Track Palin plead not guilty today, by phone.

Courtesy of the WaPo:

Sarah Palin’s oldest son pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony charge in the case accusing him of assaulting his father at the family’s Alaska home last month. 

Track Palin’s lawyer entered the plea to a burglary charge on his behalf at his arraignment. The 28-year-old did not attend the hearing in person, but participated by phone. His parents also did not attend. 

During the brief proceeding, Palin said only, “Yes, ma’am,” when the judge asked if he was on the telephone line.

I think this one burglary charge is kind of a stretch, because I don't think that Track took anything, except for Todd Palin's pride of course.

Breaking and entering would seem like a reasonable charge, as does the assault, but I am not sure that burglary will fly.

By the way Dennis Zaki and I had planned to drive out to Palmer for this hearing today, but we learned that a number of media outlets were planing to cover the trial and realized that Track was too much of a pansy to face them by showing up in person.

And that of course also meant that Todd and Sarah would certainly not make an appearance either, so why waste our time?

Track also has a pretrial court date on February 2nd, and his actual trial is scheduled for February 26th.

I do think he has to definitely show up in person to that last one.

P.S. By the way Track is now using Dakota Meyer's old attorney, Kimberlee Colbo, in his battle with Jordan Loewe over her attempts to change the child custody arrangement.

My question is who the hell is paying THOSE attorney fees?

Track Palin arrested!

Courtesy of KTUU: 

Court records show the son of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been arraigned on three charges Sunday morning, all are domestic violence related. Track Palin, 28, faces a Class B Felony charge of first-degree burglary, one charge of assault in the fourth degree and one charge of criminal mischief in the fourth degree 

According to CourtView, the charges were all committed on Saturday, Dec. 16. Palin was arraigned in the Palmer Courthouse at 10:00 a.m., Sunday morning. 

Records indicate he previously faced domestic violence charges in 2016. At that time, Palin faced fourth-degree assault charges, a weapons charge and a charge of interfering with a domestic violence report. He was allegedly intoxicated. Former Gov. Sarah Palin spoke about those accusations against Track Palin, suggesting post-traumatic stress disorder may have been a factor from his service in the army.

Well now we know what got Palin so fired up about those old stories about her family yesterday.

So you want to hear something really funny?

Dennis Zaki and I were just joking around on Friday that Track was definitely going to end up back in jail anytime now.

And lo and behold.

Update: According to Court View Track is currently in custody.

Perhaps nobody is interested in bailing his drunken ass out this time. 

Update 2: Court View also did not identify WHO Track assaulted, so right now we do not know if it was another hapless girlfriend or a family member.

Anybody seen Todd lately?

If you are a black man charged with burglary in Iowa, your mugshot hits the paper. But if you're white.....

Courtesy of So Let's Talk About It:  

Why did this story get run with these criminals’ school photos, where on the same day, same situation, the article of another group of burglars featured their mug shots? 

Same day. 
Same channel. 
Same crime. 
Same author. 

So why weren’t mugshots good enough for the white guys who got arrested? Who already looks guilty before their trial? Which story plants the seed into a potential jury pool that this is a group of good kids versus this is a group of criminals?

Here are the two Gazette stories, one for the black suspects here, and the white suspects here.

As you can see the article about the white suspects now shows their mugshots, and not their yearbook pictures, but the screenshot up above shows it as it was originally published.

It is also worth noting that the three white suspects are described as "wrestlers" throughout the Gazette article, and not once as "suspects." As if this were simply a departure from their usual upstanding identities.

However the four black men are only described as "suspects."

But don't let this bother you because remember the Republican party has assured us that racism is dead.

The myth of gun ownership and home defense.

Courtesy of Politico:  

In 1992, Gary Kleck and Marc Getz, criminologists at Florida State University, conducted a random digit-dial survey to establish the annual number of defensive gun uses in the United States. They surveyed 5,000 individuals, asking them if they had used a firearm in self-defense in the past year and, if so, for what reason and to what effect. Sixty-six incidences of defensive gun use were reported from the sample. The researchers then extrapolated their findings to the entire U.S. population, resulting in an estimate of between 1 million and 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year. 

