awip2062 wrote:LOL Until someone shows up in full pow-wow dancing regalia! Don't forget, I'm surrounded by injuns!Walkinghairball wrote:Hell t, you have H's wedding dress you wore, .................you win.hehe
That would trump yer duds.
Today's Headlines
Moderator: Priests of Syrinx
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Walkinghairball
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Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.
WASHINGTON ? The Democratic-controlled House approved a budget blueprint drawn to President Barack Obama's specifications Thursday and the Senate hastened to follow suit after administration allies rejected alternatives from liberals and conservatives alike.
The vote in the House was 233-196, largely along party lines, for a $3.6 trillion plan that includes a deficit of $1.2 trillion.
The full article is at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090402/ap_ ... ess_budget.
The bolded parts above were boldened by me. I cannot believe that we are passing a budget that is 1/3 deficit!!!! ONE-THIRD!!!!
I know I know. I think a few Blue Dogs jumped ship and voted "no" too,awip2062 wrote:WASHINGTON ? The Democratic-controlled House approved a budget blueprint drawn to President Barack Obama's specifications Thursday and the Senate hastened to follow suit after administration allies rejected alternatives from liberals and conservatives alike.
The vote in the House was 233-196, largely along party lines, for a $3.6 trillion plan that includes a deficit of $1.2 trillion.
The full article is at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090402/ap_ ... ess_budget.
The bolded parts above were boldened by me. I cannot believe that we are passing a budget that is 1/3 deficit!!!! ONE-THIRD!!!!
but what's done is done. It will be our grandchildrens' unfortunate
financial legacy and, possibly, Obama's political legacy - after less than
100 days in office.
God help us, because we all want Obama to succeed, but at what cost?
Know what would suck worse than this?
If there were MORE bonuses-for-failure in the budget.
If Dodd or Frank had a hand in any of it, we're screwed-blued-and-tattoed.
Don't start none...won't be none.
Looks like we've been deceived (I'm sorry, that's a PC term...let me rephrase that)
bullshitted by the anti's yet again.
This is really getting old, but that's part of life I guess....
The Myth of 90 Percent:
Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the
United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of
the total number of guns reaching Mexico.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio,
in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the
land:
"90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from
the United States."
-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to
Mexico City.
-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President
Obama.
-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing:
"It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in
Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come
from the United States."
-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of
Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate
that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in,
or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources
within the United States."
There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:
It's just not true.
In fact, it's not even close.
The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have
been traced to the U.S.
What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a "clarification" of
the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that
over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent
back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings
that they do not come from the U.S.
"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would
make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only
extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen,
special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told
FOX News.
A Look at the Numbers
In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico
submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were
successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact,
according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to
have come from the U.S.
But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government,
29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.
In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never
submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns
that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83
percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced
to the U.S.
So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from?
There are a variety of sources:
-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation
grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired
rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc
manufacturers.
-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such
as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking
drugs and arms in Mexico.
-- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug
trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal
Research Division report from the Library of Congress.
-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has
provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese
assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.
-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six
years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took
their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle
made in Belgium.
-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants,
stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along
the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a
Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a
load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a
Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.
'These Don't Come From El Paso'
Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S.
Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons
considered "assault rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico,
but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.
"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not
coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources.
They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places
like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get
these guns from the U.S."
Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of
Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by
the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns
end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not
smuggled in across the river."
Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico
cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third
World.
The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two
years -- but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)
are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S.
Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were
made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in
February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
"Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American
countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused
on the smuggling of semi-automatic and conventional weapons
purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona and California," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Boatloads of Weapons
So why would the Mexican drug cartels, which last year grossed between
$17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force
thousands of unknown "straw" buyers in the U.S. through a government
background check, when they can buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16s
and assault rifles from China, Israel or South Africa?
Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government,
says the drug cartels are using the Guatemalan border to move black
market weapons. Some are left over from the Central American wars the
United States helped fight; others, like the grenades and launchers, are
South Korean, Israeli and Spanish. Some were legally supplied to the
Mexican government; others were sold by corrupt military officers or
officials.
The exaggeration of United States "responsibility" for the lawlessness in
Mexico extends even beyond the "90-percent" falsehood -- and some
Second Amendment activists believe it's designed to promote more
restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.
