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tkdguy

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 A group of prison inmates in Florida used the skills that got them into prison in the first place to save the life on a one-year-old girl who had been accidentally locked in a car.

 

The minimum-security prisoners were working on a highway repair when it happened. Their guards watched them, and one actually praised their actions.

 

One of the most famous stories of American writer O. Henry (master of the last-page plot twist) involved a reformed safecracker in a similar position, throwing away his freedom to rescue a child. The consequences weren't so serious in this case, but I was reminded of that story when I read this.

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35 minutes ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

 A group of prison inmates in Florida used the skills that got them into prison in the first place to save the life on a one-year-old girl who had been accidentally locked in a car.

 

The minimum-security prisoners were working on a highway repair when it happened. Their guards watched them, and one actually praised their actions.

 

One of the most famous stories of American writer O. Henry (master of the last-page plot twist) involved a reformed safecracker in a similar position, throwing away his freedom to rescue a child. The consequences weren't so serious in this case, but I was reminded of that story when I read this.

 

I think this should count for a severe reduction in sentence time.

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8 hours ago, death tribble said:

Karl Lagerfeld one of the world's leading fashion designers dies at 85

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47293637

 

Oh, is that who that was?  Wife was going on last night about how some Karl dude died, and it was sudden cancer and it was tragic, and I was smiling and nodding while thinking "Who the f**k is she talking about?"

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Jussie Smollett arrested, charged with felony

 

First of all, innocent until proven guilty, of course. 

 

This is pretty awful.  Damages REAL victims, many of whom already have problems getting people to believe them, wastes valuable taxpayer money and police time/resources, and anti-LGBTQ and race-baiters something to crow about.

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1 hour ago, Starlord said:

Jussie Smollett arrested, charged with felony

 

First of all, innocent until proven guilty, of course. 

 

This is pretty awful.  Damages REAL victims, many of whom already have problems getting people to believe them, wastes valuable taxpayer money and police time/resources, and anti-LGBTQ and race-baiters something to crow about.

 

Yeah, hard to remember that "innocent until proven guilty" bit sometimes, our nation seems very quick to judge and eager for blood these days.

 

But if he did do this, yup, a lot of harm.

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On 2/3/2019 at 9:24 AM, Duke Bushido said:

 

This is the disgusting and horrifying reason I left Carolina many years ago.  Shortly after this named to be used as a tool in the "war against drugs" and it escalated to include taking cars, houses, and whatever cash they could find, I bugged out.  I ran a cash-heavy truck-based business at the time, and when the crew and I were headed home after two or three weeks in the field, we did _not_ look like high-end citizens.  We were ragged, filthy, and tired.  I had nightmares about getting pulled over and losing a month's worth of payroll for eight men and a sizable bit of operating capital to get us to the next job.

 

Then, just a few years later, the government decided that any "large" cash transaction had to be reported by banks, making it just flat dangerous to do business at all.  I quite the business all together (and thus had to make several truck and equipment payments out of a _much_ smaller income until I finally got it all sold) simply because, what with the example of South Carolina, I figured at some point I'd walk in to the bank with "too much cash" and there'd be a federal agent in charge of just taking it.

 

Not a joke.  It's some seriously terrifying and absolutely sketchy crap.  Consider that I used to move houses.  I left SC-- where the permits, rights, and licenses are fairly easy to acquire-- and moved the whole shebang to Georgia, where those same processes are like pulling teeth from a grizzly bear, just because I didn't feel safe operating a completely legal enterprise.

 

 

 

Duke

 

 

Back when I used to do political activism and blogging, I advocated, at the very least, that the agency which confiscated the money should NEVER get any of the money. Law enforcement agencies shouldn't have a profit motive for going after real crime, much less have a profit motive for going after innocent people.

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51 minutes ago, Hermit said:

 

Yeah, hard to remember that "innocent until proven guilty" bit sometimes, our nation seems very quick to judge and eager for blood these days.

 

But if he did do this, yup, a lot of harm.

 

Well, they apparently have a copy of the check he paid them with, so he's also pretty dumb criminal as well.

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53 minutes ago, archer said:

 

Back when I used to do political activism and blogging, I advocated, at the very least, that the agency which confiscated the money should NEVER get any of the money. Law enforcement agencies shouldn't have a profit motive for going after real crime, much less have a profit motive for going after innocent people.

 

The Supreme Court agrees with you as of yesterday.  I'm not sure how long it will take for this ruling to filter down to the municipalities.

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39 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

The Supreme Court agrees with you as of yesterday.  I'm not sure how long it will take for this ruling to filter down to the municipalities.

 

While this is a step in the right direction, the ruling made it clear that it was the galling magnitude of the seizure compared to the size of the legally allowed fine which was the problem. If the police had seized his $10,000 car rather than his $42,000 SUV, it doesn't appear that there would have been any problem at all with that action.

 

Law enforcement can still use money from seizures. This ruling just says the seizures have to be in line with the limits on fines rather than in addition to fines (or completely unrelated to the issue of fines).

 

In theory, law enforcement could continue to bring in the exact same amount of money from seizures if they start aggressively looking for properties which fall under the legal limits for fines and if prosecutors aggressively lay on all the additional charges they can think of in order to boost the cap.

 

I mean, it'd be nice if state and local governments looked at the ruling and gave up their evil ways. But I think it's more likely that they'll just work to maximize their revenue under the new ruling.

 

On the bright side, it was nice to see justices on both sides of the aisle come together on this ruling.

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4 hours ago, Starlord said:

Jussie Smollett arrested, charged with felony

 

First of all, innocent until proven guilty, of course. 

 

This is pretty awful.  Damages REAL victims, many of whom already have problems getting people to believe them, wastes valuable taxpayer money and police time/resources, and anti-LGBTQ and race-baiters something to crow about.

 

I have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical, after hearing the temperature that night was -20.  Maybe Chicagoans are more inclined to the cold than me.  But, I just know if I cut off my own foot, I might not go out in that kind of temperature to go to the hospital.  Much less to go out and commit hate  crimes if I was so inclined.  When I have been in single digit temperatures my thinking was limited to Warmth! and Shelter!

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