Month: September 2013

Pima County Gets Its Wrist Slapped

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May 5, 2011 the Pima County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office SWAT team put on their battle-rattle, climbed into their armored personnel carrier, and did an early morning raid on a suspected drug distributor’s home.  Said suspect was José Guerena, a combat veteran of the Iraq war who worked  third shift at a local mine. Seeing armed men in their front yard, Guerena’s wife apparently woke him. He put his wife and 4-year-old son in a closet, retrieved his AR-15 rifle, and prepared to confront what he thought were home invaders.

When the Sheriff’s deputies broke open his front door, they saw him in the hallway, armed, and opened fire. Seventy rounds were expended, 22 of them striking Guerena. He never received medical attention. It is believed that he lived for approximately an hour after being shot.

Here’s helmet-cam footage of the incident. Check the “professionalism” of the PCSD SWAT team:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP0f00_JMak?rel=0]
Three months after the raid, in which no drugs were found in the Guerena home and no evidence of wrongdoing on his part, no one had been charged with any crime. Guerena’s family sued for $20 million. They have been awarded $3.4 million.

José Guerena’s crime, for which he paid with his life? Having relatives involved in the drug trade.

Had they wanted to, the Sheriff’s department could have arrested him at work and then searched his home at their leisure.  Instead, they suited up and did a “raid.”  And an innocent man is dead because of it.

And as Radley Balko documents, this is not an exceptional case, except possibly for the settlement.

More Democrat Flee-Bagging

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Reader Grumpy Old Fart left a link in a comment to this story:

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.

Here’s the picture:

photo flee-baggers.jpg

The far side of the room, shown empty in the photo, belongs to the Democrats. The only Democrats who stayed were Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Rep. Jackie Speier.

Had enough yet?

No Shame

KevinLeave a comment

Obama in July, 2008:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydZTHPkOnvE?rel=0]
Obama in September, 2013:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58zamUOSPxk?start=102]

Raising the debt ceiling, which has been done over a hundred times,
does not increase our debt.

Then why do we need to raise the ceiling? Aren’t we again “taking out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children” and “driving up the national debt”? What’s different now?

The difference is, now he’s the President, and under his administration, the national debt has increased from $10.5 trillion in November of 2008 to over $16.9 trillion today, some $200 billion over the current “ceiling,” – but through accounting sleight-of-hand by the Treasury, it’s been “officially” stuck at $16,699,396,000,000 since mid-May,  an interesting tidbit the MSM hasn’t found interesting enough to comment on.

It’s like they’re protecting him or something.