Handcuffed Suspect Killed After Shooting Trooper During Traffic Stop in Georgia

A felon who had been on the run for about eight months was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol troopers on I-75 South in Bartow County on Thursday, authorities said.

One of the troopers, who was shot in his vest by Kenneth Martin Anderson, 27, has been released from the hospital, the GBI said in a news release. His injuries consisted of blunt force trauma. The other troopers were not injured.

A traffic stop on the car with a West Virginia temporary tag led to the shooting.

Troopers put the male passenger, Kenneth Martin Anderson, 27, in handcuffs after finding drugs, guns and cash in the car, GSP Capt. Mark Perry said. He was wanted for a parole violation.

“He’s handcuffed behind his back. Apparently he had a weapon behind his back,” Perry said. “As he comes out, the trooper was standing a couple of feet from him. He turns with his hands behind him and shoots the trooper in the abdomen. In the vest.”

Anderson fired three times before two Troopers returned fire, hitting him multiple times, the GBI said. He later died at the Cartersville Hospital. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 19, 2018)
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Although the GSP Troopers placed Anderson in handcuffs, they failed to search him, or failed to find the gun he had concealed behind his back. Firing a pistol with your hands cuffed behind your back is not going to be very accurate, but at a distance of only a couple of feet it can still get hits on a man-size target. --  Stay Alert, Stay Safe, Search All Suspects for Weapons.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 



Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

States That Legalized Recreational Marijuana See Increase in Car Accidents

 

According to CNN (October 18, 2018) The National Transportation Safety Board has said that there has been an increase in the number of drug-impaired drivers across the country and that something must be done about it. That call to action seems to match up with a report released Thursday from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Loss Data Institute.

Though a 2017 study found that the legalization of recreational weed has not increased the number of accidents involving fatalities, states that have legalized recreational use are seeing more car crashes overall, according to the report, which includes two studies presented Thursday at the Combating Alcohol- and Drug-Impaired Driving summit at the insurance institute's Vehicle Research Center.

The first study found that crashes are up as much as 6% in Washington, Oregon and Colorado, compared with neighboring states that haven't legalized recreational use of weed. Researchers estimated the frequency of collision claims per insured vehicle year, controlling for differences in other factors that could contribute to an accident, including age, location, job status and weather, and still saw an increase.

The second study looked at the number of police-reported accidents before and after the legalization of recreational use of weed. The findings were similar: a 5.2% increase in crash rates after legalization than before weed was legal in those states.

Other research has found that in a small sample of drivers who used weed before driving, they had slower thinking and perceptual skills. Drivers under the influence of weed tended to weave more when tested in simulators, studies show, although scientists say more research needs to be done to better understand the correlation between blood or oral fluid concentrations and psychoactive effects of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
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Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.



Illegal Immigrant Population Likely Double, Possibly Triple Previous Estimates, Says Yale Study

Professors at Yale University have roiled the immigration debate with a new study calculating there are between 16 million and 30 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. — as much as three times more than most demographers figure.

The professors’ model looked at estimates of how many people came illegally, and how many people likely left, and concluded there are a lot more people who arrived than the 11 million suggested by traditional estimates. The model says the most likely figure is double that, at about 22 million.

If true, the numbers would mean U.S. officials have done a poorer job of catching illegal immigrants than imagined, and that one out of every nine people living in the U.S. is here illegally.

“Policy debates about the amount of resources to devote to this issue, and the merits of alternative policies, including deportation, amnesty, and border control, depend critically on estimates of the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which sets the scale of the issue,” said the academics, Professors Jonathan S. Feinstein and Edward H. Kaplan and postdoctoral associate Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, all at the Yale School of Management.

They published their findings in PLOS ONE, an open access scholarly journal, and sparked fierce pushback from the demographers who study the issue and say the professors’ numbers are impossible. (Washington Times, September 24, 2018)
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Bunker Hill Security Armored Cable Lock Cut EASILY

Lock Picking Lawyer demonstrates another lock quickly and easily defeated with cable cutters.

Bunker Hill Security Armored Cable Lock Cut EASILY

Most locks today provide very little security against an attacker with the right tools to defeat them. Cable cutters cut cables, bolt cutters cut shackles, and hasps can be twisted from their mountings with a large wrench.

In place of cable I recommend using 1/2" (12mm) Peweg Chain. This chain cannot be easily cut using even large / heavy duty bolt cutters.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 



Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

 



 



California Killed Unfair Cash Bail System

The California Legislature through Senate Bill 10 achieved a major victory by eliminating a cash bail system that regularly jailed people who could not afford to buy their freedom.

As a judge and former prosecutor in California, we have seen how pretrial detention can determine the outcome of an entire case and alter someone’s life forever. Even a short stint in jail can mean the loss of housing and employment, and can devastate families and communities. People desperate to go home are more likely to plead guilty even when they are innocent and tend to receive longer sentences if convicted.

Under the cash bail system, outcomes often turned on money. Right now, thousands of poor defendants who pose no risk sit in California jails, wasting scarce public resources and disproportionately affecting people of color.

