Colorado Springs police used a stun gun early Thursday morning to try to stop a man calling himself 'God' from what was originally reported as an attempted burglary.
The incident happened at an apartment complex just north of Austin Bluffs Parkway and North Academy Boulevard around 3:40 a.m. Thursday. When police arrived, they said a man claiming to be God charged for them, a police report said.
A neighbor told KRDO Newschannel13 he walked outside when he heard the commotion.
"One of the cops told me to go back to my apartment, but of course I sat there with the door cracked and listened. The guy was totally tripped out," said Rod Smith.
Police said he would not comply with orders, forcing officers to use a stun gun. It didn't stop the man, and he charged officers once again, according to police.
Police tried again to use a stun gun, but it still didn't work. The man tried to run, but was tackled by officers in the hallway, police said. It took four officers to get him under control.
After medical personnel arrived, the man admitted to smoking mushrooms, a hallucinogenic drug with similar effects to LSD.
Smith said the man was talking, but not making much sense.
"He kept trying to tell the cops that he would take them on one by one if they'd take his cuffs off. he asked them if they wanted to smoke a bowl with him," said Smith.
KRDO Newschannel13 spoke with Dr. John Torres. He tells us that hallucinogenic drugs don't cause superhuman strength, but they can prevent the mind from understanding the body is in pain.
"It is called dissociation. They are not there in the same way we are. Their reality is completely skewed. They have god like feelings," said Torres.
Police arrested Jorelle Antivo, 21. He was treated at the hospital and faces charges of obstructing a peace officer. No officers were hurt during the confrontation.
While Beachy's case smells like a Ponzi scheme, the SEC didn't charge him as such. "It's certainly a scheme where investors thought their money was being used one way but it was used in another way, which is one of the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme," says John Sikora, an attorney with the SEC's Chicago office. "But at the same time, we don't allege he used the funds to enrich himself."
The SEC filed a complaint, but Beachy agreed to a settlement without admitting or denying the allegations. The settlement, which was approved by the court on Friday morning, doesn't impose a civil penalty against Beachy due to his financial situation.
SEC attorney Brian Fagel says the roughly $18 million remaining from the original $33 million raised by Beachy is controlled by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, and those funds will eventually be distributed to investors.
[Straits Times] IN THE latest example of courtroom violence to hit Indonesia, scores of women tried to attack a defendant in a murder trial on Thursday after he was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.
The district court in Gowa, South Sulawesi province, erupted in chaos as the women jostled with security guards and shouted out their disapproval at the sentence, which they said should have been 20 years.
Last week, a mob emerged from a court in Central Java and went on an anti-Christian rampage as they demanded the death penalty for a Christian man who had been jugged for insulting Islam. The crowd wanted him executed.
In another incident, a mob attacked a court in Central Lombok last week threatening to kill nine men who were standing trial for the murder of a local politician and one of his sons.
'These defendants need to die. Sentence them to death or we will murder them,' the politician's other son was quoted by the Jakarta Globe newspaper as telling police at the scene.
In September last year, a man was hacked to death and two others were killed in a fight outside a Jakarta court which was hearing a murder case involving members of powerful gangs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] A Pak laborer in Makkah's Shariah district killed himself by drinking insecticide after hearing from a friend back home that his fiancé had married a closer relative, front man for Makkah police Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Miman announced Wednesday. "I am distraught! She has left me! I shall drink Flit!"
He did not identify the man, but said he was installing the decor on a building site when he received the news. The front man said after receiving the news, the Pak expatriate looked bewildered and left the site. After some time, he called one of his colleagues from his apartment and asked him to visit him immediately.
Al-Miman said when the colleague arrived at the apartment, he found the laborer in a hysterical condition. He added that the man pointed to a glass cup that contained the insecticide before he died. "Before I peg out, I just wanted to tell you: that stuff tastes really nasty!"
He added that detectives and the forensics teams were rushed to the scene. He said the man's death was not suspicious, but added investigations were under way.
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02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Billy Ray Cyrus says the Disney TV show "Hannah Montana" destroyed his family, causing his divorce and sending daughter Miley Cyrus spinning out of control. If you haven't been paying attention, Miley Cyrus plays a sensible and likable young girl on the teevee. My grandson Sporkleman liked the show for awhile -- I think it's on Disney, but it might be Nickelodeon. Billy Ray plays her dad, and they hired some kid to play her brother. Like Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears before her, as she's grown from a girl to a young woman she's apparently decided that being sensible and likable isn't a desirable image for her. Pushed every step of the way by Daddy, he's now unhappy with the product of all his labors...
