A man who beat his murder case when prosecutors failed to give him a speedy trial was killed minutes after leaving Cook County Jail on Monday night, according to authorities. I hope he appreciated how slowly the wheels of justice grind.
Kamari Belmont, 23, was being held on murder and robbery charges after he allegedly shot a man during a robbery and robbed another man a few hours later in 2015. The man he shot died weeks later.
Cook County prosecutors dropped the murder charges the end of January after allowing too much time to elapse under the state’s speedy trial statute, according to court records and Belmont’s attorney. The robbery charges remained and Belmont was ordered held on a $100,000 bond.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, a friend of Belmont posted the required $10,000 on the bond and Belmont was released at 11:12 p.m., according to jail officials.
Belmont was a few block of the jail when a white SUV pulled up to his car on California Avenue and someone inside started shooting, police said. Belmont was hit several times. Once again, proving the private sector is way more nimble and responsive than government.
The SUV ran a red light as it sped off and crashed into a car near Interstate 55, police said. Those inside ran away. Belmont collapsed in the street and died at the scene.
"Oh my God, I can’t believe it," said Belmont’s attorney, Michael Johnson, who said he has known Belmont’s family for more than two decades. He said he’d seen Belmont at the jail recently as the family put together the bail money.
"I told him, once he gets out he’s got to get out of the neighborhood," Johnson said. "Unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this."
But Johnson said he didn’t believe Belmont’s killing was street justice. The armed robbery and murder weren’t gang-related, Johnson said, and he didn't think it possible that word spread that quickly of Belmont's release from jail. Sounds like this guy has the same problem liberals do with their worldview, too.
The shooting and robberies occurred on May 1, 2015. The person who was shot, Sorrell Marshall, 40, died three weeks later.
Belmont and another man, Terrance Hogan, 23, were arrested the night of the shooting and initially charged with attempted murder and armed robbery. The charges were not upgraded to murder until nearly a year later, in April 2016, according to a timeline compiled by jail officials.
It wasn’t clear why prosecutors waited so long to file murder charges. However, Marshall's death was not immediately ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office, which initially marked the case as pending further investigation.
But the clock under the speedy trial statute had started ticking with the attempted murder charges. The murder charges did not reset the clock because they were based on the same set of facts, according to a three-page motion from attorneys for Hogan and Belmont.
Prosecutors had no choice but to drop the charges, Belmont's attorney said.
A representative Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Marshall was shot after he dropped off his girlfriend near her apartment at 37th and Vincennes and parked when Belmont and Hogan tried to rob him, according to authorities. A struggle ensued, and Marshall was shot in the leg and the groin.
Belmont was arrested in Canaryville that night after he and Hogan held up a man in the South Loop, authorities said. A woman with the victim fled and flagged down a police car that tracked the phone to Canaryville.
Hogan was accidentally shot by police during the arrest, according to the police union at the time. He was arrested after he showed up at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center seeking treatment.
#1
"Oh my God, I can’t believe it," said Belmont’s attorney, Michael Johnson, who said he has known Belmont’s family for more than two decades
"I defended his grandpops, his grandmoms, his pa(s), his moms and his siblings. They were all turning their lives around. A damn shame. Now his seven kids by various baby mommas will not have their dad around"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2017 14:03 Comments ||
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#2
I was going to post this last night and then thought, "nah, too local for the Burg." Shows you what I know.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/08/2017 14:09 Comments ||
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#3
Cook County prosecutors dropped the murder charges the end of January
"Assault, Robbery and Murder and you're free to go with time served."
Ivanka Trump’s brand generally makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons. If companies are not dropping the collection, Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Kellyanne Conway, is being accused of violating federal ethics law for making an on-air sales pitch for the line of clothes and accessories. Thus ends the paragraph of obligatory badmouthing by the MFM/Opposition party.
But it appears the slew of controversies have not had a negative effect on the brand’s recent sales. Despite a mounting campaign to boycott President Trump’s daughter’s line of products, the brand claims it saw record sales in February.