Judges are entrusted to provide equal justice and protect the rights of all people. In criminal prosecutions, where the stakes are highest, that includes upholding due process and giving full meaning to the presumption of innocence. (Sacramento Bee, September 25, 2018)
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The purpose of bail is to ensure that a person has a clear stake in showing up to court.

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” But, isn't any bail which a person cannot possibly pay excessive?

Bail allows for the release of an innocent person before trial. If we hold that a person is innocent until proven guilty, then we must hold that bail is intended for the innocent - once you are convicted bail is really not an option.

While there are exceptions to everything, the general rule should be that bail should never be required if a person has ties to the community (i.e. has a home, property, job, etc.).  Only when there are no ties to the community and there is a strong likelihood that a person will flee the jurisdiction should bail be a consideration.

Federal Judge Rules Against Dallas County Bail Practices

A U.S. district judge said Dallas could not impose pre-set bail amounts on poor defendants without individual consideration.

Taking a cue from the rulings on Harris County’s bail-setting practices, a U.S. district judge in Dallas issued a temporary order Thursday evening saying the county’s post-arrest procedures routinely violate inmates’ constitutional rights. The judge gave the county 30 days to change its ways.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas said that the county has to stop the practice of imposing pre-set bail bond amounts, which often keep poor defendants locked up for days or weeks while letting wealthier ones go free, without individual consideration if arrestees claim they can't afford it. He sided with the plaintiffs’ allegation that the county uses “wealth-based detention.”

“Wealthy arrestees — regardless of the crime they are accused of — who are offered secured bail can pay the requested amount and leave,” Godbey wrote. “Indigent arrestees in the same position cannot.”

Bail is a legal mechanism to ensure defendants show up to court hearings. Most jurisdictions in Texas and the country, including Dallas, rely primarily on a money bail system, where defendants can pay a bond amount set by a fixed schedule for their release. If they can't pay, they're often stuck in jail. (Texas Tribune, September 20, 2018)
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On April 28, 2018 we asked the question: What If We Ended the Injustice of Bail?  And, on September 15, 2018 we discussed how: Oregon's Suspension of Driver's Licenses for Traffic Fines 'Punishes the Poor'.

Whether we want to believe it or not, the rich and the poor are treated differently under the law. The rich can afford lawyers to defend their interests, while the poor are left with what ever public defender is available. (Public defenders may be very competent and professional, but they are often overburdened by their case load, lack resources, and are unable to invest the same amount of time in a case that a highly paid private law firm could.) The rich can post bail and go home, the poor cannot always do so, and if they go to a bail bond company they lose 10% of the bail to the bail bond company, regardless of the outcome of the case. The rich may be able to pay a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars in fines and not notice it, the same fine for the poor may be something that they could never pay.

Of course, this doesn't mean that if you are poor that there should be no consequences if you commit a crime. But until a person is convicted of that crime we hold that he or she is innocent. High bail amounts, suspensions, and punitive administrative actions, are all a concern - all an injustice that we should correct.

 

Trump Threatens to 'Call Up U.S. Military' to Close Southern Border

President Donald Trump has threatened to "call up" the United States Military to close the country's southern border to stop the flow of criminals into America.

In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Trump criticized Democrats for wanting open borders and "existing weak laws" regarding immigration. The President claims that "many criminals" are among the large amounts of people from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are entering the U.S. through Mexico.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump said in a tweet.  (Komo 4 News, October 18, 2018)
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In a report from the Obama Whitehouse (November 17, 2015) we read: Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States. These Mexican poly-drug organizations traffic heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana throughout the United States using established transportation routes and distribution networks. They control drug trafficking across the Southwest border and are seeking to expand their share of U.S. illicit drug markets, particularly for heroin. U.S. national-level gangs and neighborhood gangs continue to form relationships with Mexican TCOs to increase gang profits through drug distribution and transportation, for the enforcement of drug payments, and for protection of drug transportation corridors from use by rival gangs. Many gangs rely on Mexican TCOs as their primary drug supplier, and Mexican TCOs depend on street-level gangs that have a pre-existing customer base for drug distribution.

The 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment stated: The primary gateway for illicit drug smuggling to the United States is the Southwest Border. Smugglers under the direction of Mexican traffickers move most of the cocaine, heroin, foreign-produced marijuana, and foreign-produced methamphetamine available in this country through, between, and around land border crossings in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Traffickers use every other avenue imaginable - air, sea, and the U.S. - Canada border - to smuggle drugs into the United States, but the volume moved across the U.S.–Mexico border significantly exceeds that moved through all other routes combined.

And just this month October 2018, Uttam Dhillon, the acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, warns that Mexican drug cartels pose the “biggest” threat to the national security and health of U.S. citizens. The DEA official said Mexican cartels are responsible for distributing a vast majority of deadly synthetic drugs like methamphetamines and fentanyl that are coming across the southern U.S. border.

So, should the U.S. military be stationed on the southern border? Should armed troops interdict those entering the United States illegally?

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.