In a December interview published in the Feb. 22 issue of GQ Magazine, Cyrus said he wished the show that launched his daughter to pop stardom had never happened. "I hate to say it, but yes, I do. Yeah. I'd take it back in a second," Cyrus said. "For my family to be here and just be everybody OK, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I'd erase it all in a second if I could."
Cyrus and his wife, Tish, filed for divorce in October. They have three kids together -- Miley is the oldest -- and two from Tish's previous marriage. Billy Ray Cyrus said when he asked about the rumored video footage of his daughter smoking from a bong at her 18th birthday party in December, he was told it was none of his business. He refused to attend the party, saying it was wrong to have it in a bar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Whose grandson wouldn't like a girl who smokes a bong and shows the world her coochie while riding to a party without wearing knickers!
#2
...In five years, Miss Cyrus will be either the star of a reality show on E! or the answer to a trivia question. Either way, in the meantime we will be treated to a meltdown that will make Lindsey Lohan look like Maria in The Sound Of Music while Billy Ray and Tish bemoan Miley's fate while writing tell-all books.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2011 5:29 Comments ||
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#3
The girl and her father did some public appearance and created an extremely uncomfortable aura of incest.
"Uh, dude? Kissing your daughter a little is okay. Tongue kissing for half a minute is not cool."
But for those of you who have lost faith in America, justin beaver is not from the USA, but I guess in the era of prequels and sequels a KD Lang retread was due.
#7
Billy Ray Cyrus said when he asked about the rumored video footage of his daughter smoking from a bong at her 18th birthday party in December, he was told it was none of his business. He refused to attend the party, saying it was wrong to have it in a bar.
A bar that lets in 18 y.o's?
If he had gone, if he had been a parent, it might not have happened.
[Rooters] Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected, researchers reported in the journal Climate Change Letters. Where else would it be reported Lancet?
Ouch. Remember when comparison to Lancet was praise... like the New York Times?
Sea level rise is expected to be one result of global warming as ice on land melts and flows toward the world's oceans. Using data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the scientists were able to calculate in detail how much land could be lost as seas rise, said study author Jeremy Weiss of the University of Arizona. Where they know all about the oceans. Or 'hot', anyways.
Sea level rise is expected as a consequence of continuing climate change, which is spurred by human activities including breathing, passing gas, fireplaces, furnaces, grilling raw meats, and the burning of fossil fuels.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated global average temperature will rise by 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) by 2100. However, Weiss and his colleagues put the warming at more like 8 degrees F (4.4 degrees C). The UN scenario wasn't scary enough
Weiss said the lesser degree of warming projected by the IPCC reflects a moderate scenario. The study's higher temperature estimate is based on the idea that greenhouse emissions will continue along the current trajectory through the century.
"There aren't any national or international agreements yet on actively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and so that's what we get at when we say 8 degrees Fahrenheit," Weiss said.
In the centuries after 2100, he said, sea levels could rise as much as 6 yards (meters), based on the melting of giant ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica. There are beaches in California 100 meters (300ft.) above the water right now. I saw pictures in a geology book. That's from the pre-human man-made global warming period.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/18/2011 15:18 ||
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#1
Wouldn't be the first time in human history this has happened. Just think of all the land lost when the ice age ended! And the massive flood in the Black Sea 10,000 years ago! Those time traveling SUVs are going to doom us all!!!
#5
"Massive flood in the Black Sea 10,000 years ago" > D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, DO YA SEE WHAT HAPPENED - THE ABSENCE OF ONE CHUBBY SNOTTY LITTE DUTCH BOY CAUSED NOAH TO BUILD HIS ARK, CREATED THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, DESTROYED ATLANTIS, + LED TO THE RISE OF COMMUNISM, RAP + "JERSEY SHORE"!
#6
Nothing that a good volcano - a Krakatoa, or maybe a Tomba - can't fix in about one week - dropping global air temperatures by couple of degrees, for a decade or so. We're about due for a big one.
PARIS -- Global warming theoretically driven by human activity boosted the intensity of rain, snow and consequent flooding in the northern hemisphere over the last half of the 20th century, research released Wednesday has shown.
Two studies, both published in Nature, are among the first of many more to come to draw a straight line between climate change and its impact on potentially deadly and damaging extreme weather events.
Computer models have long predicted that the observed rise in atmospheric greenhouse gases would magnify episodes of diluvian rainfall. Since wamer air holds more water.
