative action?

Besides which, he’s an aspiring rapper. There are hoes out there and they ain’t gonna pimp themselves, if you know what I mean.

Y’all just a bunch of racists trying to oppress this man . . .

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update

In The Mailbox: 01.21.22

Posted on | January 22, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.21.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Starting to wonder if there isn’t something to this.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Safety As A Public Good
EBL: Meat Loaf, RIP
Twitchy: Nick Searcy Calls Out Texas Dem Gene Wu For Being A Jerk About Meat Loaf’s Death
Louder With Crowder: Joe Rogan Unloads On How Bad “Preposterous” CNN Sucks
Vox Popoli: Communists Vs. Globohomo, Boris Lied & He’ll Be Fried, also, A New Campaign
According To Hoyt: If You Buy Only One Book This Year, also, Sleeping On The Job
Monster Hunter Nation: Dave Wolverton/Farland, RIP, January 2022 Update Post, and The One Year Anniversary Of Utter Failure
Bill Whittle: Cerberus – How Natural Enemies Collaborate To Control Your Information, Money, & Power

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Ukraine – Are You Ready To Die For Your “Nation”? also, Just What Is The Democratic Process?
American Conservative: We Need Graveyards Still
American Greatness: Make Congress Great Again, also, District Judge Blocks Biden’s Jab Mandate For Federal Employees
American Power: Ukraine Fears Minor Attacks Are In Russia’s Game Plan
American Thinker: How To Lose Friends & Influence People
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Class War Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban Dictatorship Blames U.S. Embargo For Milk Shortage – But There’s Milk In The Dollar-Only Stores, Cuba In Top 50 Of Nations Persecuting Christians, and Some American Mayors Want To Bring Cuban Slave Doctors To The U.S.
Baldilocks: Hidden & Revealed
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For January 21
Behind The Black: Debris From Russian ASAT Test Barely Misses Chicom Satellite, Latvian/Bulgarian Commercial Partnership To Launch Cubesats To Monitor Space Weather, and ULA Successfully Completes First Launch Of 2022
Cafe Hayek: “Middle-Class Stagnation?” also, Let’s Separate School & State
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, Russians To The East, North…And From The South?
Don Surber: If You Didn’t Vote For Trump, Shut Up About Biden, also, NBC – Trump 29, Biden 5
First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Police Solve A Murder, The Karening Of The Left, and There’s No Threat Quite Like An Empty Threat!
Gates Of Vienna: I Am A Liberal, And So Are You!, “The System Is Now At The Level Of The DDR In 1989”, and “The State Is Tiny Compared To God”
The Geller Report: More Voters Believe Trump Was Legitimately Elected Than Biden, also, Since Boycott Of Jews Announcement, Ben & Jerry’s Parent Company Stock In Unprecedented Dive
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, M81 In IR
Hollywood In Toto: Hollywood Journalists Protect Liberal Stars From Themselves
The Lid: Ted Cruz – Big Tech Censorship “Single Greatest Threat” To Free Speech & Fair Elections
Legal Insurrection: Virginia Republicans Continue To Clean House, Fairfax County Public Schools Have Students Play “Privilege Bingo”, and Mainstream Media Panics Over K-12 Education Transparency Proposals
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday – The Nick Edition
Outkick: NFL, NFLPA Agree To Stop COVID Testing For All Players, Aaron Rodgers Crushes Joe Biden For Jab Demands, Dan Le Batard Condemns Sports Networks For Ignoring Red China Human Rights Violations
Power Line: The Apocalypse Is Here, Susan Vass – Remembering Louie Anderson, and Keeping Up With The Leftist Lexicon
Shark Tank: Rep. Murphy Touts $1 Billion For Everglades Restoration
Shot In The Dark: The Hennepin County Way, also, Question
STUMP: Top Causes Of Death By Age Group, 2020 – Raw Numbers
The Political Hat: Woke Math Is Communist Revolutionary Math, also, Firing Line Friday – How Do We Cope With Young Black Crime?
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday. Texas Man Indicted For Stolen Valor, and Illegal Alien Steals Disabled Vet’s Identity To Get Welfare
Transterrestrial Musings: Jordan Peterson & Vladimir Putin, also, The January 6 Narrative
Victory Girls: Putin Demands NATO Withdrawal From Eastern Europe, also, March For Life 2022
Volokh Conspiracy: Why Did Justice Roberts Not Dissent In WWH Mandamus Case?
Weasel Zippers: WHCOS Ron Klain Blames Trump For Americans Disapproving Of Joe Biden’s COVID Ineptitude, Bad Orange Woman Says If You’re Upset Over The Economy Have A Drink & Relax, and WH Staffer Starts Screaming To Make Sure Biden Doesn’t Answer Any Questions From Reporters
The Federalist: The Expanse Falters But Does Not Fail In Season Six, The CDC Has Destroyed Public Trust By Pushing Obvious Lies, and How The U.S. Needs To Deter Red China From Taking Over Taiwan
Mark Steyn: “Alternative Futures”

