Edited for brevity.
The trackers arrived early on a drizzly morning at a crime scene that a homicide detective called "a forensic nightmare." A thicket of blackberry vines and dense woods surrounded the elderly victim's ramshackle trailer. Nearby, rusted overturned cars, a van and a travel trailer spewed garbage. The driveway into the property was littered with flattened tin cans.
Ever since May 16, when a Pierce County [WA] sheriff's deputy went to Roy Park's home to check on his welfare and found the man's body buried beneath brush, clues to the homicide had been difficult to find, and the trail was growing cold. But on Monday, Pierce County homicide Detective Bruce Larson turned to a "new" old skill: a team of trackers with skills similar to what hunters use in tracking game through woods, but tailored for tracking humans. Suddenly the crime scene bristled with clues that had previously been overlooked.
As tracker and King County Sheriff's Deputy Kathleen Decker and two volunteers studied the scene, bent and broken blades of grass revealed where the body had been dragged from a grassy spot near Park's beehives the site of the slaying down into a gully. Barely perceptible indentations in the soil told of an escape route. The sweep of grass showed where a car had traveled.
In an era when law enforcement has turned to high-tech gadgets and forensic science to help uncover clues at crime scenes, the ancient skill of tracking has largely gone overlooked, experts say. While search-and-rescue teams have often used tracking to find missing persons, it's only more recently being used as a tool in crime-scene investigations. Decker is leading the push in King County.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/29/2007 16:48 ||
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Nearly 30 people swarmed a Mesa convenience store at Alma School and 8th Street late Friday, stealing about 15 beer cases, chips, sports drinks, gum and candy.
The Mesa Police Department said this is the second time in less than two weeks that this type of group shoplifting crime has occurred. Mesa Police Department's Steve Berry said the thieves pay for some items, but only to distract the clerk from the others who are stealing items. The extreme number of thieves then overwhelms the clerk and makes it difficult for employees to identify them, even on surveillance tapes, Berry said.
#2
I wonder if that would work at Nordstroms. I need a new pair of shoes.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/29/2007 10:07 Comments ||
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#3
A group beating of the robbers as they departed the store would be called a hate crime...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/29/2007 11:07 Comments ||
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#4
This kind of swarming shoplifting is often reported from Youths in France, I've read it happening on the Champs Elysées, in the south of France,... basically, Youths walk in, help themselves, and leave, either for immediate consumption (food, drinking), or for theft (perfume, clothes,...). This is rather frequent, as acknowledged by shopkeepers, but is rarely reported by the msm.
#6
'Swarming thefts' are an old trick.
In a previous life, I worked as a loss prevention agent at Tower Records. One summer we started having episodes of 'swarming.'
So one day about 15 guys came in, went immediately to the hip-hop/rap cassette section and started openly ripping the wrappers off of tapes and putting them in their pockets. I decided to use 'unconventional tactics' to stop the swarm.
I climbed up on the tape Shelves in front of them and (in a VERY loud voice) announced to the entire department that everyone in the hip-hop/rap section "looked like Elvis."
The gang-bangers dropped the tapes, declared that I was most certainly on crack, and left.
My supervisor collared me the next day and told me that I was "very brave, and VERY stupid."
But we had no more swarms that summer... heh heh heh!
#11
I would bet that Free Radical's approach worked for two reasons:
1.) His loud declaration drew the entire store's attention to the shoplifters. They know what they're doing is wrong and don't want anyone to see it. Call it a residual guilt complex.
2.) The "Elvis" gambit instilled just enough uncertainty that the individual shouting it might actually go off on them in another few seconds. Few low IQ thieves are willing to confront a full-blown psycho. Summoning up The King in times of trial would un-nerve a lot of lowbrow types.
Edited for brevity
Deputy U.S. marshals, state troopers and Seattle police pulled on their bulletproof vests as they prepared to hit a Renton home. Inside, they expected to find a 37-year-old man wanted for child molestation. Moments later, the cops emerged, looking disappointed. The fugitive wasn't there.
The Friday raid didn't resemble a Hollywood movie. The Pacific Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force doesn't always get its man. But judging by the results of last week's fugitive sweep, dubbed Operation Falcon, they usually do.
No one was shot. There were no high-speed chases. But by the end of the week, the interagency task force led by the U.S. Marshals Service in Seattle had arrested 249 fugitives -- including alleged rapists, child abusers, drug traffickers and other violent felons.
