The English police have shown that they have zero tolerance for alien weaponry. In an absolutely bizarre case, a mother became upset wen a man pointing a ray gun at her and her gun and said “pow, pow” to make the baby laugh. The gun makes a sound and lights up. The police sent eight cars to apprehend the man who was sitting at a bus stop and confiscated his ray gun. He has now been criminally charged.
The man in the 50s was clearly trying to make the baby laugh, according to witnesses. He is in his 50s and was waiting for a bus. He was arrested on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm in a public place.
I suppose it is not surprising that there are some parents who have little judgment or senses of humor. What is astonishing is that the English police seem incapable of discriminating between cranks and crimes.
At least in the states, our criminals use real Star Trek swords in the commission of crimes, here.
For the full story, click here.
Interesting to see that UK mothers and police are capable of the same degree of irrational overreaction that American ones are.
Should that make me feel better or worse?
DOJ,
What Jill said. Hop to it, boys and girls. And know that your success could well be the key to avoiding something REALLY unpleasant happening. Because if you let the war criminals go free? On top of all the white collar crime you are studiously avoiding punishing? It’s going to be on, it’s just a matter of when. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Be you President or C.E.O. of Scumbag Bankers, Inc.
Now get to work.
“The US investigates allegations and claims of torture…” (US State Dept. spokesman) Well get cracking!
This is an update to a story linked above. Here’s a clip of info and a new link:
“The government was accused last night of hiding behind claims of a threat to national security to suppress evidence of torture by the CIA on a prisoner still held in Guantánamo Bay.
An unprecedented high court ruling yesterday blamed the US, with British connivance, for keeping the “powerful evidence” secret, sparking criticism from lawyers, campaigners and MPs, who claimed the government had capitulated to American bullying.
Two senior judges said they were powerless to reveal the information about the torture of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident, because David Miliband, the foreign secretary, had warned the court the US was threatening to stop sharing intelligence about terrorism with the UK.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, the legal charity and human rights group which acted for Mohamed, said last night: “The US is under a legal duty to investigate the crime of torture, not to suppress evidence that it happened … For the foreign secretary to give in to these illegal demands by the Bush administration is capitulation to blackmail, pure and simple.”
Yesterday’s ruling was the latest in unprecedented court hearings into the abduction of Mohamed, who was seized and held incommunicado in Pakistan in 2002 before being secretly renditioned to Morocco, where he says he was tortured. He was subsequently flown to Afghanistan before being sent to Guantánamo Bay. He has been on hunger strike and the US and UK are discussing his possible return to the UK.
The ruling, studded with thinly disguised attacks on the attitude of the foreign secretary and the American authorities, came after the judges last year invited the Guardian and other media groups to overturn Miliband’s refusal to disclose information in the documents given to him by the US. In a telling passage, the judges said: “Given [the documents’] source and detail, they would … amount to powerful evidence”. None of the contents at issue could possibly be described as sensitive US intelligence, they said.
In further stinging comments they said: “Moreover, in the light of the long history of the common law and democracy which we share with the United States, it was, in our view, very difficult to conceive that a democratically elected and accountable government could possibly have any rational objection to placing into the public domain such a summary of what its own officials reported as to how a detainee was treated by them and which made no disclosure of sensitive intelligence matters.
“Indeed we did not consider that a democracy governed by the rule of law would expect a court in another democracy to suppress a summary of the evidence contained in reports by its own officials … relevant to allegations of torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment, politically embarrassing though it might be.” The judges said yesterday: “It is plainly right that the details of the admissions in relation to the treatment of [Mohamed] as reported by officials of the United States government should be brought into the public domain.”
They urged the Obama administration to reconsider the US position and also said that parliament’s intelligence and security select committee must investigate the case in line with extended powers the committee had been granted by Gordon Brown. But the judges noted that the committee meets in private and the prime minister can censor its reports.
A spokesman for the US state department said: “The US thanks the UK government for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information and preserve the long standing intelligence-sharing relationship that enables both countries to protect their citizens. The US investigates allegations and claims of torture … such as those raised by Binyam Mohamed.”
