Blue Crab Boulevard

Steve Chapman points out the absurdity of recent statements by the Chicago Police Superintendent, Jody Weis. In response to a spate of gun violence in Chicago, Weis is - for completely unknown reasons - calling for a ban on "assault weapons." How many of the shootings involved that type of weapon? Exactly one.

If there are too many guns in Chicago, it's not because of any statutory oversight. The city has long outlawed the sale and possession of handguns. It also forbids assault weapons. If prohibition were the answer, no one would be asking the question.

The recent spate of killings gives a misleading impression. Since the peak years of the early 1990s, the number of murders in Chicago has fallen by more than half. In the first three months of this year, homicides were down by 1.1 percent. No one would describe the current murder rate as acceptable, but the city has made huge progress.

It has done so despite the alleged problem cited by Weis, which is the availability of guns, and particularly one type of gun. "There are just too many weapons here," he declared at a Sunday news conference. "Why in the world do we allow citizens to own assault rifles?"

Actually, in Chicago "we" don't allow citizens to own assault rifles. Elsewhere they are allowed for the same reason other firearms are permitted. The gun Weis villainized is a type of semiautomatic that has a fearsome military appearance but is functionally identical to many legal sporting arms.

And its bark is worse than its bite. As of March 31, there had been 87 homicides in the city. When I asked the Chicago Police Department how many of the murders are known to have involved assault rifles, the answer came back: one.

Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Citizens of that state cannot get a carry permit - period. The so-called assault weapons are nothing of the sort, either. Most Americans cannot own a weapon capable of full automatic fire. Yet Weis is misdirecting on the cause of Chicago's problem. Many people have pointed out that the "assault weapon" ban passed by the Clinton administration was really nothing but an ugly gun ban. Instead of blaming ugly guns, maybe Weis could try enforcing the laws already on the books and cracking down on the criminals. Just a thought.

UPDATE: The Agenda is out on full display as Bob Owens has already noted.

I'm sure that the Washington Post didn't do this intentionally, but they still managed to pull off a rather amusing juxtaposition of stories this morning. The irony should make you chuckle - or cry. First headline: Border Fence May Impede Wildlife.

TUCSON — The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the project's costs, feasibility and how well it will curb illegal immigration. But one of its most lasting impacts may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home.

Some wildlife researchers have grown so concerned about the consequences of bisecting hundreds of miles of rugged habitat that they have talked of engaging in civil disobedience to block the fence's construction.

"This wall is so asinine, and so wrong, I am one of a dozen scientists ready to lay our bodies down in front of tractors," Healy Hamilton, who directs the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information at the California Academy of Sciences, told colleagues at a recent scientific retreat here. "This is one thing we might be able to stop."

"Make it 13!" said Allison Jones, a conservation biologist at the Wild Utah Project, an advocacy group.

Hamilton and Jones have yet to throw themselves before bulldozers, but their call to arms reflects the researchers' growing fears that the wall will imperil species that, in Hamilton's words, "walk, fly or crawl across that border."

Ah, the concern is touching, of course. The irony, however is in the second article, detailing some wildlife that is coming across the porous southern border. Mexico's Drug Violence Spills Into U.S.

PUERTO PALOMAS, Mexico — Javier Emilio Pérez Ortega, a workaholic Mexican police chief, showed up at the sleepy, two-lane border crossing here last month and asked U.S. authorities for political asylum.

Behind him, law and order was vanishing fast. In the four months he had served as Puerto Palomas police chief, drug traffickers had threatened to kill him and his officers if they tried to block the flow of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States, his former colleagues said on condition of anonymity.

After a particularly menacing telephone call, his 10-man force resigned en masse. His bodyguards quit, too. Abandoned by his men and unable to trust the notoriously corrupt Mexican authorities, Pérez Ortega turned to the only place he believed he could find refuge — the United States, the former colleagues said.

