It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire Chief Don Payne didn't hesitate to tell the judge what he thought of the police and their speed traps.
The response from cops? They shot him. Right there in court.
Payne ended up in the hospital, but his shooting last week brought to a boil simmering tensions between residents of this tiny former cotton city and their police force. Drivers quickly learn to slow to a crawl along the gravel roads and the two-lane highway that run through Jericho, but they say sometimes that isn't enough to fend off the city ticketing machine. "You can't even get them to answer a call because normally they're writing tickets," said Thomas Martin, chief investigator for the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department. "They're not providing a service to the citizens."
Now the police chief has disbanded his force "until things calm down," a judge has voided all outstanding police-issued citations and sheriff's deputies are asking where all the money from the tickets went. With 174 residents, the city can keep seven police officers on its rolls but missed payments on police and fire department vehicles and saw its last business close its doors a few weeks ago. "You can't even buy a loaf of bread, but we've got seven police officers," said former resident Larry Harris, who left town because he said the police harassment became unbearable.
Sheriff's deputies patrolled Jericho until the 1990s, when the city received grant money to start its own police force, Martin said. Police often camped out in the department's two cruisers along the highway that runs through town, waiting for drivers who failed to slow down when they reached the 45 mph zone ringing Jericho. Residents say the ticketing got out of hand. "When I first moved out here, they wrote me a ticket for going 58 mph in my driveway," 75-year-old retiree Albert Beebe said.
The frequent ticketing apparently led to the vandalization of the cruisers, and the department took to parking the cars overnight at the sheriff's department eight miles away.
It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.
It's unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind. Doctors in Memphis, Tenn., removed a .40-caliber bullet from Payne's hip bone, Martin said. Another officer suffered a grazing wound to his finger from the bullet.
Martin declined to name the officer who shot Payne. It's unclear if the officer has been disciplined. Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer or Payne. Fairley, reached at his home, said Payne could face a misdemeanor charge stemming from the scuffle, but that would be up to the city's judge. He said he didn't remember the name of the officer who fired the shot.
Payne remains in good condition at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. He referred questions to his lawyer. "I know that he was unarmed and I know he was shot," Fishman said. "None of that sounds too good for the city to me."
After the shooting, Martin said police chief Willie Frazier told the sheriff's department he was disbanding the police force "until things calm down." The sheriff's department has been patrolling the town in the meantime. A call to a city hall number listed as Frazier's went to a fax machine. Frazier did not respond to a written request for comment sent to his office.
Alexander, the judge, has voided all the tickets written by the department both inside the city and others written outside of its jurisdiction -- citations that the department apparently had no power to write. Alexander, who works as a lawyer in West Memphis, resigned as Jericho's judge in the aftermath of the shooting, Fairley said. She did not return calls for comment.
Meanwhile, sheriff's deputies want to know where the money from the traffic fines went. Martin said that it appeared the $150 tickets weren't enough to protect the city's finances. Sheriff's deputies once had to repossess one of the town's police cruisers for failure to pay on a lease, and the state Forestry Commission recently repossessed one of the city's fire trucks because of nonpayment. City hall has been shuttered since the shooting, and any records of how the money was spent are apparently locked inside. No one answered when a reporter knocked on the door on Tuesday.
Mayor Helen Adams declined to speak about the shooting when approached outside her home, saying she had just returned from a doctor's appointment and couldn't talk. "We'll get with you after all this comes through," Adams said Tuesday before shutting the door. A white Ford Crown Victoria sat in her driveway with "public property" license plates. A sales brochure advertising police equipment sat in the back seat of the car.
#2
Wanna bet that when City Hall reopens those "Records" are missing?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/06/2009 6:27 Comments ||
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#3
Boss Hogg couldn't be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 8:55 Comments ||
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#4
Police staffing level at 4% of the population? Seems awfully high to me. What's a normal ratio? This is 5-10 times higher than our troop levels in Iraq or A'stan.
#6
Martin declined to name the officer who shot Payne. It's unclear if the officer has been disciplined. Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer or Payne.
Someone want to tell me why the shooter is not in jail for attempted murder? Is there some state or federal authority that the victim can appeal to file charges?
#7
Sounds like it's past time to call in the State Police. And maybe even the FBI.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/06/2009 14:53 Comments ||
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#8
The frequent ticketing apparently led to the vandalization of the cruisers, and the department took to parking the cars overnight at the sheriff's department eight miles away. I think those cops were lucky that vandalization was all that occurred. They're sitting ducks when they're parked waiting for their next victim to drive by. Alfred Hitchcock had a classic episode in one of his 1950's TV shows about a town like this.
#10
gromky, the usual procedure is to have an internal investigation first, then the criminal charge is decided on based on what they find.
Considering the level of professionalism on display here, I am confident that the Jericho PD will conduct the investigation themselves, and lo and behold....Payne will be considered 100% at fault. The officer will get a commendation, too.
H/t Hot Air for the link to this ground-breaking research.
ED-UP women who say that men talk to their boobs instead of looking at their face have been proved right.
Boffins have found that just under half - 47 per cent - of men first look at a women's chest when they first meet.
And another third of men look at a woman's waist or hips as their "first fixations".
Shockingly fewer than 20 per cent of men look a woman in the eye when they look at them.
It is thought evolution could be behind the findings as women with larger chests and slimmer waists - like stunner Kelly Brook - have higher levels of hormones and are more fertile.
But researchers believe there is a simpler reason explaining: "Men may be looking more often at the breasts because they are simply aesthetically pleasing, regardless of the size."
Subjects in the test were presented with six pictures of the same woman - all digitally enhanced to giver her a fuller or smaller bust.
Scientists at New Zealand's University of Wellington recorded where the men looked first and how long they looked using cameras and mirrors to detect tiny eye movements.
The study concluded: 'Eighty per cent of first fixations were on the breasts and midriff. Men spent consistently more time looking at the breasts and also made significantly more fixations upon them than other regions.'
It also found that men began to gaze at the 'components of the hourglass figure' within 0.2 seconds.
The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) arrested in Tabuk Thursday a group of teenagers attempting to entice passing girls at a shopping center by waving 500-riyal notes. As Hai'a officials approached, the group attempted to flee by car but instead collided with a tree outside the center and were duly detained.
Ick. Serves them right.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The boys could use better driving skills.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/06/2009 9:49 Comments ||
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#2
They could also use better pickup lines.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/06/2009 13:23 Comments ||
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Two Bangladeshi newspapers have apologised after publishing an article taken from a satirical US website which claimed the Moon landings were faked.
The Daily Manab Zamin said US astronaut Neil Armstrong had shocked a news conference by saying he now knew it had been an "elaborate hoax".
Neither they nor the New Nation, which later picked up the story, realised the Onion was not a genuine news site. Both have now apologised to their readers for not checking the story.
"We thought it was true so we printed it without checking," associate editor Hasanuzzuman Khan told the AFP news agency. "We didn't know the Onion was not a real news site."
The article said Mr Armstrong had told a news conference he had been "forced to reconsider every single detail of the monumental journey after watching a few persuasive YouTube videos and reading several blog posts" by a conspiracy theorist.
"It took only a few hastily written paragraphs published by this passionate denier of mankind's so-called 'greatest technological achievement' for me to realise I had been living a lie," the fake article "quoted" Mr Armstrong as saying.
The made-up quote went on to say that although the journey had felt real, in fact "the entire thing was filmed on a sound stage, most likely in New Mexico".
"I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind."
The story was published on the Onion's website on Monday and on Wednesday, the Daily Manab Zamin translated it into Bengali, attributing it to the Onion News Network in Lebanon, Ohio. It then ran in New Nation on Thursday.
Daily Manab Zamin, the only tabloid newspaper in Bangladesh, published an apology to its readers on Thursday, saying the report had "drawn a lot of attention".
"We've since learned that the fun site runs false and juicy reports based on a historic incident," it said. "The Moon landing one was such a story, which received numerous hits on the internet.
"The truth is that Neil Armstrong never gave such an interview. It was made up. We are sorry for publishing the report without checking the information."
#1
Unlike bloggers, newspapers and magazines have layers of fact checkers and editors...which is not necessarily the same as having someone on staff with a lick of sense.
Cuba's sea-borne imports dropped by nearly two-thirds in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2008, official data showed, highlighting the depths of the island's economic crisis. Yet the value of Cuba's U.S. imports for the same period dropped only 15 percent, underscoring the U.S. producers' advantages because of the short distance between the countries, trade experts said.
A cargo transportation report issued last month by Cuba's Office for National Statistics shows that imports by sea dropped from 4,626,000 metric tons to 2,309,000 mt from the first half of 2008 to the same period this year. Exports also dropped, from 307,000 to 203,000 MT.
``The numbers show the real contraction of the Cuban economy because they reflect not the value but the volume,'' said Jorge Piñon, a fellow at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy who monitors the island's economy.
The Cuban government has been reported to be planning to cut its 2009 imports by at least 30 percent because of its economic crisis.
Raúl Castro's government is currently facing the worst economic crisis since the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. Three hurricanes last year caused $10 billion in damages, the world economic slowdown sparked a cut in the price and volume of Cuba's main export, nickel, as well as an estimated $1 billion drop in foreign lending to the island.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Raul should apply for some stimulus money from his pals in the Obama administration.
#4
Raúl Castro's government is currently facing the worst economic crisis since the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s since Cuba lost its primo job as a Soviet client state and all that free money dried up.
[Iran Press TV Latest] United States ambassador to Mexico has called for extra enforcements to counter the ongoing arms traffic from America into the violence-plagued Hispanic nation.
Carlos Pascual, newly appointed as the US ambassador to Mexico City, said on Friday that there were groups in America smuggling weapons across the border into Mexico and into the hands of infamous drug traders.
Speaking at the US-Mexico Border Governors Conference on security and environmental issues, Pascual said, "We cannot continue to arm the cartels," referring to the stealth cross-border arms transit, which is meant to equip Mexico's criminal gangs responsible for around 10,000 deaths over the past two years alone.
The US diplomat, however, did not specify any outlaw groups that mostly use the southern state of Texas to ship weapons into Mexican cities.
Mexico has been grappling with years of violence escalated by the nation's powerful drug cartels that run international networks of narcotics and operate in different continents.
La Familia and Los Zetas are amongst the key drug cartels that have recently stepped up anti-government campaigns through fear-mongering and decapitating rivals and 'snitches' throughout Mexico.
The ruthless groups have also infiltrated into the country's local government offices, challenging President Felipe Calderon's bid to uproot the criminals.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
At least, somebody's business is not in decline.
#7
So these drug cartels have illegals in the US buying weapons, then illegally sending them into Mexico where guns are illegal..how bout getting that border under control there Butch.
#9
Why would cartel buy arms from the US where it is difficult when they could buy them from other parts of the world such as Iran, China, North Korea, etc.?
#1
Seeing that the ship went to Kalinigrad for modifications prior to picking up it's cargo in Finland, and seeing that Putin and Medvedev didn't know about the cargo until after the initial hijacking, and after finding the vessel off the African Coast weeks later, I was certain that the Russian media reports of a nuke or ADA device were most likely true.
Being hijacked by the Isreali's because the vessel was carrying advanced air defense systems for shipment to Iran through Syria makes perfect sense. Since the Israeli's are likely to be planning to strike the Iranian nuke facilities and the Iranians sorely need advanced ADA systems to stop them. All public, open source information....what an interesting story.
Explosive news coming out of the just released deposition of former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.
According to the just released transcripts, Edmonds testified as follows:
[T]his Congresswoman's married with children, grown children, but she is bisexual. ... So they have sent Turkish female agents, and that Turkish female agents work for Turkish government, and have sexual relationship with this Congresswoman in her townhouse ... and the entire episodes of their sexual conduct was being filmed because the entire house, this Congressional woman's house was bugged. ... to be used for certain things that they wanted to request ... I don't know if she did anything illegal afterward. ... the Turkish entities, wanted both congressional related favoritism from her, but also her husband was in a high position in the area in the state she was elected from,and these Turkish entities ran certain illegal operations, and they wanted her husband's help. But I don't know if she provided them with those.
According to Brad Friedman, Edmonds has stated the congresswoman is a Democrat.
#3
Married with children, with an influential husband? Pelosi fits those facts and has visited Turkey. Please, please, please, let it be so...can you imagine the sputter if a leaked sex film became public?
#6
I was going to suggest that to snark this properly we needed to see pix and maybe some video. However, the mention of Pelosi has caused my, uhm, interest to shrivel.
#4
Stupid, the Chinese bring every spy tool they can think of, then chuckle wondering why the big white Westerners are so fallible. Surely they are ripe for the picking in the next big war.
#5
Not all is as it might seem. Unless Barry has specifically forbit it, there could be some reciprocity arrangements which would enable us to attend their upcoming events as well. The opposing force principals may be encouraged to bring along an entourage of juriors, members of press, etc. Much can be learned from their personalia, specific areas of interest and curiousities. Correctly organized, these events can become very lucrative feeding opportunities.
#6
Reciprocity is between equals. There are no equals, only superior and inferior. China has not lived up to what we'd expect as reciprocal access. Why should they? When we invite them unrequested? This is a sign of weakness, that only invites contempt.
It's been a disastrous year for the locomotive business, but GE Transportation Chief Executive Lorenzo Simonelli said 2010 could be even worse.
Simonelli, who predicted early this year that locomotive production would fall 44 percent in 2009, sees even tougher times ahead and the possibility of more permanent layoffs at Erie County's largest employer. He said locomotive production could fall another 50 percent from this year's level as the company works to fill a backlog of previous orders, a Wall Street Journal blogger reported Wednesday. At that rate, the work force that built 861 locomotives in 2008 at the Lawrence Park Township factory would be on track to build about 240 in 2010.
Stephan Koller, an Erie-based spokesman for the company, a division of General Electric Co., confirmed the gist of Simonelli's remarks.
"It's not looking good," Koller said. "We are eating away at our backlog, and so it's a shrinking backlog."
The company, Koller has said several times, hasn't received a single order from a North American rail customer this year.
While foreign plants are gearing up to build locomotives from kits built in Erie and at GE's Grove City engine plant, a recent order from Indonesia for 20 locomotives stands as one of the few bright spots for about 4,000 local employees. That order helps, Koller said. But at a plant that typically builds 800 to 900 locomotives a year, it helps only so much.
A below-par 2009 reflects what company officials were expecting when they announced 350 permanent job cuts in February and placed another 1,200 workers on temporary, lack-of-work layoffs.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Stands to reason; in my part of the world, my unscientific train-watching has noticed not only a big decline in train movements, but those that do are shorter, and I am also seeing older engines in the consist. BNSF is using engines still painted in the (2 generations ago) blue and yellow livery, with only Santa Fe logos. Took some out of mothballs rahter than buy new?
There are also more rent-a-power units on the BNSF lines.
#2
I don't follow as close as I used to, but I think the major roads have 30-40% of their locomotives in storage. Railroads are quite sensitive to this 'recession' thing.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/06/2009 14:25 Comments ||
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Enjoy Diversity (guess the ethnicity/religious background of the rioters???).
Incidentally, french authorities did a SOP CYA, and are blaming the police (sarko's "tough on crime" gvt has embarked on an appeasement campaign lately, with meetings with mosques heads and all, call for "dialog" with the Youths, etc, etc...).
Note also that french rules about taxis are a mess in the first place IIUC, with an organized scarcity dating back to the gaullist planned economy, and that the taking over by "ethnic drivers" has been due at least in part to their ability to "raise" money to buy the very expensive license
After 90 seconds of furious server thrashing: Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again.
***
Jackpot on the first try.
Posted by: ed ||
09/06/2009 18:33 Comments ||
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#3
Not to spoil your fun, but the lads at Harry's Place have already investigated the possibilities.
Wine gets a level 1 warning, beer, cider, brandy, and scotch sail right through, as do "big jubblies". (I giggled for an hour over that; having never heard the term before.) "Gay" is Right Out.
At least, that was the case when they first discovered it. There's some evidence toward the bottom of the comments that the site admins are onto their wicked ways, and have refined things a bit.
