We're the Only Ones Connected Enough

A gun belonging to an Orange County Sheriff's Department reserve deputy was found at the home of a Swedish businessman accused of crashing a rare Ferrari on a coastal highway, authorities said Tuesday...

Records also show Davis was issued a permit to carry a concealed weapon by the Orange County Sheriff's Department in 2002 for self-protection. The professional services reserve deputies are made up of business executives who have no police powers but receive badges and sheriff's identification cards.

They offer technical advice to Sheriff Mike Carona, whose reserve deputy program came under criticism last year following reports that he deputized dozens of political allies without conducting background checks.

Carona has been better than most at issuing "permissions" (if you consider that "better") but you still need to prove a need to his satisfaction. And we've discussed this business of deputizing cronies before.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

On Knowing One's Place

The trade association representing the firearms industry yesterday asked to be included in the "gun summit" being held today at Gracie Mansion for more than a dozen mayors from around the nation.

"Our industry has developed programs that are working to reduce criminal misuse of firearms," Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, wrote the mayor.

"We would welcome the opportunity to educate mayors about these programs."

He didn't get very far.

"Are they mayors?" asked Stu Loeser, Bloomberg's press secretary, dismissing the request out of hand.

You tell 'em, Stu Loser.

What's the matter, Mr. Keane? Did you think that your fawning (NSSF...applauds your...national summit on illegal guns) and pledging to abet the facists ("I will serve the master of the Precious. Good master, good Smeagol, gollum, gollum!") would make them respect you and treat you like an equal?

Did you actually believe the lie that these tyants were interested in "open lines of communications"?

Consult with you? You've been told your place in no uncertain terms. You're not a mayor. That means they rule, you obey. Got it?

And if you don't like it, just try lifting a finger against their enforcers.

Go ahead. Make their day.

We're the Only Ones Choked Up Enough

A disgraced patrolman convicted in one of the most notorious abuse cases in city history — the 1994 chokehold death of an unarmed Bronx man who was tossing a football in the street — has chosen a new career path: motivational speaker and self-defense trainer.

Per his website:

Francis X. Livoti was a New York City Police Officer for fifteen years and a union official in the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for the last nine of those years.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association? Oh yeah, the guys whose president, Patrick T. Lynch advocates:

"We need to make it clear that if someone lifts even a finger against a police officer, their life could be on the line."

It's so refreshing these days to find people who mean exactly what they say.

And as for Livoti?

"I served my time. I have a right to make a living."

Uh, not quite.

Livoti was first tried in a non-jury trial in the Bronx on a charge of criminally negligent homicide. A judge ruled prosecutors didn't make their case, despite testimony by the medical examiner that Baez died of asphyxia caused by choking...The officer was kicked off the force in 1997 when police officials ruled he used an illegal choke hold. A year later, a federal jury convicted him of violating Baez's civil rights. The city later paid the Baez family $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

What do you think the chances are for a judge to fix criminal charges and the city to pay the civil settlement if a non-LEO had done this to one of NYC's finest?

Oh, that's right--lifting a finger is a death sentence. Never mind.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]