In a remarkable claim, Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the
U.S., said Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States --
730,000 a year. That's a far cry from the official statistic from the
Mexican attorney general's office, which says Mexico seized 29,000
weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.
Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the
media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where
Mexican weapons come from.
"Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on
this," Cox said. "The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the
Second Amendment."
"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America.
You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over
100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that
ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"
But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called
the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract
from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.
"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one
hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun
market is wide open."
bullshitted by the anti's yet again.
This is really getting old, but that's part of life I guess....
The Myth of 90 Percent:
Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the
United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of
the total number of guns reaching Mexico.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio,
in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the
land:
"90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from
the United States."
-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to
Mexico City.
-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President
Obama.
-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing:
"It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in
Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come
from the United States."
-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of
Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate
that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in,
or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources
within the United States."
There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:
It's just not true.
In fact, it's not even close.
The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have
been traced to the U.S.
What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a "clarification" of
the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that
over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent
back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings
that they do not come from the U.S.
"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would
make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only
extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen,
special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told
FOX News.
A Look at the Numbers
In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico
submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were
successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact,
according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to
have come from the U.S.
But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government,
29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.
In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never
submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns
that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83
percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced
to the U.S.
So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from?
There are a variety of sources:
-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation
grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired
rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc
manufacturers.
-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such
as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking
drugs and arms in Mexico.
-- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug
trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal
Research Division report from the Library of Congress.
-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has
provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese
assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.
-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six
years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took
their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle
made in Belgium.
-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants,
stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along
the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a
Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a
load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a
Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.
'These Don't Come From El Paso'
Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S.
Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons
considered "assault rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico,
but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.
"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not
coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources.
They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places
like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get
these guns from the U.S."
Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of
Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by
the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns
end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not
smuggled in across the river."
Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico
cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third
World.
The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two
years -- but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)
are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S.
Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were
made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in
February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
"Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American
countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused
on the smuggling of semi-automatic and conventional weapons
purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona and California," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Boatloads of Weapons
So why would the Mexican drug cartels, which last year grossed between
$17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force
thousands of unknown "straw" buyers in the U.S. through a government
background check, when they can buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16s
and assault rifles from China, Israel or South Africa?
Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government,
says the drug cartels are using the Guatemalan border to move black
market weapons. Some are left over from the Central American wars the
United States helped fight; others, like the grenades and launchers, are
South Korean, Israeli and Spanish. Some were legally supplied to the
Mexican government; others were sold by corrupt military officers or
officials.
The exaggeration of United States "responsibility" for the lawlessness in
Mexico extends even beyond the "90-percent" falsehood -- and some
Second Amendment activists believe it's designed to promote more
restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.
In a remarkable claim, Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the
U.S., said Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States --
730,000 a year. That's a far cry from the official statistic from the
Mexican attorney general's office, which says Mexico seized 29,000
weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.
Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the
media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where
Mexican weapons come from.
"Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on
this," Cox said. "The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the
Second Amendment."
"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America.
You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over
100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that
ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"
But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called
the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract
from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.
"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one
hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun
market is wide open."
Don't start none...won't be none.
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Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.
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Big Blue Owl
- Posts: 7457
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:31 am
- Location: Somewhere between the darkness and the light
^^^
Someone sliced off Hairy's Hair!
Someone sliced off Hairy's Hair!
Last edited by Big Blue Owl on Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
(((((((((((((((all'a you)))))))))))))))
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Big Blue Owl
- Posts: 7457
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:31 am
- Location: Somewhere between the darkness and the light
It's surprising (not really) that all of the mass-shootings and cop killings haven't made it to our "Today's Headlines" section.
Of course, Obama had nothing to do with them, so....I get it.
Gunman Kills 3 Police Officers in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH ? In a scene that neighbors described as a war zone, a gunman fatally shot three police officers on Saturday morning as they responded to a domestic dispute between a mother and her son.
Chief Nathan Harper of the Pittsburgh police said the gunman, Richard Poplawski, 22, surrendered after a nearly four-hour standoff with SWAT team officers.
?We have never had to lose three officers in the line of duty in one call,? Chief Harper said at a news conference in the lobby of police headquarters on the North Side of the city.
