A British history professor has caused a stir in Atlanta, and back home in Britain, over his arrest this month after he tried to cross the road outside an Atlanta hotel where he was attending a conference. OK...
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has complained his arrest was a "violent assault." You poor dear- what happened?
According to a police report, officer Kevin Leonpacher, working off-duty for hotel security and wearing a jacket marked "Atlanta Police," blew his whistle for Fernandez-Armesto to stop crossing Courtland Street in central Atlanta on January 4 and directed him to a crosswalk. It might be a good idea to along with the police officers suggestion...
The historian ignored Leonpacher who then asked "as many as ten times" for Fernandez-Armesto's identification. When he refused and instead demanded Leonpacher's identification, the officer made an arrest, the report said. I blame CHEEEEEENEY! This has to be about OOOOOOIIIIL! Or JOOOOOS!
"I asked him to put his hands behind his back so that he could be handcuffed .... He pulled away and began to wrestle with me. After about a minute I was able to wrestle him to the ground ... as I called for backup," the report said.
Fernandez-Armesto said he was not aware it was an offense to cross the street at that point. Hey top job- if a police officer says "don't cross here" then DON'T. Take it up in court afterwards.
"I was an absolutely innocent person. Yeah you weren't I am very sorry to have crossed the road when I shouldn't have and to have failed to recognize he was a police officer despite the fact that he was wearing a vest that said ATL POLICE but I cannot find anything I did as not the normal behavior of an honest person," he said in an interview on Friday from Tufts University near Boston where he is teaching.
Fernandez-Armesto was detained for eight hours before being taken before a judge who dismissed a charge of disorderly conduct.
#1
This seems kind of strange. Can an off duty copy working for a private company demand to see your i.d. on a public street and the wrestle you to the ground and arrest you? If he is working for an Atlanta Hotel on his own time he should not be wearing a jacket marked Atlanta Police.
Posted by: matt ||
01/22/2007 0:17 Comments ||
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#2
It really depends. Alot of the cops in Tennessee at least can be hired to do things like card at Frat parties. When they fulfill these functions, they are in official uniform and while 'off-duty' in a sense that they're not being paid by the city/town/county, they are acting as a police officer.
#3
Yes, went and looked. Here in Tenn at least, off duty police officers can be employed a number of ways, but still wear their uniform and act as police officers. This has to be done through certain security companies or through a police departments Secondary Employment Unit. It lets the police earn extra money while having on site police at potential troublespots.
#4
He's a rent-a cop. As such, he was merely offering friendly advice to Prof. Dumbf**k, until he started brawling. Then he transitioned into citizen arrest mode. Too bad he didn't have a four battery flashlight handy or a tazer just for tickles.
#5
I've heard of this clown, and wrote about him here. Shorter version: Woe is us, says Fernandez-Armesto, for young people are reading that dreadful Harry Potter, and so will grow up with impoverished imaginations. O tempura! O morays!
Bonus demerits to him for having coined the phrase "nerdy-eyed". It inspired me to write a follow-up post, Dark They Were, and Nerdy-Eyed.
(Be with us next time for another episode of Link Whore Theatre.)
#7
When in another country, it is wise as well as polite to scrupulously obey laws involving interaction with moving vehicles. In Germany scores of seven year old children are hit by cars when crossing the street at other than marked crosswalks on the first day of the school year. German drivers don't see them if they aren't highlighted by the zebra stripes, apparently, and the newbies don't understand the consequences of such an apparently minor mistake.
#8
are hit by cars when crossing the street at other than marked crosswalks
If I remember correctly from my German drivers exam, if they aren't in a crosswalk, they're fair game.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/22/2007 8:10 Comments ||
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#9
With the press that ATL police have gotten the last few months, he's lucky he didn't end up lookin' like swiss cheese, full of 9mm holes!
I'll ALWAYS follow the old maxim: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Just another case of a LLL Professor who thinks the law only applies to us commoners, in my book.
