Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Last Shots of 2014

Just be careful on the roads tonight:

"Man tries to run down police; they shoot, kill him" AP  December 31, 2014

UPPER DARBY, Pa. — A man who had posted an online video threatening to kill police and FBI agents tried to use his car to run down officers seeking to arrest him on Tuesday, so, fearing for their lives, they shot and killed him, authorities said.

This smells like another psyop hoax!

Police did not immediately identify the man, who was killed in Upper Darby as officers ordered him out of the car and as he appeared ready to accelerate at them at a blockade.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said the officers feared that the man would kill them, and that they ‘‘did what they had to do.’’ He said that five officers fired at the man, and that no officers were injured.

Chitwood said police had secured an arrest warrant for the man after he threatened to kill police and FBI agents in the online video. The man’s death came about 10 days after a man who made similar threats shot two New York police officers dead in their patrol car and then killed himself in a subway station.

A life is given even as it is taken away, and this definitely stinks.

Police said they began following the man after he left a home in nearby Clifton Heights. They said that when officers stopped him at an intersection and ordered him out of the car, he reversed and slammed into a police vehicle, then prepared to run over other officers.

This account lacks credulity!

Officers opened fire, killing the man, Chitwood said. The man did not fire at police, and Chitwood said he did not know if the man had a weapon.

WTF? 

They shot him, but if you fear for your life it's murder.

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"Number of police killed by guns up 56% in 2014; 50 shot dead; figure had dipped dramatically in 2013" by Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press  December 31, 2014

Yeah, the cops are taking a real beating these days.

WASHINGTON — But gun-related police deaths still remain far below historic highs and lower than the average annual figures in the past decade, according to the annual report by the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released Tuesday.

I'm tired of the up-is-down, down-is-up, mixed messages.

This year’s uptick comes amid increased tension between police and the public following the high-profile deaths of unarmed black men by white police officers.

“There has been a very prevalent antigovernment sentiment in this country for some time now, and I do believe that antigovernment sentiment can influence weak-minded individuals to commit violent acts against law-enforcement officers,” said Craig Floyd, chairman and chief executive of the memorial fund. “That’s at least part of the reason we’re seeing this increase in ambush-style attacks, officers being targeted simply because they’re cops in uniform,” Floyd said.

You protesters might as well all have pulled the triggers. 

The speed of this spin is astounding.

Floyd also pointed to the fatal shooting of two Las Vegas police officers ambushed in June as they were eating lunch in a pizza shop, and a Pennsylvania state trooper killed in an ambush in September by a survivalist who then led police on a 48-day manhunt....

That would be the Frein fakery! 

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"Seven Roxbury teens face charges in assault on officers; Accused teens dispute account" by Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff  December 30, 2014

A chaotic skirmish in a Dorchester stairwell that sent two police officers to the hospital and led seven teenagers to be arrested for allegedly assaulting them underscores the danger and volatility of police work, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said Tuesday.

I'm starting to believe everything I see in my paper is nothing more than staged and scripted, agenda-pushing slop.

Defense attorneys for the oldest teens — Woobenson Morisset, 19, and his 18-year-old brother Lorcen — painted a vastly different picture of what happened on Monday in that stairwell.

Entering not guilty pleas for the two brothers in Roxbury Municipal Court, defense lawyers said police pushed Woobenson Morisset while trying to arrest him on a default warrant, an officer fell or tripped in the process, and chaos ensued as relatives moved in to aid Woobenson or record the scene in the cramped stairway.

“I certainly don’t wish any officer to ever be harmed in any way, shape, or form, but I believe it’s possible that this version” — the one told by the Morissets — “is entirely correct,” June Jensen, Woobenson Morisset’s defense attorney, said in court. Video on cellphones confiscated by police could clear up what happened, she said.

  I wonder when we will get to see them, if ever. I'll bet the evidence somehow gets destroyed.

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In Roxbury, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Dana Pierce said officers visited the Morisset apartment on Wayne Street late Monday morning to arrest Woobenson. He was wearing a GPS monitor because of three open cases in Dorchester Municipal Court; the GPS device signaled a “strap violation” on Dec. 22, suggesting he may have tampered with it and triggering default warrants in those cases, Pierce said.

