Tag: crime

See Something Say Something Revisited

There remain too few persons willing to share the insights they have into other persons and their planned nefarious acts than we need. Law Enforcement Officers have a responsibility to be out and about developing relationships with people who may eventually know something they shouldn’t. Those folks need an outlet for the information they are carrying. They become acutely aware that to keep it to themselves might make them an accessory to the crime and facing legal trouble. They also may realize that what they know could put them in jeopardy with those about to perform said nefarious deeds and now they (our ‘good citizen) finds himself between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

Most of the time it is not a world-changing theft of nuclear weapons, though, if it is, by all means speak up! More plausibly, it will be something of a more local level concern such as an upcoming burglary at a local gun shop. On behalf of all small business owners in the world, please Strike a chord for justice and help those of us who truly cannot afford a rate increase in our insurance because of a theft and the hassles of replacing everything which was stolen. Think about it from my side… a security company. We have never been burgled. We, specifically, as a security company – how can we ever that live that down! We can’t even keep our own stuff safe! So, if you know something, if you see something, if you hear something; for goodness sakes SAY SOMETHING!  

The direction is probably most important for our teenagers. First, they are in a great environment for hearing all kinds of things and it being open about who is involved. The environment I’m talking about is the fishbowl of schools. Everyone is in everyone else’s business and social media takes it to the nth degree. What I am most concerned about here, though is not so much the thief or the drug deal, don’t skip them, they are important.

What I am referring to is two-fold. First, the most prevalent, suicide. It is happening in numbers that are just absolutely not appropriate.

According to a June 2019 U.S. News and World Report, “HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, June 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Suicide rates among teens and young adults have reached their highest point in nearly two decades, a new study reports.

Suicides among teens have especially spiked, with an annual percentage change of 10% between 2014 and 2017 for 15- to 19-year-olds, researchers said.

“It really is an unprecedented surge,” said lead author Oren Miron, a research associate at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “You can go back decades and you won’t find such a sharp increase.”

Suicide rates for 15- to 19-year-olds and those between 20 and 24 are at their highest level since 2000, Miron said.

The surge is particularly strong among teen boys, up 14% a year between 2015 and 2017.

Suicide rates for teenage girls, meanwhile, rose 8% annually between 2000 and 2017.

“Parents and teachers need to be aware that the rates have reached their highest recorded level, and they need to be on the lookout for both boys and girls,” Miron said.

He said the opioid epidemic might be fueling part of the rise, and social media is another likely contributor.

“It’s much easier to bully,” Miron said. “The apps are getting smarter and smarter at providing anonymity and hiding activity from grown-ups.”

The second is ‘active shooters’ – those who make threats, even off-hand comments about how easy or how fun it would be to walk into Algebra class and annihilate everyone in there.

The idea that a friend never rats out a friend is so untrue. A friend will do everything in his or her power to keep his or her friend toasty warm in a cold world. If that means telling authorities about a planned shooting or suicide and your friend is locked away until he or she can get some help, that’s Okay.

What is more likely for you, in your day to day environment, to hear about? Other than idle gossip (that is NOT the talking that goes on between cars stopped at a red light waiting for green) is it of a nature that someone in the police or animal caring services needs to know about? Don’t wait for a law enforcement officer or other person to invite you to coffee. Instead bring them a coffee, talk to them for a few minutes and find out if this is someone you feel comfortable talking to. If so, do some talking!

SCI is not trying to recruit a bunch of ‘Gladys Kravitz’ – see BEWITCHED of the 1964-66… but we need those who care enough to care enough. A short fun link back in time is attached to the photo!

https://binged.it/2NW7q7i

RECIDIVISM, RADICALIZATION, RESTORATION

To merely bemoan the brokenness of the system and offer no good recourse or some viable alternatives is to promote cynicism and defeatism. There are already enough isms wreaking havoc upon our society..f.as a society we must (follow Dr. House’s prescriptions and) get good.