Posted by: BA ||
01/22/2007 10:15 Comments ||
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#10
Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Professor of Global Environmental History
[iow professor of asshat studies]
[click snob for linky]
Fernández-Armesto is the assclown who gained media attention in 2007 for an incident on January 4th in which he was allegedly brutalized by 5 policemen led by Kevin Leonpacher in Atlanta, Georgia as a result of jaywalking (which does not exist as a legal and therefore criminal concept in his home country of the UK) boo f'n hoo
Professor Lisa Kazmier, who witnessed the incident, was quoted as saying "It was like he was Osama Bin Laden or something."
In most localities in the US of A, if you are walking down the street minding your own beeswax and a cop wants to talk to you and/or see your ID and you don't feel like sharing that info, keep walkin'. There's nothing a cop can do about it.
If, on the other hand, you desperately want an ass-beating (or something that you can later claim was an ass-beating to get some badass street cred) at the hands of a po-po, break a law, and then refuse to show ID.
Sure, jaywalking is a chickensh!t charge, but escalating the situation through your own stupid behavior to disorderly conduct? Ain't got no sympathy for that schmuck.
I kind of hope that they are portraying it as a violent, unreasonable cop assault back in Britain. Especially to the Queen's loyal subjects in the mosques.
#19
And what is the law on refusing to show ID and 'talking back'?
Depends. In most countries if you're a foreigner and you just fucked up, refusing to show ID and 'talking back' would get you a lot worse than SuperDon got.
Papiere. Bitte, zeigen Sie Ihre Papiere zofort.
Tell you what. Go to Germany and try doing what SuperDon did. Tell us what happened.
#1
Sing it! "It's the most miserable time of the year!" Chin up folks, we've got a whole year of Pelosi bashing ahead of us.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/22/2007 10:14 Comments ||
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#2
It's the most miserable time of the year
When your finances shrink
And the weather, it stinks
You need Prozac, or beer
It's the most miserable time of the year
It's the most depressing day of them all
With this endless depression,
Just like Congress in session,
Making your spirits fall
It's the most depressing day of them all
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2007 10:27 Comments ||
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#3
I thought I told you to leave me
While I walked down to the beach
Tell me how does it feel
When your heart grows cold
MOSCOW: Russia has blocked the sale of Chinese fighter planes with Russian engines to Pakistan.
"We've denied China the right to supply its JF-17 fighter aircraft powered by Russian RD-93 engines to third countries, asking it to sign an end-user certificate for the engines," said Colonel-General Anatoly Mazurkevich, head of the Defence Ministry's International Cooperation Department.
President Pervez Musharraf said last year that the JF-17s would be flying in Pakistani skies by March 2007. Islamabad plans to acquire 150 JF-17s, known in China as FC-1. China has bought 100 Klimov RD-93 engines from Russia for installing on JF-17s, with an option to contract another 400 engines.
Speaking to Indian and Russian journalists ahead of a visit to India by Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on January 22, Col.-Gen. Mazurkevich confirmed that India and Russia are shortly to sign accords to jointly develop and produce a 5th generation fighter plane and a multi-role transport aircraft.
India is expected to announce during Mr. Ivanov's visit its choice between two Russian concepts of a multi-role stealth fighter plane of the 5th generation that the Russian aviation majors, Sukhoi and MIG, presented to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) last year.
The aircraft deals will be discussed when Mr. Ivanov co-chairs with Defence Minister A.K. Antony the 6th meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission for Military-Technical Cooperation. Ahead of the commission meeting on January 24 Mr. Ivanov will fly to Bangalore to visit the HAL and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as well as some leading Information and Technology companies, and meet business people.
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 05:56 ||
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#1
The Chinese have failed miserably in their engine development efforts. They are unable to copy the Russian jet engines and were forced to buy hundreds of RD-93 and AL-31 engines for Chinese made and assembled aircraft.
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 6:01 Comments ||
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#2
India is expected to announce during Mr. Ivanov's visit its choice between two Russian concepts of a multi-role stealth fighter plane of the 5th generation that the Russian aviation majors, Sukhoi and MIG, presented to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) last year.
