Friendly-fire suspected to have caused death of Officer Colson

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Michael Ford is only 22, but he recorded his last will and testament in a cellphone video and then headed to the Landover, Md., police station on a quiet Sunday afternoon to die, police said.

Ford fired randomly at an ambulance, other vehicles and the doors of the station, pinning down officers who poured from the station to confront him, police said. Two of his brothers stood nearby recording the ambush with cellphones as it unfolded moment by agonizing moment.

Amid that barrage, an off-duty detective, Jacai Colson, arrived to visit another officer. Colson sprang from an unmarked police car and “heroically” drew Ford’s fire as he exchanged shots with the gunman, the police chief said.

The move allowed officers to overcome Ford, but in a chaotic moment, a shot probably fired by one of Colson’s fellow officers struck him and ultimately took his life.

Colson, an undercover narcotics detective, was in street clothes. It is unclear whether the officer who shot Colson confused him with an assailant or whether Colson was wounded accidentally amid the chaotic gunfire, Prince George’s County Police Chief Henry Stawinski III said.

This tragic story just keeps getting worse and worse.  It certainly disproves that all that is needed is a ‘good guy with a gun.”  In our past two cop killings, the good guys, the cops, did have guns.  Still, 2 are dead.

What makes this story bizarre, is that two of Michael Ford’s brothers stood nearby and recorded the action.  That is totally sick.  What is wrong with people?  I hope all three spend life in prison.  It is as though the brothers pulled the trigger also.  Legally, it appears that PG County has a real mess on its hands.

This young officer wasn’t yet 30 years old.  He had his entire life ahead of him.  It was stolen from him in an instant while some toadie tried a game of cops and robbers along with his brothers.  There needs to be a special Hell….

Yes, Blue Lives Matter

[update 10:51 am]

Happy Pi Day 3.14

MoonHowler

pi-berational

If you are just a little bit geeky, and I freely admit that I am, then today is the day to celebrate pi day.  Any recommendations?  I think I will go on my rant about people who brag that they are “dumb” in math.  No.  They are lazy in math.  Anyone can learn basic math.

How many people would willing brag that they are stupid at reading and writing?  None.  What’s the difference?  It’s all part of being literate and numerate.

 

 

What is Pi?  Pi is an irrational number (part of the Real numbers) that is ratio of circumference of a circle to the diameter of the same circle.

Today is my day:

Pi-symbol1

 

Prince George’s County police officer ambushed and killed

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

A Prince George’s County police officer was killed Sunday in a fierce shootout with a man outside a district station in Landover, in what the police chief said was an unprovoked attack.

Police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III said a man walked up to the District III station and opened fire outside the front doors about 4:30 p.m. Officers rushed out to stop the attack. Officer Jacai Colson, 28, a four-year department veteran, was killed in the gunfight, the chief said. Police said the suspect was wounded and taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

Police said they didn’t know of a motive, but the suspect and a man police officials described as his brother were both in custody.

“One of your defenders lost his life in defense of this community today. This was an unprovoked attack,” Stawinski said at a somber news conference Sunday night.

Officer Colson is the second law enforcement officer killed in the metro area in three weeks.  In this case, it appears that two brothers ambushed one of the PGC police stations.  Officer Colson was killed in the ambush.  One of the suspects was apprehended at a Popeye’s restaurant, in the bathroom,texting his brother.

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School board pulls a stealth end run, by-passing community input Pt. 2

MoonHowler

potomaclocal.com:

Prince William County School Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers said the decision to rename the school was an idea that was born in an 11th-hour compromise during School Board meeting recess after two failed tied votes to name the elementary school after Wilson and Hampton, respectively.

Potomac District School Board member Justin Wilk proposed the idea. He called Godwin a “segregationist governor,” and noted the school’s student population to majority minority.

Godwin, from Suffolk, Va. was the first person to be elected to two terms as a Virginia Governor. During his term as Lt. Governor, Godwin was a Democrat who upheld “massive resistance” by denying black students entrance to public schools, which had been federally mandated.

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More thuggery from Trump supporters in NC

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Multiple videos show a protester at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina being sucker-punched by a Trump supporter.

The videos, which appeared on social media early Thursday and are shot from different perspectives, show an African American with long hair wearing a white T-shirt leaving the Trump rally as the audience boos. He is being led out of the rally by men in uniforms that read “Sheriff’s Office.” The man extends a middle finger to the audience on his way out.

Then, out of nowhere, the man is punched in the face by a pony-tailed man, who appears to be white, in a cowboy hat, black vest and pink shirt as the crowd begins to cheer. The protester stumbles away, and then is detained by a number of the men in uniforms.

“Chill, chill!” an onlooker says. “You don’t gotta grab him like that!”

Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, said the punch came out of nowhere.

“Boom, he caught me,” Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.”

John McGraw, 78, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sean Swain told The Post on Thursday.