Two officers found him in a rear stairwell, where a “violent struggle ensued” when they tried to arrest him, Pierce said. One officer got elbowed in the neck, suffering vocal cord contusions and hemorrhaging, and the other, a woman, took a punch in the face, the prosecutor said, without specifying who delivered the blows.

In the process, police lost control of Woobenson Morisset and “from there on it was essentially a melee in a very narrow stairwell,” Pierce said. The seven teens, acting as a group, punched, kicked, and choked police, resulting in bumps and bruises to both officers and hand, head, and hip injuries to the female officer, she said.

If true, shoe doesn't feel very good on the other foot, does it?

Jensen disputed that account. She said Woobenson Morisset, a 5-foot-3, 125-pound Haitian immigrant with cognitive disabilities, did not tamper with his GPS device and did not receive a call from authorities about any violation, she said. So when police arrived to arrest him, he was surprised but complied, she said.

Were the officers white? Is he an illegal?

“He turned around, and they went to put the handcuffs on him and pushed him on the stairwell. He fell on the stairwell and his face cracked open,” requiring three stitches, Jensen said. “At that point one of the officers fell down, and the whole thing kind of got crazy.”

She said Woobenson Morisset did not hit anyone but reached out to give his phone to his brother, apparently to record what was happening. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old neighbor tried to record with his own phone because he thought the police were being rough, Jensen said.

As more officers filled the stairway, they confiscated the phones and arrested everyone — the three males, plus the Morissets’ two sisters and two cousins — on and around the chaotic scene, Jensen said.

That is ILLEGAL!

Jensen and Frank Mickelson, Lorcen Morisset’s lawyer, said none of the teens besides Woobenson had been arrested before. Jensen said the charges in Woobenson’s three open cases — assault and battery with a knife, breaking and entering and assault and battery on a police officer, and attempting to commit a crime — could be explained by his limited cognitive ability, as he was led astray by another teen.

The prosecutor said Woobenson’s record was alarming and asked Judge Ernest L. Sarason Jr. to set bail in this case at $2,500 and to revoke it on the Dorchester cases, which would have sent him back to jail. Sarason instead set bail at $500 and gave Woobenson until Friday to answer the Dorchester warrants. He released Lorcen Morisset on personal recognizance but imposed nighttime curfews and GPS monitoring for both brothers....

The police commissioner, who visited the briefly hospitalized officers, said the female officer was “badly roughed up,” and the male officer had been fitted with a neck brace while waiting for the results of an examination. “They’re pretty banged up. They’re [going to] be out of work for some time,” Evans said. “It stresses the dangers of our job, every day, going into situations that we never know what may happen. I’m just thankful they’re fine.”

Getting a lot of that lately.

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At least it wasn't a stairway to heaven.

"Homicides rise in Boston, other crime down in 2014; Nonfatal shootings, robberies decline" by Evan Allen and Travis Andersen, Globe Staff  December 31, 2014

After four years of decline, the number of homicides in Boston spiked this year by 27 percent, even as shootings and violent crime citywide dropped.

Whatever you say, Globe.

As of Sunday, 52 people had been killed in the city, compared with 41 by the same date last year, according to police statistics. Most of the homicides were in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury.

The “numbers are great,” but....

Fatal and nonfatal shootings throughout the city this year dropped from 250 to 213, a decrease of nearly 15 percent. Violent crime, including homicide, rape and attempted rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, dropped by 6 percent, and property crime, including burglary, larceny, and auto theft, dropped by 4 percent.

Since 2000, the homicide total in Boston has dipped as low as 39 in some years and topped 70 in several others, according to FBI statistics provided by James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern who studies crime trends. The number has declined slightly each year since 2010, when 73 murders were recorded.

Crime overall has been dropping for years, Fox said, and mirrors the slowing rate of crime nationally.

In Boston, according to Fox’s database of FBI statistics using comparable population figures, the rate of rape has gone down by approximately 30 percent since 2006; the robbery rate has dropped by 46 percent; aggravated assault by 48 percent; burglary by 44 percent; larceny by 34 percent; and motor vehicle theft by 66 percent.

The reasons for the drop, he said, are many: cameras are everywhere, police use real-time statistics and gunfire detection technology like ShotSpotter instead of hunches to guide law-enforcement strategy, the population is aging, and many criminals are already in prison due to America’s incarceration policies. Emergency room medicine has advanced, saving gunshot victims from becoming homicide statistics. Also, he said, there was a crime surge in the 1980s and ’90s linked in part to crack cocaine and gangs, and so a portion of the current decline is a reversal of a bad trend.