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

Aspiring Rapper Update: ‘C Blue’ Accused of Shooting NYPD Officer (Accidentally)

Posted on | January 21, 2022 | 1 Comment

Yes, it’s time for another Aspiring Rapper Update:

A rising 16-year-old rapper charged with shooting a New York City police officer could be freed on a $250,000 bond as soon as Friday using cash from a record label deal, sources told Fox News Digital.
Camrin Williams – known as C Blue – signed with Interscope records recently and used part of his advance of several hundred thousand dollars to hire celebrity bondsman Ira Judelson to arrange his bond, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Williams’ family paid more than $15,000 to Judelson to submit all the bail paperwork to the Bronx district attorney’s office.
But before he can be released, prosecutors have up to 72 hours to examine the source of the funds to ensure that none of the money came from illegal activity related to his alleged gang ties.
Judelson, a high-profile bondsman, who has worked with countless celebrities – including disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein and late rapper DMX, declined to comment.
Interscope records didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The up-and-coming musician, whose music videos have garnered over 1 million views on YouTube, was arraigned on one count each of second degree assault and firearm possession and three counts of weapons possession in Bronx Criminal Court Thursday night.
He allegedly shot NYPD officer Kaseem Pennant in the leg Tuesday in Belmont by accident, according to a criminal complaint.
His loaded 9mm pistol discharged while tussling with cops after he tried to flee, the complaint says.
The bullet struck Williams in the groin before exiting his thigh and hitting Pennant, according to his lawyer, Dawn Florio, who blamed cops for the mishap.
“My client is in pain, he has open wounds,” she said. “They started searching him for no reason and when he tried to walk away, they jumped on top of him. Because of the police officer’s actions, my client got shot and so did the police officer.”
The complaint does not say why cops tried to search Williams who was standing on a sidewalk. Pennant is one of three officers to be shot in New York City so far this year.
Judge Denis Boyle, who has come under fire in the past for his low bails, ordered Williams held on $200,000 cash over $250,000 bond over the objection of prosecutors who requested that he be held without bail.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch blasted Boyle’s decision as ‘horrendous judgement” that is putting cops and the community in danger. “There is absolutely no justification and no excuse for setting bail in this case,” he wrote on Twitter Thursday. “This individual was previously arrested for carrying an illegal gun. Then he violated his probation, carried another gun and shot a cop. If he gets another opportunity to go free, he will use it to cause more violence and mayhem.”

At age 16, Camrin “C Blue” Williams was already on probation for a weapons charge, and yet his lawyer claims there was “no reason” for cops to search him. But riddle me this: If they turn you loose on probation, rather than sending you to prison, and if one of the terms of your probation is that you avoid carrying weapons, doesn’t this constitute more or less permanent probable cause to search you?

Of course, if you are actually in possession of a weapon — violating the law — when the cops decide to search you, then “tussling with cops” is also a crime, because I’m pretty sure the conditions of probation require that the convict cooperate with officers. But criminality is a career prerequisite for any “aspiring rapper,” so of course “C Blue” was a walking stack of felonies, just waiting to be apprehended.

PREVIOUSLY:

Jan. 8: Still Another Aspiring Rapper Update
Jan. 7: Aspiring Rapper Update: ‘5050 Chuck’ and Girlfriends Charged in Murder
Nov. 6: Aspiring Rapper Update: Mom Shocked by the Unexpected Death of ‘Lil Theze’
Nov. 6: Aspiring Rapper Update: The Promising Criminal Career of ‘JayDaYoungan’
Sept. 25: Aspiring Rapper Update
July 24: Return of the Aspiring Rapper Update
July 16: Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update
July 16: Another Aspiring Rapper Update
July 16: Aspiring Rapper Update

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update

Oh, NOW They Tell Us: Texas Synagogue Terrorist Was Known Jew-Hater

Posted on | January 21, 2022 | Comments Off on Oh, NOW They Tell Us: Texas Synagogue Terrorist Was Known Jew-Hater

Now that the national media have “moved on,” the truth comes out:

The Texas gunman was reported to police a year ago by a local councillor after issuing a chilling threat that he wanted to kill and bomb Jews, the JC can reveal.
Such was the concern about Malik Faisal Akram’s radicalisation that the councillor, who heard the diatribe and alerted police, was astonished to find that no further action was taken.
And in an explosive recording obtained by the JC of Akram’s last telephone conversation with his brother as Saturday’s siege unfolded, the terrorist can be heard ranting about “f***ing Jews” and martyrdom.
The head of the Christian hostel where Akram, 44, stayed days before his attack also revealed that the terrorist had been seen hugging and embracing another person, leading to suspicions that he had an accomplice.
Challenging the widespread claim that Akram suffered mental health problems, the attacker’s former GP told the JC that he was “a confident man who didn’t need any mental help”, and had no mental health complaints on his medical notes.
Akram’s outburst about killing Jews came at a meeting called in May last year to discuss escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. He had at that time already joined a number of pro-Palestinian protests.
Akran also told those present at the meeting, which took place near his local mosque, Masjid Irfan, that Jews needed to be punished and should be “bombed”.
At least four local councillors discussed Akram’s comments and one who had attended the meeting reported his comments to the police. To his astonishment, however, he heard nothing more about it.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the councillor told the JC: “The only shock was that he went so far, to the US, to execute his views. My worry was that he would do something stupid in this country and will bring a bad name to the whole community.”
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police, which is handling media enquiries about Akram, declined to comment on the claim “for operational reasons”.
In Blackburn, former friends and associates described Akram as a bully with a decades-long history of crime, who had served time in prison.
Beset by financial problems and the loss of his home when it was repossessed by a bank, Akram immersed himself in the teachings of the conservative Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat at his mosque.
Days before he launched his attack on the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in the Dallas suburb of Colleyville on Saturday evening, Akram stayed at a hostel run by OurCalling, a nonprofit Christian organisation which cares for the homeless.
Speaking to the JC, CEO and pastor of OurCalling, Wayne Walker, said Akram, who checked in on 2 January, did not arrive alone.
He said: “He had someone who dropped him off. He had conversations with him in our parking lot, and walked with him into our facility. And then as they departed, they both hugged each other, embraced, patting each other on the back.
“And then the friend departed. We can see in our video footage that it wasn’t an in-passing conversation.”
Mr Walker said that OurCalling had “detailed video footage”, adding that he had turned it over to the FBI to help with the investigation.
Anti-extremism expert Professor Anthony Glees said the apparent failure to act on warnings over Akram’s radicalisation and antisemitism was “deeply troubling”.
The director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham said the slip-up will leave the FBI “absolutely furious”.
He said: “This will cause MI5 a lot of trouble, because it is very clear Akram was, quite rightly, on their radar because he had a track record of extreme antisemitic views.
“He was a security risk to the UK and indeed any other country he visited, especially the US.”

Well, they were busy protecting us from the QAnon shaman.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Terrorism, Texas

In The Mailbox: 01.20.22

Posted on | January 21, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

QOTD:

Sinema is in no physical danger from Robert Reich, of course. She’s fit, healthy, and 30 years younger than Reich, who couldn’t even backhand a dachshund. – Jim Treacher

Silicon Valley delenda est.
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: England Ends COVID Tyranny
EBL: Robert Reich Suggests Democrats Should Give Kyrsten Sinema “The Back Of Their Hands”
Twitchy: Dem Rep Claims “White Nationalists Used Jim Crow Filibuster To Block Voting Rights Legislation”
Louder With Crowder: Jordan Peterson Resigns Tenured Professorship, Blasts “A Stunningly Corrupt Enterprise” On His Way Out
Vox Popoli: Bad News For Gamers, Evil Always Eats Its Own, and Chris Langan Sees Through Jordan Peterson

