Cop Stories

I remember a time in the mid '90s, in Chinquapin, LA  (No, Chinguapin isn't a real place).  A gas station on the south side of town and a guy stops in about midnight to fill up his vehicle, a Ford Econoline van.  No windows, just a basic delivery van.  White, it looked like a crackerbox on wheels.

He goes inside to pay for his gasoline before he pumps it and when he comes back outside, the van is gone.  Stolen.  He goes inside and reports his van stolen and they call the police.  Luckily, a Chinquapin PD unit was close by and rolled into the store in less than a minute.

The police officer, a seasoned veteran (we'll call him Cop A) of small town policing, interviews the victim, gets a description of the vehicle, and calls it in.  In just a few minutes, there is another call on the radio.  Cop B has the vehicle shut down, about two miles away, and it appears to be out of gas.  Cop A puts the victim in the police unit to take him to identify the vehicle, and sure enough, as they roll up, the victim identifies the vehicle as his.

Cop A and the victim get out of the unit, and the victim positively identifies his vehicle.  The car thief is in custody in the back of the cruiser, charged with Theft of A Movable, being the vehicle in question.  Cop B asks the victim for the third time if he's absolutely, positively sure that the vehicle is his, and the victim identifies the vehicle as his.  Produces his registration from the vehicle glove box, which is checked against his driver's license.  Sure enough, he's the registered owner of the vehicle.

At which time Cop B puts the victim in handcuffs and reads him the Mirada warning.  Cop A is considerably confused until Cop B explains that the rear of the panel van contains a fully working meth lab, bubbling happily away.  The car t hief is charged with car theft, and the victim is charged with Production of Methamphetamine, which carries a much stiffer sentence.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to ist your vehicle as stolen.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Rainy on Saturday, and the dog didn't get outside much.  He prefers to sit beside Milady's chair during bad weather.

It'll be all right, dog, just wait till the rain is over.  As I type this, Milady is eating lunch and the dog is turning his nose up at two of his favorites, flour tortillas and doritos.  Unbelievable.  This weather has him all screwed up.

World's Record Alligator

At fifteen feet, nine inches and a thousand pounds, that's one helluva alligator.

It looks like it put up a fight.

The Alabama alligator was caught by the Stokes family after battling with it for more than five hours. It was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery.

According to the story, the weight destroyed the winch normally used to weigh 'gators, and they had to use a backhoe to get it off the ground.  The previous record was 14 feet, 8 inches from a gator caught in Texas.

Saturday Weather

Woke this morning to a gentle rain.  During my morning coffee, I see that it's intensified to a general downpour.  The ditches are running and the dog is under Milady's chair.  A look at the weather map gives me this interesting graphic.

 It looks like it's going to be with us for several more hours, and I'm very glad that I mowed grass yesterday afternoon.  There's plenty of work to do inside, and Milady and I can spend a morning in our slippers.  This ain't bad, it ain't bad at all.

Where Does Mary Live?

Interesting question, considering that our senior senator, Mary Landrieu is asking us for another term  Hot Air's Mary Katherine Ham takes a look at the question.

On a statement of candidacy Landrieu filed with the Federal Election Commission in January, she listed her Capitol Hill home as her address. But when qualifying for the ballot in Louisiana last week, she listed the family’s raised-basement home here on South Prieur Street.

Senator Landrieu and her husband built a home in Washington.  That makes sense, rather than pay rent, but the question of residency remains.  Mary, of course, wants to be a Louisiana resident so that folks will vote for her, so she uses her parents address in New Orleans.  Everyone knows that the Landrieu family hails from New Orleans, her dad was mayor there, but where does she reside?

“I don’t think she lives there,” said Fontaine Wells, 65, pointing at the Landrieu home. “She might come visit, but come on now — she lives in D.C. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her.”

I don't think it's too much to ask our senator to live in Louisiana and commute to Washington.  Rent an apartment, if necessary, but live in Louisiana.  It's no secret that I'm not a Mary Landrieu fan, and don't intend to vote for her.  I believe that she's too beholden to special interests, both inside and out of our state.  However, I do like the way that Mary Katherine concludes her discussion of Mary's residency problem.

On the upside, Landrieu could certainly argue she better understands the hardships of the Obama economy because she’s living in her parents’ basement. 

Heh!  Indeed.  If anyone asks, PawPaw is voting for Rob Maness, at least in the primary. 

Cop Stories

Cross-posted from a forum I frequent, I was recalling a cop story from my early days in law enforcement.

