Hospital visits is the latest stupid idea in trying to help curb knife crime. Considering that these cretins are stabbing people instead of just slashing them; this probably won’t do much. As some of have said prison is the only solution. Of course, making sure that life means life for murder would help too. The fact these cretins couldn’t care less about anything says volumes about the effect of the welfare state on certain types of people.

BTW: Britons no longer can be smug about their violent crime levels as compared to the US. London is rivaling Philidelphia these days for murder rates.

Update: K T has written on the subject. My opinion is that you have to drop a few of these evil cretins before there will be an impact. The whole “zero tolerance” thing will just mean innocents gets busted while the thugs in the dodgy areas continue as normal.

I`ve featured at least one of these guys before, but it`s nice to see that someone`s put together a hall of fame.

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the morning call.com:

Allentown police had suspected William Torres of dealing drugs in the city. But an undercover narcotics investigation yielded much more, and resulted in Torres, 21, being charged early Saturday with two counts of homicide.

Police said Torres, whose last known address was 436 Turner St., Allentown, gunned down two men at Fourth and Allen streets last month. According to court documents, Torres admitted killing the men.

Torres was driving on Turner Street Friday afternoon when he was pulled over by police and arrested. He was wearing a hooded sweartshirt with a skull-head pattern on it, pajama bottoms and fuzzy lion-faced slippers at the time. He was still wearing the get-up when he was arraigned after midnight at Lehigh County prison.

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The Smoking Gun:

Meet Carlton Davis. The Minnesota man, 26, is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing a cell phone and purse from a woman he mugged on a St. Paul street early Saturday morning. According to police, after the woman turned over her belongings, Davis announced, “Now I’m going to suck your feet.” Which he did, after the 24-year-old victim removed her shoes. Davis, who fled when passersby approached, was apprehended by cops a few blocks from the crime scene. He was booked into the Ramsey County lockup, where the below mug shot was snapped.

I had to dump the picture into Photoshop to lighten it up. The original at The Smoking Gun is so dark that you can barely make out his eyes.

Funniest line goes to a commenter at Fark:

Damn, you gotta hold back a bit. You sucked yourself crosseyed.

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You head off to LA, go to too many parties and drive home because you can’t find a taxi. Or rather you get busted for DUI. Well it would help to know a DUI attorney or two if you get yourself in such a mess. A group of Los Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyers | Southern California Criminal Attorneys might be of good use to know about then. Ones with over 50 years of experience defending DUIs would also help. Don’t do it but if you do make sure you hire the best to defend yer sorry arse.

David Cameron, late of commissioning a report that calls for all drinkers to pay more for their booze because of the idiots and addicts who misbehave, now wants to censor games. According to the DT Davey boy wants to crack down on “violent video games”.

Quite how denying adults to access to video games is going to curb gun totting thugs, who buy illegal weapons and deal drugs, is beyond me. He seems to think that those people would be carrying and sharing citizens if it weren’t for the evil people who make violent video games. Where are the parents in all of this who do not teach the different between a game and reality or the ones that let their children run wild?

Oh yes and how about the economic impact on the video game industry in the UK. Does he not know that it is a major export from the UK and that the video game busisness earns more than the movie business these days?

Who is advising Cameron?

Collective punishment is idiotic, unjust and immoral. Just another sign how far Cameron’s Tories have fallen.

Update: Cameron ain’t the the only politician railing on video games.

A heartwarming tale of inclusion from the Mainichi Daily News:

Kuroda: Up to now, life has been difficult and I’ve suffered all kinds of discrimination due to my handicap. But here in Shinjuku Boss Yoshimura treats me just like anyone else, and I’m grateful to him. I can confide with him on anything, and he’s very open and understanding. He’s been like a father to me.

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The bandit who wore a leafy disguise while robbing a downtown bank Saturday has been caught, police said.

Investigators say James Coldwell, 49, robbed the Citizens Bank at 1550 Elm St. while clad in clothing adorned with tree branches held on by duct tape.

Coldwell was charged with one count of robbery after answering questions at the police station, Capt. Dick Tracy said.