Dr. Ross L. Riggs 20 December 2018

U.S. PRISON DOUBLE STANDARD  

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has an interesting, if not warped view of information necessary for dissemination to law enforcement and to communities when certain individuals are released from custody. According to a recent article by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the Bureau has mandatory reporting requirements to law enforcement when registered sex offenders are released. The same is true for drug offenders. There are programs for both for re-entry into the mainstream and there are channels of communication to alert law enforcement of their known whereabouts when released. However, there is no similar programs in place for convicted terrorists who are paroled or have completed their sentences. To quote Patrick Dunleavy of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, “That is absurd.”[i]

“The Tracer Act, presently awaiting passage in the U.S. Senate, would require authorities to provide state and local law enforcement with ‘release information from a Federal correctional facility, including the name, charging date, and expected place and date of release, of certain individuals who may pose a terrorist threat.’”[ii] The bill was introduced in the House in May of 2017 and then received in the Senate in September of 2017. At that time, it was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and a year and three months later, it remains in committee.

Nearly thirty-two years ago, while working a special detail seeking out persons with outstanding warrants for violent crimes, I came across just such a person trying to hide behind a dumpster in a bar parking lot. He had multiple felony warrants for aggravated burglary, robbery, arson, escape and a host of others. A lengthy foot chase ended with the suspect in custody, the two of us at the bottom of a culvert and my right shoulder dislocated. Within a couple of years, I had my first reconstructive surgery on that shoulder. Just five days prior to writing the first draft of this article, I had a total shoulder replacement after years of dealing with chronic pain, arthritis and joint inflammation. When the felon was sentenced, he received 25 years in prison, of which he did the entire two-bits. I sometimes said to folks, (he) got 25 years, I got life. Today, my quip seems more real than ever. It did not take that felon very long after his release to be re-arrested and back in the system. Recidivism rates for violent, repeat offenders are disconcerting, to say the least. According to the study conducted by Jesse Morton and Mitchell Silber, “The recidivism rate among violent extremist offenders within the United States is unlikely to be zero. While the re-offender rate for violent extremist offenders appears to be much lower than among other federal prisoners,13 in 2010 the Director of National Intelligence assessed that 25 percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees were confirmed or suspected of re-engaging in terrorist or insurgent activities.”[iii]

Twenty-five percent is probably a very low assessment. Most, if they have learned anything at all during their time at Guantanamo, learned how to keep a lower profile. Could it be that fifty percent or more of those who were detainees are still part of the terrorists’, jihadists’circles? Those who are not are more likely to be disengaged either by the simple fact that aging takes its toll on even the most resolute fighters and injuries incurred during their career have also left them unable to fight. For others, they may be out of touch because they are no longer trusted by those currently holding the reins of power. There may even be a few who are reformed. My expectation is that it is very few. To have a system which, if it tracks these violent offenders after release at all, does not permit the law enforcement in areas where they will reside to be notified of their location, is, as was quoted earlier, absurd. It borders on criminal negligence on the part of those who run the systems. The blood of any law enforcement officer or citizen who is subsequently killed by a released convict when no effort was made to inform police of his whereabouts or potential of his continued complicity to terrorism, should be legally upon the hands of those who had the power to change the system but did not.

I have a son-in-law who has, what you might call, an inquiring mind. He asked me just the other, ‘What is really wrong with having places like Alcatraz or as the British first planned to use Australia as a dumping ground for those too anti-social to work and play nicely with others?’ In the Philippines, al Qaeda and its brethren have ruled over Mindanao for decades. Okay, let them have it… take out those who have no dealings with the brothers of the sword, invite any who want to join them to go on in and then remove all forms of communication with the outside world to the island and let them fend for themselves. Such a comment is hyperbole, of course. I would never presume to instruct a sovereign government what to do with their lands; for the same reason I won’t live in a gated community. Without effective communication between prisons, probation, customs, INS, and local law enforcement, it becomes a matter of the stow-a-ways commanding the ship.

I have a good friend, a brother-in-Christ who is serving a fifteen-year sentence with the Ohio Department of Corrections. I know of murderers who did not get as severe a penalty as my friend and I believe he suffered greatly because of inadequate legal representation. However, with such issues aside, he knows why he is there and, as you would expect, he has lost everything which was important to him while he has been inside, with the exception of his faith. Tested mightily, yes; but his faith has endured. He has grown into a much stronger and wiser brother in the faith than most men I know. As with Joseph, (although my friend admits he was not innocent of all charges as Joseph was in the Genesis account), God is using him in amazing ways where he is.

A huge difference for my friend is his faith and because of his faith, he was ‘reformed’ even before he was ever charged with a crime. Almost two decades passed between the time of his crime and when he was charged. When he was arrested, he was already no longer able to commit his crimes because of the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. To say the ODC has any programs helping him to be prepared to re-enter society is a stretch. My friend has grown greatly; but, it is because of the Holy Spirit and through his own initiatives in seeking out educational options and discipleship and mentoring programs.

