Spingola Files
The sleuth with the proof takes a look at real cases
Archive for Citizen Talk
May 4, 2013 at 12:14 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Sometimes, there are people who—for whatever reason—just get it right. They’ve either found a way to communicate a message that clicks with the American public’s 24-hour news cycle attention span or have gone the extra mile to assist those no longer with a voice. To acknowledge their achievements, a new feature—SF Shout Outs—debuts today; whereby, the crew at Spingola Files’ HQ administers a pat on the back to those who’ve managed to see the forest through the trees.
Coming in at #1, WISN and WIBA radio talk-show host Vicki McKenna.
After the Boston bombings, the mainstream media cluttered the airwaves with excuses and over analysis. For years, others in the media have regurgitated the nanny-state, Michael Bloomberg line that, as a nation, Americans needed to let go of their reasonable expectations of privacy in the name of security. The failure of the FBI’s Next Generation Identification biometric facial recognition software—part of a $1.2 billion initiative—to locate the bombers, both of whom where in the system’s database, as well as the federal government’s inability to link information about one of the bombers provided by Russian and Saudi authorities, is proof that the federal government bureaucracy is broken.
In the days after the blast, Vicki McKenna made the case that high-tech initiatives failed to protect Boston, while noting that our nation has spent $500 billion creating a surveillance state that monitors Americans, 99.999 percent of whom will never commit an act of terror, while ignoring the obvious: radical Islamic Jihadists.
Climbing the charts at #2, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Rarely, in the course of our nation’s history, has a first-term senator impacted the overall psyche of the U.S. Senate in the manner Cruz has. During a committee hearing, the freshman senator called out and make a fool of Sen. Diane Feinstein, who, absent a coherent reply, did what those without the law or the facts on their side do—she personally attacked her opponent.
This week, Cruz challenged Vice President Joe Biden to an hour long debate on crime control. “If Vice President Biden really believes that the facts are on his side … then I would think he would welcome the opportunity to talk about the sources, the causes of violent crime, who is carrying it out, and how we can do everything humanly possible to stop it.” Cruz correctly noted that one of Biden’s ideas on self-defense, discharging a shotgun into the air, “is very useful, if it so happens that you’re being attacked by a flock of geese.”
While advocating a senate filibuster on gun control, Cruz claimed some senior GOP senators communicated their disapproval by shouting at him. Unfazed, the Texas senator referred to these been-drinking-the-beltway Kool-Aid-too- long politicos as “squishes.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/04/29/ted-cruz-mocks-squishes-in-republican-party/?tid=pm_politics_pop
UPDATE: “I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years,” Democrat Party strategist James Carville, appearing on ABC’s This Week, said about Sen. Ted Cruz. “Well, there’s one thing this guy is not – he ain’t squishy, not in the least.”
At #3, former South Milwaukee native Kyle Olson.
Working behind the scenes in southern California’s entertainment industry—institutions dominated by celebrities that carry water for high-profile political causes—Kyle Olson is using his talents and abilities to speak for a person no longer with a voice—Milwaukee homicide victim Ashleigh Love, a 19-year-old woman gunned down inside her northwest side home in 2009. Olson has gotten together with the Love family to create “Letters to Ashleigh,” a documentary he hopes will foster a dialog about senseless acts of violence.
http://www.milwaukeemag.com/article/522013-ForYourConsiderationLetterstoAshleigh
Kyle Olson’s efforts are very important, as raising the profile of a criminal investigation can jog the memories of witnesses or, as one’s station in life changes, cause someone with additional details to come forward. Like any other venture, however, the making of this documentary requires financial capital.
In the past, I’ve communicated with the Love family. They are caring parents in search of justice and in need of the inner peace that comes with closure. If you find it in your heart, take that jar full of change to the bank and then make a contribution to this worthy cause by visiting the below link.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/letters-to-ashleigh
Moreover, in an effort to assist this worthwhile cause, I will donate my portion of the proceeds from any sales of Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I & II, purchased from the link below, to Ashleigh’s documentary.
https://www.createspace.com/4189215
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest print edition only book, Best of the Spingola Files, Volumes I & II, is now available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Volume-Steven/dp/0979683998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364048098&sr=8-1&keywords=best+of+the+spingola+files
If your organization is on the lookout for an outstanding guest speaker, please consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation.
For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com and click the “seminars & presentations” icon.
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
April 10, 2013 at 1:06 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Tonight, at 9 PM (Central Time), I will make an appearance on the Investigation Discovery network’s television series Dark Minds.