 Early '80s, a local yokel decides to hold up the local bank, downtown in Natchitoches, LA one morning about 9:00. He strides in, gives the cashier a note, she gives him the dye pack. He turns around and leaves the bank. As he 's going out the door, he stuffs the dye pack down the front of his pants and while going through the second door, actually has the door held open for him by young police detective, there to make a deposit for his wife.

This young detective has never seen a dye pack, and is considerably surprised when he hears a pop and dye shoots up the front of the guy he's holding the door for. The robber takes about two more steps and collapses on the sidewalk, 'cause things are getting hot in his crotch.(A dye pack gets very hot when it goes off, normally burning the fake cash as it catches fire).  The detective is considerably confused at the gymnastics this guy is doing, flopping and crying on the sidewalk,  until the bank manager comes to the door and tells the cop that the guy just robbed the bank.

Suddenly, the light goes on, and the young detective springs into action, doing all the right things, making the arrest, getting an ambulance, etc, etc. So, this young detective gets to be a local hero, foiling a bank heist and getting his photo in the paper. Of course, the rest of us know that he was simply in the right place at the opportune time and had it not been for the dye pack, the robber would have escaped while he held the door open for him.

No, the cop wasn't me.  And, it's better to be lucky than smart although the young detective was smart enough.

Weaher

If you live in Louisiana, this time of year you start watching the weather maps.  Hurricane intensity increases in September, taking advantage of the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico that's been warming all summer.  So, one of my daily reads this time of year is the National Hurricane Center, where we find this lovely graphic this morning.

Three items of interest this morning.  Hurricane Cristobal appears to tracking the east coast where it will eventually get over cold water and lose its rotation.  The Rio Grande Valley looks to be targeted for a drenching, and there's another disturbance near the Antilles that bears watching.  We'll be keeping a weather-eye on that one for sure.  Those of us in hurricane country remember Katrina, which started in late August and came ashore on August 29th, and we remember Rita, two weeks later, which was stronger than Katrina but came ashore in an area where people understood hurricanes and didn't cry about getting run over by one.

Sure, hurricane season starts in June, but I don't really get concerned  until the last week of August.  Then I keep an eye peeled until the first week of October.

The Ferguson Debacle

Jack Murphy, over at PJMedia, makes some good points in his current piece.  He deconstructs some myths and defines some of the players with a razor sharp pen.  For example:

There is no carnival so vulgar that it cannot be made more so with the appearance of Al Sharpton, a man whose rise to prominence began with a fraud and has continued without a trace of shame along the same lines ever since.  His act is so predictable and so tiresome that by now it’s a wonder anyone pays attention to him at all.  He would leap over the dead bodies of all 60 black men killed by other black men to get to the one who had been killed by a cop, and his only concern in doing so would be to get there before Jesse Jackson did.

That's got to leave a mark, but I doubt that Sharpton can bruise, anymore.

Go, (as they say) and read the whole thing.  It's worth the fifteen minutes you'll spend.  And yes, I agree with him that police should leave the camouflage at home.

A virtual Choir

Cloistered Carmelite nuns from all over the world.  Singing a prayer of God.



Beautiful, simply beautiful, made all the more compelling by the engineering prowess necessary to put it all together.  The Virtual Musician's Group put it all together, and Hot Air introduced it to me.

Worthy Causes

From Mostly Cajun

Heh!  Stay thirsty, my friend.

Chicago Crime Down?

That's what Hot Air is reporting this morning, citing recent stats that lead us to an inescapable conclusion. From the source article:

Since Illinois started granting concealed carry permits this year, the number of robberies that have led to arrests in Chicago has declined 20 percent from last year, according to police department statistics. Reports of burglary and motor vehicle theft are down 20 percent and 26 percent, respectively. In the first quarter, the city’s homicide rate was at a 56-year low.

That's certainly good news, but we have to ask if there were any other changes that might account for the lowering crime numbers.

“It isn’t any coincidence crime rates started to go down when concealed carry was permitted. Just the idea that the criminals don’t know who’s armed and who isn’t has a deterrence effect,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. “The police department hasn’t changed a single tactic — they haven’t announced a shift in policy or of course — and yet you have these incredible numbers.”

So, the only change we see is that the state allows concealed carry, and crime numbers are dropping.  That's a pretty good indicator of what is driving the change in the numbers.

Any good news out of Chicago is good news indeed, and having changed just a single law, the crime rate drops  For many of the folks on my side of the debate, it's a stunning reinforcement of our belief that gun rights save lives.

Let Freedom Ring!

Sunday Morning Dawg

A videi Dawg this morning, Beau and Smokey wrestling on a settee in the morning sun.

