Oklahoma Civil Asset Forfeiture still Generating Bad Press for the State

OKC's District Attorney, David Prater

 Fallin bowed to public pressure in June and halted the controversial ERAD readers that are capable of stealing information and even cash  from your debit and credit cards.  At least until OHP formulated a policy for using the legalized theft.   But others in the state including Democratic Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater refused to listen to the public and vowed to continue using the readers.

Prater has set up his own little personal army called COMIT, Central Oklahoma Metro Interdiction Team, and has been using the ERAD readers nonstop since January and has no plans on stopping.  Prater claims the devices are legitimate law enforcement tools and claims that money has been seized from cards in a small percentage of the cases and that it helps stop identity theft.

Shot and Killed for Being Deaf/Mute

 A North Carolina trooper shot and killed a 29 year old deaf/mute man after a brief very low speed car chase.  The report states that the man was speeding on an interstate and exited the interstate near his home before pulling over to the side of the road at his home.  Eyewitnesses claim that Daniel Harris was shot and killed almost immediately after getting out of the car and that his attempt to communicate using sign language was the reason for the shooting.

A neighbor eyewitness said "They should've deescalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation, you're pulling someone over who is deaf, they are handicapped. To me, what happened is totally unacceptable."

Racist!

Former Klansman, The late senator, Robert Byrd shares a tender moment w/HRC

RACIST!! …..screamed Hillary Clinton last week as she attempted to tie Donald Trump to the KKK and white supremacists in an add.  Using Trump's popular views on immigration she attempted to paint him as a bigot and a racist.  Another attack claimed that Trump might respond to a negative social media post with a cruise missile.     They then coined a new term, "alt right" and said it was racists in suits basically, and claim that Trump has a dog whistle to summon them….  The ad shows various KKK and white supremacists endorsing Trump along with dire warnings of what Trump might do once in office.

New York Imam Shooting Sold as a “Hate Crime” by a Trump Supporter Turns out to be Immigrant on Immigrant Crime

Liberal Media Desperate to Kill the Trump Campaign and

Burning Credibility along the way.

Turns out that the Ozone Park shooting, where to Muslims were gunned down as they were leaving their mosque was a result of long simmering neighborhood violence between immigrant groups, not something caused by the Trump campaign sparking racial or religious outrage.

The 35 year old Brooklyn man named Oscar Morel was of Dominican descent but born in the U.S..  The local Hispanics and the Muslim community have been feuding going back into the early 200's.

And minutes after Morel allegedly gunned down the two Muslims he allegedly drove into another Muslim, an Iraqi immigrant, as the man rode through a cross walk.   Complicating matters is a key witness at the shooting that identified someone other than Morel in the line up.  A .38 caliber revolver was recovered at the suspects' home, hidden inside a wall with the wallboard set in place with screws.  Morel maintains his innocence.

Milwaukee Cops got it Right during the Riots

Baltimore Cops…. Not So Much I'm Afraid

  

  Sylville Smith was a criminal thug and his killing might well prove to be justified.  While the body camera has yet to be released Smith lead a life of crime leading up to his being shot by Milwaukee Police.  The 23 year old fled on foot after being stopped last Saturday along with another man, both running away in different directions.  Smith was armed with a stolen semi-automatic pistol and allegedly had turned toward the cops with the gun in his right hand.   Cops say he refused to drop the weapon when ordered to do so and was shot in the arm and chest, not in the back as the rioters claim.  The police shooter was also black.

Konawa Tea Party: Kern & Key

(4th) Tuesday August 23, 2016

7:00 - 9:00 PM

Kennedy Library - The Dougan Room

Konawa School

701 W South Street

Speakers this month:

• Pastor Steve Kern & St. Rep. Sally Kern
  (Cumulative Conservative average 96) 
• Charles Key
  (A stalwart conservative trooper)
• Bill Smith -  On Liberty          

Nasty Politics in Cleveland County

 We had decided to stay clear of the Cleveland County Court  Clerk race as we had supporters on both sides but then someone just had to start throwing lies and dirt and few things are more troubling than seeing a lying politician elected to office.