In 1974, I wrote a college paper on recidivism rates. I would like to report on the great advances made in corrections to reduce recidivism in the intervening forty-four years. Such is not the case. Lots of money has been thrown at all kinds of programs; but, the nature of the beast is beyond any quick fix. Without the life-changing, eternity altering, soul reclaiming power of Christ, none of our man-made efforts can make a significant difference. The Constitution of the U.S. has a clause known as ‘The full faith and credit clause.’ The actions of one state will be backed by the others and by the federal government (with specific exceptions). Without such a clause, the ability of the states to work as a united republic would be impossible. As an analogy, each act of kindness must also be backed by the full faith and love of Jesus Christ to have any eternal efficacy.

To merely bemoan the brokenness of the system and offer no good recourse or some viable alternatives is to promote cynicism and defeatism. There are already enough isms wreaking havoc upon our society, I shan’t be involved in promoting any others. A quote from the immutable Dr. House is simply, ‘you must either be good, get good or give up’ and nobody can afford to give up. If our dealing with recidivism and radicalization are not good and our attempts at restoration have not been good, then we need, as a society to get good.  I suggest the following:

  1. Improve our grammar. A sentence is a sentence. Ten years for armed robbery is ten years not 3 years with credit for time served. The sentences, however, must fit the crime and the individual charged. Too harsh or too lenient, both are wrong.
  2. Repair our doorways. To deal with recidivism, prison doors do not swing open and they do not revolve. They lock. Repeat offenders need to know their future is certain.
  3. Become better gardeners. Remember our roots. America is built on Judeo-Christian principles. It will be the only faith available for study in prison. A free American has the right to freedom of worship. If you are in prison you are not a free American. There will be no radicalizing imams strolling the halls of our penitentiaries unless they are prisoners themselves and still, they will not have the opportunity to preach and teach.
  4. We will sing-along with Aretha Franklin R-E-S-P-E-C-T will be afforded to parents by children, students to teachers, citizens to police officers and, young people to elders. This will be taught in the homes and in the schools with local churches available to help-out any time.
  5. We will encourage reading. The only OPEN Borders will be bookstores. If you choose to immigrate LEGALLY into the U.S., you will learn English as our national language. The phones will be freed from the option to ‘Press 1 for English’. Tourists out west, if they see a sign for WALL DRUG – it will be for the great tourist trap in South Dakota and not some marijuana they got between the U.S. and Mexico.
  6. We will encourage a STRONG economy. You desire health benefits and a paycheck, you will work. The definition of those who truly are not able to physically work will be determined by those who pay for the social services, the tax-payers.
  7. Pharmacies will be available 24 hours a day. They will be the only places where anyone can get drugs. Anyone who wants to dispense drugs can go to pharmacology school. Failing to get a Pharm degree but still selling drugs will invoke number 1 and number 2 and if the person is an alien, number 5 will come into play and the person will be invited to return to the land of their birth, do not pass go, do not collect $200.00.

Perhaps these Stringent Seven are a bit tongue in cheek or, at least, too simplistic to merit any true consideration. Still, they are the basis for what needs to be accomplished within our system to begin to regain some control over the miscreants threatening our society.

[i] Dunleavy, Patrick “The Strasbourg Terror Attack – Only the Names Have Changed” IPT News 17 Dec 2018

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] https://ctc.usma.edu/nypd-vs-revolution-muslim-inside-story-defeat-local-radicalization-hub/

It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Green

The initial video training is just enough information to be dangerous, at least in this author’s opinion.

kermit-3 In about 1972, Jim Raposo wrote a song made popular by Jim Henson singing as Kermit the Frog, ‘It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Green’ and such words were never more true than in the world today for some who consult with international organizations and are painting whole countries green! Kermit, apparently has begun to understand the dangerous times in which we live. It is a shame that some of these consultants are not as kermit-2well aware. When I say it’s a shame, I mean shame in the most Asian culture seriousness of the word. Perhaps an allusion to another time in our country when being green was a euphemism for being a novice, inexperienced and in capable of functioning on their own, particularly in dangerous situations, is the best way to understand the color.  