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Son saves mother, faces murder charges

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

A Virginia teenager who authorities said intervened when his mother was being attacked by her boyfriend — fatally shooting the man — has been charged with second-degree murder.

Police said the son, who is 15, shot and killed John Conroy Jr., 37, as Conroy physically attacked his mother during an argument at their house.

The teen faces charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Duncan Minton said. The teenager’s name is not being released because he is charged as a juvenile.

Minton said every homicide in Virginia is “presumed to be murder in the second degree,” but that the charge can be reduced or increased as the investigation goes on.

“Because of the fact that he’s a juvenile and because there may be extenuating circumstances, there is a whole wide range of things that could happen,” Minton said.

 This is so screwed up!  Why must we presume that the killing is murder in the second degree?   It sounds to me that like the boy did the right thing.  He saved his mother from being attacked.
Tell me in what bizarro world this behavior is wrong?  It sounds to me like instant self defense or mother defense.
Wait!  Why am I acting so shocked?  I know someone this happened to.  Anytime you shoot someone, the burden of proof is very high, at least in Virginia.
I hope the kid gets off.  It sounds like he has been traumatized enough.

Is the boy in custody? Is he out on bond? The news video raises many unanswered questions.

Martians–When does the insanity end?

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Kyle Odom, the former Marine suspected of shooting Idaho pastor Tim Remington on Sunday, was arrested Tuesday evening outside the White House, according to Coeur d’Alene Police and the Secret Service.

The Secret Service said in a statement that Odom “threw unknown material over the south fence line at the White House Complex.”

He was immediately taken into custody.

Hours earlier, someone posted a message to Odom’s Facebook page claiming Remington was shot because the pastor was “from Mars” and had “ruined” Odom’s life, according to Wash. television station KXLY.

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Politics makes strange bedfellows…really strange

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

(From Dana Milbank)

I’ve perhaps never agreed with Glenn Beck before, but the right-wing radio personality was right to hold up a Nazi ballot on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning. “We should look at Adolf Hitler in 1929,” said Beck, who usually saves his Nazi analogies for liberals. Beck added, “Donald Trump is a dangerous man with the things that he has been saying.”

The Germans, too, find him dangerous — and they should know. Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, last month called Trump “the world’s most dangerous man” and leader of a “hate-filled authoritarian movement” who “inflames tensions against ethnic minorities . . . while ignoring democratic conventions.”

I wish I could enjoy Trump, who at last week’s debate defended the size of his penis. But this isn’t a conventional debate between Democrats and Republicans or insiders and outsiders. Trump is on the wrong side of a struggle between decency and bigotry, between democracy and something else.

Dana MilbankYet, incredibly, the other candidates in the race — Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich — all said they’d support Trump if he wins the nomination. The morning after Trump’s salute, the morally neutral Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman, told CBS’s John Dickerson the that his “role is to basically be 100 percent behind” the eventual nominee.

Apparently, I am not all that far off base as some of my contributors think.  Abe Foxman  of the ADL, a holocaust survivor, also saw the Seig Heil salute and commented:

Abe Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and the retired longtime head of the ADL, said that Trump leading thousands in “what looks like the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States.” He told the Times of Israel that Trump is “smart enough” to know what he was doing.

What on earth is wrong with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Katich?  Why would they agree to support Trump?  Where is the moral courage here?  They need to denounce Trump publicly.  At what point do they consider country over party?  Perhaps they should look to Lindsay Graham as the role model.

Politics makes very strange bedfellows.  Today I have agreed with Glenn Beck and Greg.  Is the world going to spin backwards tomorrow?  I am getting horrible eye twitches just thinking about this.

Mills Godwin Middle to have a name change

MoonHowler

godwinschool

Inside nova.com:

The school-naming compromise struck by the Prince William School Board Wednesday was well received by family and friends of fallen firefighter Kyle Wilson and George M. Hampton, a trailblazer known for his decades of service to the community.

In a surprise move – aimed at diffusing what had become an emotional and racially-charged debate, the board voted unanimously to name a new elementary school for Wilson and rename Mills E. Godwin Middle School for Hampton.

The idea was proposed by school board member Justin Wilk, Potomac, and seconded by Diane Raulston, who represents the Neabsco magisterial district, which includes Godwin Middle.

The compromise was met with palpable relief by a board room packed with people, including more than 40 who spoke during a nearly three-hour citizen’s comment time to lobby the board to name the new elementary school, formerly known as the “Ferlazzo” school, for either Wilson or Hampton.

Maybe this was a good idea, maybe not.  What it seems to lack is community involvement before the current Mills Godwin Middle School will be stripped of its name.