The American flag and the Pittsburgh flag flew at half-staff just outside the building to honor the slain officers. They were Eric Kelly, a 14-year veteran of the force and married father of three daughters, and a pair of two-year department veterans, partners Stephen Mayhle, a married father of two daughters, and Paul Sciullo III, who was engaged to be married.
?No matter how many years they had on,? Chief Harper said, ?they paid the ultimate sacrifice.?
The episode began around 7 a.m. in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, a blue-collar and middle class area made up mostly of two-story single-family brick houses but also of ranch houses like the one where Mr. Poplawski lived with his mother, Margaret Poplawski, 41.
The neighborhood is home to many of the city?s firefighters and police officers, including Officer Kelly, who lived just four blocks away from the Poplawski home.
Officer Kelly had just ended his shift at 7:05 a.m. and was almost home when he heard that Officers Mayhle and Sciullo were responding to a domestic dispute nearby, said Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, who wore a black band of mourning over his badge.
Chief Harper said the police had been called to the home at least twice before for domestic problems; neighbors said the visits were much more frequent ? at least a half dozen calls in recent years when Mr. Poplawski and his mother got into fights.
Typically, the police ?would come and be the peacemaker, and it would be over,? said Geraldine Lejpras, who lives across the street from the Poplawskis. ?But not this time.?
Unknowingly, the officers walked into a deadly trap. Mr. Poplawski, wearing a bullet-proof vest, was armed with an AK-47 rifle, a .22 long rifle and a pistol.
Officer Sciullo was the first to the door, with his partner, Officer Mayhle, standing behind him and Officer Kelly just coming onto the scene.
When the door opened, Officer Sciullo was ?immediately met with gunfire? and fatally shot in the head, Chief Harper said. Another shot struck Officer Mayhle in the head, also killing him.
A neighbor, Michele Ostrowski, said she saw the scene unfold when Officer Kelly arrived. ?He got out of the car and I saw him get shot and he landed on the sidewalk,? Ms. Ostrowski said in a telephone interview, her voice shaking.
Officer Kelly, who was critically wounded, managed to call for assistance. The next officer to arrive, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand as he rushed to help Officer Kelly, though he managed to fire at Mr. Poplawski, possibly wounding him in the leg.
For the next four hours, neighbors reported intermittent gunfire that could often last for a minute as both sides exchanged hundreds of shots, with Mr. Poplawski shooting from the bedroom window as his mother, who made the 911 call, took refuge in the basement of the home.
?It sounded like an actual war zone,? said Georgia Marciniak, who lives just behind the Poplawskis? home. ?It was absolutely scary.?
A fifth officer, Brian Jones, was trying to slip behind the house when he broke his leg climbing a fence, Chief Harper said.
A neighbor directly across the street, Johann Devinney, said she saw the first two officers lying on the ground the moment she opened her front door just after 7 a.m. She quickly shut the door and hid with her husband in the back of the house.
Officers set up in the Devinneys? yard as well as at the house of Ms. Ostrowski, who lives cater-corner to the Poplawskis. The police used the Ostrowskis? Toyota Camry, which was parked in the driveway, as a shield. She said it was riddled with bullet holes.
At some point during the standoff, Mr. Poplawski?s mother left the house, Ms. Devinney said, adding that she heard her shouting, ?What are you doing with my son??
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on its Web site that Mr. Poplawski had called a friend and former high school classmate, Edward Perkovic, from the scene around 8:30 a.m. The newspaper reported Mr. Perkovic recounting what Mr. Poplawski had told him: ?Eddie, I?m going to die today. Tell your family and friends I love them. This is probably the end.?
About 11 a.m., the police led Mr. Poplawski from the house in handcuffs. Ms. Ostrowski said his thigh and right shoulder were bloodied.
Neighbors said Mr. Poplawski had been kicked out of North Catholic High School and then was dishonorably discharged from the Marines three years ago, and had worked a series of short-term jobs in recent years.
But no one could explain why he did what he did on Saturday.
?I?d like to understand why,? Deputy Chief Donaldson said. ?It?s senseless.?
Of course, Obama had nothing to do with them, so....I get it.
Gunman Kills 3 Police Officers in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH ? In a scene that neighbors described as a war zone, a gunman fatally shot three police officers on Saturday morning as they responded to a domestic dispute between a mother and her son.