The collection said they had some of the highest performing weeks since the brand was launched last month.
"Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand," Abigail Klem, the company's new president, told Refinery 29. "For several different retailers Ivanka Trump was a top performer online, and in some of the categories it was the [brand’s] best performance ever."
Lyst, an e-commerce aggregator which tracks purchasing data from thousands of retailers, told The Independent the brand's sales increased by 346 per cent between January to February of this year.
What’s more, it found February 2017 brand sales had increased by 557 per cent when compared to average orders in 2016. The brand was ranked as no 11 in sales on Lyst for the month of February, a sharp increase from no 550 in January.
"Ivanka Trump brand has never ranked in as a top seller on our site," Sarah Tanner, Lyst's US public relations director, said. "To see such an extreme spike in one month is completely unheard of and came as a huge surprise to us."
The reason for the increase could potentially be linked to Trump supporters explicitly deciding to purchase the products to counter the boycott. I wonder how the SJW business owners who refuse to sell to Trump supporters businesses are doing.
"I bought a pair of her shoes, they are great and classy just like Ivanka trump. Boycott all stores that drop her line," said one person on Twitter. FU too, you lying sack-of-$hit executives at Nordstrom's.
"On behalf of the anti Trumper's and boycott Trump products . I Bought Ivanka Handbag. Shoes tomorrow," chipped in another. Maybe I will, too. ;-)
#2
"But it appears the slew of controversies have not had a negative effect on the brand’s recent sales. "
Perhaps the slew of nonsense controversies has actually spurred conservatives and sane people to support Ivanka's fashion brand. It's the opposite of a boycott and its powerful stuff.
[Ynet] Members of the Danish parliament's foreign policy committee have been asked to leave smartphones, tablets and computers at home during a visit to Russia at a time of increased security concerns.
"Goodbye smartphone," former Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard of the Social Liberal Party said in a post on Facebook.
"On the way to Russia with the Foreign Policy Committee, where we have been advised not to bring gadgets for the sake of safety," Lidegaard wrote.
If only someone had warned Hillary Clinton about this kind of thing when she was Secretary of State, that might not have been her highest achievement.
Ukrainian foreign minister Pavel Klimkin testified in Washington Tuesday that the Ukrainian government has proof the Russian military has been supplying the separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk with heavy military equipment, munitions and as many as 4,200 troops, according to Russian language news accounts.
According to a news report in lb.ua, Klimkin gave his remarks to a subcommittee on State Department funding.
According to Klimkin, 400 Russian tanks, 800 armored vehicles and 200 rocket artillery launchers are part of the inventories of the two rebel republics.
It is generally known in Russian media that 40,000 rebel troops are under arms in the Donetsk republic, so the 4,200 Russian regulars represent about 10 percent of the total, and most of those are probably rear echelon troops there to oversee maintenance and repair of the Russian equipment.
In a separate report in korrespondent.net, the Ukrainian internal security agency, the SBU provided data to investigators at The Hague that many of the shells used by rebel troops in Lugansk and Donetsk are of Russian manufacture. In the early going, rebel media tried to put forward the idea that all the heavy equipment such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles were battlefield salvage, and not shipped across the Russian border. The same applied to heavy ammunition such as mortar shells, and artillery and rocket shells.
In the meantime, artillery fire from both sides continued.
According to a report in lb.ua, rebel mortar fire hit locations near Donetsk city, including at Severnoye, Avdievka, Zaitsevo and Verkhnetoretskye.
In the south near Mariupol rebel artillery hit Ukrainian positions at Talakovka and Taramchuk. Rebel mortar fire was reported at Vodyanoye, Marinka and Talakovka.
In Lugansk, rebel artillery fire was recorded at Krimenskoye, while rebel mortar fire struck Ukrainian positions at Novotoshkovskoye and Krimenskoye.
The Ukrainian ministry of defense said four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the artillery shelling.
On the night of March 6th to March 7th, Ukrainian artillery hit several locations in Donetsk. The locations hit included Trudovskoye, Aleksandrovka, Luganskoye, Yelenovka, Zaitsevo, Gorlovka Spartak and Yasinovataya.