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said last night: “Despite best efforts to shine a light on the grubbiest aspects of the ‘war on terror’, the Foreign Office has claimed that the Obama administration maintained a previous US threat to reconsider intelligence sharing unless our judges kept this shameful skeleton in the closet. We find this Foreign Office allegation … surprising.” David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, said it implied that torture had taken place and British agencies may have been complicit.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/04/guantanamo-bay-torture
happy meal–there’s probably a Freudian explanation for that typo!
Yes Seamus, but McNuggets are deadly weapons!
May I have the happy mean and a side of Crestor with that?
Trolls, Dumber than Soap
OVer 650,000 hits already . . . unfortunately they were all to the head.
None of which obviates that Pelosi sucks. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Nancy Pelosi, Dumber than Soap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E
OVer 650,000 hits already
Can an overdose of doughnuts cause the police to make such a poor judgment? I don’t get what society will gain from this prosecution. Here is a guy that gets arrested for trying to amuse a child and Bush tortures prisoners and we won’t prosecute him.
I seem to recall a 4th grader getting expelled some where in the States a few years ago for pointing a McNugget at another kid in a gun-like fashion.
Obama Picks Porn Lawyer for #2 at Justice
February 3, 2009
CHICAGO – President Obama has made a major mistake and put America’s families at risk by selecting David Ogden to become Deputy Attorney General, says Fidelis, a pro-family organization.
“David Ogden is a hired gun from Playboy and ACLU. He can’t run from his long record of opposing common sense laws protecting families, women, and children. The United States Senate has a responsibility to the American people to insure that Mr. Ogden’s full record is fully reviewed before any vote on his nomination” said Brian Burch, President of Fidelis.
“Ogden’s record is nothing short of obscene. He has represented Playboy Enterprises in multiple cases, Penthouse Magazine, the ACLU, and the largest distributor of hard-core pornography videos. He has opposed filters on library computers protecting children from Internet smut, and successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children.”
“David Ogden has collected checks from Playboy and Penthouse to fight any attempts to establish filters on federally-funded public libraries. Ogden even sued the federal government in an attempt to publish Braille versions of Playboy magazine – at taxpayer expense, of course,” said Burch.
As a lawyer in private practice, Ogden has argued for an unlimited abortion license, gays in the military, and has urged courts to treat traditional definitions of marriage as a social prejudice.
“A vast majority of Americans support parental notification before a minor’s abortion and protecting kids from Internet pornography in our libraries,” continued Burch. “Yet David Ogden has fought tooth and nail against these common sense laws protecting our children from harm. At a time when America’s families are under increasing assault, Mr. Ogden is a dangerous choice for a position whose responsibilities include the enforcement of our nation’s laws. “
Support for Pork Bill Collapsing
February 4, 2009 Posted by John at 11:31 AM
Today’s Rasmussen survey indicates that support for the Obama administration’s pork-infested spending bill is going up in smoke: currently only 37% favor the measure while 43% oppose it. Here is the downward trend:
Even worse, perhaps, is the fact that half of poll respondents say the Dems’ pork-fest “may end up doing more harm than good.”
People are catching on to what the bill actually does, and support seems certain to decline further. The Republicans have a winning issue here, one that can take them a long way toward reclaiming their brand. The biggest danger is an untimely collapse by Republican moderates in the Senate who are not in touch with the mood of the voters.
See what you think of this. It wouldn’t go through, so don’t know if it will come through on this posting:
“David Davis said a High Court ruling on Wednesday alleged that Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident held in the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, had been tortured.
The judges also said the US threatened to withdraw intelligence help from the UK if details were released.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7870049.stm
Stupidity of inconceivable proportions!
The gentleman in question should probably consider moving to Arkansas.
Hey Bob, Esq.!
This one is just for your. In all his Dark Majesty.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/02/florida-student-asks-scalia-a-question-and-gets-scolded.html
Wow. The English have all lost their damn minds, haven’t they?