We're the Only Ones--Or ARE We...?

Police issued an all-points bulletin yesterday after someone broke into a police officer's car in 'Ewa and stole the officer's service handgun, badge and other items.

STOP! POLICE!

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

We're the Only Ones On Guard Enough...

A RISDON Prison guard appeared in court last night after allegedly being caught taking a gun and drugs to work.

The 28-year-old Brighton man was apprehended on his way to the prison early yesterday morning by police acting on a tip-off.

A .25-calibre semi-automatic pistol and ammunition were allegedly found wrapped in a cloth under his car's passenger seat.

Also allegedly located was a quantity of cannabis wrapped in a balloon and a sachet containing a morphine-based prescription drug, namely MS Contrin.

The "tip-off" may be the tip-off as to what went down here...

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

Pistol-Packing Mayor

Melton, a former head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, has often been seen carrying weapons, presumably for the same political effects. Since Melton was elected on a crime-fighting platform, looking and talking tough is part of the package...

Wearing police garb, and brandishing shotguns during stops and even showing up on a citizen's front porch to confront someone he said threatened him puts him in danger and is a recipe for volatility.

I can't figure out from this if Melton is a victim of all-too-typical media hysteria, or if he's a bully abusing his authority. Guess we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open and see if anything more transpires down in Jackson...

[Via Jason M]

And a DANGEROUS Crybaby at That...

Correspondent Don C sent me a link with further information about the Big Crybaby.

April 19, 1775

BY the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Publicola also reminds us of last year's post.

We're the Only Ones Off Key Enough...

A Hermosa Beach police officer named in two excessive force lawsuits was arrested in Redondo Beach last week after he got into a scuffle with someone who reportedly was heckling him during a karaoke performance.

You like me. You really like me!

Or else.

For my next number: Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Black and Blue...

Mi-mi-mi-i-i-i....

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

We're the Only Ones Responsive Enough

POLICE chiefs were today facing demands for an inquiry into how a technical fault left hundreds of non-emergency police calls unanswered...But the most recent April call figures show the centre receives around 80 non-emergency calls an hour from all over Edinburgh and the Lothians meaning that around 360 calls may have gone unanswered...It is ust another hiccup for the £10.4 million call centre, which ran into controversy soon after opening in February 2004, when 300 calls went unanswered in the first three weeks.

"You don't need to have a gun; the police will protect you."

Ri-ight.

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

Protected Mayors Plot Disarming Everyone Outside Their Jurisdictions

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will host a summit next week for about a dozen of their colleagues to discuss gun violence, a problem that has long frustrated big-city mayors.

Mayors from Dallas, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Seattle are among those scheduled to attend the meeting at Gracie Mansion, the historic Upper East Side house where Bloomberg holds official events.

And they'll meet under the finest armed security taxpayer money can buy!

Dare I Speculate?

Siretha Woods, whose daughter was killed last month by stray gunfire, also called on guns to be relinquished. Siretha White, 10, was struck by a stray bullet at her surprise birthday party in an Englewood home. Police have said the intended target was someone standing on the porch.

"I got 11 more kids," Woods said. "Let's let the rest of them grow up."

12 kids in all? Different last names from you? Grammar indicating lack of education? An intended target was on your porch, an invited guest to one of your parties?

Siretha, I don't suppose any of your life choices have contributed to a culture where stuff like this happens...?

Big Crybaby Quits Sierra Club

“It appears to me that the Sierra Club should have better projects to spend $15,700 on than sending some nimrod to Alaska to shoot wildlife.”

He doesn't get his way, so he calls people names, then takes his ball and goes home.

Paul Watson, you're a paragon of maturity.

[Via John Schaefer]

University Professors Shape Laws

All of which, Kleck said, can be boiled-down to a bumper-sticker slogan: "Bad guys have guns, bad effects. Good guys have guns, good effects."

This is a pleasantly surprising balanced report, although I suspect the line about guns and property owners will renew an old debate...

Yet Another Gun "Buyout"

The Rev. Louis Coleman, who directs the center, said volunteers buy guns from people for $20 to $25. Those guns are later destroyed.

The campaign is an effort to keep weapons off the street and out of homes, Coleman said.

And how about away from your kid, Reverend?

I have to wonder if anyone has done a criminal background check on the volunteers handling the firearms?

How to Stop a Potential School Shooter in His Tracks

What we are doing right now is reviewing our discipline plan and our lockdown procedures, and we are making sure the staff on site have a daily schedule for the principal, assistant principal, probation officer, and the student accountability specialist. ... We are also determining if we need more hand-held radios.

Schedules, radios and an accountability specialist. Why the solution is so simple it's elegant. Why didn't we see this before?

What do you think, Wayne?

A Matter of Purpose

Critics rightly point out that some criminals don't bother to register their guns and that criminals may acquire them by illegal means. The fact some people ignore the law does not mean that the registry serves no purpose.

Yes, we're aware of the purpose it serves--and whose.

UN Renovation Needs U.S. OK

The United Nations headquarters is "falling down," but a planned renovation still needs U.S. government approval, the project director said yesterday.

I say let it fall. Maybe we can melt the metal down and make something useful--like arms for free people. Start with this:

We're the Only Ones Lame Enough

A Clayton County Police officer reholstering his gun after a brief foot chase Sunday morning accidentally shot himself in the leg.

At least they don't say he was shot by his gun...

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

More Guns Plague City Streets

Altoona police reported one shooting incident over the weekend and confiscated a gun with its serial numbers filed off.

That's it? You use the word "plague" and I'm expecting something Biblical here, like locusts or pestilence.

Nice use of hyperbole, Altoona Mirror!

"Gun Advocates Ignoring Columbine"

Didn't Benjamin Franklin say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

I'm not sure who said it, Heidi Yewman, but he had a point. Every public school in America is a "gun free zone" and we can see how well that works.

Or are you expecting different results the next time?

Oh, I know. There woudn't be a "next time' if we only banned guns.

Yeah, we see how well that's worked everywhere it's been tried, too.

Heidi, are you insane?

How to Be a Polite World Citizen

The reputation of the "Ugly American" abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave.

Under a programme starting next month, several leading US companies will give employees heading abroad a "World Citizens Guide" featuring 16 etiquette tips on how they can help improve America's battered international image.

I wonder if it contains tips such as "Don't sneak over foreign borders and make yourself at home"?

Europe is being taken over by increasingly hostile and violent strains of Islamic fundamentalism and they're worried about us being rude?

Destroying Babylon

Babylon, in reggae and hip-hop slang, is a term for a corrupt place — it is sometimes used to refer to white society. Bascunan and Pearce interviewed more than 100 rappers worldwide for the book, to be published by Random House of Canada, talking about the role guns played in their lives.

"How many rappers have been shot, lost a brother, lost a friend?" asks Bascunan. "How much gun violence have we heard of? It seemed pretty obvious what the problem was. Guns escalate violence."

There you have it. The cause of violence in the gangsta community is white society and guns! It must be so, because more than 100 rappers say it is...(I wonder if they interviewed Proof?)

My favorite line comes from Ms. Dynamite, who started out strong and then blinked:

I want a man that has, if not a job, then is looking for a job.

Yeah, baby, I'm lookin'...

We've talked about crime and violence in "the community" before, and acknowledge this is fraught with the peril of being branded with today's Scarlet Letter, the dreaded "R." I will repeat myself:

[W]e also can't forget to look at race--not as a cause of violent crime, but as an indicator of populations most directly affected by and responsive to a continuing history of destructive government policies.

If we're afraid to even address this, we're never going to be able to make things right. And those hurt the most by this self-imposed blindness will continue to be the least properous and protected among us.