Springfield, IL —In a move I predicted, lawyer, Ed Genson will wind up litigating Governor Rod Blagojevich's removal in Federal District Court rather than before the Illinois Senate. The cunning lawyer said today he'd not become part of an un-American exercize. The heavily, Democratically controlled Senate won’t afford Blagojevich simple due process rights such as being able to subpoena witnesses and confront his accusers. They are afraid of exposing Barack Obama to revelations that would lead to his fall from Grace. The court will have no choice but to stay any removal and order the Senate to stop violating Blagojevich’s rights. That means they will have to allow the governor his right to due process so he can raise his defense. This strategy buys time for everyone and will also provide a more convenient time for Blagojevich to negotiate a plea agreement and resignation. That of course is exactly what Obama needs. On a side note there is dissention within the FBI. Some Chica...

NY,NY —In the Catholic Church there was a patron Saint of travelers. He was St. Christopher who was defrocked as a saint by the church as a myth over 20 years ago. Some Catholics still wear those medals despite the church’s demotion of Mr. Christopher. Was it some kind of divine protection or just dumb luck that nobody died in today’s aircraft mishap? I know there is a lot of damage. Lost data and destroyed laptops, cameras and ruined clothing. All the cargo and luggage is below the water line. It will cost a bundle to extract the plane and make it airworthy once again. But no lives were lost! I remember a similar accident I personally witnessed from the air of a November 1968 water landing for Japan Airlines flight. I could see the passengers in little yellow life rafts around that plane in the San Francisco Bay. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy

Orlandao, FL —The SHOT SHOW is the largest gun related trade show in the world. This year it’s being held in gator country. I can’t be there this year but attending and blogging every day is the prolific gun writer, Massad Ayoob . He is my eyes and ears this time and he can be yours too. Anyone attending the show should pay a visit to the Eagle Grips booth for the world’s best gun grips. Next year the show returns to Las Vegas and I will be there. Read Ayoob’s blog right here!

Oakland, CA —The New Year’s shooting that took the life of Oscar Grant was tragic for sure. I don’t buy that event as an intentional shooting. No cop would intentionally shoot a helpless man in the back in front of scores of witnesses under the conditions made clear by the cell-phone captured videos. Before this is over it may destroy the life of a second man, Johannes Mehserle , 27, the cop who pulled the trigger. The duty or service weapon for BART police officers is the Sig -Saur .40 caliber semi-automatic . It has a 12 pound+ trigger pull. This is an ideal police sidearm. What then caused the event? I won’t rule out some form of negligence but there were serious distractions that most certainly contributed to the killing. Police officers are trained to fight off tunnel vision . That is our natural instinct to focus on what’s happening or the threat in front of us. Police are taught to pay attention to all 360 degrees around their positions. The answer to the questions about was go...

Chicago, IL —Most of my readers did not know our Blagoman shill, about to be sworn in as the new Illinois junior Senator was a movie star in a past life. Ok folks! Tell me what major motion picture showed this image of Roland Burris ? Go ahead and make your guesses in the comments section and I will verify the right answer. A hint: Chicago coppers should figure this out in about 1 second. The answer is posted with comments...

Minden, NV—Bay Area Rapid Transit cop, Johannes Mehserle , 27, of Lafayette, CA surrendered here on a California arrest warrant from Alameda County, CA. Mehserle was recorded on several cell phone video cameras shooting 22 year-old Oscar Grant who was face down in a prone position. Grant died from his wound. The videos show Mehserle trying to put cuffs on Grant, and Grant appears to be struggling, when Mehserle suddenly pulls his service weapon from his holster and fires one shot into Grant's back. This event polarized Oakland and has lots of very ugly anger spilling over. Small riots have broken out bringing about ove1 100 arrests in Oakland since the shooting. That anger caused Mehserle who had been getting death threats sought safety and refuge in Nevada. The biggest question that remains unanswered if whether or not the act was deliberate or an accident. That question may be answered by a jury of Oakland residents. Nobody said being a cop was easy.

Click on picture to enlarge. Chicago, IL— There is little information provided to Chicago police officers about the department and its rich history. For example many officers don’t know the names of or the philosophy of the past police superintendents and before that, police chiefs. I’m sure in the Graphic Arts unit there are many old photographs. There are decades of old Star Magazine issues that should be digitized and made available. If I had about a month and the full cooperation of the department I put up a historical website with the highlights of the department’s good and bad times. I’d love nothing more than to put up the stories and pictures behind each year’s winner of the coveted Police Medal. The story of these heroes and their moments of bravery are inspiring. Going through old Police Board files and publishing some of the more notable discipline cases would show how human failings distracted officers from their missions. The influence of corrupt politicians has left it...