As President Bush meets this week with Mexican President Felipe Calderón in New Orleans, the repercussions of Mexico's battle with drug cartels are increasingly gushing into the United States, giving rise to thorny new problems for Mexican and U.S. officials, as well as the millions of people who live along the border.

There is wildlife and there is wildlife. Mexican drug gangs are killing American Border Patrol agents and bullets are flying across the border in ever-increasing amounts. It would be nice if some of this particular wildlife could be diverted away from the border by a fence. 

Children playing in southwest Washington state found what appears to be a parachute buried in the ground in an area that the FBI once considered a likely area for hijacker "Dan Cooper" to have jumped near. The FBI has recovered the parachute and is asking the public for help in determining whether it is of the same type as Cooper is known to have been using when he jumped from the hijacked aircraft.

SEATTLE - The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said.
 
Children playing outside their home near Amboy found the chute's fabric sticking up from the ground in an area where their father had been grading a road, agent Larry Carr said Tuesday. They pulled it out as far as they could, then cut the parachute's ropes with scissors.

The children had seen recent media coverage of the case — the FBI launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery — and they urged their dad to call the agency.

"When we went to the public, the whole idea was that the public is going to bring the answers to us," Carr said. "This is exactly what we were hoping for."

It seemed a bit odd when the FBI reopened the old case, dating from 1971, but this is an unusual find. One cannot think of too many reasons why a parachute would be buried for legitimate reasons. This may be important or just another dead end. But something has turned up after all these years. Interesting.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged with perjury and a number of other counts. But the so-called "hip hop mayor" refuses to step down from office. Apparently, it is going to take some jail time to get rid of the guy.

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury and other offenses Monday — and got a stern lecture about the importance of telling the truth — after a trove of raunchy text messages contradicted his sworn denials of an affair with his chief aide.

The 37-year-old "Hip-Hop Mayor" who brought youth and vitality to the job in this struggling city of 900,000 could get up to 15 years in prison for perjury alone and would be automatically expelled from office if convicted.

Ignoring mounting demands that he step down, Kilpatrick said: "I look forward to complete exoneration once all the facts have been brought forth. I will remain focused on moving this city forward."

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy brought charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct against the popular but polarizing mayor. In announcing the charges, she delivered something of a civics lesson on the importance of telling the truth under oath.

"Some have suggested that the issues in this case are personal or private," said Worthy, a Democrat like the mayor. "Our investigation has clearly shown that public dollars were used, people's lives were ruined, the justice system severely mocked and the public trust trampled on."

She added: "This case is about as far from being a private matter as one can get."

Kudos to Kym Worthy for standing up for what's right here. Obviously, Kilpatrick thinks he can continue to get away with his behavior. One hopes fifteen years or so will make Detroit forget his very name.

Kathleen Ann Soliah, who the media insist on calling by her assumed name of Sara Jane Olson when they report about her, has been rearrested after being incorrectly paroled. She should not have been released, since it seems she had another year to serve even under the bizarre rules California uses to determine sentences and release dates.

State corrections officials re-arrested Sara Jane Olson on Saturday - five days after she was released - and announced that they intend to keep her in prison for another year.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said that officials miscalculated Olson's sentence and gave her a year's more time off her term than she deserved.

"We're launching an investigation to prevent this from happening again," Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said that Olson, the former Symbionese Liberation Army member who was convicted of killing Myrna Opsahl inside the lobby of a Carmichael bank in 1975 and of trying to bomb police cars in Los Angeles, was detained Friday night at Los Angeles International Airport as she was preparing to fly to Minnesota, where her family lives.

I Pulled out my copy of a book titled The Voices of Guns by Vin McLellan and Paul Avery about the Symbionese Liberation Army who Kathleen Soliah belonged to. The woman killed in a botched bank robbery where Soliah was present - as a participant, and not for the good guys - was Myrna Lee Opsahl. Her husband was on staff at the Carmichael American River Hospital where she was rushed after being shot. Despite desperate efforts by the staff to get him there in time, Myrna Opsahl died before he could reach her side.