I enjoy allusions to cinema and when those illustrations also include John Wayne, so much the better! In El Dorado, John Wayne plays Cole Thornton, a gun hand who refuses to go against his old friend who is the sheriff in the middle of a range war. Instead, he comes to his aid. The sheriff, J.P. Harrah, gets very irritated at a new friend of Wayne’s character, named Mississippi (James Caan) and turns toward him, gun drawn. Thornton (Wayne) says, “Now wait a minute J.P., he’s a little green…” el-dorado-1

Like an unripe fruit, he was not ready. In this case, he was not ready to be on his own in a dangerous situation.    

What does this have to do with this consultant advising this international agency on security and using the color green? The plan, apparently, was to review the security needs of every country in the international organization’s wheel house. They would then color code them as to the level of security training necessary. There were four categories, red being the highest risk and requiring the most training, orange, yellow and then green. Thirty-four out of sixty-five areas of responsibility worldwide, 52.3% were rated as GREEN and were considered LOW RISK. The most heinous part is that the LOW RISK countries required NO TRAINING. Some extremely basic 3 hour introductory videos are shown to everyone but beyond that – No Training!

Low risk countries included all of Europe; including Germany, France, and Spain and we all know how safe those places are today. Ukraine, recently invaded by Russia with war still prevalent in the eastern cities only rates a YELLOW – two days of training!

Although Eastern and Western Mindanao were considered separately, the Philippines was listed as GREEN, no training needed. Western Mindanao is RED and Eastern Mindanao is only YELLOW – requiring just 2 days of training! I could continue; but, you can imagine that if over 50 percent of an organization’s countries, or areas of responsibility, require no supplemental training at all, what is the level of situational awareness of the people working in those countries?

Let’s take a further look at Mindanao. The company divides it into Western and Eastern as we described earlier. Those were the names used before the emancipation. The correct name for Western Mindanao is the Zamboanga Peninsula. Remember, it is shown as RED and the remainder of Mindanao or what was labeled as Eastern is YELLOW – requiring only two  days of training so near to one of the most hateful bunch of Al Qaeda factions out there. Now, realize that all of Mindanao is only 37, 654 square miles. That is less than the State of Ohio which is 44, 825 and can be traversed easily in a few hours. The Zamboanga Peninsula is only 572.74 square miles, which is comparable in size to New York CITY which is 468.90 without its suburbs! So, here I am in Ohio saying that in NE Ohio I’m okay, only a yellow; but, if I travel a few hours to near Cincinnati, bang- I’m in red territory.

Let’s jump off the island of Mindanao and consider the rest of the Philippines which is GREEN – no additional training needed. Manila, the capital city is about as far away from Mindanao as you can get and still be on the archipelago.  By air it is only 561 miles to Manila from Mindanao and 1040 miles by land and boat. Forty two hours travel in the latter and only 59 minutes in the former. Plus, the airfare currently is only $91 one way. Employees of this company living in Manila are GREEN and require no additional training while they are only $91 and 59 minutes from some of the worst Al Qaeda terrorists in the world.

The United States is listed as GREEN yet shootings, stabbings, kidnappings are on the news almost every night. Should not every American have some understanding of how to be situationally aware enough to protect themselves? Apparently the employees of this organization do not require it. The initial video training is just enough information to be dangerous, at least in this author’s opinion.

No doubt, those involved in this organization went about their task in good faith and put a great deal of stock into what they were being told. I would really like to know what kind of a grid was used to determine the levels of risk.  I would also like to know how, any group responsible for the lives of their employees, and, due to their diverse spread across the world, their employees’ spouses and their children, can consider any of them to not require any real training.

Sadly, if I were to hazard a guess… a deciding factor was cost. To the organization’s credit, they weren’t specifically trying to save themselves money because the brunt of the cost of the training would be born by the employees themselves. That is the way this company is structured. You could say, that a company that was bearing its responsibility correctly, (or  I believe the argument could be made to carry their responsibility morally), should be providing the training at no cost to the employee; but that is not the way it is currently for most of these contract-type employees. 

Over fifty percent of this organization’s area (and probably an even much higher percentage of their actual employees and families) are living in GREEN areas. Very seldom in writing is there an opportunity to use this word, so here goes, I am flabbergasted!

If you could see me right now you might think you were intoxicated or had a head injury because you might just see two of me… because I am simply beside myself on this one!