PROTECTING MOM WITH THE GRANDMACAM! We’ve all heard horror stories of the rape, beatings along with the neglect of incapacitated and elderly people confined to some care facilities. Sex offenders, sadists and other criminals sometimes find employment in these places. The victims of these kinds of crimes are too often unable to resist or even complain about that kind of treatment. In addition to investigating abuse allegations my investigation agency has taken on care facility security audits and dealing with efforts to prevent abuse. I’d much rather make these crimes impossible than investigate them after the fact. With technology there is a cure. People will always behave themselves if they know they are being watched. Families will never have to worry about loved ones who need protection again. The care facilities can offer a secure video link to families that will be able to watch their loved one in real time from anywhere in the world on a computer with an Internet connection. The ...

Los Angeles, CA —I noticed that the uniform pockets of most local L.A. area police uniforms had sap pockets. I asked some of the coppers if they carried saps. They all did not even know what a sap or a blackjack was. I felt like a real dinosaur knowing I was old enough to be the father of these grown officers. They carried other items in the sap pockets like flashlights or collapsible ASP batons. Blackjacks are round and saps are flat. They are impact weapons designed for close up and personal combat. The bigger blackjacks will smash skulls and break bones. The idea is a person can be subdued with these impact weapons in short order. I own five of these law enforcement relics in good condition. The two best I have are the Convoy blackjack and the Texan sap. I also have a great pair of deerskin gloves with six ounces of powered lead protecting each fist. Saps were great to use for plain clothes assignments because regulation police batons are too difficult to conceal. These weapons are ...

Nearly every state in the union has overspent tax money on things nobody needs or wants. We are slowly learning that politicians pour money into the business coffers for campaign contribution kickbacks rather than the need for the goods and services. They politely call that Pay for Play. It’s simple corruption. California’s in a substantial mess for this reason. Now they are planning to hand out IOU’s instead of tax refunds in the not so Golden State. At least one prison in Illinois is behind $20,000.00 in paying their power bill. The local utility company is justifiably threatening to shut off power there. They are desperate to release prisoners. The problem is they want to release young prisoners that can be counted on to reoffend. They want to eliminate the parole supervision and cut whatever corners they can get away with. There are a substantial number of really old offenders behind bars that can be released to make way for the dangerous young criminals with little or no ris...

Los Angeles, CA —I’m reporting this case today because the so-called facts provided by the LAX Police Department and local media yesterday did not make sense. Initially the media was told by police that 37 weapons were recovered from a man’s pickup truck at an LAX vehicular checkpoint. I guess simple counting is beyond the LAX Police Department’s expertise because with a subsequent recount that number now stands at 16. Phillip Dominguez , 47, an Orange County resident was heading to the airport to pick up a friend arriving on a flight. The two then planned to go target shooting. The LAX police put up an impromptu roadblock to conduct random searches of vehicles entering. Of course our Constitution's Bill of Rights applies to those searches and absent a court issued search warrant or probable cause that a crime was committed. Police can only search upon consent. Police searched some locked boxes in the truck's locking truck-bed and found the firearms and ammunition. Soon the ...

Click on picture to enlarge.. Here it is folks the long awaited, Slapper! Second City Cop brought out this handy device they issued him when he was a recruit in the Chicago Police Academy back in 1922! Here you can learn about bitch-slapping before this handy device was invented:

With our economy tanking in a hurry we still have the recession and depression-proof drug trade. Huge profits and insatiable drug appetites will bring even more entrepreneurs than ever. American police will never be able to control the kind of violence as it’s been creeping inside our own fee society. For the past two years I’ve been getting the most vile and ghoulish videos and pictures from the cops that read my blog. The images are that of unimaginable crime scenes. They show tortured, mutilated and dismembered corpses of cops, soldiers, rival drug runners, snitches, and various public officials. One video shows 24 decapitated bodies with heads everywhere. Needless to say I won’t be sharing those images here. Ciudad Juárez , also known as just Juárez is a city of 1.5 million people. It stands on the Rio Grande, across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas . This formerly peacful city had some 1,600 drug related killings in 2007. We began the Drug War to prevent our own children...

Chicago, IL --When I heard there were five people shot tonight at a Chicago high school. I did not have to speculate what ethnic group would generate that kind of violence. The school involved was none other than all Black Dunbar High School . One of Dunbar’s more recent graduates is none other than, American Idol and Oscar winning actress Jennifer Hudson . We all know what happened to her mother, brother and nephew just a few months ago. There was a night basketball game with players from another Southside all Black high school. Rival gangs apparently wanted to impress some cheerleaders. It was around 8:00 PM when a car pulled up and shooting began. No this problem is not genetic it’s strictly cultural. Chicago’s Black Culture of deadly violence and lawlessness is just proudly showing itself. Chicago police responded with some 200 officers to restore order. Police will have to use surveillance video to attempt to identify the lads involved. Mayor Richard M.Daley’s Gun Free Z...