Kathleen Soliah can wait to reunite with the family she lied to gain.

Ouch. A very sharp observation from Bruce Webster about what might be a real problem - even more than he already has - for Eliot "The Whorable" Spitzer. What if he was trying to kill off competition for his favored hookers while he was Attorney General?

(Filed under Crime and Politics. Yes, I know, that's brought to you by your Department of Redundancy Department.) 

Eliot "Happy With Hookers" Spitzer turns out to be a real big spender. In fact, he may have ponied up as much as $80,000 keeping his hookers happy.

ALBANY, N.Y. - With pressure mounting on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said Tuesday he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars — perhaps as much as $80,000 — with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.

Spitzer and his family, meanwhile, remained secluded in their Fifth Avenue apartment, while Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him. A death watch of sorts began at the state Capitol, where whispers of "What have you heard?" echoed through nearly every hallway of the ornate, 109-year-old building.

On Monday, when the scandal broke, prosecutors said in court papers that Spitzer had been caught on a wiretap spending $4,300 with the Emperors Club VIP call-girl service, with some of the money going toward a night with a prostitute named Kristen, and the rest as credit toward future trysts. The papers also suggested that Spitzer had done this before.

Speaking of condition of anonymity, a law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer, in fact, had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the Emperors Club. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80,000. But it was not clear over what period of time that was spent.

Well, he certainly was a good customer. A lousy husband and father, though. But Kinky Eliot still has not resigned as of this posting, either. If he does not do so, I rather doubt he will survive impeachment and trial. There really cannot be much support left for the sanctimonious Spitzer. 

I first caught wind of this story in the British press. Now it has hit ABC News. A California doctor faces charges of hastening the death of a disabled man in order to take the man's organs for transplant. Medical experts are frantic, worried that this will make even more people reluctant to become organ donors.

A court case in which a doctor has been charged with hastening a disabled patient's death, in order to harvest his kidneys and liver, has sparked concern among ethicists and organ transplant experts alike.

According to a report in the New York Times, preliminary hearings began Wednesday for Dr. Hootan C. Roozrokh. The California doctor faces three felony counts, including the charge that he prescribed excessive and improper doses of drugs to 25-year-old Ruben Navarro in 2006. Navarro suffered from a rare metabolic disorder that had left him disabled and brain damaged.

Prosecutors allege that Roozrokh prescribed additional doses of sedative drugs in order to hasten Navarro's death and harvest his organs sooner. However, when Navarro died on Feb. 4 at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, his organs had already deteriorated to the point that they could not be used.

Roozrokh has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If he is convicted on all counts, he could face up to eight years in prison. 

Here's a report from the Telegraph that describes the doctor's alleged actions:

Roozrokh arrived at the hospital as part of a transplant team. He stayed in the room while Mr Navarro's respirator was removed and ordered the drugs, according to a nurse who was present.

The nurse also told police that Roozrokh asked another nurse to find and administer more "candy" - drugs - when Navarro did not die immediately. According to protocol, transplant teams are not allowed into a prospective donor's room before they are declared dead.

The case comes amid debate in Britain over allowing a system of presumed consent, where patients would be required to opt out of organ donation. Civil liberty groups have expressed concerns that presumed consent might rob individuals of the right to decide the fate of their body.

The case will make some people more reluctant to be donors, of course. The experts are worried for good reason. There should have been better controls in place - obviously, Roozrokh should never have been in that room, much less issuing orders to nurses.

A shopkeeper in the British town of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, fought back against a career criminal who was in the process of trying to carjack the man. Despite being stabbed himself in several places, the shopkeeper, Tony Singh, managed to wrestle the knife away from Liam Kilroe, a wanted fugitive with warrants out for his arrest. Singh stabbed Kilroe, killing him.

