In the News……

In the News…

Welcome to a new link on NetcopsPSI.com – “In the News….”
Each week I will try and “highlight” some of the crime headlines of the week – to try and show you one thing. The news headlines aren’t going to change unless you do!

I had dinner with Brent the other night.
We just went through a major overhaul of our book “CopTalk”
Re-edited, a little updated information, and a brand new shiny cover.
It’s going to the printer next week and could be at book stores near you soon.

When I told Brent about what I wanted to do with “In the news” we both agreed on one thing. Nothing has changed. The headlines are always the same. Mark and I wrote CopTalk in 1998, and the information is as current as if we had written it yesterday.

Gang Crimes, Identity theft, Domestic violence, Murders, Rapes, Robbery, Car-Jacking, and the all too often “Child Abduction”. Amber Alerts are getting as common as getting the newspaper in the morning…… It just keeps getting worse.

Anyways, here it is……. “In the news” with a little twist.

What’s the twist?

My commentary! (I can almost see Mark and Brent cringing and rolling their eyes back…..)

Oh well, free country right?
Freedom of speech, right?
Here’s mine!

By the way, have a safe and happy 4th of July.

Jim Lambert

In the news….7/1/03

(note – Most of the incidents discussed in this column occur in Central California, however I won’t be naming specific Police Department’s or Suspect names…It doesn’t matter who they are, it only matters that when it comes to the victims, the next one could be you!)

Police arrest Two Identity Theft Suspects……
Seems one of the two female brain surgeons in this case used a stolen credit card to buy a variety of items including a plane ticket to Hawaii. The plane ticket was purchased on the internet.
The “victim” found out about the scam when she received the itinerary for the trip to Hawaii. She notified police and they arrested one of the suspect’s at the airport right before boarding the plane!

A search of the suspect’s homes revealed numerous items of personal information belonging to dozens of people. The items of information were suspected to be from “dumpster diving” at night, or by stealing mail from mailboxes.

Police say much of the stolen information was found in dumpsters behind businesses within the city. Those businesses were supposed to shred documents before throwing them away. Looks like someone forgot to shred now doesn’t it? The victim’s credit card information for the plane ticket was on a car rental agreement found in the garbage.

The two dumpster diving suspect were charged with credit card fraud and identity theft…. Oh no, anything but that, please don’t hurt me…….ha ha ha. It’s a joke!
They might do a day or two in jail and then they will go to court and get the root of all evil………probation, which only means they have to be more careful when they go out and do it again.

In this case, if the idiot hadn’t gone to the airport to go to Hawaii, the cops and the victim would never know who the suspects were.

Who cares about this?
Not a lot of people.

The retailers don’t care.

Hey, it was your card that made the purchase….we want our money. You don’t give us our money, we’ll screw up your credit report for the next 7 years!

The DA’s don’t seem to care…….
Low priority property crime…..We have assaults and murders to worry about……
Ok, file the case so the victim will vote me in office next year, but make a deal with the public defender to trade probation for a guilty plea….

A lot of times the street cops don’t care. Too much going on. Too many reports to write.
Just shoo these low lives out of one city into the next – I don’t have time to deal with this petty stuff.

Yup, it’s all petty until you get your credit screwed up for the next 7 years because of everybody not caring…

I used to see those dumpster divers while working graveyard. Beat up people driving beat up cars. Sneaking around like street lizards in the middle of the night.

I’d sneak up on them and catch them in the act.
Search them, and sit them in the back of the patrol car in handcuffs.
Search their vehicles and their property.

Hey Carla, hate to tell you this, you have a $25,000 arrest warrant. And your boyfriend here is driving a car with false license plate tabs, the registration expired 2 years ago!

Carla goes to jail, Billy gets a ticket for 2 years expired registration, and the car gets towed and won’t be released till Billy comes up with $800 in registration fees to DMV,

And

Wait, there’s a no trespassing sign for this shopping complex. I think you both are trespassing. And wait, who is Amanda Wilson and why is her Visa Statement on the dashboard of your car?

A quick call to Mrs. Wilson confirms that Billy and Carla have no permission to have Mrs. Wilson’s mail………….and mail belonging to about 10 other people….

So,

Trespass,
Mail theft,
The arrest warrant,
The vehicle tow,

Now the best charge to nail these people with is – “PROWLING” – Prowling means being out in the middle of the night where you shouldn’t be, and being up to no good. Could be a guy casing cars in your neighborhood, could be dumpster divers behind Wal-Mart at 1am.

Oh but wait, California doesn’t enforce the misdemeanor of prowling anymore…… it’s not recognized as a crime….. Aw, too bad. Maybe the justices who decided that are related to the ones on the Supreme Court who did away with the statute of limitations for sex molesters….

OK, we’ll go with what we have.

In the court of Jim Lambert,

Carla,
On the count of trespass I am sentencing you to 6 months in the county jail.
If I see you in my court again for trespass the next time it will be a year.

On the count of mail theft I am sentencing you to 6 months in the county jail.
Only because you did not have the opportunity to use the identity information you stole.

On the arrest warrant which was imposed for a failure to appear stemming from Grand Theft charges, I am sentencing you to one year in the county jail to instill in your thought process that when the Courts tell you to be someplace on a certain date and time, we are not “asking you” we are “telling you”.

See you in 2 years Carla……no credit for good time, no credit for school classes, no concurrent sentence……. 2 years to the day. Bah Bye, sucks to be you, don’t be a hater…..