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Beware The True Believers, also, Who Wants To Be The Next Adolf?
American Conservative: The Tide Is Turning On Gun Control
American Greatness: Is America Heading For A Systems Collapse? also, Senate Fails To Abolish Filibuster During Debate Over Bill To Federalize Elections
American Power: America’s Asymmetric Civil War
American Thinker: The January 6 Narrative Is Starting To Unravel
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Fur, Fish, & Game News
Babalu Blog: Kafka & The Traveling Cubans, also, Havana Dictatorship Buys More Buses For Tourists As Food & Medicine Shortages Continue
Baldilocks: Christmas & Kwanzaa – Let Not Your Heart Be Hypocritical
BattleSwarm: Semiconductor Subsidies – The Wrong Solution For The Wrong Problem
Behind The Black: Upper Stage Of ABL Rocket Explodes During Ground Test, NATO Issues New Space Policy Filled With Blather, and Radian Raises $27.5 Million For SSTO Spaceplane
Cafe Hayek: What Employers Buy
CDR Salamander: The Afghanistan Papers – On Midrats, Australia & Japan – When Your Friends Are Friends, and By The Numbers – The Ukrainian Russian Buildup
Da Tech Guy: The 49th Parallel & The Horrible Parallels This Movie Has To Today, also, We Owe Senators Manchin & Sinema An Enormous Debt Of Gratitude
Don Surber: Obamanaut On Price Controls – “Just Stop. Seriously.”, Midterm Blowout – GOP Has 13-Point Lead, and NCAA Finally Admits Transgenders Aren’t The Same
First Street Journal: Around $31 Million At Risk From Climate Emergency Scam, also, A Sad Update
Gates Of Vienna: The Muslim Brotherhood In France, Erdogan Triumphs As Putin Stabs His Best Ally In The Back, and Freakin’ At The Freakers’ Ball
The Geller Report: Biden’s Press Conference Panned By Critics – “Total Disaster”, also, Stop The Coming Democrat/RINO War With Russia
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, A Black Hole Ignites Star Formation In A Dwarf Galaxy, and Doom Clock
Hollywood In Toto: The Last Time Rob Reiner Mattered, The Tiger Rising Roars When It Should, and Tim Dillon Channels Virtue Bombs
The Lid: Stephanie Grisham Makes Wild Claims About “Secret Meetings” Ahead Of 1/6
Legal Insurrection: America Wins – Senate Filibuster Remains Intact, Gov. Youngkin Hires Anti-CRT Diversity/Opportunity/Inclusion Officer, and NYC Removes Teddy Roosevelt Statue From Museum Of Natural History
Michelle Malkin: Blundering Billionaire More Right Than Wrong
Nebraska Energy Observer: What Kind Of Society?
Outkick: Super Saturday Duel Set Between #2 Auburn & #12 Kentucky, Caitlin Jenner Says Lia Thomas Hurting Womens’ Sports, and Russell Westshook? Lakers PG Skips Presser After Being Benched
Power Line: A Senile Phantasmagoria, Biden Invites Russian Incursion Into Ukraine, and NPR Doesn’t Care About Truth
Shark Tank: Rick Scott Says Democrats “Desperate For Power” With Attempt To End Filibuster
Shot In The Dark: Urban Progressive Privilege – Only The Right Kind Of Compliance! also, Better Late Than Never
STUMP: Excess Mortality Among Working-Age Adults Way Up In 3Q 2021
The Political Hat: Climate Fascism – Civilian Climate Corps, Banning The Internal Combustion Engine, and “Climate Revolution”
This Ain’t Hell: NM Might Send Guard To Teach School, Your Parents Are In The Military? You’re Privileged!, and Family Of Fallen Marine Sues Alec Baldwin
Transterrestrial Musings: Democrats Warn…, The Mistake Of The School Closings, and Joe Biden’s Terrible Mistake
Victory Girls: Kamala Harris Takes Her Turn As Biden’s Janitor
Volokh Conspiracy: Shutdown Of Gun Stores During Early COVID Months Violated 2nd Amendment – Says The 9th Circuit
Weasel Zippers: FBI Raids Home Of Dem Rep Critical Of Biden/Harris, Dem Rep Hakeem Jefferies Says The Quiet Part Out Loud, and Ukraine Officials Shocked That Biden Gave Putin Green Light To Invade
The Federalist: Only 10% Of J6 Committee Subpoenas Relate To Capitol Riot, A Scandal For Every Month, and Liz Cheney Escalates Crusade Against Wyoming Political Opponents Persecuted By J6 Committee
Mark Steyn: Raisin d’Etre, also, Man Of Convictions

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

The Many Mug Shots of a Killer

Posted on | January 20, 2022 | 1 Comment

A few of Shawn Laval Smith’s mug shots.

When we commented earlier this week on the murder of UCLA student Brianna Kupfer (“White Lives Don’t Matter,” Jan. 18), police had not yet identified the suspect, who was “described as a tall man with braided hair, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and black tennis shoes.” Wednesday, he was identified as Shawn Laval Smith, 31, who has a criminal record in three states extending back at least to 2010. He was repeatedly arrested in Charleston County, S.C., as well as in Charlotte, N.C., before relocating to California sometime after 2019. Smith was arrested Wednesday in Pasadena, about 17 miles from the furniture store where Kupfer was stabbed to death last week. Fox News reports:

Shawn Laval Smith, the man accused of stabbing UCLA grad student Brianna Kupfer to death in a “random act” last week in Los Angeles, has a pending felony case in South Carolina for allegedly shooting a flare gun into an occupied car – with a toddler inside.
But despite allegedly admitting to the crime in a conversation with a Mount Pleasant detective, he hasn’t had his day in court in that case due to a 1,330-case COVID-19 backlog in the county, according to a court clerk and records.
“The Kupfer case is such a sad and unnecessary tragedy,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who lives in LA, told Fox News Digital Wednesday. “Like [Darrell] Brooks in Wisconsin, if prosecutors had done their job, innocent people may be alive today.”
Smith has been out for years on $50,000 bond, of which he paid less than the standard 10%, according to the bail bondsman, who declined to give a specific figure.
At 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 10, 2019, Smith pulled his 2006 Pontiac G6 up alongside Anthony Jayubo’s 2008 Mercedes near the intersection of Highway 17 and Indigo Market Drive in the town of Mount Pleasant, court documents show.
Jayubo had his toddler son in the back seat.
Smith allegedly fired a flare gun at the back window – which police said had “contact and burn marks,” but it does not appear that the child was injured. Police charged him with discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Court records show no activity on the case between March 2020 and Wednesday, when prosecutors moved for a bond revocation.
The Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office in South Carolina did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With that case pending, Smith also racked up charges in California before police in Pasadena arrested him Wednesday in alleged connection with Kupfer’s stabbing death.
He was busted Oct. 27, 2020, outside Home Depot allegedly in possession of stolen property. He was issued a citation and ordered to appear in court but the office of the prior Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to prosecute, Covina Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joshua Turner told Fox News Digital.
And last June, he was given a plea deal that reduced three felony charges involving an attack on a police officer to a single count of resisting arrest. A judge sentenced him to probation – but revoked it at the end of November when he failed to uphold his end of the deal.
He had an active warrant in that case at the time of Kupfer’s slaying last week.
“Bail reform and COVID delays claim another innocent victim,” Rahmani said. “Gascon has been largely criticized for the increase in violent crime in Los Angeles. It’s time he stops acting like a defense attorney and allows prosecutors to charge violent felons with sentencing enhancements.”
George Gascon, the progressive Los Angeles district attorney, has raised the ire of law enforcement and his own assistant DAs for his allegedly soft-on-crime policies.
Homicides are up more than 60% in the City of Los Angeles and over 90% in Los Angeles County, according to records from the LAPD and sheriff’s office.

Murder is not usually an entry-level crime. If you can’t lock up perpetrators of so-called “minor” offenses — and firing a flare gun into somebody’s car is apparently “minor” — then you’re going to have a lot more murders. Nobody seems to care, as long as it’s just people killing each other in the ghetto, but then a UCLA student gets murdered, and some people start paying attention. When the criminal justice system allows a plea deal for a suspect who assaults a police officer, so that Smith was put on probation instead of going to prison, nobody’s life is safe.

Category: California, Crime

A Motorcycle Thief’s Last Ride

Posted on | January 20, 2022 | Comments Off on A Motorcycle Thief’s Last Ride

So, police in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles spotted a stolen motorcycle near a mall. When they blue-lighted him, the rider took off at high speed. Following department procedure, police terminated their ground pursuit, instead letting their helicopter track the motorcycle. Police radio traffic alerted the news helicopters of L.A. television stations to the chase, and the local CBS affiliate, KCAL-TV, had their “Sky 9” chopper over the scene as the thief raced along Roscoe Boulevard in the West Hills neighborhood at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

The news anchor narrating the chase had just begun commenting on how dangerous this was — both for unsuspecting motorists and the high-speed rider himself — when KA-WHAMM-O!

Maybe they’ll take that video offline, so I’ll give you the verbal description: At an intersection, a maroon-colored sedan was taking a left turn when the motorcycle slammed into the right front fender, sending the rider cartwheeling through the sky. There is an unedited video of this crash and the aftermath, in which you can see a police officer approach the body of the rider, which had landed in a bloody pile at least 20 yards from the crash. “10-54.” Call the coroner for a pickup.

News accounts call it a “horrific” crash, but it was oddly beautiful, if you have a certain aesthetic sensibility for these things. Police did not immediately name the suspect, but he won’t be stealing any more motorcycles, and folks in L.A. got to see it live on TV.

Category: California, Crime

In The Mailbox: 01.19.22

Posted on | January 19, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.19.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

RIP Oregon Muse, longtime proprietor of the Sunday Book Thread at Ace’s joint. I was but one of many morons who he helped by giving our books wider exposure. “We should not be sad that such men have died; rather, we should be grateful that such men lived.” (G. Patton)
Silicon Valley delenda est.