Near Mariupol, Ukrainian artillery struck rebel positions at Sahanka, Kominternovo, Leninskoye Oktyabrskoye and Novoazovskoye.
Rebel media claimed that Ukrainians fired on their troops almost 4,000 times over the previous 24 hours, including small arms fire.
The son of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un assassinated in Malaysia on 13 February, made a rare video appearance, speaking publicly for the first time since his father's death.
The video was published on 7 March by the Cheollima Civil Defense, an organisation that focuses on rescuing North Korean defectors and refugees, and appeared to show the 21-year-old, who identified himself as "Kim Han-sol from North Korea, part of the Kim family".
Who is Kim Han-sol?
Kim Han-sol first attracted international attention when he moved to Bosnia to study at the United World College in Mostar, an international boarding school offering a multicultural learning environment and a mission to create a peaceful and sustainable future. He was the first North Korean student to attend the school, and indeed one of the first members of the secretive North Korean ruling family to be interviewed in Western media.
Speaking to Finnish broadcaster YLE in 2012, Kim Han-sol talked about his life, his relationship to his family and his hopes for the future.
Born in North Korea, he said he lived an ordinary yet isolated life in the country, until he moved to Macau after his father, who had been tipped to be the first in line to Kim Jong-il succession, reportedly fell out of favour with the regime after attempting to enter Japan to visit Disneyland with a fake passport in 2011. He would still come back to North Korea to visit his relatives, presumably his mother's family as he said he never met his paternal grandfather.
At his school in Macau he met people from other countries, including the US and South Korea, which sparked a desire about seeing more of the world and leaving Macau to study elsewhere. After graduating from UWC Mostar, Kim Han-sol moved to France in 2013 to study for a Bachelor degree in social science at the Sciences Po campus of Le Havre, where students follow the Europe-Asia programme. Following the assassination of Kim Jong-un's uncle Jang Song-thaek, Kim Han-sol was assigned police protection and asked journalists to leave him alone, as reported by South Korean media.
Where is Kim Han-sol now?
His current whereabouts are unknown. South Korean intelligence officers said they believe his family where living until recently in Macau under Chinese government protection, the New York Times reported.
In the video posted by the Cheollima Civil Defense, Kim Han-sol said he is with his mother and sister. The group said they assisted the three family members to relocate them to safety, but that the family's whereabouts will not be addressed. In a statement, the group thanks the governments of the Netherlands, China, the US and a fourth, unnamed one, for the support received in helping the family.
According to British tabloids, Kim Han-sol was admitted to Oxford University to further his education, but had to turn down the offer after his father's assassination. In the 2012 interview, Kim Han-sol said that after completing his studies, he was going to focus on volunteering and peace-building projects. "I have always dreamed one day I will go back and make things better, make it easier for all the people there," he told the interviewer.
What does Kim Han-sol think of Kim Jong-un?
Kim Han-sol said in the 2012 interview he never met neither neither his grandfather Kim Jong-il nor Kim Jong-un, who succeeded him as the country's supreme leader after his death in December 2011.
In fact, he hardly even know who his paternal grandfather was and only understood later in life he was North Korea's ruler, after piecing together conversations his parents had. "I really did not know if he knew I existed". Kim Han-sol said he was living the life of an ordinary citizen in North Korea, before the family left the country to live in Macau. "My dad was definitely not really interested in politics. I really don't know how he [Kim Jong-un] became a dictator ... It was between him and my grandfather," he added.
He expressed a strong desire for the reunification of the country. "I also dream of reunification because it's really sad that I can't go to the other side [South Korea] and see my friends there."
He added: "It is just political issues that divide the nation in half."
#1
Who is Kim Han-Sol?
Someone who (a) Has a clock running on them, and (b) better be real good at being inconspicuous. (Seems to have compromised (b) here).
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/08/2017 18:45 Comments ||
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#2
He added: "It is just political issues that divide the nation in half."