...I wouldn't be so sure on that. The Indians are a patient people, but they aren't likely to wait ten years for the Sukhoi and MiG bureaux to keep extorting 'just a little more money' out of them for a plane that's never quite ready to fly. The fact of the matter is that both bureaus have made extravagant claims about their new birds, and most of them haven't panned out. Sukhoi has their Berkut , which is a good plane - the equivalent to the early 90s variants of the F-18 - but technologically is a warmed-over Su-27. MiG's last major combat project was a bird they unveiled a couple years ago that looked suspiciously like the one in the movie Firefox - and as near as can be told, still hasn't flown.
The Indians might be talking to the Russians to stay polite, but I suspect they'll be flying F/A-18s or F-16s - or possibly the USMC versions of the F-35 - before long.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/22/2007 6:37 Comments ||
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#3
Actually Mike, Sukhois bid was the PAK-FA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_PAK_FA
Something which they have failed to even finalize what it looks like. Outside of some artist renderings there is no concept demonstrator or model.
#6
Pakistan went halfsies on the development of the JF-17 and build components for it. At the time there was a US arms embargo on the Paks for their nuclear program. The Paks are way outnumbered by India's Air Force.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2007 12:05 Comments ||
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#7
Valentine-
Thanks for the heads up. BTW, here's the MiG I mentioned:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_Project_1.44
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/22/2007 12:33 Comments ||
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#8
Still and all, it's rather curious why Putie would put the block on ChiComs on this sale. Russians make most of their defense dollars by selling 2nd-3rd generation technology to ChiComs. ChiComs dispense at will. Why would Russkies disrupt the pipeline now ? By the by, Putin is moving to consolidate Mig/Sukhoi design bureaus into one entity with some new name. What's more significant is that Boeing has performed a technology sellout debacle rivaling Loral/Chicoms. They have set up design divisions in Moscow which interacts worldwide on the 787 design, giving Russians access to the latest design software, build technology, fly-by-wire fiber optics, weather radar, etc. A bonanza. Russians are excellent already at science basics like CFD, but just need computational solver power to pull level with any US competency. Think any of this knowledge will leak over to the military design staffs. Naw, me either.
#9
ed, I agree the Paks are way outnumberd by the Indians but it's not just the numbers. I do not believe Pakistan has a prayer of building up an airforce capable to dealing with India. This has to do with training, quality of maitanance and numbers. Pakistan would be better off building (a) missiles (b) anti-aircraft defenses.
Fighter jets are a foolish pride purchase (like India's carrier) that is not going to give them what they want in the long run because they'll be afraid of losing them, and losing face, and thus losing a war.
#10
They have set up design divisions in Moscow which interacts worldwide on the 787 design, giving Russians access to the latest design software, build technology, fly-by-wire fiber optics, weather radar, etc.
Interesting. Does this mean we will see air-superiority and strike-fighter versions of the 787?
The only reason I can think of for Russia to block sales to the Pakis is because they want a bigger piece of the action. The Russians would sell their grandmothers for hard cash.
#13
The only reason I can think of for Russia to block sales to the Pakis is because they want a bigger piece of the action.
This is the soothing balm to Indians irritated at the Russian veto on exports of the Brahmos Cruise Missile.
India objected to the engine transfer to Pak.
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 19:27 Comments ||
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#14
"MIG/SUKHOI design bureaus into one entity" - no surprise here, as have been saying/arguing that since the 1990's. Sukhoi > was post-USSR's Russia's PC medium of vital internat tech transfer to the military-only/centric MIG Bureau. As for CHINA, their self-proclaimed war agz the USA and only the USA was to begin as early as Year 2014 [actually 2012-2014]. NO ENGINES > ANTI-US WAR MAY HAVE TO BE DELAYED.
