Category Archives: crime news

crime news

My outrage is real

Mr. President, I have some news for you: I happen to be ahead of your call to make my “outrage” over gun violence central to my vote.

I made that call actually long before the Uvalde tragedy. Or even before the Buffalo slaughter in the supermarket.

You see, Mr. President, I am as outraged as you are — maybe even more so — at the cowardice exhibited by your Republican “friends” in Congress and their unwillingness to enact what you refer to as “sensible” gun-control legislation.

I listened intently to your remarks the other evening and I continue to stand with you as you grapple with the myriad crises that have befallen us.

President Biden Speech On Mass Shootings: “Make Your Outrage Central To Your Vote” In November | Video | RealClearPolitics

Our governor and lieutenant governor are up for re-election this year. Mr. President, I have heard your pleas for “unity” among Americans. I just cannot support either of these guys, Greg Abbott or Dan Patrick, because of their stubborn resistance to even discuss or debate gun legislation.

I also am going to ask our Third Congressional District candidates where they stand on gun control. I know what the GOP candidate will say; he’ll be a solid “no” on any legislative measure.

Furthermore, I also stand firmly on the notion that legislation does not have to mean we trample on the Second Amendment. I get it, Mr. President! So, to that extent you are preaching to the proverbial choir in our North Texas home.

I just feel the need to assure you, Mr. President, that you have many of us out here in your corner. Keep fighting, sir.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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You tell ’em, Cancun Ted

Rafael Edward Cruz’s lack of self-awareness is simply stunning in scope.

The man aka Ted Cruz, the junior Republican senator from Texas, bloviated overnight about Democrats’ “far left-wing agenda” regarding gun violence. Then he inserted the notion that he ventured to Uvalde the day after the madman opened fire in Robb Elementary School, killing those 19 children and two teachers.

My first thought — so help me! — about his appearance in Uvalde was: Sure, like you stood your watch in February 2021 when hundreds of Texans were freezing to death in that winter storm.

Remember that one … Ted? I do! I recall how you jetted off to Cancun to soak in some Caribbean rays while the rest of us were suffering from Mother Nature’s winter wrath.

Spare me the drivel about your so-called concern about Americans’ gun rights. President Biden, contrary to what Cruz said, is not going to “disarm law-abiding Americans.”

Pathetic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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We need answers! Now!

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So help me, I could not believe my eyes when I read that the Uvalde police officials at the center of an investigation into what happened in that South Texas community a few days ago had stopped cooperating with state and federal authorities.

Specifically, the stonewalling appears to be occurring within the ranks of the Uvalde Independent School District police department and its chief, Pete Arredondo, who reportedly has gone missing for the past several days.

Meanwhile, rumors and gossip are flying all over the place about what went so terribly wrong with the police response as the lunatic shooter opened fire in a Robb Elementary School classroom, killing 19 precious children and two of their teachers.

A grief-stricken community is demanding answers from the chief. It wants to know why he waited so horribly long to “neutralize” the shooter. It seeks to know whether the department was on site with resource officers. Now come questions about a door that was closed, but not locked.

There appears to be a boatload of deception going on about the response. The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation. The Department of Public Safety and its investigative arm, the Texas Rangers, are on the case, too.

Meanwhile, we have a Uvalde ISD chief of police who’s hiding in the weeds. Come out from your hiding place, Chief Arredondo, and talk to the community you took an oath to protect and serve.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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What if the killer … ?

I am hearing from gun-rights apologists who suggest that laws designed to install universal background checks wouldn’t have prevented the lunatic from opening fire in Uvalde, Texas, with an AR-15 rifle.

Hmm. They ask: What laws would work to stem such a tragedy? My answer: I haven’t a clue, which is why I depend on my elected representatives to craft solutions that are too far above my limited knowledge and skill set.