#1
With new drilling methods, we are not even close to "Peak Oil". Give another 50-100 years. By then, fusion will be so cheap that oil just isn't worth the cost anymore.
#3
I'm of the opinion that the whole concept of "fossil fuels" is complete BS - that old organic matter decays in the ground and turns into hydrocarbons to be as fantastic as unicorns.
I mean, we burn billion of barrels of the stuff every year, right? And we keep finding more? And we keep thinking that we've reached peak oil, then the price collapses?
There has to be some inorganic process going on underground that we don't understand that is making this bountiful supply. It CAN'T be made of just decayed ferns and stegosaurus meat, IMO.
#5
There has to be some inorganic process going on underground that we don't understand that is making this bountiful supply. It CAN'T be made of just decayed ferns and stegosaurus meat, IMO.
I've heard this too. The response is that crude contains carbon isotopes which are only found in organic sources. Only repeating things here. No idea what is correct.
#6
There are several Russian scientists that defend abiogenic oil. But probably exists both and the abiogenic source is small.
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
09/06/2009 16:06 Comments ||
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#7
Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico an ancient Mexican offshore island has turned up missing. It has been on maps since the 1500s but now can no longer be found. Its would allow Mexico to extend its maritime border some 55 miles further north, helping it to fight off what it sees as American encroachment on its claims to potentially vast oil reserves in the Mexican Gulf. Mexican legislators fighting a rearguard action in favour of the islands existence have been dealt a blow after a land and air search of the region: a report to the Mexican Congress by the National Autonomous University of Mexico concluded that the island does not exist.
Elias Cardenas, chairman of the parliaments maritime committee, said there were four more possible sites where the island might lie. He called for more studies before Mexico and America formalise the next drilling agreement. Right now, the big fight is for oil, he said. He did not believe the United States had bombed the island, as some have suggested.
Others took a different view. There is no doubt the gringos are behind this, wrote Marco on a nationalist website. Lets not forget that they stole California.
#9
"He did not believe the United States had bombed the island, as some have suggested.
Others took a different view. "There is no doubt the gringos are behind this," wrote Marco on a nationalist website. "Let's not forget that they stole California.""
These people are insane.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/06/2009 20:58 Comments ||
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#10
By then, fusion will be so cheap that oil just isn't worth the cost anymore.
There ALWAYS will be a need for lubrication
whatever you use for fuel
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/06/2009 21:37 Comments ||
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#4
At least you can get one there. Try getting one in Dubuque, Iowa. You have to give the sheriff there a "good enough" reason, and if the only one you can give is "personal protection" or "because I want one"....you ain't getting it. (My own county is nearly as bad.)
When she got her first firearm a few years ago her family all asked "Why in the world do you want a gun?" Her reply was perfect: "Because 'THEY' don't want me to have one."
#7
BP, nope. The way the law reads here, Iowa is a "may" issue state, not a "shall" issue state. If you get a sheriff who thinks that basically nobody should carry a gun, you are hosed. Move to another one of the state's 99 counties, and you might get one for that reason alone, depending on how the sheriff interprets that word. It makes no sense.
And yeah, in Dubuque, that's not a good enough reason. Sheriff Runde said that he wanted to keep domestic violence down. So, in his humble opinion, "because I want one", "because I live in a bad neighborhood" or "personal protection", isn't good enough. Supposedly if you say "because I often carry around large amounts of money" sometimes works with him, but no guarantees.
It is hard to get one in my county (Johnson), because they won't even offer the necessary training class. They stopped referring people to neighboring Linn County when they elected a different sheriff who will issue them to pretty much any law-abiding citizen. Go figure.
#8
I'm from the school of thought that believes the Second Amendment was enacted for one specific reason - to ensure that the citizens had the means available to overthrow the government (again) if it exceeded its rightful authority. Tragic, accidental deaths will happen and should be reduced to the extent possible, but in the end are the 'insurance premium' a free people pay to remain free.
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.
It's been a disastrous year for the locomotive business, but GE Transportation Chief Executive Lorenzo Simonelli said 2010 could be even worse.