The operation took some of the worst fugitives in Western Washington off the streets, said Tom Lanier, a supervisory deputy at the Marshals Service. On Friday, after almost a week of extremely long days, Lanier was looking tired -- but satisfied. Eight teams of cops cleared 311 felony warrants. They arrested 35 sex offenders, 19 weapons offenders and 10 known gang members. They also seized assorted firearms. Violent gang members and sex offenders were priority targets, culled from a list of 3,000 outstanding arrest warrants provided by participating law enforcement agencies, Lanier said. Of course, this being the Seattle P-I, they have to start off the article with a negative tidbit in an attempt to taint the overall good news, but it *is* great to hear ~70 fugitives/day were getting nabbed last week!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
But remember, there's absolutely no way in hell we could ever use similar tactics to track down all the illegal aliens within our borders. Nosiree, Bob. Can't do it.
#5
Were any of them Arabic looking men who frequent ferries?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/29/2007 10:10 Comments ||
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#6
Um... please pardon my math... I guess 249 / 7 ~= 36 fugitives/day. Obviously I forgot to carry the 8. :-P
Posted by: Dar ||
08/29/2007 10:14 Comments ||
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#7
But they still haven't found the 2 guys on the ferry snooping around. guess the lefties have got them stashed away pretty good. FYI, there were 2 middle eastern guys looking at ferry operations, somebody snapped their picture, the FBI got involved, posted it and now all the libs are a-twitter about their rights being trampled. who cares if / when a ferry blows up on the Seattle water front....?
#8
Tip-o-the-Iceberg, I'm afraid. To any fellow RB'ers in the SeaTac area, what the hell has happened to your town? Every time I go back there it seems to be more and more degenerate.
#9
ms: cannot speak for others, but the libs have pretty much taken the soul out of the town; between a taxpayer funded flop house for drunks(can't have them on the streets becasue that would be unsightly, so they get their own place to drink) and running amok with ill thought out mass transit ideas ( street cars, monorail, etc) and $600k self cleaning robo toilets the dems have pretty well phuqued the place up. glad i live north out on one the many islands in the sound.
#10
USN, Ret., getcherass over to the Chimacum Cafe. Two dozenyup, two dozendifferent kinds of pie, real ice cream milkshakes and the best damned chicken fried steak on the Pacific Coast.
Chimacum Cafe
9253 Rhody Dr
Chimacum, WA 98325
360-732-4631
It is a must-stop location for me whenever I make the loop through Ruby Beach, the Ho River rainforest, La Push, Hurricane Ridge and Port Townsend.
It would have been more interesting if the woman had been on the bear.
Inga Åkerström from Boltjärn in northern Sweden found herself pedalling for her life on Monday when she was chased by a bear while out cycling. "I was on an upward slope when I saw something at the side of the road and began to wonder what it was. Then it raised its head and I saw that it was a bear," she told Dagbladet i Sundsvall.
After she had turned around and begun cycling back down the hill, she observed the bear coming towards her at top speed. Fortunately for Åkerström, she soon came upon her husband who was out walking the dog. Seeing that the object of its attentions now had company, the bear turned on its paws and fled back into the woods. Now, I'm puzzled: Did she brake or ... did she keep on pedaling?
"God, it was awful. I hope I never have to go through anything like that again," said Åkerström. No comment from the dog.
#7
Iff I remember correctly, DAMIEN's parent or his Mother anyway in the movie was a Horse or Ass/Mule?, which Nostradamus in his quatrains belabeled a CHAMEAU = MORI CHAMEAU/CHAMEAU MORI.
An Australian has come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the Outback: eat them. Wild cats - the escaped descendants of domestic cats - kill millions of small native animals each year. Now the tables have turned and they find themselves on the menu.
A bush tucker competition held at the weekend in Alice Springs, in the Red Centre of the continent, featured something new: wild cat casserole. "It's a white meat," said Kay Kessing, who came up with the recipe. "They vary a lot. The first cat I cooked didn't have a strong flavour. I put a lot of ingredients with it and made a beautiful stew.
"This cat that I've cooked is slightly larger. It has a slightly stronger flavour, but not as strong as rabbit."
A children's book author and illustrator, Mrs Kessing campaigns to save wild-life from the depredations of cats and other introduced animals, including camels, donkeys and wild horses.