Crime author M. William Phelps, criminal profiler John Kelly, and I, revisit the Colonial Parkway murders. Occurring near historic Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1986 – 1989, three couples were found murdered and another couple disappeared on or near the Colonial Parkway.
In 2010, at the request of the victims’ families, the Spingola Files visited Yorktown to profile these complex and troubling cold case homicides. The Colonial Parkway murders are also the subject of a chapter in my recently released book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I & II, currently available at Amazon.com.
Police Officers and the Gun Control Debate
Courtesy of Steve Prestegard, SF was sent this link from policeone.com detailing the results of an extensive survey of 15,000 police officers’ beliefs on gun control matters.
http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legislation-Law-Enforcement/articles/6183787-PoliceOnes-Gun-Control-Survey-11-key-findings-on-officers-thoughts/re
Yesterday, I was contacted by a student writer about the coming gun control debate in the U.S. Senate. The writer asked if any of the proposed changes might have prevented the Newtown tragedy. Here’s my response:
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In the Newtown shooting, none of the gun control measures being proposed would have likely prevented the shooting. First, the rifle was not lawfully purchased by the shooter. He took it, by force, from his mother. As such, a background check, even an expanded background check for private sales or for mental health, would not have prevented the perpetrator from obtaining the firearm.
Moreover, the term “assault weapon,” as defined in law enforcement circles, is a fully automatic rifle (i.e. those that dispatch more than one round with each pull of the trigger). In most states and under federal law, only a handful of people can possess such weapons. The “assault weapons” politicians and some police chiefs seek to ban are semi-automatic rifles, which fire one round for every pull of the trigger. Most hunting rifles and many shotguns used for hunting are semi-automatic. The “assault weapons ban” applies to some semi-automatic rifles but not others. My guess is that some senators [those supporting gun control measures] seek to ban some guns because the look dastardly, but, in reality, they are no more dangerous than 30-06 or .308 hunting rifles. The AR-15 is simply a .22 long (a .223). It is popular because it has very little recoil. The AR-15′s operation is no different than a standard hunting rifle, with one exception: it looks mean. If looks could kill, well, then the AR-15 would merit banning and not a .308, which is a much deadlier round (used by many police snipers).
The magazine capacity matter is probably a moot issue, too. If the government limits a magazine to seven rounds, what would prevent a shooter from bringing 10 magazines? Moreover, since an active shooter is intent on killing many people and then taking his own life, why wouldn’t this type of individual choose to violate the law and procure and use magazines that are unlawful to possess?
The only way any of these gun laws have even a minute chance of working is outright confiscation. That being said the country has ten times as many firearms as it does undocumented immigrants. The same politicians who advocate gun confiscation (Gov. Cuomo in New York, for example) are the same pols who claim it is impossible to confiscate and deport undocumented immigrants. Guns, of course, are much easier to conceal than immigrants, especially since firearms do not work, rent housing, or attend school. Under outright confiscation, it would take 50 years before many of the guns would disappear. Like the do-gooder intentions of prohibition, an outright ban would cause the price of firearms to increase to the point where gun runners would traffic them into the country in the same manner illegal drugs—which are banned—are now brought in.
Personally, I would like to see more done in the area of mental health. It’s tricky, though, because good people could argue about the criteria used for the background check. For example, should the government ban any person who takes Zoloft from possessing firearms? Is so, about five to ten percent of police officers would probably be unable to carry. Even if a consensus could be reached on the criteria, what about a person’s medical privacy? Would people in need of mental health services seek assistance if they knew that their names would end-up in a government database? Each solution tends to create another problem, which is why I believe this area deserves more research before solutions are proposed by grandstanding politicians.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest print edition only book, Best of the Spingola Files, Volumes I & II, is now available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Volume-Steven/dp/0979683998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364048098&sr=8-1&keywords=best+of+the+spingola+files
If your organization is on the lookout for an outstanding guest speaker, please consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation.
For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com and click the “seminars & presentations” icon.
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
March 30, 2013 at 4:04 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Sadly and yet predictably, the body of 24-year-old Nick Wilcox—a Milwaukee resident last seen alive celebrating New Year’s at a pub on Old World Third Street—came to the surface of the Milwaukee River on Thursday. Two Milwaukee police officers observed the young man’s body floating in the river adjacent to Pierre Marquette Park.