The new epidemic is heroin, but that must come crime free.

“We are a much safer city than we have been for many, many years,” said Fox. “That’s true in many other places, too. We’re not unique.”

In other major cities, including Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, homicide totals also dropped or held steady, according to local police statistics.

As of Dec. 21, Chicago had seen 392 murders, compared with 408 on the same date last year. New York City had 321 murders as of Sunday, compared with 334 at the same point last year. Homicides in Los Angeles rose slightly, from 250 as of Dec. 27, 2013, to 254 on the same date this year.

Sexual assaults rose in Chicago this year while robberies dropped. Rapes and robberies rose in Los Angeles while the number of shooting victims dropped. In New York City, grand larceny auto rose this year, while rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, and grand larcenies all dropped.

In Boston, the year began with a surge of killings, many gang related. In January, nine people were killed; in February, a 9-year-old boy was accidentally shot to death by his 14-year-old brother.

See: The Mattapan Mistake 

Stay away from the playground.

After those tragedies, said Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Michael McCarthy, the city made gun violence its focus, launching a gun-buyback program and cracking down hard on illegal firearms. At recent count, the Boston force had taken 1,053 guns off the streets through the buyback and police work, he said, compared with 667 for all of 2013.

The department has also focused on policing hot spots, putting extra patrol and bicycle officers in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. Police held sports and academy programs for young people, and began scheduling regular coffees with police in the neighborhoods. Mayor Martin J. Walsh said his administration also worked to place young people believed to be involved in violence into job programs.

The number of police involved shootings this year, and the number of officers injured on the job by suspects, were not available Tuesday. In April, police officers fatally shot a man who allegedly charged at them with knives as they responded to a domestic violence call in the South End.

That's sad.

Clergy and community leaders said that while this year’s rise in homicides was disheartening, the overall picture painted by the statistics was positive.

“One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that the homicide rate can go up and down, but the more important number is shots fired and shooting rate,” said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, associate pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. “When you have a lot of people shooting, and shooting at people, whether they’re missing or not, it contributes to the violence in the community.” 

Who could ever have faith in these controlled opposition pukes?

Emmett Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said nonfatal shootings are, in his experience, one of the best predictors of future violence, because the wounded person often seeks revenge.

“If fewer people are shot, then in the future we can expect less retaliatory shooting,” he said.

Still, 52 families lost a loved one this year, some noted.

“I’m feeling a lot of grief for the city over some of these recent homicides,” said Mark V. Scott, associate pastor at the Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester, who performed the funeral for 20-year-old William Davis after he was shot to death on Dec. 17 on Dudley Street.

The young man’s sister lamented that her brother would not be there for his birthday, for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, and Scott said she did not know what to do with her grief. He praised police but said each death is a tragedy.

“In some ways,” he said, “the numbers don’t tell the story for William Davis.”

Because each one is a unique individual life entity.

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RelatedMayor, police ask Boston protesters for restraint at First Night

Go out in that freezing cold? 

Forget it!

Also see:

The lighting was tested Tuesday on the New Year’s Eve ball to be dropped in the Times Square celebration in New York City. The tradition has inspired drops of an opossum, a cowboy boot, and a pine cone across the country. (EPA/JUSTIN LANE)
The lighting was tested Tuesday on the New Year’s Eve ball to be dropped in the Times Square celebration in New York City. The tradition has inspired drops of an opossum, a cowboy boot, and a pine cone across the country (EPA/JUSTIN LANE). 

Maybe this will be my last post. 

Is there a false flag terror attack due for Times Square tonight? 

Sure seems to be if that mind-manipulating, couldn't wait another second, emotional trigger of a photo is an indicator.

Who designed that anyway? 

"Her parents work long hours to make ends meet in the household. Her mother, Shu Chen, is a housekeeper, and her father works odd jobs. Neither has a college degree, and Zhao said she knows how much they sacrifice so she can have a better life."

Hell, we got babies shooting mothers out there:

"2-year-old accidentally kills his mom in Walmart" by Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press  December 31, 2014

HAYDEN, Idaho — A 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother after he reached into her purse at a northern Idaho Walmart and her concealed gun fired, authorities said Tuesday.

