And the Stupidest Criminal of the Year Award Goes to…
This guy, I guess no one ever warned him about the big blue spark:
An attempted copper theft at an Eagan substation early Wednesday knocked out power for thousands of residents and sent a would-be thief to Regions Hospital.
Eagan police said the 33-year-old suspect from St. Paul suffered severe burns but was in stable condition Wednesday and is expected to survive.
Two other St. Paul residents found near the substation, a 28-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, were arrested on suspicion of felony criminal damage to property. They were booked at the Eagan Police Department and released.
Joe Miller, a spokesman for Dakota Electric, said the injured suspect scaled a chain-link fence, cut through the barbed wire at the top and then climbed on top of a transformer, where he was injured when he came into contact with a 69,000-volt transmission line.
Witnesses reported seeing a flash of light and hearing a boom at the substation before the power went out at about 12:35 a.m. About 7,100 Dakota Electric customers in western and southwestern Eagan were without power until 3 a.m.
I guess his friends will be calling him “Sparky” from now on.
(H/T: Ed @ Hot Air)
Breaking: Four Police Officers Shot Near McChord Air Force Base in Parkland, Wash.
Details are still sketchy, but KING TV in Seattle is reporting that four police officers where shot and killed near McChord Air Force Base in Parkland, Washington:
Four police officers have been shot and killed near McChord Air Force Base.
Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer says that the officers were in a coffee shop near 116th Street and Steele Street on the east side of the Air Force base at about 8:30 a.m.
The officers were reportedly preparing for their shift when they were ambushed by an unknown number of assailants.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the officers involved and to the members of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
Update (10:25 p.m.): KING TV is reporting that police have identified a person of interest in the killings of four Lakewood police officers:
Pierce county sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said they are looking for Maurice Clemmons, 37.
Troyer said Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft. He has also recently been arrested and charged in Pierce County for assault on a police officer and for rape of a child.
Troyer said Clemmons is one of several people investigators would like to talk to and can’t be called a suspect at this point.
Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar identified the four officers who were killed as Sergeant Mark Renninger, and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards. All were veteran police officers with families.
Update (11:00 p.m.): The Seattle Times is reporting that then Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons nine years ago:
Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.
“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said tonight when informed that Clemmons was being sought for questioning in connection with the killings.
Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.
I’ve never been a Huckabee fan and after this I wouldn’t give him the time of day!
(H/T: Confederate Yankee)
Update (Wednesday, December 2, 2009): Maurice Clemmons, the man wanted in connection with the killings of four Lakewood, Washington police officers on Sunday was shot and killed by a police in south Seattle on Tuesday:
A man accused of gunning down four police officers was shot and killed by authorities on Tuesday in a case that could affect a potential 2012 U.S. presidential candidate who granted him clemency in the past.
Maurice Clemmons, wanted in the Sunday morning fatal shootings of four officers in a coffee shop near Tacoma, Washington, was shot dead by a police officer in south Seattle, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.
I suspect police would have preferred a different outcome but I doubt anyone is going to be shedding a tear of Clemmon’s passing.
Crime Doesn’t Pay: Business Owner Fires on Robbers, Killing 2, Police Say
Things went horribly wrong for the four men who tried to hold up a Harlem restaurant-supply shop on Thursday afternoon… The four men burst into Kaplan Bros. Blue Flame Corp. around 3:00 p.m. and things went downhill quickly for them:
“I’d do it again if I had to.”
Those were the first defiant words out of no-nonsense businessman Charles Augusto Jr.’s mouth yesterday as he came back to work less than 24 hours after opening fire with his trusty shotgun on four robbers — killing two of them.
The four men had picked the wrong shop — and the wrong man — to mess with. And they would have known it had they read the prophetic words from Dante’s “Divine Comedy” written in marker above the door: “Abandon all hope all ye who enter here.”
The thugs entered a world of hurt when they barged into Augusto’s Harlem restaurant-supply shop, Kaplan Bros. Blue Flame Corp., Thursday afternoon, pulling out a 9mm pistol and pistol-whipping an employee as they demanded cash.
“I told them there wasn’t any money. ‘Take your gun, put it in your pocket, and go home.’ They had a chance to leave,” Augusto said.
But they didn’t listen.
So Augusto, 72 — known to most as “Gus” — channeled his inner Dirty Harry and pulled out the Remington shotgun he had hidden under his desk for 20 years. He opened fire three times, peppering all four men with buckshot.
“I did what I had to do,” he said. “It wasn’t my choice; it was their choice.”
The wounded men tried to run but didn’t make it far.
The man armed with the pistol, 29-year-old James Morgan — who had a long rap sheet with nine prior arrests — took the first shot directly to his face and made it only as far as the shop door before crumpling dead to the ground.
A second man, Raylin Footman, 21 — who had a prior arrest for robbery and a relative who was a cop — made it across 125th Street before collapsing. He’d died by the time he was taken to a hospital.
Good shooting, Gus.
I wonder how long it be before the usual suspects show up and start protesting this guy for protecting himself and his employees?
Breaking: Military Recruiter Murdered in Arkansas
A gunman opened fire on two soldiers outside an Army Recruiting center in Little Rock Arkansas earlier today. Both of the victims were taken to a nearby hospital, where one of them died a short time later:
A gunman opened fire Monday at an army recruitment center in Little Rock, Ark., killing one army recruiter and seriously wounding another, FOX16.com reported.
