Category Archives: crime news

crime news

309 = epidemic

Let us ponder for a brief moment a simple number: 309.

That is the number of what we call “mass shootings” that have occurred in the United States just in the current calendar year.

Now, where I come from, they would be inclined to call that an epidemic. Yes, 309 incidents of mass shootings — defined as when we have more than four fatalities — have occurred in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. That’s just in 2022!

At this very moment, I am not feeling too damn free and I certainly am not feeling brave about the prospects of venturing too far from home.

They had a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago, for God’s sake, when the latest terrorist attack occurred. Authorities have just announced that a seventh victim has died from injuries suffered at the grimy hands of the shooter.

When in the name of all that is sacred is enough going to be enough?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Paranoia is growing

Make no mistake about this, which is that with each incident of random gun violence the more frightened I am becoming of attending any sort of outdoor activity.

An afternoon at the movie theater? Shopping for groceries at the supermarket? Driving in heavy traffic along a busy highway? A holiday parade celebrating the nation’s independence?

Forget about it!

The Highland Park, Ill., shooting that killed six people and injured a couple dozen others has driven me just about to the breaking point.

I hate feeling so nervous, so anxious, so frightened at what is happening in this country?

Not only that, we have a family that gives us worry, too, as they go about their day.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Oh, the tragic irony

Surely, I am not the only American who sees the horrible irony of the mass shooting today in Highland Park, Ill., that killed six people and injured dozens of others.

It occurred on the Fourth of July, the day we recognize the birth of our great nation that tragically has become known for precisely the type of violence that erupted yet again this morning just north of Chicago.

“Only in America” can this happen? I hate making that suggestion, but it appears that appears to be the case. To be clear, other parts of the world do experience this sort of madness … but not to the extent to which we are becoming seemingly numb to its frequency in this country.

We just finished burying those 19 precious children and two of their teachers in Uvalde. That remembrance came immediately after 10 shopping center customers were gunned down in Buffalo, N.Y.

The instances occur with frightening regularity. My wife said to me today, “It looks like we’re not going to be able to go anywhere.” The shooting today took place amid the red, white and blue bunting, banners and flags of a Midwest town’s parade honoring our nation’s 246th birthday.

The good folks of Highland Park now will be consigned to remembering this day for entirely different and tragic reasons.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

He didn’t know he was in charge?

Pete Arredondo needs to quit his job as Uvalde Independent School District chief of police. He’s already resigned his city council post, citing a need to clear the city of “distractions.”

The blunt truth, though, is that I cannot get past the scandalous excuse Arredondo has given for failing to stop a gunman from killing all those children and the two educators this past month at Robb Elementary School.

Arredondo said he “didn’t know” whether he was the lead officer in the moment.

So, what did he do? Nothing! For nearly one hour, the gunman kept killing children. Arredondo did not respond because he “didn’t know” whether he had authority to act.

I spoke with a North Texas educator immediately after the tragedy unfolded in Uvalde. This fellow, and I will keep his identity private, seemingly didn’t understand why the Uvalde cops waited. “We are going in,” the North Texas educator told me in describing how he would respond to a similar situation were it to occur on his watch.

“We aren’t waiting” for someone to determine who’s in charge, he said.

The lack of transparency and — so far! — the lack of accountability for what happened in Uvalde has upset many of us, most notably the loved ones of those who died in the slaughter.

Pete Arredondo is at the center of this continuing storm. He has failed his community and he needs to go.

First things first, though. Arredondo must explain what happened that day and why he froze while children and teachers were being shot to death.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

One down, one to go …

Pete Arredondo no longer serves on the Uvalde (Texas) city council, having submitted his resignation in light of the staggering publicity surrounding Arredondo’s other job.

He is currently the police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department. Arredondo is now on “administrative leave” from that post pending a probe into the “abject failure” he demonstrated by failing to stop the madman who killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers more than a month ago.

Arredondo needs to do something else for a living, in my humble view. Police are probing the Robb Elementary School massacre and have described Arredondo’s lack of action in the early minutes of the slaughter an “abject failure.”

The police authorities, including the Department of Public Safety, have clammed up. Parents, grandparents, siblings and loved ones of the victims are demanding answers. They aren’t getting anything.

Arredondo took office on the city council a few days after the horrifying massacre. He has missed numerous meetings. He resigned, saying he didn’t want to be a “distraction.” Thanks for nothing, chief.

He is an even bigger “distraction” as chief of the Uvalde ISD police department.

I’m just telling ya’, the man’s law enforcement career is now over.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Memo to Mark: answer the panel

Memo to Mark Meadows: If you believe in the “rule of law,” as you have said you do, then you by all rights should have no problem answering a House 1/6 select committee subpoena seeking your testimony into what happened on the day of the insurrection against the U.S. government.

The White House chief of staff has gotten the subpoena. He has refused to talk to the committee.

Now we hear from his former top aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified in great detail this past week about what she saw and heard from Meadows. It isn’t pretty … for Meadows, at least.

The ex-White House chief of staff needs to set aside his frothy featly to Trump and talk to the committee about all he knows about that day.

Meadows served in Congress prior to making the move to the White House. He knows the players. He understands, also, the penalty for failure to talk to the committee.

Since he took over as White House chief of staff, though, he has become uncooperative and defiant.

My advice to Meadows? Lose the attitude, fella!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Why seek pardons?

Let’s call ’em the Six Musketeers. What do they have in common, other than being Republican members of Congress?

They asked their one-time cult leader/guru/top-shelf liar in chief for a blanket pardon before he left office.

