El Paso City Hall Hit by 7 Gunfire Blasts from Across Border

Last week a burst of gunfire from Mexico crossed the U.S. Texas border smashing into El Paso's City Hall.  According to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the 7 shots fired from Juarez, Mexico that hit the building, killing and wounding no one, was not the result of effective border control, but mere luck.

El Paso City Hall

The photo above by Vanessa Monsisvais for El Paso Times, shows a large-caliber bullet which entered a west-facing wall at the 9th floor office of Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto....A rod was placed in the bullet hole to mark where the bullet entered.

Police said the bullet flew through the window, then through an interior wall before hitting a picture frame and stopping.

Abbot, in a letter to Barack Obama asked for more troops on the border and said the "time for talk is passed:"

The shocking reality of cross border gunfire proves the cold reality: American lives are at risk. As the attached news article notes: "More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juárez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels." Americans must be protected as this deadly war bulges at our border. 

Law enforcement officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety and your own U.S. Customs and Border Protection will reveal the hard truth. Our state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border. 

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. The need is urgent. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that an American life will be lost because of the federal government's failure to secure the border.

This threat demands immediate and effective action by your Administration to secure our border. As the Attorney General of Texas, I urge you to make border security your top priority so that no more innocent lives are lost to border violence. 

Orlando Salgado Dies Saving a Young Friend from Teen Age Thugs: Orlando Salgado Dad Dies Rescuing Friend

Orlando Salgado, a 26 year old New York father, tried to help a a 16-year-old neighbor boy accosted by a group of teenage thugs.

Orlando Salgado

Mr. Salgado saw the unnamed boy standing on a corner on East 197th Street near Webster Avenue Friday night. He was confronted with teenagers who he had fought with earlier in the day. Salgado tried to intervene and was stabbed twice in the chest:

"For saving his life, we're going to take yours now," one of the attackers allegedly told Salgado.

No information on the identity of the murderers.

His employer, Greg Staff, said "Whether it was pushing a broom or putting up walls, he took the same pride in everything."

Salgado was the father of a six-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and a 6-month-old daughter by his girlfriend, Roman. He was pronounced deat at St. Barnabas Hospital. The boy he trying to rescue was not harmed.

LA Gangland Bus Tour with Lunch: Alfred Lomas Gangland Bus Tour

For $65 you can take a bus tour of the gritty streets home to Los Angeles' gangs. You get lunch too. Former gang member, Alfred Lomas, says he has the promise of the gangs not to shoot at harass the  bus as it makes it way through the areas of some infamous gangland activity. While Chicago has a tour of Al Capone's operations, and Las Vegas has tours of past Mafia crime areas, both are in the past, while gangland is still percolating.

The first bus sold out quickly. Here's what you get in a two-hour tour in the gang capital of the world, and four or five gang members on the bus to keep the curious passengers safe:

...a 12-stop, two-hour journey through what its organizer calls “the history and origin of high-profile gang areas and the top crime-scene locations” of South Los Angeles.

On the right, Los Angeles’s biggest jail, “the unofficial home to 20,000 gang members in L.A.,” as the tour Web site puts it. Over there, the police station that in 1965 served as the National Guard’s command post in the Watts riots. Visit the large swath of concrete riverbed taken over by graffiti taggers, and later, drop in at a graffiti workshop where, for the right price, a souvenir T-shirt or painting can be yours.

You sign away your safety, before boarding the motor coach...but the gangs have promised Lomas they will behave:

And after careful consideration, it was decided not to have residents shoot water guns at the bus and sell “I Got Shot in South Central” T-shirts.

Lomas is hoping to make enough money that he can fund small loans designed to help provide jobs to gang members. Lomas seems to be well thought of and since moving out of gang culture, has devoted his life to helping others. On a daily basis, he drives a food truck for the needy, supported by the Dream Center, a Christian-based social service center.

Rosarno Italy Race Riots or Mafia or Fed-up with Foreign Migrants?

Have your heard about "race riots" in the town of Rosarno, Italy? But is this about race riots or the mafia or immigration? Immigrant homes have been bulldozed, and buses loaded with rioters sent on their way somewhere. Residents of the town are staying inside. Cars have been torched, at least one pushed into a wall with a mother and her children inside. Schools and businesses are closed. Here are a few reports to compare and contrast.