OTOH, PRAVDA today > America may DESTROY THE MOON searching for Helium-3 as fuel alternative. WHY WAIT FOR YEAR 2029-2030 + COMET APOPHIS, etal. events. Theres also WORLDTRIBUNE > LAVROZOV > dead Chinese activist claimed that, besides a hidden agenda for defeating = destroying America, CHICOMS also have a plan to get rid of approxi 3.0Bilyuuuhn of world's population. CAN'T WE JUST ALL FEEL THE LOVE?
Indian space scientists have successfully brought back to earth an orbiting satellite in the first of its kind mission aimed at demonstrating spacecraft recovery technology capability.
The 550-kg spacecraft, Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), spashed down in the Bay of Bengal, about 140 km east of Sriharkikota coast at around 9.45 am on Monday as planned, ISRO officials said.
"A Coast Guard helicopter has located it. A ship has already move in. Recovery efforts are in full swing. The capsule is expected to be brought to Sriharikota via the Ennore Port by Monday night," an ISRO official told PTI.
The capsule was launched by PSLV-C7 along with Cartosat-2 on January 10 from the Sriharikota spaceport and space scientists conducted two microgravity experiments on board related to metallurgy and biometric synthesis.
According to Bangalore-based ISRO, on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, after initial aerodynamic braking, a parachute system reduced the touch down velocity.
A floatation system kept the SRE afloat.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair had said earlier that SRE was intended for demonstrating the capability to recover an orbiting space capsule, and the technology of an orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity condition.
Officials said SRE, made of mild steel, was intended to test reusable thermal protection system, navigation, guidance and control, hypersonic aero-thermodynamics, management of communication blackout, deceleration and floatation system and recovery operations.
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 05:42 ||
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#1
Photo of the SRE capsule being mated to the PSLV payload bus
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 5:49 Comments ||
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Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 16:18 Comments ||
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#5
Umm, James Bond looking?? Paint a Mercury capsule black and have it recovered upside down, is more like it. And what the hell is that big red thing on the end, some sort of recovery inflatable?
#6
I think he liked the 'before' photo of the thermal silica tiles on the carbon-carbon backing.
The red thing is a flotation device.
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 18:21 Comments ||
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#7
Photos from 1964.. the guy on the right is now the President of India.
U.S. scientists from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) launched the first small rocket from Indian soil - an American Nike Apache - in 1963. "We were waiting for the payload to arrive when we saw a guy on a bicycle coming up an unpaved road," recalls one NASA veteran of the launch. "He had the payload in the basket."
Posted by: john ||
01/22/2007 18:33 Comments ||
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Police have registered cases against five khateebs for violating the ban on loudspeakers and arrested four khateebs in Islamabad. Kohsar police arrested Maulana Ghulam Mustafa from the F-6/1 Qamaru Zaman Masjid, Maulana Muhammad Hussain Zeshani from the Blue Area Jamia Masjid Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa, and Maulana Zahoor Ahmad Alawi from the F-6/4 Muhammadain Ahmadia for misusing loudspeakers. Margalla police arrested Khateeb Qari Ahsan Ullah from Masjid Qasmia while I-9 police registered a case against Qari Muhammad Anwar Tahir from Masjid Anwar Mustafa.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2007 00:00 ||
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A controversial proposal in Daytona Beach, Fla., would create a special village to house hundreds of the county's homeless people, Local 6 News has learned. Volusia County Council members are expected to consider a plan to build the Tiger Bay Village and treatment facility for the area's 2,500 homeless community. "Although it is only in its exploratory stages, developers for the Tiger Bay Village say it is invaluable," Local 6's Tarik Minor said.
Developer Michael Arth is proposing to build a 5,600-bed community on a 125-acre lot of rural land. The village will provide shelter, psychiatric help and the support of neighbors. "This is for the people who can't work and can't integrate themselves into society," Arth said. "The answer is not to build a Hooverville of tents and trailers but to make these buildings attractive enough so that if you or I would went there, we would say, 'Wow, I'd live there.'"
Critics worry that the Tiger Bay Village will only promote homelessness and that the population will relocate to rural areas.
