ABC 7 Chicago: What we know about Nashville shooter

 

[VIDEO] I've only been clued into this story during most of this day and will leave out some of the reporting I heard. What I know is that another troubled human being went to a place and started shooting and killed people. Of course this troubled human being was dealt with fatally by police officers.

I could bring up their sexual orientation or gender identity and that's not important. What's important is their state of mind. This person was disturbed to kill not only three adult staff members at this school, she also killed three children. That is disturbing and more disturbing is that this person knew they were going to die doing this.

I ache for the families of the deceased and the children who never will be able to live their lives into adulthood. And the course that this person had undertook only shows how troubled they are. I wish there was an easy answer to stop people like this from harming others.

And no more grandstanding about guns. I've had enough this is not a gun issue it's a serious people/mental health issue.

LA Times: Is California ready for more Black people to legally carry guns in public?

I didn't exactly follow another ruling last week by SCOTUS regarding gun rights. So this column from the LA Times goes into this issue a bit further using the racial angle.

So, on Thursday, while many were apoplectic over the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the rights of gun owners to carry a loaded weapon in public — throwing gun control laws in California and New York into limbo at a time when shootings are increasing — Jones was thoughtful.

On the one hand, he wants it to be easy for law-abiding citizens to be able to defend themselves “if and when the time arises.” But on the other hand, he’s a 50-year-old realist who knows that fear and hatred of Black people run deep in the United States, especially when we’re armed.

“There’s no overt racism when we go to the gun range, but we know how people are looking at us,” Jones said of the dozens of Black members who meet up to go shooting. “We know the things that people think.”California Democrats are scrambling to craft and enact new legislation this week that would somehow salvage the requirement — assuming local law enforcement continues to enforce it — that residents get a permit before carrying a concealed weapon.

“Our state will continue to lead in the fight to keep our people safe,” Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted on Thursday. Indeed, of all states, we have one of the lowest rates of dying by a bullet.

But the governor and lawmakers could fail, and the Supreme Court’s ruling could stand. And then, California could be forced to confront a reality that has long made many self-proclaimed liberals uncomfortable: Black people — potentially a lot of us — legally carrying guns in public.

Law abiding citizens including Black Americans have the right to own a gun for their own self-defense. Anyone engaging in any criminal behavior should be punished and certainly not a simple gun owner should be punished. And the racial angle shouldn't matter at all.

This column further discusses for example the issue of Black Panthers and of course thanks to the unrest of 2020 and continuing volatility expsecially after the Roe V. Wade ruling this would be a good time to start taking advantage of your rights and learn to use a firearm.

h/t Newsalert

School shooting in Uvalde, Texas

 

[VIDEO] This incident was noted in the IL GOP gubernatorial candidate which aired on our local NBC affiliate this evening. Unfortunately there were some fatalities and I see the alleged gunman is killed and we're going to see some posturing in Washington, DC as a result (of course there will be posturing).

I wish there was an easy answer to preventing very mentally ill individuals from taking a gun and using it on innocent people. Kids shouldn't go to school and expect any harm to come to them from anyone.

Tim Pool discusses assassination attempt in Louisville, Kentucky

 

[VIDEO] As you watch this over 20 min video from Pool allow me to share some details in text form:

A Louisville activist has been identified as a suspect in Monday's attempted shooting of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg.

Quintez Brown, 21, was charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters Monday morning in Butchertown, LMPD spokeswoman Elizabeth Ruoff said late Monday.

Brown, a civil rights activist, is a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal.

A police report says a man later identified as Brown entered the building and fired a 9mm Glock handgun at Greenberg before fleeing the building.

Greenberg was not injured, but one of the bullets struck his clothing, Chief Erika Shields said earlier Monday. Police evacuated Greenberg, a Democrat, and his staff from the building and eventually took a person into custody, she said.

I'd be very curious about motive, however, as we go through this article form the Courier Journal it seems as if Mr. Brown has some issues. Such as for example what happened when he disappeared last summer for two weeks. What was the circumstances of that? 

Also he's running for office himself (Louisville Metro Council) as Mr. Greenberg is running for Mayor of Louisville. So doing this probably won't bode well for his political career.

Rittenhouse ACQUITTED on all counts...

 Of all places we see react to yesterday's verdict in the trial of 18-yr-old Kyle Rittenhouse on a TV program I used to enjoy titled Entertainment Tonight. I used to like to watch because they would report on Star Trek and perhaps some other things. And now it's waded into the political and the real-world topical because well it's not enough to talk about the world of entertainment right....