Woman stands her ground in Rosarno, Italy

This from the UK's MailOnline with this headline: Miigrant riot in Italy leaves 37 injured after series of beatings by white youths.

Violence broke out in southern Italy yesterday as hundreds of migrant workers, most of them Africans, went on a rampage in retaliation to two of their number being shot and three more beaten with iron bars by white youths.


Authorities reporting at least 37 were wounded in the ensuing clashes, including 18 police officers and five migrants, as the violence reached its second day in the coastal town of Rosarno in Calabria. 


The riots in the region were sparked off when when two migrants were wounded by pellet fire two days ago, starting the cycle of violence, said a top police official, Renato Cortese, in the regional capital.

A report from the Telegraph, published one day later than the MailOnline article says "nearly 70 people, including 30 immigrants, 19 police and 17 Italians were injured. "...two Africans from Togo and Nigeria were shot at with air rifles by locals.

On Thursday, hundreds of immigrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, staged an angry demonstration against the shooting, setting fire to cars and rubbish bins, smashing shop windows and throwing rocks at police.

They carried placards which read "We are not animals" and "Italians are racist".

In a report filed from Rome, ChinaView says an "extraordinary summit was held today in an attempt to dientify Mafia connections in the "outbreak of racial riots" in Rosarno.

An inquiry is under way to identify possible Mafia responsibilities in the riots and exploitation of immigrant work in Rosarno. At least one clan-linked man was among those arrested for the attacks. 

According to the police, the Mafia may have taken advantage of the riots in order to distort attention from a recent failed bomb explosion at the prosecutor's office. 

The situation in Rosarno is now under control. More than 1,000 immigrants, mainly farm laborers from sub-Saharan Africa, either fled the area or were transferred to migrant centers during the weekend. Their dwellings have been bulldozed by the authorities. 

The government aims to move immigrants out of other high-crime areas near Naples and in Sicily. 

The Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Monday that all illegal refugees will be expelled from the country. In his view Rosarno's riots were the product of Italy's far too lenient immigration policy.

 Here is the view of Gates of Vienna:

Race riots have intensified in the town of Rosarno, Italy, where locals have attacked and even shot some of the illegal African immigrants in the area. The government blames the events on the excessive “tolerance” of recent years, but the Italian left sees evidence of Mafia control, poverty, intolerance, and racism.

Surprising that there is a government anywhere in the world today who believes excessive "tolerance" may breed problems, as Gates of Vienna mentioned, but the Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni said:

"In all these years illegal immigration has been tolerated without doing anything effective, an immigration that on the one hand has fed crime and on the other has led to situations of extreme squalor such as that at Rosarno."

Rosarno, located in Calabria near the top of the western edge of the toe of the boot of Italy, is the base of Ndrangheta, an international crime syndicate. Rosarno is a citrus-growing area, middle-class, and is experiencing its own economic crisis. This insight from The New York Times:

Both the official and underground economies increasingly rely on immigrants, while Italy remains torn between acceptance and xenophobia.

So, it is reasonable to assume that when mixing economic strife with a town with many foreign migrants - where there are no jobs for the locals - remember those "white youths," - no jobs for them, tensions are taunt. But this is Italy, so we have to add the Mafia to the mix.

Roger Ebert Derrion Albert: Ebert Mayor Daley: Use Olympic Funds to Make the City Safe

Roger Ebert today called on his city of Chicago and Mayor Daley to use funds mandated for the Olympics to make life in the city safe for the city's Derrion Albert's. See video below. See Update below. Clearly praising his city as "glorious," flower-filled," "towering," and "happy," he says: (see update below)

We were prepared to raise millions to prepare the city for the Olympics. Without missing a beat, we should devote our energy to preparing the city for a new generation of Derrion Alberts. This will not require new "infrastructure" and all the delay, bureaucracy and waste that often implies. It will require investment in a resource we have in abundant supply: Human beings.