Chief Nathan Harper of the Pittsburgh police said the gunman, Richard Poplawski, 22, surrendered after a nearly four-hour standoff with SWAT team officers.
?We have never had to lose three officers in the line of duty in one call,? Chief Harper said at a news conference in the lobby of police headquarters on the North Side of the city.
The American flag and the Pittsburgh flag flew at half-staff just outside the building to honor the slain officers. They were Eric Kelly, a 14-year veteran of the force and married father of three daughters, and a pair of two-year department veterans, partners Stephen Mayhle, a married father of two daughters, and Paul Sciullo III, who was engaged to be married.
?No matter how many years they had on,? Chief Harper said, ?they paid the ultimate sacrifice.?
The episode began around 7 a.m. in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, a blue-collar and middle class area made up mostly of two-story single-family brick houses but also of ranch houses like the one where Mr. Poplawski lived with his mother, Margaret Poplawski, 41.
The neighborhood is home to many of the city?s firefighters and police officers, including Officer Kelly, who lived just four blocks away from the Poplawski home.
Officer Kelly had just ended his shift at 7:05 a.m. and was almost home when he heard that Officers Mayhle and Sciullo were responding to a domestic dispute nearby, said Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, who wore a black band of mourning over his badge.
Chief Harper said the police had been called to the home at least twice before for domestic problems; neighbors said the visits were much more frequent ? at least a half dozen calls in recent years when Mr. Poplawski and his mother got into fights.
Typically, the police ?would come and be the peacemaker, and it would be over,? said Geraldine Lejpras, who lives across the street from the Poplawskis. ?But not this time.?
Unknowingly, the officers walked into a deadly trap. Mr. Poplawski, wearing a bullet-proof vest, was armed with an AK-47 rifle, a .22 long rifle and a pistol.
Officer Sciullo was the first to the door, with his partner, Officer Mayhle, standing behind him and Officer Kelly just coming onto the scene.
When the door opened, Officer Sciullo was ?immediately met with gunfire? and fatally shot in the head, Chief Harper said. Another shot struck Officer Mayhle in the head, also killing him.
A neighbor, Michele Ostrowski, said she saw the scene unfold when Officer Kelly arrived. ?He got out of the car and I saw him get shot and he landed on the sidewalk,? Ms. Ostrowski said in a telephone interview, her voice shaking.
Officer Kelly, who was critically wounded, managed to call for assistance. The next officer to arrive, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand as he rushed to help Officer Kelly, though he managed to fire at Mr. Poplawski, possibly wounding him in the leg.
For the next four hours, neighbors reported intermittent gunfire that could often last for a minute as both sides exchanged hundreds of shots, with Mr. Poplawski shooting from the bedroom window as his mother, who made the 911 call, took refuge in the basement of the home.
?It sounded like an actual war zone,? said Georgia Marciniak, who lives just behind the Poplawskis? home. ?It was absolutely scary.?
A fifth officer, Brian Jones, was trying to slip behind the house when he broke his leg climbing a fence, Chief Harper said.
A neighbor directly across the street, Johann Devinney, said she saw the first two officers lying on the ground the moment she opened her front door just after 7 a.m. She quickly shut the door and hid with her husband in the back of the house.
Officers set up in the Devinneys? yard as well as at the house of Ms. Ostrowski, who lives cater-corner to the Poplawskis. The police used the Ostrowskis? Toyota Camry, which was parked in the driveway, as a shield. She said it was riddled with bullet holes.
At some point during the standoff, Mr. Poplawski?s mother left the house, Ms. Devinney said, adding that she heard her shouting, ?What are you doing with my son??
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on its Web site that Mr. Poplawski had called a friend and former high school classmate, Edward Perkovic, from the scene around 8:30 a.m. The newspaper reported Mr. Perkovic recounting what Mr. Poplawski had told him: ?Eddie, I?m going to die today. Tell your family and friends I love them. This is probably the end.?
About 11 a.m., the police led Mr. Poplawski from the house in handcuffs. Ms. Ostrowski said his thigh and right shoulder were bloodied.
Neighbors said Mr. Poplawski had been kicked out of North Catholic High School and then was dishonorably discharged from the Marines three years ago, and had worked a series of short-term jobs in recent years.
But no one could explain why he did what he did on Saturday.
?I?d like to understand why,? Deputy Chief Donaldson said. ?It?s senseless.?