Video surveillance of the Saturday morning robbery showed a thin white man leaving the bank in a shroud of tree branches, all duct-taped to his shirt and head. His short, dark hair and mustache were clearly visible between the leaves.

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Update: Speaking of banks here is an interesting commercial for a Turkish Bank. Hat tip: Mater.

There are quite a few of you that read this site that might find yourself in LA some time or other, as we all do. Well in LA you have to pretty much drive everywhere because public transport is non-existent. If you happen to make the mistake of getting busted for DUI in LA then you might want a good attorney. Top 5% U.S. Law Firm – Criminal & DUI Attorneys might be something to know about before you go. You want someone good and local when you are in trouble with the law whether guilty or not. Consultations are available 24/7 and they are, of course, confidential.

CNN:

A computer simulation of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, posted on the Web site YouTube by Purdue University researchers, shows how hijacked planes crashed through the twin towers, stripping fireproofing materials from the steel columns and eventually leading to their collapse.

The 3-D animation, part of a Purdue study that took 2 half years to complete, could help engineers design safer buildings, researchers said.

“When the developers of the World Trade Center first designed the complex, they did take into account of an accidental plane crash,” said Christoph Hoffman, one of the study’s lead researchers. “The only thing they didn’t anticipate is the fire. If the crash impacts the water line, then a fire can burn for a long time.”

I don’t think this is the entire animation, but it shows the initial moments of the jets hitting, primarily from a viewpoint inside the towers. It’s about five minutes long. There aren’t any sound effects, but there is some narration.

Speaking of criminals, O.J. Simpson’s (ghostwritten) fantasy memoir, If I Did It was leaked a few days ago (by O.J.? I wouldn’t doubt it.) to the celebrity gossip site, TMZ.com, apparently in violation of a court order granting rights to the manuscript to the father of the murdered Ron Goldman.

That page disappeared following the filing of new papers charging contempt of court. But this being the Internet age and all, mirrors are popping up like mushrooms. You can download (Warning: PDF) a copy here. (Scroll down to the bottom-third of the page, where the download is indicated by a flashing red arrow.)

Or you might just want to read this excerpt at TMZ (the page has now reappeared). Warning: Language.

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Leave it to the moonbats at Daily Kos to come up with this weepy eulogy for the Virginia Tech shooter:

Cho lived in shadows, deep and dark. He attended classes at a prestigious University. He was a scholar, a writer.

Not much of one, if this example is any indication. Maybe the diarist was comparing it to her own wretched prose:

I beseech us all; I ask Americans, migrs, and individuals in every corner of the globe, do not hold your children tighter, lock them up in buildings where there is little genuine affection.

What the hell that means is anyone’s guess. To be fair, a lot of the comments were very critical.

Still.

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Headstones of Russian gangsters. These rather garish, laser-etched monuments are quite popular in Russia, and not just with the mob. More pictures here (scroll about halfway down the page).

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I would drive 900 miles
And I would drive 900 more
Just to be the chick who drove 900 miles
To be charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery

I’m sure you’ve all heard the sad tale of astronaut Lisa Nowak by now. I’ve refrained from posting on it, because of its sordid nature, and because I don’t traffic in human tragedy. The commenters on Fark.com (where the above parody of The Proclaimers’ 1988 hit/instrument of torture appeared) are fortunately not so sensitive.

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For this post I have been asked why some states don’t allow tasers and other types of non-lethal defence but do allow guns. Of course, in UK no one is allowed any type of defence whatsoever except for the police and the more & more heavily armed criminals. In fact there have been cases of people persecuted prosecuted for defending themselves with wait for it…”unreasonable force.” Some bastard is trying to kill you but if you kill him or serious injure him its unreasonable. The British public are actually waking up to this fact and there is growing pressure to change the law.

Surely tazers and other such gadgets like mace pepper spray should be legal for self-defence in all states? Surely its a better idea to allow people to have some self-defence rather than a gun (or a knife) or nothing? This is a question of rational governance it has to be said, not that its that common, and a law that certainly should be changed. This is important for women who don’t want go via the concealed carry route or are sheepish about carrying a gun.