Arth said homeless people are costing taxpayers millions of dollars every year. He said building a village is better than putting Band-Aids on the problem. "I would go to the village to get out of the weather and the cold," homeless man Daniel Hector said.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/22/2007 9:18 Comments ||
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#2
This may not be a bad idea, as it could both solve a bunch of problems, and act as a laboratory for other cities to mitigate their problems.
Other cities have tried individual ideas that have worked, such as special schools just for homeless children, and a hotel for alcoholics just to keep them off the street. Pure pragmatism, in that reduces the homeless "profile" in the city, and especially because it saves a LOT of money.
It a homeless village, it should properly be subdivided into different distinct parts: one for homeless families; one for the young; one for the older; and one for addicts and psychiatric cases.
The reason for this is that homeless families are the most "recoverable", and often just need information on things like home management and credit and finances. Their children need a school that emphasizes them helping their family out of poverty.
Young, single homeless people often have psychological, not psychiatric, problems from having escaped abuse, to severe claustrophobia. They need counselors and mentors, but can provide much of the labor that the homeless village would need. Only a fraction of them remain homeless after years.
Older homeless are in need of basic medical care. They are generally set for life as being homeless, excepting catastrophic cases, which mostly happens to middle-class women who are suddenly widowed or divorced. They are often content with a modest institutional setting, to live out their remaining years.
Alcoholics and drug addicts are of two kinds: those who want out, and those that are stuck for life. Treatment for the former to help them out of their situation sometimes works; but likewise, if they are stuck, as determined by a doctor, then by providing them cheap alcohol, food, and a place to sleep, they cost only a fraction that they would out in public.
Pure ethanol is not expensive, and is becoming even less expensive, now that it is being made for fuel. No effort at reform whatsoever.
Put it all together and you have a homeless village, that takes the homeless out of the city and gives them some services if they want to improve themselves, and otherwise keeps them as much as possible out of harms way.
#6
I think it is a great idea. I'd even volunteer on a Habitat crew. After a little practice, we could volunteer to build and move the Palestinians, to say, Jordan or the Golan.
#7
Evil Florida developer plans Concentration Camp for Homeless. Thousands to be relocated to rural "treatment facility", critics worry.
There, that's more like it.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/22/2007 12:03 Comments ||
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#8
"The answer is not to build a Hooverville of tents and trailers but to make these buildings attractive enough so that if you or I would went there, we would say, 'Wow, I'd live there.'"
So they're going to build a space for the homeless that's better than what some workers can afford?
#9
There are two kinds of homeless. THose that need a helping hand and will get up off their feet soon after, and those that use drugs or won't take their meds. Nothing will help them.
This plan will help the first group and do nothing to help the second. I suspect the numbers of homeless do not split evenly and hope Daytona has taken that into account.
There was a city, I think Denver, that tallied up the costs of homeless folks using the local hospitals and the numbers were stagering. They chose a bold plan, to build condos and give them away to those homeless that could keep clean (that was cheaper than a years hospital bills in some cases). This was what it took to get a large segment of the druggies to go clean but not enough for others.
Of course that solution comes off as unjust to the other taxpayers that had to buy their own homes and condos or rent, even if it saves taxpayer money.
#11
rjschwarz: Housing and care can be bizarre. Because of the high price of nursing homes in the US, some ambulatory retirees figured that they can get a room, room service, travel, and live in luxury with reasonably good minor medical care on cruise liners, for about the same cost. Major medical is also cheaper in Mexico and the Caribbean, if they need it.
So they calculate that they can live their last years aboard ship instead of some brick repository of the dying.
#12
"Saves a LOT of money" > D *** ng it, This is Amerika, the future mighty USSA = weak anti-sovereign SSR/USR, not America, we can't have Amerikans saving any $$$, let alone having any $$$. PERM UNIVERSAL GOVT-CENTRIC/LED STAGRESSION + STAGFLATION, ETC. = UTOPIA. don't ya know.
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.
Jaywalking historian causes stir