Last edited by Big Blue Owl on Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
(((((((((((((((all'a you)))))))))))))))
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Big Blue Owl
- Posts: 7457
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:31 am
- Location: Somewhere between the darkness and the light
Gunman kills 13 at immigration center
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.
Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for Friday's massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.
The attack came just after 10 a.m. local time at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification in Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.
Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, "making sure nobody could escape," then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, apparently without a word.
The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.
"The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens," the police chief said.
One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called police, he said.
Police said they arrived within two minutes.
The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.
The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns ? a 9mm and a .45-caliber ? and a hunting knife.
Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. However, he provided no evidence to support the claim.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.
Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for Friday's massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.
The attack came just after 10 a.m. local time at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification in Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.
Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, "making sure nobody could escape," then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, apparently without a word.
The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.
"The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens," the police chief said.
One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called police, he said.
Police said they arrived within two minutes.
The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.
The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns ? a 9mm and a .45-caliber ? and a hunting knife.
Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. However, he provided no evidence to support the claim.
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Big Blue Owl
- Posts: 7457
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:31 am
- Location: Somewhere between the darkness and the light
Three police officers killed in Oakland shootings
At least three police officers in Oakland, California, were shot and killed Saturday afternoon after a man pulled over for a routine traffic stop opened fire and then battled SWAT officers at a nearby building, police said.
Sgt. Daniel Sakai, Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Sgt. Ervin Romans were killed in the shootings.
The man, a 26-year-old Oakland resident, was later fatally shot in a shootout with a SWAT team in an apartment complex where he hid.
A fourth officer -- also shot -- remained in critical condition, police said at a late-night news conference.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office differed from police, saying four officers had died in the shootings.
Authorities discovered the alleged gunman, 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon, had an extensive criminal history. At the time of the shooting, he was in violation of parole for assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
The incident began about 1 p.m. in east Oakland when two motorcycle officers tried to pull over a car for a "fairly routine traffic stop," said Dave Kozicki, the deputy police chief.
Immediately afterward, emergency call dispatchers received reports that two officers were down at the scene and needed attention. They had been shot, Kozicki said.
The first victim, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, died, police said. He had been with the force for 18 years. The second officer, John Hege, 41, remained in critical condition.
Soon after the first shooting, police began an intense search for the gunman. An anonymous caller directed authorities to a building on an adjacent street where the gunman was believed to be barricaded, said acting Police Chief Howard Jordan.
The gunman opened fire on SWAT officers who entered the apartment, killing two more officers before police returned fire, killing the suspect, Jordan said.
The two police officers killed were Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35. Romans had been with the department since 1996; Sakai since 2000.
A third officer, grazed by a bullet, was treated and released, said police spokesman Jeff Thomason.
"We come together in shock, in grief, in sadness and sorrow at a set of tragic incidences," said Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
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Schwarzenegger said flags at the state capitol will fly at half-staff to honor the fallen officers.
"This is a tragic day for law enforcement officers everywhere," he said in a statement.
At least three police officers in Oakland, California, were shot and killed Saturday afternoon after a man pulled over for a routine traffic stop opened fire and then battled SWAT officers at a nearby building, police said.
Sgt. Daniel Sakai, Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Sgt. Ervin Romans were killed in the shootings.
The man, a 26-year-old Oakland resident, was later fatally shot in a shootout with a SWAT team in an apartment complex where he hid.
A fourth officer -- also shot -- remained in critical condition, police said at a late-night news conference.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office differed from police, saying four officers had died in the shootings.
Authorities discovered the alleged gunman, 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon, had an extensive criminal history. At the time of the shooting, he was in violation of parole for assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
The incident began about 1 p.m. in east Oakland when two motorcycle officers tried to pull over a car for a "fairly routine traffic stop," said Dave Kozicki, the deputy police chief.
Immediately afterward, emergency call dispatchers received reports that two officers were down at the scene and needed attention. They had been shot, Kozicki said.
The first victim, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, died, police said. He had been with the force for 18 years. The second officer, John Hege, 41, remained in critical condition.
Soon after the first shooting, police began an intense search for the gunman. An anonymous caller directed authorities to a building on an adjacent street where the gunman was believed to be barricaded, said acting Police Chief Howard Jordan.