As with many things this is a clear case where the potential should have more rights than they perpetrator of the crime. This post is sponsored btw.

This could be a tough one, because they share similar sadistic tendencies. Serial killer or operating language programmer?

Warning: Sound effects.

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MADD Canada has been in the news of late:

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has stopped fundraising efforts at a time when holiday merrymaking means more intoxicated drivers are on the roads.

The organization’s efforts have been put on hold following an investigative report by the Toronto Star that claimed just 19 cents from every dollar raised actually goes to victim services and fighting drunk driving.

The report alleges that the majority of donations go to professional telemarketers and people who go door-to-door raising money for the charitable organization.

But Andrew Murie, MADD Canada’s CEO, has called the article misleading and said 83.6 per cent of donor money is used on MADD Canada programs.

I don’t know if there’s any significance to it, but organizations formed to combat drug and alcohol abuse tend to perform poorly in the eyes of charity oversight groups. The American Institute of Philanthropy gives its “A” status to none of them. The “target=”new”>Charity Navigator awards MADD’s US parent foundation an overall rating of 47.60 (out of 100]; HOPE International and The American Jewish Committee, to choose two others at random, scored 60.68 and 62.54 respectively.

Or when it doesn’t, like when this moron breaks into a liquor store.

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One of the advantages of getting digital TV in recent weeks has been my ability to catch up with re-runs of television series such as the Sherlock Holmes programmes, starring Jeremy Brett. Brett, a versatile actor, is mesmerising in the role. He gets across the fact that Conan-Doyle’s creation trod a fine line between intellectual genius and madness. I have not seen anything in crime fiction that comes close. I am a fan of the Raymond Chandler Philip Marlowe adventures and Roger Simon’s Moses Wine sagas, and it is good to be reminded of the fact that Sherlock Holmes, accompanied by his faithful friend Doctor Watson, remains the greatest of them all.

Hand-carving a replica of a Commodore-64 computer seems a rather impractical, if lovely, gesture. But it was done for an eminently practical purpose.

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Ananova:

A German has been ordered to stop laughing out loud in the woods after joggers complained he was disturbing the peace.

Accountant Joachim Bahrenfeld, 54, from Datteln said he goes to the woods after work and at weekends to have a good belly laugh.

“It’s part of living for me, like eating, drinking and breathing. I feel much better when I laugh, it’s freeing and healthy,” he said.

But he now faces a 4,000 fine or six months jail if he laughs out loud again after a jogger successfully took him to court saying he was disturbing the peace.

Which reminded me of “target=”new”>this story from last year:

A German man has been arrested after a marriage guidance counsellor advised him to run around naked shouting at trees.

Dieter Braun, 43, from Recklinghausen said the stress release technique had worked perfectly until he was arrested.

He told police that venting his anger on the trees had stopped him shouting at his wife.

“If I didn’t go to the woods and scream at the trees then my marriage would probably be over,” he said.

He added taking his clothes off at the same time made him feel more relaxed.

“For me it’s a type of relaxation therapy. Feeling the breeze on my naked skin really calms me down.”

But local police said other visitors to the forest did not find his behaviour relaxing and have now charged him with causing a public nuisance.

I was wondering if these two, if deployed in the forest at the same time, could cancel each other out, not unlike noise-cancelling headphones that inject a sound wave of opposite polarity to any detected ambient noise.

Or maybe we would have to more precisely calibrate the Germans—a shouting/whispering pair here or a laughing/weeping pair there.

To investigate this, I will need:

a) some Germans (preferably the not-naked type), and;

b) some forest.

I look upon it as my sacred duty to the planet. If we can’t keep Germans out of the forest, at least we can stop them from scaring the animals.

the blog québécois

Some of you might have seen this:

British tourists have left the residents of one charming Austrian village effing and blinding by constantly stealing the signs for their oddly-named village.

While British visitors are finding it hilarious, the residents of F—-ing are failing to see the funny side, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

Only one kind of crimimal ever stalks the sleepy 32-house village near Salzburg on the German border—cheeky British tourists armed with a sense of humour and a screwdriver.