However, in an editorial this morning, the Dallas Morning News is calling on John Cornyn, Texas’s senior Republican in the U.S. Senate, to show leadership, to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats — as he is capable of doing — in finding solutions to this sheer madness. The state’s junior GOP senator, Ted Cruz, is too wrapped up in blaming “Democrats and the media” for “politicizing” this tragic event. What horsesh**!

The DMN poses this: What if their killer, an 18-year-old, had been turned away at the gun store? What if he had just one or two obstacles in front of him on his way to destroying lives and terrorizing our country? Would those children be alive?

The answer is that maybe they would be. Maybe they would be starting summer vacation. Maybe they would be playing with their friends. Maybe their moms and dads would be holding them right now.

It’s John Cornyn’s moment. Reform gun laws and lift up the American middle (dallasnews.com)

Lots of “maybe” to examine, you know?

I want Congress to explore the possibilities of turning “maybe” into commonsense public policy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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What about that war?

Now we know what it takes to push an illegal, immoral and unjustified war off the front page and off the air.

It takes a madman who walks into an elementary school and slaughters 19 third- and fourth-grade children and two of their teachers. Yes, the Uvalde, Texas, massacre has dominated the news and yanked our attention away from that war in a faraway place called Ukraine.

To be candid, I don’t yet know which story depresses me more.

The Ukraine War was doing a nice of job of sending me into prolonged periods of funk. The Russians invaded Ukraine intending to drive out the government and installing a puppet regime to do Moscow’s bidding; it hasn’t worked. Indeed, the chatter now is beginning to telegraph a different sort of message, that Ukraine actually might win the battle on the field.

Weird, man.

Meanwhile, a grieving United States of America is coming to grips with the Uvalde tragedy and our citizens are now asking pertinent and legitimate questions about whether the police responded properly to prevent further carnage.

All of this is enough to tax anyone’s emotional strength.

We all need to remain strong.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Don’t stop trying, governor

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decided to stay away from the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston, but he delivered a piped-in message from Uvalde, where he was visiting with the grief-stricken community seeking to recover from the rampage of a madman.

He then said something to NRA conventioneers that I found a bit disturbing. Abbott said the laws we have on the books already would not have stopped the shooter from killing those 19 children and two teachers. “They don’t work,” he said.

Oh really, governor? Here’s a thought: How about continuing to look for legislative solutions that would work?

Gov. Abbott seemed to my ears to be waving a flag of surrender. As if to suggest there isn’t a legislative solution to be found. What nonsense!

There’s a bill called House Bill 8, which the U.S. House approved a couple of years ago. It calls for mandatory background checks for every firearm purchased, even those bought at gun shows. It has been stalled in the Senate. Indeed, Golden State Warriors head basketball coach Steve Kerr aimed his barbs this week at the 50 Republican senators who refuse to enact the bill. His frustration is visceral … and I feel the same way.

That’s one piece of legislation that needs to become law. Would HB 8 solve the issue once and for all? Oh, probably not. However, it well might deter someone from committing a heinous act. Isn’t there value in that?

Yes. There is. Therefore, I refuse to accept the notion put forth by Gov. Abbott that gun-control laws “don’t work.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Unspeakable horror?

Ted Cruz stood before the National Rifle Association faithful and proclaimed that there are “no words” to explain the unspeakable evil that befell the students and teachers in Uvalde earlier this week.

Yes, Sen. Cruz, you are right.

There also are no words to explain another phenomenon that is getting the short shrift at the NRA convention underway in Houston.

No words can explain to me and many millions of other Americans the cowardly inaction by politicians — chiefly Republicans such as Cruz — over searching for legislative remedies to curb this kind of insane gun violence.

Poll after poll say the same thing: Most Americans favor stricter gun control legislation. We live in a “representative democracy,” a nation that is governed by those we elect to “represent the interests” of the governed.

These politicians are not beholden to the big-money interests of the powerful lobbies, such as the gun lobby. They work for you and for me.