In my new book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I & II, I spent a chapter, entitled “Leaving for College? Take Some Common Sense Along, too,” discussing the risks involved with binge drinking from the standpoint of personal protection. I understand that the last people a teenager or someone in their early 20s wants to listen to is their parents. As such, encourage your child to take the advice of a former homicide detective—one who has scraped human remains off of sidewalks and tavern floors.
In Oshkosh, La Crosse, and Milwaukee, highly intoxicated men, for whatever reason, are drawn to bodies of water like aluminum to magnets. There are three easy steps young people can take to make sure that, after a rough night on the town, they wake-up in a safe environment.
Although DWD (drowning while drunk) tends of be a male phenomenon, women, if over served, sometimes become sexual victims. Having had candid conversations with a handful of coppers who routinely patrol Milwaukee’s Water Street, sober men—too cheap to pay a cover or buy a drink—often stand outside nightclubs at bar time waiting to take advantage of the alcohol-fueled inhibitions of inebriated women.
When planning a night out, it is important to come-up with a plan to ensure the safety of those you care about. This is serious business, so take my advice, and read the tips I provide in Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I & 2, available now at Amazon.com.
Is the FBI Being Wronged by the Bill of Rights?
In a free society, judicial oversight ensures that government agents have a legitimate basis to believe criminal activity is occurring before seizing personal papers, eavesdropping on private communications, or intruding in private domiciles. Probable cause—the quantum of evidence that would lead a reasonable peace officer to believe that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or might be committed—is a relatively low burden to meet.
This burden of proof, however, is apparently not low enough for the FBI. At an American Bar Association luncheon, the FBI’s general counsel, Andrew Weissman, told those in attendance that the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) limits agents’ abilities to conduct surveillance of some Web-based communications, such as Google’s g-mail.
“We’re making the ability to intercept communications with a court order increasingly obsolete,” Weissman said, while lamenting that “criminals” make use of some Internet applications to communicate. He noted that a “top priority this year” for the FBI is congressional approval or an executive action that permits federal law enforcement to conduct surveillance of World-Wide Web password accessible accounts without a court order.
No doubt, Constitutional protections sometimes make gathering evidence more difficult, which is precisely why the founding father’s ratified the Fourth Amendment. If the FBI believes that the activities of those involved in criminal activity merit a significant threat to public safety, then its agents should conduct the necessary due diligence and seek judicial orders.
In 2008, congress approved several amendments to the 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
“Specifically, the new legislation dramatically expands the government’s ability to wiretap without meaningful judicial oversight, by redefining “oversight” so that the feds can drag their feet on getting authorization almost indefinitely,” noted ARS Technica reporter Timothy Lee. “It also gives the feds unprecedented new latitude in selecting eavesdropping targets, latitude that could be used to collect information on non-terrorist-related activities like P2P copyright infringement and online gambling. In short, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 opens up loopholes so large that the feds could drive a truck loaded down with purloined civil liberties through it.”
And what would discourage federal law enforcement from continually asking congress and/or the President to incrementally chip away at the privacy protections of Americans, since lawmakers have winked-and-nodded at virtually every request to marginalize the Fourth Amendment since 2001?
‘Gimme, gimme, gimme,’ continues to be the mantra of law enforcement officials as they seek to curtail the civil liberties of Americans in the name of public safety. It is time for an adult in the room to stand-up, draw a line in the sand, and tell these officials that, if they can’t get the job done the way others have managed to do so since 1791 (the year the Bill of Rights were ratified), then it is time to step aside.
Soon-to-be Released Novel Focuses on the Paranormal and the Police
Recently, I was asked to review a substantial portion of the manuscript for Mitchell Nevin’s soon-to-be released novel, which explores the intersection where law enforcement and the paranormal meet. Most detectives are extremely skeptical of psychics, although a handful insist that those with ‘special abilities’ have proved helpful. Nevin’s new novel is based primarily in Milwaukee, Chicago, Eau Claire and the Twin Cities, although several other towns gain mention. The plot is concise, free-flowing, and well researched.
According to my publisher, the new novel is still a work in progress. If readers have had any experiences with psychics—good, bad or indifferent—please visit www.mitchellnevin.com and feel free to comment, as the author is still interested in gathering input.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest print edition only book, Best of the Spingola Files, Volumes I & II, is now available at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Volume-Steven/dp/0979683998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364048098&sr=8-1&keywords=best+of+the+spingola+files
If your organization is on the lookout for an outstanding guest speaker, please consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation.
For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com and click the “seminars & presentations” icon.