But up to now, the link has been largely theoretical.
Data gathered between 1951 and 2000 from across Europe, Asia and North America showed that, on average, the most extreme 24-hour precipitation event in a given year - whether rain, snow or sleet - increased in intensity over the last 50 years of the 20th century. Compared to what? The first 50 years? November 11, 1918? July 4, 1776?
When this measurable spike was compared with changes simulated by climate models, the fingerprint of human influence on Earth's weather patterns was unmistakable, Zwiers said.
"The observed change cannot be explained by natural, internal fluctuations of the climate system alone."
In the second study - which sought to tease out the impact of global warming on England's wettest autumn on record, in 2000 scientists led by Myles Allen of the University of Oxford tapped into the power of Internet-based social networks to overcome this last constraint. They took a poll on Facebook, I suppose.
The researchers compared two climate models, one based on detailed historical weather data and the other on a "parallel" autumn 2000 simulating conditions had no greenhouse gases been emitted in the 20th century. Ah, the old computer model trick! Define the outcome and anybody can make the model!
Global warming likely doubled the odds that such an event would occur, they found.
"To really pin down the difference between these two worlds, we needed to repeat the simulation thousands of times," explained lead author Pardeep Pall, who initiated the project as a graduate student in 2003. With a computer? With one model? Wouldn't the results be the same each time? That's how my computer works!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/18/2011 15:03 ||
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#1
Damn! I wish the Global Warming Gnomes would send some rain here. We are very dry and under a fire watch. Lots of brush fires in the area right now. One can see the hazey smoke everywhere.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/18/2011 16:00 Comments ||
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And we shall call this northern trans-continental phenomenom...Spring!
When that cyclone hit Australia the weather guy was running around saying biggest storm ehah! After a few breathes he finally got it right and said biggest storm recorded.
They increased in intensity because, during that time, the ability to measure a weather event improved. Unfortunately the Spaniards destroyed all the super dopplar radar recordings of the Mayans.
[Iran Press TV] Deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has reportedly slipped into a coma after suffering a stroke and is currently hospitalized in Soddy Arabia.
French newspaper Le Monde reported on Thursday that Ben Ali had a stroke earlier this week in Soddy Arabia, where he decamped to in January following his ouster.
The paper has described the deposed president's condition as "worrying," citing the blog of French journalist Nicolas Beau, a veteran news hound specializing in Tunisia.
The 74-year-old reportedly slipped into a coma on Tuesday while being treated in a Jeddah hospital after suffering a stroke. "Doctor! Is he...?"
"He's lost the will to live, Felice!"
[sob!]
The hospital in Jeddah, where Ben Ali was admitted under false identity, is reserved for Saudi princes, according to Le Monde.
Ben Ali and his family decamped Tunisia for Soddy Arabia on January 14 after a popular revolution put an end to the dictator's 23-year grip on the North African country.
At least 147 people were killed and 510 injured during the Tunisian revolution, according to the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Mosques in Tunisia now receive exceptionally large numbers of worshipers, from a host of social classes and affiliations, after all restrictions on freedom of faith were lifted following the ouster of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
"People must be allowed to embrace faith freely without restrictions or supervision," Hadi Meftahi told Magharebia. "It is time we respected the religious legitimacy and implemented rules of Islam that we were deprived of in Tunisia, just as they were ordained in the Qur'an."
Al-Fateh mosque in downtown Tunis housed throngs of praying Mohammedans last Friday, (February 11th). The crowds were so large that some had to perform their prayers on the streets leading to the mosque. The multitudes were a bold manifestation of the air of freedom prevailing after the Tunisian revolution.
"The previous regime exercised great pressures on religion and Mohammedans, not to mention strict security supervision on mosques," said Taoufik Mzoughi. "He used religious discourse and rostra as propaganda tools for himself, where he is portrayed as the defender of the homeland and Islam."
Nonetheless, Mzoughi explained that Tunisians managed to preserve their faith. "What calls for optimism are the swarms of youth who frequent mosques though they were raised during Ben Ali's reign. However, The infamous However... they continue to cling to the basis of true faith as well as their Islamic identity."
Mokhtar Hedhli said, "Friday sermons or sermons delivered in religious holidays used to be restricted, stereotypical and dictated by the state. They had nothing to do with the people's lives or youth's concerns, nor with the changes that overcome the country and the outside world. They included supplications for the president, and propaganda for his regime, particularly during the elections."