And a demilitarized zone with lots of barbed wire and land mines, and a Communist dictator, and an army over 1 million in size. Other than that, he's spot on!
I'm with ed here - the young price might want to shut the hell up for a good, long while.
[Yahoo] China warned Wednesday that North Korea and the United States were like two trains racing towards a "head-on collision," calling on both sides to apply the brakes and avert a security crisis.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi's warning came after a cascade of events that has sent regional tensions soaring, including provocative North Korean missile tests and annual US-South Korean wargames that infuriate Pyongyang.
Beijing itself is particularly concerned over an American missile-defence system being rolled out in South Korea as a shield against the North Korean threat, but which Wang said also "undermines China's strategic security." Seems China is getting seriously worried that we might blast their puppet off the map.
He called on North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the US and South Korea halting the military exercises.
"The two sides are like two accelerating trains coming toward each other with neither side willing to give way," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session.
"The question is: are the two sides really ready for a head-on collision? Our priority now is to flash the red light and apply the brakes on both trains."
Pyongyang blasted at least four missiles toward Japan on Monday, three of which splashed down in waters within Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, saying they were tests for a possible strike on US bases in Japan.
Wang said China's proposal could help bring the US and North Korea back to negotiations on ending Pyongyang's weapons programmes. Good luck China, but it seems your little hellspawn has decided to go without you and take on the world. Enjoy having a fully armed Japan (with possible nukes) and South Korea working together because of this.
#1
...I would give ANYTHING to hear what the PRC is telling (or trying to tell) the Norks right now.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/08/2017 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
Mike, also what the Js and SKs are saying to each other. Has their enmity based on WWII events settled down to where they can collaborate on dealing with NK...with or without US help?
#3
Duel slap-down required. Please do it sooner rather than later, with massive secondary strike at the ready should they not return to their hidy holes.
Specifically, the following stratagems are relevant:
Kill with a borrowed sword
Feign madness but keep your balance
Disturb the water and catch a fish
Chain stratagems
China wants the US out of Korea and control of the first island chain.
[SCMP] North Korea’s expelled ambassador fired a final salvo at Malaysia on Monday over its investigation into the liquidation of the half-brother of Pyongyang’s leader, describing the probe as biased.
Speaking at Kuala Lumpur International Airport before his flight left, ambassador Kang Chol criticised what he called a "pretargeted investigation by the Malaysian police".
The murder of Kim Jong-nam with VX nerve agent at the same airport last month sparked an acrimonious dispute between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2017 00:00 ||
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[SCMP] North Korea banned Malaysians from leaving the country Tuesday, triggering a tit-for-tat response from Kuala Lumpur which said its citizens were effectively being held "hostage" in the row over the liquidation of Kim Jong-nam.
Pyongyang’s extraordinary move came as it faced growing international condemnation for a volley of missiles it fired into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), defying stringent global sanctions aimed at halting its weapons programme.
Tuesday’s developments marked a dramatic heightening of tensions with Malaysia three weeks after the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... was murdered at an airport with the banned VX nerve agent.
The North decided to "temporarily ban the exit of Malaysian citizens in the DPRK", the official news agency KCNA said, citing the foreign ministry and using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The prohibition would remain in place "until the safety of the diplomats and citizens of the DPRK in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through the fair settlement of the case that occurred in Malaysia".
The Malaysian foreign ministry said 11 of its citizens were currently in North Korea, including three embassy staff, six family members and two others who work for the UN’s World Food Programme.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the bar, and said he was ordering a similar ban on the movement of "all North Korean citizens in Malaysia". Analysts said they could number around 1,000.
"This abhorrent act, effectively holding our citizens hostage, is in total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms," Najib said.
"As a peace-loving nation, Malaysia is committed to maintaining friendly relations with all countries.
"However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... protecting our citizens is my first priority, and we will not hesitate to take all measures necessary when they are threatened."
Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur had unusually strong links for years, but ties have rapidly degenerated in the weeks since two women wiped a deadly chemical on Kim Jong-nam’s face.