Feral cats, which arrived with the British in 1788, now occupy most of the continent. Studies of their stomach contents show they eat almost anything that moves, including lizards, small mammals and spiders, as well as 180 species of Australian native birds.
Mrs Kessing said she would never dream of cooking a domestic cat. "It should always be wild," she told ABC radio. "And we should be eating donkeys and horse meat, like the French do."
But health authorities in the Northern Territory warned that eating cats could be risky. "It is not illegal to eat feral cat for your own consumption, or your family's," said Xavier Schobben, the director of the health department. "But there is no guarantee that any feral animal that hasn't been subject to post-mortem examination is safe."
While kangaroo and camel appear on Outback restaurant menus, feral cat has yet to capture the nation's taste.
#4
I think this gentleman once gave a news conference wearing a catskin hat, think Davey Crocket. This did not go over well with the PETA types.One reptile dealer has a copy of his "Killer Cat" posters.
Posted by: bruce ||
08/29/2007 7:28 Comments ||
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#5
Reminds me of the parody song "Cat's in the Kettle" (Harry Chapin, 'Cat's in the Cradle'):
Did you ever think, when you eat Chinese
It aint pork or chicken but a fat siamese?
Yet the food tastes great, so you dont complain.
But thats not chicken in your chicken chow mein.
Seems to me I ordered sweet-and-sour pork
But Garfields on my fork.
Hes purrin here on my fork.
#11
Because they are higher on the food ladder carnivorosu flesh had higher rates of harmful substances. There is a good reason in most civilizations carnivorous are not eaten.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/29/2007 11:27 Comments ||
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#13
Worst of all is how feral cats and housecats alike are exceptional hunters. America's feline population rivals habitat loss when it comes to bearing responsibility for the steep decline in native songbird species. One can well imagine the havoc they are wreaking on Australia's much more fragile Outback.
#14
Cats were eaten in occupied France (and most probably anywhere where food was scarce, then or anywhen), including by my grandfather; it's supposed to taste and look a lot like rabbit. I had a work colleague's father who invited a friend, made him "rabbit", and revealed to him afterward it was a cat he had caught from the neighbourhood.
"And we should be eating donkeys and horse meat, like the French do."
There still are donkey dry sausages, but horsemeat is not eaten frequently anymore, horse butcheries are a thing of the past, this is an outdated view I'd say. I never have eaten any horse meat, and I've eaten *lots* of stuff.
#15
By the way, if you thought I was going to talk about something about aussies eating pussy, you're wrong, I'd never say that. Never. I'm way too classy, I go by the name of the Astounding Rotundity in chosen circles.
#17
America's feline population rivals habitat loss when it comes to bearing responsibility for the steep decline in native songbird species.
The problem is we need cats in a lot of suburban areas to control the varmit population, because we have driven out all the other predators. I grew up with 5 cats, and we needed every one of them- plus the dog for 'quick response.'
#24
Quick response? To songbirds and chipmunks?
Problem was the cats would bring an injured chipmunk/squirrel/whatever back to the house and then sit there batting it around until they got bored. Not so the dog: natural born killer.
We kept lots of bird-houses on VERY high poles in the backyard to protect the songbirds.
#29
Open a Korean/Chinese restaurant, or import a mating pair of those cat eating Cougars from the Midwest, shortly cats will be scarce, either way you go.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/29/2007 19:18 Comments ||
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#30
'Course one way you're overrun by Koreans, the other way by Cougars, then you'll wish for the relatively harmless cats back, but remember that the law of unintended consequences still holds sway.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/29/2007 19:21 Comments ||
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#31
REMEMBER FOR SUPERIOR RODENT CONTROL CALL 1-800-KITTYKITTY, OUR EXPERTS ARE AVAILABLE AT VERY LOW COST.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/29/2007 19:23 Comments ||
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#32
Dang, those Aussies are smart. Wish I'd thought of just *eating* them a few years ago.
Posted by: Mike Vick ||
08/29/2007 21:18 Comments ||
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BEEVILLE - There was a somber sight in the city of Beeville Tuesday night, as a war memorial honoring veterans killed in four wars was completely destroyed.
That memorial once stood as five granite panels, with the names of 45 veterans who lost their lives, paying the ultimate sacrifice. But Tuesday, the memorial lies in pieces at the city's maintenance yard.