I truly believe that the organization involved here is attempting to do their very best; but, internally they have almost no expertise by which to filter what they are being told by outside consultants. I have no idea the credentialing of these consultants. Maybe, in many areas they are considered experts. However, it is this one person’s seasoned opinion that they are very wrong in the way they are directing this organization.  I urge any group that decides to depend solely on the opinions of someone or some group from outside their own agency on how best to protect their own people to use the very utmost of caution.

One last movie analogy, in the Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, the malefactor must decide which chalice he believes to be the cup of Christ. If he picks the right one, he receives immortality, the wrong one brings death. As the Nazis villain decays into a pile of dust, the ancient crusader left to guard the cup says very simply, “He chose poorly.”crusader

 

 

Citizenship 101

Recent events and discussions with persons that one would think would have a reasonable education and thereby an awareness of how the Constitution is to be applied in a nation governed by law have led me to question whether such ideals are truly understood. What seems to be lacking is an understanding of the responsibility, better yet, the obligation or duty that every citizen has to uphold the laws of their nation. Citizens have a duty to change unjust laws by appropriate legislation and see to it that government officials who are alleged to have abused their office are charged in a court of law.  I would expect that reasonably educated people today would understand those principles of citizenship. Experience has shown me that is not necessarily the case. Persons of more than average intelligence and education seem to have become ignorant of the duties of a citizen in a nation that is established by laws. So, to do a small part to try to alleviate the ignorance that so easily besets us as a people here in the United States, I offer this primer on citizenship.

A good place to begin, I think, is the oath that someone who is becoming a citizen of the United States is required to take. Certainly, it is taken voluntarily.  Simply put, if they do not wish to take the oath or abide by the law of the land then, they are free to live somewhere else on the globe but not in the United States of America. That is a refreshing notion for those who have been born citizens of the USA and have little esteem for our Constitution or our laws. They should be free to, in fact encouraged to, find someplace else on the globe where they would like to live.

Here is the oath. It is simple yet, of great depth.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Since this is a primer, I won’t assume that the oath was completely clear to the reader. Here are the basic points. The citizen-to-be declares that they will:

  1. Support the Constitution;
  2. Renounce and abjure absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen;
  3. Support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
  4. Bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and
  5. Bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; or
    B. Perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; or
    C. Perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law.

For the sake of brevity in this primer, I will focus on only one point.

“I will support… the Constitution”

The Constitution is not a very long document, even so, let us look just at the Preamble, the introduction if you will, of the document a citizen of the United States has a duty to support. The Preamble reads:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The purposes:

  • to form a more perfect, a better union between the individual sovereign states
  • establish Justice
  • insure domestic Tranquility
  • provide for the common defence (old English spelling)
  • promote the general Welfare
  • secure the Blessing of Liberty
    • to ourselves and our posterity

Notice that certain words are capitalized, not by me but in the document: Justice, Tranquility, Welfare (that doesn’t mean a government check on the first of the month or food stamps) and Blessings of Liberty – One can assume that these are important to our Founding Fathers, of these, perhaps we should take special note.

Justice – everyone equal under the law – meaning that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Sometimes, in the defense of one’s own or another’s life, a person may be killed in the commission of a crime so the actions of the person taking his life will be judged before the court, even if it is a police officer, the court has jurisdiction… and what applies to the perpetrator of the crime also applies to the officer – ‘innocent until proven guilty’ EVERYONE equal under the law.

Tranquility – the ability to live our lives in peace, without fear of coercion from the government or threats of violence from those who do NOT follow the law. Who is to have a tranquil life – if the Constitution is ruling? The answer is EVERY citizen. Every citizen whether they be brown, black, white, gay, straight, Buddhist or Baptist. What may surprise those with whom I cannot apparently communicate well is that EVERY also includes COPS! Every person should be able to go to their work peacefully and expect to return to their homes at the end of their work, peaceably, to retire and live peacefully. Yes, certain professions such as cops have accepted risk but that does not mean to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. Perhaps an example will make my point better than I can communicate it…

If I am living next to Joe, he and I should EXPECT that we can live in our neighborhood together, peacefully – in Tranquility. But, sometimes things happen. Perhaps Joe does not like the way I mow my grass in circles rather than in strips. So one day, Joe walks over to me and punches me in the nose. He has the right to swing his fist… I mean, it’s his fist! BUT, his right to swing his fist STOPS where my nose BEGINS! My nose has a right, as a part of me, to live my life in Tranquility and that does NOT include Joe’s fist to my nose!