The 29-year-old woman was shopping with her son and three other children, Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller said.

Her family had come to the area to visit relatives, he said.

The woman, whose identity was not released to the news media, had a concealed weapons permit.

Yup, going to have to get rid of those. Only murderous authority shall have guns, and lots of them.

Miller said the young boy, who was left in a shopping cart, reached into the victim’s purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged one time.

‘‘It appears to be a pretty tragic accident,’’ Miller said.

The woman’s husband was not in the store when the shooting happened at about 10:20 a.m. Miller said the man arrived shortly after the shooting. All the children were taken to a relative’s house.

The shooting occurred in the Walmart in Hayden, a town about 40 miles northeast of Spokane, Wash.

The store closed and was not expected to reopen until Wednesday morning.

Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Walmart, said in a statement the shooting was a ‘‘very sad and tragic accident.’’

‘‘We are working closely with the local sheriff’s department while they investigate what happened,’’ Buchanan said.

In neighboring Washington state, a 3-year-old boy was seriously injured in November when he was accidentally shot in the face by a 4-year-old neighbor.

The boy was wounded as the children played in a home in Lake Stevens, about 30 miles north of Seattle.

In April, a 2-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his 11-year-old sister while they and their siblings played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home.

Authorities said the gun was believed to have been brought into the home by the mother’s boyfriend.

Hayden is a politically conservative town of about 9,000 people just north of Coeur d’Alene, in Idaho’s northern panhandle.

Idaho lawmakers had passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state’s public college and university campuses.

Despite facing opposition from all eight of the state’s university college presidents, lawmakers sided with gun rights advocates who said the law would better uphold the Second Amendment.

This proves that was the wrong move, right?

Under the law, gun holders are barred from bringing their weapons into dormitories or buildings that hold more than 1,000 people, such as stadiums or concert halls.

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Lesson learned. Don't shop at Walmart!

Time to say goodbye, readers:

"A salute to those lost in 2014" by Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Correspondent  December 31, 2014

The sudden death of a person still vibrant in the public spotlight is always shocking.

It sure is. He is incredibly missed.

The world of entertainment was staggered twice last year with the deaths of Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

Well, prescription pharmaceuticals killed Williams, and did they ever find out from where that killer heroin came?


Also seeBoston Globe on the Good Ship Lollipop 

Other glowing obits were penned for actor-director Richard Attenborough; comedians Joan Rivers and Sid Caesar; actresses Ruby Dee, Lauren Bacall, and Elaine Stritch; actor-filmmaker Harold Ramis of “Ghostbusters” fame; actors Eli Wallach and Maximilian Schell; and “Maverick” star James Garner, who played tough guys with a sly sense of humor.

Related: Saluting Sir Richard Attenborough

That's when the Rivers ran dry.

Americans also paused to honor the lives of public servants who demonstrated the wisdom and fortitude needed to sustain a functional democracy....

OMG! Celebrating those $cum!

Around the globe, Israelis saluted their former prime minister Ariel Sharon, a hawkish military commander who became a peace-seeking centrist....

Why wouldn't a war paper salute a war criminal, 'eh?

Journalism can be a perilous profession, especially in corners of the world besieged by war and terrorism. In 2014, many brave individuals — among them, journalist-video reporter James Foley, journalist Steven Sotloff, and photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus — lost their lives covering stories they wanted the world to know about. Back home, tributes were typed for Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, a stylish taskmaster whose leadership during the Watergate scandal helped elevate his paper to national prominence.

The flood of beheaded journalists were fake videos, folks.

Related: Bye-Bye, Benny 

Say goodbye to $elf-$erving ma$$ media, too.

I will be hoisting one and leaving the light on overnight.

Many sports luminaries passed into the history books last year. They were joined by boundary-pushing scientists and medical researchers. Among such luminaries, the followers of fashion and high society were saddened.

Locally, a city and region proud.

Finally, candles were lit in 2014 for the men and women in uniform overseas, and for first responders everywhere, who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their fellow citizens. May they rest in peace at the dawn of a bright new year.

WOW, shouldn't the last be first! 

Of course, no mention of the victims of the wars of empire based on damnable lies. My hopes for a bright new year and peace are not very good based on the track record; however, maybe I will find a little peace.

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May Kenny rest in peace. 

Good night, readers.