But the local authorities are hitting back and with the signs now set in concrete, police chief Kommandant Schmidtberger is on the lookout.

“We will not stand for the F—-ing signs being removed,” the officer told the broadsheet.

“It may be very amusing for you British, but F—ing is simply F-ing to us. What is this big F—ing joke? It is puerile.”

Exactly. We have avoided linking to this story until now, because, as you know, we are above sniggering schoolboy humor such as that.

We much prefer sniggering schoolboy humor such as this.

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i was lying in a burned out basement
with the full moon in my eyes
i was hoping for replacement

neil young

The Smoking Gun:

JULY 21—Meet Patrick Tribett. The Ohio man was nabbed yesterday morning for “abusing harmful intoxicants” as he attempted to make a purchase at Bellaire’s Dollar General Store. The 41-year-old Tribett, it seems, had been huffing spray paint and needed a refill.

Actually, it goes well with his shirt. Most people look just ridiculous in gold paint, but this guy makes it work somehow.

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I don’t always like the ways our laws operate, but on the whole most British coppers do a fine job, never more so than now. David Copperfield (that isn’t his real name) is a policeman who also has a blog. Go over and send him your best. He and his colleagues need our full support.

Go catch the bastards, David.

New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe is in legal deep doo-doo after being charged with assault at a late-night New York establishment. The star of Gladiator, The Insider, and Master and Commander – three fine films – has just finished a film in which he plays a boxer.

I know it is the thing for actors to try to get in tune with their roles, but wasn’t the fella taking things a bit too literally?

Long ago I was active in the Fidonet (ask your parents, kiddies) FLAME echo. We thought we were bad d00dz, but about the worst thing that we ever did was send an unordered pizza to some twit in Georgia. I’d say that this guy has definitely got us beat.

This thread (warning: Profane language) is from the admin of a message board called pirate969.org:

BRUCE YOU NEED TO STOP THIS MAN. The only reason I’m keeping this thread open is for some closure for the families and so that hopefully we can talk some sense into you. YOU KILLED TWO PEOPLE BECAUSE OF A STUPID INTERNET ARGUMENT.

Bruce, who appears unremorseful at best, is continuing to put up taunting, threatening posts:

I can’t tell you where I am, but I can tell you I love free wireless internet. I know some of you like those fools, but they were trying to front and I can’t let that lie. If anyone sees my brother, let him know that band practice is cancelled.

It goes on like that. I wasn’t sure what to make of it—you meet no shortage of braggarts and blowhards in flame wars, and it’s possible that a couple in the group were murdered and he was taking false credit for it. Or that he was claiming to have killed some people who hadn’t posted for longer than usual.

But no; according to this BBC story, it’s for real, and he’s the guy sought by police:

The online argument started in a thread (link) discussing a local band promoter. Bruce Pastuer, now wanted on two counts of homicide and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, was one of the participants in the discussion.

Apparently two other board members and Pastuer exchanged insults, at which point Pastuer drove to the home of the two victims at approximately 3:00PM, and shot them both with a borrowed 12 gauge shotgun. The police have not recovered the weapon, and the names of the two victims have not been released pending notification of their relatives.

In the course of the shooting, two neighbors came to investigate, and Pastuer reportedly fired at them as well. His location is unknown, and anyone with information is requested to contact the San Diego Police Department (link).

If the cops can triangulate WiFi signals, his fugitive days might be over soon; if not, I’ll see if I can nail him with a deep-dish double-cheese with anchovies.

the blog québécois

The Smoking Gun:

Meet Dion Milam. The 30-year-old California inmate may be the scariest looking criminal TSG has ever seen. Milam, who wears “Aryan” and “Honor” tattoos above his eyebrows and a swastika tat on his neck, was charged yesterday in a methamphetamine case (his brother-in-law allegedly tried to mail the drug into the Stanislaus County Jail, where Milam is being held on a murder charge). The below mug shot was taken earlier this year following Milam’s arrest in the murder case. Milam, who pulled a gun on sheriff’s deputies, got roughed up a bit as he resisted arrest.

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