The gunman opened fire on SWAT officers who entered the apartment, killing two more officers before police returned fire, killing the suspect, Jordan said.
The two police officers killed were Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35. Romans had been with the department since 1996; Sakai since 2000.
A third officer, grazed by a bullet, was treated and released, said police spokesman Jeff Thomason.
"We come together in shock, in grief, in sadness and sorrow at a set of tragic incidences," said Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
advertisement
Schwarzenegger said flags at the state capitol will fly at half-staff to honor the fallen officers.
"This is a tragic day for law enforcement officers everywhere," he said in a statement.
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Nope, read about all those but I did not post about them or post about the man who killed his sisters with a knife, decapitating one (I think she was the 9 year-old, but am not sure on my facts there) while the police watched after having stabbed the (I think) 15 year old sister to death. There was another sister who survived. All this while there was a birthday cake for one of his sisters sitting on the table nearby.
Love has grown cold these days and this kind of stuff is all over, sadly. VERY sadly.
Love has grown cold these days and this kind of stuff is all over, sadly. VERY sadly.
Police: Dad killed kids because wife was leaving
By Phuong Le, Associated Press Writer ? Sun Apr 5, 7:38 pm ET
GRAHAM, Wash. ? A man who fatally shot his five children and killed
himself had just discovered his wife was leaving him for another man,
authorities said Sunday.
The bodies of James Harrison's children, ages 7 to 16, were found with
multiple gunshot wounds Saturday in the family's mobile home, most of
them in their beds. Harrison's body had been found earlier in the day
with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, behind the wheel of his idling car.
The night before, the father and his eldest daughter went in search of his
wife, Angela Harrison. The daughter used a GPS feature in her mother's
cell phone to find her with another man at a convenience store in nearby
Auburn, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff.
The woman told her husband she was not coming home, and was leaving
him for the man with her at the store. The father and the daughter left,
distraught, Troyer said.
Sometime after the children went to sleep, he shot each of them multiple
times. Four died in their beds. The fifth was found in the bathroom,
surrounded by signs of violent struggle.
"He wanted the kids dead," Troyer said. "It wasn't like he shot a few
rounds. He shot several rounds."
Investigators believe he then returned to the area near the convenience
store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said.
"We think he was going to go back to kill the wife," Troyer said. "He
probably didn't find her and realized the gravity of what he'd done and
shot himself."
Several weapons were found in the home.
Authorities have not released the names of the family. Relatives identified
the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine,
Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.
Ryan Peden, Maxine's classmate, had said she told him Friday night that
her parents had gotten into a fight and her mother had left. The father
followed the mother and tried to get her to return, Peden said.
"Maxine texted me at 11 p.m. Friday. She said: "I'm tired of crying. I'm
going to bed,'" he said. His text to her the next day went unanswered.
Candy Johnson, an aunt of the mother, described Harrison as a strict,
controlling husband and father who didn't allow his wife to make
decisions without asking him first.
"My niece has been so controlled from the time she was young," Johnson
said, adding that Harrison had impregnated Angela when she was 13.
State child welfare officials put Harrison on a parenting plan in 2007 after
a "minor assault" on one of the children, Troyer said, adding that the
father agreed to the plan and the case was closed.
Ron Vorak, who lives across the street from the family's trailer at the
Deer Run mobile home park, said he called 911 at about 3:20 p.m.
Saturday after one of the family's relatives couldn't get anyone to answer
the door.
"He knocked on the door, and knocked on a couple of windows," Vorak
said of the relative. "He walked around the side of the house, looked into
the window. He could see somebody laying on the bed."
The home, about 15 southeast of Tacoma, became a makeshift memorial
Sunday as neighbors left cards and bouquets of flowers. School officials
said they were arranging to have grief counselors available when
teachers and students returned Monday.
"We're going to try to get through this the best we can given the
circumstances," said Jeff Davis, Orting School District superintendent. "In
a small community like this, we know these kids. Teachers know the
kids. All the kids know the kids."
Davis said the eldest, Maxine, was a 10th grader at Orting High School.
Jamie was in the eighth grade and her sister Samantha in the sixth grade
at Orting Middle School. The two youngest, Heather and James, were
second-graders at Orting Primary School.
The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-
Mart,
said another of Angela Harrison's aunts, Penny Flansburg. Troyer,
however, said the father worked as a security guard at a casino.