Local veterans said they're not sure when the memorial was vandalized. They say it looks like someone took their car and just rammed into it. The memorial was erected in 1989 and residents there said they're devastated by it's vandalism, because it's more than just rock - it's a symbol of freedom.
#2
If some yahoo rammed it with his car, it should be fairly simple to check with the local repair shops, not exactly CSI work, but it should be done. The local cops are idiots.
#3
Veterans tend to get testy about such things. I remember one such who spotted some 'youths' vandalizing a veterans' cemetery. He went through those 'youths' like a tornado, with a pair of octagonal nunchucks, leaving them curled up in agony on the grass.
The police actually had to carry them to their cars, as they were not up for walking or even standing upright.
Frontier police on Tuesday arrested four people, including the father of a minor girl, her grandfather and two members of a jirga for announcing the handover of three-year old Pakistani girl, Iqra Bibi, to an Afghan refugee as Swara. The jirga decision is a violation of Supreme Court orders banning the offering of females in Badl-e-Sulh (Swara) to a rival party for resolution of disputes, Lower Dir District Police Officer (DPO) Mohammad Khurshid told Daily Times. He said police had arrested the girls father Pervez Khan, her grandfather Gul Khan and jirga members, Ghulam Mohammad and Mohammad Gul.
A few days ago, elders in the Chakdara area of Dir district ordered the handover of Iqra Bibi as Swara for Friday (August 31). Locals said Iqras father Pervez Khan had been tortured into bowing to the jirgas decision.
That's why he's the one who got jugged, of course...
Pervez Khan, a resident of Gul Muqam,
I think my interest in this case is becoming Gulish...
said he had been a labourer in Kharian district of Punjab when some Afghan refugees Haji Yasin, Inzer, Aala Noor and Qayyum had accused him of having illicit relations with the wife of their business partner Fazle Subhan. All this was done to punish me for a business rivalry, he said.
He said the Afghan refugees had initially forced him to pay Rs 30,000 to avoid disgrace, and alleged that they had later snatched a further Rs 32,000 from him. Then, he added, the Afghan refugees held a jirga and forced him at gunpoint to give Fazle Subhan his three-year old daughter as Swara. I was left with no option but to accept the decision, Pervez said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2007 00:00 ||
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PATNA: Police in eastern India helped a mob beat a suspected thief in front of a television camera, officials said on Tuesday, with one policeman tying the victim to his motorbike and dragging him until he passed out. The mob accused Mohammed Aurangzeb of stealing a womans gold chain on Monday in Bhagalpur district of Bihar state, one of Indias most lawless regions. Television pictures showed men had tied the shirtless young mans hands behind his back, and were viciously kicking and punching him as he writhed on the ground, soaked in sweat and mud, begging for mercy, his trousers unbuttoned.
When the police turned up, one constable tied Aurangzebs legs to the back of a police motorbike, and dragged him along the road on his stomach and chest. He was dragged for some time and the police constable stopped his bike only when Aurangzeb lost consciousness, Afzal Amanullah, the states home secretary, told a news conference on Tuesday in Patna, the state capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
Patna is the capital of Bihar state, a place where electrification is actually regressing because the power lines, transformers and poles are being stolen.
It is the most lawless and backward part of India..
Posted by: john frum ||
08/29/2007 16:55 Comments ||
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#4
Damn, can we work up some kind of police Officer cross training program?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/29/2007 19:36 Comments ||
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#5
Take a look at the Nasa earthlights image (the earth from space at night)
You can actually make out Bihar and Orissa (areas of darkness)
Posted by: john frum ||
08/29/2007 20:08 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An Australian has come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the Outback: eat them. Wild cats - the escaped descendants of domestic cats - kill millions of small native animals each year. Now the tables have turned and they find themselves on the menu.
Frontier police on Tuesday arrested four people, including the father of a minor girl, her grandfather and two members of a jirga for announcing the handover of three-year old Pakistani girl, Iqra Bibi, to an Afghan refugee as Swara. The jirga decision is a violation of Supreme Court orders banning the offering of females in Badl-e-Sulh (Swara) to a rival party for resolution of disputes, Lower Dir District Police Officer (DPO) Mohammad Khurshid told Daily Times. He said police had arrested the girls father Pervez Khan, her grandfather Gul Khan and jirga members, Ghulam Mohammad and Mohammad Gul. 