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Conservative faction on BOCS attempts to take away discussion

MoonHowler

house

 

 

 

 

 

One of our contributors, Wombat, breaks through all the BS and tells us what  REALLY happened Friday night at the emergency BOCS meeting to set an advertised tax rate:

“News Flash! All those years – including this one – of these big showdowns and death by powerpoint arguments over what tax rate to advertise have been completely unnecessary! The staff can advertise the rate as an administrative item, just like they do in neighboring counties. So they will advertise the 3.88%. That’s what goes in the paper. Now everyone can actually look at the budget and figure out what should stay, what should go, and what the actual rate will end up at. But not before we had to go through two incredibly painful and embarrassing meetings. The county needs to add money to the budget to pay for all the PTSD counseling we need after that.”

A huge thanks to Wombat for setting the record straight.  How long were we going to be kept in the dark over this process?  How long were we going to be subjected to the antics of the BOCS–with 4 of them trying to get their conservative cred on?  (all at the expense of the county residents, I might add.)

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Nancy Reagan dies at age 94

MoonHowler

 

nancy

Nancy Reagan has died at the age of 94.  Her passing marks the end of an era.

Nancy was a fierce warrior against drugs and against Alzheimers.  She crossed many barriers to move science forward on the issue of Alzheimers, to include stem cell research.

Nancy Reagan was also fiercely protective of her husband, Ronald Reagan.

RIP, Nancy Reagan.  You were a remarkable first lady.

 

Seig Heil

MoonHowler

seig heilseig heil 3

Washingtonpost.com:

ORLANDO — As Donald Trump rallied thousands of his supporters in the home state of one of his chief rivals, he did something he not done before: He asked those assembled before him to raise their right hand and pledge that they will vote for him in the Florida Republican primary.

“Can I have a pledge? A swearing?” the presidential candidate said, extending his right hand into the air. “Raise your right hand.”

Trump then began leading them in a pledge: “I do solemnly swear.” The crowd echoed him: “I do solemnly swear.”

Trump continued: “That I — no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions, if there’s hurricanes or whatever.” The crowd tried repeating that back, but largely failed in doing so. Trump reassured them that they were doing fine: “That’s good enough.”

Trump continued the pledge: “Will vote on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president.” The crowd repeated the pledge and cheered.

Trump continues to have more delusions of grandeur and to get more Hitlerian.   For those who are offended by my comparisons or believe the Hitler Principle is being applied….Hell, I am not the one out there raising my hand, pledging allegiance to a jackass.  In fact, my father fought a war to get rid of that jackass.  I am just noting the very obvious similarities in behavior.

Maybe its time for some of the Americans to wake up and realize what they have on their hands.

seig heil2

 

The Republican Brand?

MoonHowler

elephant boxing shorts

From the Washington Post:

“Republicans in general tend to be a group of people who like to view themselves as serious, having decorum, being orderly, being thoughtful,” said Roger Porter, who served as a senior policy official in the White Houses of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and who is now a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

But, he said, Thursday’s debate “was the culmination of a long process of the people running for president this year finding themselves drug into a maelstrom in which they look anything but serious and calm and thoughtful and responsible. That’s very distressing for most Republicans. How did we get to this situation?”
More urgent, many Republicans say, is the question of how they get out of it.

1.  Does this description fit members of the Republican party?

2.  Can they get out of this maelstrom and if so, how?

When I was a young woman I had the view expressed in the first paragraph of Republicans.  They were the grown ups.  The Democrats were the party boys and girls.   The Democrats had to sit things out for a while.  It wasn’t until Bill Clinton ushered in a new era.  It looks like the GOP didn’t learn from the mistakes of their arch enemies.

I personally think this is what happens to political parties when there is one set group-think.  when people are ridiculed and all required to think alike, things break down.

Americans weren’t made to do group-think.  That’s why I won’t belong to a political party.  I don’t have one belief system that matches everyone else.

So much for thinking about the God of Abraham

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

The former Wheaton professor who sparked controversy at the Christian college by saying Muslims and Christians share the same God will take a new job — in a position named after a Muslim historical figure.

Larycia Hawkins will be the Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Virginia, the state university announced.

Hawkins was the only black female tenured professor at Wheaton, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical universities. But in December, she angered officials at the Christian school with a Facebook post.

She snapped a picture of herself wearing a hijab and said she would wear it to support Muslim women throughout the Advent period. “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book,” Hawkins wrote on Facebook. “And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

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Candland aligns himself with the hector, heckle and harass blog

MoonHowler

Pete Candland needs to not try to peddle the notion that he doesn’t have anything to do with the Sheriff of Nottingham blog. His guest editorial certainly tips his hand.

He never asked me for guest editorial space. I would have probably said yes. I would think if he wanted to get his message out he would have asked Al, Greg, Derecho and me for guest privileges.

While I don’t agree with him on many things and I would put the usual disclaimer, I think it’s important as an elected official not to align one’s self with a blog that is critical of so many local officials and public servants in such an unkind and cruel way.

Pete, ask the next time.  You might be surprised at what we actually do agree on.   (hint:  when are we getting supervisors’ votes  recorded online???)

It’s important that we work together as a community.