Why you need the right to protect yourself?

Thug on a cycle, the man hit by the SUV has multiple prior incidents of criminal behavior. A suspended license. Was arrested on possession of drugs and felony possession of a firearm.  And nearly all charges were dropped, and he was released with a year’s probation time.

It has been said that nearly 85% of crime is by repeat offenders. I wager that figure is even higher if you calculated for crimes against strangers (eliminating domestic abuse, murders amongst those who knew each other, etc).

But a serious problem is that our legal system is doing a piss-poor job of keeping criminals locked up. Which might be a large part of the inspiration of my prior post regarding Oakland, CA

I am pretty convinced that this was a bike gang initiation. And that they surrounded, harassed the SUV. Did a bumper bump which went wrong. Then started attacking the SUV.  My only question is why did the owner ever stop long enough for them to pull him and drag him out of the car.

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As a commuter who commutes from a free state (PA) to a penitentiary state (MD) it is extremely frustrating. Because I am a firm believer that one should have the right to defend yourself while in the vehicle with your family. Pennsylvania agrees with me, Maryland does not. Guess which one I choose to pay my property taxes to?

If society truly truly wanted to save lives, we would ban parole and early release. If it saved just 1 life, how about 100…a 1,000 maybe even 10,000?

I would be a Franklin that the elimination of parole, early release programs and the fully prosecution of criminals (ie: you’re a violent convicted felon caught with cocaine and a prohibited gun go directly to jail, do not pass probation) would result in at least a 1,000 lives saved a year.  And I wouldn’t even be surprised if 10,000 lives could be saved a year.

911 – When seconds count Chicago is counting

How bad has it gotten in the gun control mecca of Chicago? Pretty bad…murders are so rampant that Chicago has basically said they’re no longer going to respond to non-serious calls.  What does non-serious entail?  vehicle theft, garage burglary or simple assault (guess it has to be complicated to get a police response).  You will now be transferred to the Alternative Response Section.

This will hopefully free up more police officers to take down police reports of murdered victims.

http://news.msn.com/us/chicago-police-no-longer-responding-to-all-911-calls

Honestly, if done for non-threat situations, this could be a smart move.  But it still shows the sad state of Chicago that it needs to be done. And “simple assault” should be worthy of a 911 call. As many murders are the results of simple assaults.

Gangs not Guns

Even Rahm Emmanuel is having to face the music….

“Emanuel puts the blame for the city’s recent eruption of violence on gangs. The city has adjusted its strategy to focus on gang violence”

This is at least a bit more realistic. But can I ask a simple question.  Why was the city not focused on gang violence? Seriously, if Chicago PD wasn’t focused on this, then every chief/department head needs to be fired ASAP.

So let’s be honest, you’ve been focused on gangs all along. You’re just failing…maybe you’ve decided to try some new tactics – about time!

And might I add, I fully support Rahm Emmanuel’s decision to focus on gangs and wish him luck. This is where the effort SHOULD be placed.

Philly…you’re doing it wrong

Perhaps Philadelphia should consider renaming itself Odidelphia (the city of “Brotherly Hate”).

In 2011 there were 324 homicides in Philadelphia. Not quite one a day, so clearly the bad guys had some vacation and holiday time. This year is not looking any better. The first month brought 34 homicides – an avg greater than once per day.

Philadelphia’s proposed solution: Ban guns!!!

But would that even help?

Kevin Kless was beaten to death while trying to hail a cab. Three Flyers fans beat an off-duty officer wearing a Ranger’s jersey to unconsciousness.  A Vietnam veteran was beaten to near death as well. The city can’t even keep it’s witnesses safe.

The Nutty Mayor put a $20,000 award to information leading to the apprehension of murderers. “To every criminal out there: I just put a $20,000 bounty on your head.” But what good is that if your witnesses are killed before they can even collect. Nutty sent a message, the criminals sent one right back with murder of Rosemary Fernandex-Rivera.