Now, I have been assaulted. Under a nation of LAWS, I have a legal right to swear out a complaint and have Joe arrested. However, if Joe keeps pummeling me and I cannot get away, I have right to self-defense. But, in this case, Joe punches me once in the nose and then goes back home. I do NOT have the right to now walk over to Joe’s house and punch Joe in the nose. In a nation of laws, my DUTY to uphold the law is to follow the procedure and swear out a complaint.

ALSO, I do NOT have the right to go across the street from my house and punch Fred in the nose because Joe punched me in the nose. Fred has a right to his own domestic Tranquility and he doesn’t even mow his lawn so, he has nothing in this dispute between Joe and me. I cannot punch FRED for any reason but I particularly cannot punch FRED for something JOE did – EVEN IF Fred is Joe’s brother!

Someone brings the argument that because Joe goes around punching people in the nose (even though he only did it once to me) that Fred DESERVES to be hit because he is Joe’s brother. In fact, Fred has hundreds of brothers, maybe thousands. Fred and Joe’s father was a very well-liked guy and they have lots and lots of brothers. A few of the brothers are just like Joe. Every once-in-awhile, they punch someone in the nose – at least that’s what someone said to somebody who reported it to a news outlet… We don’t really know for sure how many of Joes’ brothers ever really did punch somebody and we don’t know if it might have been self-defense but, in today’s thinking, that doesn’t matter.

So – according to today’s reasoning, ANYONE at all, even if they never met me or do not know me at all and never met anyone else who happened to have been punched by another brother of Joe’s – ANYONE has the “right” to not respect ANY of the brothers! In fact, if the brothers who do punch people would stop, then maybe, ANYONE might respect the other brothers too… but since they don’t respect them, even though the other brothers have never punched anything but a timeclock in their whole lives – ANYONE can go out and punch any of the brothers in the nose anytime they want to – it is all the brother’s fault because Joe and some of the others have punched somebody somewhere at some time – we think – at least that is what the media told us, we don’t have any real facts – but we don’t need them –

One of the other things ANYONE who is punching the other brothers’ noses seems to forget is that UNDER A NATION of LAW: 1. Even if Joe is accused of punching me in the nose, he is still innocent until proven guilty and 2. All the other brothers (the non-hitting ones) they have a RIGHT under the LAW to live in domestic Tranquility. They might be Joe’s brother but they are CITIZENS too and THEY HAVE RIGHTS TOO! 3. By punching people’s noses ANYONE is breaking the law! EVERY citizen has a DUTY to NOT break the law. When they do THEY are the criminals.

For the sake of time, let’s look lastly at: secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. What does that mean? It means, simply, that EVERY citizen of the United States has a right to work hard, strive to learn, achieve some reward for your labor, to be able to travel wherever and whenever one desires (as long as one has the means – that is the money, a car and the privilege to drive that car – without being harassed or abused, to work to save money and retire peacefully – if health permits to enjoy a quiet Tranquil life and that we will pass these same benefits of living in a Nation of Laws to our children and to their children…

Are some people harassed when they drive? – that likely happens though I do not have facts and figures to substantiate it, some things are true in common knowledge even if they aren’t – Accepting that it likely happens, what may be surprising is that it happens not just to people of color but it happens to young people – because of their age, it happens to older people – because of their age; it happens to people of certain sexual inclinations or even religious affiliations – Bad things happen, sadly, all the time; but they can happen to just about ANY citizen. Do some have it happen to them disproportionately? I’m certain they do; but I don’t have numbers to prove it. Here is the point though about being a nation of LAWS.

Those who are harassed in any way whatsoever have a legitimate LEGAL recourse for the settlement of their grievances. In an open court with a trier of the FACTS and with appellate courts to oversee them – their grievances can be redressed. That is a Blessing of Liberty.

The excuses come – the courts are crooked… it costs too much… no one will believe me … Well, in part its true, the system isn’t perfect; but, it is still the LAW and without the LAW there is anarchy. Remember ANYONE from our example? In anarchy, ANYONE who feels that they have been grieved (or even just someone else they don’t even know has been grieved and they somehow feel a kinship to those folks) – can go out in a public street and murder persons who are COPS, LEGAL representatives of the GOVERNMENT that ANYONE has sworn to support. ANYONE is murdering these INDIVIDUALS who are CITIZENS themselves with RIGHTS of their own and HUMAN BEINGS with people who love, need and will greatly miss them.