"Over the past three weeks, we sensed that imams breathed in a new spirit in religious discourse, which now corresponds to the changes in our homeland. It promotes the facts of our faith and its true notions," Hedhli added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office vowed yesterday to harshly crack down on anyone caught hoarding food staples as part of the government's efforts to stabilize food prices amid a string of price hikes following the Lunar New Year. And so it starts
#3
IIRC during the immediate post war period in Korea 45-50, they had similar problems. It wasn't individuals stocking up, but wealthy individuals trying to corner the market by buying up large amounts of the production and then withholding it from the market with the intent of driving up the prices. With world level of food commodities being stretched, it's not like the government could flood the market with imports to destroy the game.
The US national fertilizer slurry pipeline, which transfers vast amounts of petroleum based fertilizer around America's farm belt, is both in less than ideal maintenance condition, and it is too small for the vast amounts of fertilizer that agribusiness needs.
Natural gas accounts for 70-90 percent of the production cost of nitrogen fertilizer ammonia. Thus, when U.S. natural gas prices increased significantly beginning in the year 2000, the cost of domestically produced ammonia also rose significantly. Average U.S. ammonia production costs doubled from 1999 to 2003, the latest year for which data are available.
As a result of high natural gas prices, 21 nitrogen fertilizer (ammonia) production facilities closed since 1999, because their low profit margins could not sustain them at those higher prices.
Sixteen of those plants have closed permanently, representing a 20 percent drop in US production capacity, while five plants remain idle.
So the US has 20% less fertilizer, a rickety, too small pipeline network to transport it, and no quick or easy way to increase production or distribution.
#6
Anonymoose - all that, and right now natural gas prices are LOW (relative to oil, at least.) There might be a good business opportunity there - everybody has to eat, and you can't eat gold, or oil, but you can 'eat' gas, after converting it to fertilizer and delivering it to farms.
Posted by: Jefferson ||
02/18/2011 12:31 Comments ||
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Water filters. Just because it is water doesn't mean it is potable. One of the best long term filters is a hollowed out block of limestone. It separates out all kinds of nastiness.
#1
No, they just need the balls to use established discipline procedures. Yeah it will not happen overnight, but since the unions agreed to the process, when you pull the pin and start walking it back up to the incompetents, they won't be able to bitch too loudly. but that assumes there are balls in NYC.
#1
Karl Denninger's summary of this situation: That's raw money printing which is supposed to be illegal in the EU.
It is identical to me printing up a $100 billion bond on my laser printer, putting my name on it as the issuer and the owner, and then saying "ok, I have $100 billion."
[Iran Press TV] German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has asked federal states to introduce a nationwide Islamic curriculum in schools across the country.
In a meeting with more than one hundred experts in the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in the city of Nuremberg, German officials and representatives of Mohammedan communities tried to solve legal problems hindering the initiative, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.
"We need Islamic education in German schools and we need it now, not just the pilot projects," the German minister said.
Almost all German states have introduced such pilot projects for Mohammedan students, but only one in twenty Mohammedan students is able to attend such classes.
Neither their families nor their communities always provide young Mohammedans in Germany with the moral and practical counseling they need. The consequences are often conflicts, alienation from religion and identity crises. This is why the government supports Islamic education in schools for the benefit of the children, despite the obstacles.
As a temporary solution, the government is now calling upon the local authorities to accept councils with Mohammedan members as partners in the development of the curriculum for Islamic courses.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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This is the same government, mind you, that use jack booted thugs to enforce their strict, Nazi-era prohibition against home schooling. Any hint of parents even considering doing that, or taking their children out of the country to be home schooled, and the government will take their children away.
[Al Jazeera] Belgians have been marking a near world record of 249 days without a government, due to political deadlock following June elections last year that failed to produce a clear winner.
Despite the ongoing political crisis, residents are using Thursday to hold a "chips revolution",
That's only because they speak the British dialect. If they spoke American, they'd call them French fries.
honouring a favourite national dish, with various events going on around the country.
"Of course it is serious that we have no federal government," Kris Peeters, the Phlegmish minister-president of Flanders, said. "But on the other hand, I appreciate very much the humour of certain actions."
In Ghent, a Dutch-speaking region, organisers say 249 people will strip naked to mark the days of the crisis, while a group of people calling for a unity government are using the occasion to press their cause.
"We've had enough of political games," Kliment Kostadinov, one of the organisers of the "chips revolution", told the AFP news agency. "We must get a government fast and a reform of our institutions that is good for all Belgians."