Y'all have a blessed Sunday.  In another hour I'm going to put some chickens on the smoker, then get cleaned up for church.

Equpment

I need one of these.  No particular reason, everybody needs one in the family.

Post by Australian mining Link.

Think of the trouble we could get into.

Saturday Afternoon Song

Neal McCoy and Trace Atkins doing an old Charlie Pride song.  This one makes me smile every time I hear it, and I heard Neal McCoy do it last weekend.



Such a pretty tune.

Flyover Country

Flyover country, huh?  Well, I've lived in the rural areas of Louisiana all my life.  Many times I've wished I could fly over parts of it, like Superman, especially when I was stuck in the middle of a muddy road with only a hand winch.  Flying would have been quite the improvement.

However, some use it as an insult, and those guys deserve all the push-back we can give them.  We rednecks (another term used sometimes as an insult) know how to push back.  Our little club, the National Rifle Association is pushing back, so PawPaw is going to embed this little ad, to give it all the air-time it deserves.


Oh, and Rahm Emmanuel can bite my ass, too.

Food Stamp Fraud Rampant

That's what a GAO (Government Accounting Office) report says.  My first response was a hearty "No Shit!" because food stamp fraud has been rampant for as long as I've been a police officer.

Back in the day when food stamps were actually pieces of paper, given out in little books, they were traded like cash on the underground market.

Nowadays, the paper food stamp is long gone, dead as Het, and benefits are transferred on an EBT card, but it's still easy to defraud the system.  Either through unscrupulous merchants, or through simple consumer fraud.

Several months ago, Milady was shopping at the grocers when she was approached by a woman with an EBT card.  The lady had benefits, but wanted cash, so she offered to pay for MIlady's groceries on the card, then settle-up for cash outside the store.  Milady, of course, declined, and told store managers that the woman was running a scam.

But, the point of the post is when the government publishes a report that says benefit fraud is rampant, any thinking taxpayer will conclude that the report itself is a waste of time and money.  Of course food stamp fraud is rampant.  It always has been.

Just My Luck

It appears that I've bent the shaft on my old pushmower.  It's a little 22" that's been rebuilt more than any machine needs to be rebuilt, and it's about 10 years old.  I'm tough on push mowers and it looks like tomorrow morning I'll be hunting the usual places for another one.

Well, hell.

Hyping the Weather

It seems that there is some internet hype about a huge hurricane about to ravage the Gulf Coast, and it's certainly the season for that, but the weather map simply doesn't support it.

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) -

The National Hurricane Center warns of an "increase in Internet hype" surrounding non-credible predictions popping up online.

There's always hurricane hype this time of ye ar and your best source for hurricane information is the National Hurricane Center, who says this today.

There's one little disturbance out there that they are watching.  It has a chance to become a tropical storm, but it's way to soon to know if it will become a hurricane.  Certainly, keep a weather eye out, but don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Pop-Up Thunderstorms

I came home today with the good intentions of mowing the grass, but we've been tormented lately with pop-up thunderstorms that seem to come in the late afternoon.  Today is the third such this week.

Ain't gonna be any grass mowed today.  I guess it will wait till tomorrow.

Gratuitous Gun Pron

Six years ago, our Sheriff decided to issue pistols, and the Sheriff at the time liked the Smith and Wesson M&P in .45 ACP.  He bought a bunch of them and issued them to the deputies.  As time went on, I came to like the M&P.  I found it to be an easy to shoot pistol, and the more I shot it, the better the trigger got.  What I especially liked about it was that the barrel had standard rifling, so i could use cast bullets, and I shot a bunch of cast through it.

Come two years ago, we had an election and one Sheriff lost and another Sheriff won, as happens during elections.  The new Sheriff decided that he liked Glock pistols, so after a suitable negotiation, he bought a bunch of Glock pistols and issued them.  We turned in the M&P pistols, with the understanding that we could buy our guns if we wanted them.  But, we had to bring a money order or check, and wait unti the dealer that had the contract was able to process them in accordance with any applicable ATF regulations.  I turned mine in, in June past, and waited patiently for it to come home.

Today I got the call and went to pick up my M&P.  the same one I was issued six years ago, and the one that I carried every duty day.  It's good to have it home.

Three magazines, three backstraps, tritium sights, all the LEO goodies.  Plus, a special engraving on the slide.

Our agency identifier and badge on the left side of the slide.  Very cool.  I couldn't let that old friend go to some nameless customer as a police trade-in.  Now, it will have a good home for a long, long time.