The Thin Blue Line is the symbol of law enforcement. It’s meaning is very appropriate today. The Thin Blue Line represents that very thin line between civilization and anarchy. Those who are flaunting the law are doing so by trying to destroy the only line that is preventing anarchy from reining in our streets. If injustice is perceived as widespread today just wait until anarchy erases the Thin Blue Line. Who will you call for help then?

For a person who is a citizen of the United States of America to say that another citizen need not obey the law against murder of a fellow human being only because other human beings of a similar job title may have offended, hurt or even killed someone illegally RATHER THAN saying that the citizen who is the aggrieved has a legal remedy and that remedy is the only appropriate avenue for the redress of grievances in a civilized society is, in effect, speaking treason because the ultimate result of such anarchist thinking is the demise of the United States.

In the first century A.D., Rome ruled the known world that is today most of Europe, the Mediterranean, Balkans, through the Middle East. The rulers were cruel and unjust. Local representatives of the government did whatever they pleased to whomever they pleased, including killing anyone who got in their way. A particularly fond target for harassment, threats, assaults, rapes, robberies and murder were Christians. Those who claimed the Name of Christ may as well as hung a target on their back with a death warrant in their pocket. Paul, a missionary and Apostle of the church was an outspoken, driven man. He faced the Roman persecution head-on and was beaten and jailed many times because of it. Paul wrote to the churches, specifically to the church in Rome and rallied them with how they should respond to the ‘open season’ that had been declared against them. Here are his words:

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:9-21 NKJV)

BOSNIA Intel Briefing Dec 2015

SECURITY CONSULTING INVESTIGATIONS, LLC INTEL BRIEFING FOUO
The following intelligence information is provided for clients of sci. it has been developed using open-source materials and may be disseminated.
***********DATELINE: BOSNIA SARAJEVO 23 Dec 2015*********

‘Eleven people were arrested. They are suspected of terrorism, financing and preparing a terrorist act as well as inciting candidates to go to the battlefields abroad,’ police say

Bosnian police on Tuesday launched an anti-terror raid in the capital Sarajevo and arrested 11 people suspected of having links to the ISIL group, officials said.
“Eleven people were arrested. They are suspected of terrorism, financing and preparing a terrorist act as well as inciting candidates to go to the battlefields abroad,” a police spokesman told AFP.
According to state-run FTV television, one of the leaders of Bosnia’s movement, Muric Kemal, was among those arrested.
“The objective of this major operation was to track down some 15 people who… are close to radical groups and structures of the ISIL, as well as people who are on the battlefields in Syria or Iraq,” national prosecutors in charge of terrorism said in a statement.
Searches were conducted at two places of prayer as well as at several homes used by the suspects, it said.
“Physical evidence of the links with the ISIL group structures were seized.”
The operation was conducted in several Sarajevo districts, including in Rajlovac, where two members of Bosnia’s armed forces were killed in November in a suspected terror attack by a man who then blew himself up.
Out of some 200 Bosnian nationals who joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq in 2012 and 2013, at least 26 have died while about 50 have returned to the Balkan country, according to the authorities.
Last year Bosnia adopted a new law providing for jail sentences of up to 20 years for extremists and their recruiters, since when the number leaving for the Middle East appears to have dropped off.
A radical Bosnian Islamic leader was sentenced by a local court in November to seven years in prison for inciting terrorism. Husein Bosnic was found guilty of encouraging his followers to fight alongside extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Around 40 percent of Bosnia’s population of 3.8 million people are Muslim, who overwhelmingly follow a moderate form of Islam. The rest of the population are mainly Orthodox and Catholic Christians.
*********DATELINE BOSNIA KOZLUK 9 DEC 2015*****************

