Chalk Vandalism?!

This story is nearly two weeks old now, but I wanted to touch on it.  A woman in Napa Valley California was arrested on September 15th for writing with chalk on the side walk.  Initially when she was approached by an officer she was told it was okay, but moments later that same officer came back to gather the woman's identification.  When the woman who was later identified as Amy Larson refused to give any information she was immediately arrested.

Amy was charged with  felony vandalism and $10,000 bail was set, due to her clean record they dropped the bail though and released her.  That was after keeping her behind bars for four days though.  Amy believes that the real treason she was arrested had little to do with her 9/11 Truth and YouTube WTC 7 slogans she chalked though and more to do with her not telling the officer her name, address and birthday.  IE. Amy got arrested for not "showing her papers"

Yesterday amazing news came out of a Napa court room, Amy Larson's case has been dismissed.  A level headed and rational judge finally decided that using chalk on a sidewalk should not be a felony case.  THANK GOODNESS!  However this doesn't change the fact that a police officer felt they had the right to detain an innocent woman for four days.  A woman whose only crime was trying to spread the truth in a medium that washes away in the rain.

If you want to find out more check out the original Patch article detailing the arrest as well as yesterdays follow up informing the public about the dismissal.

This is not the first time in recent memory that citizens have been arrested for using chalk.  What is this country coming to that police officers are wasting their time and tax payers dollars arresting people writing in chalk?!  This obviously has little to do with vandalism and more to do with the content of the message being written.  The powers that be want us to know if we write anything to do with an investigation in to 9/11, The Occupation of Wall St, or similar questions of the status quo on the side walk we will be arrested.

Houston Police Kill Double Amputee

You would think that those who are called in to the line of duty as a police officer would have a high tolerance for fear and a steady hand when it comes to dealing with possibly dangerous situations.  This assumption comes from the fact that those who decide to become an officer of the law know that they are putting their lives on the line when dealing with what could be a lethal situation any given day.

A police officer who is dealing with such a situation should choose to use their weapon only if there is absolutely no other choice, and if they do go ahead and shoot someone who ends up being less lethal than perceived in the moment, that police officer should be put in jail.

Today, Sunday September 23rd a Houston Police Officer shot and killed a man with one arm and one leg.  The double amputee was in a wheel chair and living in a home for the mentally ill as he suffered from schizophrenia.  CNN explained the situation as follows:

A Houston police officer fatally shot in the head a schizophrenic, wheelchair-bound double amputee threatening people with a pen at a group home for the mentally ill after authorities said the man advanced on the officer's partner, police said.

"The officers made verbal commands for the suspect to drop whatever he had in his hand, to stay still and to speak with the officers, but the suspect continued to make threats," 

Officer Matt Marin, "in fear of the safety of his partner and the safety of himself, discharges his duty weapon, striking the suspect," 

The unnamed Houston police spokesperson said later Sunday that Marin himself was not cornered, unlike his partner, when he shot the wheelchair-bound man in the head. 

"This was an incident that didn't have to take place if the individual -- a police officer -- had been trained in dealing with emotionally disturbed individuals."

... So instead of grabbing this guys wheel chair and wheeling him away, an officer decided the best course of action was to shoot him in the head.  I can understand that the officer may not have known it was a pen at first, he thought it was a knife obviously, but this wheel chair bound amputee had no ability to lunge at anyone and was obviously paranoid and scared.

This is beyond disgusting and completely unacceptable behavior.  Why are police officers allowed to murder people?  Why do they get away with things like this with a simple slap on the wrist and a few days paid leave?  What in the world is wrong with our society that we condemn innocent dark skinned people to death row when the evidence is barely there to convict them, but when a police officer murders someone in public they are just doing their job?!

Police officers need to be held responsible for their actions.  Officer Matt Marin should be sentenced to death!  Justice with mercy my ass.

Wells Fargo B & E

This is one of the saddest stories I've ever read.  Wells Fargo hired a crew to break in to an elderly couples home, steal all of their stuff and destroy it.  The nefarious bank was under the impression that they owned a mortgage on the house, which in fact they did not!  The owners of the home had literally built it with their own two hands.  Now after raising three generations of their family in their dessert home every single item they have ever owned was taken and destroyed in a matter of hours.  A CBS affiliate in LA had this to say about the situation:

A crew broke into Alvin and Pat Tjosaas’ desert home and took everything after being directed by Wells Fargo to secure the structure.

The couple, however, didn’t have a mortgage on the home.

Alvin said the deputy sheriff said, “Good news, we know who took (your possessions)…Wells Fargo. Bad news, your stuff is all gone.”

The couple seem pretty forgiving about this situation being quoted as saying:

“When you put your heart into something…it makes me real sad. I’m just glad I have my sweetheart. We’ve been together a long time,”

This make's him real sad, if a bank came in and stole every worldly possession of mine that I had accumulated over decades I would be furious, there would be no end to the obscenities and threats coming out of my mouth.What does the bank have to say for themselves?

“We are deeply sorry for the very personal losses the Tjosaas family suffered as a result of their home being mistakenly secured,” said Alfredo Padilla. “We are moving quickly to reach out to the family to resolve this unfortunate situation in an attempt to right this wrong.”

Whether the victims of this crime get paid some large sum doesn't change the fact that there were almost certainly irreplaceable relics of their children's past as well as unique keepsake that the couple had acquired over years of being together.  Stuff that money cannot buy.  So what I want to know is, who is going to jail for this?   

If I were to break in to someones home to take all their stuff and then got caught I would be arrested on the spot.  Yet an entire crew worth of people went in to this home illegally and a banker sent the word to the crew to go on this heist.  Sounds to me like a kingpin and his cronies just admitted to their crimes.  So when are they going to be arrested?

As mad as I am I had to do a bit more research on this subject and it ends up that the home was actually Alvin Tjosaas' parents home, who he was the caretaker of.  It still had tons of Alvins tools, his fathers WWI uniform, an American flag and appliances that were all taken.  Then to add insult to injury, when they came back to check on it a few days later another crew hired by Well Fargo had made the same mistake and cleared out the remainder of the house.

I can't take it anymore I am fuming over this story, go to ABC to find out more.