The first thing we looked at was the donor list for the candidate and counted  five businesses, fewer than that retired people, and the rest were almost ALL Cleveland County Court Clerk employees, bail bondsmen, or attorneys.  The vast majority of them are also Democrats and this is a Republican Primary runoff.   And who benefits by having a Court Clerk in their debt?   Employees of the office of County Clerk, bondsmen, and attorneys benefit from having access or better pay if the candidate wins the election.

Keep Calm and Trump On

   Yea Gods…. All the handwringing and whining by the RINOs the last few weeks, sounding like a bunch of twittering old women over the attacks against Donald Trump.  I keep my car radio tuned to two stations, KTOK to listen to when Glen Beck isn't whining about Trump and  KOSU the NPR station.  Why listen to NPR? Two reasons, first know your enemy, second they don't have many ads running (probably can't sell them) and there are some interesting stories on occasion.   You are either shaking your head in disbelief or laughing at the stupidity of the liberals that call in.

   Another good source is Yahoo News, as liberal as they are they have Trump stories that are heavily weighted against the candidate.   But listening to Glen Beck and KOSU and watching the posts on Yahoo! give you an excellent insight to how the liberals and RINOs are literally crapping their pantaloons as Trump maintains course.  Manufactured outrage such as the 2^nd Amendment quote by Trump last week generally fall flat with the commenters weighing in on the stories.  Meanwhile the stories about Clinton sharing a stage with the father of the Florida gay club terrorist or the stories of DNC staffers being found dead seen to never be written about.

Does CLEET Track Cops Fired or Pressured to Resign for Cause?

 Officer Lee Coel killed a 73 year old woman at a PR event staged by the Punta Gorda Florida Police Department last week.   Coel shot the woman in front of 35 people at an event that was supposed to show citizens how little time police have to make judgment calls.  Only a year earlier Coel was asked to resign from the Miramar P.D. after 14 months and allegedly for failing to pass a field training program.  However Coel admitted on his application for the Punta Gorda department that there were two excessive force complaints filed against him as a result.

  An area lawyer said Coel ought not to have been a cop at all and he had been asking for Coel to be fired months ago before he killed someone.  The lawyer,, Weinberg represented a 25 year old man that was mauled during a 2015 arrest for riding a bike without a headlight or taillight.  The video showed a non violent but uncooperative suspect, probably because he was drunk at the time of the arrest. 

Can we say we Told you So?

   Last week after we published our story on teacher pay and the lax requirements for achieving a teaching certificate we expected a crush of negative email and phone calls from irate teachers and the supporting public.  To our surprise we received just two emails, one agreeing on the lax requirements, and another pointing out that a recent paper agreed with our findings that teachers were well paid considering the cost of living rates in Oklahoma.

  The report found that teacher pay was ranked 30^th when adjusted for cost of living in each state and ranked 19^th for teacher starting pay.  We also rank considerably higher than the surrounding states.  Even a modest pay raise of $2000 per year would catapult Oklahoma above other states once the cost of living is considered.  Oregon as an example pays teachers $15,000 more  than Oklahoma, 34% higher,  but Oregon cost of living is 49% higher than the cost of living in Oklahoma.

In Support Of John Bennettt

A Letter From a Reader

  Thirty years ago (more?) there was a front-page article in the Norman Transcript about the incoming freshman class at OU; the point was that OU was quite pleased that the ACT scores were up around a half point to 23.5, an indication of improved recruiting, secondary school preparation, etc.

Late in the article they mentioned that the average for the school of education, still a flagship for women in those days, was 18.

The dumbest of the schools was education, and the Transcript missed that meaning of the data (and of course the 23.5 included that group).

I never saw those stats again in the Transcript.

B.P.  Norman Ok

The Education Mafia

Last year we ran the story about Oklahoma teachers making more money per year than Texas teachers and how the education mafia manipulates the statistics and the public in their never ending shrill demands for even more money from the state budget. The mantra is always the same "Oklahoma teachers are 49^th in the nation in pay and we are losing teachers."