The problem is clear, the murders aren’t just going to stop if one gets rid of guns. Beatings, stabbings, will continue even if you removed every firearm from the planet. What Philadelphia has is a problem of a near complete collapse of their criminal social system. A system which repeatedly puts criminals back on the street, a police department that’s under-staffed, and political spine that’s unwilling to address the real issues, rather seeking an scapegoat in the NRA. Because the Nutty Mayor knows he will not win against the 2nd Amendment; he’ll have a continuing scapegoat to blame rather than his own inabilities to lead and manage his city in a better direction.

Article on CNN.com “A bloody start to the year…”

PS – Hey Nutty Mayor, you think, just maybe if you’re people were able to stand up to your criminals. Crime might go down?

New Haven, CT (former hometown) – 4th most dangerous city

New Haven, CT has come in 4th for most violent cities following Detroit/Flint, Michigan and St. Louis.

Having lived in the city of New Haven for many years, I can attest to the caliber of law enforcement the city has.  Good/effective cops are passed over for political/social reasons.  Many of the police are sub-par, & unprofessional.

When I was in high school, I was jumped by a mob that was racially motivated. Right before this happened, I watched a pair of mounted police see the crowd and activities and turn their horses around and leave.

Of course, this is the same city that when I dialed 9-1-1 to describe and on-going incident responded “It’s New Haven, whad’ya want us to do about it” for which the city would later send 3 police cruisers in response to fill out paperwork. 80% of my experiences with New Haven police have been negative.

Not all the police officers in New Haven are bad. But overall, it’s an ineffective force.  In a state that doesn’t make for easy access to handguns for it’s citizens, and a city which does it’s best to discourage legal ownership.

The irony is that the City of New Haven always seems to do better under Republican Presidents, and has high violence under Democrat ones. No real reason for it that I see.  But the city has had a Democrat mayor since 1954. I think the city needs a change. Not saying New Haven should elect a Republican. Just something other than a Democrat, and in particular, someone other than Mayor John DeStefano.  I think it’s about time New Haven got rid of it’s mayor. He’s been their since I graduated high school. Clearly, he’s doing a lousy job.

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_haven_cty/nh-fourth-most-violent-city-in-america

Mexican Guns…north or south?

Most of Mexico’s heavy weapons coming from South America.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=390473&CategoryId=14091

Courtesy of The PJ Tatler

Thoughts…

I found it interesting to note that handguns was a different matter. Most were from the U.S. In the world of firearms, rifles are for attacking. Handguns are far more defensive weapons. They’re short, close and up personal use. They’re easily carried and concealed for availability where you don’t expect any need.

I’d wager that a lot of those are people simply afraid for their lives due to the unstable nature of certain regions of Mexico.

The PJ Tatler also links to statistics that show that only 3,840 of the some 30,000 firearms confiscated in Mexico in 2008 were actually traceable to the U.S. (That’s 10% not 90%.) And as many of us bloggers have pointed out, why would cartels spend $1,000+ on a semi-auto AR and smuggling it into Mexico when they could simply buy an AK for $200. Just bad economics…

The importance of locking criminals up…

Crap…some days I hate computers!  It never fails, every time you check your post before clearing what you write – things go fine. The rare occasion you fail to do so will of course be the time that WordPress loses everything you wrote. Sorry if the re-write is a tad brief.

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Manchester, U.K arrested a gang leader and 10 of his cohorts. The result? A city of approx 1/2 million in a metro area of around 2.5 million experienced a 92% reduction in gang-related shootings. And went 12 months with no gang-related murders.

This goes to show what we gun owners already know. The problem is not guns, but criminals.  Just 11 men were responsible for 90% of the gang shootings in Manchester.

11 out of 2,500,000 – the removal of a dozen men from society made hundreds of thousands safer!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7977164.stm

It has been pretty well documented in America that the vast majority of crimes are committed by repeat offenders.  Criminals who were either not prosecuted for their crimes, released on bail, and out on parole or shortened sentence.

The result is that our society is forced to bear an enormous toll in loss of life and property.