One neighbor, Sherre Lund, who lives in the mobile home park, signed a
community notebook left in from of the family's house. She wrote: "God
Bless the five little ones. God bring peace to Mom."
By Phuong Le, Associated Press Writer ? Sun Apr 5, 7:38 pm ET
GRAHAM, Wash. ? A man who fatally shot his five children and killed
himself had just discovered his wife was leaving him for another man,
authorities said Sunday.
The bodies of James Harrison's children, ages 7 to 16, were found with
multiple gunshot wounds Saturday in the family's mobile home, most of
them in their beds. Harrison's body had been found earlier in the day
with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, behind the wheel of his idling car.
The night before, the father and his eldest daughter went in search of his
wife, Angela Harrison. The daughter used a GPS feature in her mother's
cell phone to find her with another man at a convenience store in nearby
Auburn, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff.
The woman told her husband she was not coming home, and was leaving
him for the man with her at the store. The father and the daughter left,
distraught, Troyer said.
Sometime after the children went to sleep, he shot each of them multiple
times. Four died in their beds. The fifth was found in the bathroom,
surrounded by signs of violent struggle.
"He wanted the kids dead," Troyer said. "It wasn't like he shot a few
rounds. He shot several rounds."
Investigators believe he then returned to the area near the convenience
store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said.
"We think he was going to go back to kill the wife," Troyer said. "He
probably didn't find her and realized the gravity of what he'd done and
shot himself."
Several weapons were found in the home.
Authorities have not released the names of the family. Relatives identified
the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine,
Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.
Ryan Peden, Maxine's classmate, had said she told him Friday night that
her parents had gotten into a fight and her mother had left. The father
followed the mother and tried to get her to return, Peden said.
"Maxine texted me at 11 p.m. Friday. She said: "I'm tired of crying. I'm
going to bed,'" he said. His text to her the next day went unanswered.
Candy Johnson, an aunt of the mother, described Harrison as a strict,
controlling husband and father who didn't allow his wife to make
decisions without asking him first.
"My niece has been so controlled from the time she was young," Johnson
said, adding that Harrison had impregnated Angela when she was 13.
State child welfare officials put Harrison on a parenting plan in 2007 after
a "minor assault" on one of the children, Troyer said, adding that the
father agreed to the plan and the case was closed.
Ron Vorak, who lives across the street from the family's trailer at the
Deer Run mobile home park, said he called 911 at about 3:20 p.m.
Saturday after one of the family's relatives couldn't get anyone to answer
the door.
"He knocked on the door, and knocked on a couple of windows," Vorak
said of the relative. "He walked around the side of the house, looked into
the window. He could see somebody laying on the bed."
The home, about 15 southeast of Tacoma, became a makeshift memorial
Sunday as neighbors left cards and bouquets of flowers. School officials
said they were arranging to have grief counselors available when
teachers and students returned Monday.
"We're going to try to get through this the best we can given the
circumstances," said Jeff Davis, Orting School District superintendent. "In
a small community like this, we know these kids. Teachers know the
kids. All the kids know the kids."
Davis said the eldest, Maxine, was a 10th grader at Orting High School.
Jamie was in the eighth grade and her sister Samantha in the sixth grade
at Orting Middle School. The two youngest, Heather and James, were
second-graders at Orting Primary School.
The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-
Mart,
said another of Angela Harrison's aunts, Penny Flansburg. Troyer,
however, said the father worked as a security guard at a casino.
One neighbor, Sherre Lund, who lives in the mobile home park, signed a
community notebook left in from of the family's house. She wrote: "God
Bless the five little ones. God bring peace to Mom."
Don't start none...won't be none.
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Big Blue Owl
- Posts: 7457
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:31 am
- Location: Somewhere between the darkness and the light
What kind of cake?awip2062 wrote:Nope, read about all those but I did not post about them or post about the man who killed his sisters with a knife, decapitating one (I think she was the 9 year-old, but am not sure on my facts there) while the police watched after having stabbed the (I think) 15 year old sister to death. There was another sister who survived. All this while there was a birthday cake for one of his sisters sitting on the table nearby.
Love has grown cold these days and this kind of stuff is all over, sadly. VERY sadly.
(((((((((((((((all'a you)))))))))))))))