The claim has since become gospel for gun advocates and is frequently touted by the National Rifle Association, pro-gun scholars such as John Lott and conservative politicians. The argument typically goes something like this: Guns are used defensively “over 2 million times every year—five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes.” Or, as Gun Owners of America states, “firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.” Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum has frequently opined on the benefits of defensive gun use, explaining: “In fact, there are millions of lives that are saved in America every year, or millions of instances like that where gun owners have prevented crimes and stopped things from happening because of having guns at the scene.” 

It may sound reassuring, but is utterly false. In fact, gun owners are far more likely to end up like Theodore Wafer or Eusebio Christian, accidentally shooting an innocent person or seeing their weapons harm a family member, than be heroes warding off criminals.

The article points out a number of ways in which the criminologist misrepresented and extrapolated their data in order to reach such ridiculous numbers.

And then goes on to point out the following:

For example, guns were allegedly used in self-defense in 845,000 burglaries, according to Kleck and Getz. However, from reliable victimization surveys, we know that there were fewer than 1.3 million burglaries where someone was in the home at the time of the crime, and only 33 percent of these had occupants who weren’t sleeping. From surveys on firearm ownership, we also know that 42 percent of U.S. households owned firearms at the time of the survey. Even if burglars only rob houses of gun owners, and those gun owners use their weapons in self-defense every single time they are awake, the 845,000 statistic cited in Kleck and Gertz’s paper is simply mathematically impossible. 

Of course here at IM we have reported on the almost stunning number of times that guns purchased for protection instead killed or badly wounded the owner or a member of their families. 

Some of them are almost humorous, while others are tragically sad.

The facts are that owning a gun does NOT statistically make you safer than a non-gun owner, however it does dramatically increase the possibility that you yourself, or a loved one, will be shot with that firearm.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, the best deterrent against burglary is a good dog.

And might I add that dogs are MUCH less likely to go off accidentally and take off somebody's finger. I am not saying it doesn't ever happen, just that it is much less likely.

Missouri "Doomsday Prepper" arrested after terrorizing neighborhood for weeks.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Police arrested a Missouri “doomsday prepper” who investigators said had been terrorizing his neighborhood for weeks. 

Neighbors began complaining in May about 36-year-old Roy McCool after he allegedly assaulted a woman in Springfield home, reported the Springfield News-Leader. 

Investigators said McCool forced his way into the woman’s home and punched, slapped, and choked her before firing three rounds from a handgun into her living room wall. McCool broke into the woman’s home two days later and stole a bank card and $35 in cash from her children’s piggy banks, police said. Neighbors said McCool’s behavior grew even more threatening about two weeks later, in late May, when he stood in his front yard with a gun and yelled threats toward other residents.

Apparently Mr. McCool, who has one of the most ironic names ever,  has also been getting into numerous confrontations with his neighbors, hit one man in the face with a wooden stake, and has been openly displaying firearms to passersby.

When the police arrested his ass he had 10 guns consisting of one AR-15, three other rifles, four handguns, and a shotgun. Not to mention the thousands of rounds of ammunition he had just in case the "gubmint" came after him.

Despite all of that preparation it sounds as if the local police had little difficulty apprehending the suspect, who has been charged with six felonies,  including three counts of burglary, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of domestic assault.

Well that is one less Sarah Palin supporter walking the streets at least. 

So called "good guy with a gun" meets other good guys with guns, and badges. Does not end well for 2nd Amendment.

Courtesy of Dallas News:

Dallas police have confirmed that three officers shot and killed the homeowner who had fatally shot a burglar. 

Officers responded to a call in the 10300 block of Plummer Drive in Far East Dallas. Witnesses said they saw a homeowner shoot and kill Jerry Hale in the alley. The suspect was evidently trying to break into the homeowner’s residence. Police arrived to find the armed man standing over the burglar’s body in an alley, police said. 

They stopped an ambulance from entering the alley because the homeowner was still armed. Officers gave “loud verbal commands” to drop the gun. 