Their is some doubt as to whether 249 days and nine months without a government is really a world record. Iraq took 249 days to get the outlines of a government agreement last year, but the approval of that government took a further 40 days.
Belgium's major parties began talks shortly after the June 13 elections last year to force through the biggest constitutional reform in decades.
However, The infamous However... gathering support for the reforms from both the nation's Dutch and French speakers has so far proved elusive.
At stake in the haggling is a deal to reform Belgium's federal system, giving more autonomy to each of its regions - Flanders in the north, French-speaking Wallonia in the south, and the capital Brussels, a bilingual enclave in Flanders.
Everybody always forgets the German Belgians sitting quietly in their corner of the country, praying hard that it doesn't break up and send them back to German rule.
The political deadlock has stopped reforms going ahead, and King Albert II has had to appoint and accept the resignation of one go-between after another as the major parties refuse to move from their pre-election positions.
Despite their disagreements, both Belgian and French press marked the occasion with a carnival mood, the leading daily in Flanders claiming "At last, world champions" and French-language Le Soir saying "Record Beaten".
They must be saving a fortune on laws not passed and taxes not raised...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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Freedom fries, please.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/18/2011 0:28 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Seven were maimed in a family brawl Wednesday evening, as relatives used explosives to gain the upper hand in a fight in the southern Gazoo Strip city of Rafah, police said.
Police said the arrived on the scene amid kabooms, and called in reinforcements, eventually surrounding the compound and quelling the fray in stages.
The injured were evacuated to the Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital in the city, with medics saying some were seriously injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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What do you do if a Palestinian throws a pin at you?
Run like Hell. He has a grenade in his mouth.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/18/2011 0:30 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] THE Red Shirts will hold a mass rally on Saturday to protest against the detention without bail of their seven leaders, lead organiser Thida Thawornseth said on Wednesday, highlighting the planned march around Bangkok.
'On Feb 19, the Red Shirts will show up in unprecedented numbers,' Mr Thida said, hinting at a show of strength ahead of Monday's bail hearing for the seven leaders.
The planned activities include the kick-off of the rally at Ratchaprasong at 1pm and march to the Supreme Court building near Sanam Luang at 3pm, via Pratunam, New Phetchburi Road and Rajdamnoen Avenue.
Following the afternoon rally at the high court, the Red Shirts will gather for their evening activities at Democracy Monument.
Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan called on the Criminal Court to grant bail to all seven leaders and not selectively release just some of them. He said he had heard the court might approve two of seven bail applications.
'Should the bail be approved just for Kokaew Pikulthong and Weng Tojirakarn, then I object,' he said.
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02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] CAMBODIA said on Thursday it would press Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire at a regional gathering next week as both countries remained at odds over how to settle a deadly border row.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would urge its neighbour to agree a peace deal during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Jakarta on Tuesday.
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the idea of Asean involvement in resolving the dispute, which erupted into armed festivities between the countries earlier this month.
Four days of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... near a 900-year-old border temple left at least 10 people dead and displaced thousands of families on both sides of the frontier.
'During the upcoming Asean meeting, Cambodia will request that a ceasefire agreement be signed between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers under the witness of Asean or the Asean chair,' Hun Sen said at a presser in the Cambodian capital.
He also confirmed that his country will call for Asean observers to come to the border area to help ensure a ceasefire holds.
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02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] LEADERS of all religious faiths in Kelantan will be asked to meet and come up with a common stand against sinful acts, said Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. They just can't comprehend the idea of leaving anybody alone...
He said the gathering would be held soon so the religious leaders could discuss problems related to sex outside marriage, gambling, baby-dumping, Mat Rempit, snatch thefts, corruption and others.
'The intention is to get a common stand from leaders of different faiths that such sinful acts are abhorred and that followers should refrain from committing them.'
'All these leaders will come up with a joint statement. It will be an attestation from all religions that it is not only Islam which prohibits such acts but other faiths too,' he told reporters after launching a scheme called Azziwaaj Gateway which would provide RM1,000 (S$420) to poor couples who lacked funds to get married.
Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz, who is also PAS spiritual adviser, said the meeting was part of a move to educate the people of Kelantan to fear Allah and not enforcement officers who were tasked with carrying out laws drafted by the authorities.
'We want to educate the Kelantanese based on Allah's laws and not by the secular system.'
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02/18/2011 00:00 ||
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When narcotics officers appeared at a Castro home shortly after 7 a.m. on Jan. 11, they had permission from a judge to search for "proceeds" from an illegal marijuana grow.
