Renton's Keystone Kops....

KIRO 7
Renton Police

Renton Police, lacking other duties to occupy their time, are now busily engaged in a witch hunt to uncover the identity (even serving a search warrant against Google) of an anonymous satirist posting a number of cartoons about the adventures of an unnamed police officer in an unidentified police department at an unspecified location.

Not just lacking a sense of humor, but anything resembling a sense of prudence, Renton Police officials (after being turned down by the County Attorney) got an apparently addled city prosecutor (to steal a line, "is that the sound of prosecutorial immunity flying away on tiny little bat wings?") decided to rush out and announce that the depicted wildly dysfunctional police department was, in fact, the Renton Police Department.

Not satisfied with announcing their own dysfunction quietly, they chose to do so with great vigor - claiming that because the cartoons might hurt various folks delicate feelings such that the cartoons qualified as cyber-stalking under Washington Law (RCW 9.61.260) - somehow forgetting about the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (and Article I, Section 5 of the Washington State Constitution) - and talked Judge Bruce Cayce into signing off on a questionably constitutional search warrant to be served on Google to produce the identity of the poster of the parody.

Witch hunt well in progress, things began to unravel - with journalists of various stripes taking glee in ridiculing Renton, with little more effort than publicizing Renton's actions...which are sufficiently absurd and vindictive as to largely speak for themselves. And to provide top quality material for editorial page cartoonists and late night talk show hosts across the land.

Mr. Fiddlesticks, whoever you are, I salute you! Not just for the gracious gift of a fair amount of evil laughter, but for exposing a level of dysfunction at a mid-size police department that indicates a desperate need for the light to shine on in, but for then cleverly provoking said department and city officials into not merely self-identifying, but self-identifying in such a way as to bear out every allegation hinted at in the parody cartoons and more. My hat is off to you, sir or madam!

Enjoy the cartoons below!!

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7	8	9

A letter to the DePere Electeds & the Green Bay Press Gazette

Seems the City Electeds of DePere, WI are all panicky that concealed carry is legal in their state now and are all in a hurry to find exciting new ways to ban it in their fair city. My response, more or less, below.

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The sky is not falling.

Wisconsin is the 49th state in the union to end its absolute prohibition on concealed carry, with 37 of those states "shall-issue" states basing issuance on objective minimum standards (like Wisconsin). Meet the standards, you get your permit/license. Don't meet the standards? No permit/license.

In the 49 states with some form of issue, and the 37 states with "shall-issue" there would appear to be a distinct absence of the "blood in the streets" and "wild west" scenarios with lawful concealed carry in place that loom large in the deluded fantasies of opponents. Historically, folks willing to jump through the hoops of the various jurisdictions to lawfully carry have significantly lower rates of violent crime per capita than the general public.

Washington, my home state, has had shall-issue based on objective standards lawful concealed carry since 1961. Our world hasn't ended. And there are only four officially naughty kinds of places where folks with CPL/CCW are legally barred from carry.

1) Areas of establishments serving liquor restricted to persons 21+ only.
2) The secure area of mental hospitals.
3) The secure portion of a jail or prison.
4) Courtrooms.

(2) - (4) have worked out well for us, and make a fair amount of sense. (1) is a bit more questionable given the evidence available when we observe states that have lawful bar carry for CPL-holders (usually with an intoxication qualifier similar or identical to the local DUI standard, though the absence of this standard does not appear to increase casualties). Oregon, for instance, allows bar carry and does not impose an intoxication standard - but oddly, bloodshed isn't occurring at any greater rate than in Washington, which forbids bar carry. That would tend to argue that banning bar carry is an infringement without a benefit - one that results in firearms being left in cars and other less than ideally secure locations while owners go to the bars to hang out with friends.

If De Pere officials wish to act rationally, rather than out of emotionalism and panic, they might do well to observe how things have worked out where we've been doing this for awhile. In Washington, for over 40 years, it's been legal to carry concealed firearms in City Halls, firehouses, city pools, the community centers, well and pump stations and municipal service centers state wide - without world shattering consequences.

I find it difficult to believe that the people of DePere specifically, or Wisconsin generally, are so uniquely stupid/evil/incompetent as to make similar provisions more dangerous than we observe with Washingtonians.

Best of Wishes,


*snip*

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To contact DePere, WI leadership *POLITELY* please feel free to use the below

Last, First	Title	Telephone	Facsimile	Email
Bauer, Kevin	Alderperson - Third District	920-309-1436
Boyd, James	Alderperson - First District	920-336-0305
Donovan, Michael	Alderperson - Third District	920-336-9471
Heuvelmans, Robert	Alderperson - Fourth District	920-336-7822
Lueck, Larry	Alderperson - First District	920-339-8339
Robinson, Daniel	Alderperson - Second District	920-347-0828
Van Vonderen, Kathleen	Alderperson - Fourth District	920-336-1847
Walsh, Michael	City Mayor	920-339-4040
Wilmet, Robert	Alderperson - Second District	920-336-6354

Intellectual Cowardice, etc..

We can't be making fun of the numbskull in chief, can we?

Playing Catch-up

Or things I wanted to write about, but didn't get too...

Despite the fact that Washington and other states have had objective concealed carry since 1961 (and before), some city officials are panicking mindlessly in Wisconsin...

Yes, safety fanatics really are bad news...privacy anyone?

The on-going Fast & Furious Debacle - should we just disband BATFE and start over?

Las Vegas PD does better than Canton, OH...and more on Canton...

An interesting take on the 2012 elections and the Culture of Victimhood from the Washington Blade...

And then we have the erosion of freedom of the press in Ecuador, as shown in this glowing example of what happens when you let the power-mad of either the right or left within half a mile or so of the levers of power...

From MKS we get an education in how to lose customers and reduce profits...

An article on Norway and its' police...

Apparently it's ok to shoot a handcuffed suspect....

One I missed in Atlanta from way back....

From the self-proclaimed leadership of the LGBT community....

And finally, from Mind Numbed Robot...