After he refused, they shot him multiple times, police said. He died from his injuries. The homeowner has not been identified.

Ten to one that the dead burglar was unarmed.

Look I completely support a homeowner defending their home, but I cannot help but wonder what makes it okay to kill a man who was in an alley behind that home?

And as for that whole "stand your ground" thing, well apparently standing that ground when the police are telling you not to is NOT going to work out in your favor. But you know, sometimes when you are holding a gun, you feel invincible.

The 2nd Amendment 2.0. If Georgia ordinance passes it would no longer be your 'right" to bear arms, instead it would be your "responsibility" to do so.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Could not exercising the right to bear arms mean breaking the law? 

In the north Georgia city of Nelson, that may be the case if a proposed ordinance, requiring every “head of household to own and maintain a firearm,” is passed. The city councilman, Duane Cronic, argued that relying on sheriffs isn’t sufficient. 

“It’s a deterrent ordinance,” he said. “It tells the potential intruder you better think twice.” ]

The proposal is similar to a 1982 law passed in Kennesaw. Supporters of the ordinance cited the city’s location, straddling two counties, arguing that leads to slower response times from officials. 

One police officer patrols Nelson, Georgia for eight hours during the day. That leaves 16 hours overnight when the city is basically unguarded. “When he’s not here we rely on county sheriffs–however it takes a while for them to get here,” said Nelson City Councilman Duane Cronic.

Do these people NOT understand the concept of "freedom?" 

You would think that if the Teabaggers found the idea of laws that restrict the kinds of guns one can own, and that demand those gun owners not be criminals or mentally ill, invasive that they would certainly not want to support laws that would make it illegal not to own one either.

That is your Right Wing logic at work for ya there folks.

By the way let me tell you what results from demanding an increase in the number of weapons in your city. It does NOT reduce the number of burglaries, instead it increases them, because now that the thieves know that easily fenced handguns are in EVERY single home, they know that every break in results in a jackpot for them.

Unless these gun owners are supposed to sit in a chair on their front porch brandishing their weapons 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the thieves only have to bide their time. You have to go to work, and school, and out to eat sometime.

However a good dog, and an alarm system backed up by a reputable company, would make their house one of the least likely to fall prey to the criminal element. Of course it would also be wrong to legally mandate either of those, in case anybody was wondering.

Hidden within the beauty of Alaska, sometimes lurks ugliness and terror.

Courtesy of the ADN:

The man accused of shooting a police officer Thursday at a hotel near Merrill Field later admitted to stealing cars and burglarizing homes to feed a heroin addiction, charges say. 

It was those Hillside break-ins police were investigating when Jason W. Barnum opened fire from a bathroom at the Merrill Field Inn, police say. His weapon: A handgun stolen in the recent burglaries and vehicle thefts, according the charges. One officer was lightly injured in the gunfire and is expected to return to work Tuesday. 

Two officers shot back, striking Barnum in the right arm, said Lt. Anthony Henry. 

Described by police as a "serial burglar," Barnum spent most of the past decade in prison on burglary and forgery convictions. The 37-year-old is now charged with attempted murder in the two-hour standoff that emptied the hotel, froze traffic on Fifth Avenue and drew nearly every on-duty police officer in the city.

How would you like to be standing next to THIS guy in the line at the bank?

You know I often work with the mentally ill and troubled youths of Alaska, and my first thought about this guy is that he probably fell through the cracks and wound up in the court system, probably as a juvenile, where he learned to self identify himself as an outsider in society and undoubtedly developed an antisocial personality disorder. That is IF he didn't have one already.

Nobody tattoos themselves like this if they feel socially connected to the world around them. And feeling that disconnect would of course would mean that he would have no compunction about stealing from others, and in fact most likely believed it was owed to him by a society that had abandoned him.

However though I may sympathize with his plight to some degree, as an Anchorage resident, and somebody who lives quite close to Hillside and Rabbit Creek, I am VERY glad to see this guy off the streets.

(P.S. If you so desire there are more unsettling pictures of  Jason W. Barnum to see here.)