An autopsy revealed that to be VX nerve agent, a substance so dangerous it is classed as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN.
The two women - one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese - were charged last week with the murder. Both women have denied any wrongdoing. The police are still hunting for seven North Korean men allegedly linked to the homicide, which Seoul blames on Pyongyang.
Of the seven, three men, including Hyon Kwang-song, second secretary at the North Korean embassy, have taken refuge in the embassy building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said.
"We will wait, if it takes five years, we will wait outside. Definitely somebody will come out," Khalid said.
The North has never confirmed the dead man’s identity, but has denounced the Malaysian investigation as an attempt to smear it.
North Korean ambassador Kang Chol slammed what he called a "pre-targeted investigation by the Malaysian police" on Monday, moments before leaving the country after being expelled.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Most countries declare diplomats PNG (persona non grata) and make the leave.
The NK's declare someone PNG and won't let them leave; evidently you go from friendly diplomat to hostage in one hop.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/08/2017 18:54 Comments ||
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[GEO.TV] Geo and Jang Group’s investigative journalist Umar Cheema recently wrote a report stating that Pakistain has set an example for other countries to follow when it comes to tax disclosure by politicians.
Umar Cheema recently wrote an article in The Guardian, describing how Pakistain caught up with its tax evasion woes.
Tax collection around the world remains a grey area, as often the policies tend to favour the affluent of the society, he wrote in the article. Some years ago, Pakistain also ranked among the countries who had a miserable record when came to tax disclosure, he further stated.
In 2011, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had made a speech in the parliament over budget saying that Pakistain ranked at the 152 spot out of 154, in tax-to-GDP ratio. Apart from this, in the year 2011, around 70%Pak had not filed income tax returns, Cheema mentioned.
Following just a few years, the country made exemplary strides regarding tax transparency, he said.
He went as far as to say that when it comes to tax submission by politicians, major personalities such as Philip Hammond and Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... can take a leaf out of Pakistain’s book.
According to the journalist: "Since 2014, the Pakistain government now lists on its website, in alphabetical order, the total annual tax paid by all companies and individuals. Norway, Sweden and Finland have been doing this for decades."
Cheema said that Pakistain has now made tax-related data public, which concerns citizens and law-makers alike.
He argued that bringing forth tax data to the public can help politicians establish a connection with public and gain their trust.
"Last week, 20 other leading investigative journalists from around the world and I met in London to discuss ways we can all follow my work in Pakistain. Afterwards, we sent letters to 7,000 politicians from 20 countries, urging them to disclose their tax records. If they do not respond they will be named and shamed," he writes in the article.
While speaking to Geo News, Cheema said that it is a great feat that Pakistain is setting an example for other countries to follow.
Recently, the journalist’s campaign on the taxes of Pak politicians gained worldwide attention.
A London-based organization launched on Tuesday the campaign as a global initiative by writing letters to 7,000 politicians in 20 countries asking them to disclose their taxes in the public interest.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A man who beat his murder case when prosecutors failed to give him a speedy trial was killed minutes after leaving Cook County Jail on Monday night, according to authorities. 
Ivanka Trump’s brand generally makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons. If companies are not dropping the collection, Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Kellyanne Conway, is being accused of violating federal ethics law for making an on-air sales pitch for the line of clothes and accessories.
"Ivanka Trump brand has never ranked in as a top seller on our site," Sarah Tanner, Lyst's US public relations director, said. "To see such an extreme spike in one month is completely unheard of and came as a huge surprise to us."
The son of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un assassinated in Malaysia on 13 February, made a rare video appearance, speaking publicly for the first time since his father's death.
[Yahoo] China warned Wednesday that North Korea and the United States were like two trains racing towards a "head-on collision," calling on both sides to apply the brakes and avert a security crisis.
North Korea
North Korea
[GEO.TV] Geo and Jang Group’s investigative journalist Umar Cheema recently wrote a report stating that Pakistain has set an example for other countries to follow when it comes to tax disclosure by politicians.