The SFPD and DEA found no piles of marijuana money at 243 Diamond St., one of six addresses raided simultaneously in San Francisco that morning. Instead, they found Clark Freshman, who rents the penthouse at the two-unit building. Freshman, a UC Hastings law professor and the main consultant to the television show Lie to Me, was put into handcuffs while in his bathrobe as agents searched, despite Freshman's insistence that they had the wrong place and were breaking the law. "I told them to call the judge and get their warrant updated," he says. "They just laughed at me -- I guess that's why they're called pigs."
Soon they may be called defendants in a lawsuit. A furious Freshman has pledged to sue the DEA and the SFPD for unlawful search and seizure of his home.
In his search warrant, Officer Scott Biggs of the SFPD's narcotics unit says that prior to the raid, he spent two days and two nights casing the address looking for Mahmoud Larizadeh, the property's owner. Larizadeh also owns a 13th Street warehouse, a part of which he rents to Bruce Rossignol, a licensed medical cannabis patient who now faces three felony charges for growing pot there.
Biggs describes 243 Diamond as a "two-story, one-unit" building in the warrant. There's no mention of Freshman or Larizadeh's son-in-law or seven-months pregnant daughter who were detained in the downstairs unit that morning. But property records -- and a quick visual scan of the property -- reveal it to be a three-story, two-unit building. That mistake alone may be enough to invalidate the search warrant.
SFPD offered no comment other than reiterating they had a warrant from Judge Richard Kramer to search 243 Diamond. But Peter Keane, dean emeritus of Golden Gate University's School of Law, says there appears to be a problem. "There's been cases like this in the past where police have a warrant to search [a single residence], then they get there and it's a multi-unit building and they search the whole building. In those cases, people have sued and collected substantial settlements. I think whomever is representing the government better get out his checkbook."
"I've been on the fence for years about the legalization of drugs ... and now I'm a victim of this crazy war on drugs," says Freshman, who pledged to sue until "I see [the agents'] houses sold at auction and their kids' college tuitions taken away from them. There will not be a better litigated case this century." This is getting completely out of control. My wife is on the medicinal program and depends on it for her pain control. It is legal in CA and the people that help her out pay taxes on it. The DEA busted them with the help of the local cops and now several cancer and pain patients are fucked because of some dipshit cop that broke state law. I know federal law trumps, but at this point the war on drugs has gone over into full police state mentality. Legalize it or change the law to let the states handle their own affairs. There are deliberate fuck ups, due process is not being followed and a "What are you going to do about it, peon?" attitude shown by the DEA and some police and judges. Enough with trampling on everyone's rights, especially the poor sods that are caught in the middle and have no recourse.
#1
I am amazed that no one who has been brutalized in one of these deals, has yet to set up a "death house", with the intention of killing a number of police during a SWAT style drug raid.
Today, with abandoned houses all over the place, this could be done with no connection at all to the individual responsible, yet could kill half a dozen officers, with no one but themselves to blame for their aggression and violating the rules.
#3
I was confused by the title. Turns out Castro is a neighborhood in SF, Cal (I suppose near Castro street).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/18/2011 15:31 Comments ||
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#4
...just wait till we go full Mexican with drug money.
Already there and full of federal money too. Big busts are big buisness for cops and black market pot is big buisness for Mexican drug runners. No wonder no one in charge wants it legal.
Bit of perspective, there was a non-profit coop that was helping my wife. They made sure everything was up to California code, all paperwork done, all laws followed and all taxes paid. They grew their own and sold it to only card carrying patients. Then a cop from SLO got a card from a doctor under false pretenses, set up the coop for them to sell to her after filling out lots of paperwork as per state law. After a few sales, the cops called the DEA and suddenly a cancer survivor that is regulated by the state of California to grow and sell has a fully armed swat team breaking in his door and arresting him in front of his 7 year old daughter with police dogs and a helicopter. They didn't even show him a warrant until 3 days later. On top of that, they took his daughter under "child endangerment". The exact same scenario played out at over 15 locations with the same level of extreme and overreaching force.
Now, why would a Californian cop pull in federal law enforcement to bust people with military type of operations because they were following Californian law? The secret is they needed some more federal "aid" to help combat their "drug" problem since they had budget shortages. Now I want to know how much they spent on the goddamn operation and arrests?