These are the words of heroic thinking. Most definitely, two thumbs up to film critic and author, Roger Ebert. Derrion Albert is the 15-year-old Fenger High School honor student who was brutally beaten and murdered outside the Agape Community Center this week. The beatings were caught on video - someone videoed it - no information about who caught this terrible, terrible act live as it happened. Four are in custody and three are still sought and need identifying. See the video and read the details here. Ebert knows what needs to be done:

We need to enforce safety, order and civility in our streets and schools, and act quickly. We need more crossing guards armed with cell phones. We need more police, who are heartbroken by the things they see, and need help. We need more teachers, and smaller classrooms.
We need separate schools for congenital troublemakers. I agree with the teacher's union that such students should be transferred quickly, not after months of delay. I trust school administrators and staffs to be fair in choosing students deserving a transfer. The Second Chance Academies must be well-staffed, high-security, and no-nonsense. They should be real schools, not holding pens.
In neighborhoods plagued by gangs or feuding cliques of teenagers, we need to enlist adults to monitor the sidewalks outside their windows, and call immediately when they see trouble.

The last paragraph above is critical, of course. Schools cannot stop gang violence by themselves. Police cannot stop it by sheer force and arrest. Community members must take back their communities. Ebert says "Mayor Daley can do it." That is a great call to action. "Mayor Daley can do it." It fits nicely with the Obama chants: "Yes we can," "Hope and Change," and "Fired up?...Ready to go?" Read more about Roger Ebert here.

 Roger Ebert's Story of Cancer Survival (video)

Update 10-2-09:

President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder is apparently traveling to Chicago, with Ann Duncan, the Secretary of Education to discuss Derrion Albert's death.

Stop the ACLU Blogburst - Rainbow Family! - July 8, 2008

Originally posted at Stop the ACLU

NY Times:

The American Civil Liberties Union said on Saturday that it would investigate the actions of federal officers who had arrested five members of the Rainbow Family in western Wyoming during the group’s annual gathering.

The federal Forest Service said a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who hold a weeklong national gathering on public land each year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group. The agency would not give a reason for the original arrest.

They were probably running around in public naked, chaining themselves to trees, having orgies, and partaking in illegal drugs. One thing they probably were not doing was taking baths. There are so many possibilities I wouldn’t know where to start.
William Teach goes off on this one:

Now they want to get involved. When it was three students at Duke University, members of the lacrosse team, being uncredibly accused of rape, sexual crimes, and kidnapping, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.

When it was found that the police lineups used to identify the supposed perpetrators, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.
When it was found that Durham DA Mike Nifong refused to speak with not only the accused, but had not even spoken with the accuser, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.

When Nifong was all but convicting the players, calling them horrible names, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.

When the entire case was falling apart at the seams, due to massive problems with Nifong’s evidence, the accusers Sybil like stories, tainted DNA runs, and a whole host of other issues, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.

When a case screams for protection from unconstitutional abuses, when people were literally asking for people and groups, including the Governor, the NC Attorney General, and, the ACLU, to get involved, the ACLU was nowhere to be found.

But, when a few hippies are arrested for unknown reasons - and, really, what business is that of the ACLU? - and others go ballistic - what happened to peace, love, and understanding? - the ACLU is there.

Most likely, with a group of freaks like this, there were already ACLU lawyers in attendance.
Here’s more…they got violent!

The Forest Service’s Incident Command Team in Rock Springs issued a press release Friday morning, saying officers were patrolling the main meadow of the gathering Thursday evening when they contacted a man who fled and was later caught. Another Rainbow was detained for physically interfering.

Officers began to leave the area with the subjects and were circled by Rainbow participants, according to the news release from Rita Vollmer of the Incident Command Team.

Ten officers were escorting the detained subjects when about 400 Rainbows surrounded the squad, and more officers were requested, according to the news release.

“The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers. Crowd control tactics were used to keep moving through the group of Rainbows,” the news release said.

Other law enforcement agencies were called to the scene, the news release said.
Officers made five arrests; one officer suffered minor injuries and was cleared by a local hospital; and a government vehicle sustained damage, the news release said.

“This lawless behavior is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it,” said John Twiss, Forest Service director of law enforcement. “The safety of our employees, public and Rainbow participants is our number one priority, and we will continue to protect everyone on the national forest.”

Hippies throwing rocks? I thought they believed in peace!

Jammie Wearing Fool nails it on these weirdos: