Blog
Safety
Carbon Monoxide - The Silent Killer
Here we are again, at that time of year when we all-to-commonly read about some poor soul who discovered the ultimate cure for the aging process by trying to stay warm using an improperly vented stove or furnace. NEVER use a charcoal grill to heat a living space!
Carbon Monoxide (CO):You can’t see it or smell it. It can and will kill when allowed to accumulate in a living space! Make sure that there are no leaks in any exhaust system, and that all system’s are properly vented.
Boating 101: The Importance of Ventilation
Stay safe!
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Law and Justice
Ignorance or Diversion?
Leave it to National Public Radio NPR to conveniently come up with something like this:
Rittenhouse's defense renews focus on the case of a 17-year-old who killed her abuser
In the aftermath of Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal in Kenosha, Wis., last week, advocates are turning back to the case of Chrystul Kizer, who is also arguing it was self-defense when she killed her adult sexual abuser, set his house on fire and stole his car in 2018.
The implication being offered here by NPR is, of course, that our legal system is not fair—an emotional claim that, by design, resonates with those who are ignorant of the law and predisposed to side with Rittenhouse’s attackers.
But, is there something more sinister going on? We have been seeing an obvious attempt by the media and others to divert attention away from the recent vehicular-homicide case that occurred in Waukesha, WI. That incident occurred at the same time as an raucous left-wing reaction to the Rittenhouse verdict.
The facts of the case involving Kyle Rittenhouse differ significantly from the facts of the case involving Chrystul Kizer. it was necessary for Rittenhouse to meet the legal requirement of self-defense before he could claim that he used a firearm (deadly force) for that purpose. Five elements are required, and all five of those elements must be satisfied by the defendant when claiming self-defense. *The elements are: innocence, reasonable, imminence, proportional, and (when applicable) avoidance. If any one of those required elements are not met, the whole self-defense claim collapses, usually leaving the defendant with an admission of guilt that can be a sure ticket to prison.
So, what’s going on here? It’s anybody’s guess, but my money is on the guesses that are educated.
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*Thanks go to Attorney Andrew Branca for hammering this point during his excellent coverage and commentary of the recent Rittenhouse trial.
Law and Justice
The Cause and Effects of “Sham” Trials
Competent police departments are perfectly capable of investigating perspective self-defense cases and rendering an accurate conclusion as to whether or not a case actually does involve a matter of legal self-defense. Why then do we have bogus trials?
There was, however, a second verdict in that courtroom for those who have been maintaining a distorted or incomplete account to this trial. From the outset, politicians and media figures insisted that this was a case of murders committed by a white supremacist. Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden labeled Rittenhouse a “white supremacist” in a tweet showing his photo and demanded to know why then-President Donald Trump did not “disavow white supremacists.” Much of the media followed suit with an echo chamber of coverage that led some people to believe that these were essentially executions on the streets of Kenosha. Columnist Elie Mystal called the trial a sham.
The sine qua non for a prosecutor to make a case in a court of law is having a case. We’ve seen two good examples, in Zimmerman and Rittenhouse, of expensive (in more ways than one) trials where there was no legal case against the accused. If there was justice to be had in either one of those noted cases, it was attained at the street level prior to the police investigation—and competent police investigations reflected that.
Now we have seen innocent children, among others, slaughtered in a parade, apparently due to the fake narrative propagated by the real protagonist’s—some politicians and the major news media.
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Law and Justice
Fixing the Problems Associated with Self Defense
Now that the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has been completed, it’s time for the critique process to try and come up with a method of preventing this kind of travesty from reoccurring. Those of us who have been practitioners in what we call the "criminal justice system" are keenly aware of those within the system, some prosecutors in particular, who operate, not with justice as their goal, but with a political agenda as their goal—that they fictitiously refer to as “justice." Names like Mike Nifong, Michael Lessler, and Angela Corey come to mind, and now we have Thomas Binger.
A logical assumption would be that an elected prosecutor (District Attorney) would actually know the law, so what is going on when the facts surrounding the case at hand, as usually verified by police investigation, are completely disregarded, and outlandish "probable cause" affidavit's, such as the “affidavit" used in the trial of George Zimmerman, are pushed forward to the trial phase. Several potential reasons exist, but no matter the reason, the "defendant" is on the hook and facing financial catastrophe, not to mention loss of freedom, as he struggles to fight his way through the mess.
The Remedy?
One potential remedy is to handle malicious prosecution cases in the same manner as those that deal with state preemption violations. Placing the financial burden and penalty on those isolated individual’s who personally practice malice. (Why do I keep thinking about Cutting Horses?)
A proposal for remedy is presented by attorney Andrew Branca:
An uphill battle for sure; lace up the hiking boots.
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