(LATimes)…Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Monday he was reserving judgment about why officers fatally shot an unarmed car chase suspect after he crashed his Corvette on live TV and tried to stagger away.
“It is way to early for me to draw those kind of conclusions,” Beck said when asked if the sound of a bean bag round being fired triggered the shooting.  Right now that kind of stuff is speculation, speculation isn’t always wrong…we will work through this,” he continued.  (Read more….)
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Last Friday’s horrific crash and subsequent shooting at the end of an hour-long car chase, left manyviewers with questions…..questions originally scheduled to be answered at a Monday morning press conference.  Check with “LAPD Online” (on the upper right side of the page). There’s no such conference even scheduled.  However, we are learning more details regarding what went down that night from the victim’s brother and an “unnamed” police official.

“Police might have fatally shot a car-chase suspect over the weekend after at least one cop mistook a fellow officer’s actions for unfriendly gunfire.  Citing an unnamed police official, the station offered one possible explanation for why 51-year-old Brian Beaird of Oceanside was hit with gunfire on live television (video on the next page), even though it was clear he wasn’t armed or charging at authorities at the end of a wild chase. In fact… live video shot by KTLA News’ helicopter shows the suspect exiting his car and briefly raising his hands before grabbing his gut and falling down, his back to the cops who had pursued him.”

According to Fox News, at least one officer who opened fire did so because he might have mistaken the less-than-lethal beanbag round of fellow officers as being gunfire from the subject.

Good Lord…. no wonder they canceled the press conference.

(more…)

“The hour-long pursuit came to an end in downtown Los Angeles when the reckless driver in a silver Corvette slammed into another vehicle. The suspect then stumbled out of the car and was shot dead by police, officials said.”

As the driver in an hour-long pursuit fell forward in the hail of gunfire, even the on-air anchors seemed taken aback.   Police had just used lethal force to subdue the subject of a high-speed chase….a chase that involved dangerously high speeds and occurred for the most part in residential areas.   One thing stands out though.   The man for all intents and purposes appeared to be unarmed and non-threatening.

Here’s my edited down version of the original 26 min. video showing events immediately before the crash, and then showing the officer take-down of the driver.

“The chase was being aired live on SKY5 TV. In the unedited, graphic footage, which has been posted to YouTube, the suspect can be seen exiting the car and then collapsing onto the sidewalk. The camera than zooms out and the newscaster says, “I’m not sure whether those were non-lethal rounds or not, but clearly they hit him with a whole lot of something as he tried to run from behind that car.”
(more…)

Glitchy Madness – Registering for ObamaCare is like playing Lotto with your life…
(Via Daily Caller)  Nearly 15,000 enrollment records from Americans trying to sign up for Obamacare never made it to insurers — but the federal government does not know which records never made it to which insurer.

The federal analysis merely compares the number of times Obamacare enrollees clicked “enroll” to the number of plans HealthCare.gov sent to insurers, according to The Washington Post. Consumers who send the vanishing enrollments, or “orphan files,” are not notified that their information has not been processed and an insurer did not receive sensitive financial and health-related data, meaning that they could be in for an unpleasant surprise when the Dec. 23 deadline — the last day for customers to sign up for health insurance — comes and goes. (more…)

Seniors Carl Schmidt and Brendon Mendelson were in yoga class at Arapahoe High when the shooting began. Their teacher hurried them promptly away from the door and into a closet. (link)

Seriously ? What type of schools have accredited Yoga Classes?

https://twitter.com/toddstarnes/status/411722030975692800

A classmate said Karl Pierson got a bit of a kick out of the fact that his first name was spelled the same way as Karl Marx. #ArapahoeHigh

— Sadie Gurman (@sgurman) December 14, 2013

We’re learning more about the gunman, too. A student who had econ with him called him opinionated, outspoken, a little odd, a socialist.
— Sadie Gurman (@sgurman) December 14, 2013

Denver Post – […]  Pierson’s parents  divorced in late 2011, according to court records. The  divorce was finalized in August 2012.
Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with Pierson, described him as   very opinionated.
[…]  In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith who through his invisible hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as “Keynesian.” (more…)

Amnesty Legislation – Mitch McConnell supports it,  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports it, The Republican Party Supports it, every single Democrat supports it, and you are going to get it whether you want it or not.
WASHINGTON DC – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she spoke with Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday and asked when an overhaul to immigration laws could be considered in the House.
“He told me yes, we have to wait until next year,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday morning.
Democrats have been pushing House Republicans to hold a vote on a landmark immigration reform bill that was passed in June, or try to work on their own immigration legislation. But Republicans have been apprehensive, with the most conservative members opposed to anything that could provide a pathway to citizenship or legalization for undocumented immigrants.  (continue reading)

They have a literary agent?   Out of an abundance of caution, and under the advice of physicians, I will refrain from commentary.  FOR NOW.   However, I would like to know your thoughts on what their book should be titled.

(NEW YORK) The parents of Trayvon Martin met with publishers this week to shop a book about their son, the unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012.

According to two publishing executives who participated in meetings, Mr. Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, said they intended to write a book that gives the full picture of their son while tracing their own experience of shock and sorrow.
The meetings were described as somber and moving by publishers who were present. Ms. Fulton and Mr. Martin were accompanied by Jan Miller, their Dallas-based literary agent. (more…)

Yesterday Nancy Pelosi had a curious reaction to the budget deal made with Republicans.  Prior to the vote she instructed her fellow Democratic leaders to “embrace the suck.”
Jake Tapper questioned her about it:

The cross has been in place since 1954.   Figures it would be the activist Ninth Circuit…
CALIFORNIA – A cross atop Mount Soledad in California is an unconstitutional religious display on government land and must come down, a federal judge in San Diego ruled late Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ordered the cross, which honors veterans, must be removed within 90 days — a decision that could result in the case being sent back to the U.S. Supreme Court. Burns immediately stayed his order pending an expected appeal.
(more…)

We’ve been anticipating an increasing frequency of illegal immigration stories in the media headlines.   Examples specifically selected by the media to highlight a narrative portraying illegal aliens as “innocent victims”.    Consider it “The Dreamers 2.0” – only, on steroids.
We fully expect this narrative will be seeded through the upper echelon of leftist news outlets.   Upper tier media conglomerates, individual executive boards, owners and Hollywood working together with political connections to position storylines favorable to illegal alien sympathy.   
[We shall call this “Operation Brown Dream“] 
The “Brown Dream” strategy is intended to build momentum toward the upcoming State of The Union speech where President Obama will demand a comprehensive immigration reform agenda, including amnesty, for 2014.    The politics are strategically aligned to aid in the November mid-terms, but also to act as a distraction to Obamacare.   The Amnesty Bill will create anxiety and divide ranks – this allows the process to move forward and create a Win/Win.    Here’s one example: (more…)

… […] Look, at every level, every number that you get on this is either inflated or deceptive. As we just heard from Steve [Hayes], the number of enrollees are not enrollees. It’s people who put stuff in their shopping cart. Amazon would never call it a sale until you get a sale. And they don’t know how many have made the sale. And that’s because what they call euphemistically, the back-end, which is the cash register of the whole system, is not working. 
The idea that you have to hand-match people who paid a premium with the insurers isn’t 20th century technology — it is 19th century technology. An insurer has to find the person, call them up, go over all of the details on the form and then adjust them, which of course is impossible to do in any substantial number.  (more…)