[VIDEO] As you know yesterday after about three days of jury deliberation Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all counts. It seems this is the right call and for me affirms the right of self-defense of anyone in this country. 

Tim Pool: Rittenhouse judge YELLS at prosecutor over grave misconduct

 

[VIDEO] I don't feel as if I can adequately give an update to this case as I'm hardly following this. An 18-year-old man faces life in prison in Wisconsin for his part in a violent confrontation that resulted in two deaths during civil unrest in the small metropolis of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

By my eyes it's a clear cut case of self-defense, however, the prosecution from what I heard has done a great job of embarrasing themselves as how they conducted their prosecution. And I hear there could possibly be a mistrial that would prevent further prosecution of one Kyle Rittenhouse.

This trial seems like a mess, however, any trial involving civil unrest during the previous summer there are a lot of attention on a lot of these cases. I could say the attention to Rittenhouse is almost similar to Derek Chauvin although Chauvin is the officer involved with the demise of one George Floyd.

In the case of Rittenhouse, he was a young man of 17 who was confront by very violent men and was able to handle it with his AR-15 rifle. I've seen footage of him crying this incident took a toll on his young emotions. And seeing enough of the judge in this case even he's tired of this case.

Hickok45: Three iconic US military rifles

 

[VIDEO] Something different for this special holiday weekend. Hopefully we'll have a summer much different than last year with the pandemic and of course we're marking the year of George Floyd's untimely demise although we might consider the image many of us have in our heads about his last moments. Regardless we went through a lot during the past year that Hickock shares with us the rifles used by the U.S. military during the 20th century.

During the first World War the doughboys of that era utilized a Springfield rifle five round bolt action rifle. Then in the second World War the GIs of that era utilized the eight round M1 Garand which were also used during the Korean conflict. Then starting in Vietnam and with many changes up to the present day the military uses the M-16 rifle which could shoot more than 30 rounds. Just a progression of technologies in keeping with the prevailing military doctrines of their respective eras.

With this said, we've been through a lot the past year and don't let anyone fool you America is the greatest nation on Earth. Sadly many people want to tear this nation down and bring it to some of her worst moments. Perhaps you have someone in your life like that a friend or acquaintance or even family who insist in bringing up your lowest moments. That's where we are right now.

Let's not deny that we have some moments in our history that we aren't proud of. The ones who want to say mostly negative things about America or even about some of her people don't really want better days. They want to continue to wallow in their own negativity. I don't have the best answer to how to address the negativity that we're hearing not just on our media, but from many of our leaders.

We must tune them out somehow and we can create a more inclusive America with a brighter future. And with these various rifles or any future weapons we need good people brave enough to fight for her. America has issues with race, but America isn't a racist nation. We must fight to keep her that way and to do that we must avoid condemning one race or another for some perceived or created sleight.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day all! 

Shots fired near George Floyd memorial in Minneapolis

 

[VIDEO] We've already been hearing about how crime increases at nite at the sight of where George Floyd had died when he was stopped by police just about a year ago. Well how about this representation of how crime ridden the surrounding area has become. It's astonishing that the media is there to record gunshots being fired near by.

This is not normal. This should not be normal. What happened to George Floyd as tragic as it was led to calls to abolish police or defund police and certainly to dismantle the criminal justice system and it's only led to the footage you see above from NBC News. This is a testament to what all of those things I just noted will bring...

Perhaps I should just turn off the news

 A couple of incidents happened this past weekend. One was in Compton, California where two LA County Sheriffs Deputies were shot by an unknown assailant - thankfully their conditions are stable. A left-wing mob were at the hospital trying to break in and chanted that they hope these police officers die.

In Lancaster, Pennsylvania a man chases a police officer with a knife. The man himself seemed troubled in the first place I hear he had some mental issues. Regardless he was fatally shot by that police officer he was chasing. I mean the man was running around with a knife he was a danger.

And Lancaster, Penn. is starting to turn into another Kenosha, Rochester, Minneapolis,  etc. A while back a fatal police shooting occurred in D.C. and the nation's capital was about to crank off just like other cities around the nation. As stated already this nation still hasn't settled down from this unrest and it's caused me to be very concerned about the future.

At the same time and not to pivot into a strange subject, however, I find myself wondering if it's time to turn off the news. Shut down my social media for a while. Better yet, just turn off the news.

BTW, I really like this. Via Instapundit:

LA sheriff calls out LeBron James, asks him to match reward for finding gunman who ambushed deputies. “Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva called out NBA superstar and Black Lives Matter supporter LeBron James on Monday, challenging the Los Angles Lakers star to match and double the reward for bringing to justice the suspect who ambushed two deputies in Compton over the weekend.”

Something tells me it's not going to happen but I would applaud this if King James would match the reward for the alleged shooter of those officers. 

There was a shooting at the White House today

[VIDEO] The President was said to be rushed from the White House briefing room earlier this evening by a US Secret Service Agent. He returned to the briefing room 8 minutes later to report that there was a situation and very well under control.

An armed suspect was shot by police outside of the White House and is in the hospital. I've been looking for updates and after quick Google search haven't been able to find much.

I first heard about it on ABC News and I sort of made light of the whole President Trump was rushed from the briefing room. However, it seems in situations such as this is a prudent move. Don't know what else is going on in an incident such as this.

With all the weirdness looting going on in Chicago overnight on Monday and then what happened in Washington, DC has made for a rather interesting day newswise.

ABL: St. Louis Couple GUNS Taken! Activist Prosecutor Involved?

[VIDEO] If you haven't really been following what's been going on in St. Louis, Missouri. A couple was defending their home in a gated community which had been invaded by a group of "protestors". Even if many on the right agreed with this couple and their attempt to defend their home from any possible damage by anyone among the protestors, they may have discussed their lack of gun training.

As you see ABL discuss in the above video Mark and Patricia McCloskey came out of their home with their guns to defend their property on June 28, 2020 to quell any attempts on their property. And then the St. Louis Circuit Attorney (or their version of a District Attorney or State's Attorney) figures in her statement about this the same day and was alarmed by Mr. & Mrs. McCloskey's actions on June 28th. Recently a search warrant was executed by authorities and the weapons they used that day were to be turned over to authorities.

You might hear that the Circuit Attorney a woman by the name of Kim Gardner had 100% turnover in her office since she took office in 2017. She's said to be soft on crime in STL since she took over that office and she does have a primary coming up next month. Like Chicago, STL is a solidly Democrat city and I don't believe there is any GOP opposition. If Gardner isn't defeated in next month's primary her re-election is a done deal.

On the other hand its come out nationally that the McCloskeys have little issue suing neighbors. Afterall Mark McCloskey is an attorney himself.

Well hopefully we'll hear more about this case as it goes forward. I wouldn't be too surprised if the McCloskeys come out OK in this. Hell, there have been offers to the McCloskeys for a replacement of the AR-15 rifle that the police took with their search warrant.

Hmmm, this gives me an idea at least for a future project for this blog.

How to get the media to ignore a shooting...

Go Falcons!

The shooting that never was from Victory Girls:

“Did you hear about the mass shooting in New Jersey?” asked Victory Girl Amanda Green while I visited her this weekend.

“Shooting?” I hadn’t. There was no news alert on my phone, which I check religiously for updates about what’s going on in the world, so I started searching.

One suspect was killed, and 22 people were injured in a mass shooting at an arts festival in New Jersey yesterday.

Big news outlets did cover it. As of this morning, I’ve seen stories on CNN, BBC, Fox, LA Times, Washington Post, and the New York Times. But what I haven’t seen is any of the usual outrage that accompanies a shooting of this magnitude. There was no David Hogg screeching about stricter gun laws. There were no social media posts virtue signaling their outrage about the mass shooting. My usually well-informed leftist friends remained silent about the violence in Trenton, and there were no heartfelt “thoughts and prayers” from the right.

As of this morning, there’s no trending hashtag on Twitter either, even though a 13-year-old child was injured by the gunfire.

Well a little bit about this incident and the coverage it recieved so what about the media ignoring this?

This shooting – like many other gang-related acts of violence – involved minorities, involved gangs, and supports assessments that show gang members to be responsible for roughly half of the gun-related crimes in metropolitan areas.

For some reason, gun grabbers don’t like that narrative. It’s much easier to just pass laws that have no hope of quelling violence than to acknowledge that there is a serious problem with gangs, that gangs – like other criminal elements – will not abide by the laws, and that said criminals tend to be part of the minority groups that liberals studiously protect from criticism.
...
The Hogglets aren’t staging “die ins” in New Jersey, demanding “universal background checks,” a ban on high-capacity magazines, or “assault” weapons, because New Jersey already has them, and they have no hope of preventing gang violence.
...
This shooting doesn’t support the narrative, so it will be summarily ignored by the gun-grabbing maggots on all sides of the political aisle. They will just wait for the next white Trump supporter to lose his shit, and then blame Trump for the carnage and the failure to disarm us all.

Hmmmmm, so these gun controllers are selective about who they oppose. They're not even thinking about for example violence in the city neighborhoods of Chicago for example.

Via Instapundit!

Added a gun rights page

Go Falcons

The gun rights page is now published. It basically has the text of the 2nd amendment and section 22 of the Illinois constitution with regards to the right to bear arms. Perhaps I can do more work on this page in the future as of now I want to keep it basic. Let me know what you think I should add to it, can even add a comment section there.

I also wanted an excuse to share this article with you with regards to Philando Castile. With apologies to Woodlawn Wonder ;)

I can for others, but...https://t.co/C6mtppZOb3

— WoodlawnWonder (@WoodlawnWonder) February 24, 2018

As of late I'm seeing some anger with the NRA - National Rifle Association. Many companies are cutting ties with the NRA including airlines who are no longer allowing discounts for those members who attend NRA conventions. This reaction is in light of the February 14, 2018 school shooting in Florida, that I avoided really covering here on this blog.

While as of late we're hearing ideas about whether or not trained gun toting teachers should be allow to carry at school. Another fact from that shooting is that there were sheriff's deputies outside of this Florida school who stood outside Parkland High School and did nothing. Those who support gun control and believe guns should only be in the hands of police or military personnel. This is why we need a second amendment and the ability of citizens without badges or military service to use a firearm to protect themselves.

Now as far as Philando Castile I can put this in the same category. The police officer who shot & killed Castile in 2016 is no longer on the police force in St. Anthony, Minnesota although he was aquitted in a trial in 2017. It's imaginable that the police officer who killed Castile might have been nervous during a traffic stop, and shot Castile in front of his wife and child. At that Castile did everything right, he left the officer know he had a gun in the car. Now in that article above Castile's mother believes that the NRA didn't do enough to advocate for her late son.

And the NRA builds itself as the defender of gun rights for Americans right? Well according to his mother the NRA didn't say much when her son was killed by a police officer even though he told the officer of his firearm and went through the process of getting a gun. The NRA didn't real help to speak up for him as he exercised his rights in the correct way.

On the other hand I recognize that this current boycott of the NRA is really about gun control. There is a segment of this nation who doesn't want citizens with guns. A crazy with a gun willing to shoot innocent people is an excuse for not only keeping guns out of the hands of mentally deranged people. It can quickly become a means to keep guns away from those who aren't likely to engage in such an heinous act.

This is why I started the gun rights page, and if there's any further information you think I should add feel free to let me know.

Tragedies and media coverage

You know on Wednesday night I just had to shut off the news and found other things worth watching on TV. I saw Apollo 13 on History, then watched an hour of American Pickers on History, then basically did some further channel surfing watching a little bit of Buzzr and portions of the 2018 winter olympics in Korea.

The news on Wednesday got depressing it was up and down my FB feeds that there was an active shooter at a Florida high school. Typically during prime time on FOX News Channel I would be watching Tucker Carlson Tonight or Hannity. Because of this breaking news story guess what they covered tonight, this latest tragedy where I'm sure they talked to anyone who was in anyway connected to that tragedy. Obviously someone willing to target people who have little to do with their inner turmoil has problems that's established.

Also it seems crap like this has been going on often lately. I don't want to call it a trend, and if it is this trend needs to end. Unfortunately the answer to such tragedies are gun control and clearly if you're determined to shoot people gun control isn't going to stop you. One will find a way to get a gun if it's not a gun there are other weapons. So either way I needed to shut this off tonight.

Another tragic incident happened in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, it involved a relatively high ranking Chicago police officer who was shot helping a tactical team check out a suspect. He was a district commander and this was really his day off and he tried to help his fellow Chicago Police Officers and got killed.

I strolled around downtown and saw the collection of traffic on Randolph Street which was closed beyond Wabash. The actual shooting took place near the Thompson Center aka the State of Illinois building. The person who shot him was someone up to no good who had a gun on him to shoot a police officer.

The point of this, is to say sometimes it's OK to just turn of the news. I'm truly sorry for the loss anyone has suffered in these tragedies Tuesday & Wednesday. Me personally perhaps we need reminders that the world remains a dangerous place however let's not allow this fact to consume us.

Documentary on violence in Auburn Gresham

[VIDEO] This would be on topic over at sixthward.us normally, but I've decided to slow down on posting such videos there. Over at The Sixth Ward, I had posted the 8th video of Maggio News' top 10 series of violent Chicago neighborhoods - Roseland.

All the same most of his videos go through the history of these neighborhoods - well actually these aren't neighborhoods there are 77 community areas which contains a number of self-contained neighborhoods. So I'm guessing in referring to these community areas as neighborhoods he's considering his audience who aren't familiar with Chicago.

So basically in a number of these videos he considers the history of this neighborhoods especially ethnic history for example Auburn Gresham - as you see in vid above - had a melting pot of German, Polish, or Swedish residents. He considers white flight which is what happened in Auburn Gresham and Roseland for example. Then of course he talks about gangs and consider for a second that well Chicago - perhaps most cities around the nation - had issues with gangs of a variety of ethnics. We could talk about the Italians, Irish, and then we could talk Black gangs.

Unfortunately gangs are nothing new to our cities. The focus these days unfortunately are likely the Latin gangs or even Black gangs. Even then if you're into the criminal life no matter your ethnicity and you're involved in the killing you're as much part of the problem. Black, white, Latin, etc. it doesn't matter at all.

I posted these videos over some neighborhood oriented forms near the end of last month - written over at The Sixth Ward. People responded mainly to the politics of the man who produced these vids Vic Maggio. Many referred to him as an outsider and there are videos of him coming from a suburban community to come into the city to document Chicago crime scenes. Bottom line is that for good or for bad, Maggio's video will touch a nerve in some way.

BTW, thanks to this video I found out the source for his stats. Visit HeyJackass.com! I'm going to be checkin that site more often.

ALSO, near the end he covers the shootings of various rappers in Chicago. They're targets especially if they're associated with particular gangs. Almost as if they're the propagandists to put these into political terms. The gangs have leaders and evidently they essentially have mouth pieces. Sadly it seems rapping is still a dangerous profession.

Via Marathon Pundit

Las Vegas

It literally boggles my mind that a man with no discernible motive rains bullets down on people enjoying some country music. Everyone including his family is trying to figure this man out. In the meanwhile we mourn and pray for those who were killed or affected by this shooting on the Las Vegas strip.

Looking at some of the photos of the crime scene, last year I walked by the area on the strip. This makes this incident even more unbelievable!

DEADLIEST MASS SHOOTING IN U.S. HISTORY: At least 58 people are dead and more than 515 injured after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival on the #LasVegas strip. Complete coverage on ABC7Chicago.com.

A post shared by ABC 7 Chicago (@abc7chicago) on Oct 2, 2017 at 2:03pm PDT

Found this info over at the CapFax this morning. If you want to check on someone out there to see if they're OK use this info.

For families looking to locate missing loved ones in Las Vegas, police urge you to call the number below.

MORE: https://t.co/mnaVgn7bzL pic.twitter.com/vqRFQGW3VD

— NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) October 2, 2017

This is not a gun club I want to join...

[VIDEO] This video has done nothing more than inspire me to go to a range in Illinois and take some gun safety lessons. Thus if I ever do a video or photo-op of myself with a gun I will have the satisfaction of know that there is no joking with me and a gun.

 These guys on the other hand well I'm glad that they recognize their constitutional right to bear arms - even if there are those who believe they're only doing this to intimidate. Still it's OK to shoot your guns, but hopefully you record yourself hitting something. Or at least record yourself taking instruction on the use of a firearm.

 And I should note there are those who see that as comedy, I don't. There's nothing amusing about watching people who don't seem to know how to use a gun.

BTW, I feel it's appropriate to share this image found from my old high school - GO FALCONS - a good message for anyone who may be interesting in learning how to shoot a firearm.

While I can focus on shooting a pistol, I'd be very keen on trying an assault rifle for size. Perhaps show my range with a variety of firearms.

Via Instapundit

ABC 7 asks if guns with a silencer are a threat to safety....

Now if you believe this story from Chicago's ABC affiliate, then we know now that silencers aren't the devices we're familiar with from Hollywood. The way Hollywood portrays silencers you might hear a quick sound and probably wouldn't think much of it unless you were close to the target. If someone was to use one in real life you probably could hear a gunshot.

While of course law enforcement is treating this issue as if a dumb criminal could use these to commit crime advocates are emphasizing the safety aspects. If you're shooting a gun for the first time a silencer - or they can also be called suppressors - could help a person with their confidence. A person firing a gun for the first time could find themselves flinching. In another case if you fire a gun that's not suppressed - or "silenced" - you may experience ringing in the ears because of noise.

Regardless, there is a debate in Springfield over this as we learned here is being pushed through by a downstate Democrat. See even in this state is there a divide among Democrats the downstaters have a different agenda than us slicksters from the Chicagoland area.

To be honest I've never fired a gun in my life, however, it had been on my mind to get a conceal carry license. This can be legally done in Illinois even against *SURPRISE* ardent opposition so why not take advantage.

Undercharging a crime...

I've been focused when it comes to police violence in such places as South Carolina more recently and of course New York and Missouri. Then this case out of Chicago where a police officer somehow shoots dead a young black woman in 2012. Charges against this officer had recently been dismissed in a Cook County Court, however, it was made easier by the prosecution.

This is why I'm finally being tuned into this case as a local lawyer named Sam Adam - he defended some high profile people including one Rod Blagojevich & R. Kelly - is making some noise about this case. Of course as noted in this article he may consider running against the current state's attorney in Anita Alvarez:

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez was accused Wednesday of deliberately charging a now-acquitted Chicago Police detective with involuntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder to “curry favor with” the Fraternal Order of Police.

Flamboyant criminal defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said the rare directed verdict of acquittal that abruptly ended the trial of Dante Servin makes Adam more likely than ever to challenge Alvarez in the 2016 Democratic primary.

In issuing the stunning ruling, Circuit Judge Dennis Porter said pointing a gun at an intended victim and pulling the trigger is an international act — not a reckless one. He essentially said Servin should have been charged with murder — not involuntary manslaughter — for firing into a crowd and killing 22 year-old Rekia Boyd in March 2012.

Adam couldn’t agree more. But he argued that Alvarez’s “mistake” was intentional.

“When a man comes out, argues with an individual, then shoots an unregistered handgun over his shoulder into a crowd and rips the life out of a young vibrant African-American woman with no good cause and that individual is treated completely differently because he’s an off-duty police officer, that shows the problem we have in this county,” Adam said.

“To charge that as reckless conduct and not first-degree murder — either you’re doing it because you want to curry favor with the police department or you’re completely inept,” Adam said. “I think there’s no question it was deliberate. She wants to curry favor with the FOP. It took a $4.5 million settlement to get charges in this case. She was stuck in a hard place. If you charge first-degree murder, the FOP is mad at her. If you don’t charge anything, the community is upset. So you play the odds. That says you’re thinking about your job, not about what’s right.”

When I saw this I thought about this jewel from 2008. Alvarez has been Cook County State's Attorney since 2008 but before her election she made an appearance on a local political TV show and made her statement in favor of gun control. Something that shouldn't be too unfamiliar with those who have followed this blog over the years.

Soooo I know this seems like it was ages ago, but it came to mind because I just finally learned more about this case. As far as I know Ms. Alvarez hasn't done too much as far as guns in Cook County. I wish there was a way to look up how many cases involving guns go through the Cook County courts. 

Either way, it's disturbing if a police officer got away with shooting an unarmed person. Especially if he did engage in an intentional act of shooting his gun when he's trained to do otherwise. Although I can believe he shot believing that a suspect was holding a gun himself.

What's going on in Ferguson, Missouri???

To be honest, I haven't really been following closely the situation in Ferguson, Missouri. After the shooting death of an unarmed Black teenaged male by police there there have been some unrest there. I've seen a number of social media blurbs on this situation so far, but not followed very closely.

I found out via Reason that a St. Louis, Missouri Alderman - Antonio French - who had been tweeting about the unrest had been arrested. This is news to me because I've followed Ald. French for a number of years now although not always consistent.

Ald. French once operated a political/urban website PubDef before he had been elected to the St. Louis Board of Alderman in 2009. He probably was following the unrest as the journalist he had been known as before becoming a public official. That I can respect, unfortunately he was sent to jail for it.

BTW, I found an article that stated that he was freed from police custody. The reason for the arrest according to him, he didn't listen. HMMM!

I'm only now attempting to figure out what happened in Ferguson. So I don't want to comment, but it was stated that this teen had been unarmed which makes this puzzling. So why did this young man get shot?

Then I thought about what happened in New York with another Black man being manhandled by police and he gets choked to death. Not entirely certain what happened there but somehow this man caught the attention of police there.

These are seemingly both cases of excessive force and unfortunately both of them involved Black men. Both of these cases got noticed by users of social networking and causing controversy. I hope the facts come out and hopefully things will calm down in Ferguson.