World Bulletin / News Desk
Bosnian forensic experts have started exhuming the human remains from a recently uncovered mass grave believed to contain victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the war crime prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
“So far remains of at least 15 victims have been recovered,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
The mass grave was uncovered at Kozluk, a village some 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Srebrenica.
Some 8,000 Muslims were executed by Bosnian Serb forces as they captured this eastern Bosnian town in July 1995, at the end of the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war in Bosnia which claimed 100,000 lives.
“Some 1,000 Muslim men and adolescents from the Srebrenica region were executed at this place. No one survived this execution,” the prosecutor said, adding that some 200 victims remained unaccounted for.
Twenty years after the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, the remains of some 6,600 of the Srebrenica victims have been found, identified and buried, most of whom in a memorial centre located near the town.
But such exhumations have become rare events in recent years as the authorities claim to have no information on where the rest of the victims are buried.
The last large-scale exhumation around Srebrenica took place in 2010, when the remains of some 50 victims were found.
The site of the newly uncovered mass grave was unveiled by a Bosnian Serb, witness of the atrocities, Munira Subasic, president of an association of Srebrenica victims’ families, told AFP.
“This man came to talk to me in a small restaurant in Kozluk. He told me ‘I should tell you something. There is a mass grave nearby. I can’t sleep of guilty conscience’,” Subasic said.
Three other mass graves, holding the remains of with 340 victims were uncovered in the region of Kozluk in 1999 by investigators of The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), according to Lejla Cengic, a spokeswoman of Bosnia’s Institute for missing persons.
Hundreds of other victims of this massacre have been found in mass graves in other places.
The Srebrenica massacre has been acknowledged as genocide by two international courts.
**************DATELINE: BOSNIA Sarajevo 19 Nov 2015 ********

At least two Bosnian soldiers were killed and three civilians injured in an attack by a gunman in Sarajevo.
World Bulletin / News Desk
Two Bosnian soldiers were killed late Wednesday when a gunman opened fire near a barracks in Sarajevo, police said.
The man, who was armed with an automatic rifle, later killed himself as police surrounded his home on the city’s outskirts.
Enes Omeragic opened fire on a betting shop near the base in the Rajlovac neighborhood before firing on a bus, wounding the driver and two passengers, a Sarajevo police spokesman said.
The motive for the attack is unknown but Bosnia announced the security level at military bases would be raised throughout the country.
ANALYSIS:
The boiling pot that has been shaking, sometimes violently, rattling on the stove-top that is the security situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a nation of 3.829 million people divided along ethnic, religious and geographical lines. Even though the average life expectancy is well over 70, the health of the citizens is ravaged through chronic pollution, smoking that continues unabated, poverty and the inability to obtain adequate health-care. The unsafe streets, the saturation of the government and business by organized crime exacerbates the helplessness that many of the nations most impoverished feel. An unemployment rate in some cities tops 90 percent. The unemployment rate nationwide (according to 2013 figures) stands at 44.3%. That number is optimistic, gathering into the calculations subsidized government jobs that are temporary at best, corrupt at the worst; and the entrance into the military by some of those unable to find work. Bosnia holds the world’s highest unemployment rate for young persons at 57.5%.

Since the war in the 1990’s Since the war ended in 1995 about 150,000 young people have left Bosnia with an estimated 10,000 more leaving every year.

It is no wonder when on top of the unemployment, if it is possible to find work; the salaries that one will earn on average are reported to be 1327 BAM a month or in US dollars, $741.25. According to the experts, the cost of living in Bosnia is 52.53% lower than the U.S. The poverty level in the U.S. for a family of four is drawn at $23,850 a year. Taking 52.53% of that, the poverty line in Bosnia for a family of four would be $12,528.41. The average income for an employed person in Bosnia comes to $8,895.00 per year. That is a disparity of $3,633. If only 50 percent of the entire population can get work, how likely is any family of four to have TWO people with jobs?

Is there any wonder why ISIS, al Qaeda, organized crime syndicates and hosts of other nefarious types would find fallow ground for new recruits among the young people of Bosnia? It is a matter of survival.

The headlines of the last six-weeks will not dissipate but rather will grow more frequent, more frantic and more fatal. Watch for the continuing schism between the Serbs and the Muslims. Expect that the current government setup will begin to crumble even more rapidly than it already is and that the void created by looming anarchy will be filled by someone, from somewhere and most likely they will not have the best interests of the U.S. or the western world at heart.
The following sources were used in the preparation of this report:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/141008/bosnia-youth-unemployment-rate
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina
http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/166497/gunman-kills-two-bosnian-soldiers-in-sarajevo
http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/167205/new-srebrenica-mass-grave-uncovered
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/167675/bosnia-arrests-11-in-anti-terror-raid
http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?&loctype=1&loc=27
http://themoneyconverter.com/USD/BAM.aspx
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Bosnia+And+Herzegovina
*All figures are computed using data, if not specifically dated, from 2010 to 2015.

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