Crimes Quashed by Citizens

[Duchess]

This is disheartening & I can't be the only one that feels this way.

[HairOfTheDog]

Definitely disheartening -- wonder what compelled the judge to demand anonymous tipster information.

Without knowing more details, I agree with Crime Stoppers Director Masten and would take 2 weeks in jail over compromising the integrity of the program too.

[Duchess]

wonder what compelled the judge to demand anonymous tipster information.

I haven't been able to find anything other than he was arrested on a contempt of court charge for refusing to release information on a tipster.

[ZEROSPHERES]

So far all I have found out about the judge is she was appointed by Govenor Rick Scott (Rep) and then ran unopposed at the time of election. When I called to get further info on the decision I was directed to the courts community relations at 305-349-7189 where an answering machine was fielding questions. Repeated calls resulted in the same outcome. "Leave your Name and Number" ( I figured if I refused, a warrant might be issued for my arrest)

[Duchess]

I can't even begin to imagine what her reasoning could possibly be. This decision of hers IS going to affect people coming forward.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

A little more info.
This judge is head fucked

http://www.wsvn.com/story/24977543/direc...t-of-court

Director of Crime Stoppers held in contempt of court

MIAMI (WSVN) -- The Director of Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers has been arrested and is being held in contempt of court for failing to divulge information and eating a piece of paper that had the details about a tipster that had called into Crime Stoppers.

According to Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers, former Police Chief Richard "Dick" Masten and Judge Victoria Brennan have been going back and forth for several days about a particular tipster.

Brennan called for Masten to come into court Friday to meet her at her chambers to go over the case.

Masten, a director since 2008, cited a case law backing the Crime Stoppers program and said he couldn't divulge information to be reviewed in closed court to determine whether it would then be discoverable as evidence. "There is a possibility that looking at certain documents, a defendant could work that case backwards and put the tipster at peril, and I'm not gonna let that happen," he said.

He then ate a piece of paper that held the tipster's name. "I was afraid that I was going to be taken into custody and that would be part of the property and there it goes," Masten said.

According to sources, Masten will be held behind bars for 14 days.

Masten was heard inside the courtroom saying to the prosecutor, "What is personal to me, is the promise," Masten said. He added, "Some of these tipsters could end up dead. Not on my watch."

The incident is all stemming from a cocaine possession case, State vs. Lissette Alvarez. Alvarez was arrested in 2013 and charged with cocaine possession. "But Ms. Alvarez, in this case, has every right to confront her accusers. But more particularly in this case, it's not the accuser, but the evidence that the State will use against her," said Alvarez's attorney, Jean-Michel D'Escoubet.

Masten said judges have honored the privacy of tips in previous cases. "I can tell you that some of these things that contain information that would leave tipsters dead," he said in court.

Brennan's order read in part, "The court would be remiss to turn a blind eye to a flagrant refusal to honor a court order, and give more value to an individual's opinion on what is right, than to the dictates of the laws."

"But I think sometimes compassion can cloud judgment," Brennan said.

Questions arose as if tipsters would think twice before giving out potential helpful information if that information were to find itself in a court room. "I wouldn't mind," one person said.

"That's wrong," one woman said. "I feel like that's kinda manipulation."

Crime Stoppers tips have helped catch attackers and killers in the past.

According to Masten, giving up tips could jeopardize future busts. "If you give somebody your word, you keep your word," he said.

According to the Crime Stoppers website, a slogan reads, "You will remain anonymous. We want your information, not your name."

Masten was allowed to go home until Thursday, March 20, when a hearing has been set. His 14-day sentence has been stayed until the case can be addressed.

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks for the update, Six.

Doesn't seem that there's anything unique about the case.

Yeah, defendants have a right to face their accusers in all cases. But, many cases involve anonymous tips and unidentified informants. LE checks out all such tips and info and if it's valid, it becomes evidence for the prosecutors (they're the accusers at that point, not the tipsters). That's how I see it anyway. If every judge did what this one is doing, tips would dry up (as Duchess mentioned upthread).

Anyway, good for Crime Stoppers' Director Masten. He'll do his two weeks, the court won't get the tipster identification, the case should proceed like every other, and hopefully the publicity will make more people aware of Crime Stoppers and instill confidence that "anonymous" means "anonymous" to the organization.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Another Home Team Hero with a CCP

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/125342-a...der-saves/

Armed Man Gathers People Together in Dollar General Breakroom, but Concealed Carry Holder Saves Them


When Kevin Mclaughlin entered the Dollar General in Orrville, Alabama, he probably didn’t expect it would be the last thing he would ever do. Brandishing a pistol, the man began herding people into the breakroom. But concealed permit holder Marlo Ellis waited until the right moment to gun down the potential murderer, which led many to call him a ‘Good Samaritan’ and a true hero.
The man is not set to be charged with any crime for defending himself and others against the masked gunman.
Surely, this isn’t the sort of thing liberals have in mind when they seek to ban firearms. But people who feel a responsibility to protect themselves and others are well aware that there are bad people out there, both inside and outside of government, and know that firearms not only end lives, but can also save them.

[Duchess]

Good job, Marlo!

[HairOfTheDog]

School shooting quashed by would-be shooter's parents?



Snip:
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - A 17-year-old Madison High School student was in police custody Monday after he was caught with three loaded weapons on campus, North East Independent School District spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said.

Two handguns were found in his backpack and an AK-47 was discovered in a bathroom, Chancellor said.

The boy's parents notified school officials after they discovered their son was not at home when they woke up. When his parents checked the house for weapons, they discovered that the three guns were missing.

When the parents went to Madison, their son was on campus. The student was taken to the school office, where he and his parents met with administrators. It was then that his backpack was checked, Chancellor said.

"The student had said that he planned making some demands over the announcements later today at Madison High School," Chancellor said. "He didn't say specifically what those demands were, but he did say if those demands were not met, he had planned on committing violence."

The school was put on lock down for over an hour.

He’ll be charged as an adult with making terroristic threats and possession of weapons in a prohibited place, Chancellor said.

Students spent more than one hour in lockdown after officials found the weapons, the spokeswoman said.

The arrest comes days after someone anonymously emailed employees in the city’s Northside Independent District to warn of a school shooting planned for Thursday, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/te...z30E3cfnHt
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know if the boy's parents suspected their son was up to something and, if so, why they allowed him access to guns. Regardless, it's a damn good thing his parents acted so swiftly in alerting the school. Their son is probably going away for some time, but they may well have saved some other kids' lives.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh, no you don't!


Robbery suspect Christopher Samuels ^ is behind bars in Blaine, Minnesota -- thanks to his intended victim and a good samaritan ex-Marine.

Kathy George went to get her daughter a donut for her last day of school when she says Samuels began following her outside.

“I could see with my peripheral vision that someone was right there, and just as I saw him he grabbed my purse, and that’s when the struggle began,” she said.

“I kind of surprised myself because I was fighting back. At one point we both went down to the ground, we’re wrestling on asphalt. He’s regaining control of my purse and then I am, and the whole time I’m thinking, ‘What am I doing? I can’t believe I’m doing this. He could have a weapon,’” George said. “The contents in this purse are not worth my life.” (HOTD: good thinking at the end -- not worth the fight -- but I understand the instinct to do so.)

Tarl Fruge was across the street watching his kids softball game when he heard George’s cry for help. That’s when his military training kicked in. “I dropped everything, kicked my flip flops off and just ran over as fast as I could,” he said.

The former Marine tackled Samuels. “On the ground, put his hands behind his back and then just held him there until police came,” Fruge said.


Kathy George and Tarl Fruge

“There are people out there who’ll be willing to step in and risk their lives and help others out,” George said.

Fruge says he’d do the same thing all over again.

Samuels is charged with attempted simple robbery and attempted theft.

Ref:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/06/11...in-blaine/

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Ahhh, yet another citizen comes out on top...

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/nati...64152.html

Homeowner Kills Intruder Who Said She Was Pregnant


A Long Beach homeowner has no regrets after shooting and killing a woman who said she was pregnant after he got into a confrontation with her and another man who were ransacking his sprawling home.
Tom Greer, an 80-year-old retiree, arrived to his upscale Bixby Knolls neighborhood Tuesday night to find a couple in the middle of a late-night break-in.

"When I went in there, they tackled me," Greer told NBC4 Wednesday. "Both of them jumped up on top of me."
The intruders, a man and woman, may have underestimated Greer, he said, as they ransacked his safe and yanked the door open right in front of him.

The intruders threw Greer to the ground, but they didn't know he'd gotten his .22-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver.
Read: Man Accused of Killing Daughter, Wife Found Nearly 20 Years Later Living With New Family
"I come back and they see me with a gun, and they run," he said.
The man escaped, but the woman fell after being struck by Greer's gunfire in an alley behind the house.
"She says, 'Don't shoot me, I'm pregnant! I'm going to have a baby!' And I shot her anyway," Greer said.
When asked what he saw happen to the woman after he fired shots, Greer responded: "She was dead. I shot her twice, she best be dead ... (The man) had run off and left her."

"I've never in my life shot anybody, killed anybody," Greer said.
Greer was being treated at the hospital Wednesday for a severe shoulder and collarbone injury, but he hoped to send a warning to the man who got away.
"I shot her so that's going to leave a message on his mind for the rest of his life," Greer said.
Long Beach police said they were investigating the incident. It was not immediately clear whether any charges would be filed against Greer for the shooting.
"Investigators have to look at both sides of this coin," said legal analyst Royal Oakes. "On the one hand a frail man in his 80s is being attacked in his own home by intruders, he has a right to self-defense. On the other hand, he did shoot a person who was trying to get away, so he wasn't in imminent danger himself and the law says you can't shoot somebody under those circumstances."

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Got the other two involved in this thing.
Check out mom, 49 yrs old? Holy Shit

http://ktla.com/2014/07/25/suspected-bur...e-charged/

Yea, the headlins is fucked up

Homeowner in Long Beach Was Not Pregnant; Accomplice Charged, His Mother Arrested

On the same day that the coroner’s office confirmed an alleged burglar who was fatally shot was not pregnant, her accomplice was charged Friday in the Long Beach incident and the accomplice’s mother was arrested, authorities announced on Friday.

Police had previously said the Los Angeles County coroner’s office was trying to determine whether Andrea Miller, 28, was pregnant when she was shot and killed during a confrontation with 80-year-old Tom Greer during an alleged home-invasion robbery in the Bixby Knolls neighborhood on Tuesday night.

Greer told police he had come home to find Miller and another man, identified as 26-year-old Gus Adams, inside his house, Chief Jim McDonnell of the Long Beach Police Department said at a news conference on Wednesday. The pair jumped on Greer, beat him, then threw him to the ground, the homeowner told officers.

He managed to get up, retrieve a gun and open fire on the pair, fatally striking Miller, police said.

Adams, who initially fled the scene, was later arrested and was formally charged in connection with the incident, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s announced on Friday.

The charges included murder, first degree residential robbery, first degree residential burglary, grand theft firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to a news release from the DA’s office.

“The charging document also contains special allegations that the defendant inflicted great bodily injury and elder abuse in the commission of the crime. Additionally, the felony complaint includes two prior convictions for possession of a controlled substance in 2011 and petty theft with three priors in 2012,” the release stated.

If convicted on all charges, Adams faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

He was being held on $1.1 million bail.

Adams’ mother was also arrested after police determined a third person was involved in the incident, Long Beach police stated in a release on Friday.

Ruby Adams, 49, was arrested late Thursday and booked on suspicion of robbery, according to the release.

She was expected to be charged on Monday.

[Duchess]

I'm starting to believe that the collapsing of a civilized world as I know it is all due to bad parenting.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I'm starting to believe that the collapsing of a civilized world as I know it is all due to bad parenting.

Well Yea.
What did you expect would become of all the stoners you grew up with?
That bunch of morons I was in school with are dead, in prison or skid row and welfare whores.
I bet there aint 10 of them have what anyone with a brain would call a Normal life

[Duchess]

What did you expect would become of all the stoners you grew up with?

I don't know one single stoner who could ever be accused of bad parenting. Some I knew back then went on to college, some didn't but they are all productive individuals and I can say the same about the ones I know now. We are all middle class people, some a little higher than others who were raised by people with integrity and who were law abiding. We had/have parents who cared. I don't see any of us in the people that I read about in the crime forum.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't keep up with but three people I knew before and during high school. We were all "loadies" (what we called people who smoked pot sometimes).

Now, one of us never smokes pot. Three of us do when we have an opportunity to relax. One is an alcoholic (hard struggle, but he's a great funny guy).

None of us has done time, shot anybody, or anything like that. I'm sure there are some stoners who are also violent criminals; gotta be. But, I've never seen any data to suggest that there is a correlation between being a stoner and being a violent criminal, and haven't seen any connection in my personal experience either.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Here is another one

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...5611.story


86-year-old won't be charged in concealed carry shooting, prosecutors say


Authorities have decided not to file charges against an 86-year-old Crestwood man who fired his legal weapon at an armed robbery suspect who was fleeing police, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said today.

The man, whom authorities would not identify, is licensed to carry a concealed gun in public, officials said. Authorities described him as a “model citizen” in Crestwood, a village of 11,000 residents in south suburban Cook County.

The permit holder told police he was about to enter an AT&T store at 4756 W. Cal-Sag Road around noon on Saturday when he noticed the store was being robbed, Crestwood police said in a statement. The man stayed outside to prevent anyone from entering, police said, and after he saw the suspect leaving through a back door, entered the store and chased him.


A police officer also was pursuing the suspect but had to duck for cover when the shots were fired. No one was injured.

Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Kirk said the Crestwood Police Department declined to file charges and the state’s attorney sees no reason to pursue it further.

“This is an 86-year-old law-abiding individual who comes across a forcible felony in progress … and helped others avoid being victims,” said Kirk.

The suspect, Demetrius Merrill, 17, of Chicago, was charged with armed robbery and held on $1 million bail.

[HairOfTheDog]

Security Guard Loses Life Protecting Others


RIP Big Will

When a gunman opened fire early Thursday on two young men outside an Inland roller rink where 200 skaters were ringing in the New Year, 6-foot-4 security guard Richard “Big Will” Williamson stepped in front of them and fired back.

“As far as I’m concerned, the security guard – he was a hero that night,” said Michael Marcoly, a truck driver who was resting in his parked big rig about 100 yards away when gunfire broke out at CalSkate Grand Terrace.

“It took an awfully brave man to take and return fire when he could have ducked back inside behind the door,” Marcoly, who witnessed the attack, said in a telephone interview Friday. “He took the focus off of them and put it onto himself. He started walking toward the gunfire. He never, ever retreated.”

Williamson, 48, of Riverside and the owner of Big Will’s Security Services was hit in the 2 a.m. shooting and he died about an hour later, authorities said.

Two other men – both in their 20s – were shot but their wounds were not life-threatening, according to authorities. One was a guard employed by Williamson’s firm. Their names were not released. It wasn’t clear whether the assailant was struck by gunfire.

Story: http://www.pe.com/articles/williamson-75...urity.html

[Duchess]

He was brave. I'm running as fast as I can in the opposite direction if I ever encounter something like that.