Trial of Texas father accused of shooting driver who killed 2 sons raises legal, moral issues

  

David Barajas denies killing a drunken driver in a fit of rage after his two sons were fatally struck in 2012 on a rural road in Southeast Texas.

 His defense attorney says Barajas is a good man, a grieving father and not a murderer. At the same time, his defense hasn't publicly suggested who else might be responsible for Jose Banda's shooting death.

Barajas' trial is set to begin Monday in a case with many complexities: No weapon was recovered, no witnesses identified him as the shooter and many in Barajas' community have strongly sympathized with him, with some saying they might have taken the law into their own hands if faced with a similar situation.

Legal experts acknowledge prosecutors could face a greater challenge than simply proving who committed the shooting, similar to another Texas case from 2012 in which a grand jury declined to indict a father who killed a man who molested his child.

"It's not the right way to do it, but jurors a lot of times make judgments based on moral responsibility, not legal responsibility," said Joel Androphy, a Houston defense attorney who isn't connected to the case.

More @ Fox

Missouri Governor Orders National Guard to Ferguson

 

Missouri's governor on Monday ordered the National Guard to a St. Louis suburb convulsed by protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, after a night in which police used tear gas to clear protesters off the streets well ahead of a curfew.

Gov. Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help "in restoring peace and order" to Ferguson, where protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer entered their second week. Police said they acted in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails.

More with video @ Breitbart

Mapping the Spread of the Military’s Surplus Gear

Via Jeffery via The Feral Irishman

 

State and local police departments obtain some of their military-style equipment through a free Defense Department program created in the early 1990s. While the portion of their gear that comes from the program is relatively small (most of it is paid for by the departments or through federal grants), detailed data from the Pentagon illustrates how ubiquitous such equipment has become.

Highlighted counties have received guns, grenade launchers, vehicles, night vision or body armor through the program since 2006.

 Filter by

 More @ New York Times

Brazilian man accidentally kills colleague with suppressed machine gun

 

A Brazilian man accidentally killed one of his colleagues while displaying his suppressed machine gun, LiveLeak reports.

Rodrigo de Moura Oliveira, 36, was arrested after he fatally shot 40-year-old Marco Antonio Nemer on the beach of Ensenada, in Guarujá, near the São Paulo coast.

More with video @ Guns America

US Army reservist took assassin's bullets for British colonel

Via LH

 US Army General Harold Greene who was killed in an incident in Afghanistan which also witnessed an act of heroism by a US Army reservist 

 

A British Army colonel's life was saved by a US soldier who jumped in front of an assassin's hail of bullets, it has been reported.

The US Army reservist, who normally works for Apple, the Silicon Valley-based electronics company, was shot six times as an Afghan assailant opened fire on a group of high-ranking officers at a military training academy earlier this month, The Sunday Times said.

The reservist, who has not been named, used his body as a shield to literally "take a bullet" for the senior British officer, and was hit twice in the leg and once in the shoulder, with a further three rounds stopped by his bulletproof vest.

Details of the act of heroism were revealed in an American casualty report, the newspaper said.

It describes how the reservist returned fire with both his rifle and sidearm.

More @ The Telegraph

Another Case for Hearts and Minds

Via Iver

 "........I’ve got 'em right where I want 'em, surrounded from the inside.“

(Admin Note: I’ll be teaching intelligence courses online over at the Culper Institute.  If you’re interested in how Intelligence can play a role for preppers and others, then attend Introduction to Intelligence Analysis for free.  That’s my gift to you, but we’re going to be limited to 50 students.  You can sign up here.)

I only talk about the ‘Hearts and Minds’ approach to warfare because it’s shown itself to be supremely important in conflict.  We’ve talked before about how your neighbors are your greatest counterintelligence (CI) threat, whether you live in the jungles of Bolivia, eastern Ukraine, or the panhandle of Idaho.  Che learned the hard way in Bolivia that if he didn’t gain the trust and cooperation of the populace, then they’d be turned against him.  Ultimately, he failed to gain the hearts and minds of the populace he expected to enable him, and he was ratted out and killed.  It’s very hard to establish yourself as an outsider, and that’s another reason why Che failed.  If you live in a place where you don’t have the trust and support of your neighbors, then your life is going to be difficult because these people will not aid you.  You’ll be lucky if you’re just shunned; otherwise they’ll be actively working against you so you’ll leave their community.  No one wants a trouble maker in their community.

Che wrote in his diary (ref: the Bolivian populace):

More @ Guerrilla America

Second family says Petersburg Police went too far

It used to be such a nice town.

Another family has come forward claiming Petersburg Police came on their front porch and tried to stop them from shooting video of arrests happening right in front of their home.

The family reached out to the On Your Side Investigators and shared dramatic cell phone video. The incident led to a violent confrontation.

Cell phone video shows JaQuan Fisher, 17, standing on his own front porch recording the arrests happening on Rome Street. In the video, an officer is heard saying, "Unless you want me to take your phone from you," before there is a struggle and video goes to black.

"I was right here. I pulled out my phone," JaQuan said, pointing to where he was standing.
Petersburg Police had just busted several people at a home next door. They were handcuffing the suspects in front of Fisher's home. He walked out onto the porch and his cousin—who was one of the people being arrested--yelled, "Start recording."

"[The officer] came off the porch and said, 'You want me to take your phone?'" Fisher said. "I put my phone in my pocket and then when he tried to take my phone, I guess he thought he was going to get my phone and he shoved me. I shoved him back."

More @ NBC

“NO BULLETS IN Big Mike’s BACK” – Mike Brown Family Autopsy Released

Via Susan

 

 

The family of Michael Brown autopsy’s results support Officer Wilson’s version of events, that’s why they were not released in a big “Parks and Crump” press conference.  The original autopsy long complete, they’ve been sitting on this information for almost a week.  The autopsy is consistent with the police officer being charged by Mike Brown.

   

This facts of this report also align with the decision for 3rd autopsy which holds two motives:

• #1) Look for more evidence that might help them construct a false narrative.
• And, #2) Provide breathing room for best opportunistic timing for a more extensive funeral service.

FERGUSON, Mo. — Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a police officer, sparking protests around the nation, was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found.

One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury, according to Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, who flew to Missouri on Sunday at the family’s request to conduct the separate autopsy. It was likely the last of bullets to hit him, he said.

More @ The Conservative Treehouse

The recently passed VA bill is a joke

 

 The VA and Gitmo eligible patient-to-health care provider ratios speak volumes.

While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.

More @ Welcome To The Rightly Guided

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So, I called the VA and asked how I would go about using a private doctor now that this bill has been passed, as I'm  180 miles from one of my VA doctors and 80 miles from another.  The bill states if you are more than 40 miles away or can't get an appointment within a month then you would be eligible for civilian care.  Well, lo and behold it only applies to those who were authorized VA health benefits after August 1st of this year!  Amazing, so only the newbies, who have never had to put up with this crap, will benefit, but those who have been enduring such for innumerable years will continue to do so, ad infintum. Talk about a feel good-do nothing bill..

Resistance Observations: Iraq to Freemanistan

Via David