Teachers salaries average $44,128 in Oklahoma according to the National Education Association and are alleged to be the lowest in the region and 49^thnationally.  That however is a complete and total lie.  Once you factor in the retirement payments another 300 million dollars a year comes into the equation, around $7,255.00 per teacher.  Oklahoma like most states has a defined benefit retirement plan with rather large but shrinking unfunded liabilities that the state contributes toward each year as part of the teacher payroll.  Some states like Arkansas and Texas run the entire retirement plan payment through the education payroll but Oklahoma runs far less through the payroll; 9.5% of salary versus Arkansas's 14% of salary.  Then Oklahoma kicks in an additional 5% from sales taxes, use taxes, corporate and individual income taxes, and lottery revenue.   In total Oklahoma kicks in over 17% of the salary but the NEA only counts the 9.5% that flows directly through the payroll system.

The Penalty for a Mental Disorder is Summary Execution?

 Friends and family members said that the victim was merely upset over not collecting some money he was owed and had no real mental disorder. Still, putting a knife to your own throat when police attempt to arrest you isn't the act of a normal person so let's assume the guy was temporarily insane or just confused or desperate to avoid arrest.

But first let's look at how a good cop handles a man with a knife.   

Not sure why this man was being questioned other than he was walking down a road and might or might not have been walking in the road.   Fact is that cops are trained to find reasons or make up reasons to get involved but one wonders if left alone would this homeless guy have caused anyone any trouble that day?  Still the officer used restraint and it was obvious he was both retreating and trying to de escalate the situation so he ought to get some credit for that.

August Tulsa County Republican Men's Club Wednesday August 10th

Tulsa County Republican Men's Club is honored to have Major General Myles Deering as our guest speaker for the month of August. Our meeting will be at Brookside Baptist Church fellowship Hall (3615 S. Peoria, Tulsa). Doors open at 11:30 and the meeting starts at 12 noon. Lunch is $12 and open to the public.  RSVP, Billie Bell 918-638-9977. 

Myles Lynn Deering (born 1953) is a retired Army National Guard major general who served as the Adjutant General of Oklahoma. General Deering was appointed by Governor of Oklahoma Brad Henry in 2009 following the promotion of Harry M. Wyatt III to the position of Director, Air National Guard. On December 10, 2010, Governor Mary Fallin announced that she would retain General Deering in his position as Adjutant General.

Gangster Thug Baby Subjects Peace Officers to Stress and Suffering

Infant is to Blame for Deliberate Criminal Conduct, Assumption of Risk,

and Failure to Avoid Consequences

So said the response filed by lawyers representing the officers and the Habersham County Sheriff Department.  Infant Bou-Bou Phonesavanh, who we wrote about last year, was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit attempting to recover about a million dollars in medical bills caused by a flash bang grenade thrown into Bou Bou's crib.  Below is the relevant part of the filing:

TENTH  DEFENSE

To the extent as may be shown by the evidence through discovery, plaintiffs'injuries and damages, if any, were caused by the deliberate, criminal conduct of  plaintiffs, and such criminal conduct supersedes any and all negligence or liability,if any, on the part of these defendants.

ELEVENTH  DEFENSE

To the extent as may be shown by the evidence through discovery, these defendants also assert the affirmatives defenses of assumption of the risk, failure to avoid consequences, laches, failure to mitigate damages, last clear chance and sudden emergency

EPA Loses one Pond Prosecution but Sends another Pond Builder to Federal Prison

  

  Wasn't too long ago that Andy Johnson of Wyoming won his case against the EPA over the farm pond he built.    The stock pond was declared illegal by the EPA and Johnson was threatened with finds of $37,500 per day till it was removed.  Well the EPA settled that case and the pond is still there.