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
February 14, 2013 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Late last week, SF encouraged its readers to contact their state representatives in an effort to regulate the use of drones in Wisconsin.
One such reader recently received a reply from state Rep. Chris Kapenga, an assemblyman from the 99th District in Waukesha County’s lake country area, concerning drone deployment.
“I will continue to monitor this situation at a state level,” Kapenga replied, “but do not currently feel the need to address this issue in Wisconsin,” even though the reader forwarded this video of ARGIS—a new camera that provides totalitarian surviellance over a 15-mile radius—to Rep. Kapenga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QGxNyaXfJsA
This is the kind of technology the KGB and the East German Stasi could only dream of. Unfortunately, unless our state and federal lawmakers have the willingness to stand-up and say ‘No’ to the drone lobby’s special interest donations and/or to the overzealous, big brother-wing of law enforcement, our freedoms, as we know them now, will soon vanish.
Please feel free to forward any correspondence received from elected officials concerning Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs, a.k.a. drones) to me. SF will note the responses herein and maintain a tally sheet to determine which politicians support freedom or a Soviet-style surveillance state.
The Dorner Deal
Yesterday, I appeared on Today’s TMJ4 news to discuss the demise of Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer gone rogue. To watch the video, please visit:
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/191143631.html
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
February 10, 2013 at 4:19 am · Filed under Citizen Talk
This comes to us courtesy of a friend of SF, liberty activist Kaye Beach. Please take a few minutes to watch his video about ARGIS—a drone surveillance system that enables 24/7 surveillance of 15 square miles of any city with the data retained and stored for up to 10 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QGxNyaXfJsA
This technology is scary. If our state legislatures do not get onboard and prohibit drone surveillance absent a court order, freedom, as we know it in America, will die on the vine.
When speaking about the intrusive nature of high-technology, I have noticed that some of those present seem to shrug their heads as if to say, ‘It is here and there is nothing we can do about it.’
Americans should never concede their liberties to the world depicted in Orwell’s novel 1984.
In Olmsted et al vs. the United States (1928), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that wiretapping, absent a court order, was perfectly legal. Why? Because the court determined that telephone companies actually owned the lines, which meant that the renters of the lines—those who used the telephone—did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5577544660194763070&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
Since conversations of a very personal nature occur over telephone lines, Americans demanded that Congress act to protect their privacy from unwarranted government intrusion. In response, the Communications Act of 1934—landmark legislation that prohibited wiretapping of any kind absent a court order—became the law of the land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Act_of_1934
Now is the time to get on the horn and call your state and federal representatives to demand that legislation restricting the use of drones be propose and passed.
So far, only one American city, Charlottesville, Virginia, has prohibited the use of Unmanned Ariel Aircraft absent a court order or exigent circumstances.
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/relying_on_rutherford_institute_model_resolution_charlottesville_becomes_fi
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
January 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
At a time when the U.S. is, according to President Obama, “winding down two wars,” why did Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suddenly feel the need to clear the way for women to serve in combat?
Reports suggest the change might open as many as 230,000 combat billets to women.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/women-in-combat_n_2535954.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D260883
Is the DOD’s move another step in the direction of gender equality or should a skeptical public read between the lines on the lookout for a hidden agenda?
Although Secretary Panetta’s move will undoubtedly be applauded by groups championing the rights of women, legal experts predict that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment will likely require women, when attaining the age of 18, to register for the selective service (that’s the military draft for those too young to recall such a thing).
Federal law currently requires all American male citizens to register for the selective service at age 18, even if they have prior military experience. If they fail to do so, they are ineligible for a host of benefits, including guaranteed student loans.
But, why now—at a time when American military contingents in Iraq and Afghanistan are noticeably shrinking—would the DOD feel the need to expand the ranks of those eligible for combat readiness?
In November 2012, the Jerusalem Post published a report premised on a scenario created by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) simulating the geopolitical response to a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iran.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=290357
Many military analysts believe that an Israeli attack to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities would likely have a six day window before the allies of Islamic republic—primarily Russia and China—would threaten to send in forces and expand the conflict. While the United States would use it’s military and diplomatic resources to defend Israel, if the conflict is not contained, it might engulf the entire Middle East and ignite another world war.
Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pushed American military reserve units to the brink of burnout, the U.S. military would likely need at least 500,000 bodies to fill-in its ranks during a protracted military conflict involving another world power.
Many of these military combat billets, such as those aboard naval ships and others in the Air Force, could quickly and easily be filled by women, freeing-up males for infantry duty in the Army and Marine Corps.
No matter what the political class claims in public, an war in the Middle East would likely trigger the implementation of the selective service draft for both men and women, which is probably why the Pentagon is lifting its ban on the role of women in combat. The pool of potential combat enlistees, as well as those now eligible for the draft, just instantly doubled.
More on the Big Brother Technological Front
Earlier this month, SF chastised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for their support of Orwellian policies that have slowly turned the Empire State and the Big Apple into a virtual electronic iron curtain.
http://www.badgerwordsmith.com/spingolafiles/2013/01/12/the-sorry-state-of-new-yorks-nannies/
Now the NYPD is testing a new device that allows its officers to detect concealed weapons on a person simply walking down the street. This instrument tests for “terahertz radiation,” which translates into heat being measured from the body. A reduction in the level of body heat when blocked by an item, such as a concealed handgun, will result in the object being outlined on the instrument’s monitor.
Having chided the NYPD in an earlier post for its random stop-and-frisk policy—one that a federal judge recently ruled violates the Fourth Amendment—this new device will likely prevent otherwise innocent parties—at least those suspected of carrying weapons—from being stopped and searched. Yet the question remains: is it a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches when a government agent—absent a reasonable suspicion of wrong doing—randomly points an object in one’s direction in order to see through their clothing?
Why Trusting the Government to Protect Your Privacy is Bad Policy
In Wisconsin, Gov. Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen are on a crusade to expand the use of DNA collection. Wisconsin law currently permits law enforcement to collect DNA samples from those convicted of felonies. The governor and the attorney general now want the legislature to approve a measure that would require those arrested for a felony or convicted of any misdemeanor, no matter how minor, to submit a DNA sample.
“As attorney general, I am committed to protecting the privacy of offenders’ genetic information,” Van Hollen wrote in an Op-Ed published in various state newspapers. “My proposal does not change any restrictions that limit the release or use of the collected specimens or DNA profiles for any purpose other than legitimate criminal justice purposes. Further, this proposal also contains provisions that require the CLB to destroy DNA specimens and purge the related profile in the DNA data bank of those offenders whose DNA has been collected at arrest and who were not charged with the crime, or, if charged, were not convicted of a crime.”
In reality, however, the attorney general is being a little disingenuous, as his proposal, if enacted by the legislature, would immediately dispatch collected DNA samples to CODIS—the federal government’s national DNA databank. While the state may purge a particular profile from its DNA database, it will take an act of congress to purge the same DNA sample from CODIS.
Moreover, a recent report from Florida paints a troubling picture of abuse that the government promised it would prohibit. A report from the Orlando Sentinel spotlights the unlawful access of information obtained from the State of Florida’s Driving and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) by law enforcement officers.
One police officer in Florida unlawfully used DAVID to check on the information of a bank teller he had flirted with by conducting a search of her first name, place of employment, and race (the DAVID system is apparently very expansive). In another instance, over 20 searches for information pertaining to Casey Anthony occurred unrelated to a sanctioned investigation.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-law-enforcement-access-databases-20130119,0,7247843.story?page=2
In today’s politically charged environment, one can only imagine how government agents—those with tentacles to either political party—might misuse information contained in a DNA profile to blackball a citizen who dares challenge a member of the political class.
Such was the case with Joe the Plumber, who simply asked a question of candidate Obama during a 2008 campaign stop in Ohio. Within hours, a Democrat Party hack, who was also the director of a governmental agency, accessed a State of Ohio database, unlawfully obtained Joe’s personal information, and leaked the details.
But instead of firing the operative who unlawfully violated Joe the Plumber’s privacy, Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) gave the perpetrator, Helen Jones-Kelley, the Ohio Director of the Department of Job and Family Services, a slap-on-the-wrist suspension.
http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/9406901/editorial-fire-her-for-leaking-joe-the-plumbers-records
Personal information in the hands of the government is only a few key strokes away from the eyes of the nearest political operative, which is why putting one’s faith in a politician’s promise to protect personal privacy is akin to trusting a thief with a credit card—the difference being that the thief might actually get prosecuted.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
January 17, 2013 at 9:30 am · Filed under Citizen Talk
Young children allegedly killed in a U.S. drone attack
The day after President Obama held a press conference to announce 23 new executive orders pertaining to gun violence, some statistics reveal that ‘drone control’ might result in more innocent lives being saved than a U.S. ban on high-powered rifles of all types.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, a total of 358 Americans were killed by rifles in 2010.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls
In the same year, it is estimated, on the high end, that 1,028 individuals were killed by U.S. drone attacks. While U.S. government data on the use of both foreign and domestically deployed drones remains classified, the New American Foundation estimates that 61 of those killed were civilians or “unknowns,” while 960 of the deceased were “militants.” Other sources claim that the Obama administration classifies “militants” as any adult male eligible for military service and/or any non-government representative in possession of a firearm.
http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones
Other organizations, such as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, claim the Obama administration has used drone strikes to target those attending funerals and rescuers seeking to assist those injured in drone attacks.
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/
A report from the left-wing magazine Mother Jones—typically an advocate for Obama administration policies—claims that only two percent of those targeted in drone attacks were hardened terrorists, which means, if just half of those who died in drone attacks in 2010 were soft targets or collateral deaths, then more civilians died as a result of U.S. drone attacks than were killed by rifles in the United States.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/01/military-drone-afghan-success-rate-uav
A hunch says Rachel Maddow will conveniently ignore these statistics when discussing the tragic deaths of young children.
SPEAKING OF DRONES…
Oklahoma is attempting to make the state a ‘drone free enterprise zone.’ A friend of SF, liberty activist Kaye Beach, appears in this television segment and makes a great point: before deploying drones domestically–equipped with infrared cameras than can see inside our homes–state legislatures should pass laws that criminalize the misuse of drones when used to violate our privacy absent exigent circumstances or a court order.
http://www.okcfox.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kokh_vid_9235.shtml
The Rutherford Institute produced this video highlighting the threat non-regulated drones pose to individual liberty and personal privacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KNlHLKCJB0
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
January 12, 2013 at 1:30 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Since the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School, certain politicians, police chiefs, and talking heads have, like chameleons after an election, began to show their true colors on where they stand on the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
The debate over self-defense, government tyranny, and individual liberty, has spotlighted two of New York’s prominent big government, nanny-state politicians, namely Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael “Big Brother” Bloomberg.
Bloomberg, whose administration has transformed the Big Apple into a virtual police state, is clamoring for gun control (really gun confiscation), soda rationing, and, believe it or not, restrictions on pain medications for patients in “the city hospitals we control.”
A wealthy blowhard with armed security, Bloomberg obviously believes that the government—as opposed to those of us who get up every morning, go to work, pay our bills, and live our lives the way we sit fit—knows best.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that that Bloomberg’s police department’s policy of simply stopping and frisking minorities outside of private residential buildings was unconstitutional.
“While it may be difficult to say where, precisely, to draw the line between constitutional and unconstitutional police encounters, such a line exists,” wrote federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin, “and the N.Y.P.D. has systematically crossed it when making trespass stops outside TAP buildings in the Bronx.”
Ask any instructor of criminal law: the legal standard to conduct a stop-and-frisk is a reasonable and articulable suspicion that a person is armed. The last time I checked, New York City had not succeeded from the union, which means the Fourth Amendment is still applicable in Bloomberg’s fiefdom.
Bloomberg has also worked in partnership with the private sector to create a surveillance state that makes the dreadful tale of Orwell’s 1984 pale in comparison. In August, the mayor announced that the NYPD and Microsoft had partnered to create the “Domain Awareness System”—a network that will fuse data from facial recognition software, public and private surveillance cameras, automated license plate readers, radiation detectors, and chemical sensors, to create stored dossiers on individuals absent a reasonable suspicion of wrong doing.
“If a person has had radiation treatment for cancer and walks by a stationary censor or a copper with a detector,” one person in the know recently told me, “the NYPD will poke its nose into that person’s private life and their name will end up a database”—HIPAA be damned.
Not to be out done on the crackdown on individual liberty is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“I don’t think a legitimate huntsman is going to say I need an assault weapon to go hunting,” Cuomo told Fred Dicker of radio 1300 AM in Albany.
And, if the governor were to aptly apply the actual definition of an “assault weapon,” he would be correct, as an “assault rifle” is one that fires more than one round with a single pull of the trigger—currently a felony under federal law unless the person in possession of such a weapon is licensed, a certified law enforcement officer, or engaged in authorized military exercises.
Moreover, Gov. Cuomo, who fancies himself as a 2016 contender for president, is advocating the seizure of firearms from law-abiding citizens.
“Confiscation could be an option,” Cuomo told Albany radio station WGDJ. “Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun, but permit it.”
In the America that is New York State, individuals will apparently soon need a permit to exercise their Constituional rights–a sad state of affairs in a state that is slowly morphing into an Orwellian abyss.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I fear the possibility of a tyranny rising in the country in the next 50 to 100 years. Let me tell you something, Piers. The fact that my grandparents and great-grandparents in Europe didn’t fear that is why they’re now ashes in Europe. This kind of leftist revisionist history where there’s no fear of democracy going userpatious or tyrannical, is just that. It’s fictitious.”
BEN SHAPIRO—during a heated exchange with CNN’s Piers Morgan that the Second Amendment is a check on government tyranny.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2013
December 31, 2012 at 2:28 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
On his first day in office, President Barak Obama promised to “usher in a new era of open government.” Many advocates of federal government transparency, however, believe the Obama administration has went further than his predecessor, George W. Bush, to seal the doors of the federal bureaucracy from public scrutiny.
In 2008, candidate Obama promised to close Gitmo—the U.S. terrorist detention center in Cuba, and claimed, that if elected, his administration would give terrorist suspects trials in civilian courts. The Obama campaign further promised to “revisit” the USA Patriot Act “to ensure that there is real and robust oversight of tools like National Security Letters, sneak-and-peek searches, and the use of the material witness provision.”
As 2012 comes to a close, nearly three months after President Obama was reelected, his administration has not only failed fulfill any of the aforementioned 2008 campaign promises, it has, instead, responded like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on steroids.
In 2007, liberal newspaper columnists ripped the Bush administration for water boarding—a technique that simulates the drowning of a person under interrogation—by rightfully claiming this tactic violated the protocols of the Geneva Convention. The vast majority of these same columnists have since remained silent as the Obama administration has chosen to simply assassinate terror suspects, including American citizens, absent due process, as if assassination is somehow morally superior to so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’
A post by liberal blogger Taylor Tyler, entitled “A Liberal Argument Against Barak Obama,” spotlights the 180 degree reality of Obama’s campaign rhetoric and his policies.
“While Bush favored the capture and indefinite detention of suspects,” Tyler notes, “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (otherwise known as drones) are Obama’s go to weapon in the War on Terror. Drone use began under Bush and greatly increased under Obama, with drone related deaths sharply rising. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that since 2004, drone deaths in Pakistan total between 2,583 and 3,378, including between 475 and 885 civilian and 176 children. Since 2002, deaths in Yemen are reported to be between 365 and 1,055, with between 60 and 163 civilian deaths. Deaths in Somalia, since 2007, have been reported to be between 58 and 170, with between 11 and 57 civilians killed. Drone death numbers may vary because, as the New York Times reports, the Obama Administration has continued the Bush Administration’s policy of redefining civilians.”
And yesterday, President Obama, who took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, continued to trample on the document by signing an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The only thing “foreign” about this act is its willingness to ignore hundreds of years of judicial and legislative precedents concerning the Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions of unreasonable searches. By extending FISA to 2017, the Orwellian National Security Agency (NSA) will now have access to over 1.7 billion daily text messages, emails, and telephone calls that take place on American soil.
Even left-wing producer Oliver Stone has joined the ‘whatever happened to the Bill of Rights’ chorus—a mix of Democrat Party civilian libertarians (Oregon Senator Ron Wyden) and Republican libertarians (Kentucky Senator Rand Paul).
“He [President Obama] has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them,” Stone told Russian Television, claiming that the U.S. is now an “Orwellian” surveillance state.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/12/29/Oliver-Stone-to-Russian-TV-US-has-become-an-Orwellian-State
And, to a certain extent, Stone is right. Since 9/11, the NSA has secretly recorded more than 20 trillion telephone calls. Under FISA, recording these calls is no longer considered eavesdropping unless an NSA operative chooses to listen to the actual conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVv-SqByboc
Meanwhile, most Americans, as long as they have access to their electronic gadgets, seem ambivalent that every Web page they visit, every purchase that they make online or with a credit or debit card, and many of their telephone conversations—if they say one of hundreds of key words—are being secretly recorded and stored in an NSA database.
“If you want a picture of the future,” George Orwell wrote in his book, “1984,” imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Unfortunately, the American future is now the present. Whether it is biometric ID (Real ID for those of you in the mainstream media), Iris scans, surveillance cameras throughout the interstate and on light poles and busy intersections, Big Brother is watching, chronicling and storing what you say, where you travel, what you purchase and what you advocate.