But in reality……

The count of trespass would be dropped in exchange for a guilty plea to mail theft.
The warrant would be eliminated and she would now appear on the grand theft charge from 2 years ago which she has been dodging ever since. The mail theft charge would be dropped in exchange for a guilty plea on the grand theft charge which is the greater charge……

She might get sentenced to 6 months in county jail (even though grand theft is a felony) and with credit for good time, working in the jail kitchen, and taking a computer class…..
She’ll probably do a month or two.

In my Court, Carla would think twice about going out for a repeat performance after thinking about it for TWO YEARS.

But in reality…… why not go out and do it again knowing all she’ll get is another,
“slap on the wrist”.

Low Blows

A congressman who made contributions to the campaign to unseat the governor of California, found himself facing scrutiny over brushes with the law….from over 30 years ago. Now that’s great reporting on the Chronicle’s part…… If ya can’t come up with any recent dirt…… just spread some around from 30 years ago!

The headlines read – Court records indicate so and so was arrested on weapons violations…Big Bold Print leading you to believe it just happened yesterday!
But of course – I mean like who would have any interest in reading the real headlines…
“So and so arrested over 30 years ago on a petty weapons charge which resulted in a $100 fine – story circulating now, 30 years later, to smear credibility of the recall efforts against the governor…

In the small print you read, both arrest took place in the early 70’s after so and so was discharged from the army. In one of the cases he received a $100 fine and 3 months probation. This was when so and so was a 19-year old kid!
The chronicle also cites a case of so and so being arrested for vehicle theft in 1980, but wait, the case was dropped for lack of evidence……..SO WHY ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT IT!

A friend of the governor calls a friend at the paper and says in a whisper…….Psssst…..I need a favor, I need you to run this story to shut so and so down…….he’s putting to much pressure on the governor.

Man I would love to see a newspaper editor who had the guts to laugh and say “Is this all you got? You want us to print this crap from 30 years ago just to smear so and so’s name? If I remember right you got arrested for domestic violence and 3 DUI’s 5 years ago……. Why don’t we print that story instead? After all, it’s a little more current than this crap from 30 years ago…Hey I have a favor to ask you instead, Could you please GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE YOU SNIVELING LITTLE WHIMP!

But of course, there’s a shortage of editors with guts to do the right thing because –
THAT CRAP MADE THE HEADLINES!

Murder, no it wasn’t, yes it was, no it wasn’t, yes it was…

A teenager changed his plea for being an accessory to MURDER from guilty, to not guilty…. Apparently the misguided teen was charged with being an accessory to the murder of an 18-year old pregnant woman and then helped dump the body in a parking lot at a park.

As part of a “Plea Deal” the misguided teen entered a “guilty plea” with an understanding he would do a year in County Jail and never see State Prison. But wait, a Judge decided to go with the recommendation of a probation officer who recommended the misguided teen go to prison for 2 whole years.

Ouch…. 2 whole years. That hurts…… but only THE VICTIM’S FAMILY.

In my court I would jump up from the bench and yell………. The only reason why you’re lucky today, is that you didn’t pull the trigger, because if you had, I’d be sentencing you to stop breathing our air, but because you watched this murder like you were watching television at home, and because you assisted in dumping the body, oh wait, there were 2 bodies I do believe, wasn’t the victim pregnant?

I am hereby sentencing you to 5 years state prison for the murder of the victim, and 5 years state prison for the death of the victim’s fetus. We will see you in 10 years to the date Mr. Teenager only you won’t be a teenager when you get out. You will have lost 10 years of your life for being the cold hearted accessory to murder that you are.

Hopefully in 10 years you will have a conscious, some ethics, some morals, some humanity. But if you don’t, I will make damn sure you won’t see daylight until you’re 50!

But in reality……

He’ll get sentenced to state prison but get credit for time served while playing the game of waiting for a new trial and when it’s all said and done, he might get 6 months in county jail…..for participating in the cold blooded shooting of a pregnant woman, and then dumping her body in a parking lot like she was a bag of trash….

And then he’ll go out and kill again……..and again……..

Attorney escapes serious injury in courtroom attack

A deputy district attorney had a close call when a defendant attempted to stab him with a plastic coat hanger….. seems the coat hanger had been altered into a shank type stabbing instrument with a handle attached….

The man was on trial for stalking…and became enraged after being found guilty on the 3rd strike offense……meaning, he was no stranger to a courtroom and had been previously charged on a first and second strike. (Translated – SERIOUS CRIMES)

The man was facing a 100 – year to life sentence… (Now what the hell does that mean?
He’s friggin 40 years old and you’re going to sentence him to 100 years in prison?)

Why not keep it simple.

Hey moron, you’re a misfit loser who has terrorized your family and other innocent people for way to long. LIFE IN PRISON – NO PAROLE, NO NOTHING!
Now get the hell out of my courtroom!

And for your little show of stabbing the district attorney?
What do you think I’m going to do, waste paper and sentence you to more time on top of a life sentence? How bout this instead……
NO PRIVLEDGES your first 3 years in prison…..
No TV, No exercise yard, No visitations, No books, No NOTHING except thinking about one thing. What goes around comes around.
Bah Bye loser – sucks to be you, hey, don’t be a hater!

And for the Sheriff’s Deputy who obviously failed to properly search the defendant before allowing him to enter my courtroom…… I am sentencing you to a $1,000 fine and a month suspension from duty without pay. Anyone else want some???

The Peterson Case

I am way too tired to start capping on the ploys and games of the fame seeking attorney in this case. I’m going to bed to get ready for 3 – 15 hour shifts because of the 4th of July weekend…And a whole bunch of new headlines.

Have a safe and happy 4th!
JL