Oakland, CA — Bay Area Rapid Transit police had arrested Oscar Grant . He resisted and died as a result. Was it excessive force, an accident or something else? The truth is I don’t care. When someone engages in risky behavior such as resisting police there is always that chance they could lose their life. Save the fighting for the courtroom since you can’t do that on the street. This is a case of White cops trying to keep order in an area populated by Blacks. In this instance, as soon as there were signs of a conflict every Black kid with a cell phone camera whipped it out and recorded the event. I’m not sure what happened other then the lad took a calculated risk and gambled away his life. This kind of an event is ugly for every cop. You don’t want these things to happen but unfortunately sometimes they do. Being a cop is risky too. You can be killed or punished emotionally for the rest of your life should you accidentally kill someone. Having worked in a ghetto I know that police are...

LOS ANGELES – AP is reporting that Patrick Swayze has checked himself into the hospital for observation after contracting pneumonia. Swayze has pancreatic cancer and has a greatly impaired immune system as a result of treatment he’s been undergoing. This does not sound good for the 56 year-old actor and survival for this type of complication does not provide a promising results. A&E President President Abbe Raven announced the hospitalization news Friday at a meeting of the Television Critics Association . Swayae is said to be planning his quick return to promoting his new series, The Beast. Let’s hope that happens.

Victorville, CA— What else would you expect from the land of Fruits, Flakes and Nuts? When the age of reason for children is seven you have to tolerate almost anything from a six year-old. An unidentified six-year old child brought a loaded handgun to school. The gun, a stolen .45 caliber pistol was under the control of this child’s father, Michael Lewis a convicted felon. Lewis is currently in custody of the San Bernardino County sheriff's Department and could get a massive amount of prison time as a result. The child removed the gun from his father’s car and took it to school where it was discovered when it slid down his pants leg. The child did not assault or threaten anyone. I have no problem dealing with this child’s father in a harsh a way as our laws allow. But to deprive this child of his education and the time needed away from his inadequate parents is nothing less that the biggest crime yet. I guess Zero Tolerance means zero common sense at the Victorville school ...

Springfield, IL —Let me say first I’m not a fan of or a defender of anything Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich stands for or supports. We are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. We claim to be a nation of laws. We have a Bill of Rights. The Illinois Legislature trampled on the Governor’s due process rights to confront accusers, secure the attendance of witnesses for mere starters. That has denied his rights to put up a meaningful defense to the allegations. This shows just how ignorant Illinois lawmakers are when they don’t recognize the Constitution they were sworn to uphold. The process now moves on to the Illinois Senate and I expect they will rubber stamp the latest House action. Senate rules spell out due process rights for impeachment proceedings and theoretically forbid hearsay. It remains to be seen if the Senate will follow their own rules. I just don’t expect that they will allow the sacred cows within the Democratic to be cross-examined by Blago’s lawyers. Th...

Ocoee FL -A 26 year old customer of the Kangaroo Express gas and convenience store was having a friendly conversation with the clerk, Marina Rodriguez . He became suspicious of a man’s behavior and went to his SUV to get his cell phone. Suddenly the customer could hear screaming and in addition to the cell phone our fearless customer grabbed his Springfield .40 caliber pistol and returned to see a robber on top of the screaming store clerk as they struggled on the floor. With his cell phone in one hand and the gun in the other the customer returned interrupting the crime and as the robber jumped up menacingly our remarkable lad shot the robber twice killing him. The clerk had been struck in the head with a bottle by the robber, a wad of cash was recovered and a knife was found in the unfortunate decedent’s pocket. Police are investigating this event as a justifiable shooting. The dead robber was identified by police as 40 year-old Freddie Carson , of Orlando who has an extensive crimin...

This photo is of a backpack Internet journalist Kevin Sites reporting from Nepal . Tampa, FL —With television news becoming less profitable every day the move to what they call, backpack journalism is here. That’s where one person becomes the producer, reporter, soundman, lighting director, and photographer. The lone backpacker puts all the needed equipment into the knapsack. The quality of the final product usually suffers without the team effort but a usable report beats nothing. The backpacker jumps in a car, drives to the scene, shoots the B-roll footage, gets the interviews, does a standup in front of the camera, Next the backpacker edits the video and delivers the finished product to the station for broadcast in the news lineup. This is time consuming and does not work for breaking news where live reports and interviews are demanded. Now using the really inexpensive $3.00 per month, Internet telephone service, Skype live backpacker broadcasts can be broadcast over televisi...