But that was one of dozens of cases where the EPA and various federal agencies are cracking down on land owners and mineral lease owners all across the west.   Joe Roberson of Basin Montana had a different outcome.  Joe had build a few ground water ponds, not in a stream, but built to capture water flowing off a hill and storing the water for stock use and for fire fighting.  They own 200 acres in the mountains and have a patented mining claim.  One of their sources of income is a very large Freightliner water tender, an enormous water truck that is used to support fire fighting in the area.

Doctors Don’t Make Much Money off Vaccinations Or so we Were Told….

  You gotta follow the money if you want to find the truth on something.   We were told that doctors were above board in supporting forced vaccination of children and that they certainly didn't make very much money off the vaccinations but it turns out they really, really, make a lot of cash vaccinating kids.

  Blue Cross Blue Shield actually pays $400 per child that is completely vaccinated before 2 years of age.     A pediatrician with 200 new incoming patients a year can earn a cool $80,000 and as someone that once made storage racks for a pediatrician, let me tell you a good one has a lot more than 200 new patients a year.    This fact was dug up after people started noticing a trend for pediatricians refusing to serve unvaccinated children.  It turns out that there is a target of 63% of vaccinated kids needed before the cash bonus kicks in.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Reasons

 We all want to catch the bad buys, right?  And LEO need a lot of leeway to make us safe, right?  And there are tough guidelines and protections built into the system to avoid abuse, right?

Turns out the feds or your local law enforcement officer don't need a shed of evidence to put you on a terrorist watch list.  The feds say that neither "concrete facts' nor 'irrefutable evidence" are needed  to designate someone as a terrorist:

"In determining whether a REASONABLE SUSPICION exists, due weight should be given to the specific reasonable inferences that a NOMINATOR is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his/her experience and not on unfounded suspicions or hunches. Although irrefutable evidence or concrete facts are not necessary, to be reasonable, suspicion should be as clear and as fully developed as circumstances permit,"

A Hero Cop outs a Coward Cop

    We do enough stories that are critical of LEO so when we see a story of a cop going above and beyond we also like to report it.  In this story though the cop paid for his honesty.  Teax Police officer Michael Kelly reported that other local LEO attempted to cover up the facts in the Sandra Bland arrest last summer.  Bland allegedly committed suicide in her cell after she was roughed up and arrested.

The officer reported that supervisors edited his police report that was critical of the state trooper that had initially arrested Bland and that he had been threatened by the local prosecutor for speaking out about what had really happened that day.  Bland was arrested for assaulting trooper Brian Encinia but officer Kelly reported that when he arrived on the scene the woman was already in handcuffs in the back of the trooper's car.  Kelly overheard the trooper saying he didn't know what to charge the woman with but that he would come up with something.  The trooper had also turned off his body camera.  Officer Kelly told the media that the trooper had messed up, had no probable cause to arrest the woman after completing the traffic ticket.   Kelly's two page report was edited down to less than one page and entered into the record without his approval.    Attempts to testify before the grand jury hearing the case were rebuffed by the prosecutor with Kelly being told "it wouldn't be good for your career" and that he might wind up "beneath the jail" if he testified.

And a Prosecutor that Gets it and is Trying to Set Things Right

  A Texas cop was arrested on July 13^th after drunkenly firing his service pistol at a church.  Police body camera footage showed Deputy William Cox crying and complaining about the cop shootings in Dallas while using racial slurs.  

  Cox admitted that he got drunk and fired into the church and he was arrested for deadly conduct and jailed at the Ellis County Jail.  The pastor of the church then signed an affidavit of non prosecution and the deputy was released..

Letter from a Reader

Q: "I have one question...

 when the lottery vote was put before Oklahomans (I didn't vote for it), it was promised all of this money would be poured into the schools.  Really?  Where is it?

Donna P"

A: Good question.  The lottery was oversold as a way to create jobs for term limited and retiring legislators and their cronies and to provide advertising dollars to the media.  It took in around 200 million last year and paid out 35% of that to schools but K-12 gets less than half of that and Higher Ed (colleges) get around 27% of the take.