The police then promptly arrested Singh and charges of murder are being considered.

Kilroe had been given bail last year despite pleas he remain in custody after his trial for the two earlier robberies collapsed.

Lancashire Police issued a warrant for his arrest last week because he failed to appear in court.

But days later, on Sunday night, he was still on the run and targeted Mr Singh's late-night corner shop in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Kilroe suddenly appeared at the shopkeeper's car window and smashed it with the butt of his knife before putting his arms in the car and demanding the takings.

Mr Singh refused to give up without a fight and they tussled for several minutes before Kilroe was stabbed in the chest.

Officers later found the shopkeeper in his car with stab wounds to his back and neck and the robber's dead body on the floor nearby.

They immediately detained Mr Singh on suspicion of murder and questioned him for hours after he had been given hospital treatment.

His knife was later recovered at the scene, but it is still not clear whether the shopkeeper told police he had stabbed the robber in self-defence or if it was an accident.

Mr Singh was eventually freed on bail after several eye-witnesses backed up his story that Kilroe had been trying to rob the shop and was stabbed with his own knife.

But Lancashire Police are now sending a file to the CPS for lawyers to consider whether murder, manslaughter or assault charges should be brought against him. 

The Daily Mail reports that people who know Singh are outraged that the police are even considering charges against him. Let's hope they talk some sense into the authorities. But it is sickening that the police even arrested him in the first place.  

When authorities finally discovered the embezzlements in the Washington, DC tax office, they initially reported that about $16 million had been stolen by Harriette Walters and her accomplices. At the time, the chief financial officer for the city called the thefts "immaterial."  Investigators now believe the total stolen money is probably closer to $50 million.  Call it immaterial with interest.

Federal authorities think that nearly $50 million was stolen in an embezzlement scheme run out of the D.C. tax office, more than double the amount they had previously uncovered, four sources close to the investigation said.

The corruption at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue went undetected much longer than initially thought, the sources said, extending back almost 20 years. In addition to tracking the missing money, authorities are looking into gifts suspected of being provided to co-workers and others by the woman accused of leading the scam, former tax office manager Harriette Walters.

The scheme is the largest corruption case in the city's history. Witnesses have told investigators that Walters, who is accused of issuing larger and larger bogus tax refund checks over the years, lavishly spread the wealth, the sources said.

Security guards got cash, office mates got free meals and virtually anyone who made a request got something, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Two of the sources, who are familiar with the accounts of witnesses, said the gifts included $35,000 to a co-worker who wanted to remodel her house, $25,000 in cash and luxury gifts to an assistant whom Walters began mentoring and $15,000 each to help two co-workers' daughters pay for renovations and credit card bills.

Walters repeatedly lent huge chunks of cash to colleagues with no requests for repayment, the two sources quoted witnesses as saying. And, said the sources, citing witnesses, Walters paid for her goddaughter's college tuition and a New Jersey home for $855,000. The goddaughter's attorney declined to comment on the case.

Since Walters was arrested in November, authorities have issued subpoenas for financial records, interviewed dozens of witnesses and built a more complete picture of what happened, the sources said.

Prosecutors told a judge soon after Walters was arrested that they had confirmed she had helped steal $20 million in fraudulent refund checks since 2004. But the estimated losses have been growing as federal investigators have delved further into records at the Office of Tax and Revenue and found dozens more fraudulent checks made out to city employees. Sources said that the total is nearing $50 million. 

It would also appear that a lot of tax office employees were getting an awful lot of money from Walters and never questioned how a mid-level bureaucrat was able to afford that kind of largess. The coworkers appear to be a singularly incurious lot. So do all the officials above Walters who never noticed $50 million disappearing. Prosecutors are looking at charging a number of people at this point under the legal doctrine of "willful blindness," and will argue that these people should have known they were watching a huge crime in progress - but chose not to as long as the money kept flowing.