This begs a serious question. Why would a member of Congress seek a presidential pardon if they were damn sure they were innocent of any crimes related to the 1/6 insurrection that occurred two weeks before Donald Trump vacated the White House?

Hmm. Well, you know their names. Here they are anyway.

Louis Gohmert, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry. 

Their names surfaced during this past week’s televised hearing of the 1/6 House select committee that is examining the issues that led to the attack on our nation’s Capitol Building … when Congress was convened to count Electoral College votes and then certify the election of President Biden.

These six clowns — two of whom, Gohmert of Texas and Brooks of Alabama, are leaving Congress at the end of the year — all allegedly engaged in some of the law-breaking committed by The Donald in his quest to remain in power. Except they deny doing anything wrong. Really?

My favorite among them is Greene, who had just been elected to her Georgia congressional seat in November 2020. My goodness, she had just taken her oath of office three days before the insurrection. So it took her no time at all to sink herself up to her armpits in the sleaze being peddled by Trump and the rest of his Corps of Cultists … allegedly.

This is the clown show that the cult followers insist we return to power in Washington, D.C. It is instead an act that needs to be run out of town.

The House select committee is going to resume its hearings soon after doing some more sleuthing around for more evidence to deliver us in a final report. Maybe it can uncover some more crooks who sought pre-emptive pardons for crimes they say they didn’t commit.

What a load of crap!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Top cop needs to start casting about

Pete Arredondo is now on what they call “administrative leave” as a result of the many questions and criticism surrounding his response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

If I were Arredondo, I would start looking for a new job and it had better not have a thing to do with law enforcement, which is what he does at this moment as chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department.

You see, Arredondo’s “abject failure” in commanding the response to the shooting at the school is why he is on leave. For my money, I cannot believe the Uvalde ISD board of trustees is going to keep him on the job. For that matter, the school superintendent needs to start drafting the letter terminating the chief from his job.

It’s been several weeks now since the gunman strolled into Robb Elementary and killed 19 precious fourth-graders and two educators who died trying to protect them. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially praised the cops’ response to the shooting before declaring he was “livid” over being “misled” about the response.

Now comes reporting about the police being able to have responded much more quickly than they did. Who was in charge of the police response? Chief Arredondo! He choked. He didn’t send in the tactical officers even after they reportedly had the equipment they needed to take the shooter out.

Arredondo has clammed up. He has refused to speak publicly. Indeed, the Department of Public Safety hasn’t exactly acted in the public interest, either.

Parents and loved ones of the victims are crying out for answers. They deserve them.

Pete Arredondo needs to be shown the door and told to do something other than police work for the rest of his life.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, State news

Compromise can work

Ted Cruz keeps demonstrating why he is such a loathsome politician, suggesting repeatedly why it’s better in his sick mind to go down on principle rather than seeking common ground.

The Texas Republican junior U.S. senator was one of 34 GOP senators to vote “no” on a bill crafted in part by his Texas Republican colleague, John Cornyn.

Cornyn was the lead GOP negotiator on a bipartisan effort to seek legislative remedy to the gun violence that continues to break our hearts, such as what happened not long ago in Uvalde.

OK, the bill ain’t perfect. It’s a start, though, toward curbing violent outbursts.

The National Rifle Association, naturally, has condemned the effort. The NRA doesn’t want anyone to mess around with what it says are constitutional guarantees of firearm ownership. Except that the bill doesn’t stop law-abiding Americans from owning a firearm. Ted Cruz is in the NRA’s hip pocket.

The Texas Tribune reports: The legislation does not restrict any rights of existing gun owners — a nonstarter for Senate Republicans. Instead, it would enhance background checks for gun purchasers younger than 21; make it easier to remove guns from people threatening to kill themselves or others, as well as people who have committed domestic violence; clarify who needs to register as a federal firearms dealer; and crack down on illegal gun trafficking, including so-called straw purchases, which occur when the actual buyer of a firearm uses another person to execute the paperwork to buy on their behalf.

The legislation includes $11 billion for mental health services and $2 billion for community-based antiviolence programs. It also includes money to help young people access mental health services via telemedicine, money for more school-based mental health centers and support for suicide hotlines.

U.S. Senate advances bipartisan gun legislation backed by Cornyn | The Texas Tribune

Is this the stuff of radicalism? Hardly. It’s a reasonable start.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Gun deal appears done

U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans have come together to approve a deal that takes some important baby steps toward curbing the gun violence that has claimed so many innocent lives.

It isn’t the perfect deal. Then again, as the saying goes, senators sought to avoid letting “perfection become the enemy of the good.”

The package does a number of good things. As the Detroit News reports: The legislation would toughen background checks for the youngest firearms buyers, require more sellers to conduct background checks and beef up penalties on gun traffickers. It also would disburse money to states and communities aimed at improving school safety and mental health initiatives.

It isn’t perfect. I would have liked to see increasing minimum age requirements for buying firearms and strengthened universal background checks.

However, what has come out of the Senate deal negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers is better than what we had already.

Which was nothing.

President Biden is going to sign the bill when it arrives in the Oval Office. The proposed legislation isn’t all that he wanted, either. However, he served long enough in the Senate to understand that compromise at times is the only way to achieve important goals.

Progressives want more legislative remedies. Archconservatives want nothing done. Neither extreme is correct.

The best answer lies in the vast middle ground. Senate negotiators have cobbled together a decent start on the quest to restore sanity in a nation plagued by senseless gun violence.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com