This dual legal/not legal crap has got to go. It is wrecking people's lives. Not only the people that choose to follow the law and help do what they believe is right, but people that aren't even involved at all. The police, Feds and judges are all overreaching, over bearing and out of control. This is just another fight on the nanny-state vs. individual freedoms front.
So yeah, I'm pissed. We now are all pretty much criminals anyway. Just try to buy some cold medicine. Or if you have chronic pain, some Oxycontin. You are just a criminal that hasn't been caught according to the fucked up system we have. The war on drugs is a failure. We live in a police state.
I don't have all the answers to solve this, but I can think of a couple that would help tremendously.
1) Secure the fucking border
2) Enforce our immigration laws
3) Let the states handle their own affairs when it comes to drugs, abortion, etc. and keep the goddamn feds out of it unless trafficking crosses state borders. Then call in the goddamn DEA and FBI.
#5
A preemptive on 'Prohibition didn't work' line.
Be real. There is no perfect. You'll just shift the casualty figures from one column to another.
Go count the number of Americans just killed in DUI since the repeal of Prohibition and the number of Americans killed in the wars since. Guess which number is bigger. Toss in those killed or maimed in other situations while under the influence for another big number to ignore. Ending prohibition just shoved the ugly consequences to another venue. Legalizing drugs will be the same. The social consequences will still be there, but we'll all congratulate ourselves about 'it' is no longer defined as a problem.
I'm all for the individual responsibility aspect. I say the War on Drugs failed because it didn't even slow the smuggling and consumption of drugs. In fact, it got worse and we lost more of our freedoms. Stopping the flow and production of drugs doesn't even come close to addressing the problem, which is why people use. Instead of locking up addicts in jail, why not mandated treatment programs (which addicts would have to physically stay at) that keep updating the program with things that work? Most addicts have severe emotional pain and they do anything to keep from feeling it. Treat the disease.
Now for the people smuggling drugs and making them illegally, I'm all for shooting them in the back of the head and calling it a day. But if California decriminalizes and approves pot for medical use, then the cops and feds tells the voters to go to fucking hell and bust everyone anyway it just makes people even more pissed and feeling like governments are further out of control and distrust sets in even farther which is the main argument I am making, not the "legalize everything" one.
#7
No country will ever completely eliminate substance abuse. But some have solved their social problem. And always by attacking demand, not supply. Look at tobacco in the US. Until we are willing to target and punish consumers, regardless of status or connections, we will have the problem and it will corrode our legal system until we legalize.
#8
No country will ever completely eliminate substance abuse. But some have solved their social problem. And always by attacking demand, not supply.
I think the only approach that has worked is attacking internal supply. The countries with the most severe punishments have the fewest problems with addiction. Japan has the severest punishments among developed countries - long prison terms are the norm. It also has the lowest addiction rates. Singapore has a mandatory death penalty for possession of dealer amounts of illegal drugs. Drug trials are expedited through the courts so that the example being made of the dealers remains fresh in the minds of would-be entrants into the racket. The time from arrest to conviction to final appeals to the hangman is 2 years. Singapore's drug addiction rate? 0.2%, compared to Japan's 2%.
#10
Japan's example has little relevance to our current drug debate. I don't know China but I assume it is similar.
In the past, they had little contact with other countries so there was no marijuana or other such substances to begin with. Plus, people were taught strictly to obey authority and the law in a way Americans could never contemplate. So they stuck to drinking tons of sake and rebellious teenagers had to settle for inhaling paint thinner and glue. The other option was to join the Yakuza or hang out around the redlight districts (mizushobai) and do meth (some claim the kamikaze pilots did meth). It's not the same as drugs, but a quasi-legal black market in prostitution was always tolerated.
Nowadays, use of drugs like marijuana, ecstacy, etc. is increasing in Japan. As their society became more affluent, attitudes of young people started changing and they have greater contacts with the N. America and Europe. Young kids enjoy clubs and concerts and many travel or go on exchange programs abroad.
I don't think Japan's situation can be used by the prohibitionist side to make the case against legalization. It's not a good example.
Posted by: DJ Curtis C ||
02/18/2011 20:15 Comments ||
Top||
#11
China is similar in that it's opium problem is what our drug problem will become. Rates of addiction are estimated to have been as high as 10%. It was pushed by suppliers from the East India Company in two wars in the 19th century and by pushers like FDR's grandpa Delano. It was not until Mao ruled that dependency on opium was broken. (Prior to that he had been a pusher as well to raise funds as the Taliban do today.) You can imagine the variety of methods used to affect both supply but more importantly demand once he was in charge.
