Smoking a Bird

It's the 23rd, which means that our Christmas celebration is tomorrow.  It's been a busy season so far, and I haven't really gotten into the spirit but that will change soon enough.

Belle and I have for years hosted a Christmas Eve lunch, where we cook big and have family and friends over.  This frees up the kids to do whatever they will on Christmas Day.  It works for us.  Today, I have a bird in the smoker.  The smoker is running about 240F and I'm not going to mess with it.  The smoke is coming out of the seams of the box, and I have learned to trust the process.

One of my favorite carols is Allson Kraus and YoYo Ma playing the Wexford Carol.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Trip Around The Sun - Martina Mcbride Jimmy Buffett

Well, I've done it again. By my count, this is 72.

Brown Shooter Found Dead

 Everyone is reporting that some homeless guy gave police enough evidence to identify and begin tracking the Brown University shooting suspect.  As they closed in, he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The same guy is also suspected of killing an MIT professor on Monday.  The police are trying to unravel the various threads that hold this case together.  It's a sordid tale.

This shooter, like many others of his ilk, was an execrable coward.  He is worth neither comment nor memory.

University Police

 The first 20 years of my career, I was based in Natchitoches, LA.  Natchitoches is the home of Northwestern State University, a state college that, at that time, educated approximately 5000 students. It was mainly a teacher college.  It is also my alma mater, where I did both undergrad and graduate work.

During the late 80s, I was asked by the Sociology Department to adjunct a class on Tuesday evenings.  Introduction to Probation and Prole.  One Tuesday I was working an investigation, probably a Pres-Sentence investigation, and realized that i had to go over to the college to teach.  I grabbed my lesson plan, went over, climbed the stairs to the third floor and started the lesson.  

In just a few minutes, I glanced toward the door and saw the Deputy Chief of the University Police in the doorway.

He looked at me, grinned, and said, "Oh, it's you."

I asked, perplexed, "Who are you looking for?"

"We got a report of some guy in a white shirt and tie coming in here with a big magnum on his hip."

University Police, in Louisiana at least, a fully trained, certified law enforcement officers with the same standards of training as the local, parish (county), or state police. They have a tough job on a very narrow beat. In this case they got a report of a man with a gun, rolled on the report and satisfactorily concluded it within minutes.

I don't know what standards Rhode Islan has for their University Police, but the Brown shooting does not engender confidence. There are a lot of questions being asked, with very few answers. Law enforcement is tougher now, simply due to the amount of technology available. Security cams, dash cams and vest cams are ubiquitous, but require funding, maintenance and monitoring.  Equipment and manpower costs. These are challenges that every police agency struggles with. These are challenges that every police administrator has to deal with.

The Brown Shooter

 Like much of America, I'm watching the manhunt for the lizard who shot up the students at Brown University over the weekend.  We're on day five of the investigation.

I've worked a few murders and if you don't catch the guy in the first 48 hours, you are in for a slog.  Investigators get tired, leads fissile out and at some point, you get some sleep and start over.

I'm not convinced that the local cops are up to this investigation, and that is not an indictment on their competence.  Sometimes we just need help and the sooner you ask for it, the sooner you get it.  If I were running the lead at this point, I'd be looking at geofences and seeing if the digital gurus could help me with digital identification.  That takes time, but there is no better time to get started than right now.

What we know right now is that the shooter appears to be a stocky white dude, which doesn't narrow the suspect pool much.

The longest murder I worked took about two years to run the guy to ground.

Aussie Madness

 It seems that in the wake of the Bondi shooting over the weekend, where Muzzie gunmen went berserk on a beach where Jews were celebrating, the Australian government is considering stricter gun regulations.

ABC News reports:

State and territory leaders have agreed to strengthen Australia's gun laws in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.

One of the two shooters had held a gun license for a decade and possessed six firearms. 

 Odd, I thought that murdering people was already against the law in Australia.

Optics Planet

 In 2007 I ordered a rifle scope from Optics Planet.  It took about four weeks for trhe scope to hit my mailbox.  I thought that was odd, but I wasn't that concerned about it.

I admit that I have been spoiled by Amazon. If you order something, it is dropped off three or four days later. Amazon has really revolutionized shopping in this country.

So, on November 28th I was looking for some optics and when to Optics Planet.  They had what I wanted at a good price, and their Black Friday deals were happening. The website claimed that the item was in stock. I ordered my product and went on to other things.  Today I checked and they don't expect to shop until December 18th.

In 2025 it takes 20 days to ship an item that is in stock?  I don't know about that. It seems to me that Optics Planet needs to step up their game on shipping orders.