I say this once again understanding the sanctity of the Second Amendment to our Constitution. I support the Second Amendment. I also believe in my heart that there is a legislative remedy to be found to keep firearms out of the mitts of those who have no business carrying them.

The moron who slaughtered those children and their teachers in Uvalde was, as Ted Cruz said, the personification of evil … but dammit, evil also exists in the refusal of our elected officials to listen to the pleas of those of us they represent and act to end this senseless violence.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Abbott is ‘livid’ over misinformation

“As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that.”

That was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today responding to reports that the police in charge of the response to the shooting rampage that left 19 children and two teachers dead at a Uvalde elementary school had lied to him.

Is it fair to call it a lie? I believe so. A lie is the deliberate and purposeful telling of a falsehood. A shooter entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

The cops told the governor that they responded so slowly because they believed the shooting had stopped. It hadn’t. Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw now admits to the mistake in delaying the DPS response. What he hasn’t yet copped to, though, is why he told Abbott a tale that prompted the governor to praise law enforcement’s efforts initially.

Some heads need to roll.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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‘Fog of war’

They call it the “fog of war” when the whole truth sometimes gets lost in people’s recollections of what happened during the intense heat of battle.

So it might be playing out as a grieving nation seeks the truth behind the police response to the Uvalde, Texas, massacre on Tuesday that killed 19 precious children and two teachers seeking to protect them from the lunatic who opened fire.

Did the police respond correctly? Why did it take an hour for the cops to put down the shooter? Why was the shooter able to walk directly through an unlocked door at Robb Elementary School carrying an AR-15 rifle? Was there an armed police officer on duty at the school … or not?

To their discredit, the Texas Department of Public Safety flacks answering media questions in Uvalde have told conflicting stories of what happened and when it occurred?

Meanwhile, the loved ones of the victims are suffering unbearable pain while awaiting answers to the key question: Could the police have stopped this lunatic before he inflicted such misery?

The “fog of war” defense isn’t enough.

We need answers. We need them right now.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Speedy and public trial’?

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In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial …

— Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

A part of me wants to laugh out loud at that statement from our nation’s governing document. You see, it doesn’t require a speedy and public trial. It merely grants people accused of crimes the “the right” to one.

Unless, of course, “speedy and public” is a code for conviction in the eyes of the accused and his or her legal defense team.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been awaiting a speedy and public trial for seven years. Yep, seven years ago, the newly elected AG became the newly indicted AG when a Collin County grand jury charged him with securities fraud.

The AG is running for re-election to a third term in office. His Republican runoff opponent, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has been trying to make a dent in the AG’s armor by reminding Texas Republicans that they might have a crook working as the state’s top lawyer.

I am afraid George P’s message will go unheeded and that Paxton will be renominated by the party to run for re-election this fall.

This isn’t right. The case has bounced around from court to court. Paxton and his team have employed every legal trick at their disposal to hem and haw their way out of standing trial.

I happen to have faith in our judicial system, even when it stumbles and fumbles along, as it has in this case. I merely want to the case to be adjudicated.

Yes, my faith in the court system has faced serious challenges over many years. O.J. Simpson’s acquittal on a murder charge in 1995 is the most glaring example. The nation watched the sh** show trial drag on for months on end, only to watch in disbelief as the jury returned a not-guilty verdict after four hours of deliberation.

I disagreed with the verdict, but I accepted it. I also understood how the jury could reach the decision it did in so little time, given the defense put on by Simpson’s legal team led by the late Johnnie Cochrane. He planted doubt early on in the minds of the jurors.

But that’s the way it goes in this country.

Paxton should have gone to trial long ago. My own bias tells me he should already be locked up in the slammer. I would accept an acquittal just as I did when O.J. was allowed to walk free and spend the rest of his life “looking for those” who killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

I am sure Ken Paxton would embrace publicly the Sixth Amendment’s promise of a speedy and public trial. Except that it wouldn’t serve his political purposes.

Hey, the system ain’t perfect!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com