A man in a black SUV drove to the recruitment office and began shooting at around 10:19 a.m., a spokesman with the Little Rock police department told FOX News.
Police reportedly have a suspect in custody.
Jonn Lilyea has more at This Ain’t Hell.
Update (Tuesday, June 2, 2009):
The shooter has been identified as 23 year old Carlos Bledsoe (A.K.A. Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad) a Muslim convert with a grudge against the U.S. military. Bledsoe plead not guilt to capital murder at his arraignment today:
A Muslim convert who said he was against the U.S. military pleaded not guilty Tuesday to capital murder in connection with the shooting of two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting center.One soldier died in the attack Monday, police said.
Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, was ordered held without bail at a hearing Tuesday in Little Rock. He is charged in the death of Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, outside the Army Navy Career Center in Little Rock.
“This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that’s why he did what he did,” Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
“He has converted to (Islam) here in the past few years,” Hastings said. “We’re not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in the military.
“He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them. That’s what he said.”
George Tiller Murdered
George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions, was shot and killed at his church in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday. Police have reportedly arrested Scott Roeder in connection with the crime.
The person or persons who committed this heinous crime are nothing more than domestic terrorists… Nothing can justify their actions. In the words of President Obama “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”
Period.
Unfortunately that won’t stop hyper partisans on both sides of the isle or the media from engaging in gleeful finger-pointing.
Crime Doesn’t Pay: 17 Year Old Girl Beats Muggers
A note to would be criminals… Don’t pick on 17 year old girls or this might happen to you:
QUARTZ HILL, Calif. (AP) A 17-year-old high school marching band student beat up two assailants who tried to mug her as she walked to school in this high desert community about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
The girl punched one of the men in the nose, kicked the other in the groin and beat both with her large baton before she ran away on Friday morning, officials said.
“The moral to this story is don’t mess with the marching band girls, or you just might get what you deserve,” said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Rust.
He said two men approached the girl from behind, grabbed her coat and demanded money. Deputies searched near Quartz Hill High School for the muggers, looking for a man who was holding his bloodied nose and the other limping.
Heh, score one for the good guys. 
Crime Doesn’t Pay: iPod Scammer Brought Up On Federal Charges
From Macworld:
Prosecutors have just brought federal charges of fraud and money laundering against Nicholas Arthur Woodhams of Kalamazoo, Mich. You may remember Woodhams as the man who scammed Apple out of numerous iPod shuffles, a plot that got him sued by the company in June 2008.
Here’s how the scheme worked: Between March 2006 and October 2007, Woodhams guessed valid, serial numbers of iPod shuffles that were under warranty and have Apple send him replacement products. Then those would be sold for $49 each—that’s $30 less than the then-price of $79.
The government is seeking to seize the alledged procedes of the crime, including more than $571,000 in cash, seven Apple computers, two vehicles, a motorcycle and real estate belonging to Woodhams.
Palin E-mail Hacker Hit With Additional Charges
David Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, who was indicted for hacking into Gov. Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account during the last year’s Presidential campaign has been hit with additional charges.
The new charges are fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation.
Three more federal charges have been filed against a University of Tennessee student charged with hacking into the personal e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential nominee.David Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday, and a magistrate agreed to push back his trial from May to October.
Kernell allegedly gained access to Palin’s account in September by correctly answering a series of personal security questions.
The new counts are fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation.
H/T: Michelle Malkin.
Previous:
- Sarah Palin’s Private E-mail Account Hacked
- Palin E-mail Hack Follow-up
- A Quick Update on the Palin E-mail Hacking Case
- Newsflash: Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted
It’s On: ‘Joe the Plumber’ Sues Over Ohio Records Probe
Judicial Watch has filed a civil rights lawsuit against three fromer Ohio officials on behalf of Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber).
The suit alleges that Helen Jones-Kelley, Fred Williams and Doug Thompson, the three highest ranking employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services violated Mr. Wurzelbacher’s constitutional rights by illegally accessing confidential information from its official databases.
Full details here.
What Open Borders Has Wrought
ABC News ran a story last night on the growing problem of kidnapping in Phoenix, Arizona.
In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC is too obsessed with al Qaeda terrorists to care about what is happening in their own backyard right now.
“We’re in the eye of the storm,” Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico’s drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. “If it doesn’t stop here, if we’re not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation,” he said.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown warned that as the U.S. government focuses so intently on Islamic extremist groups, other types of terrorists — those involved with the same kidnappings, extortion and drug cartels that are sweeping Phoenix — are overlooked.
This is what open borders has wrought, it’s high time our government stops ignoring the problems along the southern border and starts taking steps to restrict the access Mexican drug cartels have to American territory.
If the Congress wants to spend money on infrastructure projects than how about actually building the double-layer border fence they approved in 2006. To date only 32 miles of that fence has been built in part because Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Texas) slipped an amendment that watered down the original legislation into an omnibus appropriations bill Congress passed on December 18, 2007.
As Ed Morrissey notes “The primary responsibility of the federal government is to protect the nation from outside attack — and if what ABC reports is accurate, it’s failing miserably in Phoenix.”
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