And for those believing in the Starbuck’s mantra of “come together” bipartisanship, about the only thing the majority of Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama, and even the judiciary seem to agree on nowadays, is that the society depicted in Orwell’s “1984” wasn’t so bad after all.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
December 24, 2012 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
Back in the late 1990s, when Arthur Jones was Milwaukee’s chief-of-police, he introduced his version of William Bratton’s broken windows theory of policing. Jones sought to address relatively minor issues, which broken windows theorists believe prevent more serious crimes from occurring. Jones’ experiment had mixed results, primarily because he abandoned the department’s prior strategy of aggressively targeting street gangs.
A recent incident caught on video on Milwaukee’s Upper East Side spotlights the MPD’s apparent 180 degree philosophical shift pertaining to crime and disorder. WTMJ-TV’s Charles Benson reports that a fight between two women on N. Farwell Ave. escalated as a vehicle was driven onto the sidewalk in an apparent attempt to strike pedestrians. According to news accounts, police were called but no arrests were made.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/184639221.html
In August 2011, in a post entitled “Kabuki Policing,” SF joined the chorus of community concern over police response times.
http://www.badgerwordsmith.com/spingolafiles/2011/08/14/kabuki-policing/
Let us hope that the MPD addresses the hooliganism that occurred on N. Farwell Ave. Over a decade-and-half ago, Milwaukee police investigated a similar incident that occurred outside a pool hall on 27th and Wisconsin. At least one person was killed and several others injured by a party who decided to escalate a fight by running over people on the sidewalk.
Madison Columnist Continues Gun Control Rant while Ignoring Unsolved Murders
In a prior post, I called out Wisconsin State Journal columnist Chris Rickert as one of those willing to use the murders of 26 people in Newtown, CT to support the Democrat Party’s not-so-longer hidden agenda of gun control and/or gun confiscation—the latter of which is now being advocated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/new-york-governor-andrew-cuomo-says-gun-confiscation-could-be-option
In a December 23 Madison.com blog post, Rickert, who initially chided the silence of Wisconsin “Republicans” on the Newtown shootings, is now critical of Gov. Walker’s proposal of GPS monitoring for those under the auspices of a domestic abuse restraining orders, as well as the governor’s idea of seeking mental health providers’ inputs on identifying potentially dangerous individuals.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/chris_rickert/chris-rickert-scott-walker-s-response-to-shootings-off-target/article_c20fd2a2-4c74-11e2-a179-001a4bcf887a.html
The staff at SF has reviewed the governor’s ideas. Granted, while careful thought must be given to the criteria used to deem a person mentally unstable, Walker’s initial proposal seems thoughtful and reasonable.
In the interim, while Mr. Rickert champions gun control, the murders of several people in Madison, including the high-profile cases of Kelly Nolan and UW-Madison co-ed Brittany Zimmermann remain unsolved. This means, of course, that two murderers are likely roaming the streets of Madison or some other community ticking like a time bomb until they kill again.
While Mr. Rickert et al blabber about Gov. Walker’s response to a shooting in another state, these same columnists refuse to bring virtually any pressure to bear on the powers-that-be at the Madison Police Department over the unsolved murders of young woman and several others in their own city.
“Wink, wink,” a retired Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) homicide detective wrote in an e-mail this week, “liberal journalists providing cover for their city’s holistically liberal police chief.”
Retired MPD Captain Glenn Frankovis, a contributor to the conservative Badger Blogger (BB), was kind enough to provide several links to prior BB posts, which Mr. Rickert and his fellow Madison journalists might use to channel their energies locally and focus like a laser beam on the unsolved murders of these young women:
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=7088
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=7007
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6984
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6971
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6961
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6959
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6958
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6956
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6888
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6847
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6833
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6823
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=6802
Crime Book Feedback Always Appreciated
Recently, I received a note from an MPD detective who is in the process or reading Dave Kane’s book MPD Blue, Mitchell Nevin’s Milwaukee-based crime novel The Cozen Protocol, and Best of the Spingola Files Volumes I and II. For better or worse, I really do enjoy getting feedback from those who take the time to read my stuff.
Yesterday, The Cozen Protocol and Best of the Spingola Files Volumes I and II surged into the top 20 on Amazon.com’s list of criminal procedure books. For those of you who have spent their precious resources—both time and money—on these books, as well as the readers of this blog, have a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy Hanukah.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective. His latest book, Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, is available at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Spingola-Files-Vol-ebook/dp/B00AGZTALE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354972268&sr=8-1&keywords=spingola+files
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files’ Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, please visit:
www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
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