#12
Plus, people were taught strictly to obey authority and the law in a way Americans could never contemplate.
Actually, Americans are taught strictly to obey authority and the law in a way that Chinese could never contemplate. There are laws against all kinds of things in China. As long as a law is unenforced, or the enforcing authority can be bought, the average Chinese will disobey all kinds of laws. This is why pollution, product adulteration and defective construction runs amuck in China. Stealing from the company/the government is something that virtually everyone does in China, and I'm not talking about raiding the supply cabinet. The most well-known (and enduring) Chinese saying is not the nonsensical "may you live in interesting times" (invented by some Westerner producing Chinosoirie), but what might be considered the Chinese approach to life: "victor = king, loser = bandit" (i.e. win, and whatever you had to do to win will be whitewashed; lose, and your minor missteps will become the vilest of crimes). The average Chinese obeys authority only when it is to his advantage. When that changes, the old order is often swept away in rivers of blood.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. climate secretariat, warned of the destabilizing effects created by growing water stress, declining crop yields and damage from extreme storms in some of the world's poorest countries, which could set off mass international migration and regional conflicts.
And in fact, has been doing just that since decolonization became a serious movement in the middle of the last century.
Figueres said the world's military budgets grew by 50% in the first nine years of this century.
Rather than continue that growth in weaponry, she said, the generals should invest in high-speed rail preventative budgets to "avoid the climate chaos that would demand a defense response that makes even today's spending burden look light." Riiiight.... How about you travel to Egypt and discuss why they need to cut their budget to help get along with the Jews, dear? I guarantee you will not like the response.
Can we please defund the UN now while we are making cuts?
#1
"At a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, members characterized the world body as inefficient and corrupt. Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is leading the drive to slash funding and has introduced a bill to get the UN on a rapid schedule of reforms. At the head of the list is to de-fund the corrupt UN Human Rights Council.
One Republican member of the committee, Dana Rohrabacher of California, said the UN should be one of [the United States'] prime targets for reducing expenditures in order to bring down this deficit in the next few years.
#4
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM [old Artic?]> ONE REASON WHY FOREX RESERVES ARE HUGELY IMPORTANT | [NYT.com] WHEN CHINA GOES HUNGRY, THE WORLD SHAKES.
ARTIC = Govt. Official denotes that, in China,
CATASTROPHIC DROUGHT tended to occur every five years during the 1950's, every two years since the 1990's. + every year since the Year 2000.
* Also, SPACE WAR > SCIENTISTS: FEWER BIG FISH IN THE SEA.
and
* TOPIX > WIKILEAKS: SAUDI ARABIA OIL RESERVES A "BIG BLUFF".
GUAM TAOTAMONAS STRIKE TRUE AGAIN - Besides POST-GULF OF MEXICO/BP DEEPWATER HORIZON PEAK OIL, RESOURCES, 'tis looks like our future OWG-NWO that no Democratic American = Socialist-Govtist Amerikan formally voted for will have YET ANOTHER GLOBALLY LE' SERIEUSE' ISSUE to talk about/discuss YEAR 2030-2050.
Yet another reason, past = current + to come, for the OWG + GWCC PERT BOYZ to double-check their Math.
OR DO THEY NEED A MADONNA FAN FROM GUAM TO DO IT [again]?
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.
[Straits Times] IN THE latest example of courtroom violence to hit Indonesia, scores of women tried to attack a defendant in a murder trial on Thursday after he was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.
[Arab News] A Pak laborer in Makkah's Shariah district killed himself by drinking insecticide after hearing from a friend back home that his fiancé had married 
[Arab News] Billy Ray Cyrus says the Disney TV show "Hannah Montana" destroyed his family, causing his divorce and sending daughter Miley Cyrus spinning out of control.
[Rooters] Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected, researchers reported in the journal Climate Change Letters.
PARIS -- Global warming 
[Al Jazeera] Belgians have been marking a near world record of 249 days without a government, due to political deadlock following June elections last year that failed to produce a clear winner.
[Ma'an] Seven 
[Straits Times] LEADERS of all religious faiths in Kelantan will be asked to meet and come up with a common stand against sinful acts, said Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
When narcotics officers appeared at a Castro home shortly after 7 a.m. on Jan. 11, they had permission from a judge to search for "proceeds" from an illegal marijuana grow.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. climate secretariat, warned of the destabilizing effects created by growing water stress, declining crop yields and damage from extreme storms in some of the world's poorest countries, which could set off mass international migration and regional conflicts.
